Try and Maybe Fail.

I've been thinking of an appropriate post topic and I think I would like to talk about my last lesson of the week, which was period 4 Friday afternoon. There are times where new experiences humble me but I have never been humbled or perhaps forced to witness the total unraveling of my classroom before my eyes, I type this because I was naive of the day to day problems that face teachers in the Public sector. Now I won't go into detail about the school I am placed at but lets just say it's in a suburb that isn't well off and is also trapped between two low Socio-Economic Status areas. It is very much a victim of its surroundings, my experience so far has at times been challenging with students that don't care for school or anyone that wants to help them for that matter. But last period Friday afternoon, was home to aggressive and bully like behavior from eight year 8 students towards teachers and their class mates alike. Constant actions that were by nature undermining class respect for the teacher as well as control over the class. This has ultimately lead me to my philosophical problem of where do I go from here?

At times I do think some students are pure Evil.

I posed this question to myself and to some of my colleagues, and was answered with "everyone has a bad lesson once and a while", to which I do agree with, but upon further reflection I have asked myself if students that are repeat offenders for what can only be described as continues disruptive, aggressive and bullying behavior be given any kind of pity? I ask this question because these eight students in particular have and continue to be trouble for the majority of the staff, at times I have thought that the behavior of the violent minority should never have priority over the majority of the students in the class who want to work and learn. I'm sure that this comment will upset other teachers, because we as teachers should never give up but I often wonder that all the time, effort and love of teaching we invest in problem students means that someone else is missing out. And it's typically the middle ground of students who are neither brilliant or violent. So why should they be denied a better education for the sake of a minority, who quite frankly don't care and go out of their way to show you that they are proud of it? 

I don't intend to give up on these eight students, so do not think me heartless, but there are times I do ask, what if there are others who are far more deserving of that same time and effort, I so readily give to challenging behavior.

  

Study Video Games In The Classroom.

I have often thought about where Video Games fit in Society, like the range of titles as well as the genres themselves we push these games into convenient yet one dimensional categories, like Predator of Children, Scapegoat for civil violence/disobedience and Virtual babysitter. But have we ever stopped to consider Popular Video Games as a topic of study in Education, similar to the way we look at literature and film as text, now I'm not referring to those lovely educational games that we used in high school to teach us how to touch type. No I refer to titles like Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft and other popular titles, which means the study of the Conceptual underpinnings of Video Games and by extension the culture that comes with it. Now I know what you're probably thinking "oh LJN how dare you compare Video Games to Art, you're so crazy, thinking you can discuss Video Games beyond the Programming classroom". In which I reply with "why the hell not?"

  Ayn Rand would be rolling in her Grave........

Video Games can be discussed in the classroom from all different Method perspectives, for instance Objectivist underpinnings and the use of  post WWII Art Deco to convey ideas of Grand Vision, in the Video Game BioShock. You could possibly go further and compare both BioShock to its sequel BioShock 2 as virtual perspectives on Objectivism vs Altruism in a Philosophy class about issues of Utopia and Dystopia. Or you could go look at the pros and cons discovered in the Virtual self through interactive Avatar based environments like Second Life, World of Warcraft and Eve, better yet discussions of virtual currencies in reality based Economics is bound to be fun.

                        
Before you laugh and make some kind of joke about WOW click the link below

THIS LINK

Make a Movie!

I'm slightly embarrassed to type that I haven't really thought about implementing Movie Making in the classroom, it might be because I haven't had an opportunity in placements. But I have thought about this at great length while I was at lunch and believe I'm making excuses for being narrow minded and not thinking like a teacher when I see movie making programs. And I'm willing to call out other teachers, who still believe that Movie Making has no place in the Humanities classroom. Movie Making is a fantastic task that contains a clear set of Objectives, Roles and at the end has a completed effort where all the hard work can be seen. I won't go into too much detail but think about the roles of a Director, Costume designer, Lighting expert and etc. These are all complicated roles that can be discussed as well as questioned before, during and after the process of Movie making; which is vital to observing whether or not the student understands the task. But it is also important to remember that a task as exciting and involving as movie making is going to force personalities to rub up against each other.

 

Warning: Students may exhibit furious anger during this task......

Now that the justification for Movie Making is complete, lets discuss some the creative ideas for respective topics. When I use the term Movie, I don't use the term definitively, documentaries or news broadcasts are both equally valid when setting up Humanities projects. For instance a documentary response to this article by Andrew Bolt (I could say something witty about him and his values but you know..........is there really any point) http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_cameron_is_right_and_multiculturalism_has_failed/  . Or a theatrical response to the political underpinnings of Ayn Rand's Objectivism. There is a reason why I continue to place an emphasis on Response, student's interpreting data and then creating a response can be useful when observing signs that infer critical thinking.

 

There are a lot of people who wish they had thought of this earlier.

Today's entry will only be a short one, so I leave you with a request rather than a quote, read through the blog by Bolt and then scroll down to the comments. Even these comments can be used in the Humanities classroom, whether you agree with them or not, they still provide interesting and diverse data for students.