Let's root for the creepy guy

I just watched Win a Date with Tad Hamilton (2004), and am bothered by the ending. Main character Rosalee dates celebrity Tad Hamilton while her best friend Pete pines away. At the end of the movie, she finally finds out that Pete is in love with her, and that she loves him back.

Sure, the underdog wins and that's usually great, but this best friend is creepy:

• He tells Rosalee (in a misogynistic way) that Tad only wants to sleep with her, and that she's “asking for it”

• He looks up movie times to check when Tad and Rosalee finish their date, then calls Rosalee's dad so see if she's home yet

• He calls the police on Tad and Rosalee (illegally parked) so their make-out session is interrupted

• As Rosalee's boss, he tries to make her work the late shift so she can't go out with Tad

Verdict: wtf.

Talking Heads

I use to idolize documentaries. They investigate pressing social questions whose answers affect all of us. You see places you might not otherwise see, you meet people you wouldn't otherwise meet. PBS documentaries were the pinnacle of film as a medium, in my eyes.

My high school students think documentaries are boring. They see old “experts” talking and using big words, and it doesn't bring topics alive for them. So they don't get excited when I bring film into the classroom by showing a documentary.

They've helped me see that, yeah, documentaries are kind of boring. Most of them follow a standard format in presenting their subject, even a standard aesthetic. If you can predict the shots that go into a film you've never seen or even heard of, it's not very artistic.

Rebel is a documentary that goes beyond the typical components of a PBS documentary. Instead of blurry re-enactments where you can't see actors' faces, you get high-definition, color scenes where actors actually talk. Not perfectly accurate historically, maybe. But traditional documentary storytelling needs to evolve, or people like my students are not going to find them relevant or exciting.

Teaching with Technology

Attended a workshop today about using technology in the classroom. One of the coolest discoveries was the Student News Action Network, an online journal run by high school students from six international schools. Very impressive work!

Also discovered TeacherTube, a video resource for teachers. They have things like this video about two people on an escalator:



If only my school had more technology available to both teachers and students...

No pedagogy here

Getting my teaching license this year has made me think a lot about pedagogy, and I've come to the realization that the classes I've taken have been designed poorly.

Pedagogy means setting learning goals and planning a course to meet those goals. Lectures offer content transfer. That makes us more knowledgeable about a certain topic, if we absorb it successfully, but it doesn't necessarily make us better writers or thinkers. Section has the chance to push us further, but often consists of more lecturing or a poorly facilitated discussion.

Most professors and graduate students are not teachers. They are here to be intellectuals, and teach future generations of intellectuals (maybe), but their primary vocation is not teacher. And they don't act like teachers. I have met a number of graduate students who don't know what to do when a student struggles with the material. There's also the attitude that students deemed less intelligent or unprepared aren't worth dealing with. If grade school teachers all reacted this way, we would be in trouble.

Of course college students should learn more independently than high school students. But that shouldn't be because our classes have poor (or no) pedagogy. Good pedagogy also requires students to think and prepare on their own, but supports that process. College learning has felt a lot like "sink or swim."

Twilight New Moon: Hilarious

I legitimately wanted to watch New Moon, expecting an odd plot but good cinematography. This perception was based solely on Death Cab for Cutie's music video for the movie, "Meet Me on the Equinox." (Watch the video here.) The scenery looks beautiful, and the music video creates a dramatic depiction of (what seems) the two main characters' attempted suicides, with a cliffhanger ending. I love this music video.

Unfortunately, the scenes cut for the music video were a lot cooler out of context than they were in context. Most of the film is watching Bella (Kristen Stewart)'s self-destructive path after Edward (Robert Pattinson) leaves. I was also bothered by the idea that both boyfriend candidates are afraid of killing her, yet this fear is construed as romantic. Abusive relationship #1 or #2?

There were things I enjoyed, however. My favorite scene: After Bella hits her head, Jacob says, "It's only blood," and takes off his shirt to wipe off the blood. This shot has become famous, as has Taylor Lautner's 17-year-old body. I thought I would be uncomfortable watching shirtless teenagers who are unnaturally muscled, but it was actually just hilarious. Sorry to the people in the theater with me, you were probably trying to enjoy it.

Verdict: If you're into the books, you might enjoy New Moon, but Buffy and True Blood are by far my favorite vampire stories.

Avatar: Colors of the wind

I saw Avatar last week in Imax 3D, and had to weigh in. It offers a visually intense experience that is drawing so many people to the theaters, James Cameron might beat his own record in box office sales. (Titanic is still #1.) The technology is amazing; there's no arguing with that.

I was distracted from the visuals, however, because the entire first half of the movie felt like Pocahontas. Daughter of the chief shows the outsider around, explaining that all beings are connected and we shouldn't kill for sport. Woman falls in love with him instead of her intended mate, the couple gets the blessing of a spiritual tree. The centrality of trees in the native culture and their subsequent destruction reminds me of Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest. The chief's death resembles the Tarzan scene when Kerchak dies. Dances with Wolves is another strong reference. Avatar feels like the amalgamation of several movies about indigenous people fighting against white people.

A couple things about Avatar's plot are less cliche. Rarely are women portrayed as warriors, even less often as military leaders. The female lead, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), is the one to teach the male lead, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), how to fight, ride a horse equivalent, etc., and they meet when she saves him from vicious panther-like animals. Unfortunately, her badass skills disappear for most of the final battle until they're needed to save the male lead again.

The movie also brings up an interesting question of reality. Avatar, in the context of video games, refers to a character that you control within a game; it has nothing to do with reality. In the film, avatars are real beings connected to their human controller, and everything they do has consequences in the real world. Jake starts out with the video game mentality, excited that his avatar can walk while he is paralyzed, and his avatar becomes a better version of him. But the easy solution at the end is to just end the human version and live full-time as a native. Seems like an interesting theme wasted.

Verdict: Cool technology, potentially interesting plot that ends up feeling like Pocahontas.