Learn something.

Well amigos, it was quite a year.  I’ve decided to mothball most of the class’ blog posts into “draft” status, but leave some of the more substantial posts as a sort of time capsule of our year together.  Every once and a while I’ll feel particularly sentimental and like to read through some of our assignments, and it’s always amusing to see how enthusiastic you were about our projects in the comments.

If you’re ever in the Portland area you’ll have to stop by and say hello over coffee.  I think of you often and wish you the best.  Definitely let me know if you ever need any help or a letter of recommendation.

In the meantime, feel free to look me up on facebook or check out my new portfolio site at opened-up.org.

much love, mr. e

[For those just randomly stumbling upon this page, this was our class blog site for the Humanities Course that I taught at HTHNC.  Note that much of the site content is broken (the links on top, missing images, etc.)  Halfway through the year we had a server crash and much of the information could not be recovered.  I never had enough free time to put everything back together perfectly while I was teaching, and now there’s no particularly good reason to do so… so that’s why they’ll remain broken.  Look around, and send me a note if you like.]

As you’re putting together your Media Analysis piece be sure to find a tool to put together professional, clean looking graphs. I’ve found one that looks pretty good and offers a plethora of customization options - whether you want to do pie charts or bar graphs or anything else. Check it out HERE.Also, remember to study your vocabulary every night. You’re final test is Wednesday the 28th. Additionally, make sure you’re meeting my expectation that you’re reading at home for 30 minutes every night. Whether it’s a book or articles online, you should be reading.

I’m excited about the work I’m seeing in class.  Seems we’re going to have some funny, creative, interesting news broadcasts.  Just make sure to take the content and news portion seriously, whether it’s simultaneously fun and creative or not.

A couple things.  I’ll be flushing out this post during class, but in the meantime a couple important links:

Daily Project Benchmarks

10 News Transcript

As I mentioned before, this is an ambitious beast of a project.  Some of you have expressed an interest in help organizing and outlining specific goals each day.  So, we will be using this daily project accountability worksheet.

reMedia Daily Project Sheet 

Note that the above link is to a generic project sheet.  You will need to copy and paste and create a new document specifically for your group.  You will then need to invite me to “share” the document so I can view it.  Make sure you and your producer have it filled out at the beginning and end of each class period.  Half of your project grade will come from these daily project sheets.  At the end of each class I will be inputting your grades.

UPDATE: Though it’s not quite fair for us to draw news from two different days, I realize that we were probably not mentally prepared in terms of focus and determination to do all of our research on one day. So, you may use a total of two different days’ news for your broadcast. So yes Derek, you can talk about the volcano.

Why is it that television news - local and national - seem to spend so much time talking about celebrities? Why is it that so much of the news is negative, dealing with crime, fear, or death? Why is it that so few of the stories are really relevant or have any bearing on the audience that actually watch? Why is it that television news slowly seems to becoming more and more like Access Hollywood?

Why is it that persistent problems aren’t reported regularly - can you imagine a news show that started every single broadcast with “20,000 died today of malnourishment”? Or, “Today represents one more day we’ve failed to overhaul our educational system. That brings our ticker up to almost 15,000 days of empty promises and shallow attempts” (and how long would it be before we all started demanding change)?

Instead persistent problems go largely unreported. Is it because they’re nothing new? Therefore they’re not news? And why is it that complex problems and stories don’t tend to receive the depth of reporting required for an audience to really understand the issues? Is the news even worth watching anymore? How could it be improved? Perhaps the more interesting question is: Could we do better?

Let’s find out.

You’re already in groups of six. You have three laptops dedicated to your cause. You’ve each received a 30 minute local news broadcast. This is your comparative anchor point, and we will begin by analyzing the broadcast - emulating the constraints in terms of timing and commercials, but otherwise making a completely, creative, unbound, and new news broadcast.

