Meijer Great Choices Film Festival Awards
To start the last week of the school year, we celebrated the annual Meijer Great Choices Film Festival. It was very inspiring to see so many young film makers share their vision on the big screen and take home wonderful prizes to reward their work.
Two films created in my classroom were awarded in the Junior competition, giving our classroom $400 in grant funds to use towards a variety of projects. It was awesome to see the students who created those pieces be recognized and see their work on the screen. Even better were the conversations the competition started about how they can get involved again next year.
Thanks to your votes, Aron won 3rd place and Blake, Evie, and Zach were awarded a Judges Choice award.
Two films created in my classroom were awarded in the Junior competition, giving our classroom $400 in grant funds to use towards a variety of projects. It was awesome to see the students who created those pieces be recognized and see their work on the screen. Even better were the conversations the competition started about how they can get involved again next year.
Thanks to your votes, Aron won 3rd place and Blake, Evie, and Zach were awarded a Judges Choice award.
Goodbye with GIFs
As a part of my final exam, I have students create GIFs using younger students' works from our elementary and intermediate schools. I first saw this idea from Ian Sands, who actually did this with my students and his high school classes.
Always eager to push my students to do higher level work, I thought I would give this a go a couple of years ago with great success. This is such a great way to finish the school year and test students on some of their basic understanding of how to manipulate images in Photoshop as well as work with animation.
Always eager to push my students to do higher level work, I thought I would give this a go a couple of years ago with great success. This is such a great way to finish the school year and test students on some of their basic understanding of how to manipulate images in Photoshop as well as work with animation.
Celebrating at the Scholastic Awards
Over the past ten years, I have helped students submit hundreds of pieces of work to the Scholastic Awards. Some years we have celebrated a lot of success, others not as much; regardless, each time we walk away from the experience knowing more about making art, taking risks, and sharing the stories that are held within each of us through the work that is made.
It was a joy to complete the school year celebrating student success with another WMS Gold Medalist. I am so proud of the work Tara made (her little felted dog shown below) that has earned her this recognition. I look forward to seeing how she uses her voice and skills as she continues to progress in our Arts programs (especially since she will be in my class again next year).
I am also very thankful to the donors who helped make this possible, especially Tanger Outlets and the TangerKIDS grant that helped fund this experience.
It was a joy to complete the school year celebrating student success with another WMS Gold Medalist. I am so proud of the work Tara made (her little felted dog shown below) that has earned her this recognition. I look forward to seeing how she uses her voice and skills as she continues to progress in our Arts programs (especially since she will be in my class again next year).
I am also very thankful to the donors who helped make this possible, especially Tanger Outlets and the TangerKIDS grant that helped fund this experience.
One of my favorite parts of the trip to New York is the celebration at Carnegie Hall. It was inspiring to hear from former winner and "Arthur" creator, Marc Brown about how he was able to turn his love of making art into a life-long career. He echoed sentiments I hold dear and reminded us all that everyone needs someone to believe in them and he was lucky to have people in his life that believed in him.
I was a little star-struck to also hear from my favorite author when I was in middle school, R.L. Stine. He introduced Marc Brown for the Scholastic Awards alumni achievement award. I do not know how I would have survived middle school without Fear Street novels in my life.
It was also inspiring to hear other former winners and how they have used this moment to give them permission to live creatively. The night started with film star, Ansel Elgort, getting down into the crowd and high-fiving winners before encouraging them to keep their creativity at the center of their lives.
I was a little star-struck to also hear from my favorite author when I was in middle school, R.L. Stine. He introduced Marc Brown for the Scholastic Awards alumni achievement award. I do not know how I would have survived middle school without Fear Street novels in my life.
It was also inspiring to hear other former winners and how they have used this moment to give them permission to live creatively. The night started with film star, Ansel Elgort, getting down into the crowd and high-fiving winners before encouraging them to keep their creativity at the center of their lives.
It was a magical night and one that ends my school year. It is something that I will be thinking about as we start preparing for competition again next year and I will use when working on living my own creative life.
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