The Appreciator

The last time I posted in here, I wrote about an unexpected turn that derailed my blog (as well as my train of thought).  I was halfway through a post about the Oscars and the end of my tenure teaching film appreciation when Heath Ledger died, so I put the draft of that post on hold and wrote about my reaction to his death.  One of the things I lamented in that entry was that I couldn’t share my question with my class.  Along with the Oscar nominations, Ledger’s unexpected death made me realize how much I enjoyed teaching the films class and how much I would miss it this semester when I returned it to one of my colleages.

Then, life took another unexpected (and this time, welcomed) turn.  To make a long story short, I’ll be teaching film appreciation again for the first half of the semester.

While I was caught off guard by this change, I’m excited to have another opportunity to teach this class.  I really enjoyed the last semester and learned a lot about films with my students.  I’m looking forward to teaching a group of students that are equally as enthusiastic and insightful as my class this past fall.  It also means that I’ll keep writing in this blog as a way to “lead by example” as I try to integrate some “Classroom 2.0″ tools into the film class.

So to my new students, who will find their way to this blog in a few days when I introduce their “discussion questions” – I hope that you’ll enjoy studying films and becoming “critics” as much as I enjoy teaching the class.  We’ll talk about how you can keep your own film blog as well as the class goes on.

As for my post about the Oscar nominations, I’ve decided that since I have film students again, I’ll save that post until we get closer to the ceremony.  By that point, I imagine that life will have intervene a few more times as well.