When Daniels Run Elementary School School Based Technology Specialist Megan Godek read the call for entries about the first ever White House Student Film Festival, she immediately thought of a 6th grade team to work on the project. But there was a catch - students would have little time in class to create the video.
Sixth graders Julie Surette, Ellie Stombres, Jody Marchiando and Jules Welch took on the challenge.
The festival was open to K-12 grade students and had to be under three minutes long. The videos were to focus on how students use technology in the classroom and could focus on issues like personalized learning, student creativity and critical thinking.
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"I thought the Film Festival was exciting," said Welch. "Most film festivals are for adults, but the White House Film Festival gave us a chance to compete. And, if we win, we get to meet the President!"
The girls did some planning during school and then worked on the weekends and spent snow days putting on finishing touches. According to Surette, creating and filming videos is one of her favorite ways to use technology in school. The girls used online programs previously taught by Ms. Godek in earlier projects to help them share the video easily with each other after editing.
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Marchiando also liked working on the project. "I enjoy making videos because it's all original and when finished it is cool to look back and know that we made the whole thing from scratch," she adds.
This is not the first collaboration for the team. The group has made videos for the school news including book reviews and informational videos about BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) that can be seen on the Daniels Run Elementary School website.
While the 6th graders are excited about the possibility of getting into the festival, the friends seem to have everything in perspective. "I think it would be cool to make it, but the real fun was that we got to make an awesome video together," said Stombres. "I'm going to have great memories from this experience, and I hope the President sees all the fun that went into making of this film."
The Student Film Festival accepted videos until the end of January. If the DRES team video is selected as an official selection, the girls could have a chance to attend a screening at the White House. "We would be honored to get into the film festival. Even if we don't get in, we still had a lot of fun making the video," said Surette.
