Author: prodos (page 5 of 12)

January 26, 2011

iLearn: The miniseries

Presented with the kind permission of Evergreen Freedom Foundation.
Special thanks to Steven Maggi.

The iLearn Project was created in 2010 when the Evergreen Freedom Foundation recognized that online learning is changing the way the world does school — for the better.

Washington enjoys the presence of a variety of high quality curriculum providers, many courageous school districts, and even more positively fearless innovators. Still, online learning faces opposition from a number of corners. If not addressed, that opposition could cut online learning off at the knees.

First, in spite of the entrepreneurial spirit passed down from Washington’s first pioneers, our education establishment has maintained a relentless loyalty to the status quo. Many powerful organizations resist reforms that affect the way schools operate. And online learning does just that. If you’re a student, parent, or online learning teacher, though, you know it does it for the better. Only when enough Washingtonians grasp that online learning is a positive disruption will it be safe.

Meanwhile some groups will be threatened by online learning and will do all they can to rob it of the freedom and flexibility that allows it to meet unique student needs.

Lastly, many legislators have yet to grasp what public online learning is. Many mistake it for an extra program that can be cut when the budget gets tight.

The Freedom Foundation has supported learning-effective, cost-effective public education options since its founding. We recognized that online learning opened countless doors for students. Anticipating it would face opposition sooner or later, the Freedom Foundation had spent months doing research on its history in our state. We were sure the time would come when online learning options would be threatened and families would have to come together and defend it. No one knew that time was just around the corner.

That’s why the Freedom Foundation created the iLearn Project. We exist to protect and advocate public online learning options, to offer networking opportunities for participants across regions and providers, to provide a platform for telling the stories of online learning, and to highlight research and policy recommendations for the expansion of public online learning options in Washington state.

January 26, 2011

Skooled by Dr Ben

Presented with the kind permission of Evergreen Freedom Foundation.
Special thanks to Steven Maggi.

12 Episodes of Skooled
From July 08 2009 to October 21 2009

These shorts are a series of candid discussions on some controversial issues in education by a controversial player in that field.

Dr. Ben Chavis is the founder of the American Indian Public Charter Schools in Oakland, CA.

Dr. Ben’s unorthodox techniques and no-holds-barred attitude have helped under privileged students achieve some of the highest scores in California.

Fight Club – episode 1
In this debut episode of “Skooled,” Dr. Ben Chavis shares a story to discuss winning over problem students and transforming them into successful team-players in the education world
Diversify – episode 2
Dr. Ben talks about diversity and school clubs—factors he believes are just another form of segregation. He urges us to focus on similarities rather than differences, and to make schools more like…Hardee’s: willing to open its doors to any person, no matter what colour, shape, size, or background, as long as they keep coming through.
Thief to Lad – episode 3
Dr. Ben reads the disciplinarian rote with a story about a student who was caught stealing and—as warned—was punished by having his head shaved. After a few chuckles over the media’s appalled response to this story, Dr. Ben informs us it was the last time the student ever stole and that he is now on the honour roll.
Fleecing Taxpayers – episode 4
In this episode, Dr. Ben talks dollars and sense, by arguing that (radical moment spoiler) cuts in the education budget are a good thing?! But he doesn’t end on that note, explaining that good schools don’t just ADD more money to the equation, they learn to MANAGE the money they already have! In one of the most controversial topics of education reform, Dr. Ben makes a stunning case for the responsibility and accountability in school spending.
Embarrassing Achievement out of Students – episode 5
Dr. Ben discusses the controversies surrounding his technique of embarrassing students as a way to spur them to greater achievement. He also discusses his success at creating a culture of belonging where success is rewarded socially and encouraged by fellow students.
Speechless – episode 6
Dr. Ben tackles the statement “Art in schools increases student achievement” with a fair heaping of scepticism. what makes good musicians, he explains, is discipline and Practice—the same things that make a good student! So what should we really be promoting in schools to increase student performance? Interest in School, dedication to studies, a desire to put as much effort into math and history as one might put into drawing, singing, or acting
All In the Family – episode 7
Dr. Ben talks about parental involvement and explains that, in his school, parent’s aren’t always the best choice. Instead, he advocates for family Involvement, which has more to do with the tribal society roots of his students than the trumped up notions of culture that bureaucrats had at the school’s beginnings. Family involvement, he explains, could include parents but is not restricted to just parents, taking pressure off working parents who don’t have the time or energy to volunteer and providing each student with a whole network of supporters to help them succeed in school.
Paying Students – episode 8
Can’t get kids to attend their classes? Having problems encouraging students to achieve? Dr. Ben suggests that we just pay students to attend class and reward their success with money. He explores the motivating factor money plays in all of our lives.
Fool of a Parent – episode 9
We’re back and this time we talk to Dr. Ben about parents. Dr. Ben tells the story of catching a parent not taking responsibility for her daughter’s actions. But no worries, Dr. Ben doesn’t give her a pass. He tracks down the parent and publicly confronts her.
School Lunch – episode 10
Should students have a lunch provided to them by the school? Dr. Ben says “NO!” Despite not providing lunches for his inner city students he still has one of the most accomplished schools in the district.
Addressing Critics – episode 11
This week Dr. Ben addresses his critics who say he stifles creativity. He also talks about why he calls his kids “My Kids”. Oh yeah, and he is egotistically and proud of it!
An Educated Student – episode 12
Dr. Ben explains what it means to be an educated person and then tells legislators what they can do to help students get there.

