Documentary Film Review/Analysis

I watched the documentary Waiting For Superman. I found it to be a powerful documentary, and would certainly recommend it. As of yet, I have not had time to fact check all of the statistics cited, but overall it paints a rather deplorable picture of the education system in America.

The documentary follows the journeys of several families who are trying to get their children accepted into some of the best Charter schools out there. The film goes on to note however, that only 17% of Charter schools perform better than the average public school. The parents of the children proceed to outline their reasons for wanting their children to go to the Charter school, instead of their public school. The film goes on to note that many teachers unions have prevented School Districts from firing teachers who were ineffective, or just didn't even teach. I found this part to be somewhat one sided, because in other areas the right to fire a teacher whenever would certainly be abused. We need to seek a balance between job security for teachers, and ensuring that we cull the under performing teachers.

The film also outlined how the process is really quite heart wrenching. Many of the schools only accept a few dozen kids a year, and there are hundreds of applications. This leads to only a very few kids being given the opportunity to escape their schools, and have the chance of higher education. Many of the kids in the films were suffering under teachers who were largely ineffective at the their jobs, either because they were apathetic, or just plain bad teachers. This was compounded by the issue that the kids had no where else to go, because the schools they already attended were overcrowded, so there was no nearby school to which they could transfer in the hopes that they would have a better teacher.

The film interviewed several rather high profile people also; ranging from Michelle Rhee, to experts in the field of education who had years of research backing up their points. The points largely made by these experts, was that the teachers are the people who matter. If a student has a good teacher they have a greatly improved chance of success, but with a poor teacher comes a decreased chance of success, and so we must work to ensure that the teachers in our schools, are really excellent at what they do.

Overall, I feel that the film is certainly worth watching, as it was pretty interesting with regards to the issue it covered, but also with regards to the way in which it was made. The film was composed of a narrative. The narrative of these families hoping that their number was called in the Charter lottery. This narrative was interspersed with interviews from experts in the field of Education, extrapolating on the reasons that the parents had given for wanting their kids out of public schools. The interviews were pretty informal, and didn't use any silly jargon like synergy, which we all know is a buzzword. Tangents aside, the film was well made, and you should definitely watch the trailer which I will of course embed below.

Independent Blog Post 12/16

I am, unfortunately writing this post slightly later than usual. You see, it's 8:10 PM currently, while usually I write my posts at 10:00 AM, so excuse me if I begin to ramble. On another note, tomorrow's my birthday!

Now on to the post!

Recently the North Koreans launched a rocket into the air and actually got it to launch a satellite. This is the first time that the launch has not ended up in the rocket exploding somewhere dangerously near Japan. The United States, and most of the world in fact have condemned North Korea for pursuing a space program, which they allege is a front for developing Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles(ICBM's) for use against the United States and other powers.

The North Koreans had initially announced that they may have to delay the launch of this latest rocket due to 'technical difficulties', the launch did however go ahead as planned. This is also the first time that North Korea has attempted two rocket launches in the same year. Their launch earlier in the year, however, failed.

All in all, these represent somewhat worrying developments in North Korean boldness, and willingness to disregard sanctions and other forms of pressure that have been imposed upon the nation by both the United States, and the wider global community via the United Nations.

Here's an embedded video of CNN coverage of the rocket launch.

Independent Blog Post

It's documentary time! 

For my group's documentary we chose to focus on the issue of statehood for Washington DC. This is somewhat of a contentious issue. DC residents (mostly) feel very strongly that DC should become a state, Congress, however, has voted several times not to permit the admission of a new state that would include DC. 

It is frequently argued that DC voters are disenfranchised by not being represented with a voting member in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Additionally, Congress retains a very large amount of oversight over the District, and has often tried to influence its politics. 

It is necessary, however, to examine the Constitution when discussing statehood for DC. The Constitution specifically provides for the creation of a Federal "District", which some argue excludes the possibility of DC becoming a state.

All in all, the issue of statehood for DC is a very interesting, and complex issue. I think my group is going to have a lot of fun.

Independent Blog Post

The Fiscal Cliff

     As the media so loves to tell us, the United States is heading for the 'fiscal cliff'. This means that if an agreement on spending cuts, and/or tax increases is not made by January 1st 2013, there will be automatic budget cuts, called sequestration.

     Absolutely no one wants that to happen. The issue lies in getting the two sides of the issue to sit down and actually talk to each other, without trying to bite each others heads off. Most Republicans, those who have signed Grover Norquist's pledge, do not want to raise taxes on anyone for any reason. However, if they do not come to an agreement with the Democrats, who see tax increases on the wealthy as necessary to close the deficit, then the Bush tax cuts will automatically expire, meaning that everyone in the country will have to pay more in taxes.

     Considering the delicate economic climate, neither side can afford to be blamed for stalling negotiations. Many Republicans, in fact, have reneged on their signing of the no tax increases pledge, saying that it can no longer be upheld and is no longer feasible.

