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Premiering at TIFF 2022, Roost is the story of a young girl who finds herself intertwined with a much older man. What once seemed like innocent teen love, quickly devolves into something much more complex, with an exploration of generational trauma and the dangers of gaslighting someone, this is a movie that is as tense as it is introspective. With Roost playing at the festival, Amy Redford was kind enough to sit down with CGMagazine to discuss the themes of the film, the process and the many concepts that need to be considered when bringing this story to the screen.  Having worked on a series of projects as both director and actor, her credits include The Guitar (2008) as director,...

Disney's upcoming pulp sci-fi animated film "Strange World" is only two months away from release. In the film, a family of explorers heads out into a strange new territory, where odd creatures and plants wait to be discovered. /Film's own Vanessa Armstrong had a chat with "Strange World" Heads of Animation Amy Smeed and Justin Sklar about the creation of characters and how the team came up with their looks. According to Sklar, the creation of the Clade family and the film's style was a group effort, with everyone "approaching it from a different direction." He said: "I think [director Don Hall and co-director and writer Qui Nguyen] had a very specific vision about how we're going to approach the pulp thing...

The BEST Character Traits Worksheets Looking for the BEST worksheets for character traits for your elementary classroom? Character traits are an important reading strategy that we need to help our students improve their reading comprehension.  But finding a concrete worksheet to review and assess student learning is challenging. There’s just not much out there – especially a worksheet that is actually engaging to students. I created character trait worksheets that are FUN and ENGAGING – I know your students will LOVE them. Why are these so fun? Because they are color by numbers! I have another blog post all about how to use reading comprehension color by numbers – check it out HERE! Keep reading to learn all about these...

  When I was in middle school, I hated reading. I wasn’t good at it. My mom would try to take away my PlayStation games to get me to read more often, but it wouldn’t work. Compared to my friends, I scored lower on reading comprehension state assessments. Compared to the rest of the class, I lagged behind. I distinctly remember reading a chapter of Night by Elie Wiesel for homework one night, coming back to class, and finding out I read the wrong chapter. My English teacher asked me what happened in the chapter I read, and I had no idea. Of course, the whole episode made me feel like a complete fool: I spent an hour reading the...

Image source: bigstockphoto.com Note Taking as a Skill that Deserves Explicit Attention Notes can be taken in any way that helps the student learn/study the topic, so our goal should be to advise students on their options so they can choose effectively. As an academic drop-in facilitator, I receive many questions about note-taking strategies. This strongly suggests that students really want teachers to scaffold/model effective note-taking for them. This may not always be part of the curriculum, but should always be taught anyways. Note-Taking Methods No single method will work for every student, thus, it’s worth being aware of the range of options. As examples, I will outline three of the most popular methods. It is important to recognize the...