A Note from James Frieden and Deborah W. Elliott, the Founders of TeachWithMovies.com
During 38 years of marriage and raising children, we came to realize that carefully selected feature films could supplement curriculum and foster social-emotional learning. In 1998 we started TeachWithMovies.org as a way of sharing this concept.
By 2002 tens of thousands of teachers and parents were logging on to TeachWithMovies.org each month. Web sites maintained by hundreds of schools, libraries, state departments of education, and national educational associations provided links to the site and recommended it. TeachWithMovies.org was selected as a contributor to the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM), a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to provide a central clearinghouse for the best lesson plans and teacher resources on the Internet.
(For brief biographies and a list of TeachWithMovies' distinguished Board of Contributors click here.)
Beginning with just a handful of Learning Guides in 1998, TeachWithMovies.org has grown to encompass Learning Guides to more than 300 films, as well as lesson plans and articles on using movies to further education. Through word of mouth, the search engines, and a little press coverage (including the LA Times and USA Today), usage on the site has ballooned.
Educators comprise 80% of the site's audience. The next largest contingent is made up of home schooling parents. The most common request from users has been for more Learning Guides. People also ask for Guides to more recent films.
With TeachWithMovies.org's explosive growth, the time required to maintain and improve the site increased. We realized that we could pay professional contributors and devote more time ourselves if we charged a minimal subscription fee. This would enable us to take the site to a new level of quality and to write more Learning Guides. Our mission is to provide our subscribers with the gold standard in using film in education.
In March of 2003, we created TeachWithMovies.com and began to charge for subscriptions. At $11.99 per year for access to all of the Learning Guides, lesson plans and articles, the price is designed to be affordable to any educator or parent. It is less than the price of a movie ticket and a soda. It is only $1 per month.
Our goal is to continue to add value and relevance to TeachWithMovies.com. One of our current projects is to provide answers to all of the discussion questions.
James Frieden
Deborah W. Elliott August, 2009
Deborah W. Elliott and James A. Frieden, have been married for 38 years and are the parents of three boys, ages 30, 21 and 17 (as of 2008). "In raising our children and trying to be intentional parents we have found that certain movies could supplement their education. By watching and discussing films as a family, not only are we entertained but our children's knowledge and range of experience increase. We have more control over screen time and we add to our family's common frame of reference. While our kids love the movies that we watch together, they also learn how to look at films critically."
Deborah W. Elliott has a single subject teaching credential from the state of California in English, Health and Dance. She graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. She has a postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Management from Radcliffe College. In 2003/2004 she taught a year long elective class called "It's More Than Just A Movie" at the New West Charter Middle School, Los Angeles. In 2006/2007 she assisted in English, Health and other classes at Palisades Charter High School in Los Angeles. Ms. Elliott has given lectures on the use of movies in education for the following conferences and teacher education forums: 2007 convention of the National Council of Teachers of English, 2007 Northeast Media Literacy Conference, University of Connecticut, April 2007; California Teachers Association, Good Teaching Conference South, February 2007; and Palisades Charter High School, Teacher Professional Development, April, 2007. Ms. Elliott also served as a dance critic for "Boston After Dark" magazine in the 1970s.
James Frieden has a single subject teaching credential from the state of California in English, Health and Social Studies. Mr. Frieden has given lectures on the use of movies in education for the following conferences and teacher education forums: 2007 convention of the National Council of Teachers of English, 2008 convention of the California Council of Teachers of English, 2007 Northeast Media Literacy Conference, University of Connecticut, April 2007; California Teachers Association, Good Teaching Conference South, February 2007; and Palisades Charter High School, Teacher Professional Development, April, 2007. Mr. Frieden received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandeis University and a JD from Boston College Law School where he was a contributing editor to the Boston College Industrial and Commercial Law Review. In addition to his teaching activities, Mr. Frieden is also a trial lawyer with a limited litigation practice in Santa Monica, California. He practiced law for many years in Massachusetts and has coauthored a legal text, Standardized Massachusetts Civil Practice Forms, Garrity & Frieden, Little, Brown and Company, 1986. Like many contemporary fathers, Mr. Frieden was actively involved in raising the couple's children.
