Audition Script

INT. School hallway- Day

Brendan
Brain.

The Brain
Hey Brendan. It’s been awhile. Where you been eating?

Brendan
Back of school.

The Brain
Huh. Yeah, no one’s seen you. What’s it been, a couple months?

Brendan
Yeah, it’s been awhile. You gave Emily my locker number?

The Brain
A few days ago. Was I wrong?

Brendan
What?

The Brain
To give it?

Brendan
No.

The Brain
It’s been so long, I don’t know you two’s stats.

Brendan
It has been awhile. Who’s she been eating with?

The Brain
(uncomfortable)
I dunno. It’s hard to keep track.

Brendan
Is it?

The Brain
(shrugs)
Can be.

The Brain avoids Brendan’s gaze.

Brendan
uh huh.

A beat.

The Brain
She hasn’t been doing too good.

Brendan
Yea well. I’m not looking for a patch up. Em’s life is her own. But she asked for my help.

The Brain
Help with what?

Brendan
I don’t know. I don’t even care, it’s not my business. I just want to know she’s ok, so I’ve got to find her. That’s all this is.

Media Literacy Project

I have been looking over some notes I jotted down yesterday from my meeting with Prof. Stearns, and I am filled with confidence. Some of these questions are very critical, they really cut to the core of the topic. I hope Brian and I do a fine job. I know the topic is great, and I am very excited to use film as a form of education especially since I know I will be doing this in my own classroom. I am worried though. I hope we do everything correctly, we are meeting in about a half hour. I have a lesson plan that Jessica sent me as a model, which has proved useful (why is every sentence I have written, seem like a fragment?). But if anyone is reading this, I would appreciate your help. I would say by friday/saturday ours should be written up, and I would really like to see someone else's, additionally if they could look at ours and see how well we have done. I already have two people I am going to ask in addition to Stearns, I have found a wide range of help is a great thing (I have been asking 3 to 4 different people to help me with all my final papers in other classes).

I have NEVER written a lesson plan before, and if I had not seen what Jess sent me, I probably would have written a descriptive paragraph or something. I did not know it was such a formal document, with such precise points. It is pretty amazing actually.

Progression of Education

I just realized how drastic my progression of education has been. I remember when I was a senior in high school, I was talking to someone thinking what the word for "something that contradicts itself" was. I was explaining the lyrics from 'Glycerin' by bush, to someone, the words unfold as: "I'm never alone, I'm alone all the time." I have just realized how articulate I have become in the recent years... because my response to the arrogant jock who claimed "That doesn't make sense, that rock crap is garbage" was rather weak. My response was "No, it's smart, it's called something, when you contradict yourself, Gavin Rossdale is really smart, you don't even know." That makes me laughing thinking about it, because he completely won that argument. Now i would gracefully respond: "Actually, Rossdale is using a paradox, you know, a self-contradictory statement, to the impeding conflict of always being surrounded by people, but no one who can truly fathom his being." Then, he would proceed to call me "gay" everyone would laugh (which happened then I think) and he would be one step closer to inevitably wasting his life waxing his car, getting high, and dropping out of his community college.

Sorry, my thinking of the high school construction of adolescent boys in film has molded this post.

58th Blog post

Somehow I have 58 blog posts. I don't really understand how I have so many. I was talking to someone (whose name will be disclosed) and she made the comment: "I have so many blog posts, I am at around 40." So, I wondered how many I had, at the time it was around 54, needless to say I was rather proud of myself (side note, I just subconsciously used a colon to lead into a quote, THANK YOU EMMANUEL NELSON). That might have come out of nowhere but Nelson has been killing me on my grammar all semester and I have been feverishly writing a research paper. It is just nice to see something you have learned through hard work, manifest itself subconsciously.

Oh, this might make you avid readers proud of me; I have started reading a book! I don't read much outside of my assigned reading (excluding summer/breaks, etc.). But I have embarked on a journey inside Woody Allen's head. The title of the book is "The Complete prose of Woody Allen." I have been completely obsessed with that man for the last week and a half so I decided to order a few of his books including one which is comprised of 3 screen plays.

I don't really know what this blog is about, I think a celebration of embarking on a new book which I am very excited about. Also, a commemoration of my blog contribution. I think I have found a niche in the world that is blogging, for as I recall, I blogged my fair amount last semester (thats me being very humble saying: "I blogged my butt off last semester").

Class room assignment

I was inspired by something we spoke of briefly last class. During the podcast, Prof. Stearns mentioned the fact that instead of writing a research paper, the teacher could assign students to create a podcast. They would still be looking at text critically, but the medium would change. Instead of writing a paper, they could bring the text to audio.
I, in my never ending consumption of movies have come across a short argument within a film. It is short, but this clip displays an introduction, the presentation of a thesis, the argument, and a conclusion. Within these two character's interaction, one is presenting the argument, and the other, doubtfully receptive. One is trying to prove the point and persuade the other.

So in my classroom instead of a term paper, I would have my students split into groups and try to produce such a product. For example, if the question was (and this is the topic of a research paper I am writing): Attempt a feminist critique of the novel Jasmine. The students could perhaps have a female character arguing with a male character, presenting her feminist points and the other rejecting or agreeing. The great thing is this brings new and exciting media into the classroom. The students are creating something with new medias, which is always our goal.

20 minutes of preparation

I was actually very satisfied with what I did in twenty minutes. I used imovie to create an introduction of myself as an English Teacher and certain books I would teach my students. I was not able to put music in it because the itunes library is empty (and I did not feel like including cheesy background noises). The rather impressive part of what I did was that (and mind you, in twenty minutes time!) I compressed my video and uploaded it onto youtube. I was very happy that I could do all these steps in such a short time. Another limiting factor was including a picture of myself. I had to access facebook, copy a picture to my desktop, open adobe photoshop, and crop the picture. So within twenty minutes, I accessed three websites, used two different (complex) programs, and applied two forms of video alterations. Here is the finished product, I had to edit the length of each clip (each was way too long), and that takes precision, so it has come out choppy at moments, but still I am satisfied.

I want to give Friedman some respect

I want to show some respect that I have for Thomas Friedman. The untouchables chapter (chapter 6) which is by far the most important chapter in the book does something I like. Friedman boldly creates something here. He not only redefines out social structure but he creates a new class. This is a very bold statement. First, of all what if he is wrong, or don't buy what he is saying? Down goes the book, and up comes some other easier to swallow text. Side note, why does he include Barbara Streisand with Michael Jordan and Bill Gates (Friedman 238)? Anyway, Friedman really puts himself out there in this chapter (well ok he puts himself out in the open with a title like "The World is Flat" but still here is exceptional).

What I am talking about is Friedman's description of Untouchables into four categories: Special workers, specialized workers, workers who are anchored, and adaptable workers. Personally I think I would like to be really adaptable. I like the story about his artist friend working at the New York Times. I would also like to state the belly dancer reference was very odd: "You want to learn how to make the latest chocolate sauce, the whipped cream, or the cherries on top, or to deliver it as a belly dancer." I understand what he is saying, that you have to make yourself adaptable and marketable, but it just struck me as odd at first.

So this blog post was a praise on Friedman's chapter 6. Here's to you Tom ::raises drink::

Applying a Critical Lens

Last night, searching through youtube I came across something very interesting. My favorite band (and Jason Webley, very interesting man who opened for them...plays the accordion, and i will add, he plays it rather stylishly) covered "Living on a Prayer" by Jon Bon Jovi. I thought this was an interesting selection because The Dresden Dolls (my favorite band) don't strike me as Bon Jovi fans. So, the video began and several things made me want to turn it off: at first there was no visual image, then they just started to play and the quality was bad, and the video quality was not clear ...But then it happened.

Something that I think is exceptionally cool. They stopped playing. And the three of them proceeded to analyze the lyrics of the song. What was happening (in my eyes) was a visual critical paper. They presented their argument, their thesis, and then they provided examples to support their thesis. I thought this was extraordinary. They looked at this song critically and reflected upon it. I love artist's social commentaries on other performer's work. So here is the video, watch it, it is brilliant.

Similarly, in the classroom, I would show my students this clip and then tell them to do the same thing. I would assign them to look critically at a song, analyze and interpret it, and give a visual response. I think that is a very cool assignment, I know as a student I would love to do it.

Anxiety

Actually don't read this. Originally I started writing this and it evolved into something else. I was going to erase it but I decided I spent to long of a time writing it for it to complete disappear, I should at least get some class credit for my wasted time.

I am going through something that I can not truly define or understand. Self imposed writers block? Lately, I have not been able to write. Well I have been able to write but, very little. I have been spending a very exorbitant amount of time trying to phrase things perfectly, then after that, being extra extra critical everything is perfect. Relevance of the statement, grammar, accordance with everything else, the flow and pace of everything. This is an odd situation for me because normally I don't even care about grammar, I spend more time on making things sound flashy.

