My Favorite Christmas Movies

Students are often curious about me and my life, and every December the students eventually ask me about my favorite Christmas movies when I show a film while we work during the final week of classes before the holiday break. The conversation goes something like this:

Student: Dr Pezz, what's your favorite Christmas movie?

Me: See if you can guess.

Students (one after the other): A Christmas Story, Scrooged, A Christmas Carol, A Muppet Christmas Carol, It's A Wonderful Life, The Santa Clause, The Santa Clause 2, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Christmas Vacation, Elf, Home Alone, Prancer, White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street

Me (after each response): Nope

30 seconds of silence

Student (with a sigh): Ok, tell us.

Me: Die Hard

Student: That's not a Christmas movie!

Me: Sure, it is. It takes place at Christmas. Ok, then tell me my second favorite.

Wise Student in the Back: Die Hard 2

Me: Excellent! And my third favorite?

Student: Die Hard 3

Me: Nope. That didn't take place during Christmas time.

Student: What is it?

Me: Gremlins

Sighs all around

Me: But...I brought my fourth favorite for you to watch.

P.S. The students all seem to know the Die Hard movies, but I feel old mentioning Gremlins since rarely has one of the students seen it.

Break Time

I'm taking a week's break from the blog. Enjoy your holidays and, as I like to tell my students, do something fun just for you.

Here's a Merry Christmas from a favorite family of mine:

Tangents

I love tangents in class. Yes, you heard me correctly: I love tangents in class.

Sometimes I learn more about my students in these situations than in any other, and sometimes we all learn a bit more about life than we could have done during the normal lesson.

Today while discussing the scene in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where some townspeople exhume a body, students began asking unusual questions.

"How bad would the body be when they dig it up?"

"Is it true that the hair and nails grow when you die?" (I enjoy watching the kids' faces when myths are debunked.)

"What is left when a body is cremated?"

"How much is left after cremation?"

"Where did cremation start?"

(Oddly enough and maybe eerily enough, I just watched a program about cremation a few weeks ago on The History Channel, so I could answer many of these questions.)

This led to a discussion about why people choose burial over cremation and vice versa. Also, we discussed how (sub)urban myths begin and what a few are. Finally, we discussed how the exhumation scene could become a part of a CSI episode and how the frauds (the king and duke as the Wilks brothers) could be exposed today and how they could succeed in conning a family. All this in the final 30 minutes of class!

What a great day! The kids were engaged, they asked questions, they bounced ideas back and forth, and we all learned about one another. While we may have strayed from my intended discussion items, the kids thought critically, explored deeply, and decided to research the topic some more.

I wish I had inspired them myself, but I'll take true and honest curiosity any day.

Good News

Here are my reasons for being in such a good mood:

- I vented in my previous post,
- my classroom is finished,
- the custodian responsible for our area last year is with us again,
- I'm having dinner with two of my favorite people (retired teachers),
- two students contacted me today saying how excited they are for my class,
- my parents arrive tomorrow,
- the sun is shining in a clear, blue sky,
- my dog is snoring loudly (which makes me laugh every time),
- I bought a new book to read (historical mystery - I forget the name), and
- I just need to make some copies to be ready for the first day (Sept. 4).

Besides all that, I've lost 20 pounds since Spring Break! Woo-hoo!