Dr. Ben Chavis. Controversial educator & founder of the American Indian Public Charter Schools in Oakland, CA

January 25, 2011

Flunked

Presented with the kind permission of Evergreen Freedom Foundation.
Special thanks to Steven Maggi.

FLUNKED: A story of failure. A formula for hope.

America, we have a problem.

Results of national and international tests show that our students are falling further and further behind. The average American student is no longer able to compete with foreign students, and in many cases, they’re failing to meet even basic academic standards.

Success rates are plummeting, and remediation and dropout rates are skyrocketing. Students entering the current American education system are in for a grim ride. It truly is a national scandal.

One size does not fit all …

Complaining about the problem is easy, but it produces few productive results — especially when many schools nationwide are truly “getting it right.” Flunked is the story of these schools—their founders, leaders, and students—who are breaking the mediocre mold by attaining great results in terms of college preparation, high test scores, and graduating competent workers for tomorrow’s economy. Discovering that one size truly does not fit all, they are finding different ways to make it work in their area, with their students.

The main characters of Flunked are our “heroes,” men and women from all walks of life—parents, teachers, principals, business professionals—who are making a difference to our students. These individuals have defied the odds, pressed the system, and succeeded in seemingly impossible situations. Through it all, they have proven that solutions in education are available here and now, if we will only follow their examples …

Featured Experts:

ANDREW COULSON
CATO INSTITUTE

“Andrew J. Coulson is the director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom. He is the author of the 1999 book Market Education: The Unknown History and a contributor to books published by the Fraser Institute and the Hoover Institution. Coulson has written for numerous academic journals, including the Journal of Research in the Teaching of English and the Education Policy Analysis Archives and for newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, the Detroit Free Press, and the Seattle Times. He currently serves on the Advisory Council of the E.G. West Centre for Market Solutions in Education at the University of Newcastle, UK. Coulson was a Senior Fellow in Education Policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and is editor of School Choices. Prior to entering the field of education a decade ago, he was a systems software engineer with Microsoft Corp.”

GUILBERT HENTSCHKE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

“Guilbert Hentschke is the Richard T. Cooper and Mary Catherine Cooper Chair in Public School Administration at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, where he served as dean from 1998 to 2000. Currently he directs programs in the business of education, including the Galaxy Institute for Education and the school business management program. An author of numerous books and articles on education reform, charter schools, and the business of education, he currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the finance and governance of emerging and traditional educational institutions in the U.S. and abroad.”

