The students in the evening ESL Listening and Speaking class, levels 5 and 6, prepared movies to share as part of Leadership Week, spring quarter 2015. Each student developed a plan, made 10-second video clips and selected photos to mix an original movie. The digital stories are based something that they are proud of learning.
The students learned to use the online tool, Animoto, as the video editor. Animoto gives educators free accounts for their students for six months. Many students had fun using their phones and tablets to create their movies in Animoto.
Special thanks are in order to the volunteers who made this project possible. Rose Zhang worked magic with her computer skills. Even though she was living in Pennsylvania during the time of this project, she helped to organize it. Files were sent and edited in Google Drive, and the beautiful DVDs that she created were sent by mail back and forth.
Ting Chen, a volunteer from China since 2009, helped shoot some of the video clips and took many excellent photographs.
Dr. JoAnn Atwill-Scrivner a professor from Seattle Pacific University supported students through the movie-making process and even shot some video clips.
One student, Nailya (Nelya) Galiakbarova made two movies. One in Animoto, and the other movie, Nelya’s poem, was produced on the iPad in iMovie. iMovie allowed Nelya to create a voiceover for the entire movie and to incorporate old family photos and a video clip from a performance at Moore Theatre. Her poem My Dream about Home was chosen for the King County Poetry on Buses project, and she was featured reading her poem on buses and bus stops throughout King County.
My co-teacher, Cathy Smith, and I are grateful for the opportunity to work with these excellent student moviemakers.
Enjoy the strong and confident voices of these students and as you do remember this quote from an Indian proverb.
Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth, and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.