Clay County Christmas

There hasn't been much posting on this blog becasue I am trying to move it to the school's website and that involves pretty much building a new blog from scratch. It's about ready, though... but I had to share this with you.



Each year, the school where I teach puts on a huge charity event for disadvantaged families at a sister church near Clay, WV. It's a truly heartwarming thing, seeing a whole school (two whole schools, if you count the grade school) come together to help others. Social work is a big thing in my school, and it always makes me a little teary-eyed to see kids who have so much working to help those who don't -- and they really enjoy it!



I decided to make a little video highlighting this program, and my 6th graders came together to do a neat little stop-motion animation sequence at the beginning of the video. It was hilarious, filming that sequence. Each student had a present to animate, and I would yell "GO!" and they would move the gift a little bit, jump out of the shot, and I would snap the picture. Then I would yell "GO!" and they would do it again. As crazy as it was, it worked really well, and the kids did a great job. I have never laughed so hard, though -- my sides still ache from filming it yesterday.



So, here it is:







This is truly why I love my job. I love my kids, I love the people I work with, and I love the way this school comes together as a community. You just don't find this in every school.