Monday, April 26, 2010
HW 50 - SOF Educator
Some one i interviewed with my class as a whole was Mr. Copeland. During our interview i voice-recorded our entire conversation. We asked him about how he became to teaching in the style he does, while teaching American History. One question asked of him was shouldnt you be fully aware of what you are teaching before having started as a teacher, and his response was "does a doctor know every single thing there is to know before going into medicine without ever having to open a medical book again? no, they continue to brush up on it and learn more just as the students as they go on." When a student asked him if he's ever come across or even already saved a student. He responded saying "saved them from what?" he believed, much like i do, that its just a stereotypical archtype that is only portrayed within movies. "Inspiring" is another road he didnt want to admit he was going down, only because he felt he had his own messes in his life to clean up. He says his style of teaching was inspired by this outrageous looking College professor who was the first person to ever be at fault for exposing him to radical teaching styles. He wanted to "emulate" his style somewhat. To see himself as any other profession would be in the music industry, although he loves to mix it up, beathoven etc. It outrages him but is expected to see that culturally we have moved in a different direction. No more classes like art or dance or music, before it was mandatory and specialized, but now it is almost complimentary.
HW 49
My "personal" contribution to our class film was helping Victor (our writer) come up with a screen-write and shooting the scenes myself. I honestly didnt trust any others to hold the camera because i felt i could do a better job, which i did. It was pretty smooth and clever the shots.
My analysis of the message found in the film was that by striving to reach out to the troubled students, using already clique savior/teacher techniques found in popularized movies, he was unsuccessful in connecting to the individuals. if only he resolved to creative ideas and never before seen moves could he have been successful in gaining their trust.
Although, compared to such movies like Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers, Andy's mediocre acting skills within the classroom didnt demonstrate a non -hostile environment. Unlike the other films, the students managed to remain unsaved, and the teacher fails and sinks even lower.
The connection between salvation and education/schooling in our culture is that the students are placed into a classroom and given this teacher who is supposed to teach them and rub knowledge and wisdom onto them. Students who do not take into their lessonplan or whatever agenda they have going on, is automatically seen as an oddball to the teacher(s) and is labeled. Even a great school full of nothing but great kids, MUST have an unsaved. There could be a student who gets good grades but not as good as the rest, he MUST be restraining from the teacher's lessonplans, a troublemaker he must be. Thats ridiculous. In our culture, we are typical loose-cannon teenagers that set fire to the next adult living under rules that walks through the door. Its the typical movie settings i blame -__-
My analysis of the message found in the film was that by striving to reach out to the troubled students, using already clique savior/teacher techniques found in popularized movies, he was unsuccessful in connecting to the individuals. if only he resolved to creative ideas and never before seen moves could he have been successful in gaining their trust.
Although, compared to such movies like Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers, Andy's mediocre acting skills within the classroom didnt demonstrate a non -hostile environment. Unlike the other films, the students managed to remain unsaved, and the teacher fails and sinks even lower.
The connection between salvation and education/schooling in our culture is that the students are placed into a classroom and given this teacher who is supposed to teach them and rub knowledge and wisdom onto them. Students who do not take into their lessonplan or whatever agenda they have going on, is automatically seen as an oddball to the teacher(s) and is labeled. Even a great school full of nothing but great kids, MUST have an unsaved. There could be a student who gets good grades but not as good as the rest, he MUST be restraining from the teacher's lessonplans, a troublemaker he must be. Thats ridiculous. In our culture, we are typical loose-cannon teenagers that set fire to the next adult living under rules that walks through the door. Its the typical movie settings i blame -__-
Thursday, April 15, 2010
EC Opportunity - "The Class"
Discussing Souleymane and the road he went on in school, i feel it was inevitable for him to be expelled from his school. Nonetheless, he was a good kid, just compared to the others he seemed to be the most highly troubled. When he presented the self-portrait to his teacher, he hanged it up for the entire class to see and allowed his work to be praised by all. In that brief moment, you can see how his eyes lit up and accepted the praise. I dont hold the teacher responsible for what happenned, or at least i didnt want to. Even during the teacher-commitee it was two-sided, some didnt know whether to blame the teacher's remarks or just souleymane alone for igniting his actions. i couldnt blame the teacher for becoming mad at the student reps for blurting out information that is syupposed to be confidential, but to expect two girls that are more close to their classmates than their teacher is also expected for them to look out for them and deliver word on what is said about them, and might even be used to personally alter ways in order to avoid defeat by teachers. For Souleymane to be furious to hearing that he is seen as just "limited" is acceptable on his part, but still shaky as to whether it was a reason to create a scene.
