13 out of 24

There was a lot of strategy talk last night at our annual family Oscar party, mostly centered on whether we should choose what we personally liked or rather select what conventional wisdom predicted as the winners. It was my sense that most of us adopted a hybrid approach; I know I did.

After seeing more of the nominated movies and performances than ever before, I found myself a little hog-tied at the decision making-- it was almost too much information. If that sounds like an excuse, I guess it probably is; I certainly don't intend to see any fewer movies next year. I finished right in the middle of the pack, way behind the winner who scored 18 right. In fact the money went to a colleague who entered our pool on a whim late Friday afternoon before we both left school. "I know I'm throwing my money away," she protested as she blithely filled out the scorecard.

"How could you fall for that obvious ploy?" my nephew berated me last night as his former guidance counselor took us all to the cleaners.

Next year? Well, we bandied about the idea of a hi-low split, or a hi or low winner take all decided by the flip of a coin, or maybe even two ballots per person, one to vote your preference, and the other to win, baby, win. Any of those would be fun, but who cares, though, really? Last night, as every year, the company and conversation and food were way better than the show (my oldest nephew was even on skype from college the whole time), so as long as we get together, it'll be awesome.

My Oscar Picks

Leading Actor - Colin Firth
Sup. Actor - Christian Bale
Leading Actress - Natalie Portman
Sup Actress - Hailee Steinfeld
Animated Feature - Toy Story
Art Direction - Inception
Cinematography - True Grit
Costume Design - King's Speech
Directing - Social Network
Documentary Feature - Exit through the Gift Shop
Documentary Short - Strangers No More
Film Editing - 127 Hours
Foreign Language - Biutiful
Make up - The Wolfman
Original Score - How to Train Your Dragon
Original Song - If I Rise
Animated Short - Let's Pollute
Live Action Short - The Confession
Sound Editing - Inception
Sound Mixing - Inception
Visual Effects - Inception
Adapted Screenplay - Social Network
Original Screenplay - Kings Speech
Best Picture -  King's Speech

Woe is Us

We went to see the Oscar-nominated documentary shorts this afternoon. This collection of five films between 35 and 40 minutes at first seemed to be a catalog of the world's woes: a Jordanian Muslim man who lost 27 friends and family members when the Amman hotel where he was holding his wedding reception was bombed by terrorists launches a crusade to put "jihad" into its proper Islamic perspective; because their atoll is being consumed by the rising sea, 1000+ people living in the Carteret Islands must find a new home elsewhere, despite the fact that their ancestors have lived on those there with a cash-less economy for 1000 years; the residents of a small village in China must take on local officials to resolve the damages that the local chemical factory has inflicted on their air, soil, and water since the early 1970s; and a former cheerleader struggles with PTSD after her tour of duty in Iraq. Even the last documentary, which was easily the most uplifting of the five, was not without serious adversity-- a public school in Tel Aviv works hard to offer its students everything they need to learn, despite the high proportion of immigrant and refugee kids-- not surprisingly, there were some heartbreaking stories in that one, too.

What is one to do when confronted with such information? There was a part of the last film that really resonated with me-- it was the last day of school, and the audience was invited to celebrate the great gains that the students we had followed had made. It was very moving, and in a voice-over, one of the teachers said something like, each of these kids has experienced the support of at least one adult and has been successful because of it. We hope that they will carry that notion into the world with them and become people who reach out and help others.

When we talk about education and learning, let's not lose sight of that.  It's not enough to fill kids' heads with facts and figures; the feeling that the people in charge care about them will engender the compassion that they will need to face the uncertain future of our planet.

Blame it on the Farmer

The winning joke this week was a model of understatement:

Q: What did the farmer say when he lost his tractor?
A: Where's my tractor?

Personally, I found it very humorous, but there were some kids who expressed considerable dissatisfaction at the selection. One outspoken young man had submitted a "yo mama" joke that was in his estimation a "million times" funnier than that.

His joke went like this: Yo mama is so fat, that when she wears red, people call her Mr. KoolAid.

As the class listened in on our conversation, we set aside the inherent offensiveness of that type of joke, and I tried to reason with him from a language point of view, suggesting, for example, that maybe including the "Hey Kool Aid!" slogan from the commercials would have made his joke more successful, but he wanted to hear nothing of it.

"You know," I said, "that other joke is a good example of what we're working on in our writing. It really reveals a lot about the character of the farmer. Clearly he's a no-nonsense guy who doesn't mind stating the obvious."

He shook his head in disgust and walked back to his seat.

"Wait," I called after him. "I know how to fix your joke! What did the farmer say about yo mama?" (Is it necessary for me to say that I did not mean his actual mother? We all know that, right?)

He whirled around suspiciously and narrowed his eyes at me.

"She's fat." Everyone laughed, even him.

That farmer could come in handy.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Prom Night in Mississippi

I have a conflict tomorrow after school; I'm double-booked. The Tolerance Club is showing a movie, Prom Night in Mississippi, and the literary and art magazine staff is supposed to judge the entries for our Dark and Stormy Night contest. I'm sure I'll work it out tomorrow, but tonight, the mash-up amuses me.

What a Character

As we gear up for a little fiction writing in my class, I had the students fill out Main Character Questionnaires today about the protagonist of their stories. They are in varying stages of conceptualizing their stories, but the questionnaire is a good way in for many young writers. It's very concrete, but allows them to use their imaginations.

The class was buzzing as they brainstormed and bounced ideas off of each other. As they worked, I overheard one of my students deciding to write his story about the big stuffed dolphin that hangs from the ceiling in my classroom.

Our sixth grade team is called the Dolphins, and I inherited it from a departing teacher 11 years ago. It's been missing an eye as long as I've had it, and since it's been up there for such a while, it's could certainly use a good cleaning, but rather than bother with that, I just call it Dusty the One-Eyed Dolphin.

I thought it was very cool, kind of funny, and super-original to choose Dusty as the main character for a story; as much of a conversation piece as it is (Believe me, we talk about Dusty ALL the time), no one's ever thought to imagine its history or life.  I was astounded, however, when my student announced its full name:

Dusty Dolphina McGee.

No lie.

(You really have to click the link!)

Precipitation Aggravation

Turns out, we had a delay this morning. Despite a solid forecast of all the ingredients for an icy mess sufficient to close schools for the day, evidently we were the victims--or the beneficiaries; I suppose it's how you look at it-- of something called a "snow hole".

Even though that phrase sounds like an epithet, rather, it is a random occurrence of nature: like, literally the clouds just opened up, right over us, in the middle of the storm and stopped producing precipitation. This, despite my inside out pajamas. Hmphh, stomp, stomp, stomp! Snow hole indeed!