Movie Day!
Movie day, what every student young and old loves to hear. Movies can have a profound educational experience or be a time filler. I tend not to use them for the latter purpose. I think every teacher has a favorite movie to share with students. When I use to teach Economics, I loved to show “Monsters, Inc.” Now before you start judging me, I had a purpose. At about the point I finished teaching Supply and Demand most young students brains started to shutdown. I did not blame them, some adults still find these concepts hard to grasp.
I would inform them at the start of class that we would watch a film that demonstrated supply and demand, scarcity, shortages, ethical dilemmas, and much more. I also told them they would have to write a two page report describing those topics in detail. At the first or maybe second grumble I would then start the movie. The minute students say the Disney logo they would get confused and once they say the main screen a few would chuckle. The video normally took 2-3 days to show. After the first day many students would question how these economic questions could be in the movie, but after a night of thinking they would come back and be amazed. In the end, the reports students wrote for this film were some of the best reports I received from any other class.
Now this is just my example, so what are some movies you have seen that have had a profound impact on you, your classroom, or on your students? Please share your thoughts and/or insights through a comment or a tweet!
Image Courtesy of Francesco Marino