from the ever-interesting Muppet Web Videos (who needs a TV show anyway?). The grumpy old guys at the end are still a hoot, even after all these years.
Peace (in America),
Kevin
Author Archives: dogtrax
Finding Pieces of the Writing Puzzle
Sometime last year, just after the collapse of my band (The Sofa Kings), I had this vision of creating something different now that I was not attached to a group. The new project would be a story of a life of a character told through freeform poetry and original songs and it would stretch from childhood to senior citizen. Although it is never named, the character suffers from a variety of Asperger’s, which makes it difficult for him to connect with the world around him.
But there is this girl ….
The poems came quickly and formed the spine of the story. I began working on songs to go with it and for some time, I was collaborating with a friend on some recordings. That didn’t seem to gell and we both abandoned the project and, except for now and then, our collaboration (on friendly terms).
I shelved the whole thing for a few months because I was tired of it and needed some space. This week, I returned to the story and began doing some recording myself, trying to lay down tracks for the 12 or so songs and recording the podcasts of the poems. I felt as if I were stepping back into an old book.
But I still foresee a narrative problem with the story. There are too many gaps. I purposely have left many holes in the life story because I want the reader/listener to have to reach and think and come to their own conclusions. But I noticed too many holes and wondered what to do. This is part of what led me to step away earlier this year.
Yesterday, I had one of those “why didn’t I think of that before” moments and realized that the voice of the girl was missing and that she could be used to shine a light from another perspective. Her story is being written in prose, as short fiction pieces.
I feel happy to have found a solution to a vexing problem and am viewing the character swirling around in my head.
Peace (in the solution),
Kevin
Talking Webcomics on Teachers Teaching Teachers
A few weeks ago, I took part in an interesting discussion on Teachers Teaching Teachers about the use of webcomics in the classroom. Among the guests were two of the guys from Bitstrips, which is a site that I have been toying around with lately and like. (I’ll be using it this summer for a youth Webcomic Camp).
Take a listen to the hour-long TTT show, if you have time.
Peace (in the frames),
Kevin
Mental Activity: the ideal classroom
Over at our iAnthology writing site, this week’s writing prompt asked us to write about our “ideal classroom” from any perspective. Here is mine, which I ended up doing as a Bitstrip Comic, although the layout was done at a site called Classroom Architect, which is a no-frills option.
Note: this link will take you to the full-size image.
Peace (in the lay of the land),
Kevin
Days in a Sentence (as webcomic)
This week, I decided to take off the submissions for the reflective Days in a Sentence and add them into a Bitstrips Webcomic. Thanks to everyone who shared their words with us this week.
Here is the link to the full size comic.
Peace
What I think …
This post combines two pieces that I pulled together recently — one for a mini-grant proposal from a teaching website and another for the YPulse Wired Teaching Award (where I was a finalist).
For the minigrant, I was asked to write about what I think about “21st Century Readiness” and also, if I were to a video documenting my thoughts, what would it look like?
My thoughts:
Young people compose all of the time, although it often happens outside of our classroom. They are texting in short-hand language that some adults find unnerving. They are surfing the Net. They are creating and sharing videos. They are “reading” video games and navigating information, and then using that information to inform the “story” of the game. Some are on Facebook and other social networking sites. Unfortunately, many educators don’t view this world as composing and writing. They erect walls between home and school. But I see this world outside of school as a possibility for learning that we cannot ignore. If my students are to be ready for the future, then they need to understand the platforms and networks which are they use. A readiness for 21st Century means being taking a critical stance, understanding the world in the midst of technological change, and adapting in order to achieve goals and success. As teachers, we have to realize that the exact skills we teach right now might not be applicable in the future. But if we can educate our students on how to work with others (even in online spaces, beyond a physical proximity); how to use inquiry as a path forward towards understanding; how to use technology for their own means; and how to always be critical and asking questions, then we have done much to prepare them for the world they are entering. Readiness for the 21st Century means being unafraid of challenges that come with the world of digital media.
My movie idea:
My video story would begin with a bored student leaving school after a day of five-paragraph essay writing, and as soon as they hit the doors, they immediately take out some mobile device and the frame shows them composing a long message. We follow this young person around through the rest of the day (outside of school) as they use digital media and technology in authentic ways: making a video; using apps on a mobile device for some authentic purpose; composing and recording a mash-up song; etc. I imagine that the video story could also show a teacher opening up their eyes to the possibilities of what this student is doing, and turning to the student as a class leader to help develop a project that engages the class, so that the traditional writing activity (essay) is coupled with other possibilities (persuasive video, podcasts, etc.)
The YPulse Award asked us to contribute a short video on advice that we would give for educators when it comes to using technology. Here is my one-minute take on urging folks to get their own hands dirty before they bring a tool into the classroom.
Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin
When News Goes Manga
I am not suggesting this move would save our newspapers, but some papers in Japan have started to shift towards Manga News, which converts some news items of the day into a manga-style story. I suppose this is both cultural (Manga comics are everywhere in Japan) and demographic (how to keep younger people reading the newspapers).
You can check out a website with Manga News here, although it is all in Japanese.
And Wired had an article about the shift, too. Like every other idea now in the world, there is an app for it, too.
Peace (in the news),
Kevin
Sneak Peeks at student Stopmotion Movies
There’s a lot of work being done on our stopmotion movies, particularly now that I set a deadline of next Friday for completion. Yesterday, I presented as mini-lesson around using Moviemaker, including making titles and credits (use restraint, I told them), adding narration and cutting into video to remove unwanted hands from scenes.
I went through and randomly grabbed some of the raw footage so that I could share out some of the work at our class website. It’s always good to give parents a glimpse into the room (I wish my own sons’ teachers would do that once in a while).
Note: these are short movies built around concepts of figurative language.
Peace (in the raw),
Kevin
Keep those video files organized
I honestly try not to take too much technology knowledge for granted with my students. But yesterday, as we moved deeper into our figurative language stopmotion animation project, I realized that a very small percentage of my students knew how to create a very basis element of Windows: a folder.
Each day, as they shoot raw footage (later to be edited in Moviemaker), they have just been randomly saving it to wherever the computer has defaulted a folder. Which means I had a lot of: “Mr. H, our video from yesterday is gone,” and me replying, “Where did you save it?” and them responding, “I don’t know.”
This happened once too often so I set aside some precious time to go through the process of creating a folder for their work, moving video files into their folder, and reminding them that three other groups are sharing the same computer, so folders are key to organization.Then, I walked around to make sure every group (I have four classes, with about five to seven movie groups going on right now) understood the concept of their folder and how to save their videos in there.
My own lesson here is to remember not to assume anything. My students may look proficient with basic technology but it is unlikely anyone has shown them what to do. They stumble and discover, just like we do. There is something to be said of learning by doing, but in this case, keeping video files organized in project folders will save a lot of headaches later on.
Or so I hope.
Peace (in the folder),
Kevin
Come in, Come in for Day in a Sentence
It has been a bit of time since I was the host of Day in Sentence. The writing activity has been making the rounds with all sorts of blogging friends, but now it comes back home. (Also, check out the article I wrote for LEARN NC about teaching writing in online communities where I mentioned our Day in a Sentence project)
I’m going to keep things simple and traditional, at least in the gathering of your words.
- Reflect on your day or your week;
- Boil it down into a single sentence;
- Post your sentence here as a comment to this blog post;
- I will gather up the sentences and publish them this weekend in some format (still thinking);
- That’s it!
Here is my Day in a Sentence:
I looked around my classroom yesterday and all I saw were creative movie producing teams hard at work in just about every space you could imagine and there were no signs of slacking in the bunch.
Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin