Latest news with #TheTeacher'sLounge
Time Out Abu Dhabi
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out Abu Dhabi
There's a seriously cool film festival happening in Abu Dhabi this week
Clear your calendars and prepare to lean into the art of storytelling, because CineMAS 2025 is back and it's bringing serious indie film energy to Manarat Al Saadiyat. Running from May 26 to June 1, this weeklong festival of independent cinema isn't just about watching movies – it's about sparking conversations, honouring heritage, unpacking identities and maybe even rethinking your place in the world. Split into seven themed days, CineMAS 2025 sets the stage for daring films curated by some of the region's sharpest cinematic minds. It all kicks off with Moral Frictions on Monday – a programme shaped by Triplets on Set – which dissects institutional decay through the eyes of beleaguered educators in The Teacher's Lounge and About Dry Grasses. It's the kind of viewing that leaves your mind racing long after the credits roll. Tuesday's Hidden Truths, curated by Arab Film Studio, lifts the veil on the intimate corners of Emirati life, with a selection of shorts that tackle everything from loss to shame with a raw emotional punch. These aren't just stories – they're lived experiences turned into visual poetry. Midweek, things get environmental. Earth, Unmuted, from The Climate Tribe, serves up a climate reality check with the haunting Invisible Demons and the award-winning Honeyland, reminding us that climate collapse isn't future fiction – it's already here and it's human-made. By Thursday, it's all about roots. Ancestral Echoes brings heritage to the forefront with Rituals: Memories of a Wedding and The Way of Our Ancestors, a gentle, evocative call to remember who we are and where we came from – and maybe light a candle for what we've forgotten. Friday tightens the emotional screws with Pressure Point, curated by Like Minds. Saudi noir Mandoob sits alongside the chaotic charm of Be Kind, Rewind, creating a space where memory, labour and grief collide in unexpected ways. Saturday leans into duplicity with Double Lives, a gritty double bill tracing fractured identities and collapsing systems from Algiers to Hong Kong. Think crime, corruption and loyalties hanging by a thread. The festival closes on a high – or rather, a haunting – with Futures on Hold from NYUAD, featuring three Arab films that confront statelessness and disillusionment head-on. Mahdi Fleifel's To A Land Unknown, Laila Abbas's razor-sharp Thank You for Banking with Us and Scandar Copti's Happy Holidays are each an aching reminder of what happens when identity becomes unstable ground. Beyond the screen, CineMAS 2025 also delivers side events like DINE W/ME, Creative Circle and Like Minds Gatherings, turning Manarat Al Saadiyat into a creative ecosystem pulsing with bold ideas, new voices and much-needed dialogue. So if you're tired of sequels and superhero fatigue, CineMAS 2025 is your passport to something real – challenging, local, urgent and unforgettable. From Dhs30. Mon May 26 to Sun June 1. Manarat Al Saadiyat. More going on in Abu Dhabi UAE residents can now save big time on flights thanks to a new Skyscanner feature No complaints here You can now get a robotaxi from Zayed International Airport Trips to the airport just got an upgrade Abu Dhabi's best restaurants: Everywhere you should eat at least once Your dinner inspo is sorted 20 incredibly fun ways to explore Abu Dhabi after dark The city is at its most fascinating once the sun goes down
Boston Globe
04-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Prom for teachers? Mass. educators of color celebrate event fostering community.
