Episode 2: Drama & Film in the Classroom feat. Educator, Ashley Ford-Mihashi

Episode 2: Performance and Student Filmmaking with Ashley Ford-Mihashi

When shy students step on stage or in front of a camera, they find confidence they didn’t know they had. Ashley Ford-Mihashi, lecturer at Nagoya City University and organizer of the Reel Voices Language Learning Film Festival, joins Darren to share her journey, including formative years immersed in music and language, and how those experiences shaped her approach to teaching.

They discuss the nerves before a performance, the pride students feel when sharing their work, and how filmmaking and performance can help quiet learners grow. Ashley also shares practical ways teachers can use filmmaking to support language learning, from storyboarding to subtitling, giving students meaningful, hands-on opportunities to practice English.

If you want your students to take risks, engage deeply, and have fun while learning, this episode is packed with practical ideas.

REEL VOICES FILM FEST

https://reelvoicesfilmfest.org/

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For tips on how to cite these episodes using APA 7th edition, use the link below:

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Intro & Outro song: Unlock Me (Royalty free)

Music by Kontraa Studio | UKA Music Publishing LLC

Transcript

Darren 0:01

To make lessons more engaging and meaningful, then join me on the PIE SIG Podcast with Darren as we explore performance in education with passionate teachers who bring it to life in their classrooms. So, hello everyone, and welcome back to the PIE SIG Podcast with Darren. And today I'm really excited to have Ashley for Mihashi with us. Ashley is a multi-talented university educator based in Nagoya, Japan, and she's a PiStig officer who recently presented at the Korea TESOL International Conference in Seoul. And in this episode, we'll find out more about Ashley and how she uses performance-based activities in the classroom. And this will be of great interest to any educator who wants to bring performance into their classroom but may not know where to begin. So, Ashley, welcome to the podcast.

Ashley 0:49

Wow, thank you for such an amazing introduction.

Darren 0:52

Well, I did my best. So tell me, uh, have you ever done a podcast before?

Ashley 0:58

Um, well, it's my second time exactly. Okay. Number number two, but the first one was much, much shorter. Much, much shorter.

Darren 1:06

Okay, so now you have a chance to expand. So just let's get to know you a little bit before we get into your performance and education type of activity. So tell us about where you grew up and what you studied at school.

Ashley 1:20

Okay, well, uh I'm from a small town in Ohio from the United States. And um uh it's called Canfield. And uh let's see, I guess growing up I had a I had a pretty pretty standard, you know, Midwestern upbringing.

Darren 1:43

Right.

Ashley 1:44

But um but let's see, when I was in when I was in elementary school, I I begged my parents to let me learn how to play the cello.

Darren 1:58

Oh, is that right? I don't think there are many children who beg their parents for that.

Ashley 2:02

Yeah, yeah, I think so. A lot of them are forced. Um but let's see, my parents originally said no.

Darren 2:11

Oh, why why did they say no?

Ashley 2:13

Because it's uh it was uh it was well for several it's hard to remember exactly, but they said, Oh, you know, you're you always say you're gonna like do something and then you know change your mind ten minutes later. Change your mind and it's on to something else. And lessons and things like that would be very expensive, and you know, buying an instrument and all of that kind of stuff. And I said, No, no, I promise, I promise. And they were like, No, you should, you know, be in the choir because my brother and sister uh were both um singers, great singers.

Darren 2:51

Oh, is that right?

Ashley 2:52

Yeah, but I was a little bit more shy, and I I did the choir in elementary school, but I didn't really like it so much. I guess I was a short and I was always in the front row.

Darren 3:03

Oh, okay. Well, I I you know I at first I thought it would be better to be in a choir because you're kind of hidden amongst other people, but yeah, if they have you in the front, that's quite a different thing. So why why did they eventually relent and get you a cello?

Ashley 3:16

Um, well, I remember my mother said, we'll try it for the summer. And that was kind of it, I think. Yeah, because uh it was uh summer and I started taking lessons and then I just never stopped.

Darren 3:31

Okay. So yeah.

Ashley 3:33

So those were those were the those were her, you know, famous, you know, last words like we'll try it for the summer. Just the summer. And no, it was forever.

