Also the Phoenix Film Festival finished its first ever awards ceremony on April 30th in the PAC at Korea International School. Greg Israel and I would like to congratulate and thank all the students and teachers who were involved in the process. We’d also like to thank Apple, Korea for donating 9 iPod Nanos to the event and the KIS administration and PTO for ponying up the money for the other Nanos. We had 31 films from five countries and seven different schools. The winners list can be viewed on the Youtube channel as well as the awards ceremony.

Here is a short collection of some of the reflections I am currently working on.

1 — The Phoenix Film Festival — The festival hasn’t even happened yet, but Greg and I have thought of some improvements for next year. First, we plan to start promoting and planning from the beginning of the school year with a calendar of dates with different tasks that need to be accomplished and time frames for finishing those tasks. Greg and I want the festival to live beyond our time at KIS, so this type of planning is necessary for the future of the festival. Second, we plan to offer clubs at the middle and high school levels, so student can begin to take over the process. After all, it is their festival. Third, we plan to reflect on the festival once it is over.

2 — Recent communication — I had an unfortunate communication with one of my colleagues recently where I inappropriately communicated my frustration with a situation involving a duty schedule for our parent-teacher conferences. Due to the great demands on my time as the Dean of Students and the Technology Integration Specialist, I try to plan ahead at least one or two weeks in advance so I can focus my time correctly. Robin Schneider, my principal, had came up with a great idea of having a showcase of digital work done by students on display during the conferences. Sadly, his idea came the week before the conferences, but because I felt the idea was great, I told him we should move ahead with the plan. It required me to collect a lot of student artifacts in a very short period of time and then compile those artifacts into presentations. We looked down the road at what else was coming and saw the Middle Matters staring us in the face. At that point we both felt that it was manageable because during conferences I could work on the layout of the Middle Matters. On Wednesday, the beginning of the conferences, I received an email with a duty schedule for the conferences. I was surprised to find that I was listed on the duty schedule with 12 hours (four hours per day) of supervision duty during the conferences. Instead of taking a deep breath and counting to ten, I exploded and shot off one of those emails that you aren’t supposed to write when you are angry. I have apologized to Jamie Otis, but still can’t believe my own behavior. We all make mistakes and the best thing to do is to admit the mistake and apologize to the appropriate people. In addition to my unprofessional response, I do feel that the problem highlights one of the major concerns at the school — time lines and planning. Why was the duty schedule handed out on Wednesday morning of the conferences? It should be out at least one week before the required work so people can plan accordingly. This doesn’t excuse my behavior, but it does place a framework around it.

3 — KIS Podcast and KIS YouTube Channel — Both are off and running and the important point now is momentum. We need to continue interviewing teachers, students, and administration about the 1:1 program for the podcast and continue uploading student samples to the YouTube channel.

4 — Discipline — I am currently trying my best to add a guiding and mentoring approach to our behaviorist/control discipline policies. This is an example of merging two philosophies together to make a livable situation for everyone concerned. Our school-wide discipline approach is very much from the behaviorist philosophy of education — a system of rules and punishments. My personal philosophy is more to the guidance or constructivist approach, so each major discipline case is coming with some serious discussion of appropriate behavior and what can be learned from the situation. I’m feeling better about the situation, and the students involved so far seem to leave the room feeling better about receiving discipline.

Reflection is an important part of education and we must all engage in it.

So, “What is this post about?” You ask yourself. It is about movies. Independent movies to be exact. When I was at the Asia ADE Conference back in December, one of the best activities we engaged in was a field trip to Sinema Old School. A small independent movie theater in the heart of Singapore. Sinema Old School features independently produced movies from Asia and the one we watched that wonderful evening was called 18 Grams of Love. After the movie the ADE’s had the chance to talk with the director about movie making and film. This is Han Yew Kwang’s second movie in a trilogy of movies he wrote about communication. 18 Grams of Love is about written letters and the powerful messages that the written word conveys told in the form of a romantic comedy with deep under currents of how couples communicate and miscommunicate with each other in every day life. The movie was clever, emotional, and humorous and had none of the typical Hollywood plot line that fills normal theater screens. I encourage you to check out 18 Grams of Love if you get the chance.

On the topic of independent films, the official launch of Korea International School’s Phoenix Film Festival has come and gone. Many of the students around school are talking about it and many of the teachers are providing assignments that will nicely fit into the festival. Please feel free to encourage the students in your life to pick up a camera and enter the contest, because it is open worldwide. Final submission date is April 6th and the awards ceremony will be April 30th on the KIS campus in the lovely suburb of Bundang.

In the last few days, we have established a Youtube channel for the festival, a wiki at Wetpaint, and a gmail account. So on top of having a student film festival, it is entirely developed online. We are even encouraging emailed submissions. If you have students interested in entering the contest, please visit our wiki, fill out the application, make a film, and send it in, because it is open to all students every where.