This week I found myself standing in for a colleague by taking both our classes for two hours. “Great” I thought, enough time to do something meaty.

To motivate the classes for double English I promised a “no pen lesson” (something we do every so often, great for kids and teachers alike).

The lesson plan went along the lines of – chose a lexical theme, plan and act a scene using these words and the rest of the class will guess the topic.

The subtext was “get out the camera”.

The lesson went well and the resulting film will be premiered next week before appearing on my youtube account. In the mean time it got me thinking about why I enjoy filming in class:

1. The Students are the Star– unless you’re actually going to film yourself teaching, any lesson that involves filming is bound to end up being pretty student-orientated.

2. Speaking and more Speaking – any filming is going to involve oral participation, a big tick in all my boxes.

3. Keep a record – It’s easy to give feedback for oral work but hard for the students to take it in, because they don’t have an acurate idea of wwhat they actually said, unless you show them.

4. Look back in wonder – I like filming various projects throughout the year, not only can students see how they’ve progressed, but it also makes a fun last lesson when we watch all the year’s films, where we see how dress sense and hairstyles have changed too – believe me nine months is a long time in teen fashion!

5. Helps discipline – although pupils can be a bit excited to start with, filming them does tend to curb any behaviour problems, they never now who you’ll show the film to!

6. It’s easy – apart from the fact any activity seems to have a more serious objective if we are filming it, with so many devices available you can film with your phone (or theirs – get them to interview each other and film it.), tablet, etc.

Obviously you must check you have their (parents’) permission before you publish anything, although you can get round this by using masks and puppets.

If you are interested in having a look at some of the things we’ve done so far – click here.