December 31st, 2009 by admin

I got my first job at the age of 15 as a darkroom printers assistant for a firm specializing in high end flattering portraits of CEO types. The printer was immensely skilled and I learned a good deal working by his side. It paid $.75 per hr.

The following year I found another job, cleaning 16mm prints. The work made me rather dizzy. It’s no wonder, as the cleaning solvent was Carbon Tetrachloride. A highly toxic chemical now classified as a “dangerous substance”.

At 17 I made a documentary film about lobster fishing called “The Lobsterman”. The film won a prize and is in the permanent collection of the Boston Public Library.

When I turned 18 I enrolled in the film department at the University Of Southern California (USC). At that time the USC curriculum included:

• Motion Picture Laboratory Chemistry
• understanding and using logarithms
• plotting H&D curves
• cinematography
• film editing
• writing film criticism and analysis
• lectures given by visiting film makers including professional cinematographers
• and watching at least one film daily in the USC theater.

Upon receiving my Masters in Arts from USC, I was drafted into the Army during the Korean War.

Following Basic Training at Fort Dix I was assigned as a cinematographer to the Signal Film Studios in Astoria, NY (formerly Paramount Pictures and now a museum) where I worked on training films and documentary films for 2 years. Four years later I was Honorably Discharged from the Army.

After my discharge I went on to win three Emmies with credits including: Bang the Drum Slowly, In the American Grain Night of the Dark Shadows, The Responsive Eye, and Three Women Alone. And after working for forty years in twenty countries and working as the Directory of Photography on hundreds of commercials, documentaries, educational and scientific films I retired.

I am currently the Senior Instructor at the New York Film Academy where I give the “Special Guest Lecture” to all our Film School classes in New York City. Please join me as I continue to live, love and teach filmmaking.

By Richard Shore

December 29th, 2009 by admin

One of my favorite things to do is to spend time reading and studying the Bible. Years ago I made a commitment to spend at least five minutes a day reading the Bible, and God has used that discipline to transform my life. There have been times that those minutes in the Word were merely the dutiful fulfillment of my promise, but for the most part those five minutes have become hours upon hours of truly the most delightful time of my day.

While I love having the flexibility of searching out topics and passages that are of particular interest to me at various times, I have also found it helpful to have a structured plan that gives me a starting point each day when I have my quiet time with the Lord. This past year, I thoroughly enjoyed reading through the Bible chronologically (here’s a link to the daily plan that I used). I had wanted to do this for a while, but became especially motivated after spending a year rotating through the Books of History (Joshua-Esther) and wishing that I understood the broader context of the historical timeline and which kings and prophets lived concurrently.

In the course of reading through the Gospels as part of the chronological plan, I was impressed with a desire to know Jesus on a deeper level. My heart overflowed with a renewed love for Him and my imagination was enraptured as I considered what it must have been like to walk with Him while He lived here on this earth. So I decided that I would take a year to do just that! During 2010 my plan is to do a rotation through the Gospels, reading through all four Gospels each month. I couldn’t find anything quite like I was looking for, so I put together my own plan. For all the odd-numbered months, I’ll read through the Gospels in the order they fall in the Bible. For all the even-numbered months, I’ll read through the Gospels chronologically (or as closely as possible). And for each two-month rotation I’ll use a different translation of the Bible, including: ESV, KJV, Phillips, Geneva, Evidence, and one other that I’m leaving undecided until I start that rotation.

I’m super excited about launching this new plan! Well, truth be told, since I finished this year’s plan a couple weeks early, I decided to get a jump start on next year’s schedule and started it a couple days ago. Patience is not exactly my finest virtue… If you’re interested in using the same plan, I’ve uploaded a Bible Reading Plan – Gospel Rotation that you are free to download and use. And if you have another plan that you’ve used and really enjoyed, I would love to know about it!

