The Film and Education Research Academy is proud to co-present with Jennifer Govan and the Gottesman Libraries a demonstration class by Roberta Seret modeling innovative teaching practices with the use of thought-provoking, foreign media.

Roberta Seret is Founder and President of International Cinema Education, an organization offering a wide range of highly engaging, multidisciplinary programs, among them, Global Voices for Film, consisting of lectures and screenings of 10+ films shown in partnership with local and regional high school classrooms, post Q & A discussions with members of the United Nations and Morgan Stanley volunteers, a tour of the United Nations with private briefings at Foreign Missions, and a workshop on human rights at the Tolerance Center.

On Thursday, February 3^rd, Dr. Seret will lead a class at Teachers College for junior high school students, ages 12-14 years, from Patchogue, Long Island. The first half hour will be shown of Beijing Bicycle, a film that questions China’s transition into a Super Power, followed by a lesson plan, and Q&A.

In this film, the director focuses on two seventeen-year-old boys and their relationship centered on a bicycle, the symbol of China. The two boys are of different social status. They yearn for acceptance within their group and are stubbornly determined to succeed – with surprising results. Viewers, especially youth, wherever they may be from, can relate to the theft of a precious possession, understanding the importance of a bicycle for both pleasure and business.

Roberta Seret holds a doctorate in Comparative Literature and Master’s in French from New York University and has taught literature and writing on the university level for many years. She heads an NGO under the aegis of the Department of Public Information at the United Nations. She is also Director of Professional English at the UN, where she teaches English language, literature and business. Dr.Seret has published: Welcome to New York, 5th ed. (American Welcome Services Press, 2001); Voyage into Creativity: The Modern Kunstlerroman (Peter Lang, 1992); “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words,” United Nations Chronicle. Spring 2004; “The United Nations as a Global Classroom,” United Nations Chronicle, Spring 2006; and World Affairs through Foreign Films: Getting the Global Picture (in press, McFarland). Her forthcoming book spans Asia, Africa, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and North America, with film synopses, historical background, pre-and post- screening questions, curricular themes, suggested multidisciplinary activities, extra curricular activities, sidebars, public responses, information on actors, directors, and awards, and bibliographies of further global study resources/films pertinent to each country covered .

Ms. Regina Casale (ESL teacher of the Patchogue class, a current Teachers College doctoral candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies, and a founding member of FERA) is engaged actively in curriculum innovation with a global context. In March, she will be preparing her class for a trip to a community farm, drawing from the screening of a short documentary done in Sarayaku, Ecuador by a youth director.  In March, she will also be touring the UN with her class, courtesy of Dr Seret.

Open to all, this demonstration class is organised by Jennifer Govan and John Broughton, and is co –sponsored by FERA and the Gottesman Libraries.

Individuals with disabilities are invited to request reasonable accommodations including, but not limited to sign language interpretation, Braille or large print materials, and a campus map of accessible features. Address these requests to the Office of Access and Services for Individuals with Disabilities at (212) 678-3689, keller@tc.edu, or Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services at (212) 678-3853 V/TTY, jaech@tc.edu.