Furlow Charter School, the first school in Georgia to be awarded Peace Certification by the Mattie J.T. Stepanek Foundation, is continuing their peace journey by sharing it through video. A team of Furlow 2nd grade scholars and their coach recently won the honor of First Runner Up for their video “Imagine a World Full of Peace” in the Georgia Movie Academy digital storytelling competition sponsored by the Chattahoochee-Flint RESA (Regional Educational Service Agency). The competition recognizes student work in the area of video production and storytelling. This project-based learning opportunity allows students to work in teams to produce a theme-based, standards-based, three-minute video on a topic of their choice. Teachers serving as coaches earn PLU credit for their work. Student teams in grades K-12 are eligible to compete.
Mrs. Tasha Williams, Coach for Furlow’s K-2nd grade team, unveiled this year’s theme of “Imagine” to her scholars and let them brainstorm ideas for their video. She states, “This year, they were learning about Mattie Stepanek and his messages of hope and peace from Mrs. JoAnna Arnold, Bridges Dean and French and Spanish Advisor here at Furlow. The scholars were thrilled to have Mattie’s mom, Jeni Stepanek (known affectionately as “Mama Peace”) visit with them in person in November 2019 and again in February 2020. The second-grade scholars really wanted that to be their focus. They knew so much about Mattie and were proud to share it though this project in the hope that others would also realize that ‘Peace is Possible’. It was a blessing to have Miss Jeni share some of her personal pictures of Mattie with the children to use in the video. The pictures were so special and gave viewers a snapshot of Mattie’s love for life.”
Upon learning of the award, Jeni Stepanek shared, “#PeaceMatters -This is awesome! Congratulations to Tasha Williams and some of the younger Furlow Charter School scholars for sharing this powerful message of peace! Mama Peace is so proud of you all, and of your choices for peace, and of this amazing community.”
You can watch “Imagine a World Full of Peace” here:
