Launched my research project wikispace this week.
This wikispace is a place for 11th grade American Literature students to record and collaborate on their individual research projects on topics of literary or historical interest to them. Please explore and leave a comment or question for them on their discussion boards.
Please visit it.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
web work this week
Sophomores are making films of various scenes of Macbeth. I gave them the choice to perform live or film. Not sure if they were scared off by the memorizing or excited about using Movie Maker again.
Juniors are starting their research projects using wikis to organize their notes. We will also use a group Tumblr to share online sites and articles. Day one was rather slow as we were just talking about the whole project and my ideas. Then it took a while to sign everyone up. Tumblr was blocked so we have to wait to get that unblocked in order to proceed with that. One advantage of my school: we can request sites to be unblocked and they will be within 24 hours.
Juniors are starting their research projects using wikis to organize their notes. We will also use a group Tumblr to share online sites and articles. Day one was rather slow as we were just talking about the whole project and my ideas. Then it took a while to sign everyone up. Tumblr was blocked so we have to wait to get that unblocked in order to proceed with that. One advantage of my school: we can request sites to be unblocked and they will be within 24 hours.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Hemingway
From Scott McLeod's blog who talked about the purpose of school as a place to create lifelong learners as opposed to productive members of an economy:
My students' responses to Hemingway this year have been very invigorating to me. Their interest in his life and writing have sparked curiosities and ways of looking at literature and writing on a completely new level. They will not think about their own writing in the same way, and I'm sure that they won't read a book in the same way again either. More than anything I think that they are seeing the passion and dedication that he had in crafting and telling his story. If anything, I hope that they can discover some passion to dedicate themselves to in their own lives.
Learning passion and dedication are goals of education too.
"What place does the world of work have for Hemingway for the average American? Is there a reason related to future employment to take kids to the Barter? What happens to Monet and Yo-Yo Ma in a school system that thinks primarily about your future job?
I’ll leave you with this thought: Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. The words belong to William Butler Yeats..."
My students' responses to Hemingway this year have been very invigorating to me. Their interest in his life and writing have sparked curiosities and ways of looking at literature and writing on a completely new level. They will not think about their own writing in the same way, and I'm sure that they won't read a book in the same way again either. More than anything I think that they are seeing the passion and dedication that he had in crafting and telling his story. If anything, I hope that they can discover some passion to dedicate themselves to in their own lives.
Learning passion and dedication are goals of education too.
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