PROJECT TITLE: Emotions in Motion

(Term 2 and Term 3, 2024)

School Name: Piara Waters Senior High School

Teacher’s Name: Anthony Cardillo, Zachary Brendish

Year Group: 7 and 8

Number of students: 32 in term 2 - 18 in term 3

Creative’s Name: Ellie Glen

Creative Practice(s); Animator, artist and company director

Main Curriculum Focus: Digital Technologies - Project management and collaboration

Cross-curricular Links: Personal and Social Capability

WHAT WE DID  

Project overview

The teacher and creative team were excited to explore animation in the digital technologies class, making the most of Ellie’s skillset, and allowing us to use digital tools to complete a project.

The animations were to communicate an emotion. The students could choose all elements for their animation including story, characters and setting, and choose at least 1 emotion to portray. This could be represented in facial expressions, body language and actions, and be exaggerated further with editing in post; adding lighting and sound effects to communicate emotion.

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How did we make the curriculum come alive?

Doing a project like this is very hands-on. The students really enjoyed being able to build characters and sets. There was not a lot of writing, reading, or worksheets, so students were able to learn in a very tactile way. The use of the Creative Schools warmups and reflections helped to embed the learning and make it visible to the students.

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How did we make the 5 Habits of Learning come alive?

The 5 habits were used in a few creative ways. In one warm up, Ellie asked the students to choose which habit they were strongest at, and represent that habit with a small hand signal or movement.

During the workshops, we tried to use the language of the 5 habits in general discussion and feedback. For example, when explaining some of the problems that are commonly experienced in a stop motion project, the students were encouraged to use their persistence to keep at it, but also their imagination and inquisitiveness to find an appropriate solution.

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How did we activate student voice and learner agency?

We aimed to ensure that the students had choice and agency over the project at all levels. In the first week, students were asked to brainstorm things like creative projects, and things the students like, so we could ensure the project was led by their interests.

When planning, students were given only a few parameters, so were able to choose many aspects of their project. In term 2 students were able to choose their groups to work with too.

There was a lot of hands-on learning, rather than telling the students what they needed to learn, they were encouraged to try, and learn from their own experiences. They were also asked about what they saw in example animations shown in class, rather than be told the answers they were encouraged to input and share, and some answers were very open and up to interpretation.

WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?

Student:  

Many students found the project to have a positive impact.

Sometimes students found the workshops to push them outside of their comfort zones, which could be noticed in their reaction. Ellie made a point of identifying with them, telling them when an activity might feel a bit awkward and to give it a shot anyway, as we are all in it together! As much as they sometimes didn't enjoy these moments, they coped well and when reflecting found that it helped them connect with their peers and teachers better.

“With a wide variety of student abilities in the class, I believe having an engaging project allowed students to really engage in the curriculum content. The explicit understanding of the 5 habits also allowed students to gain a better understanding of what these mean and why they are important to their life in various ways. Having students mark on the board each week as to where they were currently seeing themselves for each habit, developed students' self-awareness, social emotional learning and their ability to focus on their strengths and weaknesses. I believe this may have worked better over a longer period of time, but still showed positive signs. I also noticed students engaging in discussions more often, which they would not have engaged in before the program.” (Teacher)

Teacher:  

I found the program reaffirmed important values that can really assist students in their learning and their behaviours. Values that are crucial for life outside of school and can relate to a real world context. Whilst I knew these values existed, sometimes teachers can be lost in programs and forget about the explicit teaching of key concepts. I would implement explicit learning of the 5 habits into my teaching, but for the creative part I already teach in Design and Technology so these habits are used consistently across the board.

Creative:

I found the project to be an interesting challenge. Particularly the structure of co-delivery with someone from a different industry and skillset. I learnt a lot about working with students and with the curriculum.

School:

The school has ran professional development conversations about Creative Schools with staff. They hosted a community event at the school where the creative schools program and projects will be displayed.