"The Know Show" (Think: Saturday Night Live meets Bill Nye meets Fifth Grade)

My students and I already made this video on 1/13/10 to show how much we want Acer netbooks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YApjWW3ouFQ

We also need video editing software.

We had so much fun making the video, we want to contiue making shows! We came up with the concept of "The Know Show" that highlights our learning every week from Social Studies to Language Arts to Math and Science. We have one classroom computer and a few flip cameras, but no editing software. We used one student's mom's computer to edit our film. We want to make a regular sketch show: like a Saturday Night Live meets Bill Nye meets Fifth Grade.

I would introduce this concept to my students (but to be honest, they're already hooked). As a class, we would list possible topics and modes of showing their learning.

Students could use free time and structured time to research topics that are tangent to topics we've learned about in class. They will then develop and practice their skits. The carrot -- so to speak -- would be the opportunity to be on 'The Know Show'. Students would rotate being the host and rotate doing the video editing.

I believe this to be an excellent way to inspire fifth grade students to discover (the curriculum), while thinking creatively, and learning to collaborate with others, too. I know my students would put video editing software and laptops to good use.