Today was the final day. We invited parents and family to come to see the students' video projects, and over 20 people came. We have done this for the past few years, but this was certainly the best turnout that we have had. People started to arrive around noon, and after an informal pizza lunch, we all gathered in the main room. We asked each student to introduce their video project, and everybody got a nice round of applause after their story was shown. The strict time limit we put on the videos not only helped keep their features focused on their topic, it also allowed us to show all of the videos.
Even with short stories, 25 videos is a lot to sit through, so at the half-way point we got everybody up for a physical activity. We had two large groups (parents and children together) playing "I like everybody who..."
After the final video was shown, we passed out the copies of The Future Features.
Finally, students gathered for a final group photo and made plans to get together during the summer.
The story behind all of this is that students began the day doing more work on their video projects. Thanks to digital technology, a movie can be finished, saved, and shown a few minutes later. We took advantage of this, and several students worked right up until noon to make sure they had the feature in the shape they wanted it to be. Teachers moved from one student to another, giving feedback about the story, offering technical support, and gently reminding students about the noon deadline. For staff it was a pretty hectic morning, but it was well worth it. One students lost a lot of the work she had done the previous day due to some computer glitch, and so had to push to finish in time. Two other students who had already finished (and who could have been outside playing kickball) sat with her for over an hour helping her get the piece ready in time. It turned out well, and I think watching these students collaborate was the highlight of the camp for me.
Next week I will post sample titles, information about the stories, and feedback we received from the students.
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