Evaluations

For Year 12 & 13 students…

To be completed over the course of the next week.

Your responses will be used to help write your Interim Reports.

1. SELF EVALUATION
Write an evaluation of your progress on the Media course so far.

a. Comment on each of the following, giving yourself a grade (1-5) with an explanation:

• Attainment
• Effort
• Punctuality
• Submission and quality of homework
• Ability to work independently
• Quality of writing
• Organisation of Media folder
• Oral contributions in class

b. Make a list of three targets/areas for improvement over the next half-term.

2. COURSE EVALUATION

Write an evaluation of the actual course/teaching.

a. Answer each of the following with a grade (1-5), giving reasons/examples:

• How well is the course organised?
• How interesting is the content that is covered?
• How useful are the handouts?
• Have the lessons been well-paced?
• What is the standard of the teachers’ presentation/subject knowledge?
• How well has the course met your expectations?
• Have the extra-curricular events been useful? (eg. Awards Eve., Trips, Film Club)
• Has the Macguffin Blog been useful?

b. Make a list of three suggestions of things you’d like to see changed/improved.

Year 13 Trip - URGENT!!

To All Year 13 students: URGENT...

We are going on an all-day cinema trip to east London on Wednesday 2nd November at 8am. (Yes, that early!)

Go to the Year 13 Macguffin site and get the information. It's compulsory but you need to get a letter signed, etc. which can be downloaded from the blog.

New Macguffin Forum

For all Year 12 & 13 students...

Exciting news - there is now a Macguffin forum where you can discuss and debate all manner of topics to do with the media. You can link to it from the previous sentence or from the sidebar to the left of this message.

Your tasks this week (to be completed before Monday 07-11-05) are:

• Register on the forum by clicking on the 'register' link below the 'Macguffin' title

• So that you can be identified by us, your username must be in the following format - initial.surname (e.g. Your teachers would be 'A.Bush' or 'G.Munro', except that I am down as 'macguffin' because I'm the administrator)

• Make sure that you include your current email address and note down your password somewhere safe

• If you wish to include any of the other info then please do but it's not compulsory

• Leave the preferences section as it is

• Reply to the first discussion topic relevant to you...
  

For Year 12, it's under 'Film & Broadcast Fiction' (and about 'Eastenders')
All's well in Walford again

For Year 13, it's under 'Representation' (and about Lads' Mags)
Dirty young men

Both discussions require you to do some reading from 'The Guardian' website first of all - links are provided above and in the first post. Always print off articles that are suggested here so that you can store them in your media files for revision. And, remember, you must write in standard English with correct spelling, please!!

Article in the Gazette

Make sure you get your copy of the 'Ealing Gazette' this week as it contains the above photo/article about this year's Media Awards Evening. Well done again to everyone who took part and attended. Look out here for some stills from the night taken by Balinder and also coming soon...the commemorative video shot by Sherish, Dinveer, Rajan and Gurveer!

I heard that Russel tried to sneak in to this pic but it looks like he didn't make it - Shame! Glad to see that the big money winners all got in. Nice shot, don't you think?

Important Changes to Macguffin

For ALL students!

Macguffin is now the homepage for all GHS Media Studies students.

Check in here first for all general news and information. You should be doing this at least twice a week although there may be daily updates so you need to check as often as possible.

You will see the links in the sidebar on the left - 'Macguffin Blogs'. Click on the relevant link - Year 12 or Year 13 to take you to specific tasks or information for each year group. This is where your homework will be posted. Check here whenever you visit Macguffin.

You will notice that all specific posts regarding homework etc. have already been moved to the new relevant blogs.

Ignorance is no defence (any more) in the eyes of The Law!

Awards 2005: Guest Film 2

This is the longest film to appear on the showreel but deservedly so as it's also the most mature work. The director has laboured over this project for more than a year and his commitment is palpable in the way he has got to know and understand his subject through many shoots and even longer early morning hours spent editing.

And the school is honoured for the link it has with the pioneering Lloyd Page - a remarkable man - who, word has it, will be back also this year to address the audience again.

