Training to become and Entertainment Industry Teacher
Transcript
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Training Together, the podcast for entertainment industry teachers, trainers, students and industry professionals.
Anthony: Welcome to episode two of our little podcast here and in episode one you might remember if you've listened, if not cheque it out, I interviewed Suzy who you probably agree is the most experienced teacher that we've had for entertainment industry and so no offence, but I'm about to interview one of the least experienced teachers because I'm currently recording this up at NIDA and my interviewee is currently doing his training, so I'd like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Ricardo (Ricky): Sure, thank you Anthony, yeah so my name is Ricardo Cancino, Ricky, everyone calls me Ricky, I teach up at Marist Sisters College in Woolwich. I got a background in I guess, I've been playing live music for, for as long as I can remember really for about 20 plus years now. I’m a guitarist, been in bands, I've been around audio equipment for most of my life, so I guess that was the kind of introduction into I guess my current role at my current school is it was the job application said music teacher/vet entertainment teacher and I saw it, I saw the VET Entertainment as a good opportunity to kind, of I guess broaden my skills as a, as an educator and try my hand at the lighting side and the vision and all that kind of stuff so, so yeah I guess that's my background. I’ve been playing live for a long time, teaching for about 7-8 years now I'm in high schools. I've taught through (year) 7 right through to 12 in music and this year’s been my first year as a VET Entertainment teacher
Anthony: So you're currently undergoing the training at NIDA, but you're also currently actually teaching the Entertainment subject.
Ricky: Correct yes.
Anthony: How did you find that not having actually done the training yet?
Ricky: Well doing it without the training was a challenge, to be honest with you. I was very lucky at my school to work with a bloke by the name of Joel Richardson. He’ a quite experienced Entertainment teacher. He has been teaching it for a while now, so he really held my hands a lot through the, the beginning few weeks of vet and I'm in obviously my coordinator Leone Clark as well, just that were very supportive and helping me kind of create resources and give me a whole bunch of starting points with a lot of the courses. It is fairly straightforward, especially with the work health safety stuff, which is the unit that I've covered first and then I'm up to the audio unit now which is kind of my forte it's where I have experience.
Anthony: That’s great, yeah you feel a lot more comfortable now.
Ricky: I am, absolutely yeah.
Anthony: You said that you've got some experience people that you're working with…
Ricky: Yes.
Anthony: One of the other reasons I wanted to record this was that there are a lot of people that I've seen on music Facebook groups and talk to that our music teachers and they're wanting to get into it, you were lucky enough obviously, to see a job advert that had that position there, did you have any involvement apart from just answering an ad in terms of getting that or did you have to talk to your regional coordinators to try and convince them that they needed another entertainment teacher?
Ricky: Well to be honest with you, the short answer no, I haven't had any involvement with it prior to that. My first kind of introduction to the course or to being able to teach, or the opportunity to teach it was, was when I saw the job advert. My previous school there were kind of conversations appearing popping up in the school that they might want to be doing it. I think there was a bit of resistance from, from higher up which I was, I mean I didn't really know at the time so I don't and I was fine with 'cause I just kept doing what I was doing at the school, so when I got to Woolwich I, I came there, I, I don't know I guess it was a bit of, I guess you call it a bit of arrogance about the whole thing because I'm like, oh it's Entertainment and how hard can it be? It's all good, I've been in the music industry for 20 plus years, I understand my way around these stages and you know I get it all, but then I started looking at the course I'm like wow there's a lot of stuff that actually goes into this and there's a lot of theory and yeah and all this stuff that I just simply didn't know.
Anthony: Well there's a lot of units in there that aren't even technical, so there's a lot of…
Ricky: Correct yeah.
Anthony: Customer Service ones and then Working with Others..
Ricky: And the terminology and all that kind of stuff that goes with. It's like you do need someone that's very good at this and you need the training to, to be able to deliver it so I'm very grateful that I'm actually getting it now.
Anthony: Yeah very lucky. Was there… are you replacing someone that was already Entertainment trained?
