Fire in the Classroom

What OTHER teachers say

Finding a great short film online is useful, but when you’re a teacher trying to decide if this short film is right for your class, there’s nothing quite as reassuring as hearing from another teacher. Now that the Campfire community is starting to build, we’re getting a lot more stories coming back from schools… AND we’re starting to get that feedback online.

Beneath Australia’s Muslim Women for example, Vice Principal Kay McCullough says 

This film helped to dispel the misconceptions about Islam and educate our girls (at Mentone Girls Grammar) about what it means to be a Muslim living in contemporary Australia. It showed them women have a choice about what they wear and the choice can be faith lead. The film really hits the spot as it is based in Melbourne and it humanises the Muslim women by showing them in a variety of contexts, including playing soccer.

One of our students, unbeknown to us, is a Chinese Muslim. The film reaffirmed for this student that her religion was not something to be ashamed of and she opened up to the class. It’s been a great tool to help prepare the students and complements our other excursions that include visits to a Mosque and the AMES work.

Also, for Rock and Roll is the Only Thing That Makes Me Feel Good (screen shot above):

DAVID PAECH

“It’s a confronting film which catches the kids a little bit off balance and that’s when you can get some wonderful learnings happening. (Luther College, Vic)”

PAUL JOY

“I used this in the opening session of a 5 day world religion workshop for Yr9s at Yarra Valley Grammar because it demonstrates what drives different people, what fulfils and sustains them and how people express themselves. I used it because it is confronting and explores issues that students would not expect to encounter at the beginning of a week looking at World Religions! I deliberately wanted to push to the kids that they should be thinking about this and that if they had responses over the next few days that they didn’t think was what I wanted to hear, that it was OK. We ended the week with Hope(SR)“


For non-members, lookout for these teacher comments beneath the film window. We’ll be including here any notes we think are useful too — like links to curriculum areas that we know about.

For members, please share your stories. It helps everyone — other teachers, and filmakers themselves. They love to know their work is valued.

What have you found that works for you?