Darren 3:43

Okay, that's great. So what what were you playing on the cello at that time at the beginning?

Ashley 3:47

At the beginning, just open strings, uh plucking open strings. Um yeah.

Darren 3:55

And you're keeping up with it now?

Ashley 3:58

Yep. In fact, tomorrow I have a I have a quartet rehearsal. Oh, is that right? Yeah, I'll be traveling to Kyoto just to practice.

Darren 4:07

Wow. So what what kind of music will you be playing?

Ashley 4:10

Um tomorrow we'll be playing uh uh it's not a very well-known composer.

Darren 4:15

Tell us what else you were doing at that at that time when you were when you were young. So you had the cello and you were trying to keep out of the choir.

Ashley 4:22

So yeah, I hid behind the cello. That was that was my I was in the orchestra all throughout. Well, starting through um middle school and then through high school and then into university, actually. I started off as a music major.

Darren 4:39

Oh, is that right?

Ashley 4:40

Yeah, in university. And I was also, well, in high school I started to also get into language a little bit. Like I I studied a little Italian and German in high school. Oh uh, as well as I I took some photography courses, and I was always into art and okay.

Darren 5:02

Well, that's very interesting. So any any other parts of arts that you liked, uh dancing or anything like that?

Ashley 5:08

I always wanted to dance, and that was uh another thing my parents said no to. Yeah, I'm I'm kind of making up for it now because now I I take all the dance classes I can.

Darren 5:21

So um after you finished university, did you decide to come to Japan right away, or was there some kind of something that was an impetus for that?

Ashley 5:30

Oh wow, yeah. There's a there's a big jump in in that story too, because Well, well, tell us what happened, what happened in between there, please. Uh well, because I started I started university as a music major, right? And then like halfway through, I started, you know, I was still was interested in languages, so I started studying. I studied Japanese and I studied a little bit of Chinese. And during that time, you know, in Chinese class, I remember having a lot of homework. And there were two types of homework we always had every week. At least one hour. And one was practicing kanji, like writing the characters, and then uh the other was practicing Chinese tones.

Darren 6:23

Oh yeah.

Ashley 6:24

And they had this like software that we'd have to listen to and distinguish the four, you know, tones. And it was just over and over again, this like kind of ear training. And I remember having a conversation with my classmate where we were, you know, doing as students do complaining about class, and and uh and I said, why do we have to practice like Chinese tones so much? Like I hate this homework. And like and then my and then my classmate was like, Oh, it's really hard. And I was like, actually, I thought it was kind of it's kind of easy. And and I I'm not particularly great at learning languages, but it kind of like I remember having like a feeling, why why why is there this big difference, you know? And I started thinking, it's gotta be because of my musical training.

Darren 7:23

Yeah, I was just gonna say that, yeah.

Ashley 7:24

Yeah, and I got really interested in that. Uh, and so I talked to I talked to some other musicians, and I was like, you know, can you distinguish these tones? And they were like really good at it too. And and so then I was like, okay. So I started taking like some linguistics classes and things like that, and then eventually I changed my major because I I wanted to research a little bit more of like how you know music and and um like how music and language kind of overlap, or you know, to me they're to me they're very, very similar, right? Learning learning music to me is just another form of expression and and it's just you know another way of you know using my voice. And so I always kind of felt like learning languages was very similar. And uh, and yeah, so I was interested in kind of researching how much or how similar they kind of were. And so I started with yeah, some research into like uh how musicians uh hear and you know how they produce Chinese tones, yeah, and looking at that as maybe a uh a factor for learning.

Darren 8:43

And did you find any kind of um overlap between the Chinese tones and Chinese music, traditional Chinese music?

Ashley 8:50

There is a lot of research in that in that area. Um I didn't do that research, but yeah, yeah, there have been a lot of studies that have found there is a connection between the intonation patterns, especially in in more traditional types of music. Yeah, and you can I think you can find the same in in all languages. I think that probably they reflect each other and are deeply connected. And so after that I went on to grad school and uh my grad my graduate degree was uh applied linguistics, so I got more into teaching and and then I took uh some courses in call. Um and that was kind of when I started getting I was first of all, I was interested in teaching pronunciation a lot. That was kind of my my area of uh special my I don't know, that was my phone focus area, I guess. Um and then I got into uh call and how to use you know media and and uh online uh teaching at that time.