Refelcting on Souleymanes actions, just as the rest of them are, they are only 14 and 15 years old. The teachers in the school expected them to be perfect angels and saw behaviorial attitudes set by them to be an increasing slump by them yearly. To hear "trouble' and "attitudes" repetitively by them was actually exxagerated to me, because compared to what i know as bad students or even a bad high school, that school seemed very good to me. If that one incident is referred to as a "carwreck" i dont know what one is than. Khoumba, as an example, had a public confrontation with the teacher over being picked on, and after admitting to not being sorry for her actions, she wrote a letter to him explaining her side and whatever discretion she felt. That alone seemed more mature and unexpected from any other regular 14 15 yr old. And for the teachers to already praise twei more than all the rest, was a little exposing as to how teachers really felt about their students, despite the sympathetic dilemmas twei's mother got herself into, the scene involved the teachers coming up with an idea for raising money for Twei's mothers lawyer, but soon after pop open a bottle of champagne. hmmm....
When discussing choices and morality created by the students within the film, i feel no one even including the teachers made unorthodox choices that could've been handled better. I thought the film was realistic in most ways, especially for a french school that i have never been exposed to but can only imagine. "Training" to become better at making idealistic choices can only go any further than within school and home, or for a workplace when discussing adults. One point made by esmeralda within the film that i did like, was that when heard by Mr. Marlin she had told Julie, another teacher, about him calling her and louise Skanks. Esmeralda, confronted by the teacher why she spoke to Julie and not him directly, said You can talk about students without them knowing it goes both ways. I think teachers sometimes forget their positioning based on their position of power, which can only go so far. They have to keep a group of students as "tamed" as possible and if ever one was to act out as strout out as possible, they are taken to their higher seened power, the principal. Everyones a pawn. Schools just a way to TRY and train us. But then by the end of the year, just as shown in the film, some dont even learn much or sometimes nothing at all. How trained can we be, mentally.
Refelcting on Souleymanes actions, just as the rest of them are, they are only 14 and 15 years old. The teachers in the school expected them to be perfect angels and saw behaviorial attitudes set by them to be an increasing slump by them yearly. To hear "trouble' and "attitudes" repetitively by them was actually exxagerated to me, because compared to what i know as bad students or even a bad high school, that school seemed very good to me. If that one incident is referred to as a "carwreck" i dont know what one is than. Khoumba, as an example, had a public confrontation with the teacher over being picked on, and after admitting to not being sorry for her actions, she wrote a letter to him explaining her side and whatever discretion she felt. That alone seemed more mature and unexpected from any other regular 14 15 yr old. And for the teachers to already praise twei more than all the rest, was a little exposing as to how teachers really felt about their students, despite the sympathetic dilemmas twei's mother got herself into, the scene involved the teachers coming up with an idea for raising money for Twei's mothers lawyer, but soon after pop open a bottle of champagne. hmmm....
When discussing choices and morality created by the students within the film, i feel no one even including the teachers made unorthodox choices that could've been handled better. I thought the film was realistic in most ways, especially for a french school that i have never been exposed to but can only imagine. "Training" to become better at making idealistic choices can only go any further than within school and home, or for a workplace when discussing adults. One point made by esmeralda within the film that i did like, was that when heard by Mr. Marlin she had told Julie, another teacher, about him calling her and louise Skanks. Esmeralda, confronted by the teacher why she spoke to Julie and not him directly, said You can talk about students without them knowing it goes both ways. I think teachers sometimes forget their positioning based on their position of power, which can only go so far. They have to keep a group of students as "tamed" as possible and if ever one was to act out as strout out as possible, they are taken to their higher seened power, the principal. Everyones a pawn. Schools just a way to TRY and train us. But then by the end of the year, just as shown in the film, some dont even learn much or sometimes nothing at all. How trained can we be, mentally.
Monday, April 12, 2010
HW 48 - Treatment for savior/treatment
possible title: "credentials"
introduction: The newest teacher tries to engage doubted students to higher levels of curriculum in order to prove other teachers wrong, including the students themselves. After what seemed to be an impossible gesture of reaching out to the kids, only until the teacher's unanticipated move of not giving the students up for something they did, do they come to the realization that he is someone worth trusting.
