Comedy: January 19, 2011 Issue [#4195] |
Comedy
This week: Children and Video Cameras Edited by: Sara♥Jean More Newsletters By This Editor
1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions
For the first time since September, I am allowed to enter your in-boxes! Thanks for allowing me in, and I hope you truly enjoy yourself.
SaraJean |
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I have the glorious and rewarding job of being a middle school teacher. I have taught high school in the past, and while I loved it, I admit that my middle schoolers are where my heart is.
The subjects that fill my day happen to be Mathematics and Technology. I'll talk about the latter for this particular newsletter.
I have, recently, given my students an assignment involving creating a make-believe product, then creating a commercial to advertise. There will be teachers who are investors to come in and give money to the product they most enjoy, and then the product that receives the most money will win the "prize". (More than likely, the prize will be some cookies. They love the cookies. They work harder for cookies than they do for good grades, it's insane.)
Before they can make their commercials, though, they have to learn how to use the video editing software. That's where we are now in the project.
I couldn't think of anything truly interesting to film, so I figured I'd leave it up to them. After a single day of filming in only two of the three classes, the following is what they came up with:
An entire line of girls slapping one poor boy:
I'm... not kidding. I have a class of eleven girls and only four boys. One was absent today, and so we were down to only three representations of testosterone. The boy being slapped suggested the whole situation. The girls were very disappointed when I stated that they couldn't really slap him, but they were as thrilled at the prospect of abusing the boy as he was at taking the abuse.
So they fake it.
Each girl gets a chance to take their fake swing at the rather tall boy, and he reacts accordingly every time. At the end of which, his male-buddies go over to beat him up, too (one of them tripping over him, toppling to the ground, himself).
When it's all over, he raises his arm to say, "I'm okay."
Off camera, there's a shout of, "Let's get him!" And then multiple war shouts as everyone in the entire class runs in to pounce on him again.
Funny to watch in person, even more hilarious on camera with all of the little nuances. Some of those girls missed him by a mile, but it was a great video.
Trapped!
There's a half-circle shaped little jungle gym with large triangular holes that the kids call the "spider web". They had the brilliant idea of crawling through and pretending they're all completely trapped. After a bit of this, one climbs out the large rectangle in the side that stands in as a 'door'. He then turns around. "Guys?" They don't pay one bit of attention - a shoe goes flying through the air, the girls are wailing and begging to be let out, so he says louder, "Hey guys!" They turn, and he points to the door. They all shrug, and walk right on out saying, "Oh. Okay." Total chaos, turned to absolute silence.
Again, it was rather hilarious.
The Classroom
One student is a teacher, and the others have taken on roles.
We've got a thief that keeps stuffing everything into his sweatshirt that he can find, a sleeper, a bored one, a rich primper with two assistants, an annoying poker, and a bully. As I pan around the room, each does their own thing while the poor soft-spoken teacher (not me) begs them to pay attention and do their work. Once I finally pan around to see the teacher's face, she shouts, "Enough!" I then center the camera back at the students - all whom look as if they've been blasted back and are in complete shock. Now they're paying attention!
My students had ideas I'd never considered, and they had so much fun.
Children have huge imaginations. Even as I watch my six year olds, they are constantly making up stories and just going on and on and on. As a writer, I wish that I could steal their muse, sometimes!
I know some people don't really like children for a myriad of reasons. They can certainly be irritating, they can be rude, they can be blatantly honest, and they can break your heart in ways no one else can. But they can also be great entertainment.
Man, I want those minds! |
I think I'll feature some stories that either mimic real life with children, or are true-indeed! Let's have a little fun with this. Be sure to let them know you stopped by to read by leaving a lil' review.
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Way back in September, I did a series of newsletters that featured comics who have either been around a long stinkin' time, or ones who are long past dead. Here are some of the replies that I got to those particular newsletters:
LJPC - the tortoise said: Hi SaraJean! I really enjoyed the newsletter, but when you listed the names of timeless comics, my eyes flew through the group looking for one in particular, and she wasn't there. Don't get me wrong, I love the ones you mentioned, but for me, CAROL BURNETT is the queen. I spent so many Saturday nights in the 70s watching her wonderful show. I also missed Bob Hope on you list...hm... and Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Apparently, I'm just an old fogey and though I love Will Smith, Steve Martin, and the newer ones, I love the ones who were funny first. Oh! Oh! One more: Kevin Kline. He is super talented. Shoot, I could just go on naming forever...
-- Laura
I love Carol Burnett! Unfortunately, I couldn't touch on all of the people I'd have loved to, but it was a lot of fun to research. Maybe I'll do some more in the future!
Lauriemariepea said: Fun newsletter, Sara! I hadn't seen the Abbott & Costello skit before. Good stuff.
My favorite comedian is Eddie Izzard. I can watch his standup over & over and laugh each time; the setups and logic are giggleworthy, but even more so is his delivery. He's genius at acting out both sides of a conversation to hilarious effect. And believe it or not, his comedy is educational: He delves into recent and ancient history, geography, cultures and languages through his act. I remembered French I hadn't used since high school watching him.
Thanks for the laughs--appreciate it.
I am so glad I could make you smile! I don't think I've ever heard of Eddie Izzard before, but it's something I will certainly be looking up. My only problem would be -- I don't speak French. |
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