I think this started when I worked my ass off for an in class writing assignment and got a 77. I then proceeded to do my finest work on the re-write, have it proofread by a very credible source and then only received an 87, this brought my overall grade to an 82. I can't get B- on anything. My life is crashing down. I keep getting B- to B+ on everything, I don't need B's I need a A's. My life is depending on this. Because i 'screwed the pooch' last semester I have to overachieve to balance out those horrible grades. I need to get into Grad school, and a 2.5 isn't doing much for me. I think 2.75 is the absolute minimum and most schools are a 3. I feel useless, like everything i put on paper isn't good enough. But I can't give up like I use to when I was younger, because this is my life. If I give up, I am giving up on my future, and what am I going to do then?

The other day i spent 14 hours in the library (not straight, I left for a little, not bragging either, the point is how pathetic I am). I don't understand where the time went or how i even stayed that long because when I am in my room I can barely spend 2 hours doing work most of the time, sometimes I can't even start. Anyway the point is, after doing extensive research and outlining and brainstorming, 14 hours later I had 3 pages of writing (double spaced). How is that even possible? I don't know where the time went. It has since gone to a blur but I can imagine it was anxiety filled. I am so scared I don't even want to write my ideas down. I feel they are so bad that if I write them they will be crap and I will just be editing crap. I need to wait for better ideas, then I can edit and work on those. But the brilliant insight never comes. My writing is horrible and failing and I am going no where. I am going to wind up working at Mcdonalds pretending that it is part time taking courses at csi and probably telling myself I am going to be a famous director someday. Don't get me started on that topic though.

Why am I such a paradox? I love that school is hard, it makes me apply myself and I love that. But why with every ounce of me do I wish it wasn't hard so I wouldn't be in this situation?

All my friends (at home...I dont have any friends here) are incredibly smart. I purposely surround myself with brilliant people, hoping maybe they will make me more articulate or I can learn from them, osmosis or something. But where has it gotten me? I am a junior at a State School and I have a gpa close to my age. My best friends go2 Upenn, Princeton, Harvard, and St. joe's. I don't even wanna compare our gpa's.

The only way I could ever fail my parents is by giving up, and that is exactly what I am doing. I can not commit myself to finishing this paper. And even if I do, it's going to be crap. I am useless and I hate this school and f*cking coma splice's and fused sentences. i never learned that crap before, but here let me take off 20 points because those are serious errors, oh and because you are a marginal writer.

Listen, I am a good writer, I am not a C writer. Maybe in this anal drained creativity society that we call Cortland I am a crappy writer, but...You know what I am a sh*tty writer.

I use to write kids papers in high school. $20 a paper. I'd say, hey what do you want? An 85? ok, i'd write it based on the kids previous performance, the extent of his vocabulary and i'd normally get within 3 points. I personally would always get high 90's. Then I got to delhi and those high 90's turned to low 90's. But that matched with class participation was decent. The grading of other things were always the great equalizer, killing my chance at ever doing exceptionally well. What am I even writing about? Oh, yea, I am writing about not being able to write. See I am typing these words a mile a minute, on my white keyboard, but if I was to move the cursor off blogger onto Pages (mac version of Microsoft office) nothing would happen. Parallel plots of Lear and Gloucester, who cares. I am just going to get killed on the final anyway. Wow, a B- for all your work. Then throw in your wonderful Sociology grade and 2other classes and the Graduate school at Wagner College is going to be knocking my door down with acceptance letters and scholarship information. A school in Pennsylvania wanted to give me a scholarship last year. For track, not for academics. I turned them down flat, didn't even talk to the coach. And St. Rose's Coach wanted to talk to me also, that was more of a favor though. I didn't give him the light of day either. And now look at me. 20lbs heavier, run about once a week. Man I remember when the Delhi coach was recruiting me, man he was excited to get a hold of me and get me on that 4x4 relay. And they ran here last weekend and we all reminisced and had good times, talking about the good old days. How then I had everything, a girlfriend I loved, a team full of friends (family more then just friends, true family, we were together 7 days a week). Now, well let's not talk about now.

There is a science to this world. A math, a plan, some kind of passed down game plan. I was thinking about this before. Why does every bad movie have a cheesie sentimental ending tying everything together? Why does the hero always get the girl? Win the game? Why does the shallow popular girl see something extraordinary in the geeky guy, and vice versa. There is a document of success out there, and if you get a hold of it you follow it. (Not being specific to this one topic) Why is How High a movie? A group of people gave millions of dollars for the production (Executive producers) then people who probably got over a 1500 on their SAT, went to the finest college for free and excelled: directed it/wrote it/did the cinematography/edited it. Hundreds of people finely tuned at their jobs dedicated months of their life for this production. And what was the result, a movie about 2 kids that smoke their dead friend and get into Harvard cause they get a 1600 (Harvard also being very sympathetic to the recent addition of Affirmative action). And movies this bad come out every month. And we as a people support this. Oscar winners are #3 at the box office behind movies that get under a 6.0 on imdb. Because Ashton Kutcher is in it they have to go see it (ok you were kinda badass in Butterfly effect i'll give you that).

So in the end what I think I am trying to say is: because of people like Will Richardson and Friedman and Hobbs, a social outlet is out there for people like me who need to vent, and in a school related setting. That this social networking systems are truly revolutionizing the classroom and that web 2.0 the read write web is truly making things better and motivating students in ways like never before.

Pokinitis

Pokinitis is another traditional Technology in the Classroom blog entry. Will's blog pretty much says what we have been saying. It reminds me of freedman a lot as well, web 2.0 the read write web.

Pretty much this blog by Will is a furthering of the read write web, creating new content that many people across the world can see. Also, not limiting it to one area, further adapting it to a movie, and perhaps a podcast.

Pokinitis is a good model of how to inspire students to create new content through media and anything that flies in our mind. Anything that fascinates us. That blogs are not just a pouring out of our minds, a journal, but a publishable source. That through blogging we can adapt something we have written to a full length novel, or something tangible.

This is a very simple but signifigant blog post by Will because it very adequately stresses the furthering of the read write web and how he personally handled presenting it to his daughter.

Shape Shifting Portfolio

How have I been building my Shape Shifting Portfolio in 307? So far, I have done three block projects. I have become proficient in three programs I was previously not well educated in. Within those areas I have also branched out and dabbled in other areas. At this point in the semester I am knowledged at the level where I can teach these programs to students. The programs I am reffering to are: iWeb, iMovie, and Comic Life. In addition, I have knowledge concerning the entire Adobe Suite, the picture editing programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Aside from learning how to use these programs and being able to teach them to students I have learned how to apply them in the classroom to inspire students creativity. I have learned that students who might not be motivated or labelled "at risk" will respond to technologies like creating a web page or making a movie.

Another thing I have started to do is create mock lesson plans. I have been introducing new media into classroom assignments. So far I have written up critical questions applying to analysis of a video game trailer and a film.

I have also attended two lectures recently. Last night I saw Russell Banks speak, and a few weeks ago I heard Bruce Coville.

Those are the types of things I have done so far in 307 that have defined me as a person, that have made me marketable. These are the types of experiences, and things that I am involved in.

Our Comic coming to Life in Comic Life

Our Comic is phenomenal! I love it. Chris and I have not fully completed it, but just looking at what we have gives me such pride. This is the greatest thing I have ever done. Watching this comic take shape is really wonderful. I can definitely see using this in the classroom. Teenagers will have so much fun, and it is a great source to inspire imagination.

We have split many of the roles in editing and producing the final product. Chris came up with the original concept, story boarded it out, and came up with the original dialogue. What I brought was tweaking little things here and there. I added certain adjustments to the dialogue or the setting, certain actions. I am the voice of what is practical, within the technical terms. Here I am referring to what can we photographed, where, and why. I also brought in my good friend Bill to do all the shooting.

After all the photographs were taken we sat at my mac and through looking at the storyboard, the outline and the rough "screenplay" we began to place images on the page. We would take turns manning the computer. Chris would do a few pages, then turn it over to me, then back forth and so on. It was a great joint effort, because no matter who was at the computer we were sharing ideas and together deciding what looked the finest. It got to the point where one of us did not want to get up from the seat because we were having so much fun. But we were both absolute gentlemen and it was shared equally. I must say though, Chris wrote the bulk of the material. I did shine at certain moments, but he is the master scholar. Most of the stuff I wrote quivered in comparison to his epic phrases.

We are about 90% done, but we have still had two set backs. One rather minuscule, and the other major. When we were looking at the images we had taken, some of them were not as appropriate as we had anticipated so we had to re-shoot some things. This was not bad, it proved quite funny actually because people walking by asked "what the hell are you guys doing?" The major set back was the loss of 5 solid pages of content. We had been saving a fairly good amount, but we held back the more we got into the habit of moving quickly. Then, all of a sudden, comic life closed. This occurrence has happened before, but never this detrimental. So after that we had been working a good 5 hours straight and we decided to finish another day. That was rather frustrating but it could have been much worse, and for that not happening I am grateful.

