I really enjoyed class on Monday. From my perspective, it really felt like you were all starting to become one with your passion and the ways to use your PLN and other web 2.0 tools to curate your ideas. I am really excited to see you all progress as the semester continues. Please feel free to blog about any questions you still have or support that you need. It was great to see Christina A., Annie and Melissa post some thoughts. . .I also think there was a Christina F. and Annie sighting during yesterdays #edchat. If I am not mistaken, Christina was actually retweeted by none other than Cybraryman. Woot! There has also been a lot of resources shared to the Diigo group and some awesome tweeting! Thank you.
I really want you to continue to do what you are doing: Write, Tweet, Bookmark, Comment, Share, and build our small community by giving feedback to your peers. The hardest part of this process is probably commenting on other blogs. . .give it a shot and just blog about the experience. Sherilyn, feel free to revisit your first comment and the emotions that followed in a blog post. As I mentioned in class, I really don't want to give you a defined amount of writing/tweeting/reading to do. . .I want you to cultivate your PLN every days and participate in at least one educational chat per week.
I would like you to watch the following video: Visitors and Residents and write a post reflecting on where you are in this continuum and how you see your future on the Internet. Leave a thoughtful comment on all of your peers' blogs on this topic.
Also, we all committed to reading Part I of A Whole New Mind by Pink. In a blog post I would like you to explain two things: What is the Conceptual Age, and why does Pink believe that the Conceptual Age requires what he calls, "a whole new mind?" Think about how this applies to you and to education. Leave a thoughtful comment on all of your peer' blogs.
This week's Question: What is your current favorite teacher movie and why?
I just have a clarification question, do you mean movie about a teacher (i.e. Dangerous Minds) or movie that we as a teacher would like or have shown our students?
ReplyDeleteSherilyn,
ReplyDeleteIt was the first. . .a movie that had a teacher featured. . .like Dangerous Minds ;-)
One of my favorite teacher movies is Stand and Deliver. For those of you who have not seen the movie, here is the story line from the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094027/). "Jaime Escalante is a mathematics teacher in a school in a Hispanic neighbourhood. Convinced that his students have potential, he adopts unconventional teaching methods help gang members and no-hopers pass the rigorous Advanced Placement exam in calculus". I saw this movie in high school many years back and randomly on tv in the past couple of years. My main draw to this movie is that I worked in the community where this movie took place. Although I did not work there during the "story", the plot hits my personal life because the students that I worked with either went to Garfield High School (where the story took place in real life) or I worked with the students at the middle school that fed into Garfield High School. I still keep in touch with many of my previous students that have either dropped out of Garfield, graduated from Garfield, or still go to Garfield. I also have many friends and past co-workers that live in the community surrounding the school and are Garfield alums. For those of you who have not seen the movie, it is very inspirational and ABSOLUTELY true the dynamics these students faced every day in the East Los Angeles community. Coming from a high socio-economic community and moving to Los Angeles after high school and working in this community definitely opened my mind and I feel gave me the greatest experience that I can use as a future teacher!!
ReplyDelete**On a side note, is there a way to embed a link into a comment to a post??
Before I start.. THANKS ANNIE! I have been looking for the name of that movie for EVER and no one seemed to know what I was talking about. I haven't seen that movie yet, but I am definitely looking forward to picking up a copy on of these days.
ReplyDeleteI sadly can not recall too many teacher movies, but the one that gets me every time was Freedom Writers (the Hilary Swank version of Dangerous Minds). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463998/ This movies is similar to Annie's movie Stand and Deliver in the sense that a woman goes to teacher Freshman/sophomore English to at risk youth in Long Beach, CA. The school and class are racial divided and form multiple gangs. As a teacher she inspires students to write their lives in a journal to "give them a voice". This not only gets them excited about their education, but also teaches them tolerance and acceptance.
Although I am not an English teacher there is a scene where the teacher, Erin (Hilary Swank), notices that there is a note going around the class that is distracting. Once she see the note it is a hateful picture one student drew of another classmate (from a different gang). She asks why this was funny or even necessary? She even tells the students that the Holocaust was started the same way. This doesn't phase the students much until she asks them if they even know what the Holocaust meant. No student knew what it was, which shows them that they might not understand what gangs are all about after all. After this point she goes beyond teaching them just English, but how to live life without hatred.
What this scene and movie taught me was that all our students come from different places. They all have struggles, fears, and misconceptions about the world. Although I may ultimately only be their math teacher, it is important to teach students life skills and ways to be a better human being to others and society. When I taught in Paradise Hills I tried to apply this philosophy, and I believe my teaching experiences was more meaningful to both me and the students.
If you haven't seen Freedom Writers, its a great movie to rent! (I haven't seen Dangerous Minds but I hear it is just about the same thing).
Mr. Holland's Opus is one that comes to mind. I have not seen this movie in years, but I still remember how it made me feel. It is inspiring to see how one person can make a difference and how important it is to share our passion with others. Movies such as Coach Carter, Remember the Titans, and Fighting the Giants, also come to mind. Though they are not in the classroom teachers, these movies involve coaches (who in my mind are teachers) that invest in their players and teach them about life.
ReplyDeleteI am a huge fan of Freedom Writers as well. I wanted to watch it again so that I could have a more in-depth explanation since I haven't seen it in a while, but I ended up not having enough time. What I like about this movie is that the teacher (played by Hilary Swank, who I love)doesn't just do her "job" of teaching. She wants to make a difference, and she does, at all costs (including problems in her marriage). She spent her own money on them, getting them books that the school refused to pay for because of their prejudicial ideas that "those kids" would just destroy them. What this teacher does is go above and beyond the call of duty and really connects with the students and pushes them to believe in themselves by believing in them herself. What I really like about this movie is that it shows a teacher in a really difficult situation and instead of listening to what everyone was telling her about these "unteachable" kids, she teaches them. She recognizes their potential and turns around the cycle of prejudice that resides there. I think that it is inspiring and this is really how all teachers should be. We should try and reach all children and TEACH them. We shouldn't perpetuate the prejudice that is still evident in our school system and we should all have the guts to face challenges such as these head on and truly make a difference in ALL students lives. I think the most inspiring part is that she has the students write a journal everyday and in doing so gives them the voice that they never really had before.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree that one of my favorite movies is Freedom Writers as well. I had to watch this movie for a project for one of my undergraduate classes. I ended up loving the movie. It is so inspiring. I hope that I can become a teacher like the one in the movie. She was so inspiring for the students and really engaged them into their learning. I want to be able to inspire my students like the ones in this high school (even though I won't be teaching this level) I want my students to feel like they are involved in the teaching and learning.
ReplyDeleteYou may call me Mrs. Andrade, but if you are bold, you may call me "Oh Captain, my Captain". I can't believe no one else chose this...Dead Poets Society! I teach a unit on it to every class I deem "worthy". I like to pair it with Randy Pausche's "Last Lecture" and Dr. Seuss "Oh the places you'll go". We talk about students' mentors, great lessons they've learned in life and create bucket lists. It's a real self-exploratory unit and always where I learn the most about my class. ANd yes, I have students who refer to me as "My Captain" :)
ReplyDelete