“Hentschke currently serves on the boards of directors of several education-oriented organizations, including the Aspen Education Group, Century/LIFT, Excellent Education Development, The National Center on Education and the Economy, WestEd Regional Educational Laboratory, the Education Industry Association, and several Los Angeles charter schools.”

“Prior to his tenure at USC, Hentschke served in academic administrative and faculty positions at the University of Rochester, Columbia University, the Chicago Public Schools, and the East Side Union High School District (CA). He earned his bachelor’s degree in history and economics at Princeton University and his masters and doctorate in education and business at Stanford University.”

JOHN MERRIFIELD
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

“John Merrifield is Professor of Economics in the College of Business at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, CA; the author of The School Choice Wars (2001) and School Choices (2002).”

STARRING:
(In order of appearance)

Joe Mantegna
Bill Gates
Bill Cosby
John Merrifield
Andrew Coulson
Charlie Hoff
Bob Herbold
Guilbert Hentschke
Steve Barr
Matt Wingard
Ben Chavis
David Scortt
Angie Dorman
Eric Dominguez
Heidi Dominguez
Karen Jones
Bill Proser
Dan Nicklay
Howard Lappin
Donn Harris
Jason Singer
Matt Sween
Caitlyn Snaring
Traci Snaring
Dennis Pantano
Therese Holliday
Lynn Harsh
Jeff Kropf

January 14, 2011

Planet B-Boy

Presented with the kind permission of Benson Lee

Excerpts of IndieWire interview with Director/Producer Benson Lee (March 2008).

Director Benson Lee‘s doc “Planet B-Boy” is set in the international world of B-boying, the urban dance known as “breakdancing.”

With backdrops in Osaka, Japan, Paris, France, Seoul, Korea and Las Vegas, NY, the film follows the stories of dancers …

An American dancer in Vegas looks for his big break; a Korean son seeks his father’s approval; a twelve-year-old boy in France confronts his family’s racism and all the b-boys’ lives collide in Germany where their skills are put to the ultimate test: the “Battle of the Year” finals, with crews from 18 nations vying for the title of World Champion.

IndieWire: Introduce yourself.

Benson Lee:

I’m a Korean American filmmaker who was born in Toronto, Canada and raised outside of Philadelphia. I attended F.I.T., NYU and finished my undergrad at the University of Hawaii.

After I graduated, I moved to Paris to find work in the French film industry. My lack of French prevented me from getting even an internship.

I eventually ended up in London thinking since I could speak the language, I’d have more opportunities. I was wrong again, so I made the opportunity for myself and wrote my first screenplay, “Miss Monday”.

I was fortunate enough to find a producer friend who had money to invest and ended up producing and directing the film in London. Afterwards, “Miss Monday” was accepted in the feature competition at Sundance where it received a special jury prize for acting.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking, and how has that interest evolved?

Films have always been an escape for me growing up in the burbs. Through movies, the grass was always greener on the other side. But it wasn’t until I watched David Lynch‘s “Blue Velvet” that I learned the “power” of film. I literally passed out watching it and from that point on, I got the bug.

Please discuss how the idea for “Planet B-Boy” came about.

Back in the eighties, I was one of those kids who watched all the Breakdance movies like “Breakin” and “Beatstreet,” and immediately had to try it.

Fortunately, I wasn’t that good and retired early.

Over a decade later, I was curious one night and googled “breakdancing” and discovered a whole subculture that was, to my amazement, still around. But this time, the b-boys were like the six million dollar man. They came back stronger, faster, and wearing fresher track suits.

I also discovered the “Battle fo the Year”: the World Cup of b-boying that takes place annually in Germany, which attracts crews from 18 countries.

The best part was that no one knew about it. Then, another decade passed and I decided to commit the rest of my life, up until this day, to think, breathe, doody “Planet B-boy”!

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

It was definitely raising the financing and editing. It made features seem so much more comfortable and filmmaker friendly. In total, it took us three years to make the film.

