Kentucky and WeVideos

Riding the wave of success that was the 2nd grade rainforest videos, I realized that this would apply well to a project that our fifth grade was doing.  In their social studies class, they were researching Kentucky to determine which region of the country it belongs in.

(Quick aside: I was born and raised in Philadelphia and always considered Kentucky part of the Deep South.  It wasn't till I moved here 20 years ago that I realized I live on roughly the same latitude as my parents. Do I really live in the South?) 

Students wrote a script and found images with their teacher, then I stepped in armed with WeVideo.  The students were tasked to create a video in which they read their scripts and showed some pictures to back up their thoughts.  I showed them some extras but really left those up to the students.  With that said, I was super impressed how students explored the many visual and audio options within the software.

WeVideo is not hard to learn, and it's almost as easy to teach.  One thing that amazed me is how students took leadership and ownership of this project.  I literally taught a handful of kids how to work the software, but 50 kids created a video worth being proud of.  How does that happen?  Those who finished turned around and helped others.  In fact, it was common to see one student help three or four classmates at a time.

My principal noted that she saw kids working in the hallway.  She asked them "Are you working on this in groups?"  The response always came back as something like, "No.  We're each doing our own, but I'm struggling with editing the sound and he's really good at that.  So he's helping me."  Boom! How awesome is that!?!!?

Here are a couple of the best videos from the project.