Culture vulture
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Culture vulture
https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/culture-vulture-90
I love comics and get upset that graphic novels are sneered at in the UK, though they are regarded as a decent read in most other countries in the world. I love Sin City by Frank Miller because he’s such an amazing draughtsman; but my favourite is anything to do with Judge Dredd. John Wagner, who created him, is a brilliant satirist. There’s always a sub-text beneath the action.
Films I love
It has to be Star Wars. George Lucas has incredible vision and has done a great service to cinema. I know all the words.
Inspirational
The 2000 AD comics. I’ve been reading them for 30 years and admire the creativity. They transfer you to this other world, which is what I want to do: transfer children to another exciting world of learning.
To share with pupils
The Stinky Cheese Man (pictured), by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (Puffin).
It’s hilarious and I use it to show how you can make a fairy story your own. I also share comics. They are so much more exciting than just a page of words. I share my sensory stories, too, such as Gobbin Hood and His Merry Phlegm: horrible stories for horrible teenagers.
Best resource
Chroma Key screen technology. It’s an inexpensive bit of green cloth with some video-editing software and we use it to film children performing. We then replace the backcloth with video footage. My favourites have been a travelogue on Africa; a soap opera addressing social issues and Shakespeare’s The Tempest, where pupils filmed puppets against digital backdrops.
Looking forward to
My sensory stories being published by Inclusive Solutions later this year and seeing Dylan Moran doing stand-up at Newcastle City Hall.
Pete Wells, 33, teaches at Sunderland City Learning Centre, helping groups of students and teachers to create films and virtual reality and robotics projects. Until last year he was at Portland school in Sunderland, for 11 to 19-year-olds with severe learning andor profound and multiple difficulties. He won Becta’s ICT in Practice award for Inclusion for his sensory stories, examples on www.petewells.co.uk. Interview by Elaine Williams
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