Darren 9:59

Okay. Could you tell the listeners what call is?

Ashley 10:02

Uh computer assisted language learning.

Darren 10:04

Okay.

Ashley 10:05

And I remember my professor at the time, uh, he introduced us to you know all different aspects of computers, and and one of the projects we had to do was a video project. And um me, me and uh two other students decided we were gonna make a documentary. And uh we made a documentary as um about a local coffee shop in our town. Okay, and that was kind of I guess yeah, one of the one of I got really interested in making video after that as well. So I don't know, it just one interest after another kind of how I ended up right.

Darren 10:51

Did they coalesce at any point where you were using kind of a lot of those things together in one project?

Ashley 10:57

Yes, and no, we we we ended up making um it's very old now, but at that time we ended up making a website, uh an interactive website for teaching pronunciation that had, you know, like audio and video kind of embedded into it to kind of teach what year was that pronunciation. This was 2008.

Darren 11:19

Okay, it's fairly early, yeah.

Ashley 11:21

Yeah, yeah. But it was really cool because I got to, you know, I had never really, you know, studied a lot of media or I was never uh I was never really, you know, proficient with computers and things, but when I was in the call course I got to learn a lot. I got to learn like coding and HTML and like, you know, how to edit video and and all of these really useful skills I use all the time now. And then I graduated and I I started um teaching English at the university uh where I was where I had graduated from Ohio.

Darren 11:59

Yeah, I did the same thing actually, yeah.

Ashley 12:01

Yeah. And they had um they had an exchange program with Japan. And students would study abroad in at Ohio for about four months, right? We we had the same thing.

Darren 12:18

We had we had students from Miyazaki.

Ashley 12:21

Oh, awesome.

Darren 12:22

And I was teaching them grammar.

Ashley 12:24

Wow. Yeah, so I was teaching uh presentation.

Darren 12:29

Okay, that's more interesting.

Ashley 12:33

It was it was very interesting, but it was very challenging too.

Darren 12:36

Yeah, they're very quiet students, right?

Ashley 12:39

Very quiet students, and I had a mixed course. I had uh half of the class were the Japanese exchange students, and then half of them were uh you know um regular American students studying public speaking. So it was good because they had a lot of intercultural, you know, communication practice. But yeah, with the you know, how to support the Japanese students in that class was was very interesting, which was why they asked uh um teachers that had uh you know applied linguistics background to teach those courses.

Darren 13:12

Okay. And this is when you became interested in Japan?

Ashley 13:16

Yeah, I think well, I had I had studied a little bit of Japanese too.

Darren 13:21

Okay, how many languages did you study? Chinese and Japanese and Italian and German.

Ashley 13:28

Yeah, but I studied a teeny like a little bit of a lot of languages.

Darren 13:32

I see.

Ashley 13:33

But I never studied one really enough to become what fluent. Um but yeah, so those students uh eventually like they came from Chubu uh University in Japan. And I was teaching them for about a year, and then uh Chubu University approached my university and said, Hey, we need an we need an English teacher. Like is anybody you know from Ohio maybe interested in coming over and teaching in our in our department?

Darren 14:06

Oh wow.

Ashley 14:07

And uh so I applied, yeah. And um that was how I ended up in Japan, I guess. It was only supposed to be, you know, a year or two at first. And yeah.

Darren 14:18

What what year was that?

Ashley 14:19

That was 2010.

Darren 14:21

So when you were first started teaching in Japan, what what what were you teaching? Just like a basic eikaiwa course, or were you bringing in some of your presentation skills into the classroom as well?

Ashley 14:32

Uh I think I was really lucky because the department that I was teaching in uh at that university had we had some general communication courses we had to teach, but we had some uh kind of more intensive courses that like I I had been used to teaching, like uh listening, speaking, and reading and writing. And then um we also had a presentation course which I taught. So that was that was pretty easy. But we also had two elective courses, like content-based courses that were totally free. Like we could teach whatever we wanted. Um and for that for that course, well, one of them I taught a pronunciation course. Uh and the uh the other course, I'd always had an idea that I wanted to do like filmmaking with students.

