28 June 2005
During recent and coming months we have invited a number of helpers on “Work Experience” and “Work Placement” to come and train in the CLC. Our first workers have arrived.
Longton High School sent Adam and Josh for their work experience. They stayed for two weeks
Adam then volunteered to stay on for an extra week to help with the Video Transition Project being run by the Rainbow Education Action Zone.
Rachael has just joined us from Stoke on Trent College. All three placements have been outstanding in their application and their enthusiasm.
02 June 2005
After the Garageband Session in May, Longton High School students were busy composing. Each Lunchtime a small army of Garageband enthusiasts returned daily to the CLC Media Area.
Once their tracks were completed they were uploaded into the RMX chart, run by Dbass.org (later radio waves)
Each track is in a nationwide competition to win a G5 iMac and an iPod for their school. Other students were encouraged to show their support for our artists by listening to their tracks.
May 10 2005
Year 8 Pupils from Longton High came over to the CLC to participate in the Second Live e-Mission. An educational collaboration between City Learning Centres and the National Space Centre. The objective was to Save the tiny Island of Montserrat from a hypothetical volcano eruption. Longton Teacher, Mr Tidyman led the session with help from the CLC’s Rob Jordan.
The pupils were split into 5 teams, Evacuation Volcano, Hurricane, Media, and communications. The Volcano team monitored the eruption and tried to plot which towns were in danger. They passed this data to the Evacuation Team who then acted on the information.
The communications team were in constant contact with Commander Claire at the Space Centre (Leicester) and then imparted vital information to the other groups. Later on, a Hurricane named “Hurricane Meir” was spotted heading towards the island. This added an extra challenge to the groups.
Longton High School were exceptionally successful in completing Operation Montserrat since they evacuated the island with only four casualties and no deaths.
February 22 2005
Teachers from 7 Stoke on Trent schools visited Longton High City Learning Centre to learn basic Stop Motion Animation skills.
Each group of teachers produced a set of models and sets, which were then filmed and edited using iStopMotion and iMovie.
Jenny Hulme and Phil Gregory delivered the training session which was supported by Adam Churton.
A DVD was created to showcase the finished films and is available from the CLC.
February 28 2005
February 28th saw an Animation workshop from Harpfield Primary school. Children and teachers worked alongside myself and Jenny Hulme of Longton CLC to produce unique animations in the one-day session.
The models were made from paper, foam and pipe cleaners. A range of films was produced and distributed to the school.
November 03 2004
Following their recent trip to Etruria Industrial Museum, Weston Coyney Junior School, and Longton high CLC have been working together to produce a website about their visit. Lynne Cauley of The Museum, working with Tom Pinecoffin of the Stoke-on-Trent Museums service came up to assist me with the project.
Whilst on their trip the students took photographs and video footage to add to their website. Tom and I created a template for the students to work on and created a generic user area from where all the students could access photos and add text to the template.
The class was broken down into groups, each to create a specific section of the site. By midday, the site was looking splendid. All the groups had written content and added images using
Macromedia Dreamweaver, which is a complex web building tool.
Tom said that he was impressed that the students had learned such a complex tool in such a short time. I then created a CD which contained a version of the website. There is also a DVD of the trip held at Weston Coyney Junior School.
November 02 2004
I was looking into Poser 3d modelling software for the creation of Website avatars, 3D teaching resources and Animation.
Poser is an award-winning 3D character design tool for artists, illustrators and animators. With a little practice, you can easily create 3D figures from ready-to-use human and animal models.
Poser adds realism, maps facial photos, grow and style dynamic hair, or add dynamic cloth that flows. In addition, you can also quickly output movies and images for use in any project.
September 09 2004
Working with members of the Stoke City Councils Fitness Education Team, I put together a 10-minute Fitness Video. The video showed the correct techniques of basic gymnastic moves to be taught in Junior Schools. The Video was added to DVDs which when replicated and distributed throughout Schools PE. Depts. in the city.
