Reflections #1

Movie: October Sky (1999)

Reflection Foci:
What is the role of the teacher in empowering students by focusing on the strengths,
interests and talents?
What specific techniques shown by the teacher in the movie could you apply or adapt to
your classroom setting to empower your students.
How did this teacher use reflective practices to inform his or her practice?
What are the benefits of talent development or empowerment?

A Future Written in the Stars

Set in Coalwood, a mining town in West Virginia in the 1950s, October Sky follows the
struggles of a local teenager, Homer Hickam, as he attempts to break free from his seemingly
inherited destiny in order to carve a whole new path and pursue his own dreams. The films
period and setting as captured by the poignant cinematography provided a brilliant backdrop for
the multiple themes emerging from family relationships, coming-of-age quests and socioeconomic realities.
Watching this film reminded me of how at times schools tend to exist within a bubble.
Sometimes, schools seem to be comfortably confined within their four-corner-classroom of a
universe as if detached from the very society that shapes them. The film takes another look at
the supposed role of education systems in serving to perpetuate traditions and/or becoming
agents of change. In the film, Big Creek High School transpired to be Coalwoods microcosm
of sorts as contending views about schooling, education and social responsibility become
intertwined with the towns economic landscape.
For Mr. Turner, the principal, educating the youngsters enough to equip them to be
functionally assimilated into the towns workforce appeared to be his guiding reality. The mines
are the towns bread-and-butter anyway and the coals that molded the town are the same
coals that fueled a dream or two amongst the few lucky ones. Ms. Riley, the Math teacher,
believed otherwise. As if toying with the science of probability, she cast hope on the unlucky
ones whose strengths and talents she provided a venue for. To me this is not just character
clash as demanded by the films script. These teachers constant banters represent the age-long
deliberation about what really is the essential purpose of schooling (and education) and how we
ought to situate individual pursuits in societys collective aspirations.
The Talented Ms. Riley
Corollary to the objectives of education is the role of the teacher. In the film, Miss Riley
proved to be the driving force and inspiration that fostered motivation amongst atypical
students whose interests she unabashedly celebrated. It was Mark Twain who said, Do not let
schooling interfere with your education. Miss Riley simply did the other way around as she let
authentic education interfere with her students schooling. It takes talent itself on the part of a
teacher to see students talents. Miss Riley was the kind of teacher who could effectively discern
natural flair and inclinations. She was able to re-direct students (i.e. the Rocket Boys)
seemingly mundane preoccupation to real opportunities. In one scene, she reminded Homer
that rocketry involves a lot of advanced Math, but as opposed to thwarting Homers excitement,
Miss Riley even gave him a mathematical book on rocketry as a birthday present.

Miss Riley clearly rose above the traditional role of a teacher as a mechanical transmitter
of information. Ms. Riley empowered her students not just by acknowledging their talents and
strengths as a way to make them feel good about themselves. More importantly, she challenged
them to activate those potentials and supported their hit-and-miss exploratory learning all the
way. In my mind, I encounter a lot of teachers who speak of students potentials being largely
untapped. It would certainly be proactive if, more than identifying talents, teachers could validate
these talents by actually paving ways for students to showcase their talents before the
community or beyond. As a teacher empowers students by focusing on their interests, strengths
and talents, he/she takes on the more meaningful roles of a coach, guide, facilitator, co-learner
and mentor. By inspiring and equipping students to be their best, a teacher becomes a catalyst
for dreams. In the film, Ms. Riley metaphorically was the miner of talent. She was also the
button that activated and propelled the Rocket Boys to success.
Empowering Learning and Teaching
Ms. Riley effectively depicted some ways to boost student talent development which I
could perhaps also apply in my own classes. As I teach project-based Technology classes, the
process and product complement each other in the students final output. As students design
and create independent projects, I always encourage them to capitalize on their interests and
talents. Perhaps I could further help students make their projects become more personally
meaningful and useful if I also direct their interests to specific tools and techniques that will
challenge them to experiment more with their skills. While I foster project diversity in terms of
topics and themes for my students Tech projects, I could take on Ms. Rileys approach and go
beyond the skill set just provided by the curriculum. There are student Tech projects that may
demand concepts and skills outside what I teach, and these learning demands just have to be
met if we want real products in the end. Leading students into the real tools and techniques
based on what they strive to accomplish would ultimately become more rewarding for me and
for them. Also, while it may take considerable time and efforts to go through the trial-and-error
type of learning shown by the Rocket Boys escapades in the movie, I could see how authentic
testing of ideas effectively lead to more improved products later. Real learning that takes place
in the iterative process of designing and testing was very clearly conveyed in the movie.
Somehow, I need to create that feel in my classroom environment such that students could
freely test their ideas and not hesitate to learn from their mistakes.
I also like it how Ms. Riley connected her lessons with the times. Along with her
students, she herself displayed a sense of wonder about how the milestones of their time might
influence future innovations. Teaching at the present, Ms. Riley did not treat her subject as
some disconnected intellectual exercise of sorts. While, to a large degree, I make references to
a lot of innovative undertakings in technology in my classes, it is also important to incorporate
the pulse of my audience and the community in general. Ms. Riley effectively capitalized on her
communitys curiosity with the space exploration breakthroughs during that time.
Ms. Riley as a Reflective Teacher
In many ways, Ms. Riley exemplified a reflective teacher. She was not just aware of her
students interests, she knew the intellectual and affective levels at which she could participate
with their learning. She reflected on the exciting scientific and technological milestones of her
times, and imagined the future with her own students. She used these approaches to make
learning become more relevant to her students. She identified their strengths, encouraged
collaboration and instilled resilience even in the midst of opposing views. Even when she
eventually got stricken by disease, her reflections on her own career all the more proved what

