I am currently in my 7th year of teaching. I have had the pleasure of doing this entire tenure in a film classroom, something I am very passionate about of course. However, there still come difficulties day in and day out. Ironically it’s often times the setup and maintaining of resources, tools, and materials that prove the most time consuming. Despite the hours of training, mentoring, and countless books supplied to teachers like me, there still comes a time when simple organization is the key to success.
My first year of teaching opened my eyes to a lot of workflow problems, especially when you factor in the film production curriculum. Where do I store cameras? How should chargers be setup so we know which batteries are dead and others are good? How should I maintain inventory when students are constantly borrowing things? These were just some of the issues I faced, and I confidently think I have overcome. Everyone has their own way of doing it, especially after visiting colleagues. However, I find I am one of the only teachers in my professional learning community (PLC) that sets up their editing lab in a dynamic way.
See, my first year teaching and utilizing editing software was a train wreck. Students were constantly deleting one another’s assignments, “borrowing” ideas from others, and just being completely reckless in a digital manner. Literacy with digital platforms, tools, and even basic computer use is a real challenge for the students in my school, as well as our feeder schools. There’s various theories on why, mostly economic and limited access to computers from an early age, but you can make things simpler and more streamlined. However, the time involved is very tedious, but rewarding.
First, I get the apple computers that are being made available to my film students and do a complete factory reset. This involves rebooting the computer, using the CMD + R buttons, and booting into the Apple computer’s recovery mode. Here, you can completely wipe the hard drive on the computer and then reinstall the operating system. You’ll have a fresh and clean install of the operating system, and be greeted with a start up menu identical to the day you first booted it out of the box. You’d be amazed how a fresh install can speed up or even revive a computer. You can find tutorials for this easily online everywhere too.
The next step is unique to my class and I encourage all film teachers to do this; create a log in for each class period!
Well, first I make an admin account for me or the classroom. In this case, I named it WTV Admin (Wekiva High School TV Production). Then after logging into that account, with a secured password of course, I go to system preferences, users, and create standard accounts for each class period I teach. Heck, sometimes I make bonus accounts for “sports” or “special events” if we have highlights to do or some special project like an open house presentation. I make a unique password for each class period BUT I keep that password consistent across all the computers. Example: Period 1 on all my computers is “password1” and period 2 users have a password of “password2”.
Now, this helps keep students logged into their period, keeps their files and projects protected and isolated from sticky fingers, and it helps create a sense of ownership. I let my kids set their wallpapers for the account they use, set their icons and folders on their desktop the way they want, and hey, I even let connect bluetooth headphones and stuff up. Realistically I would like every student to properly export and upload assignments but by having students use specific usernames based on their periods, I can take a seating chart and quickly go find where Bobby or Becky’s project is too.
The best part of all of this? CLEANUP! I spend those wacky weird days the last week or so of school going to each computer, deleting each of the class period’s usernames, and then just recreating them. The WTV Admin account is still safe and secure, I delete all the other accounts to free up hard drive space, and then quickly recreate them to prepare for next year’s batch of students.