     At this point I no longer really care about what the agreement, which I hope the politicians reach, contains. So long as we do not plunge into the abyss, I think that any solution will be welcome. The alternative is far too menacing.

Independent Blog Post #???

I am ashamed to admit that I have no idea what number blog post this is. The last week was quite hectic as we had mock Congress which took up a good amount of time. Anyways, on to the blog post.


Recently there has been quite a lot of noise about a possible Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. In fact, Israel called up an additional 75,000 reservists on Friday, a move that indicated that they could be preparing for a ground war.

For years relations between the Gaza Strip and Israel have been tense. The situation has been exacerbated by both sides repeated escalations. If Israel bombs a rocket site in Gaza, then they are met with rockets landing in their major population centers, and so on and so forth. Both sides need to take a deep breath, and step back from the brink of war. Another war in the Middle East would benefit no one, especially as most of the region is currently on not so good terms with Israel, and with a current Civil War ongoing in nearby Syria.

Either Israel or Gaza needs to be the bigger person and stop retaliating and show the world that their side is the one being attacked, and so win international support. Recently on the site Reddit.com a video was posted of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking candidly, without realizing that the cameras were rolling. Now this footage must be taken with a grain of salt, seeing as it was posted to a part of reddit which is notoriously toxic, r/politics, a den of extreme liberalism which is often controversial, and partisan.

Independent Blog Post #5

So here's an independent blog post!

This weekend the government of China changed its leaders for the first time in a decade. The government of China is composed solely of members of the CCP or Chinese Communist Party. I expect that the next ten years will see no significant changes with regards to their foreign policy. There are no apparent reformers in what experts suggest will be the newest crop of Chinese officials.

The Chinese government shifts its most important members every decade, and historically different factions have cut deals and waged intricate inside warfare to finangle their way to the top, the office of the Premier.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this newer generation of leaders and how they will react to the current world. Most likely they will just toe the party line and continue on the same path the current leaders are on.

Capture The Fall

I made this video today for a class assignment. I used WeVideo to edit it and it was a fairly horrendous experience. The exporting process was incredibly vague and had no sort of progress bar and was really tedious. Additionally I couldn't add music to the video with WeVideo, but I was going to use http://freemusicarchive.org/music/nisei23/Soft_Shapes/03_-_nisei23_-_Fall_-_Soft_Shapes.

Filmed with the phone.

Independent Blog Post #4

This post is going to be about my Crystal Ball, which I had to do last week. So for NSL we had to predict the results of the elections in our assigned state. Some students had partners if they had larger states, but I was alone. I was alone because I had one of the smallest states in the country. I had North Dakota.

Now North Dakota is actually an interesting state. It's composed of 700,000 conservative Americans. Apparently, however, North Dakota is something of a swing state. Calling this election was kind of fun, and there was significant research required.

Because North Dakota is not exactly the most interesting state to most, there weren't a lot of resources available. The fact that the local political parties didn't have great websites didn't help. In fact, the local democratic party had to merge with the socialist party a ways back because the socialist party kept...winning.

Now North Dakota has one House, one Senate and the Governorship up for election this year. The House and Gubernatorial races were easy to call, as the Republican candidates had major leads already. The state was also guaranteed to go for Romney. The Senate seat was however hotly contested. In fact, I called the race for the Democrat.

The experience itself was interesting, and maybe I will do it again next year, on my own. It was fun finding out what the people in an area cared about, who would turn out to vote, and for whom they would vote.




PS. I am a bad person for not doing the last four independent blog posts :(

Archival Footage

I think that our group can use some of the parts where the principal creepy guy is talking about how there are no exceptions to rules. That section is reminiscent to the CONFORMITY EVERYTHING IS THE SAME aspect of Dystopian societies. We could use the footage to reinforce the point that dystopian societies are dull and monotonous places. If I found footage of kids taking tests or using Scantrons that would also be really useful, but unfortunately I couldn't find any of that...

Dystopian Trailer Critique

V for Vendetta. James McTeigue. R. 2006. When a girl named Evey (Natalie Portman), is saved from rapists by a masked vigilante (Hugo Weaving), a revolutionary movement is born. The two set out to educate the people of their nation of the wrongs that the government has committed, and what they can do to stop it.

This trailer is exemplary in the sense that it is not a complete piece of corny trash. The majority of the trailers that are easily accessible through YouTube are very bad quality and cheesy productions. This trailer, however, was actually good. It exhibited many of the characteristics of a proper dystopian trailer, in that it showcased the protagonists, the antagonists, why they were rebelling, and how they were acting out.

The trailer portrays V, one of the protagonists, rescuing Evey, the other protagonist. Then through a series of short clips it shows the sort of oppression under which they live. They live in a state where their every word is monitored by the government. It also creates tension, by showing dramatic scenes such as when Evey's parents are abducted by the government in rather violent fashion. All of this serves to excite the viewer, and to make it obvious as to why, and what Evey and V are fighting against. Scenes where men with raised guns ready to fire are known to make emotions run high. Our trailer also plans on showing the role of the protagonist, and the evils of the society in which they live, very clearly. The addition of many short shots also is something that we could certainly use, as the suspense that was created through this technique had a very unique effect. There are certainly many techniques and methods that are worth copying from this trailer.