Darren 15:29

Okay.

Ashley 15:29

And that and I'd always wanted to try it. And so I said, now I have a lot of freedom. I'm gonna try it and see what happens.

Darren 15:37

If you don't mind, I'm gonna jump ahead a little bit and then maybe we can connect the past with the present. So so you so you recently did a presentation, uh, invited presentation, no less, in KoTESOL in Seoul, Korea. Please tell me what what was the topic of your presentation?

Ashley 15:54

The topic that we were the theme of the conference was um embracing humanity in the age of AI. Yeah, pretty, pretty heavy topic. And and um I guess yeah, we were we were kind of thinking about the creative aspect of of humanity and the like kind of emotional aspect, and and so um we talked about uh I'm sorry, I say we because I I also co-presented with my uh research partner, uh Kinsella Vallis. And um we we were asked to talk a little bit about filmmaking.

Darren 16:35

What was the name of your presentation, the title?

Ashley 16:38

Well, our presentation title was um Building Authentic and Meaningful Platforms for Student Showcasing. And and we are we are currently working on creating a film festival for language students uh to kind of showcase their work in class. So we talked about um particularly how like you know the importance of showcasing students' work um outside of the classroom, kind of like safe and supportive spaces, um and and how that contributes to growth. Uh and I shared kind of my personal experience with you know music and performing and uh and how how you know you you have this like transformation, you know, when you perform something live in front of other people or you have to, you know, show it to an audience. You know, there's this like scary vulnerability and this kind of like risk that you feel, and you know, you're so nervous and you know, spotlight, all the eyes are on you.

Darren 17:43

Well, if you could expand on that, that would be great because uh I recently had some discussions with some other teachers that I know, and we were talking about presentations and whether you need an audience or not, and what the function of an audience is and how that affects student behavior. And some teachers think it's just a waste of time to um be giving presentations in front of an audience, and other people say it's very, very important. So obviously, your view was the latter. So, could you expand on that a little bit more and also think about like different types of students? So, some type of students really love the spotlight, some kind of shy away from it, as you did, you know, hiding behind your cello when you were when you were young. So, how does that kind of play out in the classroom?

Ashley 18:25

There are a lot of probably differing opinions about this aspect. Um but even even for me, uh, you know, kind of thinking about it in a musical context, for me personally, I was I was also not very comfortable. I never really wanted to give, you know, a concert. But there was something about you know, when I had to perform and I was so nervous, and I got on stage and I was like literally shaking, my hands would shake. And and you know, playing and getting, you know, getting thing through it. But you know, at the end of that, kind of standing up and and the audience they applaud and you know, I bow and I kind of walk off stage and I was like, okay, that you know, like that wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be, or you know, or or I came back with like, okay, this is what I still need to work on. This is what I did, you know, I what I think I did well, and and then you know, I have this kind of in like kind of inspiration, this kind of insight into like, okay, next, right, what's next? Right. I kind of have this like um uh motivation for you know continuing that or I I felt like I felt like I had achieved something, right? It was kind of like a test of like what what I you know what I could do and then what I still needed to work on, right?

Darren 20:06

And and you see that in your students as well, your shy students.

Ashley 20:10

Yeah, often, you know, it's never perfect, right? But when you perform it in front of an audience, you you have a chance, you know, to self-reflect on that. And but it but it's also this kind of like transformative feeling, because you know, you you put in a lot of effort and you put in a lot of work to prepare for it.

Darren 20:30

Right.

Ashley 20:32

And a lot of it is, you know, just very repetitive, right? And and it's not very fun, but when you perform it in front of an audience, and and then you know, after that's over, you know, it all that effort in gets turned into like an achievement. And it feels like you you really accomplished something. And I think I think the audience, the you know, the audience that you choose to present in front of is really important too, like you know, whether or not they want to listen, you know, or or how supportive they are, I think is really big, but you can get a lot of authentic feedback from an audience too, right? When they when they ask questions or and and so I find if the audience is very engaged or if if you know they're very interested, then that is a real great opportunity for getting some real real feedback and insight.