'When people are going through their everyday work schedule, it can become very easy to feel somewhat isolated,' said Ashley Dodson, a history teacher at Boston Green Academy. 'Events like this really help us to come together and remember we're all living the same shared struggle.' Advertisement Founded in 2018, The Teacher's Lounge provides educators with training and professional resources. That includes mentorship programs for young teachers, networking opportunities, and other events — such as their very own high school dance. Organizers say the importance of providing a space for community is crucial for educators, Related : Educators of color see Advertisement That's something that The Teacher's Lounge and its programming works to address, organizers said. 'We didn't just want it to be just a party,' said Titciana Barros, the organization's director of community and culture. 'That's not what we're about. We're about retention and revitalizing our educators of color.' Barros said their priority is making sure that educators of color stay in the profession. Students of color Events like the Educators Prom are simply a way to make sure that those teachers are 'recharged' — even if that means drinks and a dance floor. 'When I think about the work day to day, it's really easy to fall into the cycles that are rooted in survival mode,' said Evelyn Jean-Louis, a former Cambridge middle school principal. 'Just trying to make it through the day, just trying to get through the lesson plan, just trying to start over so you have tomorrow. What this event does to foster community is emphasize that it's not a sprint, and it's honestly not really a marathon.' Instead, it's like 'passing a baton,' said Jean-Louis, who is now the organization's director of learning and development. Educators of color starting their career can find community with veterans who have come before them, so they don't have to 'learn these really hard lessons on their own' in a system that too often leaves them feeling adrift. Advertisement Enthusiasm for the organization is growing. Last year, over 1,800 educators participated in Teacher's Lounge programming — an increase of nearly one thousand people from the previous season. Kettlynn Prophete, an assistant principal at the Academy of the Pacific Rim in Hyde Park, said the strong sense of identity and community fostered by the organization goes a long way in helping educators connect with their students — especially students of color. 'To me, being here is getting things done,' Prophete said. 'Being in the community is getting things done for the betterment of our respective communities. But [also] with each other as people. ... if I am modeling and being transparent about how I make decisions with teachers, then teachers are being transparent and modeling and with kids, and they're being much more gracious with kids.' Attendees said that, because teaching can often be a thankless job, Saturday's prom was an opportunity to find camaraderie with fellow professionals — in an atmosphere far more relaxed than a conference or a faculty meeting. 'As educators, you don't necessarily hear 'Great job, we appreciate you,'' said Malcolm Andrews Jr., an instructional coach in Boston Public Schools. 'That's probably the last thing [you hear].' Getting hundreds of educators with similar lived experiences coming together in a shared space is a 'sacred' experience, Andrews added. 'Having that community that understands what you're going through, that has similar values, that understands the commitment we make every single day when we go into the school and how we show up for the students, I think it's really important,' said Antonelli Mejia, principal of the Sarah Greenwood School in Dorchester. Advertisement Prophete said that teachers want to be 'acknowledged and valued.' That doesn't only mean fair pay, she added, but also means smaller gestures and acknowledgements — for example, taking a night to celebrate educators. 'If we can take a moment and have fun like this, imagine what we can open ourselves to when kids are also excited about things like prom, or maybe a birthday party,' Prophete said. 'It continues to bring us more and more together, and see each other for our humanity.' Camilo Fonseca can be reached at
Chicago Tribune
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
From classroom to stand-up comedy, teachers take to the stage
From the English teacher who recites a poem to help memorize prepositions to the science teacher's monologue about the importance of conservation, teachers are often the first performers we encounter in life. So maybe it's no surprise that some of them have made the move to the stage. After all, says Andrea Forcum, teaching a class and performing stand-up comedy both have the same goal. 'We're all just trying to get everyone in the room on the same wavelength, and helping everyone see the point of view that we're looking through.' This month, Forcum, a former high school teacher and currently a professor at Indiana State University, is joining forces with two other teachers, Gaspare Randazzo and Philip Lindsay, for a show titled 'The Teacher's Lounge' at the Chicago Improv in Schaumburg. Randazzo is a New York-based comic; when not performing, he teaches history at a high school on Staten Island. Lindsay, a special education teacher from Arizona, is known for his recurring segment 'What the Kids are Saying' on NBC's 'Today with Jenna and Friends' and his viral TikTok teacher content. The trio have gotten to know each other through being 'in the same online teacher comedy space,' Forcum says, for several years. Forcum has amassed more than 600,000 followers on her Instagram and TikTok accounts with her teacher-focused content, but 'The Teacher's Lounge' will be her first in-person comedy show. She said she is looking forward to having a live audience. 