Gratitude
Thankful for faith, family, friends, colleagues, good health, writing opportunities, teaching kids, authors, film making, and more!
Anything is possible if you try. As an adviser to the after school literacy Author’s, Illustrators, and Journalists (AIJ) Academy at Walker Elementary School, that’s what happened to our students! What a humbling and memorable moment to win in the documentary film category at the 2018 iVIE (Innovative Video in Education) Film Festival from more than 350 entries!
The students showed enthusiasm and were motivated about working on the film.
Here’s the link to our award-winning short film, “Celebrating Reading and Diversity in a Title I Public School”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h5H-fC6ecw
Please read the credits and information for all the people and organizations who contributed to making the short film possible. We are grateful for their time and support. We are also grateful to the judges of the iVIE Film Festival.
In addition, we were nominated in the “How To” category with our film, “How to cook SPAM Fried Rice.”
Another highlight of the year was having Children’s Book Author Bruce Hale visit Walker Elementary School. 
His presentations were amazing and he engaged students from beginning to end! As author to more than 50 books across literary genres, he continues to inspire kids to write, illustrate, and create stories! Visit his website at http://brucehale.com/
Also, thanks to Illustrator Lori Mitchell for teaching the AIJ Academy students how to draw facial features.
Visit her website at https://www.differentjustlikeme.com/
