Month: May 2011

Monday 9th- Media Presentation.

Today Helen Awoke with a twinkle in her eye. The chat with her husband last week really put her spirits right, She was amped and well prepared for today. She just knew that today was the day, that the students and tutors of her class will be in awe of her talents once again.

As each student took their turn presenting their projects to the class, Helen was starting to feel nervous, something she hadn’t felt since her younger days as a sword fighter. She started taking deep breaths and remembering what her husband had said the week before.

Finally and 9:15 it was her turn. So far she had seen some stellar stuff from the other students, She took one last deep breath and began to load up her presentation But poor Helen was so nervous, She had set everything up on the wrong computer!  Another 10 minutes later she was up and running, Sharing her story idea with the class in such detail she could feel the awe as if it were a tangible being sitting right there in front of her. The Students were silent as she showed them her animation which she had worked so hard on the week before. As her presentation drew to a close, She was surprised to find that many of the students had questions. This was highly unusual as she felt she had described the idea in perfect clarity. She decided to save face and proclaimed “I’m not very good at explaining things”. Then to her horror GLENN pointed out that she had in fact not provided what was stipulated in the brief and in turn meant that her ideas were unclear. The time was now 9:50 and the class was itching for a coffee break. But one more student had to present.

Helen’s heart sank as that Young One from the table next to hers, The one that was always laughing, and showing her up. (Of course all a part of our dear Helen’s over active imagination). Got up to present, This was one classmate that Helen had not yet succeeded in teaching yet, It seemed the arrogance of youth still clung to her, So Helen expected this presentation to take much longer.

“I Know everyone wants their caffeine fix”, she said, “So I’ll keep it short, sweet and to the point.”

Helen was appalled to find that this youngsters presentation only took  ten minutes. But the point had gotten across. How had this happened? Surely someone so young couldn’t have such a clear message. Helen’s idea had taken much longer to describe. Helen decided that it wasn’t youth that made the Girl’s presentation so short, it was Simpleness. Clearly the Young Girl was simple and had no way of creating ideas as in-depth and engaging as Helen’s.

The truth is the Young Girl’s idea wasn’t overly simple, but had been well summarised for the purpose of the task, Helen didn’t have it in her to do that, She lived on details and imagery. She Loved the whole process of taking her listeners on a journey. She decided that the Young Girls presentation was insufficient and felt the class agreed. Never-the-less The rest of the week was rather average, No major discussions, and She had run late a couple of times.

Friday night, Helen decided changes needed to be made. The whole malarkey was taking a toll on her optimism, She needed a new focus. Then she remembered how fun HCC was last year, That’s  what she needed! a new focus, something academic where discussion was encouraged, and facts and figures ranked over talent.

HCC was going to be her best subject yet! The rest won’t know what hit them!

Will Helen impress the HCC teacher? Or is Helen’s time in the spotlight over?, If so is Helen strong enough to fight for it back?

Until Next time, my dear little triffids.

 

Tuesday May 3rd- Photography Hand in.

As Helen gathers her things for the day, it is with a heavy heart. Today there will be little content to the class, as it is hand-in day. A sad Helen makes her way to class.

She arrives and sits down dejectedly at her seat. She’s been having a hard time lately, with the tutors giving her little opportunity to speak in discussions, and on the days she has been late, finding students sitting at her desk. But still she ploughs on.

Class begins with the handing out of the new assessment. This is accompanied by some videos, and then being left to finish off the assessment for Hand-in, It’s at this time that Helen thanks her lucky stars that she leaves this sort of thing to the last minute. She is so good at Procrastination.

The afternoon comes, and Helen had been feeling so sorry foer herself that she forgot all about QUINN. Her heart feels like it my explode with excitment and joy at the forthcoming afternoon session. The session commences, and She is treated to a Site specific shoot. To the Nurses Training Room!

Horaay! a pretend hospital! Helen can barely contain herself as she thinks up all the fantasmical things she can do in here, Oh! theres so much to teach! QUINN might just like her afterall. Then QUINN begins to teach about lighting and Helens heart sinks. There will be no group disscussion, there will be no opprtunity to spread wisdom and knowledge today. Rejected once again, she goes about trying to at least create some wonderful imagery to show QUINN.

The rest of the Week brought no more happiness for Helen, As both the tutors and the Students seemed to be more interested in the Assessments than the Wisdom she possesed. Even the pop quiz in HCC brought no joy for Helen, as she was not called upon, and if she was She got so flustered she forgot the correct answer and was humilated instead.

Poor Helen, Upon returning home, she had a good talk to her Husband:

“What should I do? Thier just no interested anymore.” Helen Cried.

“Well I was talking to my spirit guide today trying to plan our next contact with the spirits at the lake, and was told that on the journey to enlightenment are barriers, and those barriers are not to hinder but to strengthen, making the journey more meaningful and fruitful.” Her Husband Replied, “Just Keep doing what you’re doing, Don’t let it get you down.”

After this chat with her husband, Helen Felt much better and sat down at her desk at home, to work her hiney off for the media class next monday, It was a time for Helen to bring the Sexy back to class.

Will next weeks multimedia class bring to Helen all the glory of days gone by, Or have the students and tutors moved on from her forever?.

TBC…

(This one’s gonna be a three part, our helens been busy the last couple of weeks.)

Since our last episode, Helen has been hard at work. Preparing herself for the assessments that are coming up, Prime opportunity to both impress and teach the tutors.

May 2nd 2011: Term two commences,

A bright and sunny morning awakens dear Helen, and she rises full of hopes and desires for the day. Happily going about her morning routine, feeding triffids, and categorising her Star Trek collection in chronological order, She can barely contain her excitement for the days class. See Mondays are Media Days, and today she has Glen. The foreign tutor from somewhere in the Waikato. He has a gallery and an agency, and Helen desperately wants to impress him in hopes of future employment. So off she goes, into the sunrise to begin the day.

As the students trickle into the class, Helen Rushes to make it on time, Darned Traffic!. She makes it in by the skin of her nose as her dear husband would say. She sits down and logs on, ready for GLENN to begin class.

Today the students are asked to show GLENN where they are up to in their Assessments. Helen readily shows him her online presentation and after some constructive criticism, he moves on. Helen leaves the days class disgruntled that she was not given even the slightest chance to participate in group discussions. There was so much the others needed to know and only her to teach them!!!.

What will Helen to for the rest of the week?, Surely it can’t all be checkpoints and one-on-one time! How will she cope?,

Suddenly she remembers to her great horror, That tomorrow is the photography Hand-In day, and that in turn meant very little class time. Oh What a Dreadful week this is turning out to be.

Will it get better for dear Helen? Or will she be driven to take a personal day. Something she never does out of fear of missing a vital teaching opportunity….

TBC..