We were in production for three months where we travelled around the globe one and a half times, amassed 300 hours in four different languages. It took us a year and a half to edit. Due to licensing costs, we made over 70 minutes of old school/new school b-boy dance tracks. Finally it took us all three years to raise the financing to complete the film. As a matter of fact, we just completed the film [very recently].

How did the financing come together?

I never want to relive the financing experience of “Planet B-boy” again. This was by far, the most challenging film to get financed. I hit every production company in town with a pitch and trailer, and they were all like, “This is amazing! I can’t wait to see it! Bring it back to us after you’re done.”

I was like what the fuck is up with this Catch 22?! So I learned quickly that I had to pitch to private equity people, and I was fortunate enough to meet Johnny Lee and Chris Kim, my executive producers, who for two years, raised the money to complete our doc.

So for anyone who wants to make documentaries, you need to understand that it’s the most gruelling type of film to finance. Yet, it also turned out to be the best film school I never went to.

What are some of the creative influences that have had the biggest impact on you?

I got into filmmaking as a feature filmmaker, but in the ‘90s, I got hooked on documentaries.

I’ll never forget sitting in a theater, while I was living in London, and watching Steve James’ “Hoop Dreams” and crying my eyes out. I had never been so moved by a documentary like that. It was the last time I was actually proud to be American.

Then I started watching docs religiously. I got hooked on Michael Apted‘s “Seven Up” series which made me realize I had to go for broke as a filmmaker, otherwise I would end up really bitter.

Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen‘s “On the Ropes” made me realize that docs could be treated with a cinematic aesthetic and a dope soundtrack.

Roko Belics’ “Ghengis Blues” inspired me to seek global stories that mashed up cultures. Jeffrey Blitz‘s “Spellbound” taught me the art of the competition doc., and “DIG” introduced me to my fresh DP, Vasco Nunes (a.k.a the human compass).

Planet B-boy

What general advice would you impart to emerging filmmakers?

Be ready to be poor for a very long time.

Get used to swallowing your pride and setting aside your ego to make things happen, but at the same time, be ready to stick up for everything you believe in and are passionate about in order to make things happen.

Be ready to give your whole life to the cause of your film, otherwise this is definitely not for you. Also, read a lot of directors’ biographies to get an insight to what it means to be a filmmaker for life.

January 10, 2011

Car Bomb

Presented with the kind permission of Kevin Toolis, Many Rivers Films

Presented by Bob Baer
Directed by Kevin Toolis
Commissioning Editor Aaqil Ahmed

Forget about nuclear missiles, the decisive weapon of the twentieth century is the car bomb.

After Iraq we now know you can defeat a Superpower, start a civil war or just blow up your own Government with a trunk load of home-made explosives and a battered old car.

From the Middle East, Oklahoma, Ireland and the streets of the City of London the car bomb has shaped human conflict. Even today the car bomb remains the number one terrorist threat across the world.

In his startling new film Car Bomb ex-CIA agent Robert Baer, whose life was depicted by George Clooney in the Oscar-winning movie Syriana, for the first time uncovers the history of this extraordinary weapon.

With shocking footage of car bomb attacks and penetrating interviews with car bombers, Baer reveals how the century of the car turned into the century of the car bomb.

And how a dream of freedom turned nightmare.

Based on the Verso book Buda’s Wagon by Mike Davis

(more details soon)

January 10, 2011

Cult of the Suicide Bomber, Part 3

(Above image does not appear in this documentary.)

Presented with the kind permission of Kevin Toolis, Many Rivers Films

Presented by Robert Baer
Produced and Directed by Kevin Toolis
Commissioning Editor Aaqil Ahmed

Britain is under siege. We live in the shadow of the suicide bomber.
Nightclubs, airports, even holiday resorts – all are targets. But can we ever defeat an adversary who longs only for death, martyrdom and the 72 virgins of ‘paradise’?

In the final film of the Emmy nominated Cult of the Suicide Bomber series, ex-CIA agent Robert Baer is on the intelligence trail to investigate how the West can stop the home-grown suicide bomber.

