In the video, Dangerous Minds, a class of challenged students has a history of scaring teachers away. The students come from mostly low-income families and their main concern is survival on the streets; they don't believe they are understood. Their new teacher (played by Michelle Pfiefer) wants to overcome their disadvantages and give hope to their future. She enters the class with little lesson plans, no structure, and is expected to follow the school curriculum exactly. She even gets a warning by the principle when she tries innovative and unconventional ways to stimulate the children to learn by making connections with them and their lives. The room environment was plain and the students were disrespectful, did not follow rules, and had negative attitude
Overall, I think the message of treating each student as an individual based on their own life and experiences and understanding where they come from is an effective way to teach. As I mentioned before, though, I think some of the movie was unrealistic. The students will probably not all change, decide to start learning, and show respect just because of a few nice gestures and some bribes! Also, I'm not sure the teacher should go against school policy; she may not only risk her job but also could get the school in trouble. Sometimes, teaching requires you to make difficult decisions to do what you believe is best for your students.
Throughout the movie several teaching strategies were attempted. 1) First, she used the traditional approach of trying to lecture whi
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