'It's honestly so fun getting to share the kinds of struggles and challenges we deal with as educators in a comedic space where other people just kind of get it,' she said. All three comics have connections to the area. Forcum says Chicago is one of the biggest demographics among her followers, Lindsay has family in the city and Randazzo has performed here several times before. But this trio won't be the first group of educators to take to Chicago stages. The shows 'Teachers Gone Bad,' 'Bored Teachers' and 'Chicago's Funniest Teachers' have either recently appeared on or are coming soon to Chicago stages. Forcum says it's easy to understand why a teacher would make the jump from classroom to comedy. 'Trauma breeds comedy,' she says with a laugh. With a national education system in flux, students still adapting to the years of COVID-style remote learning, and the ever-growing emphasis on technology in the classroom, Forcum says working through her hardships helps 'make the profession livable.' Chicago comic Mike Atcherson understands this as well. Atcherson is a cast member of the Lincoln Lodge's comedy showcase and has performed across the city at Laugh Factory, The Comedy Bar, and The Hideout. After having worked customer service jobs for years to support his comedy career, in 2023 he became a behavior therapist to help students on the autism spectrum prepare to enter classrooms — work that's bolstered by his time on stage. He says that performing for as long as he has helps him to be fearless when faced with whatever challenge a student must confront. Both his audiences and his students 'are just looking to have a good time. Nobody wants to have a bad day at school or work.' Atcherson says he much prefers his time with his students to other day jobs he's taken. He works with the Action Behavior Centers service provider and says that through his work he'll 'have an effect on someone's life in the future.' And while he does occasionally draw stories from his day for his material, to his students, however, he's just 'Mr. Mike.' 'They'll never see me performing,' he laughs. He knows he can count on these stories to connect with an audience, saying he often has fellow teachers approach him after shows to tell him how much his sets meant to them. Atcherson and Forcum have that in common. Audiences, Forcum says, want to support teachers, understand the work they do, and empathize with their daily struggles. 'Even if you're not a teacher yourself, you've had a teacher and you've seen the impact of teachers,' Forcum says. As she prepares to take the stage as a comic for the first time in front of a live audience, Forcum says, she's not nervous. After all, as Randazzo and Lindsay reminded her, 'You can't bomb worse than you do in front of your students already!' Ryan Trimble is a freelance writer.
New York Times
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Armand' Review: When a School Is a Trap
Technically, 'Armand' is not a folk horror movie. Technically, it's not a horror movie at all. But the director Halfdan Ullmann Tondel wants us to wonder what we're in for from the very start. First we see, in claustrophobically panicky close-up shots, a woman blazing down the road in her car. She's speaking urgently on the phone to someone named Armand, asking if he is OK. Something is clearly wrong. Then we're at a school, and the camera glides along the hallways slowly, as if it is a ghost observing the surroundings that we — and she — are about to enter. Ominous music plays. Something bad is lurking. What the bad thing is takes a while to unfold, and no, it's not a monster. (Not exactly.) Instead, 'Armand' is about the way harm, perpetuated across generations, causes communities to turn insular. Outsiders threaten established order, and must be dealt with accordingly. It's this theme that makes the film feel like folk horror. But for most of its running time, 'Armand,' which Tondel also wrote, feels more like a realist drama, the kind in which a school stands in for the whole of society, much like the 2023 film 'The Teacher's Lounge.' Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve), the woman in the car, is the single mother of 6-year-old Armand, who has done a disturbing thing to a classmate. That classmate's parents, Sarah and Anders (Ellen Dorrit Petersen and Endre Hellestveit), are headed to the school as well for a meeting about the situation. The headmaster (Oystein Roger) and the school counselor (Vera Veljovic) have decided to put a junior teacher named Sunna (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen) in charge of the meeting. She may be in over her head. There's a lot of sitting and talking in classrooms, and a lot of taking breaks so people can go to the bathroom or tend to a nosebleed. The meeting progresses in fits and starts, which is as annoying to the characters as it is to the audience: Just when things get started, the attendees stop, get up, go somewhere. We move in and out of the classroom with them, back and forth through the halls, the place eventually starting to appear like a maze in which every hallway simply leads to some place we feel like we've already been. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