In addition to these visits, all Post 16 AS & A2 students have contributed towards a reasearch project that Lloyd has been undertaking about media representations of people with learning disabilities.

Watch out for a cameo from Mr Munro - shot in a moody black and white blur but even if that obscures him surely the voice is unmistakeable?

An highly impressive short.

Does it change the way you think about people with learning disablilities?

Awards 2005: Guest Film 1

Here is the review of the first guest film to be shown at the Media Awards. (Click on the image once for it to open in another window, then once again to enlarge it to a readable size).

It's a surreal shaggy dog story, full of resonant dreamlike imagery and narrative elements that don't really make sense but speak to us on a deeper level, perhaps. Like poetry, but without the words - it's dialogue free - and it plays a bit like a Michel Gondry music video.

The film received its first showing at a local film-makers' society meeting when it won a prize along with some other work that the pair produced (remember their school-based version of 'The Office' entitled 'Teacher's Pet' that was shown at last year's Media Awards?) Praise indeed from some very experienced people.

I also love it, as you might guess, but even the directors seem a bit ambivalent about it, or so it seems from the above review.

What do you think?

Media Awards Evening '05

There is more anticipation than ever before in advance of this year's Media Awards Evening. Tickets are going fast and the final decisions about who will win the various prizes on offer are being kept secret - especially who will get the £1500 of prize money, kindly donated by Donal Macintyre.

But whoever wins the actual awards - everyone needs to know that the standard of productions was higher than ever this year. Year 13s - you're all winners! (Just think about the amazing results you got!)

Year 12 students...

Don't forget you have a lot to learn from this event and you need to complete the following:

• Read all the reviews in the programme booklet

• Choose your two favourite productions - one documentary, one fiction

• Post a comment to this blog entry - see the link below - in which you say what you think the best production was and why

(You will need to register as a blogger user first: Set up your own blog by clicking on the 'Get your own blog' link at the top of this page. Keep your login details - that's your username and password - because you'll need these in future. Include your first name at the end of the posting)

• Vote in the Macguffin Poll - Best Media Production 2005 - that is on the left of this page
  

• Write a detailed review on paper for each of your two favourites - use the film review guidelines you received in September and don't forget to comment on MCCAT (Media language, Conventions, Creativity, Attention to detail, Technical Proficieny)

• Produce a one page summary entitled: "What Makes A Good Practical Production"
  

Innit - The School Magazine

Calling all of you in Years 10-13...

This is an original of the image that appeared in the Greenford Gazette after the most recent issue of the school magazine "Innit" was published. The one in the local paper was cropped along the upper quarter - it seems that the picture editor felt that those at the back weren't photogenic enough, unlike Ms Dol at the front. Shame!

The next issue is due to appear before Christmas and we've already received a huge number of first drafts that we're sifting through at the moment. Expect to be contacted very soon if we want you to develop your idea and get in touch if you think of something else that our readers might want to hear about.

There will also be editorial meetings after half-term for our editorial team to discuss and agree upon the format of the magazine, page design, marketing startegy etc. We already have a list of names of those interested in taking part and, again, we'll let you know when and where this is set to take place.

GHS Students Visit BBC

Some of the Year 12 students who toured BBC Television Centre in White City in July. This was just one of the many Media Studies trips we have run over the past year at GHS.

The big one - Disneyland Paris - is in February. All 48 places for the Media Conference there went within a couple of days, even though it meant students actually parting with money to pay the deposits. Impressive indeed!

Donal Macintyre At GHS

Left is a photo from the last time Donal Macintyre visited our school - back in November when we also had a BBC film crew in to interview some of our students. While here, Donal valiantly tried his hand at teaching. After facing everything from killer sharks to Chelsea football hooligans how did he fare against Year 12?

The footage ended up in an important documentary aired on BBC2 in February. Entitled, controversially, 'British, Paki and Proud' it was part of a whole evening's themed programming ('Pakistani Nights') that sought to represent the Pakistani experience in the UK.