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.