Maverick and Macy

Last week, Kiera and I went out in search of a new family member...sort of! We have been talking about getting a cat for a while now.

The benefits of getting a cat: they are self-sufficient. They aren't as needy as dogs. They don't bark.

The negatives: They use a smelly litter box.

Since the positives outweighed the negatives, we decided to get a cat. After hours of searching, going from the Houston SPCA to adoption agencies, we found the perfect match! Maverick was a cute, cuddly, gray cat that had the personality of a dog (a big plus for us since we have Macy!). Sure enough, when we brough Maverick home, he and Macy were like best-buds in no time!

The Book of Eli

The Book of Eli is a sci-fi, fantasy film that stars Denzel Washington in a post-apocalypse scenario. Post-apocalypse refers to anything that takes place after the destruction of the world as we know it. You may be familiar with these types of films such as Terminator Salvation, The Planet of the Apes, and 12 Monkeys.

In The Book of Eli, the apocalypse has taken place after a nuclear war. Literally, the world has been destroyed and most of civilization has been killed. Washington plays Eli, a man who is on a mission from God to protect the last Bible on the earth. During the war, all religious texts had been destroyed (Except for Eli’s). Enter the conflict: The film includes a corrupt leader who desires the Bible from Eli because he believes that it will allow him to control the world as a religious leader.

The film is a contrast of good and evil in many ways. Not only does the plot contrast the two, but the content is also opposite. The movie goes from action-packed scenes of violence, blood, and vulgarity to scenes of peace, faith, and comfort.

I do recommend this movie, however I advise you to receive parental permission before seeing the film. The vulgarity and action can be a bit intense at times, and it is rated R.

Most surprising is the film’s overtly Christian message. Similar to Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, The Book of Eli comes through with a strong message of faith and devotion. Washington, who produced the film, has been a religious leader in Hollywood for years, and his beliefs come through strongly in this film. Consequently, I expect this film will do very well—it’s a people pleaser. The action and violence will please the everyday-movie-goer while the religiously soaked message will please the conservative viewers.

I give The Book of Eli a 7 out of 10 for its well-written plot, positive message, good acting, and surprise ending!

Speak

As part of this year's new reading course, the eighth graders will begin reading the novel, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. Speak is a powerful novel that investigates some of the inner most sensitive emotions that a high school girl deals with as she struggles with popularity, acceptance, and sexual abuse.

As a pre-reading activity, students need to respond to one of the following four statements with a 500 word journal reflection. Students will post their responses here. These responses should be detailed, rich, and high-quality thinking. There should be a demonstration of serious depth of though

1. Students who are depressed are simply afraid to deal with their real or perceived problems.


2. Students should not tell teachers about their personal problems, no matter how serious.


3. If someone is drunk or high, she or he is not responsible for her or his actions.


4. Girls are more likely than guys to say they have been sexually harassed.

Due Wednesday. 35 points

Secondly, students will respond to one another on Thursday. These responses should spark a potential discussion over these topics. Don't respond with "that's good," or "I agree." Instead, respond with thoughtful remarks, ask probing questions, or add to the student's journal response with something worth while.

Due Thursday. 15 points

A Christmas Carol

A couple weeks back, I took a few students to a screening of Disney's version of A Christmas Carol. Now, I am no expert, but after teaching the novel for the last three years, viewing almost every film version, and reading two different versions for class, I feel like I could have been Dickens' personal assistant on the novel!

Anyways, back to my review. The movie is what I would expect from Disney--it's entertaining and pleasing to the eye with a few moments of brilliance here and there. One of my many criticisms of Disney remakes is that they tend to down play some of the central themes (in this case, a character, at the expense of eye-candy). Disney's A Christmas Carol is a good film, don't get me wrong. The budget was well used and the digital graphics are amazing! More than anything, I was incredibly impressed with the fact that Disney opted to stick with most of the original language used in Dickens' novel. As many of my seventh graders can tell you, Dickens' language is sometimes hard to understand; it's over 150 years old! Amazingly, Disney not only kept the original language, but most of the time you don't even realize that Scrooge is talking in a language not familiar to the way people talk nowadays. For that, major kudos goes to Jim Carey and the actors for portraying their characters in a relevant manner, despite difficult language.

What I disliked, though, was that the character of Tiny Tim was nearly nonexistent. For me, that's a non-negotiable part. Without Tiny Tim, it's just not the same story.

Do I Dare?

In eighth grade, we are reading Robert Cormier's novel, The Chocolate War. It's such a great novel because it tackles so many great issues that are everyday issues for students, such as bullying, peer pressure, and making decisions.

