Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Motivation

April Showers Early

Rain came and keeps coming.

At least I have motivation to get some good riding in. Gabriel will be coming, if all goes as planned, on April 26 for lessons. That means I need to have accomplished something by then.

Tucker is actually going really well--when I get to ride him.

I need several things to accomplish that. 1. Dry weather. 2. Healthy me. 3. No bad winds. 4. My not being exhausted after school. 5. Motivation.

Hard to gather all of these in the winter--which it still is at least for a day or so. Hey, at least most of the house is clean! I hope to keep it that way.

School was fine today. My substitute had kept the students on track, mostly. I did have to laugh at my last period class. They have been watching "Rear Window," the Alfred Hitchcock classic. The basic story evolves slowly at first, and is quite deceptive as to where it's going. So, for the first two days of 35 minutes or so of viewing, the students were not too enthralled. However, today's portion really brings the plot pieces together and starts to build some totally engrossing suspense. A few minutes before the bell rang, they were pleading with me to make sure they were going to watch it again tomorrow and insisting, "We have to watch more films like this!!"

This is all part of a mystery/detective fiction unit I teach and learning to understand how to build both the mystery and suspense and an integral part of the course. Anyone who knows Mr. Hitchcock's films is well aware that he was the master of both. I really love it when I can bring a classic like this into the classroom and get my students to become fans. It proves the true meaning of "classic" and exposes the students to parts of our culture they never would find on their own.

Sometimes teaching can be a real joy.

2 comments:

  1. Do you know Jean, that's a film I've never seen? I have no idea how I've missed it.

    I'm gald you enjoyed your day.

    C

    ReplyDelete
  2. not sure i've seen it either - is that the one with the disabled woman watching out of the window? or is it the one that they made a remake of with christopher reeve?

    The Birds was really scary! I watched that when i was quite young, i think...

    anyway, the students can go get it on DVD....and come to class with their homework done.

    ReplyDelete