Jason Scheffer, a middle-aged man with a passion for teaching, enrolls himself into one of the not-so finest schools of New York. With his first day there consisting of hateful remarks made by the teachers about the kids, his first day meeting the students ended exactly how the other teachers painted it for him. With a class full of smart-mouthed kids with no respect or expectations for themselves, his approach to reaching them became, while being rejected from the start, bleaker and bleaker. Only until a conflict between the students and Mr. Scheffer arise where they are caught with drugs and the actions set by Scheffer of not turning them in do they see a glimmer of trustworthyness within him.
Seeing a single chance at grabbing the kids attention, while still having earned an ounce of their trust, was snatched by him instantly, where a discussion with the kids in the class (mostly adressing the boys) about gang-violence and tough-guy personas leads to him throwing out a random quote in hopes of catching the students attention. "You can take the dog out of the fight, but you cant take the fight out of the dog." After liking what is heard the group of students ask who said this, and after responding to them Mark Twain, does he decide to continue speaking of Mark Twain and other words of wisdom shared by him. Taking a higher interest in the author and his writing the teacher decides to move onto actual literature, exposing to them the story of Huckleberry Finn. While reading on the students use Mark Twains writing to connect to their own lives of Huckleberry Finn, where they see him only as a troublemaker with higher hopes for himself, just like themselves seen by the teacher.
Being surrounded by a few kids of the whole slowly expose to him the highly troubled lives they lead. A boy with the conflict of having to choose between money and his pregnant girlfriend or a H.S. diploma, and a girl who's mother's repetitive drunken state pushes her to where she must replace the single-mother duties that are not fullfilled for her two younger sisters in need of a decent home environment, thus leading to a slip in her attendance.
After a huge after-school conflict between the teacher and the pregnant boy, Mr. Scheffer confronts the boy's implyment of him not needing school anymore. In doing so, the teacher calls his bluff by simply giving him 65's for the rest of the year, so that he passes without even having earned it and so it can be a win-win. To the teacher's surprise, the boy shows back up to school a few days later even with the already passing grade to show that he wants more out of this. Showing his change to the teacher, leaving him with the thought that he has offcially reached out to these kids and also changed their ways.
After everything seemed to be perfect for Mr. Scheffer, and the kids as well, Mr. Scheffer is stripped of his teaching title over at the high school because of a late dicovery by the board of ed that Mr. Scheffer is an ex-convict. After being fired embarrassingly in front of all of his students, the kids end back in square one as their minds drift to the thought that Mr. Scheffer was only filling their minds with lies, how they can graduate become successful and get good jobs with their lives. With only a month and a half away from graduation, some on thin lines to graduating, meet a slump in which they end back at their original state not caring about their own education and such. Mr. Scheffer confronts the students in the streets one night, (partial amount of the kids, not entire class) about the fact that he was a convicted felon, but because he severely hurt an off-duty policeman for having found out he was sexually harassing one of his students. In an unfortunate timeline of events for Mr. Scheffer the policeman's higher power and word over his led to him being thrown in jail for a sentence of 2 years. While reaching out for forgiveness from his students, Mr. Scheffer wins back the hearts of his students. Still not allowed to teach them within the high school walls, does he begin to tutor them outside the school in order to complete their remaining High School time.
introduction: The newest teacher tries to engage doubted students to higher levels of curriculum in order to prove other teachers wrong, including the students themselves. After what seemed to be an impossible gesture of reaching out to the kids, only until the teacher's unanticipated move of not giving the students up for something they did, do they come to the realization that he is someone worth trusting.
Jason Scheffer, a middle-aged man with a passion for teaching, enrolls himself into one of the not-so finest schools of New York. With his first day there consisting of hateful remarks made by the teachers about the kids, his first day meeting the students ended exactly how the other teachers painted it for him. With a class full of smart-mouthed kids with no respect or expectations for themselves, his approach to reaching them became, while being rejected from the start, bleaker and bleaker. Only until a conflict between the students and Mr. Scheffer arise where they are caught with drugs and the actions set by Scheffer of not turning them in do they see a glimmer of trustworthyness within him.
