DAY 2
Well, it’s summer. This is my second day of PAGE. Everyone is really friendly, the food is fantastic. Breakfast on my first day was a yogurt parfait. Greek yogurt with strawberries and granola. Then we had an activity of playing “Never have I ever” outside at the Hot Springs Elementary flagpole. We went inside and were introduced to digital storytelling.
We saw other people’s digital stories. They were about a loved one, a loved object, or a place that is special to them. We are all supposed to write a story of our own. It took me a while to think of something, then I came up with the idea of writing about the Laurel River.
I have always felt so connected to it.
So we work for a while until we go stretch at the end of it, then go to lunch. Most of the Duke college interns made desserts for all of us. I tried them all: peanut butter rice krispies, chocolate fudge, vanilla Oreos, and cinnamon cookies.
DAY 5
For breakfast we had Hickory Nut Gap sausage with eggs and cantaloupe. I found out I like cantaloupe. The game time ran out at 9:15, so we went back to the classroom to split up. Some went to do one-on-one meetings about their stories, others stayed and did bookmarks. I made a bookmark for City of Embers. When Emma Jo was done she gave me hers. I also made a bookmark of Emma by Jane Austin (which is sort of ironic).
DAY 6
For literature groups, Anna gave us a piece of paper that was torn and had words missing, so we had to figure out what the word is. Then we did ECHOs (Each Chooses Her Own). I was caught between art and STEM. I chose food because I couldn’t choose either. In food, we made pizza dough using yeast, which made a weird-smelling chemical reaction. The dough will be used tomorrow for the pizza field trip at Spring Creek. I got my hands really doughy and had to wash my hands off before I got on the bus and left PAGE.
DAY 8
After breakfast, we went into the PAGE classroom, and I read and wrote a bit until I was called to work on my story with Anna. So we worked on my digital story until I was good with it and then I recorded. I was nervous, but I just kept drinking water and repeating after Anna.
Then I returned to the classroom and started a class with Rebecca about video editing software. It was fun, but not my favorite thing to learn about.
As we finish up, Ms. Nancy comes in to get us ready on the bus to go to Spring Creek. I am excited. The drive was about 35 minutes of curvy, long road (on Bluff Mountain), and I sat with Emma Jo. I love Ms. Debbie (PAGE instructional assistant and bus driver)! When we arrived, it was hot and humid. We had a tour of the farm, saw a pig pen, a horse, a calf, two cows, and some chickens. At the end of the field trip, we had ice cream and homemade pizza.
DAY 9
Today I will be doing STEM with Rebecca, and I am excited.
Rebecca showed us how to do some tricks with editing software on Apple computers. We sang Happy Birthday to one of our visitors (Ramatu Bangura, a visiting program officer from The NoVo Foundation), and Ms. Nancy tells a story about rainbow trout. Then lunch: grilled rainbow trout, coleslaw, potatoes, white radish, carrots, cheese grit cornbread, and chocolate chip cookies.
ECHOs at last. I pick STEM with Rebecca.
DAY 11
Anna calls me over for my digital story and asks how my story is going. I still need my pictures.
Lunch is a burger, salad, and chips. Our afternoon activity was a little funner than our last one — we played musical chairs. It looked like it was about to rain so we hurried inside, and we were right: it started to rain, hard, in book literature groups. The most wonderful thing is to be reading a book in a hard downpour. All I needed was a robe and some tea. After that wonderful experience, we chose ECHOs. I chose music ECHO with Natalie. She played her banjo and sang songs. I sang along too, softly though — I get stage fright. I was so surprised how fast the day had gone, so I reluctantly got on the bus — and went home.
I love PAGE.
