Movies During School

Should schools show more movies during class? This is a very controversial question, that many would say isn’t even a question in their head. Some teachers find it a waste of time to show movies during class, while others find it extremely useful to watch, educational movies during class.

I understand that teachers can’t show a movie every single day, because we have other learning to do, but every once in a while both the teacher and the students should get a small break by watching an educational movie. Students get tired from learning new information every single day, in all of their class, so mixing it up a bit in one class, really gets students excited to come to class and learn.

By showing educational videos during class, students can learn in a new way. Instead of reading out of the textbook, and listening to a teacher ramble on and on, students can watch the actual events take place before them, on the screen. For subjects like history, science, and especially world language, watching a movie every once in a while lets students view the material in a whole new way. By watching movies that relate to the language you are studying, students can learn so much more then they would if they just read useless information out of the book. They can watch movies about the countries language, culture, traditions, and so much more. You would get so much more out of watching this two hour film, they sitting in class listening to your teacher try to tell you about the culture.

However the downside to watching movies is, sometimes students feel like movie time is nap time, so all of the information that you would be learning from the film, is all just going out the window, and watching the movie is virtually pointless. However if teachers do a good job of not allowing students to sleep during the movie, then watching a movie every month could be a real benefit to a students learning.

 
Sometimes I also feel like we aren’t even doing anything useful in class anyways for what ever reason. A lot of the time we don’t do anything in class is because the teachers still have a lot of papers to grade, so we can’t move on with the new material. So watching a movie every month would allow time for teachers to get caught up with grading and for students to sit back, relax, and not realize that they are actually learning

Cheerleading in the Media

Since whenever I could remember I always grew up watching movies where cheerleaders were depicted very poorly in films, such as Bring it On, and Hellcats.  Even today cheerleaders don’t get the correct view of what they actually do.  Everyone thinks that all cheerleaders do is yell cheers, when in fact they do so much more. But the media produces movies where we only see the negative points of cheerleading.

Cheerleaders work as hard as any other athlete. Competitive cheerleading, especially, is such a rewarding, but dangerous sport. Just like every other athlete cheerleaders condition, then on top of that we throw people in the air, do jumps, throw ourselves through the air in the form of tumbling, and dance like no other. Yet cheerleading is still not viewed as a sport. Sometimes I ask myself we do so many people not believe this is a sport, since we tumble like gymnasts, dance like dancers, and condition like every other athlete.

This phenomenon is because the media has always told society that cheerleaders were the evil people at school. In almost every cheerleading movie the cheer captain is always an evil person, and the rest are either just as mean, or a dumb brainless blond. The media has been throwing these stereotypes around for as long as I can remember and it’s a major reason why cheerleading isn’t taken seriously. Cheerleaders are also usually portrayed as slutty, shallow ,and superficial. I admit that some cheerleaders are this way, but we can’t base an assumption about the entire population. The media also portrays cheerleaders as the mean “popular” girls, that rule the school. When in fact they are just like anyone else, they don’t do it for the “fame” but because they actually enjoy cheerleading, and if they only reason you do it is because you want to be popular, they that person isn’t a true cheerleader.

The other issue that I find with how the media depicts cheerleaders is that they wear their cheer uniform every single day of the week. I don’t even know where this idea came from, but it’s a terrible way to show a cheerleader. I don’t understand how that could even happen considering we only have one uniform, and there are seven days in a week. Television shows like Glee, portray cheerleaders just like all the rest of the media portrays them as, the mean girl that get everything the want, and they wear their uniform every single day. There isn’t one episode that I have seem that shows one of the cheerleaders with actual clothes on.

Overall, the media highly influences what we think of so many groups of people, one of the worst being cheerleaders. The only way we can change this outlook on cheerleaders is start with the media, and work our way down.

Disney Movies

“Disney Movies”, the best type of movies there are. These movies were my childhood, and still are my life. However looking back on some of these movies I see that even though most had good intentions, they really downgrade women.

I love Disney movies because they take you back to your childhood when everything was simple, and the biggest challenge was to pick which Disney movie to watch! J With all the songs, amazing characters, and awesome adventures that each of the Disney characters go on. When I was a child I loved watching the Disney princesses, because every little girl dreams of growing up, meeting their price Charming, and becoming a princess of a far off land. However now that I look back at these movies I realize that this perception of girls and women in these types of movies, could be affecting our generation, and the future generations.

