Alex's Blog

Knave! April 19, 2010

Alexandra Beneteau

Dail

Eng 3241

19 April 2010

Movie Maker

            This project was definitely a learn by doing process. Only by trial and error, as well as looking up how-to blogs on the internet could I figure out how to use movie maker, and even then I still had problems. I first made “knave” as a power point document with around 70 slides. I had trouble uploading the slides to movie maker, but when I changed the file type, it worked like a charm. I narrated my movie to add the sound, and edited the slide durations. My biggest problem I had was when I was trying to publish the project, which I am sure you will still see evidence of. I tried publishing it to e-mail and then it just got sent into cyber space and I have no idea which e-mail it was talking about. Then I published it to the computer which seemed to work, because I could watch it on the computer. However, when it came to posting it on my blog it was no where to be found. It showed up on windows media player as a .wmv, which I could e-mail to myself, unlike the previous file name. Then when it was done and I was trying to reopen it, all the slides showed up as little Xs. Altogether, converting my slides to video was the easy part, but publishing the video was no easy task.

Video Clip April 11, 2010

Student Sheet

Shakespeare in Pop Culture

Shakespeare’s works, although written in the 16th century still remain relevant today. For example, this Klondike commercial uses Shakespeare to entice people to buy ice cream bars.

Write a one page essay on why you think the company used Shakespeare in this commercial. What does it represent? Is Shakespeare still relevant in today’s society?

If you noticed in the commercial, the narrator asks Shakespeare to write a sitcom for the Klondike bar. Along those lines, I would like a sonnet (14 lines, using iambic pentameter) about some product you think Shakespeare could market (and yes, you can do a Klondike bar if you would like.)

Be creative!

You will be graded on the structure of the sonnet, and the argument of your essay, but don’t forget to check your grammar!

Both assignments will be due one week from today, and don’t hesitate to come see me if you have questions or concerns.

Rational

This is for a 9th grade literature class. This is usually a students first experience with Shakespeare, and I want the students to realize how Shakespeare’s works and his persona are still relevant in culture today.

The essay will demonstrate how the students view Shakespeare in Pop Culture and their opinion of his relevance. The sonnet gives the students an opportunity to be creative and use the medium of Shakespeare’s sonnets as a media tool.

In this lesson, along with the video clip, I will give students examples of Shakespeare in other pop culture references. Such as, Twilight and the theme of forbidden love, and Taylor Swift’s song Love Story, which makes references to Romeo and Juliette. This will lead to a discussion as to whether their understanding of Shakespeare’s works help enrich their understanding of pop culture, why does it do so.

Standards:

ELA9RL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to contemporary context or historical background. The student
a. Relates a literary work to non-literary documents and/or other texts from its literary period.

ELA9RL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents. The student
a. Demonstrates understanding of significant themes in specific literary works.

ELA9RC4 The student establishes a context for information acquired by reading across subject areas. The student
a. Explores life experiences related to subject area content.

Memes April 7, 2010

A meme can be defined as an idea or behavior that evolves socially and culturally being passed from individual to individual. It can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures or rituals. In that sense an internet meme “is simply the propagation of a digital file or hyperlink from one person to others using methods available through the Internet (for example, email, blogs, social networking sites, instant messaging, etc).” (wikipedia) I started looking at Texts from Last Night, which has developed into a subconscience internet phenomenon. It combines the medium of text messaging with the medium of the internet. It has somehow infiltrated our culture and essentially our minds as everyone I know posts Texts from Last Night, on their facebook, they text them to one another and they are always a topic of conversaion among friends.

Memes promote writing and critical use of technology, because they become a subconcious part of our culture. They also respond to a natural selection of sorts because some of the memes survive while others are passed over; what continues becomes further ingrained into our culture, and what does not falls by the way side.

Metaphors as Ways of Seeing March 29, 2010

The metaphor in the picture shows how much Americans see animals as food. Other cultures such as African cultures see cows as a form of wealth, while Indians consider them holy, and would never consider eating them. In the U.S. food has become a business, instead of a means of survival. We have Burger King and Mcdonalds were we can get cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets for 1$. This devalues the life of animals to dollar signs, and the small group of people that still value animal rights are mocked. Factory Farming has become an epidemic in the U.S. were cows who were meant to graze freely, eat things they cannot even digest, including other cows brains. They are a food source and should be revered, because they give life to our communities, but instead we cram them into pens where they can’t move and force them to walk around in their own feces.

By using the picture of a cow shaped like a hamburger as a metaphor, it shows how society views animals, especially cows; as delicious, expendable sustenance.

