Skip to main content

Uncertainty

So much has been going on - I feel like I'm barely teaching any more. Of course, that may have something to do with whole students teaching about The Hobbit Project. Also helped by the fact that it was 4 day week and we had one fire drill, one bomb threat plus a 2 hour anti-sex assembly (actually, it was quite funny and the kids loved it). And I went with the seniors to the opera - Florencia in the Amazons - great ending and boy was I glad to see it. Not much on plot and the beautiful young journalist falls in love with what looks like to be a short guy with a pot belly? Long story short... I was hardly there.

I've been showing Fahrenheit 451 to my sophomore class. Hysterical. Hands down, the funniest futuristic movie since Logan's Run. The story line is somewhat close to the book, but not enough to substitute for those slackers who don't read. The firemen are dressed in black nazi style uniforms (prompting several allusions to Space Balls) and their fire truck looks to be from about 1938. The wall screens are rendered as today's simple flat screen tv, which was a bit confusing to the students. Not futuristic at all for them. For some reason, the director has included several scenes where the actors rub themselves or their clothes. They all get this heroin high look on their faces, so I'm guessing it's supposed to indicate their loss of texture in their lives without books. To all the boys in the class it meant people are rubbing themselves... and when one character starts rubbing her collar bone, they all thought she was rubbing her boob. A strangled "uh!" was heard before they all started giggling. (note to self: don't show movies after assemblies about teen sex... especially if you borrow the tape from the alternative program).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

“They Don’t Get It”

I hear that a lot these days. It used to be mostly from various teens trying to negotiate the drama unfolding in their lives as they wandered into that no-man’s land between adult and child. These days it’s from adults trying to navigate the education scene these days. So many people talking and no one listening. The other day I was reading a post by a blogger I’ve been following for several years. Before there was such a thing as “blogging.” We all know spring is IEP review season. This blogger wrote about his daughter’s. Among the various elements, there was the discussion about the state assessment tests. She did not pass. There was discussion about what this means… and why said student needed to pass this test. Would she be taking a modified test? While reading, all I could think about was what would happen to that child as she entered middle school and high school. A history of not passing the assessment test vs. teachers who will now be evaluated on how many students pass t...

The Cruelest Month

I know T.S. Eliot favored April as the most cruel, but we teachers know that May is… even more so these days. Most importantly, it is the final testing month. National ‘assessments, state ‘assessments’, district ‘assessments’, school ‘assessments’… on and on. It’s impossible to actually get anything done. Toss in graduation activities, planning for the upcoming year and the 2011 bonus, lay-offs and transfers, and you have to wonder if it wouldn’t be better to save money by simply shutting down school entirely except for a few test proctors. Meanwhile, there seems an air of hopelessness permeating the education world. Plans to lay-off thousands are coming to fruition. Schools are being closed, despite protests. Charters are increasing where they can whether they should not. Unions have lost a lot ground and teachers are trying to decide if it’s even worth it any more to continue talking about education . ( not that I blame anyone for that, we all have lives to live ) For myself, I...

Campaign Promises

While purusing the Sunday paper, I came across an article describing some local candidate forum held over the weekend. Apprently they either weren't able to say a lot or what they said was pretty boring because the article was skimpy on specifics. What caught my eye was a position of Randy Dutton. He wants "higher standards for teachers." My interest was piqued... what kind of standards? In looking at his website, apparently those standards will be raised by carrying a gun to school, finally; "full days of school"-whatever that means - personally I'd love to put in business hours. No more 5 am wake ups; increasing the number of k-8 schools - because those kindergartners don't swear enough; sending disruptive students to placed like Habit for Humanity - babysitting is what people volunteer for; and teaching more American History- too bad that with all the testing, no one ever gets past the Civil War... I'm not sure how any of these apply to teachers, ...