Great teachers are always looking for new, engaging ways to help students learn. Giving students real life responsibilities that allow them to apply what they are learning in the classroom and learn even more about the subject is an excellent strategy to be used in addition to traditional teaching methods. Movie nights held at schools are becoming increasingly popular because of the way they create a sense of community in the school and provide students with a safe opportunity to have fun with friends. Why not give a group of students the responsibility of planning a movie night? Here is how students can gain experience and benefit academically with movie night planning.
Students will gain valuable marketing and communication skills while selling sponsorship for the event. There are many ways to pay for a movie event, including selling tickets and finding sponsors from the community. Students in charge of finding sponsors will need to approach local businesses to solicit sponsorship. Once the sponsors are found, students with graphic art skills can create simple presentations to thank the sponsors and provide advertisement.
In addition to attracting sponsors, students will need to attract an audience through marketing. Students should be encouraged to be creative and use many marketing tactics to bring a crowd to the event. Students can hang posters around the school, hand out fliers, and request time during school announcements to speak about the event. If there is a school newspaper, the event could be advertised there.
Paying for the event and attracting a crowd are both essential pieces of the movie night planning puzzle, but the event will not be possible without considering the demographics and choosing an appropriate movie. Encourage students to think carefully about exactly which students they are going to focus on getting to this event. Do the students want to get incoming freshmen there? Is the event for upperclassmen nearing the end of their high school years? Teach students an important lesson about demographics and marketing by making sure they have clear goals and a plan in mind. Students can use surveys of the target audience as well as current movie popularity statistics to choose the best movie for the event.
There is also the important matter of basic logistics. Where will the students get the equipment for the event? The success of the movie night hinges upon finding and hiring a reliable and high quality equipment provider, and this requires time and research.
Food is also important at a movie event. Students can choose to charge admission to the event that includes food, set up a concession stand, or use a combination of both tactics and include food with admission and sell extras like drinks, movie candy and popcorn at a concession stand. The students will be responsible for choosing the best foods for the event, renting any necessary equipment such as a popcorn machine, running the concession stand on movie night, and cleaning up after the event.
Many movie events feature other types of entertainment in addition to the movie. Students should be encouraged or required to plan extras such as door prizes or other giveaways.
Hosting a movie night event at your school provides a wonderful and memorable experience for students. Why not take advantage of this opportunity, though, and make it a valuable learning experience? Students who attend a movie night event probably do not realize how much goes into planning this type of event and making it a success. High school students will be highly invested in the success of their event since their friends will probably be attending. Give students a unique chance to learn and apply valuable marketing, economics and communication skills by assigning the task of movie night planning to a group of your students.
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