Eva and I recently enrolled in a course on how to create, script, film, and edit video. Once in a while, it’s a good thing for instructors to switch roles and become a student again, even if only for a short while.  The main focus of this course was on preparing a promotional/descriptive short film that would give the viewer a good window into what it is we exactly try to do here with Open Tent Academy.

While Eva and I each worked on our own projects, we both managed to deliver in the end the most important thing: good stories:

Eva’s project:

Jonathan’s project:

Bonus footage – after putting some of the lessons to work:

Eva – Student Testimonials:

Jonathan: Some thoughts on history:

Enjoy your summer and make sure to like our Facebook page – we’ll be sharing more content on our courses and instructors!

Jonathan Meola, co-founder and instructor at Open Tent Academy, attended the University of Miami, where he earned his B.A., and returned several years later to earn a graduate certification in Applied Quality Management, while helping to manage executive graduate degree programs for their business and engineering schools.

Professionally, Jonathan has worked as a technical consultant, managing enterprise software implementation projects for several international companies and government agencies. His project work has also taken him to Canada, Israel, and Mexico. Jonathan has also developed curricula for corporate training, and led sessions as a faculty instructor on many occasions.

Today, Jonathan resides with Eva in a small town outside of Jerusalem, and teaches courses for OTA in several areas, including history, social studies, software applications, and cinema/literature. Jonathan has three children, all of whom were homeschooled at one time or another. In his spare time, he loves traveling, reading, photography, analyzing politics, history, NCAA college football (Go Canes!), and cinema.

Other blog posts by Jonathan:

• Summer Reading Recommendations – Middle Schoolers
• Learning From Our Past – Reasons to Study Ancient History
• Working Harder (and smarter)
• Summer Activity Suggestions
• Dunkirk and Darkest Hour – Cinema in the Service of History
• Getting Started with STEM
• Bridging the Gap – From Learning to Understanding
• Method to the Madness – Homeschooling Approaches
• Geography – More Than Just Maps
• Educational & Thinking Games
• Pareve Homeschooling
• Control and Choice