San Diego’s student filmmakers were honored Tuesday night at the Civic Theatre downtown. From a red carpet arrival to song and dance numbers during the awards presentation, the Oscar-style event pulled out all the stops.
Hundreds of students, parents and teachers attended the Innovative Video in Education (iVIE) Student Film Awards, according to the San Diego County Office of Education. The project-based iVIE program allows students and teachers in all grade levels throughout San Diego County to stretch their imaginations by creating videos to be used in the classroom. The competition is in its 13th year.
Sherman Academy teacher Lito De los Reyes has helped students prepare videos for the competition for the past four years.
“It’s a really good experience for the students, just being able to see all of their hard work pay off in the end,” De los Reyes said. “It’s really fun for them to dress up and go down the red carpet and answer questions about their video. It makes them feel more important and adds weight to what they did.”
The County Office of Education says the K-12 student video production program has drawn thousands of participants since being launched in 2001. More than 300 videos covering math, science, language arts, documentary and public service announcement categories were submitted this year. Winners in each category were selected at different grade levels. There were also three “Grand Recognition” awards given, and a “People’s Choice” award, selected by viewers of the iVIE film festival held last month.
Top awards were presented to students from Benchley/Weinberger Elementary School in the San Diego Unified School District, Mission Middle School in the Escondido Union School District, Lincoln Acres School in the the National School District, and Canyon Crest Academy in the San Dieguito Union School District.
[Click here to see the full list of winners.]
Kathy Aufsesser, a Benchley/Weinberger Elementary School teacher, said one of the biggest benefits students get from participating in the competition is a boosted enthusiasm for learning.
“Aside from the obvious issue of creatively teaching to the standards I feel these videos reach kids with different learning strengths and styles,” she said.
