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.

Chalk

If you haven't seen Chalk, you need to leave the house right now and get it. And watch it. And laugh. And shake your head. And laugh some more. I laughed so hard I cried.

I'm not sure if I laughed so hard because the move was that funny or if I could relate so much to some of the teachers and their plights. Plus, I recognized some of the characters teaching in the classroom next to me or sitting in the third row of my class.

If you're a teacher, you'll get it and love it. In some ways, the cover says it all.

Other movies I enjoy as a teacher:

Election
Stand and Deliver
Teachers

And for a real stretch: Idiocracy

Movies at Night

I have started a bit of a tradition here at my school, where I show films related to the literature we read in class. Students must bring in a note from a parent/guardian to view the film, but the students seem to enjoy it, especially since I give a very few extra credit points for the viewings. Add extra credit to anything and students will do it!

I showed:

Chocolat for Magical Realism,
Interview with a Vampire and Dracula for Gothic Literature,
Marie Antoinette for A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and
A Man Called Horse for Fools Crow by James Welch (mainly for the Sun Dance).

So far the movies are a hit!