Wednesday, April 25, 2012

CD Project

On Monday a group presented a possible lesson plan using soundtracks with texts. I have done projects like this in middle school, and I remember Dr. Hicks discussing similar projects in his methods courses. I must admit that I enjoy how the multimodality of this project allows for students to recognize how some forms of popular culture can be considered higher art. This also allows for the students to use their own interests in the project, incorporating songs that hold meaning to them into the soundtrack.

One modification I would like to try is having the students write lyrics to a song to be the them song for the soundtrack. Many musicians create songs just for films such as Daft Punk's soundtrack for Tron Legacy. This would allow the students to practice a different medium for writing that they may not always get a chance to practice in class.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Puppets & Teaching

So recently I went to the library with my Young Adult Literature class to examine textbooks and manipulatives that I could possibly use in the classroom. I had mixed feelings about the text books, but that is a post for another time. I actually spent more time focusing on the 'manipulatives' that could be used in the English classroom. I managed to find a few board games that could be used in the classroom, but I believe that the majority of these games could be played without the boards and pieces. I never quite thought about how few manipulatives exist for literature courses, but one thing that stuck out to me was puppets. Now I know this may seem crazy, but I believe that I could use puppets to teach something in a more interesting manner. I mean, it is not what you teach that matters, it is how you teach it.

Take grammar for instance. Who would not want to learn grammar from Gus the Grammar Goat? I know I tend to recollect information better in absurd situations. I remember once in high school we were taught a song and dance for the formula for momentum in a physics course. And although it was an absurd activity, I will never forget that M*V=Momentum. I feel like using something as entertaining as a puppet would allow the students to retain the information, but this could easily become a gimmicky sort of activity that hinders the students's learning. Activities like this cannot be used for everything, but I feel like I will be able to use puppets to teach grammar in a more memorable manner.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Friday, April 20, 2012

Process Based Theater

Process based theater has tickled my fancy, and I know I will be using this in my student teaching in the fall. When students study plays, they often merely read the play-- the teacher will probably show a few clips from various performances, but I feel as if many students do not grasp the dynamics of theater without performing themselves. Process based theater can work as a medium for developing a student's understanding of improvisation. Although, an issue with this is that many students do not wish to participate in process based theater, due to their own stage fright or shyness. I am unsure of how to encourage students who do not wish to act to participate in the activity, which is why Dan and I are incorporating a combination of flash fiction and process based drama in our final lesson plan. I feel as if requiring the students to write prior to (and after) the activity will allow students to better their ability to interpret texts, allowing them to see the world through different lessons.
Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Friday, April 6, 2012

"Knite"

Originally I was planning on writing something about roleplaying in the classroom to contribute to student learning, and how roleplaying possibly perpetuates one's empathy. But a friend sent me a webcomic with a unique format. Most webcomics remain rather static, where all the panels are on one page. But this webcomic uses one square panel that does not change, and you scroll through each panel, only seeing one panel at a time. The comic is called "Knite" and would go well with a unit on graphic novels, due to the fact that it gives students an example of a unique webcomic. The majority of webcomics are humorous, but this one seems to have a much more serious tone, which ultimately stems from issues in China's economy and environment.

Here is a link to the comic-- please check it out. The artwork is amazing!

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Mega Ran's "Language Arts"

So this gentleman who goes by Mega Ran is currently working on a multimodal project, which caught my attention. Mega Ran plans on combining several of his favorite things in a collaborative project-- using comic books, music, and video games to create a coherent aesthetic piece. Click here to check out more information on his project. Seeing how some of us are presenting information about multigenre and multimodal projects at a conference soon, I figured this project might float some of your boats.

Also note that Mega Ran is taking donations for this project, but I would not exactly call it a donation. If you pay a certain amount, then you will get a 'free' copy of his album and other things, depending on how much you pay. I am probably going to throw down some cash for this later this week, because it seems like a good cause and I am banking on the fact that the artwork and music will not be mediocre.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Pen vs Pencil

Recently I had to go to the store to pick up some more pencils, and I started talking to friends about past classes and how some teachers required them to only write in pen. As an old, decrepit fellow, I can see this as being reasonable. My eyes are getting old and worn out-- when I read a student's essay, I want to be able to see it. Sometimes pencil marks smear and fade, which can make things difficult. With pen there is a permanency to the writing. It stays there, it cannot be erased, only scratched out. For a more quantitative exam, a student may attempt to erase an answer written in pencil, claiming that I made a mistake with grading. I suppose one could argue that a student may attempt to do the same with pen, but I think if someone scratches out an answer, that it is not nearly as subtle as erasing it.