Darren 21:29

So what about the the motivation of the students? Like I I find if I have two classes that are basically the same, and one has like um a group presentation toward the end of the semester, they're very focused and they're working really hard, and you don't have to kind of police it or monitor anything and make sure they're doing their work. They're because it's a high stakes thing and they don't want to be embarrassed.

Ashley 21:52

Yeah.

Darren 21:53

So they they're really motivated, and then they they have that kind of tension, as you mentioned, after it's finished, you Can kind of relax, and I think that's the type of good stress that we kind of have lost sight of. We should see all stress as being bad, but I think that's the type of good stress, right? Where it just it builds up and then it has a release rather than something that just sticks with you your whole life, like some kind of trauma.

Ashley 22:16

Yeah, I think I think the that the performance or you know, at that the presentation. Yeah, to me there's there's that aspect of yeah, it's very motivating if I have to, if I know I'm gonna have to give this presentation, I don't want to, you know, be embarrassed. So it kind of motivates you and it engages you in those those process, like that learning process, you know, that repetition and and all of you know that effort that you have to put into the process to actually learn. And I think that's really good for building your skills. Right. But then then there's the live aspect when you actually do perform it that has that, yeah, that really valuable moment, that you know stressful moment, but after you have you have that, I don't know, maybe a yeah, release or yeah, kind of a maybe even a good feeling, or you come away with a little bit. I feel like, yeah, you can come away with some confidence.

Darren 23:21

That's right, yeah, because you've accomplished something. Yeah. Okay, so how does filmmaking kind of fit into that? Because I I'm guessing that people see the product of that after it's finished, so it's not a live performance, but um, in what way does does that overlap with with performance, do you think, live performance?

Ashley 23:42

Yeah, I mean, I see I see making a film as a type of performance itself, right? Um especially for students who, you know, maybe maybe a little bit more shy, or or you know, or they may, you know, not like the you know, one shot only kind of you can have a you can have a many takes uh in that in that way, or you you don't even necessarily have to be in front of the camera. Um but yeah, so I see the film itself as a performance, and then the act of showing it to other people as another aspect of performance because you know it you you're also taking a risk by you know sharing that with other people and and you know, in front of the class or in you know for my teacher may not be that big of a deal, but you know showing it to your friends, showing it to your family, showing it to maybe people you don't know, that that could be even uh scarier. Um, but when they react to it or they they make comments or you know, they they ask questions or they you know give you some feedback, then you could be like, Whoa, wow, they they liked it, or yeah.

Darren 25:03

Okay. So in Korea, when you gave your gave your talk, did you touch on any any other uh important aspects of filmmaking in the classroom?

Ashley 25:11

Yeah, we I mean we talked to the the one presentation we emphasized kind of that aspect of showcasing um uh more than actually filmmaking itself. Um because we're we're trying to get more people thinking and maybe joining the film festival. Um and so we wanted to share, you know, that this opportunity exists and and hopefully inspire people to you know help maybe encourage their students to also submit some films.

Darren 25:44

Tell us a bit about the film festival that you uh that you particularly.

Ashley 25:47

I'd love to. Um so it's called the Reel Voices Film Festival.

Darren 25:53

Okay, this is REEL is it?

Ashley 25:55

R E E L, yes. Yeah.

Darren 25:57

Okay.

Ashley 25:58

And uh and it's it's a film festival designed especially for students who are learning language and doing filmmaking activities as part of their language learning. And so, you know, there's a lot of film festivals out there that are you know focused toward uh student filmmakers, um, but they're kind of you know more aspiring professionals. And and there are some there are some for youth as well, but there's not really anything for students in a language learning context, right? And so we wanted to create um an opportunity to bring students together and maybe you know different from different schools from different countries and uh give them a space, a safe space and an encouraging space where they could share their work and and and get some, you know, have that live, you know, have that interaction.

Darren 27:03

Right. And how did you get the word out to the schools, for example? How do they know about the fell the festival?

