Do any of you have a selection process in place for picking who gets to go into your Film/Broadcast classes? I have had numerous issues with kids that were dumped in my classes because there was "Nowhere else to put them." These students often are discipline problems and misuse equipment and their film pass.

Now I'm getting yelled at because camera equipment is being broken, I turn in who broke it via a fine slip but the admin doesn't make them pay it. Also they want to no longer allow my students to leave class to film, 100+ films with the scenery as the school.  This isn't going to help my program. I told him that if my class wasn't a dumping ground and there were to be a decrease in the numbers, it would be a lot easier to manage. They said put together a proposal. So I'm looking for what is working with you. Do you do team projects? If so how do you ensure that one group member isn't just along for the ride. My principal stated that he thinks that is why I get so many bad kids is because they think it's a joke. Well considering I have very little A's and quite a few E's solely because students are not turning in their film work I would hardly call it a blow off.

Phil says:

When I first started teaching Production, my class was viewed by guidance as a dumping ground and I had the same kinds of problems you mention in your posting - all of the same problems. I was part of the vocational education department and, in those days, I think guidance assumed that anyone taking a Vocational Ed course was not college material. I always try to see things from other people's perspectives and placed myself in the shoes of the guidance people. It was pretty simple to come to the conclusion that if kids were in my class as "dump-ees," then guidance must expect them to pass the class because if they failed the guidance department wouldn't look good. I raised the expectations of the class and ended up failing a huge number of people who didn't meet the raised expectations. Certainly, my administrator called me in about so many failures and I was able to show him many, many zeros for assignments not completed. Not bad grades due to unfair grading or poor teaching but zeros as in assignments weren't turned in at all. He reviewed my assignments and found them appropriate. The tone of the "meeting" changed immediately and I was told, "Never mind, if they're not doing the work, they should fail."

Guidance got the word pretty quick that the television class was a serious course with serious expectations. The next year my numbers were down. I expected that. But the kids who were in the class all wanted to be there and met the higher expectations with enthusiasm. Since they wanted to be there, they took great care of the equipment because they knew if it was broken it would be unavailable to them. They provided the word of mouth to their friends that the course was "cool" but a lot of work. As I told the kids time after time, this course is likely to be more work than any class you've ever taken but if the work is something you enjoy, then this class is as much fun as a kid being locked up over night in a Toys R Us. You don't find people in this industry who don't love their job because it's so much work that if you don't like your job, you'd quit.

We started putting in a prerequisite for acceptance into the class - successful completion of geometry or a foreign language. Why? Because your logic circuits in your head must work in order to pass these courses. Nearly everything about production involves logic. At this time guidance suddenly realized that my students were all getting accepted to the college of their choice. The guidance people realized that Television Production was a college-bound course. So did the students.

As word of mouth continued, I kept getting better and better students. Suddenly the maximum load was reached and a waiting list began. We actually were able to start looking at overall GPA's as a factor. By the time I retired I rarely had any students in my classes with less than a 3.0 GPA.

Regarding broken equipment: I talked to the school board attorney and the risk management people in my school system and had them draft the language I used in an equipment checkout form. The form listed the day equipment was checked out and the day it is due to be returned. (SEE THE ATTACHMENT) As a way of explanation of the form: Yes, I had some pretty expensive equipment but the gist of the form can be adapted to any level of equipment. The bottom of the form merely lists all the possible equipment which could be checked out. I had used an engraving tool to mark each piece of gear with a letter or number which was its "name" so a Panasonic AJD-210 camera could merely be called "camera C" on the form. Eventually, I gathered enough equipment to provide students with complete packages so a student could take out "System A" and that system included a camera, 2 batteries, tripod, field monitor, light kit, AC adapter." Mics were checked out separately because some situation required lapels and others required hand-held mics. The most important part of the form is the student and parent signature right below the sentence that reads "I agree to be financially responsible for the repair to/replacement of the equipment if it is damaged or lost while in my son/daughter's care." The attorney was adamant that this form be turned in EVERY time the equipment went out. I was told that a "blanket" form signed once in September to cover the entire year was completely worthless and wouldn't stand up in court.

 The very bottom of the form is a place for the person who double-checks the equipment before it leaves the studio to sign and a place for the person who checks it in when the equipment returns to sign.  No student is allowed to check themselves off.  The teacher or a specially trained student equipment manager are the only people who can double check equipment in or out of the studio.

I also had to explain to all parents that their son/daughter could pass my course without ever checking out equipment. All requirements could be met by using the studio gear right in the classroom during the school day.

Once I started using this form - about 1985 through my retirement in 2006, I had 2 microphones lost and two cameras which needed replacement because they were lost. Oh, and maybe 10 XLR cables. That's a pretty good record for 21 years. The system worked, I think.

Parents naturally had questions about what is the difference between normal wear and tear and student-caused damage. It's hard to define but simple to understand - I gave examples:  cracked lens or broken camera body with dents and scratches in it is damage, tape that won't eject or heads that are dirty is normal wear and tear.  Tire treads on a camera body is damage and lost equipment is clearly negligence.