This short film is about a school in Elk Grove, California who received the EETT grant.  The focus was to “improve student writing through the infusion of technology into the English Language arts program,” at several different school sites with a focus on fourth and fifth grade classrooms.  Here are some of my thoughts on the video.

Students were fully involved in their projects and owned them with confidence and authorship. They were writers, because they were constantly writing, rereading, and revising their work.  Now hmm, where have we seen this before where writing isn’t a one and done piece and students can re explore past ideas and revise their work??? 

“Students were taking work that has been stapled to the walls, and expanding their audiences.” Wow, just imagine being a fifth grader and having your work and your ideas being shared and commented by people around the world.  What a sense of empowerment to claim ownership of of your work and have other people recognize you for it.  No wonder these students improved in their language arts skills and gained confidence in themselves.  They were creating their own identities and becoming literate with other multimedia tools.