Student moviemakers welcome newcomers

By Andrea J. Cook, Journal staff | Tuesday, April 10, 2007

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RAPID CITY — Learning the rules and getting acquainted at a new school can be tough for new students, so two Wilson Elementary School teachers and their students turned into movie makers to welcome newcomers.

Second-grade teacher Beth Bury and third-grade teacher JoAnn Beckman recruited their students to star in two videos demonstrating appropriate lunchroom and playground behavior at Wilson.

In the lunchroom video, students explain that food should not be shared. Kids also learn that in Wilson’s lunchroom, talking is allowed when the stoplight turns green.

The playground video clues students in on the procedures for entering and leaving the building and sharing playground equipment.

“It’s been challenging and fun,” said Bury, who is working on a master’s degree in technology.

“Beth Bury works tirelessly to improve and enhance technology at our school,” Wilson principal Kathy Conlon said. Bury keeps everyone at the school abreast of ways to use technology to heighten student achievement, she said.

Bury and Beckman combine their classrooms once a week for an hour of technology. As “technology buddies,” the students work on computerized reading and math projects, and more recently on video production.

This spring, the students started an ambitious project to interview and photograph all of the staff at Wilson. Students wrote their own questions before recording an interview with a staff member.

While they work on the project, the second- and third-graders are practicing their listening and speaking skills and improving their literacy, Bury said.

With the help of their students, Bury and Beckman are converting the interviews and pictures into a “Welcome to Wilson” video slideshow that new students and parents can watch to get acquainted with the school.

Bury and Beckman are pioneering the use of the video software and plan to help other teachers master the equipment.

A $2,500 Best Buy Teach Award helped smooth the process for the teachers. Wilson was one of three South Dakota schools that received the Teach Award, according to a news release from Best Buy. The awards recognize schools that make learning fun by integrating interactive technology into K-12 schools.

Bury, who applied for the grant, took a shopping spree at the local Best Buy store, which has benefited the whole school by providing several pieces of equipment and supplies.

The shopping trip to Best Buy was “oh, my gosh — like Christmas,” for Bury.

Thanks to the Best Buy gift card, Wilson now has three photo-scanner printers, three digital cameras with rechargeable batteries and bags, a digital video camcorder, a projector, 21 microphones and a variety of miscellaneous supplies.

Everyone in the school is eager to use all of the new equipment, Conlon said.

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com