Ricky: Correct, yeah so the outgoing teacher that left was, if I'm not mistaken, was an entertainment teacher and I believe music teacher/R.E. so there will kind of spread across a few different departments.
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Anthony: So how does it feel having to replace someone that's necessarily being there for a while and you person?
Ricky: Well, that was intimidating to be honest, because I think at the school they already had their, their teaching staff kind of set and then with someone new coming in I can understand from their point of view we gotta, you know train this guy up and we gotta get him up to speed, you know, it was all working fine prior to him here I know he's here we gotta, we gotta train him up you know, so it was intimidating to be I'll be honest with you. I was very nervous those first few lessons with the girls, because you, you know like with the music stuff I'm very comfortable. I can, I can go into a lesson, almost not have a Lesson plan and kind of read where I'm up to in the course and I could just take it from there, but with this I, I was really trying to be like over prepared, yeah and but also not lose your, your teaching style I guess and try and be confident about it when you're learning as you go and you know, so yeah initially it was very, I was very intimidated by the whole thing.
Anthony: Of course.
Ricky: Replacing someone that was, that had been there for a while.
Anthony: And then I assume you get the doozy questions where the kids like ‘oh what's this?’ and you like “I don't know, I’ll go research but I'll get back to you”.
Ricky: Yeah absolutely, there's been so many of those moments where someone asks you, hey this like audio and especially with audio as well and which is, like an area where I thought that was my strength and there are some parts of audio that I just didn't know and they’d ask you some curly questions and just had to simply tell him I'm sorry I'll get back to you. I don’t want to give you the wrong info but.
Anthony: Oh well I guess in this subject we are, like if you got that background in audio, you've got your bands and that sort of stuff, quite often as a band member, someone else is doing all that sort of thing so you turn up, they do it, because it doesn't matter the size of the gig, it's all happening.
Ricky: Exactly, you want more vocal in your send, you just ask the sound guys, and he or she will do it so.
Anthony: Well that's the hope anyway of course. Tell me about the resources at your school. So do you feel that there's enough there? Are there things, I know you're early on in it, I assume if it's already been running for a while you probably were a bit gobsmacked about how much gear and how much is needed to run this?
Ricky: Yes, yeah I was, I was very taken aback by just the, the size of the space you need ‘A’ and where you store the equipment and a lot of equipment initially I looked at and I'm going, I don't know what that is, I don't know what does it. I think it says lighting on it but I don't know how you hang that, I wouldn’t have clue how it works so a lot of the gear, I'll be honest, I'm still kind of getting my head around and after the, obviously when you say is the training will be done here in NIDA, but I guess these two weeks of NIDA, the training is really kind of made me think about the gear that I've got at school now and you know those things that I looked at initially where I was a bit intimidated by that piece of equipment 'cause I just didn't know it, after this two weeks I think I'll be a lot more, you know, it'll be a lot more in the front of my mind with how to operate or, or any sort of teaching you know like, and the resources as well, like I said, having teachers like, that have done that before, previously to you, they’re all very nice in sharing their resources and I guess holding your hand through those initial few days of teaching.
Anthony: I guess, from your point of view, you’re also lucky you’re not a beginning teacher where the subject doesn't run and…
Ricky: Oh yeah that that, that would be… yeah, and I know it's like that, some of the teachers in, in this course that I'm doing now is like they're facing that but I guess…
Anthony: Just to clarify for everyone, we've got ten students here at NIDA an it's a huge range. We do have some that are lucky enough to have fellow teachers there, but we do have a bunch that are in schools and, and they're saying to themselves, “I've got no gear, I've got, I've got nothing” and I just I guess I just want your take on having had conversations with them and that, maybe some strategies that you might think that they might be able to do to build that gear?
