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.