December 25th, 2009 by admin

Click Here to Watch Video

My writing partner and I gave a talk at American Film Institute (AFI) Digi Fest 2009 last month about new media and new forms of storytelling in portable spaces like iPhones and touchscreen TV Sets.

The talk that I gave there was drawn from a lecture that I give in the final week of my Adaptation Lecture in the 1-Year Screenwriting Program at the New York Film Academy in New York City and is available on YouTube now (my portion of the talk starts in minute 10:00).

Using the iPhone to View Films & Read Books

For most of the last century audio/visual storytelling has existed in the form of feature films and episodic television shows – platforms that are stable, predictable and familiar. However, in the last five years the platform for mass media consumption has changed from theater multiplexes and living room television sets, programmed from the top down, to computer screens, cell phones and mp3 players with content provided twenty four hours a day by individual users as much or more than corporate media conglomerates. This shift in production and distribution has had an immediate effect on commerce, but is still being sorted out on the creative level of storytelling. The Screenwriting Program at New York Film Academy trains young writers to work in traditional forms, but also to think outside of the constraints of traditional forms and embrace the possibilities these new platforms provide, whether it is the massive and all encompassing cinematic experience of “Avatar”, serialized homemade videos on YouTube, or new applications for the portable devices that have changed the way the world communicates and experiences media.

By Benjamin Maraniss, New York Film Academy Screenwriting Program Instructor in New York City

December 25th, 2009 by admin

In a year that saw the Clinton School celebrate its fifth anniversary, the nation’s first graduate program to offer a Master of Public Service (MPS) degree finished 2009 with record marks.

As the school’s 2010 application deadline approaches on Jan. 15, a look back at 2009 shows progress in all areas: enrollment, academics, field service work and public programs.

“It’s been a transformational year for the Clinton School,” said Skip Rutherford, the school’s dean. “Despite the tough economy, we’re finding more and more people are interested in supporting and participating in our unique program.”

This year, the school admitted a record 36 students representing 16 states and five countries. The 2009 applicant pool was also the largest in history and 2010 applications are running ahead of that pace, Rutherford said.

Clinton School students completed a record 42 field projects across the country and the world this year ranging from supporting the work of six literacy councils in Arkansas to improving sanitation systems for remote villages in India. The 18 countries visited by students this summer was also a record. Clinton School students have completed projects on all six inhabited continents.

In the renowned Clinton School Speaker Series, the school hosted 115 public programs this year, featuring lectures from politicians, journalists, philanthropists, corporate CEOs, government officials and more. More than 24,000 people attended those programs with James Carville and Mary Matalin’s Dec. 7 Kumpuris Lecture setting a new record with over 1,500 attendees.

This year also saw the Clinton School graduate its largest class to date with 30 students completing the two-year program and moving on to careers in government, nonprofit, volunteer and private sector work.

Since opening, the school boasts an 85 percent graduation rate coupled with a 90 percent career placement rate, with graduates landing jobs with organizations ranging from the Wal-Mart Foundation to the World Bank.

“I’m proud of every one of our graduates,” former President Bill Clinton said recently. “And I look forward to seeing the difference they’ll make in the years to come.”

The former president recently hosted a private session with current Clinton School students where he discussed government, politics and international relations for more than two hours.

“It was a tremendous opportunity and experience for the students,” Rutherford said. “They were able to learn from the world’s foremost public servant and the president was able to see firsthand how his vision for this school is working.”

This year the school also opened a new video and audio recording studio in partnership with the Butler Center of Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library.

In addition to producing material for the Clinton School speaker series Web site,  Clinton School students will begin work on specialized projects — the first being archiving the experiences of Clinton School volunteers.

December 25th, 2009 by admin

On Christmases past, we’ve read A Christmas Carol together as a family, but this year we settled for watching the old classic Alastair Sim movie as we have to finish Pickwick papers read-together. It was interesting to discover here that Dickens commissioned the artist John Leech to produce 4 hand-colored etchings and 4 wood engravings for the volume. Leech had been forced to abandon his medical studies (he excelled at anatomical drawing) because of the bankruptcy of his family, but was able to support himself as an artist and became the chief cartoonist for Punch.

