Author: sarahmoir

A teacher at my practicum school sent this to all of us…it is very interesting, but make sure you have just over 45minutes, but worth the watch!!! It’s about cheating in high school and University…called Faking the Grade.

http://www.canada.com/onlinetv/documentary/doc-zone/7576038/video.html

Sarah

As I was riding the bus home the other day, I sometimes take a gander at the signs that are above our heads. I started laughing as I saw this…(sorry about the bad quality photos, it was taken with my stellar blackberry haha)

I am a little unsure as to what exactly the ad was for, but it was the first time I had ever seen something like a Tagxedo outside of a classroom.

Needless to say I also say this on this morning…

It made me realize that sometime we will be using ways to get our students interested in thing, like we are advertisers for education. We want the goal to intrigue, inspire, and get the consumer to “buy” my product. I want them to want to learn, to read, to be engaged in the activities that I am putting forth in my classroom.

Sarah

In light of Teresa’s son getting to preform, it made me think of a video I found on Youtube that melts my heart…enjoy!

Personally, I am not a big “gamer” so to speak. I know friends, and my brother who spend hour upon hours playing games on their computers, or game consoles through the TV. I have never had the pull towards them. As a child I played Mario on Nintendo, and other forms of Mario like Mario cart, and other such games that I cant even remember the names of. I also remember getting a 168 games cartridge that we had to blow on to make it work. People of my generation I am sure have fond and frustrating memories of blowing on the bottom of video games to make them work, or hitting the top of the Nintendo so get it to unfreeze. Now people are playing games online, or using a compact disk, where they can save their games, or talk to people all over the world, and join forces to concur whichever game of their choice.
Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of my experience. I have lightly dabbled in Sims, when it first came out, and the odd game on Facebook, which I lose interest in in about 2 weeks. I find that they don’t keep my attention, and I would rather relax and watch TV or read a book, then play a game, that I struggle with more times then not. Therefore, I was intrigued while reading J.P. Gee’s “What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy.” I liked that he has taken chances to learn the games that his son is playing, and that he finds the good side of video games. It is my belief, and something that I happen to childishly do, is that if someone tells me its bad and not to do it, then of course I do it. We all touch the stove as children even though its “hot!” as humans we are curious and challenging the boundaries of our parents discipline. I see the appeal of video games, but I am also a very social person and the thought of sitting at home, alone, for hours playing a game just didn’t appeal to me as a teenage, nor does it now.
Gee connects the article to teaching in a way that I hadn’t thought of before. He says “…that learning is or should be both frustrating and life enhancing. The key is to finding ways to make hard things life enhancing so that people keep going and don’t fall back in learning and thinking only what is simple and easy” (6) How has this theory not translated into schools? How come we struggle to keep teenagers engaged in material, yet they can go home and choose to play a game of strategy and skill for hours? Are we making school too simple and not relatable for them, or are we just seen as glorified babysitters, to keep them occupied, and only the University driven benefiting from school? These questions were coming to me as I was reading. I do with that he had talked to some teens and expanded his research, (which he may do more into the book. Which I would like to read in full, I just don’t have the time right now.) but to create a reason that kids spend so many hours playing a game that requires skill, thought, problem solving, creative thinking, rapid hand movement and many other skills that we associate with school. Yet we have kids checking out of learning and going home to play “games that are longer, harder, and more challenging” (6) then any schoolwork that they will ever encounter. These games are based on “good learning principles” (6) and they are selling off the shelves like crazy. However a classic novel in a high school may be carted around in a teens backpack without ever being cracked.
So I pose the question…how are we as teachers going to be able to keep kids as interested in our classes as they are to their games? Can we use video games in our classes to teach different genres/subjects/themes etc? Also, if you are a “gamer” so to speak, please tell me the appeal because I really don’t understand it!
The Tagxedo below is of the same game console as above, using the name of games from a-l. It was very interesting, in relation to what Gee said in his article that the main words were: Adventures, kid, challenge, and dragon were the ones that stuck out for me. This just more then reinforces his point of view and what we need to be striving for in classes.

