It's Only 7:35 in the Morning!

Context
In a discussion with another English teacher today about teaching students critical theory (which he does with juniors) he mentioned that he wanted to show them a familiar film and assign groups "lenses" to view the film through. I suggested that he use a music video. At this point he got very excited and told me about this cool short Spanish video called 7:35 in the Morning. It won an Academy Award for short film. It is compelling!

How I could use it in class
Using short films is really important in teaching, as we have seen this semester. I guess it's like analyzing a short story -- you get the technique taught in a few minutes. This film lends itself top many teaching moments. It could be used in the following ways: practicing analyzing cinematic elements, teaching po-mo, teaching feminist theory, in a unit on love, looking at the "poetry" of the lyrics (or maybe not) or just plain literary analysis. I like that it is in Spanish since I have so many students that speak it and that I teach foreign literature to sophomores. I would probably give them the lyrics ahead of time so that could be familiar with them so they could concentrate on the actions.

So see for yourself and post your comments and suggestions on how this could be used in a high school classroom.

Can't a Cover be Just a Cover?

Context
On the Today Show this cover of Vogue is described as being very controversial. LeBron James, big hoops star and Gisele Bundchen, top model for the day, grace the cover which is being compared to the King Kong movie poster. Several people emailed Today with their comments. One asked, "Can't a cover be just a cover?" My response is, "No. Not when the cover is Vogue. Not when James is only the third man to be featured on the cover. Not when this cover shows the first black man to ever grace the cover of Vogue Magazine. Not when the photographer is Annie Leibovitz. Not when you understand the importance of a magazine's cover to grab an audience and sell the magazine's image. Many photos were taken that showed a silly side, athletic side and serious side of both celebrities. These are shown in the magazine, but this one introduces it. James declared, he was "just showing a little emotion." I think that the image is intentionally bigoted.

How I could use this in class
I will show this cover this week, since it is a hot topic, but in the future it will go into a unit on images. We will discuss the racial and gender implications and decide if they are in play in the image. We will then discuss why Vogue decided to use the cover. What was their agenda? Does this image encourage you to buy the magazine or pass on it? I think it will be lively discussion.

Do it Yourself Comics

Context
I know that Comic Life is an inexpensive program that comes on all our school's Macs. But using it to really a make a comic strip is another thing. You have to import pictures and then add balloons and text. Not really like a real comic strip. Well, welcome the free online program called Bitstrips. Created by a Canadian cartoonist, Bitstrips allows much more freedom in creating real comic strips. There are a queue of characters to choose from and you can give them different expressions, or you can create your own characters! There are so many options here that I had a great time creating myself and my husband. I want to create so many other characters that can live in my comics.

This is my first character - Honey Husband


How I can use this in my classroom
This is so fun that I almost stopped editing my doc just to create a bunch of characters and then stick them into funny situations. I know that my students will love this! One of the problems that I had with the comic strips we did in the past was lack of artistic talent. Now that problem is solved. I don't know if there are different backgrounds or props, but you can make your characters move into different positions. When I teach the conventions of comics, I have had my students create a comic strip from a story (usually a familiar fairy tale) with a partner. They had to draw it all, but this would help with that. I don't know if you can change camera angles or other cinematic techniques used in real comics, but I guess I'll just have to play with it some more. Maybe after the semester has ended...

My Crazy Decision

This is not a post for a classroom assignment, but I wanted to save this for posterity since I don't know how long it will last on YouTube. This is the wacky video my student took of me making a fool of myself for the poor children of Provo area for Sub-for-Santa, 2007.

Tromp l'oeil

What is real and what is constructed? This is a question all good media teachers must discuss.
Context
Today while teaching literary analysis, we discussed the phrase "willing suspension of disbelief" and how that is necessary in storytelling. The text book used a trompe l'oeil facade in a building in Cincinnati (see above) to visually illustrate this point. People walking in front of the building no doubt can see that it is just a flat brick wall, but are will to ignore that and see the stairs and plaza that is so realistically painted there. Several students pointed out the sidewalk chalk drawings that are so realistic as well. Here are a couple examples:
How could I use this in class
This images would be good anytime you want to discuss illusion versus reality, which is a common theme in literature, especially Shakespeare. Certainly talking about the constructed nature of film would be a good time to use these images. Discussions, of course, about the "willing suspension of disbelief" could incorporate these pictures.

