A Touch of Greatness

Starring:Albert Cullum, Laurie Heineman, Seth Adkins
Director: Leslie Sullivan
Studio: First Run Features
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Inspiring
Every Teacher, Every Parent Must See this Film
What teaching success looks like
Touched my heart
NO MEDIOCRITY ALLOWED!

A Touch of Greatness
Starring: Leslie Sullivan , Albert Cullum , and Laurie Heineman
Manufacturer: First Run Features
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

The First Year
Misunderstood Minds: Understanding Kids Who Struggle to Learn
The Hobart Shakespeareans
I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School
To Be and to Have

ASIN: B0006Z2NL8
Release Date: 2005-03-22

Customer Reviews:

Inspiring.......2007-03-09

An inspiring DVD for a new teacher. Though the setting was in the 60s, I can still learn from timeless principles from the documentary.

Every Teacher, Every Parent Must See this Film.......2006-02-07

A half century ago, a brave public school teacher (Albert Cullum) explored innovative techniques, with heart and mind, to establish a "new way" of teaching 5th graders. Oh...how he succeeded.! A marvelous film. This documentary shows how he inspired his pupils to be interested in the Great Books, in plays, in mathematics. Albert Collum insisted on tough standards but at the same time he was not afraid to make learning fun. The students compete, even dance their way to learning. (Witness the children swimming a "map" of the Mississippi) Under Collum's expert direction, even kindergarten children were starting to learn Shakespeare and to act the roles. In a world where we are dumbing down our kids, we need to learn how to raise the standard of achievement. Highly recommended.

What teaching success looks like.......2005-12-01

I'm a high school English teacher and this film is going to change what happens in my classroom.

In this film, Albert Cullum says what are perhaps the most courageous words I've ever heard come out of a teacher's mouth: "Day after day I was having discipline problems, and I thought to myself, 'It must be me. I must be doing something wrong.'"

As a child, my own experience with public education taught me that what was important was to sit down, shut up, and think the way they wanted me to.

I was never any good at any of those things, and (now that I'm an adult with twenty years of life experience outside of education,) as a new teacher I plan to stand up, speak up and open wide the arena of the possible for ALL of my kids, regardless of their backgrounds or previous performance.

If you are a like-minded teacher, this film is simply mandatory viewing. Buy it, rent it, get it at the library; just see it soon. It will help remind you that teaching success does not come from obsessing about what is in the way or from blaming the kids, but from ceaselessly inquiring into what is possible and making no excuses for them or to yourself.

Touched my heart.......2005-06-24

I just watched this documentary last night during a class I am taking in the Graduate School. It absolutely touched my heart. After watching the film, I asked myself, "Where are the passionate teachers?" We all complain that are not getting "enough" money. What happened with the passion for teaching? Changing childrens' lives? This is one of the most inspirational films I've seen (check out "Stand and Deliver"). I would recommend this film to be shown at a teacher inservice before school starts. It might inspire some of the teachers who lost the flame that got them into teaching to begin with. This film has nothing to do with NCLB, parenting, and so forth, as one of the readers mentioned in her review. Let's stop blaming everybody else and look into our own hearts and search the real reasons we are here as teachers. And, if someone is so sour about teaching and the system, then maybe it's time to find something else to do. There is no room for mediocrity among teachers either.

NO MEDIOCRITY ALLOWED!.......2005-06-04

This documentary is absolutely wonderful. Albert Cullum was a gift to education and his methods should be adopted by every teacher hoping to not only teach children but to change their lives.
There are too many kids these days who grow up without good reading skills and, oftentimes, no interest in reading whatsoever.
Our society is being dummed down by the minute. We need more teachers like Cullum to show us what is possible in each and every child.

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

Moll Flanders

Def Tones - Death By Decibels : DVD

Body Parts (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Cat Women of the Moon

Star Trek - The Next Generation 21: Brieffreunde/Zeitsprung