Praising Blogging

I want to praise blogging for a moment. And i am going to do that in a round about manner. Last night I was searching for an image to save as my desktop background. As a side note (to this tangent) I only select the best backgrounds. My selection process includes scouring google images for an action shot from a favorite film.

So last night as I looked through Scarlett Johansson images I found a picture that peaked my interest and I clicked on it. The link brought me to a page called Cinephilia. The text began: "Truth be told: I do not get Brian De Palma. Which I think is very different from not liking Brian De Palma. He is a cinephile of the highest to degree, to be sure. But there is something absolutely missing from his films." at that I was in love.

I had mistakenly found myself onto someone's blogger page, and it was quite delightful. As I continued to read I became more and more pleased. This was a true lover of cinema, and even further a well educated woman who casted a very critical eye. She was very hard on the director's and their work, but it was fair and just. It was fair to say I liked her from the start.

It seems this person, has commented on some 100 films, all recent. I started by reading what movies I had already seen. To build her credibility. To see if I agreed. For the most part, I agreed, her vocabulary and mannerisms extremely sophisticated. It was not too hard to follow but she definitely possessed an insight I desire.

I am praising blogs because they have brought me to a place where I can learn more about technical terms and read an urbane critique of films I love. Without blogging, I could never have seen a this part of the world, and definitely not communicate. This is the link.

Caring Circle

The person I admire the most from 374 and 307 was not at the last class, so I am going to briefly explain what this is about. The purpose of this blog is to pick someone you have class with, and speak about things they have done you admire, or something you see in them that you respect.

The person I picked was Kristin Mark. This girl is great (and not just because she is from Brooklyn!). I admire how diligent Kristin is. A problem I have with school is sometimes I lack the enthusiasm to read everything assigned(we have also taken 2 british literature classes together so this pertains to that as well. Wow I never realized how many classes we had together). Kristen is the epitome of what a teacher wants in a student. She diligently reads everything, and multiple times. Her dedication and caring for school has definitely inspired me. She read twilight in a weekend! For you non-374 people, that is a monster of a book! Kristen does a lot of things with her heart and that is something I feel I share with her. You can tell she wholeheartedly immerses herself in her passions.

Kristen is the student I wish I could be.

Learning

In about 2o minutes i learned very important things applying to music from my excellent classmates. First, I learned how to put a playlist on my blog. Exhibit A: Stairway to heaven is probably playing right now as you read this.

Then i began to teach Meghan how to use comic life. As I showed her the basics she brought up a very simple method i have forgot to remember, using centering and other things to arrange items on screen. So i showed Meghan how to import a picture and apply filters to the picture....

The writings

I read his screenplays very early yesterday before they were posted to the masses, and soon after I read many people's comments on what they had read.

The thing that has unnerved me beyond words was his silent rage. The fact he was painfully shy, to the point of not acknowledging you when you spoke to him or even making eye contact.
The story of the girl coming to his suite is what sticks out in my mind as a staple of his personality. The stoic kid in the back of the class wearing sunglasses, and a hat covering his face, seldom participating. So, the story goes: A girl was running for president and she was handing out candy to the guys in his suite, so she asked him if he would like a piece. Without making eye contact or changing his expression he very slowly shook his head.

But, his words, so full of hate and anger. Such strong use of pent up hatred. You could tell he was grossly underdeveloped because it looked like a 12 year old had written those screenplays, not a senior in college. You were brought into his frame of mind so easily through the plethora of hatred. I am still unhinged after reading those words. I may never get them out of my mind.
You could tell he had been raped as a child and severely neglected.

Another thing that really gets to me is that he bought the guns over a month ago and it cost him $500. He might have saved up, planned. You don't just have $500 laying around. So not only was this a premeditated act but there was severe preparation. I shouldnt analyze or make declarative statements about this but I can not get it out of my head. These assumptions are just my oppinion.

My friend just came in the room and brought up the topic that vt is probably going to get sewed by the families for negligence. I think that is outrageous for them to do. I feel at a time like this, if a family in any way is concerned with $, that is beyond me. After your child has been slain, what is money, it is useless. The outrageousness of a family thinking of money at a time like this would truly amaze me.

Yesterday when i was walking back to my dorm I was struck with something that I have not been able to understand. What is stopping this from happening every single day? What is stopping other countries from bombing us. I would like to think the government, the police, but it still happens sometimes. But on the opposite side, it does not happen that much, so there must be some force in the universe protecting us. This kid was troubled to the max, but there are others out there. And if the trickling effect where to ever take place, there would be a boom in the candle industry. I hope whatever the force is that protects us, spiritual or concrete, deterrent or direct, it is ready for these next few days (threats in 10 different states already).

33 lives

I think we should all speak when something like this happens. This is a very traumatic staple in our lives. Something very near to us. We need to find a way to express ourselves. Artists reflect through their work. And a generation connected through technology, does just that...They speak, console, and aid each other through media. Here are some of the video's people have made already.

Now that I am typing, I am speechless, weak of words. I will come back and edit this at a later time, I have nothing to say right now after watching all that.

Rethinking Japan

I love to travel. My friends and I are very big on road trips and seeing new places. We have each spent time abroad. Over the summer i went to England and Paris. While in England, I met a man in a pub who told me he taught English as a second language in several different countries. He told me how much fun it was, and how he got to see beautiful places. As he was speaking, I realized this is something I would love to do. It was everything I had wanted, I just never knew it was possible. I already had a keen interest in teaching, and traveling was my passion. I thought of exotic places to go (within reach) and things that appealed to me. Last semester I had decided on Japan and Spain. Spain, because the women are beautiful and it seems like a wonderful climate and culture to immerse myself in. I chose Japan, because as you might know I am quite the passionate movie lover; and my obsession at that time was Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola's film taking place in Tokyo. I, however am a dreamer, and that is what I do. I romanticize how I think events will manifest themselves out, and apart from that I do not have a logical cognition of things, especially in film! So I had turned the movie into this great adventure that I would love and take wonderful things from. See new places, meet new people, and breathe in the amazing culture.

Here is what I did not take into account: Lost in Translation is about the disconnection between the two American characters and a foreign land. They are not happy there at all. Their lives are filled with despondency and loneliness. The only consolement comes from the interaction between each other. From that relationship comes this statement: "Let's never come here again, because it could never be as much fun." So I realized the envy i felt was not for a location, but a feeling. This feeling is the original reason I came to write this passage.

I was in the lounge, waiting for the water to boil, when I looked out the window onto a campus frozen in snow. A blizzard of spring. And I leaned my head against the wall, as I listen to my iPod (Radiohead) because I had no one to make lunch with me. I had to fill the air with something, to keep me from realizing the imminent truth. And before the words rushed to my brain the parallel of Scarlett Johannson's character leaning against the glass coincided with mine and I felt like she felt. And i realized, Japan is not going to make that go away, it will only intensify it. I am alone at this college, because these are not my kinds of people. Because, i have shut out the right people, and put hope in the wrong one's. Because I look in all the wrong places, and blame myself for all this.

Because I am not as likable as i always thought I was. Because I incur the wrath of people, and their jealousy. That yes it is their fault they are arrogant prick's but that I have pushed them to the point of justified retribution. I have justified in their minds' maliciousness towards me, and that is no easy button to push in a normal person. These are not people like Sebastian in Cruel Intentions, these are normal kids that I have marred our friendship to the point of them loathing me.

So i do not think more loneliness in a foreign country is what I am looking for right now. Basically i need to get my gpa as high as possible, get the f out of here and go to school in Staten Island or the city.

I doubt anyone is reading this, I probably lost the few that attempted when I was ranting about incurring wrath and justified retribution; but I do not want to send the message I dislike everyone here. Because that simply is not true, and out of all my classes there are the most people I like, in 307. Come to think of it, none of you annoy me, well ONE OF YOU, but you know who you are, and you are OK sometimes, s o m e t i m e s.

My plan now is to be as close to the people who care about me as possible. Home is key, and with my closest friends, because they complete me. I have been talking to a girl I have liked for a while. We are not serious, because she is going abroad in the fall, but still it is some kind of light in an otherwise bleak cave that is Cortland. I am looking forward to this summer, being with people that love me, and forgetting about this God awful place of frozen emotions and uncouth personalities (none of you!).

Apple-Education-iLife Educator

I just watched a really great movie made by a student in a Language Arts class. It was posted on the apple web site, under the Education section. I do not know if any of you have heard of Ben Folds but he is a really great musician who has inspired a lot of people. Apparently he inspired this student for he created a film using iMovie, iTunes, and iPhoto based on his song Brick. Brandon Maas a student from Clackamas, Oregon turned his original poem into a five minute movie, bringing his writing to life in visual format.

This is where we as teachers (and 307 students) answer the question of 'How can we use technology, especially iMovie, in the classroom?' I really like what this teacher has done, and I am sure Brandon loved it, because his finished project is wonderful, it is truly something.

