The SHIFT staff thanks the many educators who participated in the 2011 summer SHIFT trainings.  The trainings were extremely successful and teachers left with ideas and lesson plans on how to integrate filmmaking and digital media as instructional strategies in the classroom.

"The program is quite useful and manageable for classroom teachers.  Perhaps a way to help bring the joy back into learning..." - SHIFT Elementary Teacher

"Thank you!   It was the BEST workshop ever!  You all are amazing
instructors : ) Thank you for inspiring me." - SHIFT Junior High Teacher

"Thanks again for such an amazing experience.  I'd take that same workshop every summer if I could." - SHIFT Elementary Teacher

Happy filmmaking to all of the SHIFT educators!

This week the SHIFT staff has had the pleasure of working with 30 teachers from across Utah in our SHIFT Lite professional development experience. 

Participants have had the opportunity to produce three separate movies, choosing between the five SHIFT curriculum guide units:

• Filmmaking Bootcamp (Nine Sentence Story)
• Personal Narrative 
• Instructional Video
• Public Service Announcement 
• Documentary

It's inspiring to see the participants develop and share their filmmaking skills as well as ideas about how to integrate filmmaking as an instructional strategy in their teaching.

This week the SHIFT staff is thrilled to train the inaugural group of Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) educators in Utah.  

The educators from Salt Lake and Utah counties work with diverse student groups.  During the 2011-2012 school year, the UT AYV educators will integrate youth-produced media projects into their teaching as a way for students to find and share their voices through media.

The 2011-2012 Utah Adobe Youth Voices educators are from the following schools:

• American Fork High School
• City Academy
• Dixon Middle School
• Evergreen Junior High School
• Horizonte Training and Instruction Center
• Indepdence High School
• Kearns High School
• Landmark High School
• Salt Lake Center for Science Education
• Valley High School
• Valley Junior High
• West High School

The SHIFT staff is thrilled to announce the first training of the 2011-2012 program was a tremendous success!  We worked with a creative and engaging group of educators from Granite Park Junior High in Salt Lake City, UT.  They produced high quality instructional videos and PSAs during the training. 

We look forward to working with them during the school year as they integrate filmmaking as an instructional strategy in their classes and with student groups.

The past month has been action packed with end-of-year SHIFT trainings and screenings of student and teacher produced movies. 

The SHIFT staff thanks all of the 2010-2011 SHIFT teachers for their dedication and enthusiasm to integrate filmmaking as an instructional strategy in their teaching and classrooms.  The SHIFT staff is inspired by the work you and your students accomplished this year.

Happy summer and filmmaking!

If you are looking for a way to collaborate with other teachers and classrooms on digital media projects, Google Docs is a helpful tool.

Google Docs has a demo site that allows users to create a temporary document and unique URL.  Anyone who has access to the URL can contribute to a common word processing document, spreadsheet, and/or drawing document.  You can see other contributors' edits and comments in real time.  The files can be saved and downloaded to users' individual computers.

Looking for student-produced videos to share with your students?  Check out Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) Youth Work Gallery for examples of powerful student-produced work including PSAs, documentaries, and more.

Enjoy!

The International Society for Technology in Education's SIGML group is conducting the SIGML 2011 Video Contest for ISTE SIGML Members.  Student participation is strongly encouraged.  Good luck!

A Salt Lake City teacher whose students are producing video public service announcements (PSAs) shared the Storm Water Coalition website with me.  The site has several engaging PSAs.

Last week a SHIFT teacher told me about NaturalReader, software that converts any written text such as MS Word and PDF files into spoken words with natural sounding voices.  Several of his students have successfully used NaturalReader in their video public service announcements (PSAs).