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June 9th: Jessica’s Post

jimshieldsvt — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:16:38 +0000

(Finally, a current post!) Our premiere is less than a week away and I think were pretty much ready. The videos look really good aside from a few little tech things that needed to be fixed. I’m really excited for people’s reactions. I think they are going to spark a lot of interesting discussion. The editing process was a difficult because it’s hard to have four people working all at once on a movie, so I feel like we put a lot on Rob’s shoulders. He did a great job and I’m extremely happy with it. I just feel bad that we didn’t help him more I find myself really missing New Orleans and NOCCA. I wish Vermont had a school similar to NOCCA, because I would totally go. It’s a truly amazing place. This trip changed a lot of things for me. When I came back, a lot of my friends treated me differently. They were surprised that I had such a great time with the other kids that went on this trip. And I’m not sure why, cause they are fifteen really great people.

Graduation is so close. South Burlington graduates Friday, the 13th! I could not be more excited and sad all the same time. I never considered myself a sentimental person. Now, it’s just seems like I’m on the clock. I’m moving to Chicago in August. I’ve been telling people I’m not scared but in reality, I’m terrified. I’m sure I’ll be fine it’s just a huge change. Also, I don’t make friends easily and I feel like I’m just starting to bond with a lot of people here in South Burlington kids, and now I’m going to move a 1000 miles away from them. And they will most likely forget me.

On a lighter note, the weather is fantastic today! The first nice day in a little while, so I definitely got out and enjoyed it. The last day of classes, which was Thursday, was SOO much fun!! I really enjoyed myself. We signed yearbooks, had balloons, listened to Matt’s iPod and had a great time! And most things have been going really well for me. I don’t have that many finals and the ones I’ve had so far have been a piece of cake. I can’t wait for everyone in NOLA to see the movie! I hope you like what we did. Hope everything is going well down south. — Jessica Lowell, June 8th

May 17th: Mike’s Post

jimshieldsvt — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:55:52 +0000

(Note: Mike wrote this on May 17th, but edublogs was doing some work on the site and I couldn’t post, and I neglected to re-pot it until now, apologies.)

Hello NOCCA/SB Friends! I can’t believe it’s already been more than two weeks since we were last in New Orleans. I would just once again like to thank everyone down in New Orleans for making us feel so welcome and a part of your school. South Burlington seems too bland now that I’ve experienced “New Orleans” life.

As far as our documentary goes, it’s going. From what I have learned so far, it takes so much effort but it is worth it. We are scheduled to premiere the movie on May 28th, but it will most likely be a rough cut because the process is taking a lot longer than we had all anticipated. The footage is great though! It’s really cool to be able to watch the tapes again and see everyone and everything. I feel like it was not long ago at all and I wish I could go back soon and hopefully I will.

The weather is finally warming up in Vermont, it’s sunny out for once! Our school is chaotic as the year is dwindling down, and nearly every senior is so excited to leave. We just recently had our AP exams so it’s nice to have those done with. I know you guys end school a lot earlier- lucky! ( you may even be done now) Well, enjoy the rest of the school year and hopefully we will all be in touch still.

June 7th: Elena’s Post

jimshieldsvt — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:53:28 +0000

I was reading through the other blogs entries trying to figure out what it is I have to say about this experience now. The further away from the trip we get the less of a connection I feel to it. I find myself kind of distracted by myself and I feel very selfish for it because if for one moment I actually make myself think about what happened in New Orleans and how I felt immediately after, I cannot believe the lack of attachment I feel now. Maybe it’s because I’m about to graduate and go live somewhere else for four years and that is on my front burner now. That is why I am really glad that I decided to keep in touch with some of the amazing people we met down there. When I receive their emails it reminds me of the bond we made with a community in New Orleans and no matter how distracted I am by my own selfish whims, I don’t think I could or would ever want to break those bonds. — Elena Weinberg

May 29: Rose’s Post (a bit late)

jimshieldsvt — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:17:42 +0000

Hey all – Rosalita here. Unfortunately, I’ve been down and out since last Sunday with a nasty respiratory cold, that got compounded with double ear infections. Thusly, I haven’t been too involved with anything LCA related in about a week – pretty much the only thing I was involved with was my bed, a tissue box, and a lot of antibiotics. No worries, though, I’m back. So onto the actual class related news: Short of the fact that my group hasn’t actually laid out any film clips next to each other, editing seems to be going really well. We have our storyboard pretty thoroughly worked out, and I think all four of us not only have a good idea of what we want our portion to say, but how to go about that as well. Like I said, I’ve had the whole invalid thing going on, so I missed class on Tuesday, but I heard it was really productive – I can’t believe we premiere in less than two weeks! Being back in VT, while pleasant in a lot of ways, is also very odd. I still wake up some mornings and thing “Okay, where are we headed today?” and there are definitely a ton of people that I miss/wish I’d had more to spend with. As it stands, I think this whole class has been a completely enriching experience, right from the first meeting, whether it was connecting with teens in far off places or just getting to know some of my own classmates better. And now, I must leave you all, and go feed my neighbor’s cat. I gotta pay for college somehow. Not a day passes when I don’t remember some happenstance of New Orleans, and I thank you for that. Rosie.

