Classroom Project

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As a 7th and 8th grade gifted teacher, I constantly look for new ways to inspire my students. I teach in a school with very limited funds for technology.

While our gifted curri... MORE

As a 7th and 8th grade gifted teacher, I constantly look for new ways to inspire my students. I teach in a school with very limited funds for technology.

While our gifted curriculum requires community service, I also feel it is essential to a child's educational experience. I have found that my gifted students are not inspired with the run of the mill community service projects, as we have found that often they are too young to participate. Each year my students write scripts, make props, and film fictional movies. I realized that we are missing the boat on doing something much more significant. I believe that my students will learn much more by creating mini-documentaries about the needs of our community. Unfortunately, we only have one computer that we can edit our videos on and it is my personal laptop. We also only have one video camera that students can check out and it is also my personal equipment. In the past I have filmed and edited movies for each student group. I would like for students to take on this aspect of the project for themselves.

In order to move forward with this project, my students need two computers and a video camera. Students will work in groups to research the needs of our community. I already have students interested in our declining honeybee population, our high levels of pollution, supplying shoes to the homeless, and making certain areas in our town more accessible to those with physical disabilities. I am in the process of locating members of our community that can come in and speak to my students about the particular needs my students are interested in. Students will spend the next several months researching, writing, interviewing and making a mini-documentary. A local movie theater has allowed me to book the theater for one day in May in which we are going to have a red carpet event and film festival. Each film will be shown and awards will be given to all students. Area leaders will be invited to attend. Our hope is that we will be able to highlight the needs of our community that others may not even realize that we have.

If you help my class you are are not only providing them with new technology to further their educational experience, but you are helping to highlight the needs of an entire community. It is only with the assistance of people like you that we can realize our dream of bringing attention to the needs of our community while learning valuable research, writing, interviewing video production, and life skills in the process. HIDE