Classroom Spectaculars

Ask any student – how many teachers were truly inspiring and made learning fun? Chances are, if they’re honest, they’ll say they’ve never really had such a teacher, or maybe one, if they were extremely lucky. That’s the problem with K-12 education – there ARE hundreds of world class, exciting, teachers out there, but the millions of students are rarely exposed to them. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, somehow, there were some way to bring together the few fantastic, exciting, fun teachers in the country with the millions of students across the country, in every subject and grade. Also, wouldn’t it be even more wonderful if, somehow, these teachers could be combined with stunning video graphics and sound, like the video games our kids play an average of 4 hours per day? The old teaching method of sitting quietly in a classroom, listening to a teacher talk, just doesn’t work anymore.  Amazingly, teaching methods haven’t changed since our grandparents went to school many years ago. While our kids have advanced, the teaching establishment has NOT. Because of TV, video games, iPods, texting on Blackberries, our kids have developed much quicker responses and much lower boredom thresholds. Something must be done to alleviate this generational discrepancy. Try to think of some way we could, using 21st century technology, give ALL students a first-class education? Well, here’s an idea that might work… 

Classroom Spectaculars (CS) is a name I've given to a revolutionary new concept in K-12 education.
The Problem: Today's K-12 students are THOROUGHLY BORED in class, thanks to daily exposure to VIVID ACTION and SENSATIONAL SOUND video games & TV.  This boredom leads to undisciplined classes which distract teachers from their teaching duties.

The Solution: CLASSROOM SPECTACULARS (CS).

CS starts as a ingenious new reality TV show, selecting the absolute best K-12 teachers (for every grade and every subject) in the USA. First, schools all across the country would submit one hour videos of their favorite teachers to begin the search. These videos would then be reviewed by panels made up of educators and entertainers, selecting the top (most dynamic) 10 teacher candidates for each class grade and subject. Next, the top teachers will compete in a network "reality" TV show (similar to American Idol, The Apprentice and Last Comic Standing) to select the absolute best teacher for each subject and class level. The winning teachers will have that special presence and excitement that our students need to really learn a given subject. The TV shows will provide many hundreds of hours of new educational entertainment content for the TV networks (who'll gladly foot all the production costs). CS will make a reality show like never before, since competing teachers would have many more local supporters, offer VERY interesting content (since they LOVE to teach and LOVE their subjects) with an enthusiasm you'd never see in an ordinary singer, dancer or apprentice wanna-be.

Next, the winning teachers (one for every grade & every subject) are professionally video recorded in their actual home classrooms for one entire school year. These videos will form the basis for sensational productions, living up to the name, “Classroom Spectaculars”. Professional video game creators, along with graphic artists, sound and special effect creators will then turn the in-class video recordings into 30 minute (per class period) DVDs, full of vibrant sound and sweeping video graphics, that teachers across the land will use to teach their classes. An accreditation panel (made from top accreditation boards across the country) will guarantee the DVDs cover ALL material required to the depth required for the best possible education. When completed, the program material would cover all subjects for all thirteen class years. CS would provide a fully accredited K-12 education on plastic (DVD disks), as well as preserving forever the very best teachers at the peak of their teaching careers. Since the winning “star” teachers are the best of the best, they are most capable of capturing the interest of even the least motivated student. These excellent teachers are fired up to get their subjects across to the viewers, since they completely know and LOVE their subjects, having taught them for years! The result will be a FANTASTIC, MIND-BLOWING library of “edu-tainment” DVDs. These (Blu-Ray or HD) high density DVDs (capable of nearly a hundred hours each) will be made available for use in K-12 classrooms throughout the country and perhaps, eventually, the entire world, educating children like never before, in every subject. Our kids will finally be learning and LOVIN' IT, and the teachers will become world-class CELEBRITIES! Imagine...celebrities famous for their knowledge and spectacular teaching skills rather than their good looks or acting talent.

The individual 30 minute videos would give the home classroom teacher equal time per hour to introduce, pause the show, elicit classroom comment and answer questions. The half-hour videos wouldn’t be a "threat" to the home teachers; rather, CS would relieve them of having to insure required material is presented, as well as relieving them of having to prepare their daily lessons. Instead of a threat to the home teachers, CS would serve as excellent examples of the very best possible teaching techniques and material, in their own subject and grade. CS should help tremendously to alleviate the ever-worsening K-12 teacher shortage. In-class teachers will be inspired by the excellent teaching examples and by the possibility of someday becoming celebrity teachers themselves. The cost of implementing such a system would be negligible, since the TV studios would be paying all production costs, and distribution costs would be minimal compared to the billions currently thrown at our declining educational system today, with little effect.

CS DVDs will also be available for take-home use (repetitive viewing is CRUCIAL) and for family entertainment. CS will bring top quality education to the poorest urban ghetto schools, and the tiniest country schools all over the country. They could even be made available to prison inmates to view (and finally get a quality education) rather than watching ordinary TV or video games. The material will be made available on the internet and shown on dedicated CS TV channels as "edu-tainment", similar to Nova, Cosmos, Discovery & the History Channel (but even more exciting to watch).

The United States already has the finest colleges and universities in the world. CS gives us a golden opportunity to have the best K-12 schools, too.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q - How much would it cost?
A - This is the best part – CS would be essentially FREE to put into all our K-12 schools! The TV networks would pay for the reality show competitions, just to get the many years of popular entertainment TV ‘content’. Since no celebrities are involved, and the teachers would be happy to participate for FREE, the only costs would be for the graphic artists, sound and special effect creators, who might be willing to contribute their talents for the good of the educational system. Even if they charged for their work, those charges could easily be paid out of the TV network profits. Using new high density DVDs (and perhaps 'Colossal' 100 TeraByte DVDs someday) makes the number of actual disks to distribute minimal. Perhaps the government or DOE would foot the production and distribution bill. Either way, it would cost much less than the billions thrown at our K-12 system today, with very little effect.

Q – Why did I patent Classroom Spectaculars?
A – Not to make money, just to keep my hand in, and make sure CS turns into the great venture I predict it will, someday.

Q – What sort of time schedule would this take?
A – This is undetermined now, but for talking purposes I suggest doing only one or two grade levels per year, starting with Kindergarten. That way, the kids in the first class would proceed at (or nearly at) the rate of CS development. They’d be the best educated children this country has ever seen.
Lee Webb
Broomfield, CO (303) 438-8142 (summers) and
Naples, FL (239) 530-7366 (winters)

For more information (or if you'd like to help promote CS), contact:
lwebb82@comcast.net

US Copyright PAu2-938-189
US Patent Application US60/704,617
Writers Guild Registration Number: 1087421


Think of it this way – CS does all this:
-- Gets K-12 students enthused about school and lifetime learning.
-- Preserves videos of our absolutely best K-12 teachers at the peak of their careers.
-- Provides years of worthwhile TV "content".
-- Gives the video game industry a fantastic opportunity to improve our society.
-- Gives underprivileged students a world-class education.
-- Gives all K-12 teachers excellent examples of how to reach and teach their students.