Category: Uncategorized

From the Classroom to the Silver Screen: Documentary Filmmaking at the Secondary Level

Film, Pedagogy, Uncategorized

My own love of documentary filmmaking was first sparked during an inspirational course I took in university with Professor Michael Ostroff, titled “Making Documentary History.” In this class, I learned how to use film as a powerful tool for capturing and preserving important narratives, personal experiences, and societal issues. It was a transformative experience that would go on to shape my entire approach to education and storytelling.

One of the courses I’m most proud of developing is a weekly Film Appreciation elective at the secondary school level at a local DSS secondary school. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a framework, I designed this class to take students on a deep dive into the art of cinema.

We started off by simply watching and discussing classic and contemporary films, honing our critical analysis skills. From there, we explored the theoretical underpinnings of filmmaking – studying camera techniques, lighting, sound design, and more.

The real magic happened when I challenged my students to put this knowledge into practice. I guided them through the process of conducting research, developing concepts, and ultimately producing their own short documentary films. Watching them learn to operate professional equipment, edit their footage, and bring their visions to life was incredibly rewarding.

Of course, our film journey took an unexpected turn in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced Hong Kong schools to shift to remote learning. Rather than letting this setback derail our progress, I pivoted the documentary filmmaking course to an online format.

Through a mix of virtual workshops, video tutorials, and one-on-one mentoring sessions, the 27 students in my Year 10 class completed 60 unique film projects. I was continually amazed by their resilience, creativity, and commitment, even in the face of such unprecedented challenges.

Looking back on this experience, I’m reminded of the transformative power of film. It has the ability to challenge our perspectives, spark meaningful discussions, and empower young people to find their voices. As an educator, there’s nothing more gratifying than witnessing that process unfold.

I’m honoured to have played a role in nurturing the next generation of cinematic storytellers. And I can’t wait to see what they create next.

Project-Based Lesson Plan: My Healthy Body

Education, Pedagogy, Uncategorized

This is a Project-Based Lesson Plan about healthy living for Kindergarten students.

At a time when health seems like the world’s primary concern, this lesson plan can help refocus and re-energize your young students. This project was created with home isolation/ quarantine in mind. Feel free to use this in your own classroom. If you do, please let me know your thoughts!

This slideshow gives a quick overview of the project:

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Project Description

Students explore healthy living over the course of 6 weeks. They learn about exercise— how to move their bodies and create dynamic workout routines for their peers. They learn about nutrition—where food comes from, design simple meal plans, and finally prepare a balanced dish with their family. Social-emotional health is an important aspect of healthy living, so in this PBL students learn about the value of cooperation, communication, and healthy quality time with family.

Plan for Monitoring

Assessing as projects progress is essential to a successful PBL. It helps students by giving them the information to reflect on their own learning, and it helps teachers by gathering data to improve instruction. It’s a win-win! In this project, I will do weekly assessments.

I decided to go with a single-point rubric because of the the age of my ELL kindergarten students. They can’t even read yet, and I think simplicity will help them focus on key goals and expectations. Single point rubrics also allow for more room for feedback. As Jennifer Gonzalez writes in her blog, “Because teachers must specify key problem areas and notable areas of excellence for that particular student, rather than choosing from a list of generic descriptions.” I focused on assessing 21st Century Skills and reward a growth mindset.

Week 1: I will be assessing if they understand the core content and concepts through check-ins and watching each individual’s class participation.

Week 2: I will be assessing if students understand the project and if they are collaborating well through team-check ins to ask about their project plan. 

Week 3: I will be evaluating their work with a rubric. 

Healthy Bodies: Exercise Rubric
Areas for Improvement Criteria Proof of Exceeding Standards
Participation:
Comes to class prepared with ideas. Completes tasks on time. Physically moves for exercises.
Collaboration:
Helps solve problems and manage conflicts in groups. Gives, receives and uses feedback to others in a polite and positive manner.
Creativity:
Comes up with ideas in movements and delivery of exercise routine. 
Grasp of material:
Safe and effective exercise movements.  Directs class using clear instructions learned in class.

Week 4: I will be assessing if they understand the core content and concepts through check-ins and watching each individual’s class participation and completion of worksheets.

Week 5: I will be assessing if students understand the project and if they are communicating and collaborating well with their parents through team-check ins to ask about their project plan. 

Week 6: I will be evaluating their work with a rubric.

Healthy Bodies: Food Rubric

Areas for Improvement

Criteria

Proof of Exceeding Standards

Problem Solving:
Student tries to see the world around them and make decisions based on the available data, i.e. ingredients that are already available in their home to create a dish.

Media Literacy:
Student takes photos or videos and documents their experience. Student is able to upload and present media.

Presentation:
Student presents their experience to the class in a clear and descriptive manner. Students answer all guiding questions.