Recently for our son’s Veritas Press Omnibus classs he had fun with the challenge of writing in Charles Dickens’ maximalist style. The assignment was to expand a sentence in a Dickensian fashion (for those of you who are curious, Dickens was not infrequently paid by the number of words…)

The starter sentence: “Beebo Appleby walked into the room, looked out the window, and patted his jacket pocket. He heard his mother’s footsteps approaching and turned to the door to greet her.”

Our son’s: “Beebo Horatius Appleby wheezed and puffed through his plump, pursed lips as he waddled his massive girth into the narrow parlor of his cozy country cottage. In the dim light cast by the fireplace, one might almost have mistaken him for a great bespectacled Christmas goose (a goose, by the way, ample enough to feed a very large, and very hungry family.) His chubby face was ruddy and moist with perspiration, but the haunted look in his sunken, squinting eyes suggested this was less a product of physical exertion than of some secret strain. As his inertia carried him over to the window and he absently gazed at the gently drifting snow, glowing eerily in the moonlight like a ghost-filled graveyard, his hand moved, almost unbidden, to his breastpocket. In it was his father’s last will and testament, which he realized, much to his discomfort, that he would have to discuss with his grieving mother. All of a sudden, he heard a rap-tap-tapping coming down the hall in his direction. He steeled himself in preparation for what he was about to endure, and turned towards the door.”

Merry Christmas everyone!

December 23rd, 2009 by admin

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) just released the 12th edition of their annual school safety publication: Indicators of School Crime and Safety (2009). This shares the most recent national indicators on school crime and safety to serve as an informative primer for policy updates and action planning aimed at improved safety and crime prevention.
Here are some statistics pulled from the key findings:

During the 2007–08 school year, 25% of public schools reported that bullying occurred among students on a daily or weekly basis.
In 2007, 32% of students ages 12–18 reported having been bullied at school during the school year. 21% of students said that they had experienced bullying that consisted of being made fun of; 18% reported being the subject of rumors; 11% said that they were pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on; 6% said they were threatened with harm; 5% said they were excluded from activities on purpose; and 4% of students said they were tried to make do things they did not want to do or that their property was destroyed on purpose.
10% of students ages 12–18 reported that someone at school had used hate-related words against them, and more than one-third (3%) reported seeing hate-related graffiti at school in 2007.
In 2007–08, 34% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that student misbehavior interfered with their teaching, and 32% reported that student tardiness and class cutting interfered with their teaching.
During the 2007–08 school year, 25% of public schools reported that bullying occurredamong students on a daily or weekly basis, and 11% reported that student acts of disrespectfor teachers other than verbal abuse took place on a daily or weekly basis.

The full report contains research and background across topics of bullying, school environment, fights, drug and alcohol use, fear and avoidance, teacher safety and violence. Click here to download the report.The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) just released the 12th edition of their annual school safety publication: Indicators of School Crime and Safety (2009). This shares the most recent national indicators on school crime and safety to serve as an informative primer for policy updates and action planning aimed at improved safety and crime prevention.
Here are some statistics pulled from the key findings:

During the 2007–08 school year, 25% of public schools reported that bullying occurred among students on a daily or weekly basis.
In 2007, 32% of students ages 12–18 reported having been bullied at school during the school year. 21% of students said that they had experienced bullying that consisted of being made fun of; 18% reported being the subject of rumors; 11% said that they were pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on; 6% said they were threatened with harm; 5% said they were excluded from activities on purpose; and 4% of students said they were tried to make do things they did not want to do or that their property was destroyed on purpose.
10% of students ages 12–18 reported that someone at school had used hate-related words against them, and more than one-third (3%) reported seeing hate-related graffiti at school in 2007.
In 2007–08, 34% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that student misbehavior interfered with their teaching, and 32% reported that student tardiness and class cutting interfered with their teaching.
During the 2007–08 school year, 25% of public schools reported that bullying occurred among students on a daily or weekly basis, and 11% reported that student acts of disrespect for teachers other than verbal abuse took place on a daily or weekly basis.

