Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Georgia Wood Fellowship Provides Video Studio and Training
Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Rome, GA
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Wood Fellowship Provides Video Studio and Training

Adrienne Forgette | October 7, 2016 | 550 views

A cross-divisional team comprised of Julia Dodd, Beth Wardlaw, Tannika Wester, Susan Mann, Stefan Eady and myself, were awarded the Carla and Leonard Wood Faculty Distinguished Fellowship to create a video studio to promote video production.

In August, Michael Hernandez, an award-winning cinema and broadcast journalism teacher form MIra Costa High School in California, conducted a two day training session for our faculty on video storytelling. Hernandez is an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google for Education Certified Innovator. He was name Broadcast Teacher of the Year by the Journalism Education Association in 2014.

During this two-day training, faculty from the upper and lower schools focused on the power of creating authentic learning projects that engage students in meaningful storytelling. We learned basic video editing skills and brainstormed ways to use digital storytelling in our classrooms. After this training, we decided as a team not to outfit a studio for live broadcast, but instead to create a mobile video unit in addition to a studio space where interviews could be taped or photographs could be taken. 

If you have been to a Friday night football game, you have seen senior vidoegrapher Matthew McConnell on the sidelines with some of our new equipment. He has created multiple videos using it so far and is currently planning a full-school spirit video with Darlingtonian video editor, Georgi McCauley.

When you stop by our media arts suite upstairs in the McCallie-Kennedy Library, you will notice students editing on Mac desktops using Adobe Premiere Pro. The grant allowed us to purchase an additional computer to dedicate to video editing. Students in the Video Editing iPeriod utilized the studio and equipment by shooting food tutorial videos, and students in Mrs. Wester's Social Media iPeriod also used the software and computer to edit a recent video about school spirit and the first home football game. The Advanced Media: Yearbook and Photographics classes have used the ring light and backdrop studio set up to take portraits. The portable backdrop will also be used as a photo booth during Fall for the Arts.

We are just at the beginning stages of our video production program and look forward to utilizing our grant for further group faculty training to engage our students in the meaningful, authentic projects that they are proud of creating.