Finding Miss Nelson

Arturo Avina is a fan of pop music. Bjork~ Blondie and Madonna are a few of his favorites. Avina is also a kindergarten teacher at LAUSD's Olympic Primary Center in Los Angeles and the driving force behind one of the most adorable and creative educational resources on the Internet. Avina and his class of kindergarteners adapted the classic children's book "Miss Nelson is Missing" using songs by Garbage~ Bjork~ Blondie and Madonna to help illustrate their unique take on the story. The result are phenomenal--entertaining for students and inspiring to educators.

Avina has been directing school plays for 10 years. Last year~ he purchased a video camera to start recording their performances.

"I [figured I] have this great camera~ so why not film a movie? I already had a script for "Miss Nelson Is Missing" from a play we did a few years ago~ so I dusted it off and took it from there. The movie evolved as we filmed~ and the script became more of a suggestion~" said Avina via electronic message.

Incorporating music and dramatic arts~ this project helped his class of English language learning students to develop their vocabularies.

"It really got them to develop reading comprehension and oral language skills~" Avina said.

Avina encouraged his students to be creative and work collaboratively during the taping process. Eventually~ his students started coming up with their own lines and directions. He taped from the end of January to the beginning of March. A few key scenes were recorded with his entire class~ but most of the video was made with small groups of students during their recess and lunch periods~ with a few after-school exceptions. They chipped away until the project was done.

So far~ his video has gotten a phenomenal response~ spurring parents and teachers to tell Avina that their kids love watching it online.

"It is my hope that teachers~ parents and kids are entertained by our efforts~" Avina said. "We poured an incredible about of work and love into our project~ and it is with great joy and pride that we present it to the world."

You can view Avina and his class's version of "Miss Nelson is Missing" here on the EducationWorld Community.

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