May 22: Meret Thali

jimshieldsvt — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:31:30 +0000

It’s now been three weeks since we left New Orleans and I’m still wishing we could go back. I know that I’ve taken away a lot from this experience. Even my mom said that I seemed to have returned a different person: more confident, with more of a “no-nonsense” attitude. In other news I had about a one week to breathe and then the AP exams started in full swing. I had to take a total of FIVE exams and so I spent the majority of the past two weeks at St. Vianney Church, the main testing location. Instead of going to classes I took the five exams on five separate days. They average from two to three hours. On the days that I didn’t have any exam I would be in class trying to study for the upcoming exam any chance I could. As I was also an intern with the middle school production of “Dear Edwina, Jr.” at the time of the exams I was trying to balance studying and helping out with the show. I had a blast working with the middle school drama program for the third year in a row and I got to know a lot of cool and extremely talented 6th, 7th and 8th graders. But now that the exams and the show are done I can completely turn my focus to the movie that we must finish in two weeks. As a member of the NOCCA team I can say that I’m not too stressed about finishing the movie on time because we really took advantage of the multitude of time that we had at NOCCA while we were down in New Orleans. And as the school year begins to wind down with a lot of lasts (last middle school show I interned with, last chorus concert of my siblings, etc.) I find myself reminiscing a lot about the many things that I was able to do in my high school career. The trip to New Orleans will definitely be one high school experience I will never forget and carry with me always. — Meret

May 13th: Aaron Pettine

jimshieldsvt — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:04:30 +0000

So it has been almost two weeks since we have gotten back from New Orleans and things are a little hectic. I myself really enjoyed the trip down there, I havn’t really been to many big cities so this was definitly eye-opening. I was pleasently surprised by the helping hand that the students and teachers at NOCCA provided. I’m glad that we went down there without many expectations of the footage we would gather, I think that really helped us in the long run. We got a ton of GREAT footage while we were down there and now it’s just time to start putting it all together. Since we’ve been back we’ve been doing three main things. Capturing, planning, and more capturing. We got hours and hours and hours of footage and we needed it to convert it from the tapes onto the computer. This meant many hours of our time (including our free time during the day) to capture. We finally finished capturing the last tape a few days ago and now we are ready to start piecing it together. Each group also started to plan out what we would like our movie to look like through a process called storyboarding. We’ve got a long way to go but I’m confident that we will pull together to make an incredible film.

Today’s post by Matt Moore

jimshieldsvt — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:36:51 +0000

(Written by Matt Moore)

It has been almost two weeks since returning from our trip to New Orleans, and I have pretty much settled back into my normal, home routine. The first few days back, I found it very hard to adjust to life in Vermont. The trip to NOLA was an unforgettable, life changing experience, where my only regret was that we had to come back so soon. We met so many unbelievable people, whose stories were even more unbelievable.

Now that we are under a month away from graduation, it’s hard to focus on other schoolwork. This trip however, made me realize how most of us take our education for granted. After seeing and hearing what some people had/have to go through to get to school, it really made me feel privileged for what I have. Some people would kill for the opportunities that we have, and so often don’t take full advantage of. It really hit me when we were watching a movie made by film maker Vince Morelli: in his film there were students who wouldn’t go to school on certain days, because they were too scared of getting shot. It’s pretty shocking to hear something like that, and made me feel spoiled since the only reason I’ve ever not wanted to go to school was cause of a test I didn’t study for, or project I didn’t do.

I am excited to see our final movie, and hope that it can somewhat show people what our experience was like. I know it’s hard to make a movie original, when thousands of others have tried to do the same thing, but I think that our unique experience will give it something special. I know this is how most of the class feels, so I have no doubt we will be able to make what we sent out for. I am looking forward to the next few weeks, and can’t wait to see it on the big screen.

April 23, 2008

jimshieldsvt — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:29:13 +0000

(Written by Sheehey) Wednesday was the first day where our student filmmaking groups had different experiences–at least in the morning. One group got off to an early start at Holy Cross School for an interview session there; the rest headed into New Orleans proper to film “B-roll” for their movies (that is, background of the city). The folks I was with took the Canal Street ferry to Algiers, and for most of us it was our first time on the Mississippi River (though only a brief ride). Some had the chance to walk around there, while another filmmaking group stayed on board the ferry in order to go to their pre-filmming meeting at the New Orleans Science Math Charter school. Most of us had lunch in the French Quarter, famous for Jackson Square, historic houses, creole restaurants, and the beignets and chickory coffee of Cafe du Monde. By 1:00 we were due back at NOCCA, and for our afternoon “class” we joined the NOCCA writing students to hear a reading of the experiences of two death row exonerees. Gregory Bright and John Thompson stood trial for crimes they did not commit and spent 27 1/2 years and 18 years (respectively) in prisons … Angola/Louisiana State Pen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Penitentiary. The men had written of their experiences with our host teacher, Lara Naughton. After their reading, there was a Q & A session where questions ranged from the writing process to the pointlessness of revenge to the corrupt justice system that incriminated them. I can’t imagine anyone leaving the room unchanged. When we drove away, it was the first time the students in my van turned off the tunes and tried to get to the bottom of the problems of the world. Then dinner. We split up, giving the students some choices of restaurants along a park, and by 9:00 we were back at the Ramada for the pool, t.v., rest. Striking to me is how genuinely flexible and wonderful the students are being, despite the driving (occasional lost drivers, the traffic of the President’s being in town), the food (always good but sometimes not in time) and the schedule (filled). The four filming groups will have different experiences again tomorrow afternoon. If it helps our readers, those groups are referred to as NOCCA (a film on the school itself), the Schools, Exiles, and Behind the Scenes.

Chris’s 18th Birthday pics

jimshieldsvt — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:33:55 +0000

Celebrating Chris Farmer’s 18th Birthday

jimshieldsvt — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:30:09 +0000