Something else I took from this, is the promotion and support from apple. By them posting all these videos, and by even having a education section on their site, it shows they really care and are behind this type of education. These are the greatest technological brains in America, the most pioneering and sophisticated minds, and they are saying technology in the classroom is something to be celebrated. I, and I think everyone in the class will agree, think this is a great thing.

The Literacy Lab: Eddie and Ron (from O'brien article)

Eddie and Ron did not perform very well in the traditional school setting. They were labeled "at risk" and the article says they "neither expressed much interest in reading and writing related to school." After being assessed by standardized tests and content reading inventories, it was evaluated that they read at a third-grade level.

It seems to me like they have been captive of an unhealthy learning environment far too long. They need to break the bounds of the traditional school system, and be exposed to type of learning that can engage and excite these young gentlemen.

They are given the opportunity to work on a media project. This is where the true learning begins. These two students do marvelous things. They collaboratively design a website, dividing up jobs and synthesizes all different forms of information. It is a well organized procedure with storyboards and tasks divided up. As soon as technology, media, is introduced they go from students limited to 3rd grade reading level to students of unlimited potential. They continue to render their work together, on the webpage, and sort out the text and images. They do a stellar job, really applying themselves like never before.

The final product was spectacular. It is truly amazing what you can get students to do once you find their niche.

Comic Life

The Chris and Phil collaboration continues. First the i-movie, now comic life. Since we have each been group leaders before, we have decided to be co-leaders for this next block project. We are making a graphic novel/comic book modernization of a scene in Hamlet. We had our first formal meeting the other day, where we sat down to rack our brains for ideas, and put content on paper. Earlier in the week, we had a few informal meetings, where we ran into each other and spoke of things we had rolling around in our heads.

I want this comic to be very visually stunning, so there are a few techniques i am planning on applying (I will not give those away). The tables have turned this time with the access of technology. Last time, i was the one with the video camera, now it is Chris who has a digital camera. Still, most of the work will be done in room 310, for my mac has comic life, making the process very convenient.

For length, we are thinking about 5 pages. I want to pick a length that is short enough to show the class, yet substantial. The scene we have picked is rather short, and relies of flashbacks to fill in the major plot points, so I feel 5 pages will be easily achieved. Doing it tastefully is the hardest part.

I want to thank the previous comic life group for inspiring us to do such a project, if we had not seen your presentation we would definitely not be doing this. So thanks for planting the seed.

I will keep you posted on our advances.

Personal Reflection on project

My project, was to create a film using the mac program iMovie. I was elected the leader of the group since i had previous experience and familiarity with the iMovie program. I selected Chris Turo, Jo Tutko, and Brian Callaghan as members of my group. We named our film, Burn 'em and Turn 'em, Baby!

Initially we decided to do everything collaboratively, instead of dividing up jobs. Jo made the suggestion each one of us write 2 pages of dialogue and then put it together but I quickly dismissed the idea (even though good) because i wanted a very close knit process. I knew later we would shine in our own area's but i wanted the frame work, (the initial genesis of the project) to be agreed on and be a cross-hatching of each others ideas.

The brain storming was a very important part of the project, and besides the filming, took the most substantial amount of time. We simply sat in my room (where most of the work was done) and threw out ideas. Pen and paper equipped in each hand, we racked our brains for ideas, anything that poured out of our minds. I video taped the original brainstorming session to look back at great ideas i had not writen down.

After we had a basic idea of the concept (poker tournament, 3 players and a dealer, mockumentary) we rendered each character (The Duke, Tex Gold, "Sporto" Lance Strongarm, and the Dealer). The next step i am very proud of, and that is the costume design. One thing I have noticed in films is the ability to greatly convey a character without even speaking. The most effective way is through stereotypical costume design. One thing that I have noticed in amateur film is the mediocrity of a character's attire. When you watch a major motion picture every character is dressed appropriate to their personality. I was not going to do a film where we were all wearing a t-shirts and jeans. So each character personalized their outfit.

Chris was VERY helpful with the props and supplying clothing. Half the prop list was items he supplied. Other things were borrowed or even purchased(football, etc). Jo had bought the Poker for Dummies book on the assumption he could return it after the filming. Well, after the first take where Brian knocks the book out of his hand, we realized that no longer was possible. The force of the blow had bent the front cover.

Chris also wrote the screenplay. One day I felt I was doing a subpar job at conceptualizing #89 so I simply turned to Chris and asked him to write my lines because he seemed completely on target.The four of us were such a great producing machine. Brian the first day, seemed to have an endless amount of great ideas. After that, Chris rendered those ideas into a script. I had a vision, a certain look I wanted each shot to take, so at times i was the cinematographer. I took the Director role, basically making the story boards and planning the actions based on the script. Jo, was also great with taking care of the set. Initially, in filming, we had the ghastly setback of having things on camera that should not be. So, after realizing that, Jo got big into moving tables and items and telling me if certain angle's would not work. Brian and Jo helped me with the lighting in the interview scene's. There were many tough shadows that we avoided, because of the two of them.

I learned the limitations of iMovies. That some things are just not possible, you see them on the big screen, but for guys like us, you simply do not have the technology to recreate them. I am referring to a scene from Snatch that we wanted to imitate. Some very valuable things i learned were: slow motion, black and white, and how to play things in reverse. I learned how to extract the audio from a video file, which is very helpful. We messed around with many programs (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, iStopMotion, garage band) to learn how to do cool effects, but at the end of the day, i thought the video was good enough without them. Honestly, they would have been unnecessary, I felt it would have stuck out worse if I had included them.

The question i keep thinking about is what would i do differently? I do not know what i would do differently. I really liked the film, I have watched it at least ten times in entirety and I honestly love it. It is not profound or laugh out loud funny but I like what it is. I agree perhaps it was too long but it is not like i would submit it into a film festival so i think, as a first film it shows some promise.

Another assignment i would give to my students

William Shakespeare's famous poem "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" is regarded as novel for it makes fun of the courtly love tradition in poetry. During the 17th Century virtually every poem followed the courtly love tradition and had a blazon. Here, he makes fun of this by creating a parody. It is still wonderfully written and existing on it's own, is quite romantic, but on another level is mocking and poking fun at the other notable writers of the time. I recently came across something that i mentally linked with what Shakespeare has done. There are a lot of parodies out there, and most are done by professional comedians or for a skit like SNL or Mad TV. But this is an artist, parodying another artist, and i find that supremely interesting. Like Shakespeare, here, Alanis Mourissette, makes fun of how generic hip-hop videos have become, along with making a direct parody of an extremely popular song, "my humps." Click here for the Alanis video(parody), and here for the original black eyed peas song.

ok this is a rough draft, i have no idea where i want to take this, i just got the idea and put it in text. I like the idea but i think i have to provide more parallels between Shakespeare parodying another poet compared to the video parodies. I was going to use Sir Edmund Spencer's "Epithalamion." Look below if you are reading this, that was a great idea for an assignment. I have to get back to Mukherjee's Jasmine.

Suggested Blog Quiz for week of April 9th

Watch this trailer for the video game Gears of War.

Part I:
What emotions are being portrayed (ex. through music, images, etc)?
What is the creator trying to say about this character, his enemy, and the setting?
What do you think is going to happen?
(optional question) Do you think this is a social commentary of the War in Iraq or war in general? Can you draw any parallels to what the creator is really saying in this piece?

Part II:
Put yourself in the shoes of either character and build a story based on the setting, mood, imagery, music, and actions. How did you get in this situation, what are you doing about it? Write a narrative in first person. The length is completely up to you (be creative).

[Optional] Part III:
Compare and Contrast the two versions of these songs. Which is more effective, the original or the new one? Why? Which captures the theme of the video better? Elaborate.

This is the kind of assignment I would give my students to learn new media literacies. Please tell me what you think. And be honest, if I am grossly off topic I would like to know.

Bruce Coville's inspiration

I saw Bruce Coville speak tonight, and let me tell you that is what inspiration is made of. That man is the epitome of doing what he loves, being passionate, creative and getting himself out there(marketability).

If you do not know who Bruce Coville is, he owns a audio book production company, Professor Stearns spoke briefly about him in our last meeting.

I would like to say, for this block Chris and I are making a graphic novel with comic life, but after Coville's speech i am so inspired, i am going to work with audio next block. After hearing what Bruce has done with novel's I want to do the same soooo bad! I am very excited, I am thinking of doing a technology in the classroom version of an audio book. And that would be, a podcast of a short story.

Bruce broke the tradition of most audio books having a single speaker. Traditionally that was the case, one speaker would drone on for the length of a novel. What his production company does is cast each role and have multiple actors read the lines. I think this is fascinating. As he was speaking i kept thinking of animated films or clay-mation where the actors recite the lines as voice-over.
The beauty of audio books is that there are no images (which is why i would not do a modified podcast). Like reading you can still let your imagination hop all over the place creating whatever images you fancies.

