Monday, September 27, 2010

Chalk

The movie we watched this week entitled Chalk. This is a film written and directed by teachers, from the teachers' perspective on the High School experience. As its premise it uncovers why 50% of teachers quit teaching within the first three years.
Chalk is a 2006 comedy mockumentary about teaching focusing on the lives of three teachers and one assistant principal. It stars Chris Mass as Mr. Stroope and Troy Schremmer as Mr. Lowrey. It is directed by Mike Akel. The movie is based on both Akel's and Mass' real life experiences in the teaching profession.The film takes the course of an entire school year and describes three teachers and one assistant principal. Mr. Stroope is campaigning for Teacher of the Year but many of his students are a little bit smarter than him. Mr. Lowrey is an introverted history teacher struggling to find passion for his profession. Coach Webb (played by Janelle Schremmer) is a female gym teacher who is struggling to get her students to take her class seriously, and becomes interested in Mr. Lowrey. Mrs. Reddell (Shannon Haragan) is the first year assistant principal who is regretting leaving teaching.( wikipedia).
Problems is something we cant hinder although we are involving in other profession then teaching
Although there will be various troubles that teachers have to in their teaching profession, but with the courage and determination by each teacher to face any problems will make them more than able to shape each of their student to be good individuals in the future.

First class after semester break

The first class after the raya breaks was really informative class. I was wondering that time why Mr. Vahid was there because usually Dr.Jaya will conduct Tuesday class and everything seems different that day. I just remain silent because want to know what going to happen later on. Miss. Alicia told us that Mr. Vahid going to give us speech on Effective Argumentation writing and this make everyone pay attention where we have to use this method to come out with our position paper later on. In this session Mr.Vahid gave us explanation about what is Argumentative writing and the purpose of argumentative writing in the beginning. Later he explains the elements of arguments where here he provided few details on it. In the following slide he gave example of good argument which it involve of claim, data warrant, backing, rebuttal and qualifier where most of this term are new to me . I never heard most of the term and these sessions really benefit me by knowing new terms. He also gave explanation on how to argue on the issue effectively, the aspects that needs and so on. We also did few exercises on determining the claim, data, link, backing, rebuttal and qualifier in it where I felt it’s really challenging but with the help of Mr.Vahid finally I managed to do it. We also given explanation on argumentative writing checklist where in this checklist stated clearly the points will give for argumentation, organization, language and overall effectiveness. At the end of the class, each of us gets KFC which was sponsored by Dr.Jaya as a Hari Raya treat.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Finding Forester

This is actually a nice movie where the story is really interesting but weakness of this movie is the movement of this movie is quiet slow and the language assents that used is quiet hard to understand and not able to enjoy the movie. This movie is about Jamal Wallace an inner-city kid from the Bronx who has an aptness at basketball and a genius at writing. Jamal Wallace who scored exceptionally high on a state wide standardized exam and being an exceptionally good basketball player is sent to a prestigious prep school in Manhattan. He soon befriends the reclusive writer, William Forrester. While always a C student, Jamal comes to the attention of a prestigious New York prep school when he scores highly on his standardized tests. While Jamal is given a heavy load at his new school, both he and the school know that the real reason they took him on is for his prowess on the court. Befriended by fellow student Claire and helped along by Pulitzer-prize winning author and recluse William Forrester, Jamal pursues his dreams both on and off the court while overcoming obstacles placed by his bitter literature teacher. As Jamal is shaped by Forrester, he finds that he is changing the old writer as well, forcing him to confront his past...and his future. The friendship leads to William to overcome his reclusiveness and for Jamal to overcome the racial prejudices and pursue his true dream - writing. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181536/plotsummary)
This movie can be an inspiration for those who have interest in writing but afraid of the comments that other people give on their artistic work, where here their affective filter hinder them to move forward, so they way this story portrayed could change their mind and continue their writing without bothering others comments on them.

Lean On Me

A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students (or "pupils") under the supervision of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools. Schools surrounding should be comfort enough for the students to enable them get a proper education and successful in their life. The behavior of the students should be good enough where they should respect their teacher who provides them knowledge and teacher should guide and lead their students to good way. They also should provide adequate knowledge to students so they able to survive and successful in their later life.
Lean On Me is about a school in Paterson, New Jersey, is ridden by many problems like drugs and gang violence. The major problem, however, is the imminent threat lurking on the school, of being overtaken by the New Jersey state government, unless the students improve their score in the basic skills test conducted by the state itself. The movie begins with a sequence where the students go rough with the principal because he tries to intervene to stop a fight. The mayor asks the school superintendent for help, following the brawl. He suggests that they appoint the controversial Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman) as the school principal, who had served in the capacity of a teacher at the East side High some 20 years ago.

