(This is part of the Slice of Life Challenge with Two Writing Teachers. We write about small moments each and every day for March. You come, too. Write with us.)
I’m feeling a bit of the Monday morning quarterback, with a lot of loose threads. So this Slice of Life is a mix of small parts of various things from yesterday.
First of all, my plan to assess a pile of student work at the mall while my son was watching 300 with his friends went south when I was told I needed to be in the movie theater with him and his friends due to the R rating. I understand but I was frustrated. I had my “teacher vision” on, only to be disrupted by a movie that I had no interest in seeing. I mean, no interest at all.
My six word review of 300:Rise of an Empire
Too much violence. Not enough story.
In the early morning hours, I often check out the Daily Create, which is a daily prompt by the DS106 folks that can really push your creative boundaries. (For example, this morning, the task is to create a video that flows backwards in time). Yesterday, the prompt was to create a weather map with something that would not be on a weather map. I have no idea where I came up with this but my ideas was The Great Pet Migration of 2014. Instead of a gold rush, it was a kibble rush from east to west, and west to east.
If you see a herd of cats or a herd of dogs outside your window, now you know. You saw it on the map. Maps don’t lie, right?
And finally, I was playing around with a music app yesterday morning. I am trying to come up with some theme music for poems that I might write in April, and I am intrigued by an app I have called Musyc, that .. well .. it’s hard to explain. You create music by manipulating objects.
It turns out you can also make a video of a musical piece, so I gave that a try. The first one I did was too large, and the app crashed, so I tried a second time, with a smaller piece, and it worked. Later, I realized that this piece looks like a face, and then I started thinking … that’s an idea for another time. A face of music. Stay tuned.
(The volume seems low to me.)
Oh, I did find time in the evening to get to my students’ writing, and am going to finish up as soon as I hit …. publish.
Peace (in the disconnected slices),
Kevin
PS — One more thing – it was NCAA Selection Sunday and both of my local men’s colleage teams — UMass and UConn — are in the mix. We were surprised that UMass got a higher seed than UConn, but we’re happy in our house to see UMass back in March Madness. Now, can they win? We’ll see …
For someone who felt derailed from their marking goal, you certainly made it up for it in creativity as well as productivity. I can only imagine what that might feel like. I am in awe – movie (albeit bad), memoir, map, music and marking – magnificent!
Wow! These are awesome tech ideas. I suddenly feel like that person who barely knows how to check email. I’ve got some cathing up to do! Thanks for sharing all of these ideas. Oh, and thanks for adding the basketball thing at the end. I’m a Gator so there’s one thing I feel good about. We may not win, but this has already been a great recovery from our abysmal football season.
Love the eclectic nature of your post, Kevin. I find that life is that way. I enjoyed reading your writing and hearing your music. Both in your words and in your app.
I love the “randomness” of your post today. Sometimes I feel like we’re reaching, but I think these are the things that we go through on a daily basis – hence, Slice of Life. Thanks for sharing!
Oh, I never saw 300, but is there a new one out?
I feel like every weekend is a mishmash of what what I wanted to have happened versus what actually happened!
Sometimes I feel tired just from reading what you are working on Kevin. But I always feel inspired too. Your energy for learning and teaching is amazing. Thank you for sharing it with us.