Ridiculous Opinions #196
Long ago, I started this newsletter so that I could keep in touch with students over the years and today marks the first newsletter that my latest group of seniors will read.
You see, I have taught a LOT of kids in my 25+ years of teaching, and though those kids view me as a major inspiration in their lives because of A) My brilliant teaching, B) my magnetic personality, and C) my shocking good looks, most of the time those kids disappear off into the ether, never to be seen again. This is a problem for me, because I’ve spent a lot of time with these students, and if they ever make millions of dollars, I will not be able to cash in on their wealth. Remember, I only need $2.5 million to retire, people.
So, in today’s newsletter, I will post a few videos. Over the years, I’ve made some goofy movies with my students. Today’s newsletter is grab bag of material from over the years. Some of you will be mortally embarrassed by all of this. If that’s the case, then good!
NOTE: If you are IN one of these videos or know someone who is, forward this newsletter to them and have them get in contact with me. Some of you I’m in contact with, but the majority of students in these videos have no contact with me. Share! And don’t worry, most of these videos are privately listed, but even if they weren’t, you are no longer children and thus, I can post them here! LAWS BE DAMNED!
We’ll start in Ghana. The year is 2007. I was working with the counseling office on a series of videos about teaching students good habits when it came to decision-making. So, we made a little video about Phillip making some good decisions. Here’s how it turned out:
The most interesting part of this video is the fact that it has 61,000 views. I have since discovered that several schools in South America use it with their own students to teach them how to make good decisions. So weird. If you scroll through the comments, there’s some pretty interesting ones, but this one takes the cake:
In 2009, I taught a drama class of about six kids (Hi, Sophia!). It’s really hard to teach a drama class with only six kids, so we decided to make a movie. Thought to be lost to the ages, here is Night of 1,000 Screaming Cliques:
Nine years ago, I received a mysterious email from a colleague, telling me that I needed to watch a video her friend sent. He was an IB chemistry teacher that had made a series of popular videos teaching a very hard subject. He was scrolling through the internet and found a picture of me on our school’s website. His students thought we looked alike, so he made this video and sent it to me:
Naturally, I couldn’t keep from offering a response, so my students and I made this video:
It really is a classic of modern movie-making.
The year after that, Alvin made this spectacular work of art for his final IB Film project. I miss all of these kids!
In 2014, I was teaching in Bangladesh. We were bored one day in my senior Language and Literature class, so we made a movie. (You are missed, Abinta!) Here it is:
2015 brought a video about the Spirit Stick at AISD. This is actually a section of a longer video, but because I used The Eagles “Desperado” as one of the songs, it has been blocked worldwide. Don Henley is a major douche. Anyway, here’s a clipped version of the video that I CAN include. The end of this is one of my favorite films I’ve made…
2015 also took us to Bhutan with a group of students. Here’s a documentary of that trip:
In 2016, Tracey’s Middle School Jazz Band was performing at a pep rally. We decided to do one of those newfangled “flashmob” things. This was a lot of fun.
Also in 2016, we took a trip to Nepal!
In 2017, I was working in Canada and was co-sponsor of The Environment Club at Rosseau Lake College. We made our own TV series of the same name. Here’s an example of some of our stellar episodes:
In 2018, I directed my very last play. I didn’t actually make these videos, but they’re so well done, I had to post them here. These were done by Ramsey (who currently works for the Boston Globe!) and it’s professional quality. So good…
In 2019, I also made a music video with several of my students for a song that I quite liked. Here’s that:
There are more lurking about. A lot of my students don’t realize that I save a LOT of incriminating things from their lives. Really, it’s their mistake.
And someday, my new graduates, YOUR videos will be here, too. I’ve got them all. I will have them all forever, because hard drive space is cheap.
Enjoy your day, folks!