Disney movies portray women as weak, and in need of being saved by a man. They make women think that their biggest role in life should be to find a man, so that this person can provide for you. However in real life, we need to be teaching our children the complete opposite of this. We should be teaching our children that you don’t need a man to survive, and that your biggest goal shouldn’t be to meet the right man so that they can take care of you. Rather little girl’s dreams should be growing up to do great things with their life, but not relying on a man to do so.

Even the other Disney movies, that aren’t having to do with princesses, have strong male leads, with supporting female leads, that almost every time, need to be saved from this or that. We hardly see any movies that show a women as the main focus of the movie, where she needs to save the man. Even if there is a movie like this, the writers portray the women as being too arrogant, selfish, or mean. I think Frozen did almost a good job at portraying a least one female character as not needing a man to survive. Elsa, was all for herself, and didn’t need a man to tell her what to do. She was also one of the only princesses that didn’t end up marrying someone at the end of the movie. On the other hand Ana was the complete opposite, she thought her only goal in life was to find her prince Charming. Yet we still saw Elsa as the evil character, and Ana as the Heroine.

Overall I think Disney needs to change how they portray women in their movies, because it is making young children have unreal expectations, and these gender roles will continue to play a part of our everyday lives. 

Electronic Textbooks

 

With everything these days becoming based around technology, there is a large question on our hands, whether or not we should exchange our school textbooks for electronic ones.

Buying our students iPads, or some other electronic device for the classroom could have many great affects including not having to carry so many books around school all day. I think some teachers take for granted that students have six classes, with at least one textbook in each class. Sometimes I know I have even had more then one text book, in many class. This adds up to a lot of extra weight that we could get rid of in one purchase. This buy would reduce the amount of stress on the student, and students would no longer have an excuse for not having their textbook in class with them, because they will always have an 

electronic version right there in their hands.

If the textbooks are all on one devise, students will find it much easier to carry one thing, instead on ten separate books around. With only one electronic book, students won’t have to worry about bringing a bunch of textbooks back and forth between school and their home, because they will be all set in one small device.

                                

Switching to electronic textbooks could also help the school save money on books. New and updated versions of textbooks come out every year, and the school always has to spend thousands of dollars on buying new ones. If we were to invest in electronic textbooks, we could save the amount of money we are spending. Also paper textbooks, get damaged or even ruin after only a few short years, so again the school will have to buy new textbooks. Electronic textbooks however won’t get damaged like the paper ones will, so we would only have to buy new electronic textbooks once every few years.

The only problem that I see in this new plan is that many students prefer to have an actual book while reading is because they like the feeling of flipping the pages, and the satisfaction of gradually getting further and further into the book. I like to know that they are actually making progress. With electronic books you don’t actually get the motions of turning the pages of a book, rather just clicking a button, and it automatically doing it for you.

Our society is gradually becoming more an more based around technology, so I feel like looking at the big picture, the best way to go is to stay up with society, and switch to electronic textbooks. 

                            

Reading: Fun or Chore?

                      

There are so many different views on whether or not reading is fun. Some people love reading, and do it every day, while others think that it’s a chore, and hard to even get through a chapter. I think reading can be fun if you are reading a book that you actually like.

If you are forced to read a book that you don’t like, its hard to sit there for an hour trying to get through the book. If you someone is forced to read then they won’t look at the book in a positive way, and they won’t want to think the book is good. This is why I think a lot of students don’t read the books that their teachers give them, because they feel like they have to read the book. What makes it even worse is when a teacher assigns a certain amount of pages that each person has to read per night, then you feel pressured to read the book, and fully understand it. I think that you should read because you want to, not because you have to.

“Reading a lot will make us better”, so they say. I agree that reading can teach us new words, facts, and ideas, but when students are forced to do it, nobody actually wants to do it. However this fact that reading makes us better, isn’t completely true, because a lot of things other then just reading can make us better. For example speaking with others, listening to others, and many other things also affect us, not just how much we read.

Reading can be good however because, reading can take you to a different world.  Reading can get you out of reality. Sometimes the only way to get away from the troubles of life is to read a good book, where you completely lose yourself in the book. By getting into someone elses skin you can forget about all of your problems, and only worry about what is happening in this other world.

Reading can also pass the time. If you are going through something, or just need to make it to the next day, reading can be a great way to do it. Reading is relaxing, time consuming, and more over a great time. You can learn a lot about yourself and about the book, and its characters just by sitting down to read a good book. If you have nothing else to do, or all you have is a book, reading can be a fun activity, that you can do almost anywhere.

For me reading can be fun only if I am reading a really good book, which I picked out, and actually like. If you are forced to read, then it will be almost impossible to actually enjoy what you are reading.