Seeing a single chance at grabbing the kids attention, while still having earned an ounce of their trust, was snatched by him instantly, where a discussion with the kids in the class (mostly adressing the boys) about gang-violence and tough-guy personas leads to him throwing out a random quote in hopes of catching the students attention. "You can take the dog out of the fight, but you cant take the fight out of the dog." After liking what is heard the group of students ask who said this, and after responding to them Mark Twain, does he decide to continue speaking of Mark Twain and other words of wisdom shared by him. Taking a higher interest in the author and his writing the teacher decides to move onto actual literature, exposing to them the story of Huckleberry Finn. While reading on the students use Mark Twains writing to connect to their own lives of Huckleberry Finn, where they see him only as a troublemaker with higher hopes for himself, just like themselves seen by the teacher.
Being surrounded by a few kids of the whole slowly expose to him the highly troubled lives they lead. A boy with the conflict of having to choose between money and his pregnant girlfriend or a H.S. diploma, and a girl who's mother's repetitive drunken state pushes her to where she must replace the single-mother duties that are not fullfilled for her two younger sisters in need of a decent home environment, thus leading to a slip in her attendance.
After a huge after-school conflict between the teacher and the pregnant boy, Mr. Scheffer confronts the boy's implyment of him not needing school anymore. In doing so, the teacher calls his bluff by simply giving him 65's for the rest of the year, so that he passes without even having earned it and so it can be a win-win. To the teacher's surprise, the boy shows back up to school a few days later even with the already passing grade to show that he wants more out of this. Showing his change to the teacher, leaving him with the thought that he has offcially reached out to these kids and also changed their ways.
After everything seemed to be perfect for Mr. Scheffer, and the kids as well, Mr. Scheffer is stripped of his teaching title over at the high school because of a late dicovery by the board of ed that Mr. Scheffer is an ex-convict. After being fired embarrassingly in front of all of his students, the kids end back in square one as their minds drift to the thought that Mr. Scheffer was only filling their minds with lies, how they can graduate become successful and get good jobs with their lives. With only a month and a half away from graduation, some on thin lines to graduating, meet a slump in which they end back at their original state not caring about their own education and such. Mr. Scheffer confronts the students in the streets one night, (partial amount of the kids, not entire class) about the fact that he was a convicted felon, but because he severely hurt an off-duty policeman for having found out he was sexually harassing one of his students. In an unfortunate timeline of events for Mr. Scheffer the policeman's higher power and word over his led to him being thrown in jail for a sentence of 2 years. While reaching out for forgiveness from his students, Mr. Scheffer wins back the hearts of his students. Still not allowed to teach them within the high school walls, does he begin to tutor them outside the school in order to complete their remaining High School time.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
HW 47 - Class Film Preparation 1
After reading another students blog to get an idea of what my classmates are thinking for this film, ive come to only one conclusion. It it that based on film reviews made by us on the films watched in class, only one element is used, role switching. Someone HAS to be saved, that is the idea, whether its from teacher to student or student to teacher. Why cant both parties be saved? Through the students change overcoming whatever oppressive scene we shoot, the teacher, after being seen as a well respected man who gains their trust, is realized to have his own problems just outside these school walls. Through ONE student's hopes to return what he has given him, they help the teacher to realize his own potential and give up whatever issues he has restraining him within to outstanding heights he can easily get to. (e.t. cheating husband, or dead son, hidden criminal record, or preaching to students that they can have it all but he lives in a dump on a measly salary, contradicting self)
but while writing this i have come up with a new idea, thats sort of how my brain works. As the students are exposed to this entirely new teacher, afar from the one of two they meet which are 1) either care too much 2) or doesnt care enough meets one who is in between. Only there for the paycheck, doesnt teach if they dont wanna learn, etc. In hopes of proving the teacher wrong that they arent entirely hopeless and have more potential than realized, they begin to show sparks of interest into the curriculum and shape up without him having to show pursuasion (secretely does). So as the students shape up the teacher begins to shape up and begins to appreciate his job, (possibly going to work drunk, begins to sober up)--last idea can be used for the first idea movie too!))
but while writing this i have come up with a new idea, thats sort of how my brain works. As the students are exposed to this entirely new teacher, afar from the one of two they meet which are 1) either care too much 2) or doesnt care enough meets one who is in between. Only there for the paycheck, doesnt teach if they dont wanna learn, etc. In hopes of proving the teacher wrong that they arent entirely hopeless and have more potential than realized, they begin to show sparks of interest into the curriculum and shape up without him having to show pursuasion (secretely does). So as the students shape up the teacher begins to shape up and begins to appreciate his job, (possibly going to work drunk, begins to sober up)--last idea can be used for the first idea movie too!))
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