Vanja Fazinic is a teacher of English and German to students aged 10-15 at Don Lovre Katic Primary School in Solin, Croatia. She has strong interest in making film in the language classroom and her current challenge is to integrate collaborative filmmaking projects into the curriculum and her teaching context. Here Vanja answers The Image Conference questionnaire.
Your favourite film / video / image / game website
I love many films so this is a tough question. A couple of films that immediately come to my mind are the Iranian drama Children of heaven which tells a beautiful life story over an insignificant event such as a loss of a shoe. The other film I would like to mention is Fellini’s Amarcord – a film about growing up. What I most like about it are the eccentric characters, unusual images, harsh realities perplexed with humor and enigmatic, mystical atmosphere.
Your favourite film / video / image / game to use in class :
I am more interested in creating short films in my class than using existing videos, so I can say that my favourite videos are those created by my students. However, I sometimes also use video clips and film lessons from http://lessonstream.org/ and http://film-english.com/
Useful film / video / image / game -related teaching tool (choose one or two options):
My students love using several video and audio editing tools, but Movie Maker is the most popular, because it’s of a good quality and it is free.
Tell us a bit about your session:
Why are you interested in using film in your classes?
There are many educational and pedagogical benefits to filmmaking in the language classroom– it is creative and innovative, includes collaboration/communication, involves all types of students, increases student autonomy, enhances critical thinking, and it is highly motivating for students.
What should your audience expect to learn?
I will share my experiences of how film can be put into use in order to enhance language learning, improve speaking and performance skills and to provide numerous opportunities for expressing understanding through images, sound, and text
What are three words that sum up your session?
Storytelling, student-centred, different
Which other presenter(s) are you looking forward to seeing?
I am going to try to see as many as possible.
