Sharing a One-Room Schoolhouse by making a Movie

If you belong to a local community organization such as Rotary, AAUW, or any other organization that tries to improve their local community and beyond, here is an idea.

Make a movie of a project that you are working on using still photos and video. If you can get pictures of the beginning of the project, to the actual completion that is even better. The video and pictures can be put together on a Mac (using imovie) or a PC using (windows media maker). Both of these programs are free, easy to use and can be learned from an online tutorial or a one day workshop.

Example #1 In our community, we have a one-room schoolhouse that is from the 1850’s. A women’s organization took over the school, which belonged to the town, when it was in shambles. The floor was mostly gone and it was a mess. They got the town and some donations to refurbish the school. Then they researched how the school was run, who actually went there, who was the teacher and what was used for furniture, books and tools.

They next designed a day of school how it would have been during the 1850’s including names of actual children that were at the school. They found slates, quill pens, and desks that were appropriate for this time in history. Members of the Bath-Brunswick AAUW made aprons for the girls to wear. Everything was as it was in 1850, even the outhouses.

Local fifth grade school children spend a day at the school as it was in the 1850’s. It is a wonderful experience as they have spent much of the year studying colonial times and now they get to experience it.

This has been going on for about 20 years but has been somewhat a secret because it is just the fifth-graders who attend. That is why a movie to share about the experience is a great idea for SPREADING THE WORD. This way not only the fifth-graders get to share in the experience but so can their parents and other students.

There are schools like this throughout our country and the world. Wouldn’t it be fun to put together movies from many very different schools around the world?
1. Communities who might be thinking of such a project could use the ideas as a staring point.
2. Students from around the world could compare historic schools from different countries. 3. The movies would add an additional dimension to the students attending a school for a day. How was it different in Maine than in Montana or Ireland in school in the 1850’s? Students could just view the video and get a real feeling of not only their community, but the world community.
4. A wiki-website about one-room schoolhouses could be started and community members, teachers and students could share their movie, experiences and ideas with others.

Go ahead. Be brave and try making a movie to share.