I would like to get a bigger group together, and collaboratively write a short story. Maybe 5 of us. I was thinking the length would be around 10 minutes. I need writers!! I am very excited about this, it is the crosshatching of performing a play and writing a story. It is a film, without the film. Some of the most respectable directors say the best acting is executed without having to say a word. Well, this is a chance to conversely give a powerful performance without any actions.

Half-Nelson

I watched this movie, half-nelson (Ryan Gosling, from the notebook) a few weeks ago. It is about a young school teacher working in the inner city, trying to reach out to his students but being held back by his own drug addiction.
What i liked about it was, there is a scene, where one of the students insults another student. The repercussion is that the insulted student picks a topic and the insulter is forced to give an oral presentation on that topic in a few days. This may not seem like a very big deal, i am sure you may have heard of this or even had it done in your classroom. But, here is the thing. The powerful relationship the teacher has with these students. And the amount of work he can willingly get them to do. Because i can assure you, in an inner-city middle school, there are going to be many insults between peers. And it is not like he is the authority figure shaking his finger at them, once the insult is fired, the entire class erupts for a brief moment as they know the following assignment will be administered. It does not end there, the teacher joins in making suttle jokes about the insult made, regulating and neutralizing the situation. I thought it was a great way to handle an always impending and continual problem in such a setting.

I really loved that scene.

Free Hugs Campaign

This post is in accordance with the post "One World."

I feel the reason these two videos became so incredibly successful is because there is a disconnectedness in the lifestyle we are growing accustomed to. For many of us, the only way we can communicate with our closest friends is through text messages, voice on a cellphone, or instant messaging. These videos find a way for us to come together. To create and collaborate. This video is nothing but optimism at its best, and I think it is a great way to speak in ways 'One World' can not.

I feel both these videos contribute to the read/write web through enhanced media literacy. You read (watch video) and then write (create your own video in response). Things like this are truly a spectacular contribution to web 2.0.

One World

One World is something that was started on youtube. MadV, one of the most viewed members decided to use his popularity to start a productive movement. He decided to send out an open invitation to anyone who wished to respond. The message was, anything you wanted. The point was to unite us all, and come together. This is not a big deal, it is particularly too sentimental for me. But what happened, was a huge mass of responses, people all over the world voicing their message. Hundreds of thousands of people watched and it became the most talked about and responded to video on youtube. I made one as well. There is another video that i am going to post, which i feel goes hand in hand with MadV's One World movement. Please check it out.

A Digital Decade

This article was extremely relevant to English 307 as was the other Education Week article. I especially liked the tag line under the title. "Technology Counts looks back, and ahead," because that in essence is part of what we do. We evaluate, we look back to see where we have been, and look ahead to see where we want to go as educators. This article stresses the significance of technology in school.

A good point made is the fast changing landscape, and how complicated it is. How the terrain has changed, and that brought me to think of Freedman and his theory of a flat world. How the terrain is changing and the world is flattening.

An encouraging statistic to hear is "In the first Technology Counts, we reported that fewer than two-thirds of U.S. public schools had Internet access, and just 14 percent of those schools had connections on computers located in classrooms. Today, nearly all schools can get online, and the percentage of instructional computers with high-speed access hovers around 95 percent."

This shows that students and teachers are moving in a new direction, and digital technology is helping that. More applications of school work are being done on computers. Digital camera's are being brought in, in accordance with movie making software. The article points out the easy accessibility of posting your own writing and multi-media on the web. Things like Podcast, Blogs, and social networking site's are entering more classrooms, and helping kids create more interesting things for school.

Education week Article #2

When i read about a student like Randy Herrera, all i see are brilliant ways to get him interested in academic content. With a student like that the is almost no limit to the work he can accomplish in (and out) of the classroom. It greatly disheartens me to see his teachers do not hone in on his interests and provide him (and other students) with assignments that will spur their creativity. We are in the business of educating students, and a major part of that is inspiring, motivating, and teaching based on their interests. The classroom should not be a seperate entity to their life, they should coexist into one great sphere of learning. It kills me to hear statements like: “When I step out of school, I have a pretty high-tech life,” Herrera says. “When I step in school, I feel like I’m not me anymore. I have to jump into this whole old-fashioned thing where everything is restricted.”

In 307 i have learned we need to reach these kids, not only reach them, but relate to them. They are saturated in a lifestyle of media and technology, so the classroom should not be a separate entity. I always felt like titling a course "creative writing" was kind of trivial because that is what writing is, being creative. We should strive to be creative in every endeavor. Randy's teacher is choking the creativity out of him with her outdated curriculum.

Later in the article you can see how much Randy enjoys his taste of technology, when he is allowed to make a DVD slide show. That was a breath of air in an otherwise dusty clammed up education. Randy and so many others, need to be educated in a web 2.0 world. The world we, English 307 students, are preparing to invigorate our own classrooms with.

Sadly "In most schools, technology means students using the Internet for research, or PowerPoint for presentations, Goodstein and other experts say. In some schools, students use classroom blogs, or online journals, to post and discuss classwork or share resources...experts say it is the rare classroom that turns blogs, MP3 players, podcasting, video games, or cellphones into learning tools."

I definitely agree with the part of the article that states "By falling behind the technology curve, they argue, schools risk alienating students and miss prime opportunities to teach them how to analyze and understand their increasingly complex world." With movie making programs, blogs, and podcasts educators can relate to students. Those are the prime opportunities, we as educators have to seize, to grab these students' attention.

Connections between the video and Friedman

The Youtube video had many similar themes to the Friedman reading. One thing i took from it was the deconstruction of the thought that we are America the greatest country in the world, dominating every aspect of life. I mean personally i still feel very patriotic abide by this, but both sources found a way to humble America. India and China cast a very long shadow. It is foolish not to credit them as a super power. The globalization of these countries continues to grow.

One item that completely reminded me of Friedman was the slide that said "The top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 did not exist in 2004." This is to say we are constantly updating, creating new jobs.

This stresses how important it is to be adaptable. "We are currently preparing students for jobs that do not exist, using technologies that have not been invented yet."

Midler's

I think what Friedman is saying is that the new middle class will be the idea creators. Those who have a job that is not fungible, unable to be outsourced.

He says that a lot of the jobs of the future have not even been created yet. We are in a world of constant expansion and upgrading. "You have to constantly upgrade your skills."

The standard for middle class has certainly risen. It is a constantly adapting process to stay a float in this competitive job market. "My parents use to say to me 'Tom, finish your dinner- people in China and India are starving. My advice to you is 'finish your homework-people in China and India are starving for your jobs."

The untouchables are people who should aspire to be, they are people whose jobs can not be outsourced. The four categories are:
1) Special workers i.e. Michael Jordan, Bill gates (no can recreate Michael Jordan's jump shot).

2) Specialized workers. Knowledge workers that can not be easily digitized and transferred to lower-wage locations (brain surgeon, cutting edge computer architect).

3) Anchored workers. Job must be done in a specific location (Barber, maid, nurse).

4) Adaptable worker. Able to constantly acquire new skills.

That is what it is to be part of Friedman's midler's they are the untouchables. A class of idea created jobs with an adaptable nature.

Friedman Chapter 5

In Chapter 5 Friedman raises the question "Will free trade benefit America as a whole? It seems that so many jobs are going up for grabs." He answers that yes even though many jobs are being outsourced to India and China this creates more business and in return brings for more jobs. He disbars the lump theory that there is only a certain amount of jobs in this world and that they can get taken up. We live in an expanding world and the bigger the companies get, the more innovative jobs they need.

Friedman says "Those American low-skilled workers doing fungible jobs-jobs that can easily be moved to China- will have a problem."

Idea-based workers do well in this globalization. Based on this, America has and will stay successful for it prides itself on idea-based products.

A little confused

I am a little confused right now. I am reading freedman and he has got to his example of comparing America and China. He is explaining how more complex jobs and special needs are created but i do not understand his example.

"But if you look at the prize they are going after, it is now a much expanded and more complex market. It went from a market of 100 people to a market of 1,100 people, with many more needs and wants. So it should be win-win for both the American and Chinese knowledge workers."

Why?

Actually as i wrote this first paragraph i felt a moment of clarity, but still i am a little confused. I think what he is saying is that the bigger the pool of people, the more jobs present themselves because the market becomes more complex and in need of special things.

I will read more and see if this clears itself up.

A taste of what is to come. The Trailer to our film.

Hobbs again and PLS

Let us start this post with a brief description of who this Renee Hobbs is. Renee Hobbs is "one of the nation’s leading authorities on media education...She received an Ed.D from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (1985), an M.A. in Communication from the University of Michigan (1981) , and a B.A. with a double major in English Literature and Film Video Studies from the University of Michigan (1979). There is her credibility.


Hobbs is currently investigating the conditions in which Latinos in North Philadelphia view and analyze Tobacco advertisements. This includes critically analyzing print tobacco advertising, TV public service announcements and tobacco product placement in movies.