The full report contains research and background across topics of bullying, school environment, fights, drug and alcohol use, fear and avoidance, teacher safety and violence. Click here to download the report.

December 23rd, 2009 by admin

The National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC) at the Education Commission of the States has just announced that they are now open for proposals to join Schools of Success: A National Network of Service-Learning Schools.
Middle Schools serving grades 6-9 are invited to apply for the awards. With funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve America program, NCLC will select 10 schools with extensive service-learning experience that wish to promote high-quality service-learning to address STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) objectives in middle schools with large populations of youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. Intents to Apply are due January 8, 2010.
Click here to download the RFP and apply.The National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC) at the Education Commission of the States has just announced that they are now open for proposals to join Schools of Success: A National Network of Service-Learning Schools.
Middle Schools serving grades 6-9 are invited to apply for the awards. With funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve America program, NCLC will select 10 schools with extensive service-learning experience that wish to promote high-quality service-learning to address STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) objectives in middle schools with large populations of youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. Intents to Apply are due January 8, 2010.
Once the 10 schools are selected, the schools will join a Schools of Success Network to identify and share insights, experiences, strategies, policies and practices to integrate and sustain quality service-learning opportunities for all students. Network schools will contribute to a national service-learning advocacy campaign to promote the use of high-quality service-learning to address STEM objectives and will receive local and national media coverage for their service-learning success, contributions and progress. Selected schools will receive an award of $15,000 over three years and three days of training annually focusing on the implementation of high quality service-learning and STEM specific service-learning projects.
Click here to download the RFP and apply.

December 17th, 2009 by admin

Here’s a free and very easy way to support CSEE’s work schools in schools! For each person who joins iGive using the special link below and does just one web search on their site between now and noon Thursday, iGive gives Center for Social and Emotional Education a dollar.
http://www.igive.com/welcome/warm_reg_promo.cfm?m=574896
We can win up to $5000! Help us help schools-in-need start 2010 on the right track by free assessment or professional development supports from CSEE. And the more you search, the more you’ll earn for CSEE — iGive also donates $.02 per search and a bonus $5 for the first purchase.
iGive is a search engine like Google or Yahoo! that empowers people to donate to their favorite charities for free by searching the web and making standard purchases online. The GoodSearch Toolbar works with your browser to ensure that money is donated to a good cause every time you search the web. 100% of donations through this iGive will be directed to our School Climate Counts Fund, whichassists schools-in-need in developing safer and more nurturing learning environments (more info here).
Here’s a free and very easy way to support CSEE’s work schools in schools! For each person who joins iGive using the special link below and does just one web search on their site between now and noon Thursday, iGive gives Center for Social and Emotional Education a dollar.
http://www.igive.com/welcome/warm_reg_promo.cfm?m=574896
We can win up to $5000! Help us help schools-in-need start 2010 on the right track by free assessment or professional development supports from CSEE. And the more you search, the more you’ll earn for CSEE — iGive also donates $.02 per search and a bonus $5 for the first purchase.
iGive is a search engine like Google or Yahoo! that empowers people to donate to their favorite charities for free by searching the web and making standard purchases online. The GoodSearch Toolbar works with your browser to ensure that money is donated to a good cause every time you search the web. 100% of donations through this iGive will be directed to our School Climate Counts Fund, whichassists schools-in-need in developing safer and more nurturing learning environments (more info here).

December 17th, 2009 by admin

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee stopped by the Clinton School on Tuesday to tout his new book, “A Simple Christmas,” which recounts holiday stories from his life in and out of politics.

