Professor Elam

Freedom Writers  is the latest in a long line of significant stories about struggle in the classroom.  This one stars Hillary Swank  whom I have admired from The Next karate Kid to Insomnia to Million Dollar Baby.  You can see the trailer by clicking on the link.  This genre got started with Glenn Ford in Black Board Jungle, then Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean, To Sir With Love with Sidney Poitier, sorta kinda Mr. Holland’s Opus except here Mr. Holland is losing his job, Dangerous Minds with Michelle Pfeiffer, anyway

In this one Hillary is the new teacher in the San Diego Barrio. She urges her students to write down their frustrations in journals rather than engage in the existing violence that is destroying their civilization, or as I like to say, Write that Down!

Now, here’s the interesting part, instead of just promoting the movie with banner ads, website, etc. Paramount is using widgets as outline in a story  on page B 4 of the Thursday  Nov 21 WSJ.  Click on
Freewebs  to learn more about  widgets.  See that calendar on my left hand bar on this blog, that’s a widget, it highlights days I have made a post and takes you to them.  Widgets are now morphing into photos, surveys and other cool stuff. 

Which reminds me I am looking for a few volunteers. I would like to do some one minute digital videos of what you think about UNT Dallas as a student.  Raul Hinojosa is planning a You Tube site for UNT Dallas and I think it would be fun to include some of these, or on the blog.  Any takers?

DLE