2014 Defining Moments

This is a bittersweet post to write for me, as it is my last one I will compose at MRHMS.  These past 4 years teaching at MRH have been amazing, largely because of all of the amazing and awesome students I have had the privilege to teach.  The students are the reason I do what I do, and I am so thankful and grateful for the hundreds of kids I was able to teach--and learn from--these past 4 years.

This fall I will begin a new adventure, and use this blog to document that.  I will be moving to Ursuline Academy to teach technology.  As much as I hate to leave MRH, Ursuline is where I've been called to teach, because my passions lie in technology, and educating others about all of the awesome tools they can use in their projects, and teachers can use in their classrooms.  Stay tuned this fall for this new adventure I will embark on in teaching!

I wanted to share with you all some of the capstone digital stories--Defining Moments--that my 8th graders just completed as their final project in 8th grade.  I shared 2 years ago some of the Defining Moments from my last loop of 8th graders, and I wanted to continue that tradition and share some from my current group of kiddos.

First off, if you don't know what a Defining Moment is, watch this:

Now that you know what a Defining Moment is, I want to share some of these amazing group of students' digital stories.  Each on of these tell a unique story about a moment or event that has changed and shaped their lives.  If you click here you can visit the entire playlist.

I hope you enjoyed these...and I hope you've enjoyed my posts these last several years about our expeditions, adventures, and learning at MRHMS!  Here's to a new chapter in education!

Defining Moments

At the end of every year at MRHMS, 8th graders create "defining moment" videos using their narrative essay they wrote in communication arts as their narration.  Students spend the good part of two weeks in both social studies and comm. arts storyboarding, recording, collecting pictures and videos, creating animations and graphics, and putting it all together (in iMovie) to create their defining moment.

For anyone outside of MRH, you may be wondering what exactly is a "defining moment."  The students helped create this short video explaining just that.

Now that you know what a defining moment is, it is time to share some of the amazing, heartfelt, moving, and passionate defining moments these group of 8th graders created.

All year in social studies students have created videos and done projects showcasing history, but they have never gotten to showcase their history...until now.  These videos combine all of the "techie" qualities the kids have displayed throughout the year with their own story--their defining moment--that are truly moving and inspiring.

After you watch these, take a minute and thing about: what is your defining moment?  What point in time caused your life to change?