As a kid, I always wanted to be a teacher; as an adult, that hasn’t changed. I was worried about that when we decided to homeschool, but I find myself still teaching – just in a wider variety of roles than ever!
Sometimes, what needs to be taught is pushing my boundaries of knowledge, however. Earlier in the year, when one of my history club kids wanted to make a documentary, I went looking for resources, since that’s not anything that I’ve done in this decade. It took a bit of doing, but I found a way.
Our library is fantastic, and you can reserve a librarian – how cool is that? You simply book a time, and they help you with what you need. I love that! Fortunately, our librarian has a great tech guy, and he agreed to teach us how to use iMovie and to help the group complete a documentary. (That may not seem like much to you Mac users, but since none of us have Macs, it was a big deal!)
When one heard about the documentary workshop, more jumped on board – and then they decided that if they were going to need video to edit, they might as well make something real out of it. They chose to examine the controversy surrounding Dolley Madison’s birthplace, part of our local lore that is really popular here.
We began our research by collecting information locally, online and from local historians. Then we headed to Chapel Hill, where we spent a good part of the day culling through books and online journals, looking for information. We found more than we expected!
Following all that hard research, we went out for lunch on Franklin Street, the main thoroughfare in Chapel Hill. Restaurants line the side opposite the University of North Carolina, where we conducted our research, and so we ate with the big college kids. Big stuff!
Back home, we continued working. The kids wrote a script and traveled to the important places mentioned in their research, filming and taking pictures that they could use as the visual elements to their documentary. They chose not to be onscreen themselves, so they needed a lot of visuals.
That amazing librarian spent several hours over the course of two weeks teaching them the finer points of iMovie. He made himself available to answer questions when they got stuck, and after about 20 hours, they completed their documentary!
They’ve chosen to enter it into a statewide competition coming up this spring. In the meantime, however, if you’d like to know more about the controversy surrounding Dolley Madison’s birth, check out their documentary below.
Maybe it will give your kids some ideas…
because while I never expected my middle school kids to be out making movies, they did a great job – and they can’t wait to do more.
Kids can do big things.
What big things are your kids up to lately?
what a cool project! I’m sharing this with my kids, who enjoy creating movies.
Great! I hope they try it out!