TEL.A.VISION | It's Your Story

My experience with TEL.A.VISION was excellent!

Posted on 01. Feb, 2010 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Power of Vision, TEL.A.VISION Stories

By Eric Paquette

Dunwoody Academy students at their computers

I am a high school writing teacher with a large special ed. population in my classroom. I found the visionary aspect, the creative freedom and hands on approach empowered previously unengaged students.  Since the project I have seen that by referring back to the goals set in the video students are connecting daily work to long term goals in a more concrete manner.

From the first day that we started using TEL.A.VISION there seemed to be an instant connection between the students and the program.  The special ed. students in my class seem to be more comfortable writing, and processing information on the computer than with a pencil and paper.  TEL.A.VISION allowed them an opportunity to have success in the classroom in a format that permitted them to focus on what they were saying rather than the format that they were using.

I would recommend TEL.A.VISION to ANY teacher trying to get students to rise to their full potential

Here is a sample video by one of the students.

Summer Update From TEL.A.VISION

Posted on 26. Sep, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, How to Help!, Supporters

Dear Friends,

This past three weeks, with the start of school, we had a record number of new accounts and over a 1000 new TEL.A.VISION  videos created. We have had a very busy summer preparing for the new school year. We will shortly be introducing new school pricing that will allow schools to buy TEL.A.VISION for a classroom, school or district without using a credit card.

We have realized one of the best uses for TEL.A.VISION is in Special Education. We are just finishing a new Special Education Curriculum, written by Special Education teachers from McHenry County, Illinois under the direction of Dr. Christy Chambers. The curriculum will show Special Education teachers many ways to use TEL.A. VISION in the classroom including using it as part of a student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP). We have been accepted to speak at next years Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) conference.

We are just finishing an agreement with Best Buy for a contest on their @15 web site, www.at15.com. The contest will start in January and build on their research on empowering youth. There will be winners for an individual video and classroom project. The winners will show their work at the ISTE/NECC Conference in Denver in June 2010.

We have been accepted to give a presentation at the TIES Conference and will be working with TIES to offer special pricing to their member schools.

We have received a donation that will allow us to take TEL.A.VISION to the 155 students at the Dunwoody Academy in Minneapolis. We had planned to introduce TEL.A.VISION into all Minneapolis Schools this fall but because of budget cuts are now looking for donations to help make this happen.

We are in the process hiring a telemarketer to call on School Principals and Special Education staff. The position would be working from home and include salary and bonus. If you know of anyone with sales experience that you think might be interested please have them contact me, george@telavision.tv.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Vision Videos Empower Students – District Administration

Posted on 12. Jul, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Media, Power of Vision, TEL.A.VISION News

A new Web-based tool, Tel.A.Vision, inspires young people to dream the possible dream.

By Mary Johnson Patt June 2009

District Administration Magazine, the magazine of School district Management, completed a three page article on TEL.A.VISION  in its June/ July NECC issue. Here is an excerpt: In early March, as he addressed the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., President Obama spoke at great length of the reforms he believes will give Americans “a complete and competitive education, from the cradle up through a career.” The proposals he laid out for improving early childhood education, K12 standards and assessments, graduation rates, teacher quality and college funding will be debated for months to come by thousands of school administrators, teachers, parents and politicians. It was the voice of a single teenager, however, that helped drive the president’s messages home that day.

At the end of his speech, Obama quoted Yvonne Boroquez, a California student whose high school class recently made a video exploring the impact of the economic crisis on their dreams of higher education and professional employment.

“It was heartbreaking that a girl so full of promise was so full of worry that she and her class titled their video ‘Is Anybody Listening?’” Obama said. “I am listening. We are listening. America is listening,” the president assured Boroquez and her classmates.

“We have a huge vision deficit in this country,” Johnson explains. “There is so much fear and negativity, especially in the media. I decided to start a movement about bringing more hope and possibility into the world, and to do it by helping kids create little three-minute visions of what they want their life to become.”

Enter Tel.A.Vision. Johnson’s free Web tool gives today’s tech-savvy youth everything they need to create and share “vision videos.” A Tel.A.Vision is essentially a highly personal montage combining a student’s written hopes and dreams with still photographs, music and computer animation—created with tools available online at www.telavision.tv.

Read the entire District Administration article here

Big News From TEL.A.VISION

Posted on 05. Jun, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Media, Social Media and Vision, Supporters, TEL.A.VISION Stories, Web 2.0

5th Graders at Clear Springs Elementary on Parents Night

The BIG news is that TEL.A.VISION  is becoming a non profit. Actually, it has always been a not for profit but we are just making it official. This will allow us to seek funds from foundations and individuals. I know that we will probably be rejected 10 times before we find someone willing to help fund us so if you know any organization or individual willing to be one of the first to talk to us let us know.