When Clark arrives, he shakes things up by expelling scores of rogue students and calling the teachers incompetent. He also fires those teachers who disagree with him, with one of his firing orders reversed by the Superintendent himself. A lot of people despise Clark him initially. However, with time, his effective, though a bit extreme efforts of saving the schools gains the respect of some of the teachers and the students. Clark is arrested in the later part of the movie after the mayor and some of his opponents conspire against him. The entire student body, at this juncture, rallies behind him and demand his release. In the end, Clark wins, with the students passing their basic skills exam.
This is one of the best movie where its really shows that the successful of the administration and scoring of the students in exams is all depend on the way how the principal lead the school.

Akeelah and the bee

Do you ever notice those small kids able to perform better than our expectation towards them? This seems that their thinking had been matured and they able to perform better as their elders and can say even much better than them. This is the thing we usually refer s as special gift that receive by selected people from god. There are also have other factors which could make a person to be intelligent, here are some of the factors where it involve determination, courage and interest also hardworking for sure could lead a person to be a great person one day.
Akeelah and the bee is about a girl who is eleven year-old named Akeelah Anderson's where her life is not easy: her father is dead, her mom ignores her, her brother runs with the local gangbangers. She's smart, but her environment threatens to strangle her aspirations. Responding to a threat by her school's principal, Akeelah participates in a spelling bee to avoid detention for her many absences. Much to her surprise and embarrassment, she wins. Her principal asks her to seek coaching from an English professor named Dr. Larabee for the more prestigious regional bee. As the possibility of making it all the way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee looms, Akeelah could provide her community with someone to rally around and be proud of -- but only if she can overcome her insecurities and her distracting home life. She also must get past Dr. Larabee's demons, and a field of more experienced and privileged fellow spellers. Here the situation is Akeelah, already feeling isolated from many in her school because of being perceived as a "brainiac", feels that participating in such will make her feel even more isolated. But her joy in learning new words at least gets her started in the process. After easily winning the school's spelling bee, she meets and befriends Javier Mendez, a competitor at the Los Angeles district bee where most of the competitors come from primarily white middle class to wealthy families. There, she learns about the nature of spelling bee life in all its good and bad, the latter which includes the cutthroat world of competitor parents. Akeelah learns she needs a coach, hers to be in the form of former spelling bee competitor and UCLA English Department Chair Dr. Joshua Larabee, who teaches Akeelah not only the rote memorization of typical spelling bee words, but how to use English in all its glorious facets. Akeelah progresses further and further into spelling bee life without telling her widowed mother Tanya, who sees the bees as impinging into time in her other school work. Other challenges that Akeelah faces are trying to balance working on her spelling against time with her friends, and handling the hopes and dreams of all of South Los Angeles on her shoulders (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437800/plotsummary)
This movie inspires me a lot where it tells me that every students is equipped with some special talents so it’s actually depend on the teacher how the teacher find out their talents and take the responsibility to brush up the student to be a successful person in the field they are talented in.

