What's the Big Idea?

With Pitch Day quickly approaching, kids are firming up their ideas and creating their Pitch Videos. The videos are important because they serve as a commercial for the idea. Each student/group will show the commercial to the Pitch Committee and then speak about the idea for a few minutes afterwards. The video is the first impression that the committee has regarding the kids' ideas. It is important that each video represents a "best foot forward" for the kiddos. Therefore, they are hard at work. Most are using Animoto but some are going with WeVideo or Wideo. Regardless of what product they are using, they are creating.

One recent development is that some of the kids who were having trouble coming up with an idea, have, almost by accident, turned to coding. We had been talking about the Hour of Code (we are participating) and some kids have played around with it, become addicted to it, and decided that their 20% Time project will focus on learning code and creating something with it, bet it a game, app, site, etc. A few of the kids have even been coming to school early so they can work on coding tutorials before school.

While last year we had some great projects, there were also some that were lacking. This year, maybe because we put more time into thinking about ideas, all of the projects seem more solid. The more we hear about the project ideas, the more we are impressed with them. Most of the projects revolve around creating something new, transforming something that already exists, service projects, or long-term personal projects like writing a novel. We are very excited to see the work that occurs during the next week as kids finalize their pitches and prepare for their presentation. We will have lots to share after Pitch Day.