Ashley 27:08

Yeah, so we're we're trying to do a lot of publicity now through like social media and also you know, going to conferences and trying to connect with teachers that are you know doing filmmaking activities uh and kind of talking about filmmaking. So um teachers might uh be inspired, but also you know, teaching teachers how to make movies too, so they can you know maybe uh help their students do something like that if it's a if it's an activity that they're looking for, uh you know, building 21st century skills or kind of getting students motivated and you know maybe just a fun activity to try.

Darren 27:53

Okay, so if if I were to to try this with my students, I say, okay, let's let's enter this contest, what is something that I would need to know as a teacher to be able to put this together?

Ashley 28:04

Well, I think my advice would be to try a little video making yourself. You know, um maybe download some editing software and you know make a you know, make a home movie or something like that and and kind of see what the process is like so that you could you know maybe help students do it as well. But the students are so good at picking up uh and and now a lot of them have access to smartphones and you know editing software for free on their smartphones, and and a lot of them have experience too, like making videos for YouTube or for Instagram. Yeah, so so in some ways you don't always have to do much in that regard, but but I think for the language aspect to make it language focused and to make it make sure that um you know they're they're doing something meaningful with the language that they're learning, you know, the teacher can be there to kind of encourage them or to help them in that way.

Darren 29:20

So if a teacher wanted to um enter your contest, uh is there anything that they should know?

Ashley 29:26

Well, let's see. We yeah, we have a website that um teachers can check out. Uh at the moment, we've got three categories. So I guess yeah, choose your category. Um there's an original film category, and this is for any genre, uh any any kind of story. It could be a comedy or it could be a documentary, um, but it's an original story in a student-produced film.

Darren 29:57

And how long are the films usually?

Ashley 29:59

The average is probably between five and ten minutes. But anything under as long as it's under 20. Yeah.

Darren 30:08

And do you find that the students spend class time doing it or they spend most of the time on it, like outside of class working on it as a project?

Ashley 30:15

I guess it it depends on the on the course that you're teaching. Uh I in my class it is the course, right? They uh it's a project-based uh course, and the main project is making a film. We do a few other short video making activities uh just to to get practicing and to get thinking and get you know getting comfortable using the camera, getting comfortable being in front of the camera. Um but but yeah, the main project in that course uh is to make a movie.

Darren 30:53

So for teachers who um maybe are a bit scared about you know getting into filmmaking and editing and so on, is there any way that um teachers can use performance like um some type of a play or role play or small video in their class where they don't have too much preparation to do and they're not kind of scared off by it?

Ashley 31:13

Yeah, definitely. You you can start very small, you know, with uh with role plays, I think, especially, or even just like short scenes.

Darren 31:23

Right.

Ashley 31:23

Yeah, like reenacting a scene from a movie, yeah, but um, you know, you know, thinking a little bit more about like the camera angle instead of just you know a one-shot type of thing. You know, you can vary the shots and see what happens.

Darren 31:38

Or so what would you recommend for a teacher who's never done any performance in education at all and thinks, uh, this is kind of cool, but I don't have a lot of time here. So what are some kind of simple activities do you think people could do?

Ashley 31:52

I like the simple montage activity, like uh making a short video montage. Um I usually let my students choose a theme.

Darren 32:05

Could could you explain a montage?

Ashley 32:06

Um a montage is is just a uh a collection of short video clips. Okay, one after another, um, that combine to kind of express a theme. And so, you know, it could be very simple. It could be the color green, right? And and they have to go out and take a bunch of videos of things that they find that are green. Okay and uh or or it could be something much more like uh my students just recently did this project and they started with a very simple theme like nature.

Darren 32:46

Okay.

Ashley 32:47

And then when they go out and they kind of shoot and they try to take a bunch of videos, then they discovered it was actually, you know, kind of hard to get shots of like just nature on campus. So uh especially because they're doing construction right now on campus. And so they changed their theme and it became something I think was beautiful, but it's it was kind of the the kind of balance between nature and uh artificial, right? Like the the artificial things and the things that we construct versus the nature, and and so they kind of juxtaposed the images in a way that I thought really expressed a nice balance.

Darren 33:33

Okay, how how does language come into this?