My 5x5 Video Project

Not much to say. I went through hell trying to post this darn thing. Ended up having to convert it from .mp4 to .avi to import it to windows live movie maker. That was a pain. Then I had to publish etc, reorient the shots since I took them with my phone and whatnot. It was an...experience.


The video is unlisted and comments are set to moderated. Next time having a theme would make this so much easier. Shots: 1. Shot of my dog being confused by non moving water. 2. Shot of my dog being puzzled over how to reach me. Featuring muddy paws. 3. Shot of my dog acting like she's a breaching salmon. 4. Shot of my dog being scared to walk the fifteen feet to me. 5. Shot of my dog being nervous in the car.

Connected Learning

For this assignment we had to read one of two provided articles, annotate it, and provide our thoughts. Well firstly here is the link to my annotations here. The article is about students basically learning independently and how there is currently no real framework for either teachers encouraging/discouraging this behavior. I did not learn most of what I know in school aside from math. I learned a lot from books and the internet. History class was a joke for the entirety of Middle School, and for 9th Grade US history also.

"At this moment, there are no easy answers for educators; most of the school districts I visit still have not begun to contextualize or embrace these shifts. Instead, as illustrated by the Canadian college student who faced expulsion for "cheating" after creating a study group to share notes on Facebook rather than face to face in the library, many of our students continue to explore the potentials and pitfalls of instant communication with little guidance from their teachers." Now this is sad. Our CAP group has shared study guides and what have you before. It's very useful for us to review and whatnot. It's impossible for us to meet in person BECAUSE WHAT NORMAL PERSON HAS THAT SORT OF TIME ANYMORE?! Well I do but yeah. Teachers need to use more technology in non stupid ways and embrace the new generation~

Honestly it's surprising that teachers have not yet adapted to all the new proverbial doors that computers and the internet have opened. "Connected learning" has so many possibilities! Like what if instead of the government paying for all these schools we could just sit at home and use the computer. Good idea right?! While the internet may be good for specific learning it is not good for a broader focus. Learning about solar energy is easy on the internet, but it's easy to get overwhelmed with a deluge of information if you research something more broad like energy. 

If we were to use this newfangled technology to learn independently for this class I would like to learn about something history related. I know that's not relevant to the course but :ohwell:

Diigo Movie Review

So. Silver Chips recently reviewed the movie "The Bourne Legacy". The review was certainly short and sweet. A quick plot overview of the movie in the first few paragraphs was followed by a terse reflection on overly long chase scenes. Then came a paragraph about how the soundtrack of the series hasn't really changed once over the course of four movies. Finally a glowing recommendation that implores everyone to see the movie. Definitely makes sense. Definitely. The Bourne movies have never really been known for their amazing acting, or lack thereof, but perhaps it would have been beneficial if the review had touched upon the topic once or twice instead of ramming through a plot summary, two quick reflections and a conclusion.

While the review wasn't exceptional it certainly wasn't bad. It provided me with a lot of the information I needed to know about the film and some choice nuggets of information. There was a grammar error though. A minor one albeit, but it still really irritated me for some reason. Must be because I still have another five hours of school left before I can go home. Yay.

In case you wanted to check out my amazing highlighting of the article go to (highlighting is cool) the original article can be found at (silver chips online).


With regards to the quarterly movie review I am of the opinion that one of the movies we view should be in class just for purposes of comparing our reviews of the same movie, that isn't necessarily current. Otherwise everyone's just going to go out and watch the same movies and you're going to get 150 reviews about 3-4 movies. That would sure be fun to grade I'm sure. Plus I need to minimize my social interactions. One outing is better than two.

First Blog Post

Hello. I am Fin. I am in the tenth grade at Montgomery Blair High School, I am also in the Communications Arts Program. My favorite aspect of film making is the editing process. I am in no way a very good actor, though I have acted as a cinematographer before. I took three years of Media at Takoma Park Middle School, and also took TV Production last year here at Blair. I find editing to be a fun process, because it is all about taking the raw footage and compressing and refining it into a finished product that is refined and ready for dissemination. Movie making is a very fun process but is not necessarily my absolute favorite thing in the world, however, it isn't my least favorite thing. That position is currently held by Pre-Calculus.I really enjoy reading and am currently loving our 1984 unit as it is one of my, if not my favorite book of all time.

With regards to using the blogs for other classrooms I think that there are certainly various different ways that we could integrate work in other classes with our blogs. For example:

• Designate one member of your Change Project Group to create a separate Change Project Group blog and have them post a weekly update on what the group has done in the past seven days, progress etc...Would be minutes of group meetings in a way, in case someone had been unable to attend.
• Perhaps as a project for our 1984 unit we could write a few entries on our blogs from the perspective of Winston or Julia etc...
• Post some of our editorials online on our blogs to show the world!

That's all. Post over.

Courtesy of Cian Ginty on Flickr