Achieving Success with Advanced Multi-Media Tools

Brett Turner
Jeff Davis Middle School, Hazelhurst, Georgia

Every year that I attend the Georgia Technology Conference, there is so much new stuff it’s hard to decide what concurrent session to attend.  Sometimes I wish that I could attend them all, but in reality I must focus on those sessions that I can truly try to implement when I get back.  This year we were able to have several teachers attend the conference and they got fired up just as much as I do every year.  I attended several great sessions, but the two that  really captured my interest was the “Creating Interactive Projects Using Windows Movie Maker” and “So you have to do a Morning News Show!  Where do you begin?”.

 I have been playing around with Movie Maker for a little while, but have really become interested in it since I found out about the Georgia Movie Academy at the Georgia Leadership Conference in Athens.  After attending the session at the GaETC and armed with the information about the Georgia Movie Academy, I have decided to enter a team in next years competition.  We had short notice this year and after talking with our district’s RESA representative, we thought it would be best to wait.  I have met with several teachers and discussed the possibility of them being a coach for the team, and one has agreed to the position.  We are currently working with 7th and 8th graders with Movie Maker.  They are very excited with all the fascinating things that you can do with Movie Maker.  Even though the 8th grade students are moving on to the 9th grade, they will have the experience in using Movie Maker just in case the high school decides to enter the competition also.  With next year’s 8th grade already exposed to Movie Maker, we believe it will be an exciting time for all.  

Some time back, before I started with the JDMS, there was a morning news cast.  They have not had one in several years.  After seeing what other schools are doing with the morning news show and making it happen with very little equipment, why can’t JDMS get back on the band wagon?  Starting in mid March, during the last nine weeks of this school term, I’m implementing a morning news show on a pilot basis to see just what we can do.  I have already got a teacher on board to assist in this endeavor.  We are going to start with two days a week to get our feet wet and then next school term starting in August I hope to have the morning news show everyday.  I’ve seen the response that other schools are having with students that participate in their news cast.  Hopefully, we can start having a waiting list for students to join the news team.  Our plans are to rotate news crews every nine weeks, so that we can get more of the student body involved with this renewed project.

 

 The anticipation each year around technology conference time is much fun.  I always wonder what new stuff will be at the conference, or I wonder if I should have presented this year.  It’s always a treat to see what and how other schools have done to implement new technologies.  Movie Maker and the Morning News Show will be easy to implement and to get so many students involved using or participating with them.  It’s amazing to hear students talk about what they did on the morning news show or how they designed a movie for a science or social studies presentation.

 

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