One Digital Day

Context
I was in the English workroom waiting for some printing and started rummaging through a teacher's old stuff just laying ab out in there. I came across this very large book (like a coffee table book) and title interested me. The book is images and text from one day, July 11, 1997, from 100 photographers from around the world. Their task was to celebrate Intel's 30th birthday by taking photos of how the world has changed since the invention of microchip. There are some amazing pictures here! I will post the pics that go with the text tomorrow when I get to school where my cord to download onto my camera is.
This image shows a family in China eating dinner. The caption reveals that the family has no bathroom or cooking facilities , but they have a PC, cell phone, pager, TV, and VCR. Interesting set of priorities!
This photo shows a Zulu women placing her finger on a sensor. This is the South African way to pay pensioners their monthly allotment without fraud by using fingerprints. The caption points out that similar systems in the US have been met with skepticism. Fingerprints in the US are for capturing criminals.

How I could use this in class
I could have a media day. Each student would use a digital camera for one day and capture as many interesting uses of media which would then become a photo essay. We could publish the most interesting ones on our class website.

Improv Everywhere

Context
Bradley mentioned this site in class and I was immediately online looking at it. What fun! This group of actors go around setting up interesting situations to get reaction from the innocent bystanders. It reminds me of Candid Camera in the olden days.

How I would use it in my classroom
I have no idea! I guess if I taught drama, it would be a fun activity, but for English some of the stories might be interesting to connect with some literature. It would depend on the improv stories.

Becoming Jane

Context
My sister lent me this movie appropriately right during my senior's study of Pride and Prejudice. I really like the film because I had not known the back story. I knew that Austen had never married, but I didn't know that she had received a proposal and had run off to marry! I see many connections to her and her sister's stories in Austen's novels. How proud I am of her that she had the courage, in her time, to write about them and that her brother believed in her enough to get them published. It's sad that she didn't live longer to give us more of her unbelievable insights into the romantic condition!
How I would use this in class
I would not use the whole film because there are so many good versions of Pride and Prejudice ( I use the 2005 version) to show, but I think using clips would be great to show a little of her times before reading the novel. Before the 2005 adaptation I used Emma with Paltrow to show the time of the novel.

New Dove Ad

Context
While searching for the ads Onslaught and Evolution by Dove to show to my student teacher as possible media to use with our Cyrano de Bergerac unit, I found two more great additions to Dove's campaign for real beauty. These have been effective in the past with my students in showing how the media lies to us about what real beauty is and how difficult (read: impossible) to achieve.
Here is the one called "Amy"

This one is called "Hair"


How I would use them is class
These ads don't have the impact that the two others have, but I think the "Hair" one would be one the girls could relate to personally. I don't know if I would use them in class, but I'm glad to know that Dove is still pumping them out!

Nicole Hill blogs famously!

Context
Nicole Hill is my cousin and is now famous because of her blogs on Blogspot. She was featured in Utah Valley Magazine. She appears in the article 50 Most Interesting People. Admittedly, she is an interesting person! But it does seem strange that blogs can be rated on their interesting-ness. I haven't really delved into blog sites beyond the social sites like Facebook and MySpace. Recently I have gone to several friends blogs and was really capivated by them. I found out some really intersting things about even members of my own family. I think it is interesting what people decide to make public about themselves. I guess I should create a personal blog page because knowing that I am an avid reader, people are always asking me what they should read. I could put my list of favorite books on my blog and talk about what I am currently reading (although I doubt anyone else would want to read Multiliteracies!). I think it might make me more interesting to have a blog, plus I would have a kind of journal, though not very private!
How I could use it in my class
I don't think Nicole's blog would be that useful per se, but it might be useful to look at some blogs and see what makes them interesting for others to read. My students might even give me some suggestions. They could then create their own blogs, similar to the ones we are doing here, but with more interesting content. We couldn't use Blogspot since it is filtered at our school, but we do have a blog spot set up for our students. It might even be interesting as a beginning of the year's let's-get-to-know-everyone assignment that all students in the class would have to read and comment on. Of course, the obvious extension would be to use Bradley's idea of creating blog sites for fictional characters.

