Award Winning Author Showcases Canyon Creek Students' Book Trailers

The Skype call with author Phil Bildner posted in January came full circle today with a final call between the author and the fifth graders.  The students submitted the book trailers that were done in collaboration with Mr. Bildner earlier in this month. Their trailers promoting The Hallelujah Flight and The Unforgettable Season can be found on Getting I.T. Right @ Canyon Creek and on the author's website.  This project was such a success that School Library Journal featured the story in their magazine as well.  The article, Librarian Helps Students, Author Create Book Trailers, originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping.

Mr. Bildner loved the trailers and was thrilled to have provided the students with a "real life" learning experience.The students had to work together as a team to create and produce these trailers. During the Skype call Mr Bildner talked to the students about the project and asked for their input for feature projects.  The students answers were insightful and helpful. They noticed that the projects began disorganized and that as their ability to work as a group progressed organization emerged. The students and Mr, Bildner also discussed the importance of technology  and learning how to use Movie Maker. Mr Bildner stressed how the  storyboarding for the project was just another form of writing process  All the students expressed how much they enjoyed and learned while doing this project. At the end of the call  the author had a surprise for the students. Earlier in the week he sent two boxes to the school. Inside the boxes were personalized and autographed copies of his books featured in the trailers. Each student was given the book from the trailer they produced. This was an amazing opportunity for the students that they will remember for their lifetime.

A big  THANK YOU to Phil Bildner for sharing his love of learning, encouragement, generosity and for just being an all around great guy!

Skyping with Phil Bildner

Author, Phil Bildner paid a second visit to Canyon Creek Elementary this week but this time the visit was virtual. Students in Ms. Shannon's class had the delightful opportunity to Skype with the author. Phil Bildner has written many children's award winning books along with the New York Times best-selling Sluggers! series. He is collaborating with students at Canyon Creek on book trailers for two of his newest books. One of the books, Hallelujah Flight is already on the next years Bluebonnet List and The Unforgettable Season will be released this Spring. The main purpose of this video call was for Mr. Bildner and students to communicate expectations for the trailer and to answer questions posed by the class. Skyping allowed them to connect face to face with each other. Students were thrilled to have the opportunity to ask their questions directly to the author. Mr Bildner was in his home during the call and showed the students some of his framed art work from the books. He expressed his desire for the students to take the lead and to have fun with this project.


The following are comments made by some of the students involved in the project.

"It was very cool and I look forward to our second conference. It is important to learn about collaboration even with a few thousand miles separating you." Nico

"I really liked it a lot. I can't believe that I actually got to ask Phil Bildner a question. I liked it when he showed us his art work." Phoenix

"It went well, I think. Though I felt a little nervous talking to him, he talked a joked as if he were any other person." Megan

"I think the Skype was fun and it helped us get better understanding of what to do in our trailers." Arjun

"We covered a lot of things and prepared ourselves for the final productions." Andrew "I though we got all the info we needed to make a trailer that applies to us and to him." Sofia

"I thought that the Skype was really interesting and cool and it gave us a way to talk to Phil Bildner and really get an idea of what we are doing! It was awesome!" Niti

The students can't wait to discuss their progress with Mr. Bildner in another Skype call in two weeks. Stay tuned to see final results of this long distance collaboration!