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| A full house at King Middle School |
Thank you for being here today as an audience for our students’ work. We are so excited to share our final products from this expedition and your presence heightens the experience.
I am so proud of our young researchers, meteorologists, actors, graphic designers and filmmakers.
I can guarantee you that our students will never forget the science and impacts of hurricanes. They will never watch a weather report the same way. In fact, we’ll all probably be seeing green screens in our dreams for the next 20 years. Here in Windsor 6, the world literally became a green screen over the last two weeks!
This expedition asked students to do high level, professional work, using sophisticated tools and requiring focus. A lot of focus. I’m so impressed by the manner in which they applied their research as they created storyboards and wrote scripts. This was no easy feat and required an immense amount of creativity and problem solving. This is the kind of work that challenges adults. You will see this in their videos.
There was so much learning in this expedition. But beyond the academics there is something else of great value here. Throughout this experience, I saw all of our students grow as people… young adults.
Most of all I am impressed by their demonstration of teamwork. These movies were not created by individuals, but by groups of students who coordinated themselves along every step of the project. This work demanded maturity, organization, interpersonal skills and perseverance… lots of perseverance. Only through their collaboration as a team was this project made possible.
As teachers, we supported the learning, provided resources and modeled the use of technology and cheered them on, but ultimately our students’ level of self-direction, sense of ownership and enthusiasm made it all possible.
I am so happy today to see these kids recognized for their hard work. Once again, I find myself being blown away by what 6th graders can do when you give them control over their learning and allow them to pursue creative endeavors!
If we can achieve work of this complexity in 6th grade, what great feats can we accomplish in 7th grade? Today, the future looks very, very bright.
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| A panel of experts took notes and gave students feedback on their work. |
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| Student films were projected on screens around the school. |
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| Panels provide feedback in the form of celebrations and suggestions. |
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| Student speakers introduced guests to the expedition. |
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