Another issue in the Pen vs Pencil debate remains the type of work that one is having students do. Often times with free writing, we cannot properly organize our thoughts. So we will spend a great deal of time scratching out the word vomit that we produce. I believe teachers ought to expect students to carry both pens and pencils on them in English classrooms. Diagramming sentences is pretty tricky with pens, after all.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

20 Shot Film vs Free Film

After completing our 20 Shot Film project, I have a few reflections that deal with the freedom of the project and time constraints. In a high school classroom, I would naturally give the class more time for this project, but since I have never used this project in a high school classroom, I am unsure of how long it would take. I feel as if there ought to be a larger unit on film techniques as well, showing the students things about backlighting.

I would love to use this project in a unit plan on visual literacy, but I would also prefer to give the students more freedom with the project. I think the students may be able to develop their ideas more by doing a film with more than 20 shots, and allowing the students to use editing software would develop their understanding of the creation of films.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Sunday, March 11, 2012

www.linkedin.com

I was recently chatting with my brother and a few friends, half paying attention, half singing the cake song, but eventually I noticed they were discussing a site that I remained unfamiliar with, Linkedin. The site is free, but features a premium type of account that you can pay for, giving you additional features. From what I can tell the website remains a professional version of facebook. In class we discussed keeping a professional facebook and a personal facebook, but I find this site to be a better option.

Creating a profile on the site focuses on career related questions. You throw things on there such as previous job and educational experiences, various skills, etc. A profile from Linkedin ideally remains a combination between a digital resume and a social networking site. I know this tool may not be used in the classroom, but it remains a strong way to maintain professional contacts that one may make at conferences. Although, I suppose the site may not have much practical use until one actually graduates though, but still I found this site to be rather interesting.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Markup.io

Markup.io is a program that emulates a smart board on a web browser. The program remains extremely simple to use, or so the creators assume. The creators assumed that the program is so simple that it does not require a demo. This is up for debate, but I prefer to read directions for using a new tool before aimlessly trying to figure out everything empirically. Markup does not require any downloads, all you have to do is go to the url and then go to whatever site you wish to markup. One needs to be able to take screenshots, in order to make handouts using Markup, but one does not need Markup for making handouts on how to use websites.

Another major issue with Markup is that I cannot type in search boxes. If I wanted to make a handout explaining how to use a website, then I could take a screenshot of the site, saving it as a jpeg or bmap. Then I can take the file in paint, and use the program to put marks on the image. This not only allows me to make handouts, but I can also use the images to make a powerpoint. With Markup, you are only given a url of the website you markedup-- so if you want to make a handout, you cannot edit the image as much.

Ultimately, I would not recommend using Markup. The site does not seem to save time, and is easily replaced by other tools that everyone already knows how to use.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Rainy Moods

So today I was researching markup.io in class today, but I found it to be a terribly frustrating classroom utility. All I was beginning to get frustrated after experimenting with the tool, and I started thinking of the usual things that cheer me up-- craft beer, ponies, poetry, and rain. Who does not love curling up next to a window on a rainy day with a nice book? So I started making connections in my head with a few random ideas. And I began to realize that www.rainymood.com would be an excellent classroom tool.

Now this site may have a depressing title, but it remains extremely simple. All the site does is play relaxing rain noises in the background, emulating a rainy day. I would use this in the classroom to indicate that it is time for the students to complete some type of assignment individually-- this could be used for silent sustained reading in class or anything similar to this. The noises that rainymood.com makes do not tend to be as extreme as some songs that I have seen teachers play, while I study. I recollect listening to a great deal of Juanes when I took Spanish courses in high school. Using such a site repeatedly ought to condition the students to focus on individual work when the rain sounds are playing. I know it may be a simple tool, but I know I will use it for silent reading at a later point in my teaching career.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Comic Life: A Bridge for Graphic Novels

I was reviewing the lesson on Comic Life in the text that Bear Grylls presented a few weeks back. I never got a chance to play with the idea of how Comic Life can be used to teach the basics of graphic novels, which is tragic due to my obsession with graphic novels. I typically considered using Scott McCloud's texts alone, prior to having students read something by Miller, Moore, or Spiegelman. Yet one could easily create a transitory lesson to ease students in the analysis of graphic novels. Using a project with Comic Life will create a much more interactive form of learning the basics of comics. After hearing all the positive things that Fockler and Bear Grylls had to say about Comic Life, I decided to mess around with it-- and I know that this program will be implemented in my lesson plans for units on graphic novels. The simple learning curve of the program makes it quite accessible to students, allowing me to teach it in one class period. I am probably going to harass a few people I know who are teaching graphic novels now, and suggest they look into Comic Life as well.
Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Podcasts & Assumptions

