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Pssst. Check out the Lincoln Prep video winners at http://tiny.cc/s751dw
When Spanish teacher Carmen Truax gave her students the task of filming and editing a Spanish video, some students were anxious.
“I was nervous because it was my first year at Lincoln and also my first movie project I’d ever done,” said Lincoln College Preparatory Academy freshman Jennifer Acosta.
Despite the initial qualms, however, the students’ work paid off when the school submitted several of the films to the University of Central Missouri’s 5th Annual Foreign Language Film Festival held April 4. Six of the submitted films earned top honors and competed against seventh through 12th graders across Kansas and Missouri. For the festival, students were required to submit a five to 10-minute video in Chinese, Spanish, German or French.
Truax, who also serves as the foreign language department chair, decided to add a technology component to her Spanish classes following training with the school district’s technology academy.
“There are two parts of the process of teaching and learning,” she explained. “One is the input, so they read and they listen and the other is the speaking and writing. But, when you do movies, you are doing all four of your skills focusing on the second language.
“I think that integrating technology nowadays is a must. You have to do it. Kids are exposed to so many electronic devices.”
For junior Lawrence Jones, his favorite aspect of the project involved the video editing and seeing the finished product.
Jones produced a video entitled “Un Mundo Perfecto (A Perfect World),” which is based on a poem his grandmother wrote several years ago that imagines what life would be like in a perfect world. However, our world isn’t perfect, and Jones used the shuttered and deteriorating Attucks Elementary School building as the backdrop for his video.
“The most challenging part was the poem itself,” Jones said. “It really made me think. I had a hard time trying to figure out what I was going to do with it.
“I had to really dig deep and understand it in English. It was a really complex poem.”
For nearly eight hours, Jones filmed his video outside and pulled an all-nighter editing the video.
During the film festival he received first place across the board in Best overall Spanish film; Best overall drama; Best technical film; Most original script; Best use of the language; Best drama level III; and Best level III film.
“I was really surprised when I came out with all the first place awards,” he said. “I was really grateful.”
“El Bello y la Bestia (Beauty and the Beast)” earned second place for Best drama level III and provides a new twist on the book, “The Great Gatsby.”
“We were trying to make it different, so it wouldn’t be exactly the same story. So, we tried to modernize it and add different things,” junior Maylath Silva said.
During the filming, the students learned what it means to be television actors.
The most challenging aspect was acting scenes several times over for different camera shots, said junior Camila Alvarez.
“We got frustrated because we had to repeat it and repeat it and repeat it,” she said.
Students also improvised when they couldn’t find tape to hang a sign and used gum instead.
During the taping of “Inteligencia (Intelligence)” the students didn’t have a real video camera and used a laptop with a built-in camera instead. One of the student’s mother’s toted the laptop around, taping the students. In a way, it worked to the student’s advantage since they taped the script to the computer.
“We could see the script, but you (the viewer) couldn’t tell. That’s what made it easier to make the movie,” said junior Matias Hindsman.
Seniors Tanesha Ray and Justine Gabaree picked the theme of bullying for their video.
“One of the most prevalent social injustices young people face in school is bullying,” Gabaree said. “Bullying is a major problem, so we decided that should be our theme.”
“Even little things can scar people for life,” Ray said. “We never know how our actions can touch other people.”
For senior Lucky Bui of “Inteligencia,” the experience has helped him hone his Spanish speaking skills, he said.
“I recommend that other students do this as well because it’s really something different – not just busy paperwork,” Bui said. “It really helps them learn the language. It inspired me to make more films in the future.”
As for Truax, she couldn’t be prouder of her students.
“These kids are great,” she said. “It’s really amazing to work with them.”
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