How do you keep a group of 146 Grade 8 and
9 students occupied for an entire day? This was the challenge I faced this week.
On Wednesday, our school had a number of different activities happening that meant all the Grade 10 and 11 students were off campus doing either drama workshops or attending a pre-conference meeting at another Round Square school. The Grade 12s were given the day to make some serious headway on their ORTO (One Research Task Option) projects which constitute a large chunk of their year work for various subjects. This meant that there were a number of teachers who would be occupied either with the 12s or off campus with the other students and the 8s and 9s needed something to do. Enter Mr Kirk.
Last year, when the idea was originally pitched, I tentatively used the name ‘iDay’, thinking that I would use the time to do some skills training—you know, 5 ways to maximise the effectiveness of Evernote or 3 ways Adobe Voice can be used as a study tool? However, owing to several factors, not least amongst which is the fact that such skills development stuff is rarely met with any kind of enthusiasm, I thought maybe something else was in order. Furthermore, many of the students, simply by following the ‘what does this button do?’ approach, have figured out ways to use Apps in meaningful and exciting ways. I’m sure I’ve got more to learn from them than they have to learn from me.
So, the question remained, what to do?
While I was wondering about this, I considered all the functionalities and Apps which did not require internet and which would enable me to group students around a common goal. The one that came up again and again was the camera, GarageBand and iMovie. Bearing this in mind, an idea began to form.
Last year, I had the privilege of attending the 48 Hour Film Project in Cape Town. The premise for this endeavour is that film companies gather on a Friday evening. They are then given a list of mandatory elements to feature, and then they are assigned a genre of film at random. After this, they have until Sunday afternoon to write, cast, film, edit and master their films for screening on the Sunday evening. It’s an ambitious project, and some of the end results were really amazing, especially considering the constraints the film companies faced.
Using this as a template, I put together an idea for the 5 Hour Film Project. Students were divided into groups of 15 by going through the Grade list and writing the numbers 1 to 10 next to the students. I mixed 8s with 9s to allow for a bit more interaction between the groups. Also, the 9s completed a section on making silent movies during their drama lessons last year, so I thought they could apply their expertise and simultaneously teach the 8s about what they’d learnt.
After the groups were assembled, they were given the brief: create a movie that is no longer than 5 minutes long and which features ‘The Great Zamboni, Professional Juggler’, a key and the line, ‘Just a dream away’. The groups were then assigned random genres (drama, action, fantasy, adventure, crime, horror, romance, comedy, superhero, sci-fi) and that was it. The groups also needed to design a poster to promote their film. They had been asked to bring props and costumes with them, but they had no guidelines about thes
For the remainder of the day, the students kept themselves busy with brainstorming, storyboarding, scripting, filming and editing their films, and other students were tasked with getting the poster designed. Just about everyone was engaged and involved in the whole process and there was barely any teacher interaction required at all. People wandering around campus were met with screaming vampire-esque aliens running away from lazer blasters (Free FX for iMovie), wizards wielding their hockey stick staffs, dance offs, mermaids, terrifying school principals and sports stars all just getting on with what they needed to do.
The day ended with a screening of all the final products which were incredibly entertaining, and considering the time they had to complete the task, pretty well polished. I will be running screenings in the Learning Commons during the week which will hopefully inspire the younger students.
All in all, the project demonstrated that when students have a clear common goal and when they are given the space to be creative, they rise to the occasion marvelously. There were no curriculum standards or lesson plans or marking grids necessary, and not once was I asked ‘Is this for marks?’.
I feel this is a view into what modern relevant education needs to be: student centred with an emphasis on collaboration, and with teacher input only where it is necessary. They need to find their own way, trial what works and what doesn’t, brainstorm collectively and throw themselves into what they’re doing. If we can find ways to emulate this in all our subjects (to varying extents), then I think we’ll have more engaged students who are able to problem solve and think critically.
I can’t wait for the next iDay!
