Written by Danielle McManus

Fourth grade Skagway School teacher

Each summer, kids gear up for summer camp, but this year I was on my way to film camp in Homer, Alaska, where I spent a week connecting with the land and being empowered and supported by 28 Alaskan educators.   We all signed up for a workshop in digital storytelling with a nonprofit called SeeStories, and we would earn six credits in Culturally Responsive Teaching and Alaska Studies. 

Each morning started by sharing a healthy meal and heading next door to our cozy classroom yurt for morning circle time. We started with a 20-minute, solo nature walk with a question that would lead us each on an exploration of self and place and ending with reflection. The other parts of the day were cultural lessons and diving into the filmmaking process using our previously collected interviews, photos and videos.  After full days of connecting to self, place, each other and filmmaking, we would go on field trips or tell stories by the fire. None of us fully knew what to expect, but we left camp with a feeling of connectedness and a greater appreciation for each other and the world around us.

Each school year starts a little differently in my fourth grade classroom as I am always thinking of new ways to make learning fun, relevant and meaningful.  This year, my goal was to support and empower my students in using their voices to make films sharing their own and their classmates’ stories about Skagway’s geography, histories or culture. The fourth grade students completed two short films using ClipChamp on the topics Skagway’s Geography and Skagway’s History. They learned how to upload and edit images, videos and they learned how to add text, transitions, credits and audio.  When asked what part of filmmaking they liked the best, I got a variety of answers from editing to music to figuring out how to write a script and match it with images. 

“I liked rewatching it because you get that feeling of joy and you see how well it turned out and you feel so happy.” Iris said, “I like how the different films made me feel based on its music or the tone of the narrator’s voice,” Fourth grade student, Hadlea, exclaimed.

Each student ran into challenges along the way in the editing, writing and recording process, but having a finished product in the end made it all worth it.  

Brixton’s hardest part was, “Stopping.” 

“It’s hard to stop making it even though I struggled.” 

Mila feels, “really really really 100% proud. I want to share this film with my family who live out of town. I think they’ll be very proud too.”  

None of us fully knew what to expect, but we finished with feelings of gratitude and accomplishment. The fourth grade students are excited to share their films with their friends, family and community. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Use this QR code to watch student made films about Skagway’s geography!

Use this QR code to watch Women of Skagway, a mini film series featuring Denise Caposey who speaks about Charlotte Jewell and Jan Wrentmore, Charity Pomeroy and Meredith Schmidt celebrating Skagway’s women of the past and present, and Gretchen Wehmhoff, the woman who shares Skagway’s stories, preserves our voices and documents our town’s history.