The Last Day of School for Students and "The Wave"

It has been a tradition for a number of years to wave the buses, carrying all of our students off to summer vacation joys, out of the parking lot. We broke with tradition this year in a couple of ways. Instead of standing on the pavement outside the lower entrance to the school, we went over to the green underneath the gigantic tree. Also, other years I had simply taken a number of still shots to commemorate the event, but the iPad makes capturing video so easy that I decided to film the event. Sara Frank kindly took some still shots. You'll see her in the video. I chose a couple of the still shots to display on our web page, but I uploaded the video from the iPad to my YouTube account, and I will embed it in my blog. I really like having the video - the sound and the motion capture the exciting yet bittersweet event far better than the still shots ever could. In all, the school year 2010~2011 was a very successful year for students and staff alike, and I heard a number of 8th graders saying how much they would miss the middle school and all of their teachers. That speaks volumes. Enjoy - and have a great summer!

Some times paper and pencil, crayons, markers, etc. can be the technology of choice

The 7th grade English classes recently read Seed Folks by Paul Fleishman. Not only is the book a wonderful story of how a community garden enriches the lives of all its participants, but the book is also rich in imagery. Each year, the students are asked to pick out a favorite simile or metaphor to illustrate. I have wanted to capture some of these student creations for years, and I finally got a chance. Of course, the technology of the scanner and the blog are what enables these wonderful creations to be shared with a wider audience. Enjoy them.

and this last one is my favorite:

Perfection on Wheels - brought to Bethany MS by Character Ed Committee

I am backtracking a bit, but on Friday, May 13, our Character Ed Committee with sponsorship from Woodbridge Youth Services and the Town of Bethany secured Perfection on Wheels, a BMX stunt team to perform for our students. Besides putting on a terrific show, they also included a strong message about how important it is to build good character including qualities of being truthful, trustworthy, responsible, and caring for others.
This video was captured on the iPad2, edited in iMovie on the iPad, and uploaded to our YouTube channel from the iPad. It is truly a remarkable video machine. I will tell you that it did take me a number of hours to edit down over 20 minutes of video to around 12 minutes, but I think the result is worth it. Enjoy.