sundaes

Up against the limits of my PC again, so I worked on setting up a wiki and finessing my Xtranormal clips.  I created a nice harmonica-laden background for Huck, which made me happy.

How will I use some of the things I’ve learned this week in the coming semester?  Let me count the ways.  (Thanks, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.)

1.)Website:  Continue developing it and playing with it.  Because of our work with picmonkey, etc., I now have a vision of creating a Barbie slideshow, in which I dress her up (in paper costumes, if need be) as some of the female characters in the literature we read.  I already have a Scout Finch in mind, as one of my students gave me a Barbie whose hair she’d hacked off; all I need are some overalls.  (Maybe shoulders-up shots would save time on this project?) There’s also Lady Macbeth, Aunt Polly, Curly’s wife in Of Mice and Men, and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.  What a blast!  To think that several days ago I would not have been able to fathom this…as several days ago I didn’t have a website.  LOVE this photo-tweaking stuff!  Just hope Annie Dillard isn’t offended.

I am also interested in setting up an RSS feed to one of the poetry sites, like 180 Days of Poetry, in which a new poem appears every day.  (Is this legal?)

I guess my largest concern is maintaining the site.  Once school starts I have very little “free” time to play with things like this.  I may have to build it into my schedule or pay my dog to do it.  Or Robbe’s dog, who seems brighter than mine.

2.)wiki:  I have begun a wiki and linked it to my site.  I don’t fully know how I will integrate this in my teaching this coming semester, but it seems clear that it will be a great addition to the curriculum for my Accelerated kids.  (Too bad I didn’t have it up and running in time so that some of their pre-course stuff could go there.)  I am envisioning one question/week, which they have to answer on the wiki, and respond to one another’s.  (Is this kind of like CCV’s old-timey Discussion Forum, Lisa?)

3.)Xtranormal:  I am totally in love with this.  It plays right into my goofiness and demented sense of humor.  I can see creating one of these for each major piece of literature…I do wish that I could add costumes, though, like one can on toonlet—It’ll be hard to do Beowulf justice without a boar’s head helmet. 

The two I have done this far took me a long time; I am hoping that I will speed up as I become more familiar with the options and the timing.

4.)blog:  I have added a link to my blog from my website.  If I am able to keep it up it might be an interesting “place” to communicate with parents about teaching in general.

5.)Finally, a WebQuest:  I am still hoping to start (and finish) a WebQuest about banned books and censorship, centered on Huck Finn.  Maybe next week?

Plate is decidedly full; luckily, it all feels kind of like dessert.

clean sweep

Deep sigh of relief today, as I abandoned something--even though I was attached to it--and made a choice in favor of practicality.  This is exactly, now that I think about it, what I have been doing in the garage for the past week:  throwing out things I will never use again and making room to organize the things I do use.  Is this what adulthood is like?

I can't resist, though, holding onto some of the frivolity both in the garage and website.  Elvis in a flurry of hearts and Annie Dillard with a Dali mustache make me laugh, which is one of the most important elements in my workday.  (Did I just mention adulthood?  What's that?)  It's tough in that being goofy actually takes more time than being straightforward, but I think it's an OK trade-off, as my site will more accurately reflect my sensibility.

My poor students...[shakes her head].

Now, though, I am a bit panicked about getting everything done by Friday.  I think I will have to hunker down and really work on getting everything in so that I also have time to play with Xtranormal.  (How about a poem of the week recited by an avatar?  Or a snippet of dialogue from Romeo and Juliet?)

16 contractor bags of trash later, I have a neatly swept garage and only one diorama of 50s dolls arranged in a wedding scene.  (Possibly the creepiest thing I have ever seen; I couldn't get rid of it.)  Website likewise tidier, with just a few mouse droppings in the corners.  And it's only Wednesday---though, as Robin would say, Friday is the day after tomorrow.

Vertigo in March

I’d like to invite Tom March over for coffee—though caffeine may be the last thing he needs:  his writing reads like the writing of someone who waves his arms around when he talks.  One of the first things I did after reading his article was to go to his other writings and read “Intriguing Ourselves to Death…”, in which he narrates his own meanderings through the web and the tangents he followed.  His ultimate message there is that we don’t allow kids this same opportunity to pursue and solidify their own interests, as we are so busy containing them in our structures—structures which are no longer tenable as the very tenor of communication and learning shifts. 

In the abovementioned article, I also liked his insistence on letting kids play; he maintains that this is one of the most productive means we can provide for kids’ learning.  The problem with this is that it feels unstructured and therefore “dangerous;”  in this age of mandated testing and even merit pay (!),  teachers are under such pressure to “produce” “good” “results” that the element of play—which, truth be told, I value more than almost anything else I can do with my kids—gets lost by the wayside.

That said, I remember thinking as I read/viewed the “flipping the classroom” article/snippet that I have already flipped in many senses, psychiatrically and …J/K, as the kids would say.  (No, actually, they would scoff at me, because that one is passé.)   Even though I am decidedly Old School, I hope I put a lot of emphasis on kids’ experimentation and taking risks for the sake of ideas, to paraphrase Adrienne Rich.    One thing that I learned today is that I am as quick to shut down or become discouraged as many of my students are when faced with an unfamiliar challenge.  Learning curves produce vertigo in me as they do in my kids.

the mattress

Someone has dumped a mattress and box springs right on Putney-West West line.  Not too long ago, there was a TV there, and before that, a stuffed chair in a lurid orange.  The already overworked road crews must have to take care of these leavings, and I imagine the Putney faction and the Westminster West guys fighting it out.  Seeing this mattress, though,  makes me seethe with a sort of impotent rage at the pure sloth and the careless disregard for others that now soaked mattress demonstrates.

My several frustrating experiences today brought out similar emotions--though not because of anyone's sloth or careless contempt.  There is nothing quite as stymying as having something to do and not being able to do it, especially, somehow, when said task involves a PC.  My partner even tried to help me find the right place on the site to enter my homework while simultaneously wiping chocolate chip cookie (not a euphemism in this case--it was a real cookie) off Leo's butt, but to no avail.

Why are tech experiences more frustrating than soiled mattresses dumped in a serene landscape, even?  I think they bring me  f2f with my own limitations--limitations which hopefully will be fewer as I experiment.  (A new PC would help, of course, as well.)  I think my learning goals should include yoga and maybe more familiarity with the sites we are using, so that I don't throw a chocolate-chip-cookie-fit (euphemism) when something goes wrong.

On the flip-side, how delightful to be in a class with such engaging and engaged women; that should ease the sting.  Now if my classmates would just take care of the mattress.