At the beginning of the year I got speaking to the teaching assistants on my course and they was telling me there time at MSOA was coming to an end after 3 amazing years, they was telling me about there job roles and how much they loved there time working there and this really inspired me, around this time I was seriously considering my future choices and what I wanted after university and then it hit me, I want to experience teaching, I’m such an organised and punctual person and that’s something that’s always been brought up within the industry and my past education was my planning skills etc. this is something I’d love to take forward and progress into teaching other upcoming filmmakers.
To start out I knew I needed more information so I set individual meetings up with both current TA’s Ben and John, who kindly met up with me multiple times to answer my on going questions about there role and how this has helped them develop as filmmakers, they both gave me incredible advice that came from different places, Ben is currently doing a Masters and was on the same course that I was beforehand, he got into the TA role and expressed how he flourished, by teaching other pupils it actually helped him reflect upon the skills he already had, for me this was what I needed to here, he went on to express how working for the university has helped him gain experience with the opportunities around him and that its really helped him see where he wants to be within the future, John started working at MMU 3 years ago, a year longer than Ben he expressed the same views and ben yet gave me some more in detail information concerning the role and what’s expected from them, what they have gained from the role etc.
The meetings gave me a real insight into the job role, what would be expected and how I could gain from the role, at this point it was really begging to look like something I would want to do, to help teach what I’ve learned over the years to other people, while continuing to further my own skills, with this in mind I jumped at the opportunity to join in a lecture with second years at MSOA, here we accompanied our tutor and was able to observe them teach and then have an opportunity to share our own thoughts to the second years and also tell them about our films that were in the making at the time, this was a great opportunity for me and it made me realise how much I would want to teach, it such an amazing and inspiring environment to be around.
A few months later and I was asked by Joe Duffy a tutor if I’d like to attend the opening day for our courses new first years, he expressed it would be us getting involved with them and the activities and being there for if they had any particular questions that they needed answering, again this opportunity stood out to me and I decided to volunteer for the day, we had two slots one in the morning and another in the afternoon, in the morning we began to set up tables with film reel and coloured markers alongside the projector, we awaited the new arrivals and once they was with us we sat down together as a group, Chris Daniels our tutor explained the task in hand to the first years as then discussed the overall basis of the course, he then left the room expressing he wanted the new students to be able to freely ask myself and the ambassadors questions as current students.
The Students asked various questions concerning Equipment and Software’s, The Course on a whole, Tutors, Student Finance, Accommodation all the way to Nightlife, We answered all questions as honestly as possible and I was actually really impressed with myself, I felt I had sufficient answers to all the questions they threw at us, I explained that the course turns out to become a sort of family and everyone has a place within it, it creates an environment unlike any I’ve experience in any other school, The Tutors are your friends, We told them about the course, modules, how many films you make per year, how you find your groups, we spoke a lot of there first year and what they would have to expect, The tutor then returned and we moved into the next room to do the next task, here was our opportunity to observe them working together as mini groups, we walked around talking to individuals and seeing what they had come up with within there assigned task, following this workshop we returned to watch the film reel in which we created in the pervious session.
The Afternoon session also went extremely well, reflecting back upon the day I found I was extremely confident in speaking in front of a crowd and actually really enjoyed sharing knowledge and information with the new students, I now knew this is what I wanted to do, A few weeks later after seeing the TA Ben again he told me about another opportunity to give some more new first years a tour around MMU and then a chat about the course as they waited to have there interviews, I met Ben at the staff room and we headed to pick up the students from upstairs, we had a tour around the building finding out information about them where there from, what they want to do etc. we also shared our information and told them about our time at MSOA and what we have learned from our time here, luckily I had pre booked an edit suite that day so we was able to take them in there to see the amazing colour grading equipment and sound software within the room, following the tour we headed back upstairs where Ben left me alone with the students, this was there time to ask me questions on the university, following our visit to the AV store they had many questions on equipment, I felt it was a good idea to get up the MSOA AV store app and show them our system and the equipment in which we have access to, they all seemed really impressed, we spoke about what they wanted from a university and I told them what I’ve experienced within the university and it seemed to really fit there requirements.
This opportunity was really fun and just confirmed everything in that I want to become a TA and have the opportunity to teach and stay within this amazing environment at MSOA and continue developing.