After reading the article and a few excerpts from the texts on Podcasts, I am still unsure of whether or not I would implement one in the classroom. I have an inherent skepticism towards how practical using a podcast as an educational tool would be, but this depends on the context of the classroom. In Kadjer's text, one of the teachers discusses how long it takes to teach these tools to students, and that time remains one of the most valuable/limited resources in the classroom (I think it is on page 78ish? I do not have my text on me to check) . Assuming the students were familiar with the technology behind podcast, I would see no issue with using podcasting. Even if some of the students had experience with the technology, then one could create groups with this in mind, guaranteeing that every group has at least one student who knows what they are doing.

Although I believe there are time issues with using podcasting as educational tools, and I would assume that other forms of technology can be implemented to produce better results. But ultimately I need to practice more with these technologies to understand how they will work in the classroom.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Prezi vs Power Point

Recently I felt an urge to find a poem that I read years ago, and I could not find the poem myself. Being a needy individual, I immediately proceeded to whine to all of my friends about the situation. One friend sent me a link to a copy of the poem, which was on a Prezi made by a student for an English class. I recently discovered Prezi, and have yet to truly mess around with it for presentations for classes. Prezi has not grown to be as widely used as PowerPoints, but for those of you who do not know-- Prezi remains a website very similar to PowerPoint. Many people adulate Prezi for various reasons, and I am sure I will come back later to worship this website, but now I need to point out some negatives with the site.

Since Prezi remains a website as opposed to a computer program, one requires access to the internet to use this for presentations. This may seem like a minor flaw, due to the fact that wi-fi connections are available in more and more places now. Unfortunately, I think I speak for most students when I say that I cannot rely on SRU's internet. I have consistently run into issues with SRU's internet at the library, and dealing with the lag puts daydreams of drilling holes into my head with a power drill from Home Depot. This issue causes me to avoid using Prezi for presentations at SRU, for I know that my computer works. And I trust most of the school's computers to work, even if the internet is lack luster.

Regardless of my personal issues with Prezi, it would be great to incorporate in a lesson, especially for students who do not own Microsoft Office.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

http://prezi.com/

Skype in the Classroom...

I have used skype over the past few years for many different purposes. I mainly use it for online gaming to communicate with people I play with regularly. I know Mummble and Ventrilo are better programs for voice chat for gaming, due to the fact that both programs lag less. But my laptop never seems to lag much when I run skype behind a program. I have yet to experiment with Oovoo, and probably will later next week. I find myself feeling more prone to use skype though, due to the fact that the majority of my friends use it as well.

Skype in the classroom could be used for various lessons. One could have the students communicate with international students, keeping a penpal that would help them learn about intercultural communications. I would personally use an assignment like this outside of the classroom in a computer literate community though. One could also create a classroom Skype group, where the students could ask other students questions about the homework. This would be more effective than a message board, assuming that the majority of students already use Skype to communicate with friends ad family.

I will probably design a lesson with Skype later down the road, but I need more time to contemplate what I will specifically use it for first.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Funding for Schools...

Recently I have been researching how funding is determined for schools. A major issue in the contemporary educational system seems to be that financial issues trump educational issues in the form of budget cuts. So I figured I would research the concept of funding, in order to better my knowledge of the issues. I found a link pretty quickly that seems to explain the very basics of funding. Funding occurs on three different levels, state, local, and federal. The website I examined talked about funding from Ohio, and being from the Cleveland area, I figured I would stick with it. In Ohio (and many states) it seems that they use a formula that is meant to determine how much it should cost a school to provide their students with basic education. The formula attempts to find a cost per student based upon class room size, average staff salaries, and average maintenance costs. On the local level a portion of the property tax is taken for school funding, which is greatly influence by property values of that district. I am unsure of how fair it is for a portion of the funding to be based upon property values of an area. And apparently the Ohio Supreme Court agreed with me about a decade ago, when they prohibited districts from collecting money based upon the growth of property values. This supposedly causes an problem known as "phantom revenue," but I have no idea what that is. The website explained it by saying, "In other words, the state charges districts for the "growth" in property values when computing their local share even when they don't collect "growth" in local tax revenue. This phenomenon, known as "phantom revenue," varies with growth in values varies among districts." If someone could explain this to me, it would be greatly appreciated. The Ohio Supreme Court also ruled that state funding for school's must match the rate of inflation-- so both should increases somewhat simultaneously.