Specifically, the novel raises one universal question for our students to answer: "Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?"

This is not an original question deriving from Cormier's book, however. It was first raised in T.S. Eliot's Poem, "The Love Song for J. Alfred Prufrock:"

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

The question of disturbing the universe or not is one that is timeless. It doesn't matter what stage of life you're in, how old you are, or what you're going through. There are always decisions to be made; each decision has a consequence that follows. The decisions will either "disturb" the universe or not. Period. So, for me, the more important element to consider is are we ready, willing, or able to make those decisions...knowing the disturbance that it will cause?

I encourage everyone to reflect on this for a bit. Maybe even think about what's going on in your life right now. Do you find yourself disturbing the universe? Or, do you mostly find that you try and make as little an impact/difference as possible?

Where the Wild Things Are: Review

Well, if there's anything I can say about this movie in one, simple sentence it's this--This is NOT a kid's movie!

Where the Wild Things Are is a retelling of one of my favorite children's books of all time. The book, however, is 40 short pages. Most pages only have one or two sentences. Some pages have no words at all...just pictures. So, how did director Spike Jonze make a movie out of such a short children's picture book? With imagination, vision, and artistic direction, that's how!

The movie is exciting, scary, and even depressing at times. It tells the story of Max, a boy who is neglected and feels alone at home. His imagination is wild, but unfortunately, he has no one to share it with. He is forced to play alone or with imaginary friends.

After running away, Max finds himself in a crazy world, where wild beasts roam. He quickly realizes that he is not the only one who feels alone and unappreciated. Max has to overcome some of his own issues in order to be a leader for these beasts.

This movie, at times, is quite violent. I cannot imagine taking young children to this movie. Also, the movie is quite depressing, and although it has some great morals and life-questions, I wonder if its darkness overshadows its brighter moments. When the movie ended, I felt a little unsettled...and the movie was not quite what I had expected.

Nonetheless, I do recommend the movie due to its artistic abilities to connect the beasts to Max's own inner struggles and conflicts. The movie has a couple funny scenes, as well as some deeply moving ones. Also, worth noting is the fact that Jonze decided to make the beasts out of 6'8'' costumes...not animatronics. This is refreshing in a time when Hollywood too often forgets the routes that is has come from. Great movies such as Willow, The Never Ending Story, and Star Wars relied on real costumes for its characters, and it was really nice to watch this movie and be reminded of the way it once was, when there was no such thing as 3-D animation.

Out of 4 stars, I give it 2 1/2 stars.

The Tale of Charlie

Sundays are relaxing days. Usually, I wake up, drink my coffee whilst engulfing myself into the Sunday Edition of the Houston Chronicle, and then go to church. After church, I embark on a long, joyful journey many Americans call, "football Sunday!"

This past Sunday, however, was not my 'usual' Sunday by any means. First, my morning routines were wiped away due to a grooming appointment for our dog, Macy. Macy, as you may have heard, thinks she is a diva and gets very self-conscious if her hair starts to get too shaggy. So, once a month, Macy gets her hair cut, thinned, shampooed; her nails are clipped; her self-image is restored.

So, back to my story. After Kiera and I dropped Macy off for her appointment, we began to head for the exit when something caught my eye: Charlie.

Charlie was all alone in the center of the store. He was in a cage that was too small for a dog his size. He looked a little dirty, but there was something about him that intrigued me. He was calm, gentle, and bigger than Macy (After all, what kind of a manly man am I if my only pet is a 5lb lap-dog??).

Within 30 minutes, the papers were signed, and Kiera and I were heading out of the store proud parents to a 50lb, one yr old, Schnauzer dog! That's when everything went wrong!

We soon realized that Charlie (we named him Charlie because Kiera thinks it's a sweet name) was very ill and had the worst case of diarrhea that mankind has ever seen! No matter what I did--no matter how many times I would take him out to go to the bathroom--Charlie insisted on pooping in the house, and that's not all!

Charlie pooped on the carpet, in the kitchen, in the bedroom, and worst of all, he pooped in his kennel and rolled all in his own poop!!!

So, Mr. Little (having nothing better to do at 4 in the morning) had to wake up, give Charlie a bath, clean out his kennel, wipe off the poop that had splattered on the wall from Charlie shaking his body and wagging his poop-dripping tail. I had to do all of this at 4 in the morning! So what happened next? Charlie and I repeated this THREE times!

Needless to say, Charlie is no longer living with us. We had to give him back up for adoption. So, if you or your parents are looking for a new dog, there is a young, innocent-looking dog waiting for a new home!