Movie guide of "Beyond the Blackboard"

     -Discuss Stacey’s first week at the school. How were The School with No Name and its students different from what she expected? What was her reaction to these differences?

     Stacey expected to find a regular classroom maybe with kids of the same age, desks, chairs, books, a lesson plan to follow, but she was very surprised when she found a lot of homeless kids, a dirty and messy classroom, rats, a train that passes near the school and teenagers smoking. The school was not an actual school and the students were not students either. She felt horrible, disappointed and pathetic by pretending to be a teacher in a place that was not a school.

     -In the beginning of the film, Stacey said “school was a safe place with a glimpse of who I wanted to be.” How did her determination change the environment of the shelter school and her students?

     Stacey’s determination changed the whole concept of school that they had on the shelter. When the kids and parents realized that she had a real interest in them, they felt comfortable and started cooperating with the education. She made them see how important knowledge is and put all her effort in teaching well. 

     -Stacey tired to relate to her new students by showing them a photo album of her family and talking about her life. The kids could not relate to her pictures and  experiences. Why not?

     In the movie we could see that the students were facing different life circumstances for example some of them came from broken homes, some others had addict fathers, etc. So they were facing a lot of emotional and physically adversities because of the poverty and that makes the hardest education because sometimes children have to work and make some money or go to streets to ask for money so they miss the school that's why the education in a poor area is too difficult. 

     -Discuss some of the circumstances of the students. What types of adversities     did they face physically and emotionally? How did their poverty make learning   more difficult?

     As we could see, the classroom and also the school in generally weren't a worthy place for teaching. At the beginning Stacey Bess was disappointed with the place where she had to teach because she was expecting for a better place but she had a passion and love for teaching and that made her work hard and also spent her own money for getting some items to help her in the teaching process. We could see that she really wanted to teach because she loved that and that love made her love the children and also she did her best for a better life for her students.

      -The classroom initially came with almost no supplies and little support from        school board officials and reluctant parents. Despite these challenges, Stacey    Bess was able to create a warm, safe place for children to learn. In addition, she  was able to earn the support and respect of parents and students.

     Stacey tried a lot of things to solve the problems that she was facing for teaching. She tried to do different things, some didn't result and some others did. She used her creativity to get her students attention but some of the students' parents were in disagreement. So, she made challenges to the parents and also she did that parents commit to help for their children's education. To overcome the lack of supplies, she had to spend her own money even though when she was facing some economic problems in her home but for love to teaching  she didn't care about.

    -Resourcefulness is the ability to find a way to solve problems in a difficult    situation. What creative solution did Stacey find to transform the school with no  name? How did she overcome the lack of supplies, environmental distractions    and  other issues?

                                                                                                        

    She thought about reorganize, and paint the classroom. She began to do it alone, but when people of the shelter saw that she was working hard, they decided to help her.  To overcome the lack of supplies, she had to spend her own money even though when she was facing some economic problems in her home but for love to teaching she didn't care about them.

      -Poverty impacts people of all ages, races and backgrounds. The reasons for     people being at the shelter are as different as each individual. What are some of the  reasons for characters in the film coming to the shelter?

    Some of them came to the shelter because they did not have a house for living. Two children were there because a police founded them in the vault of their house. Their mother used to leave them there when she was with men at home.

     -The previous teacher placed “shame names” on the board and played movies all day to keep the kids occupied. The students and parents were initially wary of Stacey because they thought she would be the same as her predecessor. What actions did she take to earn their trust? How did trust play a role in the schools’ success?

      Stacey tried to be nice with their students and to listen to their problems and needs. She showed them that she cared about their future; that’s why she remodeled the school to have a better place for their kids to learn. Parents noticed that Stacey was not the same as her predecessor, and they started thinking that she was right doing what she did with the children. Trust played a very important role because trusting each other they could work effectively. Students learned a lot from Stacey, but she also learned a little bit more from their students.

     -Discuss how respect or lack of respect was shown in the film. Why is respect      important in school setting?

