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.