Teach Secondary - Issue 13.2

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (2006, 101 MINUTES, 15) CURRICULUM LINKS: Film studies, psychology Loveable 7-year-old Olive dreams of winning a beauty pageant – andwithin her dysfunctional family, her dream is the one bright spot. Her fellow familymembers, all of whomharbour dark secrets ormajor issues, duly pile into a broken-down van and drive across the USA to help Olive realise her goal. While never being less than incredibly funny, this big-hearted filmalsomanages to demonstrate that throughout even the darkest times and in themost troubled situations, the bond of family remains one of life’s greatest gifts. Discussion questions: • What do you think the filmhas to say about winning and losing? How important is this to the overarching themes of the film? • Howwould you describe the family dynamic in the film?What are some of the personality traits that each individual familymember has? • What aspects of neurodiversity do you think are explored in LittleMiss Sunshine ? What positives are born fromsome characters’ neurodiversity? Head online to intofilm.org to streamthis filmfor free on Into Film+; for furtherfilm suggestions and resources to support your SEND,ASNandALNprovision, head to intofilm.org/theme/35 A F E W M I N U T E S O F D E S I G N Draw as many uses as you can think of for the object shown below. What qualities, or properties, does the object have? How else could these properties be used? You canmultiply the basic unit, add materials, cut the object, reshape it or otherwise modify it. You just need to make good use of the shape, size and properties of the material. Vic Goddard @vicgoddard The lack of people wishing to train to be a teacher next year is soul destroying. ‘Growing our own’ has been the onlyway we’vemanaged andwith that disappearing what happens next? Schools offering a higher rate of pay than recommendedwith publicmoney? Classes of 50? GrahamChatterley @grahamchatterl2 If you are bragging about turning a school around, but your exclusion figures are sky high and you are sending parents elsewhere, you haven’t turned anything around, you’ve taken amassive shortcut. If you cherry pick your students, of course results go up. Follow us via @teachsecondary – and let us knowwhat you’re thinking Retweets Who’s been saying what on Twitter this month? Get Into Film TEACHER TAL ES True stories fromthe education chalkface Find the creak To help combat the boredomof exam invigilation, our teamof invigilators created a game in which we took it in turns to attempt navigating our way through the hundred-plus examdesks, fromone end of the hall to the other,while causing as fewfloorboards to creak as possible. Participants in the game who were observing would carefully record the route taken, before it was time for the next person to embark on a new route, trying their best to avoid the creaks and groans of the hall’s ancient wooden floor and thus earn themselves a lower ‘creak’ score. Needless to say, as responsible education professionals,wemade certain that this fun diversion didn’t detract fromour ability to ensure the relevant exams were invigilated appropriately, as per expectations... Route recalculation Once,whilst leading a parental tour of the school, I marched into a woodwork room andwitnessed a harassed,white-coated master running in circles around a workbench shouting,“ Oi, come here, ginger! ” I quickly closed the door before anyone had a chance to enter, remarking “Best not disturb – test going on…” Have a memorable true school tale or anecdote of your own? Share the details, and find more amusing stories, at schoolhumour.co.uk #28 ONE OBJECT 100 WAYS 09 teachwire.net/secondary N E WS | M A R / A P R