DS106 Project C

In this assignment you had to take an article and scratch out parts to leave another story that was completely different from the first.  My original was about brewing your own beer.  My story reads, "Once upon a time on a safari within a short drive of a store, you wonder, "Why even bother.""  I enjoyed this assignment and I think it will be something that I will do with my students actually.  It's something to make them read, think, but is also something fun for them to do.  Maybe have them create poems or something didactic or just something silly.  

Talk about Demotivating!  There are few things that demotivate me more than knowing there is no point in saving for the future when so much money is printed my money is worthless the longer I hold on to it!  =(   

Truthful Movie Poster

I loved this assignment, I really loved seeing what everyone else put up.  It was fun and thought provoking.

This is a project I want to do with my students in the future, sans the foul language.  I think this teaches students that they have to truly think of why a movie is made, the audience is is searching for, and the purpose of the movie itself.  I would also like to link this together with a "book poster" idea.  Having students create a poster or cover with the truthful spin allows students to voice their own opinion on the book.  I know a lot of kids loved the Twilight series, while an entire other group hated the books (I would be in the later of the two groups).  Having these visual projects allows for creativity in a multitude of ways both from the visual and in the usage of words in the project.

Odyssey on Maps

I created a Google Map based on the Odyssey intended to use in future classes in school.  I would like to use this activity again for other books as well.  I am thinking along the lines of Mark Twain, or Jane Austen.  I am a visual person so something like this could be very useful in class and something fun for students to create themselves.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=217151320616601773639.0004c9ac824d32c546ba5&msa=0

Attention... or lack thereof...

Is it odd that the first subject matter to come up in a digital media class for prospective English teachers is attention?  I would venture to say no, and I would also like to commend my professor for allowing us o speak so honestly about our own attentiveness.  It seems that most teachers are stuck on teaching the way it has "always been done" and in that kids must keep their attention in class with closed mouths, but the fact of the matter is every one today struggles with a lowered ability to keep focus.  ADD is not something that I have been diagnosed with and when I say I have it I say it playfully.  The reality is the older I have gotten my brain seems to run a million miles in 8 directions.  I can not longer sit and watch TV (although I have never been a big fan), and lord knows you can forget trying to watch a movie with me.  I get antsy, I need to move around, I want to look up things on Google, I think about what I should be doing, what I could be doing, what I will be doing, and what I forgot to do and need to make note to do later.  It seems the whole world has become ADD in the past 10 years.  Maybe our ability to have everything at the touch of a button, and now with cell phones being internet capable there is truly no escaping the mindless internet searching I have become privy to.  Even now as I write about my experience to noticing just how truly unable I am to keep my attention on a single piece of dense text my eyes are fluttering back to my daughter playing in her crib, texts and phone calls coming in, and trying to remember to reserve a U-haul for my husband less I forget again for the 5th time this week.  Trying to write a paper these days is something that my husband finds humorous as I take breaks to - pause to hand my daughter my computer mouse she was reaching for- clear my head and mindlessly open another tab of Facebook.  This is my reality now.  In order for me to best perform I need seclusion, I have to turn off the wireless internet otherwise I will forever sit wandering from page to page, picture to article, video to statistic until hours have passed and I am no further ahead than had I tried to write the paper in the middle of a family gathering.  This is all from a woman who is 28 and remembers a time before technology was everywhere and times I could be MIA and not tracked down via my GPS enabled cellphone.  It causes me to wonder what our kids go through in technological word they were raised in.  Are they better adapted?  As a teacher what can I do to help them?  What can I do to help myself??  Honestly I crave silence.  I miss silence, maybe that happens when you have kids, and maybe I should ask my husband to build me a studio in the backyard... I bet I could find a cute one on Pinterest and a tutorial to go with it.  =)