Social and Cultural Skills:
Student gives peers positive, polite comments. Shows patience, kindness, and cross-cultural understanding.

 

Thesis writing with Wonder and Sadness

Uncategorized

I wonder why my partner and roommate of one year wrote a love letter to an ex of two years prior, and let me read it. This word .docx populated with rosy memories, gentle language and subversive desire for response was my eviction notice. His words for her pushed me from our shared apartment, my relationship with a beloved cat, and eventually, from the muffled sadness that was our life. Muffled and ‘ours’ no more.

I wonder why I resisted the sinking feeling for two months. Perhaps it was a fear of being regarded in emotional inferiority that led me to mask the misery of love lost in jolliness to my friends, my family, my self. Public, digital personas of the online universe— the near and dear and the faraway and famous— shouted happiness at me. A synesthesia of sorts translated their bright, carefree smiles into a heard command: Do Not Sulk! It took two moons and two bottles of wine with a waxing crescent until I told them to fuck off.

I wonder for how long my sense of freedom and relief will be speckled with longing for the past.  These days I desire to be only mine, but if I were honest with myself, I also desire to be desired. Moments flush with opportunity seem to be bookended by me staring at a notification-free phone. I should keep busy. I should read more. I should work more. Maximizing productivity is considered medicinal in this state of the heart, but my research into traditional Chinese medicine teaches instead of the healing effects of optimizing balance. The irony.

It is a wonder how the unspooling of these words have calmed me. Many have said wise words on the act of writing. The English playwright David Hare said, ‘The act of writing is the act of discovering what you believe.’ I believe I am fortunate that the end of my relationship coincided with the end of the data collection stage of my research. It is a life-event of boundless bounding, an in-between rich with creative force. This is the sense of wonder and these are the affects I am approaching with as I embark on writing the first draft of my M.A. thesis.

“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair–the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”
—Stephen King

The search for truths continues. Thank you for indulging me!

Thoughts after my First Year of Grad School

Uncategorized

8 months, 4 courses, 2 credits, and countless readings later, I have made it to the halfway point of my graduate degree. The year can be considered in other quantitative ways: I taught about a hundred students; was inspired by dozens of exciting ideas; made diverse friends; and shared many, many drinks with them. What follows are general takeaways on my year.

From Journalism to History

The thought of a 30-page final research paper was paralyzing coming from a discipline where our suggested readings consisted of 700-word news articles and the longest written assignments were 1,200-word in-depth reports. The scope of research and writing required was an important incentive to pursue a graduate degree, but it was also the source of some serious imposter syndrome. Looking back at this fear, I can say that I was irrational to think it would be difficult to produce 5,000 to 7,000 word papers when exploring intricate, nuanced, and colourful theories and histories.

It turns out that concise and compelling writing is a highly valuable and diverse skill even historians need. At the beginning of the year, I was worried that my lack of historical knowledge would put me at a disadvantage compared to my peers. Now I think my journalism experience gave me an advantage in synthesizing, writing, and performing information.

NOTE TO A PAST SELF: Girl, relax. What you learned in J-school will only help, not hinder, you.

Being a Teaching Assistant

Learning is a team effort. It works best when everyone is involved in a collaborative and creative project. This is an obvious statement. All professors, TAs, and students technically know this, but collaborative teaching or learning is not obviously or easily practiced.

Kelsea, another TA, and I were assigned to both the Fall and Winter sections of Historians Craft, a second year methodologies course. In it’s fall iteration, there was some effort to work and communicate between professor/TA/student, but it paled in comparison to the winter iteration. The professor ensured that we would always have ample in-depth meetings to discuss assignment ideas, structures and rubrics and logistics of class activities, group work and presentations. To be fair, Kelsea and I were only able to have informed collaboration from our first experience as TAs.

In this learning space we were able to create a few creative products to enhance learning. We organized two classes of student oral presentations, fitting 50 student and various opportunities for feedback smoothly into less than 3 hours of class time. We also produced a public deliverable showcasing student work: a virtual exhibit on Great War objects and monuments.

NOTE TO A FUTURE SELF: Students are a full of useful surprises. They are a wealth of information, ideas, interests, and of course, excuses for late assignments.

Read: Touching Longform on a Living Memorial to a Violent Past

Uncategorized

If you’re up for it, here’s a very long, very sad, very powerful read about public history and living memory in Alabama. It touches on the need to memorialize, to remember, a touching “currency” of memory work, and ends with interesting comment on the spectator’s presence in such lieux de memoires.  Have you ever experienced intense emotions in reenactment history? Something about this story collapses temporal and spacial distance. Perhaps it is not unusual for the reader to feel pain and sorrow for a history that still does not feel quite “past” in 2016.

Please give it a read here.