Integrating technology into the classroom has become a learning experience for students of all ages.
Recently students at St. Francis Xavier Elementary School have been using their classroom set of iPads to make videos on the iMovie application. A couple weeks ago art I students from St. Aloysius High School visited a Montessori pre-K class to help students with a scavenger hunt video.
“The big kids took them around the school to find the different places on the list,” Montessori teacher Laura Kidder said.
The students broke up into groups and scoured the Vicksburg Catholic Schools campus taking pictures and video at each stop they made from the playground to classrooms and the front office.
“We were taking pictures about us. It was a scavenger hunt,” Montessori student Drake Tillotson said.
He said the class went everywhere outside, to the office and to the computer classroom, and he really liked taking pictures with the big kids. Tillotson also said his class wanted the movie to have a superhero theme, and he couldn’t wait to watch.
“The pictures and the song is loud, and it shows all the people about the things you did,” Tillotson said.
The two classes have worked together before on an art project and the teachers were happy to continue the partnership between the different age groups.
“It’s such an advantage being on one campus,” Kidder said. “They’re such good help too.”
Art teacher Jennifer Ratliff said her clesses enjoy collaborating with the younger students, and she appreciated being able to work together with the elementary school. She said the students created a real bond and continue to greet each other in the hallways as they go to lunch or to the gym. The two classes will have a viewing party to watch their final product together on a projection screen.
“It’s much like family,” Ratliff said.
The art students used elements of photography while working on the project and also helped the children read the scavenger hunt directions. Ratliff said her students learned how to work together and how difficult it can be to wrangle young children.
“I think the best way to really learn something is to teach somebody else,” Ratliff said. “To show the little kids how to use the iPad, they are just reinforcing their learning.”
Tenth-grader Kaylee Wright said she recorded the younger students sliding and swinging on the playground and then took individual and group pictures. She enjoyed the project.
“When you’re done it goes straight to video, and it’s really cool,” Wright said. “It was fun to be able to see how they use the iPads.”
Kidder said it is important for students to learn how to use the new technology that has been put in the classrooms this year. Doing projects like this helps students work as a team and lets them explore their imagination, she said.
“It’s a unique way of learning, and a unique way to use the iPads. It just brings out the creativity in each student seeing them film different things,” she said. “And it makes them work together.”
To watch the video, visit the Vicksburg Catholic School Facebook page.
Vicksburg Catholic Schools are celebrating Catholic Schools Week starting Monday with fundraisers for the Salvation Army, Mass with Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson and more.