Resources:

Gee, J.P. (2007). “What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy.” New York: Palgrave/Macmillan. Chapter 1. Retrieved Nov. 25, 2012

Gee, J. (2005). “Good Video Games and Good Learning.” Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 85(2), 33-37. Retrieved Nov. 25, 2012

www.tagxedo.com (2007) Retrieved Nov 26, 2012

This is from Jersey Shore’s Jwoww, or Jenni Farley’s blog. She talks about style, clothing, shmushing, and many other things. If you have never heard of Jersey Shore it is a show where 8 young adults are thrown into a house with alcohol and camera’s following them around for a summer. They are now on their 6th and final season, and while this is happening Jwoww and Snooki have done their own spin off show. This is reality tv at its worst!

~Sarah

In the I See, I Do article, the piece that stood out the most to me, is the “technology-rich activities for critical visual thinking”. I really liked the idea of asking students to go out into their “world” and take pictures of things that are real for them. I feel like I could use this as a project, to not only involve students in what is going on around them, but also have them “stop and smell the roses” so to speak. I feel like in a world of technology that kids are watching their worlds go rushing by them. They want web pages to load instantly, (yes I expect that too…) they are no longer enjoying the basics in life. Kids are becoming obese in a place where we are safe to go outside and play. They are redefining “play”. It has gone from playing a game of flashlight tag, to sitting inside all weekend playing Dungeons and Dragons. Yes, technology can help us, but is it helping when the only social skills a kid is learning is through a head set and computer screen.
However back to the article. While reading the part about what colors and lines create, I had to stop and think about all of her analogies. I am not sure if the emotions we are supposed to learn are ingrained, but I don’t relate to what the shapes imply. I don’t feel that “Squares are stable, triangles are active, circles are organic, and spirals are cyclical”. I am curious as to where she got the ideas from, or if I am wrong and we are taught these at a young age. I was also confused with some of the color ideas and lines. Usually a line for me is the closing of a box, underlining something, or drawing directions. I feel like lines have start and end points and don’t think too much farther then that. Maybe its my own ignorance, but I feel like colors invoke different messages for different people. What if someone is colorblind? How are they to create feelings from colors that they do not see correctly?
I liked how she added resources for the reader to look at, but without a conclusion I am a little confused about her point and how she got to her ideas.

Sarah

I added this youtube video from the creater, Gene Luen Yang. He is talking about his own struggles, and being able to express it all on paper is a great way to deal with stress. I know that I used writing to express myself in high school…through pieces that I will never share, but I used it as a coping mechanism, a way to see the light through all the darkness.

Trying to find an identity, no matter who you are, or where your from, is tough. Growing up we all want to have friends, be liked, have a talent of some sort, and make it through the day in a relatively happy format. We all want to fit in. Through out our high school lives, or at least through mine, I remember feeling lost, inadequate and ashamed of anything that made me different from every one else. I used writing poetry and short stories to express myself, deal with struggles and pain, and as a way to help me sort out all of the thoughts in my head. I find that even now I use this a technique to plan and deal within my adult life.

Using a book like this in high schools, I feel, could be potentially life changing for some kids. By using not only the element of writing, but of pictures to express struggle, I feel this could push kids to put pen to paper instead of other modes of dealing in negative ways. Many teens turn to drugs and alcohol to mask and hide behind, and some always will, but what if they could write stories, or draw pictures to make sense of their own personal chaos. Giving kids an outlet, that isn’t just writing, may allow some to explore graphic novels if they never had before.
Graphic novels can do so many things. They can tell a story of the past, create images for the present, and evoke dreams for the future. I feel that now that graphic novels are being recognized within the school system, that they have the potential to reach more kids because they are using the same literature, but displayed in a different type of language.

-Sarah