Outside of the basic aid that the state gives the schools, the state gives supplemental funds to the schools. These supplemental funds are based upon the need for special education and also the resources required to teach students from low-income families. I am also unsure of whether or not it should cost more to teach economically disadvantaged students, and need to contemplate this idea further. There is also a guarantee provision, which ensures schools receive no less aid than the previous year.

Unfortunately, I cannot put all of this information in one blog entry, and will attempting to paraphrase the process of funding tomorrow.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Resources & Competency?

One issue I have noticed with the use of technology in English classrooms is the fact that not every school will have access to these resources. Typically one views computer literacy as only being capable of using various technologies in a competent manner. But I would like to argue that in order to possess a greater competency of technology, one must be able to teach lessons concerning the technologies without actually having access to the technologies. Naturally this does not remain ideal, but not every school has the same resources. Also note that technology often fails us, and when it does we must be able to find a way to improvise. If I plan on teaching a lesson on how to evaluate internet resources by using Wikipedia as the subject of my analysis, then I ought to be able to teach the lesson without access to computers. This can easily be accomplished by printing out the article and analyzing in class with the students. Now not every lesson can be modified in such a manner, but one should learn how to quickly improvise when teaching, in order to become a more effective teacher.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Economy & Education

One of the major issues in the contemporary education system that I have been contemplating this week revolves around monetary concerns. Typically economic issues trump environmental or education issues. This claim can be evidenced by an analysis of the current events in western society revolving around education and the environment. Back at home in Twinsburg, Ohio, my old high school is attempting to rework their budget, and may make detrimental changes due to the budget cuts. They have discussed multiple solutions over the previous months. One example would be to remove block scheduling, which would require less teachers. For those who do not know what block scheduling is-- it consists of four class periods a day that are about an hour and a half long. For the first half of the year, students will take four classes, and after winter break students will take four different classes. This type of scheduling has multiple strengths, preparing students for a schedule that more closely resembles collegiate life, while also giving teachers and students more time to focus on one subject. The only real weakness I have found with block scheduling involves AP testing, but that is moot point for my current meditations. If THS decides to get rid of block scheduling, then they can have one of those periods be a study hall, allowing for one or two teachers to supervise a larger number of students in an auditorium, gymnasium, or cafeteria. This would lower the average teacher to student ratio per period, allowing for THS to fire teachers without tenure. Other solutions consist of restricting busing for students who live within  a mile or so of the school. And there has also been talk of requiring the students to pay for extracurricular activities.

I am unsure of why economic issues tend to trump educational issues, but in order to shift education away from education and towards a craft, one ought to be able to separate the two types problems. It seems as if the standardization of education is a result of putting economic issues on a pedestal, which can be evidenced by high-stakes testing. I unfortunately do not have a solution for this yet, but I am sure something will come to mind shortly.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Craft Beer...

I like my education the way I like my beer, a craft. I have been studying the craft beer industry for quite some time and I am constantly baffled by the people in the industry. Our society revolves around monetary pursuits. Everyone always seems to tell me, "The customer is always right," Yet I feel as if companies just say that, because they think they should. Unlike other industries, the people I continuously encounter involved with craft beer absolutely love their work. They put love and passion in what they do, hoping to give good beer to good people. To these brewers, beer is an art that involves an emotional attachment to the creation of the product. Education ought to be no different.

This point may seem rather self-evident. Anyone who does their job ought to love what they do. But the issue for me here is the standardization of education. When one standardizes the beer industry, you end up with companies such as Anheuser Busch and Coors Miller, producing mediocre products. For example, Keystone Ice remains a lager style like any other Iced beer. Nothing too special. But the can specifically says "Ale" on it. I addressed this minor issue with a friend who worked in the industry who responded by saying, "They just don't care. And they can get away with it, because people just don't care." I would argue that the standardization of education is causing a similar apathy for students. The standardization of education rarely places students in a position where they remain able to pursue an erudite interest that they love.

Unfortunately, I am not yet at a point in my career where I have a plan outlined for how America can change education to a craft. And this plan will have to wait till after I receive my doctorate most likely, due to my other academic pursuits.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings