First, Living, Loving, and Learning by Leo Buscaglia. I truly believe that this book should be a teacher's bible, and that all new teachers should be required to read it! The lessons taught in Dr. Buscaglia's book cover a myriad of topics from communication to trust to feelings to hugs. Along the way he provides wonderful insight and advice to those who wish to understand themselves and others. At the very least it is a guide to some understanding, cooperation and even a little tolerance among all of us. Who would have thought that there would actually be a class called Love 101? This book can be read many times over and over; it helps anyone understand who they are, what they are, discover who they want to become, and how they can live a happy life no matter what! This book caused me to re-evaluate my teaching methods; it was amazing! When I utlized the suggestions in this book, the sky was the limit with students' attitude, cooperation, and success!
Mr. Holland's Opus is a film about Glenn Holland, a musician and composer who takes a teaching job because he has to in order to pay the rent while at the same time trying to compose one memorable piece of music to make him famous. Initially he does not want to nor does he enjoy teaching-he wants more! His love - music - cannot be shared by his deaf son, which causes him much stress. You just have to watch it to appreciate it, but I believe this too is a film that all new teachers should be required to view before becoming employed as an educator. This movie also made me look at myself as an educator and reminded me of all the reasons I became a teacher in the first place, and it certainly wasn't to become famous!
Citations
Buscaglia, L.F., Ph.D. (1982). Living, loving, and learning. NY: Ballantine Publishing Group.
Cressbad. (2008, June 10). Mr. Holland's opus [trailer]. Retrieved August 9, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO5Ov4GttsQ
Herek, S. (Director) (1995). Mr. Holland's Opus [motion picture]. United States: Hollywood Pictures.
Vh1.com. (2009). Mr. Holland's Opus [screen shot]. Retrieved August 9, 2009, from http://www.vh1.com/movies/movie/93615/moviemain.jhtml
I have seen Mr. Holland's Opus and forgot how wonderful and touching the movie is. I will have to get it and watch it again. That books sounds great. I will have to add it to my reading list. I do believe as teachers we do need a reminder of the effects we can have on our students. We are surrounded by test scores and negatives too much. Every now and then, we need to experience that passion inside of us that got us into teaching.
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a few movies clearly made by non-educators or folks who haven't been in a classroom in a very long time... it's nice when one is about the transformational power of sharing one's passion or teaching from one's passion.
ReplyDelete