Story Board

I had a great time sketching out the story board for our short film.  Of course, by sketch, I really mean draw stick figures: girls with long hair and traingle bodies, boys with short hair and just stick abdomens.  Sometimes I wish that I was more artistic so that for these types of projects, I could do something phenomenal.  But then I remember that I am a perfectionist when comes to things that I am good at and if I had any ability to make a sketch look nice, I would've spent hours making each one perfect. I suppose I am thankful that when it comes to drawing, I can accept much much less than mediocre.

I think that this was a great project to do for a short story.  It forces to find the expression and meaning in each line, which lines might give more clues to the characters personalities and background.  Short stories can be hard to understand because there isn't much character development and their personalities aren't as clear.  But if drawings are required, then the students can get a little under the surface and bring out the descriptions that are hiding within the symbolism.  We are required to actually film our shots, which I think is a great way to use transmediation, but honestly, the drawings were enough to make this short story come alive for me.  My group read "Where have you been, where are you going," and I really disliked it at first.  It was just about some girl who likes to wash to her hair and gets stalked by a really really creepy guy.  But when I started to draw it, the emotions became more significant.

Habitual Reading

One of my assigned readings for Young Adult literature was about literature circles.  It talked about the trends surrounding literature circles and what made them popular.  Besides Oprah starting book circles on her show an publishers beginning to include discussion topics in the back of books, one section was about teachers reading themselves. I had never thought about how important it is for teachers to read themselves because it just seems like a give. Of course teachers read! They're English teachers, how could they not? But then I looked at my own reading habits even as a student and realized that I do not read on my own any more.  I only read for class assignments.  It has been a long time since I have browsed through the library and chosen a book that simply looked interesting or that had been recommended to me by a friend.  I don't think I even talk about what books are good to read anymore because I am so busy thinking about what I have to do. I realized that when I become a teacher with a full time job, a house to take care of, a family, and probably children to chaffeur around, I will feel like I have even less time to read than I do now. 

So over spring break, I have decided to do some serious reading and continue to make a habit of always having a book on hand, even if I can only sit down to read it once a week.  Although, one reason I gave up "fun reading" was because I have a difficult time putting a book down and if I'm reading a really good book, I will have a hard time putting it down and getting all of my actual work done first.  This became highly evident last week when I was reading Divergent, a book assigned for Young Adult, and stayed up past midnight (which is highly unusual for me) and reading the whole book in 2 days even though I still had a week to read the first half.  But it was a fantastic book and I could not stop reading until it was over, no matter what other pressing assignments I had going on. But perhaps this will be a lesson in self-control as well as a good habit for a future English teacher. If I am not reading and not even seeking out a good book, as can I expect my students to constantly be on the look out for a good book as well? Or to be willing to read a book that is recommended to them? I LOVED it when my English teacher would read a book that I recommended to her and I enjoyed talking about the book with her.  I would like to be ready to have the same relationship with my students.

Langwitches

I visited the Links to School Bloggers link from Treedon's blog which led me to Langwitches- The Magic of Learning through Technology.  This was a great site packed with information about blogging in the classroom, digital learning, global education and using Ipads in the classroom.  There is so much in this blog, it will take a long time to unpack all of it. 

There are Unit plans for classroom blogging and digital story telling.  There are numerous links to conferences and downdloads concerning technology in the classroom. There is a section on professional development.  Everywhere I look on this blog, it goes deeper and becomes more specific.  This is a great blog for ideas and resources.

Videos!

I loved Shafer's ideas about making videos and film a personal way for students to engage in learning and to interpret a text.  I think turning a text into a film is a fantastic way to show that a student understands what is happening, how a character feels, and what the character's environment is like.  I loved trying to imagine what a character's bedroom looks like.  If students are assigned to make a video, they can make all aspects of the text and character come to life rather than just writing it down.

I enjoyed Diane's account of how the digital videos improved her teaching and her classroom.  Adding this new technology and new medium of interpretation to the classroom entirely changed how she teaches and thinks.  It is nice to know that improving a classroom can be as easy as doing something new.
 
Although I love the idea of video assignments, I will confess that I am a fanatic hand waver if I hear the words, "You will be making a video for this class."  I freak out.  I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to film.  I'm not even competent or at all confident with Windows Movie Maker, which can be as simple as uploading pictures and putting in words and audio.  It sounds so easy, but I have a very difficult time putting my ideas and thoughts into that medium.  I am very nervous about the video we will have to make in this class and the book trailer I will have to make for Young Adult Lit.  Even though I know there will be people available to help me and it really isn't that difficult, I still stress out a lot over using technology for creative purposes.

My first video assignment that required actual filming was my Senior video for my high school English class.  Thankfully this was an all-class project and I barely had to do anything.  We even hired another student to do the filming and editing for us because we wanted it to be perfect.  Although this video was supposed to connect multiple books and show interaction between different characters and incorporate everything we had learned since freshman year, it actually ended up being incredibly silly and not interpretative at all.  The teacher took no part in the video process, offered no advice or suggestions, and ended up not even grading us on it because she was not able to watch it before the school year ended. It was actually pretty disappointing.  I think that if we had focused more on one book or even two similar books, we could have incorporated more interpretation and our script would have been more uniform.  Instead, all 13 of us ended up writing part of the script for different characters.  We didn't compare them or fit them together at all.  Also, our teacher should have taken more of an active role in the process rather than just asking us how we were doing with it every week.