Simultaneously she is working on a study of "the impact of media literacy education on students' academic performance, family communication and civic engagement." Hobbs focuses on media in both these exploits.

I feel Hobbs research is a great thing. Students should learn to be critical of the world around them. Media surely is a great source to tap upon.

PLS is all about being media literate. This includes using media wisely, effectively. I gave the introduction of Renee Hobbs so she could gain some credibility. That us exactly what we are talking about right now. Being able to judge the credibility of information from different sources.

Advertisements are everywhere. On the computer, television, radio, side of buses, walls of buildings. Media is a major part of this world, we need to learn how to filter the good from the corrupt information.

The goal of educators is to make students aware of what is out there. That wikipedia is very reliable, but never the only source. That is a perfect example, use google but not just google. I feel Hobbs helps us think critically. And she is very media geared which is what i like about her.

Renee Hobbs and The Six Principles

I like Renee Hobbs. I read her book and the six principles. I have come to realize the importance and great advantage media literacy can produce in the classroom. The six principles of media literacy stress "Media Literacy is the ability to access, analyze, critically evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms." If Students are acclimated to using media, it will make it easier for them to develop the skills listed earlier.

Hobbs's research project shows how media literacy helps incorporates a wide range of media such as film, television, advertising, the Internet, music, and popular culture. These methods motivate students to do their work, for it is interesting. This will help students fathom a deeper understanding, the material presented in class will be retained.
As teachers we strive to have our students looks at things with a critical eye. Our job is to hone that skill, that critical lens. I feel this is exactly what Hobbs is trying to do. Hobbs research project definitely connects with these six principles. Hobbs helps students develop an understanding of media, these activity will mold them in some positive way.

Satire

Web 2.0

After watching the video on web 2.0 i think that is great. I love the idea behind this video.
It shows the boundaries of pen and paper and how limitless digital technology is. Pencil and paper is limited, while the internet is limitless.
Web 2.0 gives us new ways to share our ideas with others. And around the world. Internet versus paper is a battle paper can not win. The internet is cleaner smoother faster and more effective. I realized this the second time i watched the video, the eraser part portrays a very strong message. It really made me realize how much cleaner and effective it is. I think all the erasures is what did it for me.

Warlick and site's i feel are useful

Having investigated the site's Warlick references in chapter 2, i feel these three site's are the most useful. Or to say differently, the one's i feel apply to me the most.
The question is not are they useful, because every site Warlick includes is without a doubt. Be it from effectiveness to entertainment to efficiency.

#1 Phraseexpress

Phrase express is all about efficiency. This program has a built in memory which remembers anything you type. It's purpose is to decrease the amount of typing and finish what you are trying to say as soon as possible. This is a tool, when mastered can word astronomically faster then conventional typing. This is going to be very popular. The parallel of Phrase express to T9word on our cell phones is a brilliant comparison.
A great thing also is that it helps correct your grammar. Any spelling error or punctuation is quickly corrected. I stress this as a program for time efficient people. Not those first starting to type. If a youth was to use this i feel it would greatly stunt the learning curve for i still make a huge amount of spelling mistakes and they should have to acknowledge them and learn to fix them. Phrase express is more for the experienced time efficient typer.


#2 The Way back Machine
This site files down publication dates for websites. If you do not know when a particular website was published, this is a helpful source. This is relevant anytime you are forced by a instructive power to cite a date. If you are submitting something, a project, paper, report, seminar, etc. This is pretty much your only choice to find the publication date if the site does not provide one. This is a necessity to the college student.

#3 Backflip
Back flip is a virtual bookmarker that lets you access the site's you have saved no matter your location. It does not matter what computer you are on, or where you are Back Flip lets you see those bookmarked pages.

Will Richardson and Rob Mancabelli's FETC conference presentation

This podcast has certainly strengthened my view of how important technology is becoming. Some things i found that were very interesting were the application of technology to journalism and politics.
Both Hilary Clinton and Johnathan Edwards have blogs. Hilary Clinton announced on youtube she was running for election.
I feel journalism is being changed the most though. Blogs are taking off and truly changing the way things are being looked at. But the real thing, is the addition of camera phones. I touched on this briefly when talking to Brian about his phone post. Now anyone across the world can on site become journalist, way faster then any professional could ever get there. And the perfect example that Will uses is the UCLA student who gets tased by the police officers.
The person was able to capture the event as it was unfolding. They heard screams and fired up their phone. Seven minutes later they had a documentation of the events that went on. The view linked to this post has over 946,000 views. I mean how powerful is that. An event that would have simply been covered by a newspaper with crude quotes and comments has been replaced by a true depiction of the event and it has been shown to a huge amount of people.
This idea links with what Rob and Will were speaking about. Rob states that a few years ago, the presentation they are giving would pretty much be lost. It would be a lost conversation, but now with podcast, it will be around forever. It can be shown to many people, and if will posts it on his blog even more people (which he did).
The Nate village story was very interesting to learn.
When it comes down to it; and this is a big issue that lot of us are struggling with also, is that these "tools are potentially valuable." We still need to protect children from public spaces and keep students on task (and many other things). But we getting very good at rendering these ideas and making everything so effective and applicable. And we will all continue to do so.

Maybe i'm thinking myself in a hole

Your all going to absolutely abhor me for this post. I know that before hand, and i apologize for something you should never apologize for, and that is speaking my mind. But i am writing this knowing, about 90% of people who read this will be very mad at my opinion (even though most will agree with me deep down).
I look at people(specific person's identity to be concealed), instant messaging, going on myspace, and facebook, for HOURS. Every single day. And i wonder, why? This person, has literally been going back and forth between myspace and facebook for about 4 hours. Does it really strengthen your friendships? Do you even enjoy it anymore? Or do you just need it to feed this sick obsession, that burning inside you.
I use to have myspace and facebook but one day i realized, i am gaining absolutely nothing with time spent on these site's. Absolutely nothing is gained from an hour, except maybe some jealousy between other's plethora of interaction. It truly boggles me. And it has completely revolutionized the accessibility of stalking. They have it down to an art now. I am not going to get into that though.
Maybe i am just thinking myself in a hole, because people watch television (the lowest form of entertainment) which completely drives me crazy. Today, when i was in subway, there was some crap judge judy spin off show on and the judge gave this fiery emotional speech and the "audience/spectators" clapped and i thought "isn't this suppose to be a court room? Isn't the judge suppose to maintain order instead of evoking a disturbance?" Everything is backwards. Our society has retarded itself. We now have a hit video game that simulates bowling. "You hold the remote in your hand and then you move your hand just like your going bowling, it's great its just like bowling."
Am i going f ing crazy or something? Why don't you just go bowling???!!!! It is getting dangerously close to becoming a world lived completely without person to person interaction. Technology is amazing and i love the advances but there needs to be some discretion.
Back to television. First of all, American Idol, EVERY REALITY SHOW, all absolute crap. Can we as a society put up a little resistance to the man brain washing us a little. You know why britney spears was popular? Because the people (record people) who are really good at their jobs wanted her to be. The girl is completely fake in every aspect. That was an example to segue into why Reality Shows are popular only because big production/broadcasting companies want them to be. Apparently actors seem to be "too expensive." These reality shows cut that aspect out so they can make the millions without the hindrance of paying for quality acting. And sitcoms will put the fake laughter in so if you don't hear the joke you know to laugh.
Thank God for Cinema, thank God for Major Motion Pictures. I am eternally grateful for those people being artistic and daring. My heroes, taking chances, getting out of their comfort zone, trying things that they know everyone isn't going to like. No prepackaged laughter or conforming methods proven to be successful. I live for people like Ritchie, Tarantino, Aronofsky, Coppola, and Fincher. I highly doubt anyone (chris+bri not talkin 2u) knows who any of those guys except Quentin, but those are the guys getting it done. Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Four Rooms, Lock stock, Snatch, Seven, Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Pulp, KB1+2, Fight Club, the fountain, the grindhouse, zodiac.
So i am sorry for offending the Britney Spears, American Idol,top chef,top model, Judge Judy, Survivor, etc. fans. It is late, and i am pissed i couldn't fall asleep because of something i do not feel like discussing. Soo, do not take anything personal. You do what you love, and what makes you happy. F the rest, if you want to fly, fly. That was obviously a paraphrase. I do not want to even think about the grammar mistakes i just made and the abundance of areas where i did not clarify myself properly. My mind moves far to fast for my fingers, especially on rants. So do not hate me for smashing myspace and facebook, enjoy it, if you do. And escape if you still can.

