Students Making Learning Real                                                           Jay Morris

CRCS News Letter                                                                                                     9-30-10

Students Making Learning Real

There are many great things that students at Cuba-Rushford are saying about the Rebel Express Show.  Racheal says “I like the Rebel Express Show because it is by me and my friends, for me and my friends.”  Sean says “The more I am on the Rebel Express Show the more self confident I am.”  Jordan Says “We have lots of fun being a part of it!” and “I like learning about and using the technology that goes along with making the show” is what Austin says.  Mrs. Tsujimoto, a middle school teacher, reports that the Video Creation class has assisted her students in building self-confidence skills.  These self-confidence skills, whether learned in front or behind the camera, have helped to improve other areas of each student's life--either socially, emotionally and/or academically. I am proud that C-R supports the "outside- of- the -box" learning opportunities for their Middle School learners!  In combination with many other activities that focus on making learning real, the students at CRCS are doing very well at a time when our President Obama is quoting some pretty concerning national average numbers in his Education Nation interview on NBC.  He said “One third of our nation’s high school students are not graduating.”

I think that if we care about kids and we want to help them succeed we will continue to do more things like this with them.  Every show to be aired is a challenging task.  The students take ownership, they trouble shoot, problem solve and they put themselves out there for their friends to watch.  It is a different blend of students every day.  It starts by students capturing good footage.  The footage comes from recent sporting, club, school and current events.  Third period a few high school students Whitney, Shantel and Dennis start the shows timeline and put a script together based on what is important to 6 -12^th graders.  During 5^th period a dozen or so students made up of a combination of high school and middle school students rehearse and tape the news and sports desk footage.  Then a few high school Video Creation and Editing students “skip their lunch” to do the editing and bring the show alive.   It has to be ready for launching at 1:30 PM. Then 9^th period the teachers in the middle School and high school have the option to show the Rebel Express to their class.   They project them in the front of the room by clicking on an icon that pops up on their computer. 

To see these announcements just go to the Video Creation quick link in the bottom left hand corner of the Cuba-Rushford home page.  I think you will find yourself like I do - very proud of what our students are creating and sharing with the world.  They are able to do this and other great things at CRCS with the support and help of many people in our district that go the extra mile to prepare students to be life-long learners who are independent, involved, and conscientious citizens in a global community.