You may remember that at the start of March to launch National Careers Week 2020, the LEP and Burberry teamed up to launch the latest FutureGoals teaching resources helping the region’s young people learn how their Maths, English and Science skills are used in the creative industry.
These resources were designed for students to work as a team, communicate and get creative by designing their very own festival. But did you know students can still do all these things when working from home?
In fact, our team have put the resources to the test virtually and we’ve found it’s been a great way for us all to stay connected whilst also having fun, learning and not to mention, planning an awesome festival.
Here are our top tips to deliver the resources virtually with your students:
- Download the latest version of the Spotlight on Creative resources here. Since we launched the resources we have refined and tweaked them based on teacher and student feedback and now all the handouts and worksheets are also editable PDFs (as we know not many people have access to printers).
- Encourage teamwork. Ask students to have online sessions in small groups where students can discuss their ideas and give each other feedback. It’s easier to be creative when you can bounce ideas off each other.
- Conference/Video Calling: we know that not all students have access to IT, with more having a phone rather than a computer. Using apps like Zoom or Teams allows you to share your screen with students so they can see the visuals and will help students to feel part of a group. Students who don’t have a phone can use a parent/carer’s phone or landline to dial in to conference calls.
- Give them some inspiration. The festival students can create anything from a crisp festival to a ‘glamping’ festival to a virtual Glastonbury alternative – the choice really is up to your students, there are no wrong answers as long as they can justify ticket sales.
- Ask students to show you their creative skills. This could be anything from self-filming their advertising videos, recording radio adverts, or using graphic design or art skills to create billboard posters or banners. Students could even collect a mood board of some Instagram posts on festivals, fashion, makeup or performers to explore the language that influencers use.
- Create a storyboard for the advertising video. Ask students to just do one square of the story board (give them a number for their scene and a keyword for what that scene is about). Then piece them all together at the end for a weird advert. A bit like when you write a line of a story and fold over the paper and write the first word for the next person. The same could be done with the press release too.
- Encourage a virtual debate amongst students. ‘The Alternative Solutions’ science activity could be done as a debate. Put your class into teams and give them an energy type each. Set a date for the debate. Students could either:
- Take part in a class call to share their arguments. This will need a strong set of rules on who can speak at what times.
- Self-film an argument. All videos are shared at once. Teams then have another week to self-film their rebuttal.
- Create a critical thinking extension task. Ask your students to write a report justifying their choices throughout the process. This heavily ties into English Literature and English Language skills. You could do one on ‘The Alternative Solutions’ or for the whole festival.
Download the FREE Spotlight resources
All the resources and teacher guidance you will need can be downloaded for free.
We hope you and your students enjoy the activities as much as we do and we’d love it if you could share any feedback and ideas you or your students may have at: enterpriseadvisers@the-lep.com