Richardson Ch. 6 March 1, 2010

Everywhere I am hearing praises for Twitter; it expands social networking and makes people feel part of a more global community. However, I disagree with the use of twitter as an educational to. It makes sense as a personal networking tool, or as a “social notepad” as Richardson calls it, but it skirts boundaries of private and professional life, much like the social networking on Facebook or Myspace. Since education is becoming more and more a group effort, these social networks are crucial for teachers to communicate and expand their resources and references.

Social bookmarking services seems especially useful for professional networking; I am always finding good teaching sites and then either forgetting what thy are or losing the URL. Being able to form a social network based on sharing resources will be very helpful as a teacher. For example, a website I found named Delicious is a social bookmarking website. One just enters keywords that are relevant to their topic and numerous links pop up with similar key words. I entered the word ‘education’ and about 12 different articles popped up  with the number of people who had also bookmarked these pages. These social bookmarking websties allow us a way to organize the otherwise overwhelming web  into a way that one can make useful for themselves.

Social Networking and its use in Education February 22, 2010

Personally, I am a big fan of social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, etc. These sites are useful in personal lives because it is easy to communicate with friends and family members, but they can also be used in a professional setting. Education is a collaborative effort and facebook could be a way for teachers to keep in touch and work together. Instant messaging as well as e-mail and wall posts allow for numerous lines for communication. Also, a more controversial way it can be positively used in education is for students to communicate with teachers. Students could instant message teachers with homework questions or teachers could post assignments onto the page. This could also be negative, however, because it may make the teacher too available to the students. For example, using twitter as an education tool would be more suited for the college crowd more so than middle or high school aged students.  It crosses barriers in the student-teacher relationship because they are communicating outside of the classroom, and in my personal opinion it makes the students less responsible for themselves. If they can always get in contact with someone that can help them how will they learn to problem- solve and learn for themselves.

There is also the question of promoting student’s use of these technologies, because it could lead to problems with internet predators or students exploring technology could “stumble” upon unsavory topics. However, teenagers know about these technologies and they are going to use them regardless of any kind of risk, so I think it is important for teachers to educate students on how to use these mediums in productive ways.

Visual Response to a YA novel February 22, 2010

Both Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins deal with themes of technology being a threat to personal privacy. In both novels, the main characters are seemingly being watched by the government, a force they despise for their lack of liberties. The black figures on the side of the picture represent the black cloud of technology, that individuals as well as organizations use to deplete personally privacy. To create my picture, I used photoshop to draw my picture free hand. Then I placed pictures I had to represent individuals throughout the world.

Individual Digital Project topic and format February 16, 2010

I am thinking about doing a multimedia project much like the examples we  saw in class last week. I plan on using power point to map my project and then using moviemaker to put them together. I am in a Shakespeare class right now, so I want to do a topic related to that, either on the play A Winter’s Tale, or a study of one shakespearean word, how it has been used over time, where it originated from etc.

The Hunger Games February 16, 2010

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is definitely a suspenseful read. It is the first book of The Hunger Games Trilogy, along with Catching Fire and Mockingjay. This book reminded me of a mixture of a Fahrenheit 451 or Brave New World, along with Survivor. Peeta and Katniss, live in a poor post war society, where the government has become the all knowing big brother, being able to control its citizens lives. They are selected by a drawing to fight against one another on a televised event, to the death. While on Survivor they just eat bugs, it is somewhat of the same concept, because its a reality shows where the contestants fight for survival, figuratively or literally. According to a review in TIME, “The Hunger Games is a chilling, bloody and thoroughly horrifying book, a killer cocktail of Logan’s Run, Lord of the Flies, The Running Man, reality TV and the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. But it inspires in readers a kind of zeal I haven’t seen since the early days of Twilight.”

The American Experiment February 15, 2010

This argument of freedom of speech has plagued me as a future English teacher. The government claims we have the freedom of speech, yet like Ch. 7 from The End of Education says “Does freedom of the press” include television? Is prayer in public schools a violation of the “establishment of religion” clause?” (134.) I would think these things are all included under the freedom of speech; that media sources should be able to publish what they see fit, and if a child or a teacher chooses to pray allowed in school, I don’t see who it is hurting. It is the same situation with all the books that are being banned in schools these days, for example, The Lord of The Flies, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin, Brave New World and so many others. I believe that reading these books and learning about them in class, learning their social context is part of the American Experience. Since when has education been about sheltering students? So the book has a bad word, or a controversial theme, I thought the point of education was to prepare students for the REAL WORLD, not deny them their right to a complete education. They are going to hear the bad words on television or even from their friends. The Scarlet Letter, is considered a controversial novel, in one of my classes I was advised if I plan on teaching this book, it would be wise to have a back up plan for parents who wont allow their children to read about adultery. This book banning epidemic is in my opinion a violation of free speech, and denies students the opportunity to learn and think critically, from the safe confines of literature, to form their own opinions about real life issues.