TEACHERS TRAIN AS MOVIEMAKERS VIDEO, PODCAST SKILLS IN THE CLASSROOM AIMED AT HELPING KIDS LEARN.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Eight Santa Clarita Valley teachers are learning to turn classrooms into movie studios as part of a training program at the American Film Institute's hilltop campus near Griffith Park.

In training sessions that began this month, the teachers are learning how to make storyboards, use camera angles and put together still photos to make movies.

And they're not only learning how to make videos. With countless mini- movies and sound programs, known as podcasts, constantly being downloaded on the Web for use on handheld devices, they learned the technology behind that phenomenon as well.

The four pairs of teachers from the Castaic, Newhall, Saugus and Hart school districts each will receive $5,000 worth of equipment through the training program to get students making their own movies.

``The way the students are nowadays, they probably know how to do it already,'' said Janay Chapin, a teacher in the William S. Hart Union High School District. ``So it's just incorporating it into the academic environment.''

Before she became a teacher, Linda Candib worked for years in the entertainment industry, finding stage projects for Broadway and feature film ideas for Hollywood. She made a career change, becoming a teacher in the Saugus Union School District, which has brought her back to the world of movies.

She likes technology in the classroom.

``It needs to be integrated and used as a tool -- the same way a book or a pencil is used -- not just put on there as its own separate entity. It needs to be used to help teach the curriculum,'' she said.

``In fourth grade, we study the Gold Rush and the (California) missions, and (students) could create a movie about the whole period, or just a section of it,'' she said.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education trained about 60 teachers at AFI for the program, and the agency also bought $150,000 worth of equipment for the teachers to use in classrooms.

Pairs of teachers from individual school districts participated in the program, and each pair will get a kit that includes a laptop computer, five digital video cameras, a projector and audio devices.

Children already know how stories are told and ideas are conveyed visually because they see so much of it, said Julie Drake, a co-lead for LACOE on the teacher training program.

``They watch a lot of TV, probably too much TV, and a lot of this is just having them watch it with a purpose ... so they become critical viewers,'' she said.

Those involved with the program said having students make mini-movies gets them writing, since they need to plan a movie on paper. Students in almost any subject, even math, can benefit by making a movie about what they learned.

Drake said she saw a podcast about geometric shapes done by a grade- school student that used images from around the house, including a slice of pizza.

The teacher training program at AFI ran July 18-20. The teachers will go back in October to finish their training and pick up their equipment.

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

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