IndefiniteArticles
Monday, July 31, 2006
 
Del.icio.us thoughts.... again!
I should be in bed.

But... so many exciting things are going on. Today is the one year anniversary of my call to come interview for my current job. I can't believe I was called and at my first day of work within one week. Crazy! How did I do it? I spend today up at the school making a paper tree lining one corner and going up the ceiling. Pictures later.

Then on the AP English Listserv, someone mentioned this cool thing called del.icio.us. de-what? Oh yeah. Only the thing that I lived and breathed and turned into a major project last summer. Del.icio.us for Teachers. And now a TEACHER is wondering all about it. So I got my lurker self to reply and shared what I know. I feel like my library/technology world and my teaching worlds are colliding. And it is awesome.

I see more education related tags in my future.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,
Sunday, July 30, 2006
 
Summer: Over
One week from today I will be anxious and nervous about starting a new year of school. Now, I feel confident and on schedule and excited. I have already been up to school three times to work on my room. And I have another whole week to get it done. And not too much to do. I am 18 pages away from finishing Great Expectations. Unfortunatly, it HAS taken me all summer. I would try to read it or feel guilty about not reading it and wouldn't allow myself to read anything else on the side. For the most part, anyway. I have read two books in the past few days.

I read/skimmed all of Teaching with Love and Logic. My mom went to a week long conference on the topic and really enjoyed it. I had already had the book and went ahead and looked though it. So now I am ready with empathy, enforceable statements, and providing choices.

I am also about half way done with How to Read Literature Like a Professor. This has been a great experience. It is always good to have things to look for when reading good literature. So I can look smart... because I am...

teaching 5 section of Pre-AP. In one sense, I feel like I am returning to my people. In another, I wonder if I am up to the task. But I am very excited about actually giving homework and having them do it and being able to have more class discussions. I went to a AP Institute a few weeks ago and came back pumped and full of ideas.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
 
Veronica Mars, Myspace, and Great Expectations
While I should have used the majority of the weekend to read Great Expectations, I have really spent more time watching Veronica Mars, and exploring MySpace. But all of this sort of comes together.

A few weeks ago I read in the comments of weblogg-ed about this Medieval Space thing. Which I have just now looked at on the original post by the teacher. The teacher has given a template and directions too. Awesome.

This idea was in the back of my mind when I found myself watching Veronica Mars (great show... watch it!) this weekend and then (inevitablly, embarrasingly) turning to MySpace and discovering the things that people have done with MySpace and the characters on Veronica Mars. I'm sure this exists for many other shows too. What they have done is make profiles for the characters and interact with other characters. They have even invented new characters (long lost sisters and cousins) so there can be new interations and storylines.

What are they doing? Interacting with the text. The text is the tv show which they watch and love. They summarize, draw conclusions, interpret, retell, and analyze. They choose songs and backgrounds that are appropriate for that character's personality and mood. They make comments on other characters' boards in the voice of their character. All for fun. All not prompted by an english teacher.

There is a lot that could be done with this. Similar to what the Medieval Space did. It would be cool to see these on the internet, maybe on a site just like MySpace, but for literature. Where Pip could comment that he loves Jane Eyre's newest song.

On another note, an awesome Great Expectations video by students here.

Technorati Tags: , , ,
Thursday, July 06, 2006
 
July 4, 2006
This past weekend, I went to Wichita, Kansas to see my parents and house and dog. While there, we tried the whole diet soda and mentos thing. It was great.  Posted by Picasa

Powered by Blogger Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com