One of the best parts of running the BHS Help Desk is seeing student genius in action. Daily, I get to witness my students demonstrate their critical thinking skills by solving real problems and observe them communicate effectively with their peers and teachers. But students in the Help Desk do much more than just solve technical problems. My students create and collaborate not only with their peers, but with teachers, on meaningful projects involving technology. Specifically, many of my students are skilled at multi-media creation and have established themselves as being the go-to people when it comes to creating high quality videos and short films. Mira Mehdi, a second year member of the Help Desk program, has produced the latest example of an iMovie project which contributes to her individual digital portfolio, but also positively impacts our entire community. Mira collaborated with Renee Dacey, our World Language Department chair, to create a video celebrating Foreign Language Week at BHS. I asked Renee to share with me her thoughts on what it was like to work with Mira and here’s what she had to say:

“I really enjoyed working collaboratively with a student on a project that sent a powerful message to our BHS community.  I taught Mira last year when she was a junior in my Spanish IV Honors course.  Her upbeat and sincere personality motivated me to ask you for her assistance and expertise.  Furthermore, I realized last year how “tech savy” she is when it comes to editing videos and adding features.  I was confident in Mira’s collaborative work ethic because I see how seemlessly she interacts with her peers.  We had fun (well I sure did, I can’t speak for Mira!”

I also asked Mira for her reflection and she shared the following:

“Collaborating with Mrs. Dacey, a BHS teacher as well as one of my past teachers, was a great experience! I adjusted my personal opinions to what she liked and it worked out perfectly at the end. Mrs. Dacey first came to me with this wonderful idea for a video to do for Foreign Language Week. I immediately told her I loved the idea and we got started right away. Mrs. Dacey and I would walk through the halls asking random kids if they spoke another language and if they did, then we would have them be in our video right away! It’s crazy how many kids at BHS actually speak a different language, fluently too, that no one would ever guess! I loved creating this video and can’t wait for more of them in the future.”

Mira’s finished product, which highlights all of the languages spoken at BHS, is shown below.