Resource depositories or lists with materials relevant to the candidate's interests; Movies!

I love movies…all kinds. They are such a great source of laughter, sadness, intrigue, fear, self-reflection, inspiration, suspense, history, knowledge,…I could go on forever. When I’m a little down I watch a comedy. When I just want entertainment I watch one of a million other genres. I chose this topic for my blog partly because of the new Harry Potter movie (Woo Hoo!) and partly because one of the instructions for this topic is to choose a personal interest. Did I mention how much I like movies?

I started looking for lists of movie types that I like the most; such as science fiction/fantasy, educational, and classic. I found a site with lists of movie genres from action, to musical, to war and beyond.

http://movies.amctv.com/movie-guide/genres.php

These are just a few that have personal meaning for me.

The Dark Knight

A Clockwork Orange

Planet of the Apes

Cousteau: The Great White Shark - Lonely Lord of the Sea

March of the Penguins

The Scarlet Claw

Unforgiven

Also, a TV series for kids called Amazing Animals is one of my favorite educational shows about nature. Unfortunately it is only shown on Canadian TV, though the VHS tapes might still be available.

Here are a few more directories and lists of cool movie type stuff.

http://www.dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Education/Film_Schools/

This one is a very large list of schools and organizations for all things acting, film, television and radio. I don’t think I’ve ever come across such a comprehensive list for this topic.

After researching movies themselves I tried a tighter search for movies about educators. I found a few lists about men as teachers and women as teachers.

http://www.menteach.org/resources/movies

This one features movies like Dead Poet Society and Pay It Forward; two of my favorite films ever!

http://www.amazon.com/Inspirational-Education-Movies/lm/R1NBROPOIRM8RG

Amazon has a small list of movies that include some with women as the inspirational teachers.

I guess I just feel that movies are such a part of our culture that they should be used to inspire our students whenever it is appropriate. I certainly wouldn’t use Dead Poet Society to teach my students how to behave in the classroom; however I would use it to teach them about taking chances and being true to themselves. Pay It Forward demonstrates the ugliness of bullying and the beauty of love and self-sacrifice with no personal gain. The Sherlock Holmes movie The Scarlet Claw, and pretty much all his movies, demonstrates awareness of your surroundings and being able to put clues together to solve a problem.

All of a sudden I feel inspired to design some lessons based on TV shows or movies. I’ll need to do more research…Duh, Duh, Duh! Exit stage left…fade to black.

Say goodnight Gracie…