I am a bit behind the times and will admit that this weekend I finally watched the first Sharknado movie. The cheesy, terrible special effects movie about a storm of sharks on the Syfy channel. This terrible movie caught the attention of millions and spurred a sequel because there is such a need for more!
If the quality was cheesy why do people like it?
The movie is missing
-quality acting
-quality storyline
-quality effects
-basically the many things we expect in a movie.
The reason people liked it is because it was entertaining. It was something different. It was something that just grabbed the audience and it took off. The movie celebrated what is was and what it was not.
It is not so much that the quality was bad because if we compare it to the millions of dollars that Hollywood can spend on movies and celebrities to only have it flop big time, then this movie is a great reminder about the power we have as educators(what did he just connect Sharknado to education?). The movie grabbed 6 million viewers. Not too shabby.
What this movie offered is
-met the needs of the audience
-celebrated what it was and was not
-it was its own vibe and own feel
-it was not trying to copy anybody else
In education, we don’t need millions of dollars to reach our target audience: kids(although it would not hurt). We just need to know how to take the tools and resources that we have to make things work. If you watch the camera angles and so forth with the movie it looks like something I could put together with my GoPro. It works with what they are trying to achieve.
This movie connects with education because what appealed from this movie is what should be reminders in education.
1.Be sure to the meet the needs of the students. This is not stating anything new, but sometimes we get so consumed by other factors in education that we forget students and their needs.
2. Celebrate who you are and what you can bring to the table. You don’t have to be like other educators. What is it that you can bring to the classroom that nobody else can? I am not talking about being better, but just being yourself.
3.Don’t copy others. Don’t try to walk in the same exact steps as others. Use them as a guide. Learn from them, but at some point you have to chart your own path.
4. Let the students do the talking. If you are doing a good job they will spread the word just like people blasted Sharknado all over the social media. You don’t have to fight the system, you just have to do what you do best and let things be.
And now I must watch Sharknado 2 and waste another few hours of my life. I will let you know how it goes.
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