Teacher Features

Regrettably, this week we watched the movie Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz. This movie was terrible. We both hated it. Even Jason Segel could not elevate this dumpster fire of a movie. But maybe we can learn something from this, right?

Cameron Diaz is Ms. Halsey. She wants to attract a rich husband, so she cooks up a contrived plot to get rich by cheating on a standardized test. It’s really dumb and makes no sense.

Most of the characters in this movie are without redeeming qualities. There were some well observed moments that rung true to us, but they were few and far between.

We’d love to hear your opinion about this movie. Let’s chat on Twitter or Facebook. Did any teacher actually like this movie? We would love to hear what you liked about it, because we struggled with this one.

October Sky is the story of a rocket-loving boy named Homer and the teacher who inspired him. The teacher is Ms. Riley, played by Laura Dern. We watched October Sky and did an evaluation on Ms. Riley.

This week we continued our discussion of Matilda and did a teacher evaluation of Agatha Trunchbull, aka The Trunchbull, the principal at Matilda’s school.

Ms. Trunchbull, a former Olympian, rules her school with an iron fist. Her towering figure and acerbic tongue strike fear into the hearts of her students and staff. A firm believer in corporal punishment, The Trunchbull does not tolerate anything less than full obedience. Her methods would certainly get her ousted from her position at the school – and probably incarcerated, but we were able to find a few positive things to say about this colorful character.

If you, like Kathryn, don’t know a lot about Olympic field events, specifically the hammer throw, check out this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_throw

If you love Bruce Bogtrotter as much as we did, and also like Rhianna, check out this great video: 

We would love to see the Matilda musical when it comes to Minneapolis this Spring, so if you want to go with us reach out on Facebook or Twitter.

For this episode we evaluated Ms. Honey, the loving primary school teacher from Matilda. Directed by Danny Devito, this adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic middle grade novel tells the story of a gifted young girl named Matilda. Matilda is a genius and when she goes to school her teacher immediately recognizes her gifts. However, the wicked principal, Ms. Trunchbull, is not supportive and runs her school like a weird children’s prison. To make things worse, Matilda’s parents are negligent and cruel. Matilda’s father makes a living cheating people at his car dealership, while her airhead mother fritters her days away at the Bingo Hall.

Ms. Honey is a loving, supportive teacher. It’s hard to say exactly how effective her methods are, as they’re not depicted, but we were able to draw conclusions based on what is shown.

Katherine had a particular affinity for this movie when she was a students because she sort of resembled Matilda. She had the same haircut when she was a kid.

If anyone wants to go see the musical version of Matilda, Jake and Katherine would really love to go with you. It combines so many of the things we love: teaching, kids books, musicals. It’s coming to Minneapolis soon. Maybe we’ll see you there.

 

 

In this special holiday episode we evaluate Ms. Shields from A Christmas Story. Shields is definitely old school – this movie takes place in the 30’s – but we can still apply some of her strategies in our modern classrooms.

Ms. Shields definitely has command of her students, but there are a few things we didn’t like about her methods.

Jake has some strong opinions about Elf of a Shelf. Katherine shares some ideas about how to share your personality and laugh with your kids.

For more about how terrible Elf on the Shelf is, read here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/plato-pop/201212/let-s-bench-the-elf-the-shelf

In this episode we watched Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and did an evaluation of Yoda’s teaching. Yoda isn’t a typical teacher like we’ve seen in the other movies we’ve reviewed. He’s doing a 1:1 Jedi training with Luke Skywalker. His methods may seem unconventional, but he gets results.

We went into a lot of detail about Yoda’s backstory. Kathryn brought a lot of fun facts. We also discussed growth mindset, teacher face, and dealing with whiny students.

Looking at the movie with a focus on the teaching made us wonder what Yoda would be like as a classroom teacher in his youth. We would love to see a teacher movie starring young Yoda.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about Yoda’s teaching. We’d also love more info about Yoda’s back story.

And hey, here’s a weird video of Yoda singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9TIC2jpBiU

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In this episode we discuss Dead Poets Society, the classic teacher movie starring Robin Williams as Mr. Keating. Mr. Keating is back at his alma mater as an English teacher, trying to give the prep school adolescent boys a good education. He inspires them to form the Dead Poets Society and seize the day.

We discuss how much a teacher is responsible for student actions outside of the classroom. We also discuss how to appeal to introverts and extroverts in an educational setting. There’s also a lot of talk about how terrible Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles) is. He’s the worst.

We’d love to hear what you thought of our evaluation. Find us on Facebook or Twitter to talk about the episode.

 

For this episode we watched Mean Girls and evaluated Tina Fey’s character, Ms. Norbury. Ms. Norbury is not the main character in the movie, so we had less evidence to base her evaluation on than movies in which the teacher is the focus. She has far less screen time than teachers in other movies in which the teacher is the focus of the story.

Despite not being the protagonist, Ms. Norbury plays an important role in the film. We talk about how Ms. Norbury builds relationships with her students and holds them to high standards. We also discuss how teachers can go above and beyond to improve the school community.

Here are some links related to Mean Girls and our discussion of Ms. Norbury:

Youth Frontiers

Queen Bees and Wannabes

Ms. Norbury The Hero 

For this episode we watched Mona Lisa Smile (2003) to evaluate Julia Roberts’ character, Katherine Watson. Ms. Watson is an art history professor at a prestigious women’s college, but her progressive beliefs rub a lot of students, parents, and faculty the wrong way. Katherine has to navigate through her first year teaching in a place where her views make her an outsider.

In this show we talk about what it’s like to hold different beliefs than the community in which you teach, and whether or not those beliefs have a place in the classroom. We also talk about how to deal with disrespectful students – is it better to smack them down in a public confrontation or find a diplomatic, private approach? What if that student is Kirsten Dunst?

We hope you enjoy the show! If you agree or disagree about our take, please let us know on Facebook or Twitter. We love to talk to listeners.

In this episode we evaluate Jack Black’s character Dewey Finn (aka Ned Schneebly) the movie School of Rock (2003) .

In the film, Dewey Finn (Jack Black) poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school. He decides to toss aside conventional curriculum and teach the kids how to be a rock band. Things get tricky when it’s discovered that Dewey isn’t who he claimed to be and the parents disapprove of the rock and roll class.

In our discussion we touch on using external motivation in the classroom, the power of arts education, and swearing at school.

After you listen to the show, please let us know how you would evaluate Dewey Finn as a teacher. Whether you agree or disagree with our take, chat with us on Twitter or Facebook. We would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for listening!