Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Chalk

I really liked the first half of the movie Chalk. I enjoyed the sarcastic tone throughout the movie. It helped emphasize how ridiculous the things the teachers were saying and doing actually were. I teacher never tells a student to not say so much in class because they are smarter than the teacher or just walks out on a class because they are frustrated. The movie really showed that not just anyone can be a teacher which I was really glad to see because I get crap all the time about "those who can't do teach". Someone who was a computer engineer can't just be put in a history classroom and expect to be able to teach the class. They need people skills (which the teacher in the movie didn't have at all!) and they need to be an expert in the content area that they teach. Just because you are smart doesn't mean you can actually teach and get through to students. Yes, anyone can go up in front of a class and ramble on while the students are falling asleep and daydreaming, but NOT just anyone can go up in front of the class and engage the students for the whole class period. That takes education, talent, and HEART. I can't wait to finish up Chalk next week to see what else they make fun of in the teaching world to get the point about teaching across!

1 comment:

Samantha McCamy said...

Well...I took a whole different spin on things from this movie, but Dana brings up a lot of really good points about how this is showing that not everyone can teach. Some people make fun of teachers and say that the reason we don't get paid very much is because it's not that hard of a job, but think about the time put into it. This isn't one of those jobs where when you leave the building you leave the job, it is with you everywhere you go, weighing on your mind almost 24/7. I know growing up my mom had several late night phone calls from parents. And when a student would do poorly on a test she would sit and try to figure why or how to help, it's not like someone fails your class and you just say ok, guess they will have to get it the next time around.