I had a great summer traveling across the country to California going the northern route and making videos for our 5th graders who are studying the regions of the United States. Last summer I went the southern route with the Virginia Trekkers and those videos are on our website. I haven’t finished editing the videos from this summer’s trip yet, but there are lots of other updates on the Trekkers site. We filmed 5 videos in southwestern Virginia telling about the Indians (VS.2), the European immigrants (VS.4), and westward migration (VS.6). We filmed a whole podcast about the life of Patrick Henry (VS.5b) from his birthplace in Scotchtown to his famous speech in Richmond and ending with his death and burial at Red Hill. We also filmed at the Maggie Walker house (VS.9d) and Gunston Hall, home of George Mason (VS.6b). Our most recent podcast was done back in May where we visited the Midlothian Mines to talk about coal production at the first coal mine in Virginia (VS.10b). Several teachers have written to us telling us that they have been having trouble playing our videos. I produce them using an old version of Flash, so that could be the problem. Over the summer I uploaded most of our videos to Vimeo, and hopefully they will play better there. Finally, be sure to enter our 2014 video contest this year. Your class will learn a lot making their own video and you could win a dance party, like our 2013 winners.
