Before the author started teaching, he expected his classroom experiences to be similar to what he had seen in teaching movies like "Dangerous Minds." For instance, the first day of school in movie is always portrayed as horrible, while the rest of the year is fairly easy. In reality, the first day is fairly easy, while the rest of the year is horrible. In movies, high school teachers never carry a full load of five classes of 30 kids each. Instead, they always seem to teach just one class of 15. Movies lead people to think that the first year of teaching is a bunch of brief horror stories separated by some fairly calm times. Although teaching movies are oversimplified, misleading, and occasionally insulting, the author has figured out why he continues to watch them. One reason is that a person might enjoy watching a movie that was filmed on location near his or her home. Thus, he likes teaching movies for they remind him of where he has been.