Ricky: We're lucky enough now too, I guess have you guys as points of call like, I think the results here and the truth is here being phenomenal in in saying you know if you have a question or if you have any kind of doubt of or query about a piece of equipment to email, get in contact so I think that's, first and foremost. You mentioned Susie at the beginning of the of the podcast as well, she's been great too and she's got some fantastic resources that I wish She’s made available to, to all of us I know and even the students that are in the course at the moment, we've, we've all kind of made chats and got email links and we're sharing stuff everyday now so I guess it's, it's kind of getting in contact with fellow teachers that are doing it and I think that just knowing that someone else is doing it as well, or for those teachers that are that are in schools that don't necessarily have VET Entertainment running and then you've got five other people that are in the same boat, I think that makes you feel more comfortable and I think you can share ideas and especially from now start to build those resources, for when you actually start.
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If you need more help with any aspect of the Entertainment Industry training framework, or HSC delivery, whether it's further training in a technical area you are less confident in or with classroom teaching, ideas check out www.entertainmentindustrytraining.com
Anthony: So what are your goals? What do you want to achieve with entertainment? So you would have come into music teaching, you've done stuff, set up concerts that sort of stuff, you got training, you're lucky enough, there's very few that do, you got trained in entertainment, what do you want to do with it?
Ricky: I would love to, I guess I would love to strengthen my knowledge of my, I guess my strength field across all the aspects of it. To,… I still have thoughts about the lighting course and the vision course which, where I know that I'm gonna have to go back after this training period and really kind of sit down with the equipment that I've got at school in kind of figure it all out and what did Tiff tell me about that or what did David tell me about that piece of equipment and how does it all connect, so I think there's going to be a lot of, once this is over, I'm gonna have to go back and just fiddle with the equipment at school, and get across it. I'd love to feel comfortable enough to be able to deliver it confidently, you know, I think first and foremost I think that's, I think that's when the students put their trust in you when you're confident about the content of the subject, I think they feel comfortable that you know it and that getting the right information. I'd love to have a kid in entertainment go into the industry and be successful. That would be, that would be fantastic so to see where they started in the classroom not knowing you know how to roll a lead, to then getting out there and being a sound girl or sound guy.
Anthony: Yeah hopefully big profile so they can get you free tickets for…
Ricky: Absolutely that's, yes that would be nice too, “don't forget where you started mate”.
Anthony: That's right! Now they’re your personal goals, what about like your goals for the school in terms of what you would like to have happen at the school?
Ricky: Just seeing the and just talking to the other teachers that they've got so much equipment that, which I'm thinking to my school then we don't, we don't have the space or we don't have the kind of gear that some of those schools do have or are in the process of getting and I guess I am fairly fresh to the school so I don't wanna start asking for 1000 things at once and “hey, hey Mr or Mrs Principal, I just went to this training course. I want $150,000 worth of budget”
Anthony: I mean you can try.
Ricky: Yeah no, there's always trying but try and I'll probably get to ‘No’ initially but I guess it's, it beats a kind of builds it up and, and create that culture at the school of, that this is, this is a serious pathway. This is a serious, you know career pathway that you can actually take out into and be successful in. I think that that's my goal for the school to be able to say “hey come and try Entertainment, this is something for you.” The way to go yeah.
Anthony: Excellent. In terms of your training at NIDA, how have you found it?
Ricky: Oh wow! Yes it's, this week’s been intense. This is the second week that, for those of you listening, this is a second week which is all the practical side of things which is been pretty full on, it's a lot of learning as you have to learn fairly quickly, you know.
Anthony: Let's take it back, so what happened in the first week?
Ricky: So the first week was a lot of the theoretical sides of each department. So we looked at vision, we looked at lighting, audio and staging. They were the four departments and production as well, which was the first day as well. So we went through the in's and outs of equipment, terminology, gear, jargon used between certain departments and within the department. The importance of listening to the stage manager and I guess the hierarchy of where that all sits and how a theatre production, or how a production functions and works so that was the first week and then the second week was putting it into practise and actually the theory that you learn about rigging a light and now we're actually going to put on a show.
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Anthony: So did you find some of that process, I'm just going off other conversations I've had with teachers during the lunch breaks and that, did you find that process of doing heavy theory first and just going ‘why are we doing this? like there's no practical application?’ and then having that cement in the second week actually then start to make sense and go that's why we?...
