WCMS READS

This will be an on-going project developed and maintained by the STLP(Student Technology Leadership Program) in collaboration with teachers throughout the school. A course will be created through iLearn/Moodle that will be posted on WCMS main page. Teachers and students will become enrolled in this course so that everyone at WCMS will be able to view and participate in various activities or topics within the course.
The following activities will be the first topics in WCMS READS Course:
WCMS Reads Event:
The librarian at WCMS offers monthly "book talks" to students interested in participating. They sign up and have one month to read a particular book. These students attend the "Reads Event" in the library where they gather in small discussion groups facilitated by the librarian and parent volunteers.The STLP students observed the last two events and took pictures and short video clips using Flip Video Camera. The goal is to edit the pictures and clips using a program that is creative and easy to use, especially with the Flip Video Cameras. Once these pictures and clips are put into an awesome movie, it will be attached to the course so that all students and teachers can check out what is happening during "Reads Event". It is our hope that this will motivate students to get interested in reading and talking about books.

Accelerted Reader Leader Board:
STLP students will take pictures of the students across the grade levels with the top Accelerated Reader points and post them on the WCMS READS course. They want to edit these pictures with a program that is easy to use and has many options to produce attractive and creative images.

Teacher/Student Interviews about their favorite books:
The STLP students want to interview teachers and students about their favorite books. We have 5 Flip Video Cameras and they want to use these for the interviews. These students need a movie maker program that will help STLP students create exciting eye-catching movies that will inspire students at WCMS to get motivated about reading AND sharing their favorite books for the school to see. Once these interview movies are published, they will be attached to the course so that everyone at WCMS can watch and hopefully will become interested in picking up a book.

Classroom Novel Study:
Classroom teachers will also post activities pertaining to the class novel on the WCMS READS course. The teachers will write a description of the activities that will be placed on the course page. They will also take pictures and video clips which will then be given to STLP to either edit during STLP meeting or if the teacher wants to be trained on the editing program, the STLP student(s) will show the teacher how to manipulate the pictures and clips. A effective and efficient editing program is needed for this task as the STLP student must feel confident when asked to teach others how to use the program.

These are just the first four topics that we have started this semester with this idea to motivate students at WCMS to read and share their excitement about reading. Our STLP students have been learning how to use the Flip Video Cameras and find it frustrating with the limitations of our editing software. A program such as Tool Factory Movie Maker would help make production and publication easy and efficient for STLP students.The end product should be more exciting for everyone to see!