Thanks goes to our English department for their meticulous design, research and essential ground work that made possible this film-making venture. Teaching staff met with the Education Director from "Pacific CINEMATHEQUE" to design a documentary film project, with numerous connections to all the language arts courses currently being offered in the learning centres. Once the cornerstones of the proposed project were solidly in place, staff from "Pacific CINEMATHEQUE" (http://www.cinematheque.bc.ca/ ) came to Surrey and provided some very intensive instruction for our students. With their years of expertise, the instructors from "Pacific Cinematheque" helped equip our students with the necessary knowledge and skills which enabled them to script, direct, film and produce amazing pieces of work. The students had 12 hours of intense instruction; the goal: in small groups, construct a question used to promote the issue of 'ethical living' and then produce a 5 minute documentary that would answer the questioned posed. The end result - nine very powerful film clips addressing topics from body modification to eating disorders to civil unrest. I had the opportunity to view all 9 short documentaries and was utterly impressed.
So how did these students who had never filmed before, never handled expensive, state of the art filming equipment, put together such meaningful and poignant pieces of work? 21st C learning, that's what was happening! Through inquiry/project based learning, social media, and collaborative research into issues currently affecting their lives and the communities they live in, the students were totally engaged in their learning. It was the relevance and the meaningfulness, the connectedness to the "real world", the use of technology, the ability to collaborate with peers, and being active learners that made this project so successful. If you want to read more about what keeps students engaged click here. "Hats off" to the students from all the learning centres, and notably those from NSLC (of course I'm biased) who should be very proud of their accomplishment. You're all "stars"!
