Teachers assign video projects to broaden education

Apart from Media Arts Program, many teachers offer video projects for their classes. World history teacher Jerry Sheehy has been assigning video projects for over a decade now, in an effort to help students bring long-ago historical events to life.

“It’s just a way for students to demonstrate their learning in a creative way,” Sheehy said. “A lot of the students like it and enjoy the video and music aspect of being able to create a movie, edit it and add special effects and music.”

The world history teacher assigns one of these projects each semester. Sheehy said another goal of the assignment is to make learning entertaining and creative as opposed to having students go to the front of the class and give reports.

“They come together and enjoy watching not just their own video but also other students’ videos,” Sheehy said. “It helps them to learn the topics that we’re studying and at the same time have some fun.”

Students also receive awards for their efforts in the video projects. Just like the Oscars, Sheehy has the “Sheehy” award in which the best actor, actress and overall documentary from each class is awarded by peer nomination and then given a trophy. Sophomore Drew Bryan enjoyed recognition after winning the Sheehy award for best documentary a month ago.

“I thought it was kind of cool because we worked really hard on [the video] and we were proud of it,” Bryan said. “We thought we did really well so it was that much cooler to win the Sheehy and know that we did well.”

According to Sheehy, the past 10 years of assigning video projects have produced a variety of products. While some projects were described as “what were they thinking” videos, others were thought to have been composed by amazing actors and “future Steven Spielbergs.”

“You see some students who are very talented actors who you may never even realize were talented actors until you saw them on screen,” Sheehy said. “In class they’re quiet, but you put a camera in front of them and they’re amazing actors.”

Every year is different from the last, with new takes on plot lines, and different type of actors.

“Every year is different and every individual class is different,” Sheehy said. “It’s always interesting to see what the students come up with because there’s always something in each of the classes that will be memorable.”

Cultural videos for languages

Other classes have also incorporated video projects into their class criteria. Every year, students in all levels of Chinese look forward to “the infamous singing project.” The assignment provides the opportunity for students to get in touch with Chinese culture as well as a chance to practice pronunciation through the process of learning to sing a Chinese song.

“It’s a nice break from the usual work, and it puts what we’ve learned into a practical use,” junior Edward Yang said. “It’s just fun to do a funny song with my friends, and a lot of the time you get guys doing girly songs and it’s pretty funny.”

The project is generally taken positively by the students, as it provides a fun way to learn and explore Chinese culture in an entertaining way.

“They enjoy the singing project a lot because a lot of people have never heard any Chinese songs before,” Chinese teacher Sara Tseng said. “But now they have to find out a song as a group that they like and find out the lyrics and then create activities using those lyrics.”

Particularly memorable to Chinese 4 Honors students this year was a performance to the Mandarin interpretation of “Reflection” from “Mulan” by sophomores Austin Du and Patrick Wang.

“It was very comical, especially watching Patrick do an umbrella dance to the song,” Yang said. “I know Ms. Fan really liked it.”

Spanish students also take part in video projects. These projects usually ask students to retell a story or to create a small skit. This allows students to get a better understanding of the language outside the classroom and also gives a chance for the students to have some fun.

Senior Ruchie Bhardwaj, a current Spanish 4 Honors student, recalls her project from last year when she was in Spanish 3 in Sarah Vorhees’s class.

“It was really fun! We kind of had like a mystery theme and made a mini movie with a plot any everything,” Bhardwaj said. “It was nice to get to use our Spanish outside of the classroom.”

The Spanish curriculum from each level offers this project to give students a better learning experience.

“I am looking forward to doing more this year. It’s always fun to use Spanish outside of the classroom,” Bhardwaj said. “Plus lots of the videos are hilarious, so it’s great to watch them during class.”