Baer, the real life basis for George Clooney’s character in the Oscar
winning Syriana movie, speaks to the hunters and the hunted from
Israeli intelligence chiefs to Afghan mujaheddin. In the UK Baer
follows the trail of the 21/7 bombers.

Baer’s journey takes him from shocking interviews with Afghan child suicide bombers in secret interrogation centres in Kabul to the grim back streets of refugee camps in the besieged city of Nablus in the Occupied Territories.

With unseen footage of actual suicide bombing attacks, Cult of the
Suicide Bomber III is the definitive television investigation of the enemy we all now fear – the suicide bomber.

January 10, 2011

Cult of the Suicide Bomber, Part 2

Before

Presented with the kind permission of Kevin Toolis, Many Rivers Films

On July 7 2005 London was attacked by a new, deadly enemy – the home grown suicide bomber. How could four British citizens turn themselves into human bombs?

How can a woman like 29-year-old Palestinian lawyer Hanadi Jaradat eat lunch in an Israeli restaurant then deliberately stand between two families and blast them and herself to pieces?

For twenty years Robert Baer worked in the Middle East as an agent for the CIA’s Directorate of Operations.

… Robert Baer returns to investigate the rise of Western and female suicide bombers in a new sequel Cult of the Suicide Bomber II and finds out why the ‘virus’ of the cult of the suicide bomber has attracted a new generation of ever more deadly adherents, Westerners and women.

From the grim back streets of Beeston in Leeds – where the 7/7 bombers came from – to the Syrian capital Damascus, to the misery of the Gaza Strip, to the suffocating confines of the world’s only jail for failed female suicide bombers, Baer uncovers the psychology and motivation of individual bombers.

After

January 10, 2011

Cult of the Suicide Bomber, Part 1

Presented with the kind permission of Kevin Toolis, Many Rivers Films

Featuring Robert Baer (Case officer in the Directorate of Operations for the CIA from 1976 to 1997)
Produced & directed by David Batty and Kevin Toolis

In this fascinating award-winning documentary, ex-CIA agent Bob Baer traces suicide bombing from its origins on the southern battlefields of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war to the suicidal car bombers of the Lebanon, to the random terror of Jerusalem’s human bomb bus war, and on to the bloody carnage of the July 7th Underground bombings in London.

With extraordinary footage of actual suicide bomb attacks, and riveting interviews with failed suicide bombers and their families, The Cult of the Suicide Bomber is the definitive documentary history of the rise of an enemy against whom there is no real defence.

Cult of the Suicide Bomber has been broadcast all over the world and has been nominated for an Emmy and the prestigious British Grierson documentary award.

Cult of the Suicide Bomber was theatrically released in New York …

Child Hamas militant

ABC.net.au …

… Presented by former CIA spy, Robert Baer, who returns to a former theatre of operations, the Middle East, to trace the origins of the modern day bomber.

There is no good news here for the fearful and uncertain in the West, but Baer does present a clear landscape of where and how the “pathological virus” has thrived and from whence its notions of honour and glory emerged.

The first film starts with the fascinating story of the world’s first suicide bomber, who arose in the Iran-Iraq war and is now a hero in Iran.

Hossein Fahmideh was a tender 13-year-old in 1980, when he threw himself under an Iraqi tank and blew up himself and the tank’s occupants. His highly decorated grave is in the graveyard of martyrs just outside Tehran, which Baer visits. “Like the city of the dead” he says.

Baer points out that the suicide of such martyrs was different from today’s in that it was a battlefield strategy in an often gruesome trench war. Those Iranians who knowingly killed themselves would have done so in conditions where death or serious injury was a likelihood anyway, and for a cause around which an entire nation was rallying.

That seems more comparable to the Kamikaze pilots of World War II than to Al-Qaeda style attacks today, where a bunch of middle-class students in Hamburg or in Leeds, who were not part of any war and who had everything to live for, spent months plotting their own suicides, planning spectacular attacks on Western targets such as on September 11 in New York and in London last July.

