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INSPIRATION IS PRICELESS!
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A Note from James Frieden and Deborah W. Elliott, the Originators of TeachWithMovies.com
During 35 years of marriage and raising children, we came to realize that carefully selected feature films could supplement curriculum and foster social-emotional learning. In 1998 we started TeachWithMovies.org as a way of sharing this concept.
By 2002 tens of thousands of teachers and parents were logging on to TeachWithMovies.org each month. Web sites maintained by hundreds of schools, libraries, state departments of education, and national educational associations provided links to the site and recommended it. TeachWithMovies.org was selected as a contributor to the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM), a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to provide a central clearinghouse for the best lesson plans and teacher resources on the Internet.
(For brief biographies and a list of TeachWithMovies' distinguished Board of Contributors click here.)
Beginning with just a handful of Learning Guides in 1998, TeachWithMovies.org has grown to encompass more than 285 films. Through word of mouth, the search engines, and a little press coverage (LA Times and USA Today), usage on the site has ballooned.
Educators comprise 80% of the site's audience. The next largest contingent is made up of home schooling parents. The most common request from users has been for more Learning Guides. People also ask for Guides to more recent films.
With TeachWithMovies' explosive growth, the time required to maintain and improve the site increased. We realized that we could pay professional contributors and devote more time ourselves if we charged a minimal subscription fee. This would enable us to take Teach With Movies to a new level of quality and to write many, many more Learning Guides. Our mission is to provide our subscribers with the gold standard in comprehensive educational coverage of film.
In March, 2003 we created TeachWithMovies.com and began to charge for subscription. At $11.99 per year for access to all of the Learning Guides, the price is designed to be affordable to any educator or parent. It is less than the price of a movie ticket and a soda. It is only $1 per month.
Our goal is to continue to add value and relevance to TeachWithMovies.com. One of our current projects is to provide answers to all of the discussion questions.
We hope that you will find that the new TeachWithMovies.com will help you educate your students and/or raise your children.
James Frieden
Deborah W. Elliott Augsut, 2007
Deborah W. Elliott and James A. Frieden, have been married for 35 years and are the parents of three boys, ages 29, 20 and 16 (as of 2007). "In raising our children and trying to be intentional parents we have found that certain movies could supplement their education. By watching and discussing films as a family, not only are we entertained but our children's knowledge and range of experience increase. We have more control over screen time and we add to our family's common frame of reference. While our kids love the movies that we watch together, they also learn how to look at films critically."
Deborah W. Elliott graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music with a BFA in Dance. She has a postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Management from Radcliffe College. In 2003/2004 she taught a year long elective class called "It's More Than Just A Movie" at the New West Charter Middle School, Los Angeles. In 2006/2007 she assisted in English, Health and other classes at Palisades Charter High School in Los Angeles. Ms. Elliott has given lectures on the use of movies in education for the following conferences and teacher education forums: Northeast Media Literacy Conference, University of Connecticut, April 2007; California Teachers Association, Good Teaching Conference South, February 2007; Palisades Charter High School, Teacher Professional Development, April, 2007. Ms. Elliott also served as a dance critic for "Boston After Dark" magazine in the 1970s.
James Frieden is a trial lawyer who practices in Southern California. He received a BA degree from Brandeis University and a JD from Boston College where he was a contributing editor to the Boston College Industrial and Commercial Law Review. Mr. Frieden practiced law for many years in Massachusetts and has coauthored a legal text, Standardized Massachusetts Civil Practice Forms, Garrity & Frieden, Little, Brown and Company, 1986. Like many contemporary fathers, Mr. Frieden is actively involved in raising the couple's children. He has assisted in teaching the following classes: 2003/2004: New West Charter Middle School, Los Angeles: "It's More Than Just A Movie" (a year long elective); 2006/2007: Palisades Charter High School, Los Angeles: English, Health and other classes. Mr. Frieden has given lectures on the use of movies in education for the following conferences and teacher education forums: Northeast Media Literacy Conference, University of Connecticut, April 2007; California Teachers Association, Good Teaching Conference South, February 2007; Palisades Charter High School, Teacher Professional Development, April, 2007.
Betty Bardige has a Doctorate in Education from the Harvard School of Education. She is the author of materials for parents as well as educational software, textbooks, and other curriculum materials. For more on Dr. Bardige, see A Wealth of Words.
Lauren Humphrey is an employee of TeachWithMovies.com. She graduated from the University of Southern California in English (Creative Writing) cum laude. In addition to helping TWM operate on a day-to-day basis, Ms. Humphrey is a major contributing author to the Talking and Playing Guides published by TeachWithMovies.com.
Board of Contributors
We wish to thank the following educational professionals for their contributions to TeachWithMovies.com.
Teresa Cader holds degrees from Wilson College, the University of Wisconsin and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is the author of two collections of poetry. Guests, published in 1991 by the Ohio State University Press, won the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America and The Journal Award in Poetry. Her second book, The Paper Wasp, was published in 1999 by Triquarterly Books/ Northwestern University Press. A long poem from that book won the George Bogin Memorial Award.
Teresa Cader's work has been published in "The Atlantic Monthly," "Slate," "Poetry," "Ploughshares," "Agni," and other magazines. She has won two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as fellowships from the Bunting Institute, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the MacDowell Colony and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. She has taught at M.I.T and Emerson College. She has been poet-in-residence in many Massachusetts schools. Teresa Cader has two daughters.
Kathleen Minnix graduated from Emory University in Atlanta and has a Ph.D. in history from Georgia State University. She is the author of "Laughter in the Amen Corner: the Life of Evangelist Sam Jones" and is currently working on a biography of Hannah Whitall Smith, the Quaker evangelist and women's rights activist. After teaching at several Georgia colleges, she and her husband moved to Alexandria, Virginia. She currently teaches at Johns Hopkins University. She and her husband Larry have been married 35 years and they have two children: John, age 26 and David, age 22. The whole family loves both history and movies, and especially the two in combination!
Don Mizell was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College and a JD from Harvard Law School. Mr. Mizell has been active in the music and entertainment industry for two decades. A few of Mr. Mizell's accomplishments include: -- development of the successful marketing strategy for creation of the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday; -- author of Stevie Wonder's speech launching the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday; -- the first NAACP Image Award for Broadcasting (1981); -- served as Interim Head of Business Development/Consumer Products Division of the Walt Disney Company, responsible for marketing the Little Mermaid music products line; -- Wrote and narrated a documentary film entitled "Ghana, Land of the Gold Coast," a MonuMint Films Production; -- Produced and directed a documentary, "Black Across the Tracks: Old Black Fort Lauderdale," Broward County Florida Library, African American Research Library, Oral History Preservation Project, 2002. Mr. Mizell has lectured at various colleges, including the University of California at Berkeley, University of Rhode Island, Wellesley College, and Rutgers University. He is the father of two daughters. In 2005 an album that Mr. Mizell participated in producing, "Genius Loves Company" won the Grammy for best album of the year (2004).
John A. Tures: received a BA in Political Science and Communication from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, a Masters in International Affairs from Marquette University and a Ph.D. in political science from Florida State University. Dr. Tures is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Science, at La Grange College, La Grange, Georgia.
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TeachWithMovies.com is updated frequently. See What's New on TWM. This particular web page was published on November 8, 2004 and revised on December 31, 2004, February 21, 2005 and August 3, 2007.
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