Great Lesson

[hipshaker 05]

at school wednesday morning (i'm a teacher by the way) .... i'm free period 1. my name is up to cover a music lesson with a year 9 class (13-14 yr olds - some difficult characters and music quite difficult to cover for the non musicians among us). ask the other music teacher what the work set is. a couple of worksheets he says ......... seeing the look in my eyes (year 9, boring worksheets!) .... "but i have got a DVD they can watch" he says "about motown" ........ my eyes light up ... "its a documentary" he says. in answer to my question about the title he says "standing in the shadows of motown"!!!!!! ........... fantastic!

most enjoyable cover lesson ever ..... the kids generally watched it well, and learnt a bit i'd say ....... i was able to explain the story to them having seen the film a few times ..... put it in context for them (used girls aloud actually, asked them if any of them knew who played the instruments ....... not the mosrt appropriate band to compare to some of the motown artists though).

we managed about 40 minutes of it .... saw about 4 or 5 performances ........ a few of the kids seemed quite impressed with bootsy collins and his outfit!

just thought i'd share it.

[Dave Abbott]

excellent lesson Dave, let me know when the next one is and I'll pop along

[hipshaker 05]

well i certainly enjoyed it. the students did pretty well because there's a fair bit of interview footage about people they've never heard of (marvin gaye, berry gordy, martha reeves etc) ........... some of them knew who stevie wonder was though.

if i cover them again i can watch some more!