One of the best feelings in the world comes when your students are able to explain a concept that you taught them a week ago, in their own words. There I sat, glowing like a proud mama, as I listened to Brittany and Reggie explain to the entire group why they made the decision to fade off the audio while allowing the video to play on in the final edit.
It’s difficult to tell when your students fully comprehend what you’re trying to teach. They don’t always ask questions if they’re unsure of something, and they often get distracted by their cellphones or each other. That’s why I’m so glad things went the way they did at tonight’s session with the Cabrini Connections Video and Filmmakers Club. We screened the different edits each of the 3 groups did with the same footage we shot a month ago and followed up with discussion and critique of each one. They had intelligent insights on why certain editing decisions were made and asked each other great questions. You can tell the students feel a sense of achievement when they have their work screened for others to watch.
Well, they’ve got something even bigger to look forward to. Come April, the Art Club’s gonna have a showcase of their work in a gallery and they’ve invited us at the Film Club to show some of our work there too. The showcase has traditionally been a crowd pleaser and a successful fundraising event for Cabrini Connections. A brainstorming session had all our film club kids throwing out all sorts of exciting ideas.
A comedy act! A cartoon of ourselves! A news report! A documentary of the prep work leading up to the event! The energy they had in the discussion showed just how eager they were to do this.
Young minds with big ambitions. It’ll be up to Michael, Karl and I to help them get there. It’s going to be an exciting road ahead!
Shuling Yong 