Lies My Teacher Told Me

I am reading a very interesting book called "Lies my Teacher Told me " which isnt really about "teachers lying" but rather the fact that our textbooks keep out many details on purpose. It speaks about how texts (refering to mostly just history textbooks) turn normal people into heroes. They call this heroification. Herofivation is when a text turns flesh and blood individuals into perfect creatures without conflict.
Our job as teachers is to educate children, not lie to them. If we are going to cover up the truth, and simple feed them portions of the truth, we are doing a great disservice. In fact, i believe we are putting them at a deficit instead of an advantage.
The book makes a point of Helen Keller. Helen Keller was a women who was born deaf and blind, and with the help of a caring teacher successfully overcame those obstacles. She actually even graduated college. This is a truly remarkable story, and most people know of this. What very few people know is that later in her life she became a radical socialist. If we are going to prepare these children for the world, we never want them to be put in a situation were they seem naive, or ill informed and that is what these textbooks do. Helen Keller sang praises to a communist nation. Now, this may not look wonderful on her, and it may well sully her good name, but we are in the business of providing the truth.
Where this ties in with the class is that if we have technology in our classroom, if we have a media friendly, and internet ready classroom; we will never run into something like this. The world is at our finger tips. If a student feel something is incorrect they can post it on their blog and other can discuss it. If they want to learn more about a certain person, they can serf the net. We are in the business of fully educating our students with a wealth of knowledge, and the internet provides a limitless field. And with the addition of e-books different authors of "textbooks" will emerge (or at least i feel). Technology in the classroom is a wonderful thing that is changing every way we look at school. It is revolutionizing everything, and making it better.

History Teacher Becomes Podcast Celebrity

I was reading the New York Times and i stumbled upon a technology article. I thought it applied to us, at least mildly, so i thought i'd put a post up on it.

This article focuses on Lars Brownworth, a teacher from Stony Brook. It is a really great article about a his rise through the ranks and establishment as a truly powerful podcaster. His podcast is called 12 Byzantine Rulers. "In the digital era, this self-taught amateur has emerged." This is a great example of how anyone can learn this technology and be successful.
This is a very interesting article and it makes reference to other educational podcasts like “Word Nerds” and “Grammar Girl.”

PEW

"Fully half of all teens and 57% of teens who use the internet could be considered Content Creators. They have created a blog or webpage, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations." That is amazing. People do not realize how big this is getting. Knowledge is spreading like wildfire.
Teens seem to be alot more aggressive with blogging other forms then adults and it might be because of accessibility. Teenagers access the internet more, talk about it more. I mean how many adults do you know that have the sidekick cell phone? I may be wrong! But i feel teens instant message more then adults. I do not mean accessibility in the sense that teens have a better chance to access the internet more. I simply mean they DO access it more. They spend hours a day instant messaging their friends.
The desire to download is also much stronger. The whole idea of "sticking it to the man." Teens download everything from movies, to music, to pictures. A big thing that i attribute 57% of teens that have internet "creating content" is Myspace and Facebook. That is the craze. Facebook is absolutely huge. I would love to find out the percentage of students that use facebook. And myspace is there for the younger generation as well.

David Warlick (or D War as i like to call him)

I agree with David Warlick's main question of What students should be learning is the most important question to ask. David Warlick belives the current priorities by which educators evaluate and teach students is incorrect.
I agree with the idea that the wrong priorities lead to problems in the classroom. Older teachers have their comfort zone and they are use to doing what they always do. They keep a routine, get soft. This doesnt inspire much in the motivation department. And we should always try yo inspire our students.
There is an endless world of opportunity out there. New ways to connect with people, like never before.
A big thing is that we as teachers must adapt our teaching methods. It is hard because we are entering a system that is reistant to change. It has been a slow system to adopt any new change, conventionally it has been the same for thirty years. But i feel now it may be more flexible to change. With pioneers like Will Richardson and Ward Cunningham.

Read/write web

I find the whole web 2.0 movement fascinating. When the internet was first created it was just a wealth of knowledge. A place to access information. Web 2.0 is not just about consuming, it is about creating. And we see that in this class. It is not just about ingesting all this knowledge, we physically apply it (i am doing it right now) by creating these words. By doing these posts we are contributing to Web 2.0. But this really isnt about us, but about our students. It is about what we can bring to our students. And i like that idea. Because our students are going to create a lot, and we are going to help them create a lot, but what can we expose them to, that will spark that one unsatisfied student. Will it be a blog? Or a wiki? A podcast?
I really feel many people still access the internet in the old reality, the old web. Web 1.0. That is something we need to change, we must first change that within ourselves, and then within our students.

Will Richardson part of a panel presentation at the 2006 Milken Global Conference

Will gave a very powerful speech at the Milken Global Conference. It was very professional, yet appealed to the family man. A great thing he mentioned is that we "have control over our learning." He says "in ways we never had before" which suggests we truly are doing revolutionary things. This presents teachers and students with very powerful opportunities, potenial for great things. They are a great way to connect to people and ideas. He stressses that they are not online journals. These blogs and other feeds are learning spaces. These things can lead to something better. A better way of learning and interacting. On many levels these are intellectual engagements.
I feel like this is our generations thing. This is it, blogs and wiki's. Throughout time there have been different forms of transfering communication. And as we evolve they become more effective. There was a time where a message would have to be run from place to place, then much later we evolved a mail system, and a telephone, and fax machine (a mojo), we got e-mail, and then im, and now the mail form of communication to the masses is blogging. The thing about blogging is that it transcends all those other forms of communication. It truly is for the masses, Millions of people can respond and create. It is an essential place to learn and expand ourselves.

Will Richardson

First of all, i would like to start with saying i really like Will Richardson. I like the way he presents himself, how articulate he speaks and so effectively. Many of us met him last semester in the library. And before he started speaking, i was thinking who is this guy? I really do not want to be here. I have a lot of things i need to speak to my lit circle about.
But then something happened. He spoke, and his knowledge, which was quite over my head, struck something within me. We need equip ourselves for this world. We are living in a society that revolves around technology and far too many of us are technologically illiterate. We have to learn, we have to find the desire to better ourselves. Will said something to this effect, and don't quote me 100% because its been some time but he said "Most of the jobs in the year 2015 haven't even been invented." Every thing is changing around us, already the classrooms are being updated. New methods are being utilized. It is scary but high school is already different from when we attended, and that was four years ago. Book clubs, lit circle's, class blogs. When i was in high school, we were barely a loud to go on the internet, we did work in excel or other programs. The extent of our internet access was searching on Google. Now students are creating i-movies and searching the net for endless things. They know how to put their videos on the internet, type fan fictions. It is truly amazing.
Our Students will always be ahead of us technologically. It is our job to keep up with them. I mean look at our teacher she can't do half the things i can do (just kidding). But these students out there are just dying to learn from technology, that is why it such a powerful tool.
Will is the person that sparked my keen interest in learning more with computers, along with Dr. Stearns(first time i think i have ever referred to her as Dr.). They have been key to my progression. They helped break down certain barriers, for example wikipedia.
And i am going to say this before i get into the wikipedia story. I firmly believe that in about 5 years wikipedia is going to have revolutionized it self even more. I feel like the credibility aspect is going to be so astronomically precise that it is going to be THE source. I really feel they should adapt the commenting format (i feel like this will happen) and it will be like amazon.com or where it says your reliability rate. For example, if someone writes 3 true, reliable statements and then writes "Columbus discovered American in 1485" (an incorrect statement) his credibility level will be 75%. So if you want to consider the source you click on the statement and you see who posted it. If the person has a 20% credibility ranking your not going to believe the comment. I feel like this would function as a deterrent for people writing something they arent sure of. Because if no one is going to listen to what they write or what they write constantly gets edited out, why would they even post something close to incorrect. This idea needs rendering but i just regurgitated it in text for the first time so.
Anyway what led to that was Stearns always told us to use wikipedia but many of us were hesitant becuase many teachers discriminated against it and people think it is unreliable. She always told us the number of people on there was incredible and if you made a mistake it would be corrected within minutes. When Will came he showed us wikipedia and it said the last edit been done 1 second ago, and there had been 500 edits to the site in the last 2 minutes. This was about noon on a week day. That is a powerful source!

Just Tonight

I am in Love. I am absolutely smitten. This video is creative, original, the lighting is amazing, the costume and set design is absolutely spectacular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGTDRztaCCw

yea it was late last night and i just wanted to get it up so i did not make the link live, but here we go.

To watch the embodiment of my fascination, to see who has me head over heals, click here to see some of the best cinematography (besides the piano part) costume and set design i have seen since Michel Gondry.