    Lack of respect was evident when teacher Stacey arrived “school” and go out to the playground, where children were in recess, to tell them that was time to go back to the classroom. Two boys were saying things like “Where’s the witch?”  “The witch has gone, but the clown arrived.” Both were saying that the new teacher was like a clown for the “sweet” attitude he showed when she was calling them to enter.  Another example of lack of respect is when teacher Stacey was in a test with the children and, suddenly, a mother opened the door and entered very angry to pick up her children because they had not done the chores.  The mother did not respect neither the teacher’s presence nor was she in class with the kids. Another lack of respect was when a boy did not obey what Stacey asked him to do. She asked him to take a sit, but what the boy did was move his buttocks in front of her, mocking her order.

    To establish respect in the classroom is something vital for the learning process. Children have to obey what their teacher asks them to do. As students are still very young, they should be taught how to respect everyone including their peers and especially other higher authorities like their teachers. Respecting each other will provide students an opportunity to understand each other to prevent arguments and conflicts from happening. Once respect is established among students, the school would be a conductive environment for students to study. We believe that students should not bow their heads to teachers whenever they are present but they have to greet them politely as this would nurture positively their character through good manners.

   -Stacey encourages the students to think of words to put on the board to describe their feelings. By giving these feelings names, the children were able to express themselves more clearly? What vocabulary words were used? Why were these words so important to the children?

     We consider that when she started the dynamic of giving feeling names children thought if they had been in that way once in their lives. They liked to share their experiences with the whole class, and they tried to put into practice what the papers said. The vocabulary words used were some adjectives and values.  Also, they we were eager to learn something new every day from their teacher. Since the day they did that dynamic in class, they behaved better and took care about their learning, their class, their school.

   

  

    - Describe Stacey Bess

     Stacey Bess was a 24-year-old teacher who had very high expectations about working in a school. Once, she went to Dr. Boss to get her first job as teacher. He assigned her in a school located in a shelter, for homeless children. Since she arrived to that “school”, she felt very disappointed because it was not what she expected. Kids and their parents were so bad mannered; the shelter was a complete mess! When she finished her first day at that school, she arrived home crying. She was completely stunned by the situation she was facing; she did not know what to do to teach those bad mannered kids. She thought about giving up, but, later on, she realized that what she had to do was give all her effort, enthusiasm and knowledge to teach those kids. When she changed her attitude, things changed in that place too. He showed her real teacher attitude, and children began to love learning. She discovered that what matters is not the resources you have to do your work well; what matters is the passion with you do your work.

      -What struck you about the movie?

    There was something interesting that caught our attention, for example, the way that the teacher faced those bad situations.  At the very beginning of the movie, Stacy was on cloud nine because she would teach for the first time. Then, she was surprised when everything changed. The school where Stacy started to teach was terrible, and she felt very bad because everything was against her.

       We really liked how Stacy became optimistic and started working on every single detail in that environment. She began to work on everything, for instance, the kids, the school, kids’ parents and learning process. Stacy showed that every single dream we have can come true. She reached what she wanted. The movie can teach us a lesson which is that we never give up in our dreams. Probably, we as future teachers will face similar situations, and we will need to fight against everything; we will need to fight for our dreams.

      -What do you think  the school did not have a name?

    

     We think that the school did not have a name because it was not consider as a school. We noticed how people did not care about that establishment. The people just used that establishment  to hang up, to drink, to watch TV, but not to study any subject.

    -Would the school have had an easier transition to success if it did have a name?

   

    We think that a name is not necessary to succeed. There are many school that are well known in El Salvador, and that does not mean that are the best schools. The most important thing to take into consideration is the learning process, for example, there are schools in which they are not well known, but they have an effective learning process.

      Talking about the movie, if Stacy proved that everything can change by working hard, we can be sure that a school’s name cannot assure that a school will be successful.

     -Name a school.

.   We would name our own school “Learning by doing”. We would call it in this way because we know that we learn by practicing everything in which we are involved. We would try to look for the best strategies, techniques and methods to have the best school with an excellent teaching learning process. That could be excellent for everyone who wants to study there.