I was just planning my lesson for my S1 challenge class tomorrow and a blog came to mind.

I’m first and foremost a Drama teacher however I also tell my students to think outside the box when creating work. I always tend to use music in my productions and my SG class last year created an amazing piece of verbatim theatre based on 9/11 and 7/7. The piece used multi-media, music. mask work and dance to communicate meaning and I was very proud of them.

I am very passionate about media (film and TV) and think media is a very interesting form to create meaning from. Most students these days are well connected with film, TV and the internet. When discussing Media with my classes it is amazing to see what students are into and what they engage with.

I was honored to be involved in a film contest last year called KWN. KWN enabled students to work as news teams to create a news item about social responsibility. My students worked very hard to create this piece and to our shock and surprise we became Award Winners! Lockerbie told the story of some of the people in the town who helped the night of crash and was filmed and edited by S2 and S3 students, with help from me. This was a huge learning curve for all students involved.

Being at Knox now for just over a month and a half I don’t think a week has went passed that a student has not had a DV Camera in their hand and creating some sort of film. From Zombie brides to Cannibal eating students, from a documentary about school dress code to a documentary about social groups… does Knox have the next Steven Spielberg? I think I need a break!

I’m very excited about our filiming tomorrow and thinking… mmmm curriculum for excellence anyone?