The Ken Burns Essay

Today, my students presented a Ken Burns-like essay. Over the past week, they researched a topic and created a PowerPoint presentation to accompany the oral reading of their essay. The purpose was to prepare them for a huge research project in the spring that requires them to make a short documentary, Ken Burns style. Most were pretty good. One was amazing.

Two sophomore boys created a true documentary using iMovie and the "Ken Burns effect." It wasn't just the magic of Apple that made their documentary come alive, but it was their execution of the essay that made it brilliant. They paused between topics - like real documentaries do - they used a variety of pictures and visuals to bring the ideas alive, and they painted a vivid description with their language.

I'm so proud, I could spit.

This group, although hellions in the past, amaze me with their ingenuity every day. I can't wait to see where they go from here.

I'm hoping to have the video up online soon.