ESCONDIDO: School district wins state award for innovative video program

By GARY WARTH - Staff Writer | Monday, December 1, 2008 4:09 PM PST ∞

ESCONDIDO --- In what may be the ultimate antidote to the dull educational film, some Escondido students are taking cameras in hand and making their own short movies about math, social studies, history and other subjects.

The results have been surprisingly creative, academically rewarding and even award-winning. The California Department of Education on Saturday will present the Escondido Union School District with a prestigious Golden Bell Award in recognition of the district's video-production program Project Live. The luncheon will be in San Diego during the annual California School Boards Association meeting.

"It's engaging, it's motivating, it's relevant," Kathy Shirley, the district's technology and media services director, said about Project Live.

As the You Tube generation, as Shirley calls them, today's students see video as a way of communicating and have little fear of making their own. Assigning them to make films about what they are studying helps the students absorb the lessons, she said. Coming full circle, those student-made films sometimes are used by teachers in other classes to teach their students.

Shirley also said students in Project Live are scoring higher in reading and math classes than other students.

The project began six years ago as an offshoot of a similar program created by the County Office of Education. Funding came from private donations and an initial $130,000 federal grant, which since has been reduced to about $40,000 a year, Shirley said.

Five other county school districts, including Encinitas Union School District, since have adopted the program, she said.

Teachers who sign up for the program are given a day and a half crash-course in film making and then attend one meeting a month with other teachers.

Teacher Liz Fish at L.R. Green Elementary in Escondido has been in Project Live for three years. Last year her fifth-grade students made two films, including one about making healthy choices and another about using graphic organizers in reading.

"It's a highly motivating program and they're always excited to do it," she said. "It brings out a lot of creativity in students who would not otherwise be too excited with pencil and paper work."

Film making involves much repetition, which itself helps the lessons sink it, Fish said. But besides learning the actual subject, Project Live students also are learning problem solving, critical thinking and other skills as they make their films.

"There's so much involved in it," she said. "It hits the kids at different levels."

Fish sees Project Live as a valuable tool for teachers to reach students.

"Some kids learn in different ways," said Fish, one of 10 teachers involved in the district program. "Some kids learn doing things hands-on, some visually. It's just another medium to catch all those kids."

Second-grade students in teacher Lebrac Fletes' class at Felicita School made a short film about the life of Vincent Van Gogh, and Kristin Demofontes' fifth-grade students at North Broadway Elementary created a film about American history in a familiar television format with "E! True Colonial Stories."

At Mission Middle School, teacher Tamara Whitney said she jumped at the chance of signing up for Project Live after a challenging year in a math class with some difficult students.

"I'm a pretty animated teacher, but I only have so much in my bag of tricks," she said.

Whitney's class made a video called "Voices of Change," where students gave their opinion about how their school should look as it was being remodeled from Grant to Mission Middle School about two years ago. Her students since have made music videos based on educational songs written by fellow Mission Middle School teacher Alex Kajitani.

Whitney has taken Project Live one step further by creating a video production class where students write, shoot and perform their own news reports, which are broadcast campuswide each Monday.

Leslie Fajardo, 13, said the broadcast news class has taught her discipline, because she must keep her grades up to participate in it.

"It's hard work, but it's good," she said.

Iris Pina, 13, said she has learned that there are more things involved in film production than she ever realized.

"I used to think you just went out and filmed whatever," she said. "But I learned that you have to do a storyboard."

Students are likely to include humor in almost all their productions, and even the news broadcast ends on a laugh with bloopers.

On a recent afternoon, Leslie, Iris and some classmates set up a shot of students flipping through books at a table to go with a piece on a reading program.

"Ready, one, two, three, turn!" said Alyssa Montoya, 13, who was shooting the scene and instructing the students to simultaneously flip their pages.

"Oh, that's hilarious," Whitney said as she watched from the side. "Now Alyssa, you may want to get another angle, because we want to cut back and forth."

All the students working on the piece with Alyssa said they have learned something in the broadcast class this year. Osvaldo Hernandez, 13, said he wanted to learn how to use a camera, but that he also has learned editing and how to upload his work, and he said he particularly enjoys going out in the field to film.

Laura Eckels, a second-grade teacher L.R. Green is working on a mock-television show called "Book Talk," where her students summarize stories they've read.

Eckels said she has noticed that some students who usually are boisterous in class get a shy when in front of the camera, while some students who are quiet seem to come alive on camera.

"They love it," she said about her students' reaction to the class. "They're really excited about it. I think it makes them feel really important to have this kind of experience."

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.

Project Live student videos