The Ron Clark Story

This movie tells us the consequences that could happen in school where there are different characters of students with different behavior and how a teacher could manage this situation and educate his or her students. Here i learn something really i learned something worth full in the end of the movie where i concern patience is the main key factor for a teacher successfully handles his classroom situation. The patience that he showed really impressed me where the attitude of the students is really miserable and any other teacher for sure not able be that much patience and be nice to their students all the while
The Ron Clark Story follows the inspiring tale of an energetic, creative and idealistic young teacher who leaves his small North Carolina hometown to teach in a New York City public school. Through his passionate use of special rules for his classroom, highly innovative teaching techniques and an undying devotion to his students and helping them cope with their problems; Clark is able to make a remarkable difference in the lives of his students. For one young girl trying to attend school while helping to raise her siblings, he offers a chance for her to overcome her situation and become the top student of the class. For a young man with a penchant for graffiti, he offers an ideal outlet for artistic expression. Even when he is almost overcome by pneumonia, Clark continues to work with his students, hoping that he can raise their test scores to an acceptable level, or possibly even higher. However, when Mr Clark returns, he finds out his class did not deliver the goods but he remains optimistic about their chances. The kids sit in the state exams and a few days later, Mr Clark takes the kids to see the Phantom of Opera. In the end, Principal Turner reveals that Mr Clark's class got the highest average (they got a higher score than the honor class) in the state and Mr Clark was regarded by his students as their best teacher in the world ( Wikipedia)
This is really a good movie and i felt every teacher should watch this movie where i concern this movie taught us a lot of valuable things to be considered and applied in life. This movie teaches me that whatever kind of students we get as a teacher, the initiative that teacher put is the important factor to make the students success in their life and also in exams by scoring good result. One of the wonderful thing is although the teacher was fall in sick and he make teaching by the pre –recorded and the video able to manage the classroom where the instruction and the way the teacher handle the class were really effective example the way teacher point a students through video to pay attention that make the student sit properly and pay attention. The rapped song he create to make his able to remember all the name of the Presidents is really remarkable. To conclude this movie is a wonderful movie and everybody both teachers and students should watch this movie where its really provide valuable stuffs.

Love marriage or arranged marriage

Lets get to the point what is arranged marriage and love marriage all about. A love marriage is a union of two individuals based upon mutual love, affection, commitment and attraction. Arranged marriage (also called prearranged marriage) is a marriage arranged by someone other than the couple getting wedded, curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship (Wikipedia). Which one is better? Now lets have a look on what people say about this issue. This is the real situation of arranged marriage where usually the parents or some elderly person comes up with a proposal for marriage and then they go through the horoscopes, educational qualifications, physical, chemistry, biology, family backgrounds / history and all kinds of stuffs and then finally the acceptance from the boy and the girl. Some are really forced to get married according to the wish of their parents or elders. In fact they have to sacrifice their life for the sake of keeping their parents happy.
This is the scenario of love marriage, when a boy fall in love with a girl who matches his likes or a girl likes a boy and they becomes friend. The friendship may grow more closer and at one stage if they feel comfortable with each other, they may decide to become life partners. In most of the cases, all these happens without the knowledge of their parents. When the stage comes to get married or if a the girl or the boy is forced to get married to another person, these things come out. Some parents may take it positively and may agree to go ahead with the proposal have will end up with a ceremonial wedding. But in most of the cases, they lose the support from their parents and with the help of their friends, they are forced to go for a registered wedding and end up separating from their family.
There are advantages and disadvantages or both marriages. First we going to have a look on the advantages and disadvantages of arranged marriage. When its an arrange marriage, the parents do support the relationship and they try their best to keep the relationship live as it is their responsibility too. Arranged marriages are good, if you believe in astrology and horoscope In arranged marriage, the boy and girl will be from the same religion and caste, so they have the life style, food and culture. In arranged marriages, the girl is more protected as the parents care for a girl who married according to their wish. There are also few disadvantage that i able to find out first point is they don’t know the person or they may even not like the person if the have go married because their parents and elders decided their marriage. Most of the cases the girl is forced to sacrifice their likes and adjust to the reality. Some may just live their life it goes believing its their fate and their parents are happy, but some break up. Some start their love life after the wedding and really enjoy and are happy.
Here are the information about the advantages and disadvantages of love marriage. Love marriage is a legal right for two individuals who care and love for each other to live together and go ahead with their life. In love marriage, you know each other well, you are not going to be with any stranger or you may not have much problems if you know about the person well before you decide to spend your life together. A love marriage can become un-successful, if you had a very short time time know each other and just decided to get married. If you are knowing each other well and you are sure that you can get along with each other without any problems then you can decide to get married. In short the advantage of going for a love marriage is that you are going to live your life with a person who you know well and you are sure that you can get along well
Its not easy to go for a love marriage. You need to first fall in love with someone and that person should like you as well. It takes time to know each other and both of you should feel comfortable with each other. Decide to get married to a person who loves you more than you love that person. In many cases I have seen that one person is badly in love with the other person, but not vise versa. Never force somebody to love you and get married, you should give sufficient time to the other person whom you love to know you more and you should take sufficient time to learn your partner well before you both come to a decision to live together.( taken from Kishore’s blog)
To conclude whatever marriage it is understanding gives n take, truthful and respect to each other’s opinion is the golden keys to maintain a good relationships