2 posts tagged “adaptation”

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Promotion

Posts on attrition here and here.  Here are the posts on low pay, classroom management, intensity, administration, and outside issues.



Promotion to an administrative position as a reason for leaving the teaching profession is a rare case as far as Teacher Corps goes.  Only a handful of our teachers, so far, have gone on to become school administrators.  Hopefully, that will change in the next few years with the start of the Mississippi Principal Corps.  The Principal Coprs (MPC) is scheduled to begin in June of 2009.

While promotion may be rare in the case of MTC participants it is quite common in the K-12 field as a whole.  The state of Mississippi requires that a public school administrator have at least three years of experience as a teacher.  While it can certainly be beneficial for a school principal to have teaching experience this policy creates two distinct problems:

1)  A good teacher is taken out of the classroom.  A school principal, by law, has to make more money than the most veteran teacher on staff.  So, there is an economic incentive (slight as it is) to become an administrator.  An outstanding teacher desires to earn more money, becomes certified in administration, and is promoted (or hired by another school district) to become an administrator, thus leaving his or her classroom with a poor replacement.  Often, the thinking by the school board is that Mr. Smith made a good teacher so he will make a good principal.  However, the skills of a good principal and the skills of a good teacher are not necessarily the same (although organization is the most important skill in each position).

2)  A poor principal is put in the office.  A good teacher does not a good principal make.  Often the most important skill a principal possesses is that of being able to successfully navigate school board and district office politics.  School administrator is a political position.  Unfortunately, the primary skill of being a politician (collecting and delivering favors) doesn't translate into good management of a school.  A good school principal must be focused on the students of the school (in action, not just in words).  However, for a principal to survive, he or she must be able to please the superintendent and school board (usually backed by powerful parents in the community), who may or may not have the best interest of the students at heart.  In that "choice" the school board, superintendent, and powerful parents, will always win out...

Post a comment Tags: adaptation, attrition, mississippi teacher corps

Best Movie Endings Ever...


Butch and Sundance
Butch and Sundance

Ran across this list and it got me thinking.  David Mamet once said something to the effect that the best movie endings are both surprising and appropriate; unexpected and obvious.  For me the key is that the ending has to be quick.  Too many movies ruin a great ending by drawing things out just a little too long.  Last of the Mohicans is a perfect example.  Jackie Brown is another.  Or Out of Sight.  Children of Men.  All great movies, but the ending dragged for just a little too long.  I also like endings that make the audience reconsider everything we have just seen.  Finally, a great ending must be perfectly satisfying.  Here's my list (I was surprised that so many were sci-fi), in no particular order except for the last two, which are my personal favorites:


Terminator ("There's a storm coming."  "I know.")
Empire Strikes Back (Like Kevin Smith said, "Empire is the one most like life.  It's a series of down endings.")
Unbreakable ("It was the kids.  They called me Mr. Glass.")
Godfather II ("For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow...")
Eddie and the Cruisers (Reflection in the window.)
Citizen Kane (Rosebud)
Goodfellas ("I get to live the rest of my life a schnook.")(By the way, this is the only Scorese movie I can think of that really ended well, and by well I mean satisfying.  Scorsese is a master at starting a movie but, in my opinion, he tends to fumble the endings.  Compare the first five minutes of The Color of Money to the last.  Or The Departed.)
Zodiac ("On a scale of one to ten how certain are you?" "About an eight.")
Seven ("Hemingway once said the world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.  I agree with the second part.")
The Usual Suspects ("Poof.  He's gone.")
Planet of the Apes ("Noooooooo....")
Adaptation (Flowers)
Clue ("I'm going home to sleep with my wife.")
Traffic (Baseball)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (The warehouse...)
Devil in a Blue Dress ("And I sat.  On my porch.  With my friend.  And we laughed a long time.")
Body Heat ("It's hot."  "Yes.  It is.")
Menance to Society ("Yeah, I do.")
No Way Out (Yuri.)
Angel Heart ("You're going to burn for this."  "I know.")
The Road Warrior ("He lives on now, only in my memories.")

And now my two favorites...

Spartan, one of my ten favorite films of all time and written and directed, fittingly, by David Mamet.  There are shades of Eddie and the Cruisers as the camera begins on a TV in a department store and pulls out revealing two people watching through the display window.  One man grunts, turns away, and says, "Time to go home."  Scott, our hero, who, in achieving his goal, can never again return to his, says, sadly, "Must be nice."

And number one: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Butch and Sundance, frozen and fading, as the rifles sound, over and over.  William Goldman described the fadeout perfectly in his screenplay: "The rifle fire is popgun soft now, as it blows them back into history."


Blown Back into History
Blown Back into History

Post a comment Tags: traffic, godfather, seven, clue, adaptation, zodiac, goodfellas, unbreakable …