Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Chalk


After watching the first half of Chalk, I fell in love with the movie. It mixed realistic situations that teachers go through with humor. Although I was laughing through the majority of the movie, I found myself analyzing all of the characters and their situations.

Mr. Stroope is the teacher wanting "teacher of the year," but he faces difficulty differentiating between the students being his friend and being a disciplinarian. Thus far, the movie depicts that he struggles with organization, preparation (turning in lessons plans on time) and disciplining his students. The strange thing is that he reminds me of some of my teachers in high school. They were fun, but I didn't learn a whole lot because they weren't very prepared.

Coach Webb is considered to be the "pushy" one. She seems to engage her student well and offers a wide variety of activities. However, she seems to cross the line when it comes to co-worker relations. She pulled a teacher out of her classroom to point out that the teacher was not enforcing the 'tardiness' rule. This is not her place. If she notices that a teacher isn't enforcing a rule, she should speak to a principal, who can talk to the teacher. I think it was demeaning to pull that teacher out of her classroom. The students notice what goes on and they will pick up on what teacher is well-respected.

Mr. Lowrey is the history teacher who doesn't have a teaching degree and does not have classroom management skills. The good thing is that he knows this. It is good that he is attempting to get better at managing the students. I look forward to see if he becomes one of the better teachers at the school.

These are my thoughts on Chalk right now. More is to come as a watch the ending.

1 comment:

bdepperson said...

I thought "Chalk" was hilarious! Yet at the same time, it was very revealing on some of the issues teachers deal with day in and day at.