Ashley 33:35

Uh so yeah, the language came into it. Uh it wasn't it wasn't a an act like an acting kind of idea, but but they did have to create a storyboard and ex uh and describe the subjects of their shots.

Darren 33:51

In English.

Ashley 33:52

In English, yeah. So they described, you know, what the video was of, and then in the editing process, they added subtitles and text to kind of also try to express the theme. And that was when it got really thoughtful because yeah, they had to kind of express their idea about the artificial versus the natural, and and it was yeah, it was quite it was. I'm always so impressed by what they what they come up with. They've got ideas.

Darren 34:24

Okay. Well, before we finish up here, is there anything else you'd like to talk about or mention?

Ashley 34:29

So much. I feel like I just got started. Um PIE SIG, I wanted to maybe say, you know, how much I've appreciated being a part of PIE.

Darren 34:39

When when did you become a member?

Ashley 34:41

It was over 10 years ago, I think.

Darren 34:42

Okay, a long time.

Ashley 34:43

Ye ah. I was working with David Kluge at uh Nanzan. And uh he introduced me.

Darren 34:51

So just so just so people know, David was the uh founder of the PIE SIG and former president.

Ashley 34:58

Yes. And um yeah, so he introduced me, and it was a it was a group of creative people and and artistic people, and I was I was so interested in what everybody was doing. And and they they were interested in what I was doing too. It was kind of yeah. Um but you know, I mean, I guess I'd always had a passion for like music and and and film, but there were a lot of things I didn't know about, like I I didn't know much about doing reader's theater or like oral interpretation or like pechakucha presentations, like improv, like kamishibai, like all of these things I had never experienced or I'd never really thought about, and until you know, this group. And now I can't imagine, like, I think there's a lot of classes I teach have some element of this in all of my classes. I do these kind of activities now.

Darren 36:02

So it's had an impact on your teaching.

Ashley 36:04

A huge impact, a very, very big impact. So I I guess, yeah, I really appreciate everything that PIE SIG and the people there have done.

Darren 36:15

Like-minded people with different content, basically.

Ashley 36:19

Right. And I at the beginning, like you know, you talk about like new teachers, like I at the beginning I wasn't confident with yeah, any of these things when I started, and I'd never done drama and yeah, patakutcha, but like in the PIE SIG, you know, I saw what people are doing and it was and tried it too, because I feel like the when you go to a PIE SIG event, uh like the workshops and the events are so interactive. Like you have a chance to try it yourself, and then yeah, and then you're not only like talking about them, but you know, you have a chance to experience it, and then you know what you expect the students to do after that. And yeah.

Darren 37:05

So you would recommend the PIE SIG to any any jolt member or anybody really who's interested in performance in education.

Ashley 37:12

Definitely, yeah.

Darren 37:14

Well, more members would be great. So do you have any projects coming up or you know, take it easy for a while?

Ashley 37:23

No, always projects, lots of projects. But um, the big one is we're doing the film festival again this uh in the next year. So that's gonna be taking up a lot of my time trying to get trying to promote the film festival and and getting students to join. So yeah, that would be my second message.

Darren 37:42

Yeah.

Ashley 37:43

Encourage people to, you know, yeah, get involved. And you know, if you're interested in filmmaking or you know, trying this kind of activity with your students, you know, shoot us an email, check out the Reel Voices Film Festival, and and we'd love we'd love to see what students can do.

Darren 38:03

Excellent. Well, uh thanks so much, Ashley, for sharing your experiences with us. And uh if listeners want to connect with you in some way, how can they get in contact with you?

Ashley 38:13

If you go to the uh Beal Real Voices, filmfest.org, R-E-E-L V-O-I-C-E-S, F Filmfest F-I-L-M-F-E-S-T.org, right? Then um from there, there's a lot of con a lot of ways to contact me through through social media, through TikTok, Instagram, um, as well as email and Substack. Yeah.

Darren 38:40

We'll put that in the notes at the end. Okay, well, thank you very much for joining us.

Ashley 38:45

Yeah, thank you so much for asking me to join.

Darren 38:49

Okay, and thanks everyone for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on the PIE SIG podcast with Darren. Thank you for listening. Until next time, stay focused and keep performing.