Precious movie..

The movie “Precious,” released in theaters in late 2009 and based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire, is not only a captivating story, but is a commentary on childhood trauma, its long term effects, and the power of resilience. Claireece Precious Jones (played by Gabourey Sidibe) is a 16 year-old illiterate African American teen who lives in Harlem with her dysfunctional mother Mary (played by Mo’Nique). The family is on welfare, and lives in a drug-infested neighborhood. Precious is subjected to verbal and physical abuse by her mother, and sexual abuse by both parents. She has two children that are the result of incest by her father.Throughout the film we see the variety of consequences that Precious’ abuse is having on her emotional well-being.

As a teacher, we need to be connected to the students. For example, in Precious' case, she suffered emotional trauma that she tends to daydream and cannot pay attention in class. Luckily she found a teacher who understands and helps her.

Chalk movie....

An improvisational take on the high school experience, told from the educators' point-of-view. Chalk rides on some well observed lessons in pain by a small group of teachers at Harrison High. The movie offers some modest, amusing and true lessons about teaching, an honorable profession. Chalk's aim is to clue you in why 50% of teachers quit within the first three years. Chalk is a message from the horse’s mouth, and is thereby humorously instructive without ever becoming sarcastic or judgmental. The movie has 'heart' in a way that doesn't feel cloying or dishonest. The movie touches the heart at times, and sometimes the scenes feel so real that you just gasped..

Finding Forrester movie

In Finding Forrester, Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown), a young African American high school student at the Bronx, is invited to join an exclusive private high school because of his high tests scores. One day, Jamal's basketball friends dare him to walk into “The Widow's” house. The Widow is actually William Forrester (Sean Connery), a well known author that is thought to be dead or missing. William Forrester lives as a recluse; when Jamal walks into William's house, William scares Jamal with a knife and Jamal runs off, leaving his backpack behind.

When Jamal returns to retrieve his backpack, he finds that all his pieces of writing were commented on. After Jamal's attempt to retrieve his backpack, Jamal goes and asks William if William could help improve his writing skills. William made a deal that if he helped Jamal with his writing, Jamal would keep William's identity a secret, never to take the writing that he does out of his house, and never ask anything about William's family.

Throughout this movie, Jamal and William get to know each other better and they become friends. At Jamal's new school, the exclusive private school, he is accused of plagiarism by his English teacher. The English teacher highly doubted that Jamal's piece of writing was really his and not plagiarized.

Overall, Finding Forrester is a great movie that interlace with the theme of friendship. The time Jamal spent with William made them trust each other to keep promises, such as Williams'.

Lean on Me movie

An extraordinary situation calls for an extraordinary solution. At strife-torn Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, that solution had a name: Principal "Crazy Joe" Clark. With a bullhorn in one hand and a baseball bat in the other, he slammed the door on losers at Eastside. Brought in as a last resort to stop the state government from taking control of the school, Clark chained the doors shut to keep troublemakers OUT and achievers IN. Parents fought him. Teachers resented him. Even his own boss doubted him. But lots of kids loved him. Clark turned Eastside around, appearing on the cover of "Time Magazine" and becoming a national symbol of tough-love education. "If you don't succeed in life," Clark tells his students, "don't blame your backgrounds. Don't blame the Establishment. Blame YOURSELVES." His message is simple: Don't lean on excuses, drugs, crime, or anger. LEAN ON ME...and learn.

It's quite funny when Principal Clark said:
"They used to call me Crazy Joe. Well now they can call me Batman!"

Principal Clark is eccentric in expressing his way of educating. But he is a man with vision, determined to educate the students. This movie reminds me of the Japanese series "GTO" where the teacher is also an eccentric man, but with a kind heart.

An hour with Mr Vaheed

Dr Jaya always do his lectures in the one hour lecture. But this time, Mr Vaheed came, along with KFC boxes in plastic bags. We were excited truthfully, looking at those KFC boxes (luckily I haven't had my meal yet at that time). Mr Vaheed gave a lecture on Effective Argumentation writing that day, an extra info for us in writing our position paper. I found it useful, because in the position paper, we need to stand our ground, and to use effective sentences in persuading the readers. Not only we got extra tips for the position paper, we also got a free meal thanks to Dr Jaya and the tutors, in celebrating Eid (we have to admit that we were still in celebration mode that day)! =P

Research? *gasps*

When I say 'research' it doesn't mean all those scientific approaches, respondents, hypothesis and interviews. Thankfully. We need to do a mini research, and it's about literature. I get to do an analysis on a book that I really enjoyed reading. It's a relief that I got Dr. Ghazali as my supervisor, because he sure is nice and really lenient. My research's title is "INTERPRETATION OF THE CHARACTER ‘LOUIS DE POINTE DU LAC’ IN THE NOVEL INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE BY ANNE RICE". I enjoy doing this research very much because it's like, at last, doing something that I really enjoy even though it's still an academic paper.. at least I get to do on something which I love. I've been collecting Anne's Rice novels for fun, and now I get to do something academic with them. Vampires = fun! =D

The Ron Clark story

The Ron Clark Story tells the life of a North Carolina grade school teacher with an amazing record of success with students; his unique teaching style brings out the best in even the worst students and he tests his mettle in one of the toughest classrooms in America. Having achieved great success with students in his local school system, Ron believes that he can do much more good outside of his small home town, so he moves to New York City, hoping to teach underprivileged kids in the inner city. But being Caucasian is a drawback in Harlem and none of the New York City public schools will hire him. Here Clark exhibits one of his strongest traits: he never gives up, not on his students and not on getting hired. He knows he can make a difference if given the chance. Destiny intervenes one day when he observes a teacher getting rough with a student who is trying to leave campus. The teacher fights with the school's principal and quits, giving Clark the opportunity to let his availability be known. At first he is ignored but finally the principal decides to give him a chance. He is given a class that includes what everyone considers to be the "losers," the worst students in the school. They have the lowest grades, are the most unruly, and the least achieving. But Ron Clark sees potential in every child and will not give up on them. He gives them more than an education and a desire to keep on learning; he gives each one the knowledge that they do matter, and that when they put their hearts and minds to it, they can achieve anything. It is an exceptionally inspiring movie, which shows the determination of a teacher and how important it is to connect with the students.