"S.O.S."

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Context -- I'm trying to find a boy version of "Teardrops on My Guitar," and I think this is it. The boys may be a little older and the setting is not high school, but I think it works. Now students can contrast these two videos.

How I would use it in class -- How are the boys portrayed in this video? Is this a realistic portrayal? Consider the setting here. The whole video is on a cruise ship. Does this seem realistic to you? How are the girls in the video portrayed? Is this portrayal realistic? What values are embedded in this video? How to they correspond to your values? The boy in this video has been rejected by the girl. How does he respond to the rejection? Compare this to the "Tears on My Guitar" video. Does this seem realistic in a boy? Pick a favorite "torch song" and create a storyboard for a music video. Will the protagonist be male or female? What will be the setting?

Teardrops on my Guitar

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Context -- Taylor Swift's music video was one of the tops in 2007. How is she, a high school girl, portrayed in the video? There is a definite difference between the two Taylors in the video. What would account for that?

How I would use this in class -- There is something fishy going on in this video! Here are the questions I would ask after showing the video: This video certainly represents a high school girl's feelings. We have two stories going on - one in the memory of the girl who thinks about her interactions with Drew, the boy she loves; and one in the present while she is crying over his rejection of her. How is the girl dressed in the memory? How is she dressed in the present? What accounts for the difference? What it the setting of the present? How does this relate to a teenage girl? Consider her clothing. She is dressed in normal school clothes in the memory, but what is she wearing in the present? Why? Do you think the girl is prettier in one time frame over the other? Which one? Why? Trey Fanjoy is the director of the video and a woman. She has won many awards for her music videos and has worked with many country/western stars. How does a woman director influence this video? Do you think the video captures the meaning and mood of the song? What values are embedded in this video? How do they correspond to your values? If you could make a music video for this song, what would it be about?

News travels faster than being there

Context -- I was spending a few days in Las Vegas while my husband attended the World of Cement convention. I really just sat in my dumpy hotel room in the Sahara doing homework. I received an email from a student's parent in Provo about an assignment, so I responded that I was in LV, but would take care of it when I returned on Monday. She emailed back that she hoped I wasn't in the Monte Carlo since she is watching it burn on the news. Here I was in Las Vegas a few blocks from the burning hotel and I find out about it in an email from Provo! That's the magic of communication technology.

How I could use this in class -- I'm not sure that I could connect this idea with classroom content, but I'm sure that it would involve emailing about an event. This is similar to the President Hinckley text message event.

Apple Learning Interchange

Context -- I came across this site while searching for photo essays on the Internet. The site is for teachers to share their ideas with others. It has some cool capabilities like showing videos and PDFs. The site I visited was created by Anthony Cody who teaches science and technology in Oakland, California. He has a great lesson plan, videos, and photo essay examples online.

I was so intrigued with the site that I became a member. I will continue to explore this place and see what other gems it holds.

How I will use this in my classes -- Already I have a good lesson plan for teaching photo essays. I may find other actitivies I can use in my practice. Then when I have finished my media lesson plans, I can post them here as well.\

http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=443&version=214&page=2

Ebb and Flow Ticket Sales

Context: I am on the media-l list serve and this article was posted. It is an intriguing idea with very cool technology. New York Times has an article about movie ticket sales from 1986 to the present. Instead of presenting the information in a typical chart, they have used some unusual technology to create an interactive graphic that shows ticket sales.

How I could use this in class -- I have never really cared about ticket sales in the past, but had pressed to use this in some activity involving production, I could have students analyze the chart with these questions in mind: What could account to the popularity of some movies over others? Does the month of the movie release have anything to do with popularity? How does director or subject matter affect sales? Why are there some years when movies don't do well at the box office? Is it the movies themselves or an economic reason? What months are the worst for ticket sales?

For the text of the article see http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html