Betty Bardige has a Doctorate in Education from the Harvard School of Education. She is the author of materials for parents as well as educational software, textbooks, and other curriculum materials. For a complete description of Dr. Bardige's publications, see A Wealth of Words.
Lauren Humphrey is an employee of TeachWithMovies.com. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Arts in English (Creative Writing) cum laude. In addition to helping TWM operate on a day-to-day basis, Ms. Humphrey is a major contributing author to the Talking and Playing Guides published by TeachWithMovies.com.
Mary Red Clay is an English teacher with more than 35 years' experience. She currently teaches at Palisades Charter High School in Los Angeles. "As I got more interested in teaching, I asked my two sons who had been students at Palisades High School to tell me the name of their best teacher. They both said, 'Mary Red Clay'. So, I went to Mrs. Red Clay and asked if I could observe some of her classes. They were right. She is an amazing teacher and it soon became a major goal of TeachWithMovies.com to convince Mrs. Red Clay to become a regular contributor to our site." James Frieden, a founder of TWM.
Contributors
We wish to thank the following educational professionals for their contributions to TeachWithMovies.com.
Teresa Cader holds degrees from Wilson College, the University of Wisconsin and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is the author of two collections of poetry. Guests, published in 1991 by the Ohio State University Press, won the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America and The Journal Award in Poetry. Her second book, The Paper Wasp, was published in 1999 by Triquarterly Books/ Northwestern University Press. A long poem from that book won the George Bogin Memorial Award.
Teresa Cader's work has been published in "The Atlantic Monthly," "Slate," "Poetry," "Ploughshares," "Agni," and other magazines. She has won two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as fellowships from the Bunting Institute, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the MacDowell Colony and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. She has taught at M.I.T and Emerson College. She has been poet-in-residence in many Massachusetts schools. Teresa Cader has two daughters.
John Golden teaches English at Grant High School in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of the National Council of Teachers of English publications Reading in the Dark: Using Film As a Tool in the English Classroom (2001) and Reading in the Reel World: Teaching Documentaries And Other Nonfiction Texts (2006). Mr. Golden has delivered presentations and led workshops around the country in order to help teachers use film actively in the classroom as a way for students to improve their reading, analytical and critical thinking skills. Mr. Golden is a leading expert in using movies in the classroom.
Kathleen Minnix graduated from Emory University in Atlanta and has a Ph.D. in history from Georgia State University. She is the author of "Laughter in the Amen Corner: the Life of Evangelist Sam Jones" and is currently working on a biography of Hannah Whitall Smith, the Quaker evangelist and women's rights activist. After teaching at several Georgia colleges, she and her husband moved to Alexandria, Virginia. She currently teaches at Johns Hopkins University. She and her husband Larry have been married 35 years and they have two children: John, age 26 and David, age 22. The whole family loves both history and movies, and especially the two in combination!
Don Mizell was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College and a JD from Harvard Law School. Mr. Mizell has been active in the music and entertainment industry for two decades. A few of Mr. Mizell's accomplishments include: development of the successful marketing strategy for creation of the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday; -- author of Stevie Wonder's speech launching the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday; -- the first NAACP Image Award for Broadcasting (1981); -- served as Interim Head of Business Development/Consumer Products Division of the Walt Disney Company, responsible for marketing the Little Mermaid music products line; -- wrote and narrated a documentary film entitled "Ghana, Land of the Gold Coast," a MonuMint Films Production; -- produced and directed a documentary, "Black Across the Tracks: Old Black Fort Lauderdale," Broward County Florida Library, African American Research Library, Oral History Preservation Project, 2002. Mr. Mizell has lectured at various colleges, including the University of California at Berkeley, University of Rhode Island, Wellesley College, and Rutgers University. He is the father of two daughters. In 2005 an album that Mr. Mizell participated in producing, "Genius Loves Company", won the Grammy for Best Album of the Year (2004).
John A. Tures received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Communication from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, a Masters in International Affairs from Marquette University and a Ph.D. in political science from Florida State University. Dr. Tures is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Science, at La Grange College, La Grange, Georgia.
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