The former Republican presidential candidate also took questions about his future political aspirations and his controversial 2000 commutation of the prison sentence of Maurice Clemmons, a former Arkansas inmate who is accused in the recent murder of four police officers in Washington state.

Huckabee defended his decision to commute the sentence of Clemmons, who at age 16 received 108 years for a string of robberies and burglaries. Huckabee said that sentence was excessive for a minor.

“I made my decision on information that I had,” Huckabee said, “not on the information that was to come.

On his life in politics, Huckabee said he is enjoying life as a private citizen and had not decided whether to run for president again in 2012.

A large media contingent turned out to get Huckabee’s comments on the commutation controversy. From the Associated Press report:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Monday he’s worried that the backlash he’s received from commuting the sentence of a man who later gunned down four police officers will deter other governors from granting clemency.

Huckabee, who pardoned or commuted the sentences of 1,033 people during his 10 1/2 years in office, defended his use of executive clemency and his role in the release of Maurice Clemmons. Seattle police killed Clemmons days after he shot four Lakewood, Wash., police officers dead inside a coffee shop Nov. 29.

“What I fear is the hubbub of this case will make it so that not only in Arkansas, but in states across this country, these files won’t even get looked at,” Huckabee said at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. “When people say how can you sleep at night, I say I sleep better knowing that I at least honestly did my job and looked at every case and I gave it consideration and I denied a lot more than I approved.”

Click here for the full article. Video of Huckabee’s lecture will be posted soon at www.clintonschoolspeakers.com.

December 15th, 2009 by admin

“A positive school climate means being a community and acting like one, helping others approach their goals (including your own), being available for each other, and making that community a safe place.” —Diana, Junior student at a NY High School
As we head into the holiday season, it is a wonderful time to stop and celebrate the community of teachers, students, parents, and support staff that truly makes our schools shine. As a place where students and adults alike spend the majority of their week, the school is often a secondary home—and the quality of the relationships within that space directly impact students’ healthy development and their ability to learn. In our busy days, however, this critical aspect of school life tends to be one of the areas we focus on least, which can have serious negative consequences.
In the latest issue of School Climate Matters, we share simple, concrete strategies for supporting and improving your school’s community and connectedness — from Dr. Janis Whitlock’s core lessons for cultivating community based on her research in the field to eight student-directed activities from WINGS for Kids that you can try in your classroom tomorrow. We also include an inspiring story of one school’s success in creating an engaging and positive community, with lessons you can apply to your own school.
As always, we hope you’ll explore the deeper list of resources included in this issue, and look forward to hearing your own thoughts on what efforts have been most successful for your school community. Please feel free to send your stories, comments, and ideas to newsletter@csee.net.
Click here to access current and past issues of the newsletter.“A positive school climate means being a community and acting like one, helping others approach their goals (including your own), being available for each other, and making that community a safe place.” —Diana, Junior student at a NY High School
As we head into the holiday season, it is a wonderful time to stop and celebrate the community of teachers, students, parents, and support staff that truly makes our schools shine. As a place where students and adults alike spend the majority of their week, the school is often a secondary home—and the quality of the relationships within that space directly impact students’ healthy development and their ability to learn. In our busy days, however, this critical aspect of school life tends to be one of the areas we focus on least, which can have serious negative consequences.
In the latest issue of School Climate Matters, we share simple, concrete strategies for supporting and improving your school’s community and connectedness — from Dr. Janis Whitlock’s core lessons for cultivating community based on her research in the field to eight student-directed activities from WINGS for Kids that you can try in your classroom tomorrow. We also include an inspiring story of one school’s success in creating an engaging and positive community, with lessons you can apply to your own school.
As always, we hope you’ll explore the deeper list of resources included in this issue, and look forward to hearing your own thoughts on what efforts have been most successful for your school community. Please feel free to send your stories, comments, and ideas to newsletter@csee.net.
Click here to access current and past issues of the newsletter.