she thought her ultimate purpose was as a teacher. Of course she knew the socio-economic
context of her town and the general sentiment about being doomed to a common fate. Instead
of being dejected herself, she used this to challenge her students to dream beyond. Its not that
she despised her own community. She respected the dignity of labor in working in the mines,
but she also did not want student talent to put into waste. She clearly knew what was due of her
own students. In a touching scene, Ms. Riley told Homer how proud she was whatever he would
choose to be. True to Ms. Rileys foresight, Homer emerged successful. It was heartwarming to
note how Homer has essentially honored his hardworking father by pursuing his own dream.
Importance of Talent Development
In my opinion, one important thrust of education is talent development or empowerment.
If we simply imagine schools as factories that create the same products that we feed to society
in order to maintain the status quo, then we are not just clearly limiting individual potentials as it
also shows how inadequate we think we are as a people. Talent development encourages
intellectual and skill diversity. When we encourage and equip a student to be his/her best, we
giving due to the society that will ultimately benefit from the cultivation of such talent. Talent
development also respects our concept of intelligence or smartness. Talent development basks
on how we are smart and not how smart we are. Ultimately, we could make use of these
talents as springboard or tools to learn other things. Our own talents become the tools that we
use to explore how we can connect to other disciplines and how we can become more
productive. Talent development also celebrates the socio-cultural contexts that shaped our
identities. By fostering talent development in schools, we are not just providing venues to
showcase specific skills, strengths and interests. More importantly, with talent development in
schools, we are providing opportunities to help our students become their own persons.
Enrichment Clusters as Venues for Talent Development
While I find the concept of talent development quite challenging in terms of logistics and
time scheduling, I like its purpose of bringing back the joy of learning in ways that students
naturally take on their interests and not even thinking it is something they need to do in school.
Enrichment clusters indeed celebrate learning processes without forcefully making it so
structured the way our schools already are.
By focusing on the interests, strengths and talents of students, enrichment clusters are
creative ways to empower them so that their learning become more personal, relevant and
meaningful. While enrichment clusters foster independent pursuits, the scaffolding provided by
facilitating teachers guide students to direct their inquiry into more purposeful results. This
clearly separates the concept of enrichment clusters different from simply having fun activities
typical of, say, after-school activities and school clubs. The fun part in enrichment clusters
emerge when students themselves undertake their own investigations to design and create
products or services in response to an authentic real-world problem or need. This ultimately
creates fun because the activities become more engaging, relevant and meaningful.
While enrichment clusters are not curriculum units and encourage free-choice learning, I
could see how students would extend their interests which may likewise originate from the
classroom or somewhere else. With enrichment clusters, we could see which topics and
activities students are generally interested in. While we do not use curricular standards in
enrichment clusters, we certainly could look into what students do in enrichment clusters to
enrich our own classes. We could look at the ways students prefer to work and their approaches
to planning and managing resources and tasks.

Because I teach Technology classes, the closest application I can think of is the Maker
Space movement which has become a buzzword in schools in recent years. Maker spaces
specifically cater to materials-based student activities. Students design and create products or
solutions in response to design challenges or problems that they deem worthwhile. Just like
enrichment clusters, students plan and run the tasks that will guide them to produce results
according to their design criteria. More and more schools are setting up maker spaces in
response to promoting design thinking skills which are necessary for 21 st century learning. While
maker spaces are not directly curriculum-driven, they provide venues for students to showcase
their skills and promote collaboration with others with the same interest. Before the school year
ended, I wrote a guidebook on the rudiments of establishing maker spaces specifically in my
place of work at the American International School of Mozambique (AISM). The booklet I
created provides an overview of maker spaces which strikingly aligns with the principles of
enrichment clusters.