It’s hard to believe we launched only 8 months ago. In that time our partner Haberman has done a great job of getting us in all of the local press as well as the Christian Science Monitor. We had a successful TEL.A.VISION Day with a 24 hour broadcast of TEL.A.VISION videos on the Internet ( Thank you Steve). In May we did our first NYC press tour and from that will be covered in a 4 page spread in District Administration (Thank you Sue), a feature in Family Circle and have been told we will be in Scholastic and Time For Kids.

We have some exciting partnerships we are  working on.

1. Having 6th, 9th and 12th graders in the Minneapolis Schools create vision videos as part of graduation requirements,
2. Working with TIES Education,
3. Partnering with Youth Services of America to create Service Learning videos,
4. Working with The Discipline of Peace and Culture of Peace Initiative to create Peace videos,
5. Discussions with SEARCH Institute and Templeton Press on creating a Vision Curriculum with Dr. Benson’s New book “Vision“
6. An invitation to visit the staff of the Fetzer Institute.

While all of this holds great potential the most rewarding work has been to see the difference TEL.A.VISION  is having on youth. Three projects stand out.

1. Working with the Divas of North Minneapolis. The Star Tribune did a nice article on them.
2. Spending a day at Angelo Patri Middle School in the Bronx with 18 young people creating a new vision for their school ( The video is below). Their Vide Principal cried when she say it.
3. Parent night at a Clear Springs Elementary in Minnetonka, where 75 people showed up to view amazing videos created by 5th graders .

We’ve started a new contest called “100 words for $100“. Tell us how you have used TEL.A.VISION and win a chance for $100.

Thank you all for your support of TEL.A.VISION. If you would like to receive regular updates on TEL.A.VISION sign up in the upper right hand corner.

TEL.A.VISION Adopted by all Youth

Posted on 24. Apr, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, How to Help!, Vision Videos

We started piloting TEL.A.VISION by working with 120 5th graders at a suburban school. The students and teachers readily adopted it. One Teacher said,”I can think of nothing I could have done to get to know my students better.”

Next we took TEL.A.VISION to a Junior High and 350 7th graders completed TEL.A.VISIONs. The students were near unanimous in calling the project their favorite homework assignment of the year. One girl, who hadn’t completed an assignment all year finished her video and in her diary said “Its about time someone asked us what we wanted.”

We created a Vision for an alternative School in Switzerland and the teacher said ” This is the best behaved I have ever seen our children.”

A class of slow learners did TEL.A.VISION  videos. The teacher said ” These are kids who don’t read, don’t right and don’t participate. We were blown away with what they accomplished.” ( One of there videos is shown below.)

Recently a group of teenage girls of color, the Divas, completed beautiful TEL.A.VISION  videos. They did a beautiful job and the teachers are already using the videos as a way to reinforce studying habits and appropriate behavior.

A few weeks ago I was at the Red Wing Juvenile Corrections Facility. The warden loves the idea of having the residents create TEL.A.VISION videos. I asked one resident if he would like to do one. He said he already knew what he would say in his:

• I make my mother proud
• I get my GED and graduate from High School
• I find a full time job
• I hang with friends that appreciate me

What we have seen is that all youth regardless of economic status, age, race or personal circumstances want the opportunity to dream of their futures of hope and possibility. Please help us spread the word.

DIVAs aim for right notes

Posted on 21. Apr, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Power of Vision, TEL.A.VISION News

Project DIVA connects caring adults who act as mentors with girls planning where their lives will take them.

Photo by Neal St. Anthony

In a front page business section article in today’s Star Tribune columnist Neal St. Anthony features project Divas and the difference creating TEL.A.VISION  videos has made in their lives.

“I have a vision of my future that helps me stay on track,” said Caprice Whimper, 16, a student at Dunwoody Academy, a charter school. “I want to be an ‘A’ student. And I want to be an ‘OB-GYN’ doctor. I take care of young siblings. And I always have wanted to help women and kids.”

Teara Hinton, 14, another North Side resident and student at Armstrong High in Plymouth, also envisions a medical career.

“My aunt is a nurse,” Hinton said. “I want to be a doctor, a pediatrician, and work in the city with kids.”

The Divas were training other youth to do TELA.VISION  videos at the Wired for 2020 event sponsored by the Minnesota Mentoring Partnership, www.mentoringworks.org

Here is an example of one of the Diva’s videos: