Julie Bell's Awesome Public Service Announcement Project

This video, "Donación de Órganos" was made by students Dara Lehrer and Ana Gutierrez, 

using only two 48 minute class periods.

Julie Bell recently had a great idea for a project that shows that students can do remarkable things with technology with very little technical instruction, and very little time.

She had to assess her AP Spanish students' presentational speaking ability, but didn't want to watch a monotonous series of PowerPoint presentations in which students just stood up in front of the class and read bullet points.
So she decided to have them create brief public service announcements, in Spanish, about significant health issues in Spanish-speaking countries.

She gathered a series of real models -- produced by the health departments of various Latin American countries, and then threw her kids at the project.  Students were shown the models, and a set of possible technology tools they could use to create animations, and then they were given two 48 minute class periods to create their entire productions.  And they did it.

The results were varied and fantastic -- ranging from a touching love story, in which a boy gives his blood to help the love of his life recover from an illness, to a hysterical discussion in an office break room about cholera and not washing your hands after going to the bathroom.

Really what shone through was the students' writing, sense of humor, and grasp of the language.

I asked Julie what she learned from the project, since she chose this project in order to challenge herself to "think outside of the box" for a culminating assessment.  What she liked about it had very little to do with technology itself, and everything to do with the kinds of learning we want our kids to do:  to create a product with a wider audience, to use Spanish "as a vehicle to learn about another subject area," and to work with each other, overcoming their fears.

"I learned that students produce better work when they are aware it is for a wider audience or 'public,' she said.  (Students knew their work would be seen outside the classroom -- in other classes, and by other teachers.)  "I enjoyed seeing students work together and truly think through many different angles to create their product."

This just goes to show that our kids can create wonderful work, and solve complex problems, even given little time or technological training.

If you'd to have your kids create an animation, check out our district's tech website animation page to see some options.

I'll take some time in the coming months to occasionally highlight some great things that people are doing here on campus, using technology, or pushing students to use 21st century skills.

So, if you have a project that really challenged you to innovate or try something new, or if you want to snitch on someone else who has, please let me know!