A group of S3 pupils at Knox Academy are taking part in an excellent educational programme called KWN (Kids Witness News) which is ran by Panasonic.

The programme aims to train our young people in issues of Global importance for their age by engaging in Media. I was so lucky to be part of this project at my previous school and we created a documentary about the Lockerbie Air Disaster which can be seen here

This year's Knox Team are already on the go! They have had several meetings and have decided their topic to research. After two intensive days of Media training from the excellent James, the pupils learnt skills in Editing and Filming. We were shattered but had so much fun.

Panasonic KWN is a global education programme for 11-16 year-olds in five continents. At no cost to schools, the Programme provides video production equipment and training for the development of School Video News Teams.

Beginning with two schools in New Jersey, USA in 1988, the KWN Programme now supports 617 schools in 25 countries. During the 2008-9 academic year, 83 schools took part across Europe including 22 in the UK.

Starting work in October, School Video News Teams research and produce four minute videos on aspects of global citizenship from the point of view of their own communities. The deadline is mid-February.

The pupils value this project because

• Active Learning (doing rather than just listening)
• Collaborative Learning (working in teams rather than alone)
• Being part of something really big (global is very big)
• Making their own decisions
• Setting their own targets
• Learning from their own mistakes
• Knowing how much their skills have improved
• Sharing ideas with other young people around the world
• The challenge of winning a major award
• Being supported by, not led by, adults
• Having fun!

and as a teacher I value this project because it offers the pupils skills in the following areas

• Project planning
• Time management
• Persuasion
• Target setting
• Flexibility
• Presentation
• Team building
• Brain storming
• Decision making
• Task allocation
• Researching
• Internal & external P.R.
• Prioritising
• Communication
• Press relations
• Scheduling & re-scheduling
• Negotiation
• Evaluation

and on a selfish point of views… means i’m doing Media Studies again which i’ve missed since coming to Knox.

So a HUGE thank you to Panasonic for getting in touch with us  and a thank you to Mrs J Craig for agreeing that Knox can be part of the programme.

We’ll keep you posted as this fantastic ‘Curriculum For Excellence’ project  takes hold.

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?