I have posted Links

If anyone is interested i have added links to my blog. Those are my favorite places. Many hours have come from losing consciousness and just satisfying my curiosity of the world by devouring these pages. Everything is connected. Normally i will start on imdb just curious aboutwhat new movie Darren Aronofsky is making and then one thing will lead to another and i am looking at something Guy Ritchie did so i decide to wikipedia Ritchie then i netflix a movie and its just an orgy of information. I will get into the Guy Ritchie success story some other time, i think that is one of the most extreme life turn arounds, well Charles S. Dutton's story is pretty crazy too. Anyway, these sites are where i live and breathe. My youtube account is where i create. It is not really where i want it to be yet but that will change. lol if you want to see the arrival of my mac and new monitor, it is on here as well (check it out, jessica brown makes a cameo appearance). I am currently working on two projects with some people, so those skits will be shot eventually. The first is going to be a spoof subway commercial and the other which will not be filmed until i go home because i need a whole crew will take some time. I have titled it:
Yanni: A Newline Investigative Report

Project meetings

I think it is really cool that our group is on the ball. I have certainly been in groups where people are apathetic and i know i have been uninterested in a topic before. But these guys, man. We are on that ball like it is no bodies business. We have been sending emails to each other, Staci's been talking to Stearns. It is good for someone like me to be exposed to people who are diligent because i have been intertwined with slackers for far to long. Underachieve is not really what i am looking to do anymore. Oh and by the way Little Miss Sunshine, very good. I suggest it, so that means something.

Times of the posts

Why are the times of the posts ALWAYS completely off? That does not make any sense to me. It is 2:52 right now it does not make sense to have them say 11 something. I actually just got an idea of why and i feel kind of stupid now.
But, they should ask you what time zone you are in, and then if you post at 2:54 it should say posted at 2:54 not some other random time.

Class Blogging

I wonder, are we suppose to blog more on this or on the class blog. I have not really been on the class blog, except for an introduction. I seem to mildly be having trouble. I tried to write on it and i could not so i just gave up. I tried twice and after about 3 minutes of failing i decided to go on imdb and look up when the hell Zodiac is coming out. LOL i failed to find that out also but i googled and i think March.
Anyway, i think i would prefer the majority of our work to be here so it is a more tangible way of looking at physically seeing how much work has been done. Because last semester i was pretty sure i blogged the most out of everyone or top 5, so i guess this is a way to keep track. So if i see Jessica Brown has blogged 4 times and i have 15 times i can take note of that, or if Savanna blogged 23 times i know that girl is killing me. I don't know you at all sorry for mentioning your name, i thought of diligence and your name came out of my keyboard. I guess thats a compliment, so hopefully you wont feel odd for being in another students blog that you have spoken to about three times. I did not phrase that how i wanted to. So is anyone even going to read these? Because, and i know it is only the first week of school, but i do not even know how to search or what is going on. This should be a lot of fun though.
This thing keeps correcting my spelling and i never realized how horrible i am at spelling. Quentin Tarantino is absolutely amazing. I feel like a lot of my essential things are not grounded well. Whats that called, oh my foundations. Is that right? The base of my learning, spelling, work ethic, all shit. I really feel like in the last 5 months i have learned more then in my entire life of schooling. All i bring into the equation is bad habits, are bad habits...there is an example. It is kind of sad i am going to be grading students grammar in a few years yet mine is still atrocious. That is one thing i am scared of. I really want a good steak actually I could go for a nice medium rare dripping with blood piece of Filet mignon. I had that the night before i came to college when my parents and i went out to a steak house.
I feel like where does this transition come in. When will i magically become better at grammar and spelling? Am i going to be the teacher that writes on the board and has to preface it with "oh, i'm a terrible speller" or "i'm really bad with math" because i do not want that. I need credibility. That is one thing i have learned in this world. Learn how to make people think you are smart. That is the image i am trying to learn to portray. In poker you NEVER show people when you bluff. You show them when you have a flush, or a boat, you do not show them when you win the pot with 4 high. Because you want them to believe you, that you are a good player who is not all over the place. Maybe that was not the best teaching analogy, i kept alot back, christ what is wrong with alot i am not correcting it this time.
Today is a tangent filled day, i apologize. I do not really cause i highly doubt ANYONE has read this far. Who would? I am just doing this for myself. Pouring my brain out and hoping some genius is in here somewhere. I think i should stop though, Sinclair lewis is calling me. I am enjoying him so far, early on. Perhaps i will look back and say "wow was i wrong, or perhaps he will emerge as one of my favorite writers which he certainly could, i like his style. Or i could be indifferent."

I do not think we are suppose to blog like this so i will stop after this one

I have absolutely no idea what i want anymore. I use to want something, but now that thing is gone. My hunger for that has since passed, so i sit here reading the words of sinclair lewis, hoping someting comes my way, sparks my fancy. Puts that glitter in my eye. I dream of Amanda Palmer, taking me somewhere. A place that does not snow everytime you look out your windowsill, some place where it does not hurt your face to touch fresh air. I need a hobby, or a women, maybe neither. I just need to get away from this place where everyone does everything perfectly and better then me. Somewhere i can pretend the people are not dramatically smarter and more successful then me. Where i can use the excuse their parents are loaded and most of the time that satisfies as a satisfactory motive for their success. Here, no one has money and they all succeed, some work harder then i ever could and do better then me others do absolutely nothing and do better then me. I am surrounded by an unclimbable glass wall. People on the outside look at me and laugh at my feeble attempts. "He was a good athlete in high school, so that was his redeeming factor, but what does he have now? Why did he quit? To do better in school? Well that does not seem to be working" I've decided to start a 5 year plan. By the time i am 25 years old i will have created a full length motion picture. I am stumbling now, messing with very amateur ideas but that will evolve. I don't want to write anymore, thinking about creating films depresses me sometimes because of my lack of creativity.

Stream of Creativity

I was feeling very bogged down with my lack of creativity so i am happy to say i've started writing a short story. I have been drawing a little as well, i drew alot over break. I've moved toward abstract work because i have terrible perception of angles and space ratios. Whenever i draw something like a table it looks abstract so i've resorted to drawing no distinguishable shapes at all. I saw a movie on Jackson Pollock (Pollock is the title) and that inspired me greatly. He was greatly inspired by Kandinsky and i think thats really kewl because i saw a kandinksy exhibit in london over the summer and it was wonderful. It was amazing to see his work evolve. And in the movie pollocks work evolves so i guess it was nice to see the juxtaposition of these artists work evolve throught their lives. One thing i noticed was my art use to be very stiff and triangular, now has taken on a more circular ____(insert word). I like my most recent work, i've started to use alot more colors, i use to be a charcoal, pencil, pen guy. Now i use burnt cadmium and yellow, these exotic greens and tropical blues. I fill the paper up more, i've noticed.
So back to my story. It is an exploration into the unknown. Anything that happens in my day i am twisting into my story, and usually i look to movies or literature to think of ideas but now i'm looking more inward. I feel that is where the stream of creativity should come from. I've only written about 5 pages but it has been only two days so.
Oh i also made a song, i mixed to songs together this morning. I couldnt fall back asleep and i had this beat in my head so i tried to get it out.
Eveentualluy i wound up mixing "Mr. Jones part 2" by Ben Folds and "with Arms wide open" by Creed. I felt the themes went together, there was a nice crosshatching. Some parts seemed very agreeable and the others that disagreed provided a contrast which made sense. It is very dramatic and i'm really trying to get into more comical things but everything that pours out of my head lately seems 2 be serious. Unless im making jokes. Girls seem to be the only thing that can inspire me to make a joke, but since i've been surrounded by nothing but women since sunday its been quite exhausting. Tonight was a nice break.
So i have the constant filming going on, making of a website, short story that i am periodically getting down, and progressive works of art. I am content for now.

Project iweb

We had our first meeting today for the iweb assignment. I am really excited because, first of all, i love learning new methods of technology. So setting up a website is very valuable and essential.
Secondly, my group is awesome. Everyone is very smart and creative. We get along well, and everyone seems ready to put some work in. I will add more to this later, i am tired for some reason.

This is who i am.

I love to travel. In the last year i have gone to England, Paris, Canada, and Boston. I really want to go to California this summer. I'm thinking about getting my masters there actually. I am also thinking about working in Spain or Japan ( Teaching ELA). I am very ambitious, i just don't normally have the grades or brains behind those goals lol to succeed ever, but i will not cease. So here i am after the worst semester of my life. I am going to be a teacher of English in high school. I am very excited to show kids the wonder and beauty of the world. That the kid who struggles to read twenty pages of a textbook can succeed in this world. He's going to have to improve that (lol and i am) but i want to motivate my students with a diversity of methods. Music, movies, graphic novels, classic novels, and so on. I still have a lot to learn.

NCATE/NCTE Standards

After reading the NCATE Standards I realize I have a decent grasp on some of the things required. Technology is something that students need to have accessible. More then accessible, they need to be sound. They should be very comfortable with computers, and with Mac's being the most effective computers out there i feel every student should be Mac literate. When i was in grammar school our computer class consisted mainly of typing and playing games. We simply typed off a sheet of paper into microsoft word. We had the whole class to complete the "assignment". The game we played was Oregon Trail. Not very helpful in enhancing our computer skills. We were actually restricted from going online. I find that highly ironic. The goal in the computer lab should be to explore the world through mozilla, not to limit yourself to mind numbing tasks life how I was forced.

Introduction

Hi, I am Phil Giordano and welcome to my Blog.