Instructor J.R. Sheetz works with Rolling Hills Middle School students Yesica Villegas (left) and Antonio Castro Friday on a digital storytelling computer project designed to help them with their English-language skills in the class of Margaret Weiser.

In most ways, the 22 junior high students working in Margaret Weiser’s classroom at Rolling Hills Middle School Friday were typical teenagers. With electric energy, they giggled and huddled in whispered conversations throughout the room.

But these kids are considered newcomers — students who have only recently arrived in the country. On Friday, they were engaged in serious business, putting the finishing touches on a digital storytelling project, a short video that outlined their future aspirations. These career choices ranged from doctors to lawyers to chefs to teachers.

The students came from all over the world — Mexico, El Salvador and Saudi Arabia, among other places. Some spoke almost no English, while others seemed to have a firm grasp on the language.

Despite the barriers, all of them were focused on laptop computer screens, producing their movies, most in English and Spanish.

Weiser teaches math and English to newcomer students, and has been incorporating digital media into her lessons for years.

For this project, however, the Pearson Foundation essentially supercharged the technological aspect of the lessons by bringing in its own sophisticated hardware and software, and supplying technicians well-versed in working with young people.

The activity was supported through the Digital Arts Alliance, a project of the Pearson Foundation, which is a charitable organization that supports literacy and education projects around the world. For this project, the Pearson Foundation teamed up with the Hispanic Leadership Council.

The Digital Arts Alliance focuses on public schools, usually in underserved communities, said J.R. Sheetz, who works for the Pearson Foundation.

Sheetz called the project “21st century learning.”

“We try to support teachers in the classrooms so the students have a breadth of options,” he said. “The idea is that the students walk away feeling successful, that they created something.”

To train for the project, three teachers and an administrator traveled to New Orleans for a one-week seminar, where they created their own digital storytelling projects.

“I feel proud of what I did,” said 13-year-old Reyna Rojas, who came from Mexico last year. “I liked it very much, and I think all the other kids did too.”

While most of the students were paired up by their chosen occupation, Francisco Garcia and Abdul Rahman, both 12, combined their very different future careers. Their project, titled “Doctor and Kung Fu Fighter,” spliced images of martial arts professionals and physicians, which were accompanied by a sound track and voiceovers by both boys.

“I loved everything about this project,” Garcia said.

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*Photos by Tarmo Hannula*

(Published in 9/13/08 edition)

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