December 30, 2010

Resisting the Green Dragon

Green Dragon versus Christianity?

Presented with the kind permission of the Cornwall Alliance

This series of talks present a biblical view of “environmental stewardship” and warning against the dangers of unbiblical thinking.

Evironmentalism has become a new religion. Its policies are devastating to the world’s poor. Environmentalism threatens the sanctity of life. Environmentalism is targeting our youth. Environmentalism’s vision is global.

Resisting the Green Dragon takes its cue from James 4:7, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

These talks seeks to confronts environmental fears and presents a Christian/Evangelical view on “God’s wise design” and how people and nature can thrive together.

They include …

The False World View of the Green Movement Dr. E. Calvin Beisner
Rescuing People from the Cult of the Green Dragon Dr. Peter Jones
Logos vs. Mysticism: Environmentalism’s Flight from Reason Dr. Vishal Mangalwadi
From Captain Planet to Avatar: The Seduction of Our Youth Dr. Michael Farris
A Brief History of Environmental Exaggerations, Myths and Downright Lies Dr. Steven Hayward
Putting Out the Dragon’s Fire on Global Warming Dr. David Legates
How “Going Green” Impoverishes You, Your Church, and Your Society Hon. Becky Norton Dunlop
Ravaging the World’s Poor Dr. James Tonkowich
The Green Face of the Pro-Death Agenda: Population Control, Abortion and Euthanasia Dr. Charmaine Yoest
Threats to Liberty and the Move Toward a Global Government Dr. E. Calvin Beisner
A Biblical Guide to Genuine Creation Stewardship Dr. James Tonkowich
Go Therefore and Make Disciples: Advancing the Gospel in a World Permeated by Environmentalism Dr. Peter Jones

December 29, 2010

The Soviet Story

Screening rights obtained through Perry Street Advisors. Special thanks to Daris Delins.

This is a story of an Allied power, which helped the Nazis to fight Jews and which slaughtered its own people on an industrial scale. Assisted by the West, this power triumphed on May 9th, 1945. Its crimes were made taboo, and the complete story of Europe’s most murderous regime has never been told. Until now …

The film tells the story of the Soviet regime and how the Soviet Union helped Nazi Germany instigate the Holocaust.

Stalin and Hitler

The film shows recently uncovered archive documents revealing this.

Interviews with former Soviet Military intelligence officials reveal shocking
details.

The Great Famine in Ukraine (1932/33)
The Katyn massacre (1940)
– The SS-KGB partnership
Soviet mass deportations
Medical experiments in the GULAG.

These are just a few of the subjects covered in the film.

‘The Soviet Story’ also discusses the impact of the Soviet legacy on modern
day Europe. Listen to experts and European MPs discussing the implications
of a selective attitude towards mass murder; and meet a woman describing
the burial of her new born son in a GULAG concentration camp.

The Soviet Story is a story of pain, injustice and realpolitik.

Wikipedia:

The Soviet Story is a 2008 documentary film about Soviet
Communism and Soviet-German collaboration before 1941 written and directed by Edv?ns Šnore and sponsored by the UEN Group in the European Parliament.

The film features interviews with western and Russian historians such as Norman Davies and Boris Sokolov, Russian writer Viktor Suvorov, Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, members of the European Parliament and the participants, as well as the victims of Soviet terror.

The film argues that there were close philosophical, political and organizational connections between the Nazi and Soviet systems before and during the early stages of World War II. It highlights the Great Purge as well as the Great Famine, Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Katyn massacre, Gestapo-NKVD collaboration, Soviet mass deportations and medical experiments in the GULAG

Edvins Snore is both the author of “The Soviet Story” script and the director of the film. “The Soviet Story” is his debut feature documentary.

As a Master of Political Science, Edvins Snore studied the subject and collected materials for the film over 10 years.

“The Soviet Story” was filmed over 2 years in Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Germany, France, UK and Belgium.

As a result, “The Soviet Story” presents a truly unique insight into recent Soviet history, told by people, once Soviet citizens, who have first hand knowledge of it.

ADMIN