Ricky: I think initially, I think we all have that kind of thought of, because like really was 9am till 5:30pm of just, you just sit and listen to someone.
Anthony: They are long days.
Ricky: Yeah, yeah they're very long days and it's towards the end of when 3 or 4pm hits you kind of, you know, you get the dozers, so yeah it is a lot of listening and I'll admit I was one of those teachers that was like this is a lot to take in and then tomorrow I'm going to Vision and the next I'm going to do Audio, I’m going to forget what I've learned but I guess doing it that way, when you actually doing the prac, you kind of remember something that happens the week before and you go oh that's what you know that's what was mentioned in that on the Tuesday of last week you know and it kind of clicks. I do think that maybe sometimes it can be kind of a mixture of both, like so it's not so much for just sitting and listening and more so, you're getting a bit more hands-on in Week 1 as well as Week 2, just to make it a bit more I guess engaging.
Anthony: Yeah and I love the way that you can reflect on that because that's then going to go forward into your teaching of the students as well as you have to have empathy with them and what are they going to feel like if I'm just pratting on about Work Health and Safety or whatever it is.
Ricky: And I’ve thought about that during this course as well because of, you know when you find yourself, like as an adult, you have like been sitting there for a few hours and you, you know you start wondering and you, you know there's a lot of information just in front of you, imagine for a 16, 17 year old girl at Marist, they're going to be doing the same, you know?
Anthony: And they're doing it over a year and a half. We get ours done in two weeks.
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Time for the Rapid 3.
Anthony: Your favourite unit to teacher?
Ricky: In VET Entertainment?....Audio.
Anthony: If you could have any resource, what would it be?
Ricky: Like this supposed to be quick answers aren’t they?
Anthony: Yes please
Ricky: OK that mixture over there. That really nice digital mixer that I'm looking over. The Allen and Heath that we have learned about that things awesome.
Anthony: OK and to end with, what's being your most inspired moment in teaching?
Ricky: At the moment, well OK, I've got a beautiful girl in my class, she's lovely. A few learning needs that this go has and you know severe learning difficulties that she's got and we were doing the audio course and she was very quiet all the time. Doesn't really talk that much and I, there's a lot of theory to get through and I'm always kind of you know checking in and seeing if she's OK and if she needs help with anything and she seems to be OK with her teacher’s aide and thought I'd make the audio part a bit fun, and I just threw them all leads and I said we're going to spend an hour now just learning how to row lead and they thought it was going to be a piece of cake but, teaching them, teaching them to over and under method was a bit of a challenge for all of them then, including, And the one girl that got it was, was this particular student in my class that had the learnings needs and then she started teaching how to roll a lead to the girls that were struggling.
Anthony: Oh that's good.
Ricky: So yeah it was it was a nice moment and it made her feel that she was good enough to, to do the course and you could just see the excitement in the face when she got it and I pointed out to the class that she had gotten it, and now it's just practice in my class now that whenever we're doing something theoretical, anything with audio at the moment, I just simply, as I'm talking I'll just pull a lead out of my, my little box of leads and it's just horribly rolled and I'll just throw them at them and as I'm teaching they just gotta stop, they’ve gotta listen to me but they've got to roll it properly and then they don't get to leave recess until they do it. But that was, that was my one moment of I guess that nice moment when this particular girl nailed the, the rolling of the leads.
Anthony: And passed that on to other people.
Ricky: And passed that on to other people which was fantastic.
Anthony: Fantastic! Well, thank you very much for your time.
Ricky: No worries.
Anthony: It's been great interviewing you in finding out what kind of makes you click and how you come about this subject and I'm sure there's lots there that everyone can learn. Thank you very much.
Ricky: Cheers! Thanks Anthony.
Anthony: Thank you for listening to the second of our training together podcast. In the next episode, we interview Ian Munn about how he is taking his own personal experiences in the industry and applied them to teaching the Entertainment Industry Framework at his school in Yass. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube @entertainmentindustrytraining all one word, for the latest in training.
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