You may choose a day between May 1st and May 6th to be the day you’ll be reporting on. You may only choose stories that happened during the day that you’ve chosen - or stories that are ongoing. It’s only fair. If we’re going to try to raise the bar on the professional news teams, we have to keep some of their constraints. We obviously don’t have the training, or the professional tools, or the efficiency that comes with experience. But we also have a few weeks where they have a day. A very stiff deadline that comes each day. Everyday.

The stories you choose to report on - and indeed even how you choose to report them - is entirely up to you. You can choose local stories, national stories, international stories. Stories about the economy, stories about people, trends, science… it’s up to you. It’s also up to you how much time you spend on each story. The only thing that matters to me is that you choose your stories intentionally.

You should be able to tell me why you chose to cover one story over another. You should be able to explain why you chose to spend 30 seconds on one story and 3 minutes on another.

Consider your audience. Who is watching? Why should they care? How will this affect them? How is it relevant?

Consider balance. How much time do you spend on local vs. international stories? What percentage of your stories are positive? Keep in mind that however much time you spend on the weather, or anything else… that is that much less time to spend on any other story. And remember: ultimately almost half your broadcast is devoted to commercials.

For this project you’ll be doing it all. You’ll be choosing stories. Researching them. Writing the scripts. Storyboarding. Designing and building the set. Creating logos and branding. Filming, directing, acting, editing, analyzing, transcribing, etc. There’s a thousand little jobs to get done; and it should be fun. Let’s get rolling.

Here’s what I want more specifically:

Analysis - As a class the producers will divide the 30 minute broadcast into 8 minute chunks (more or less), and transcribe them. You will need detailed information about how many stories were covered in the broadcast, which categories they fall into (local, international… economy, crime, health… positive, negative, etc.). How much time was devoted to each category. How many words per story, and averages also. The length of each story, and the average length. The amount of time spent “previewing” a story before it actually ran. The length of a story vs. it’s preview. All of these things. We want to really tear the broadcast apart and look at it from every angle.

Creative Piece - Each group is responsible for creating an art media piece (a poster, a painting, it’s up to you) that creatively represents your analysis of the news broadcast. Maybe it’s a print version of the tv news -> what would the tv news look like in newspaper format? Maybe it’s a poster with a bunch of graphs comparing data with a collage of images from the stories covered. It’s entirely up to your group. But this part should impress us.

Quality Lo-Fi - I know you don’t have the most professional tools, or much training, or any experience making news broadcasts. But you’re intelligent and creative and have plenty of time. Dedicate yourselves. Get into it and have fun. Lo-fidelity doesn’t mean low quality. Consider the examples from our conversation in class. Consider the sweded Tron and Star Wars scenes, which I’ve included links to below to refresh your memory.

TRON excerpt (original)

TRON remake (sweded)

Also, see Sweded Star Wars

Story Rationale - I would like a short summary explaining your story choices and how much time was dedicated to them. You will need to include data analysis of your own news broadcast, just like the real news broadcast we started with. How much time did you spend on positive vs. negative news? What was your balance between local and international? How many stories did you cover in your broadcast? Etc. I’ll break this down further for you soon.

Final Production - This is a large category. It includes set design, filming, editing… all of the actual final product aside from the above. Get creative, dig in. There’s lots to do but you each have a good mix of talents on your team, you have the time and tools to do it. This is our last shabam, make it count.

Deadlines:

Wednesday, May 7: Story stack. A complete list of headlines you will be covering in your broadcast.

I’ll update the deadlines soon.

Some relevant links:

South Park - Parody of TV News

The Corporation - Unsettling Accounts (Fox - Monsanto)

How Informed Are We? - Audiences Compared (Pew Research) (summary here)

Media Matters

Doctors Without Borders - Top Ten Underreported Stories of 2007

So frequently decisions about Education are made without anyone ever bothering to get input from the very people those decisions affect. I posted an article while I was sick last week that we finally had a chance to discuss in class today. Your homework was to brainstorm a response to Mr. Baxter’s commentary positing that we should be spending much less money on educational technology with thoughts of your own.

I’d like at least 2-3 well reasoned paragraphs. What does he get right? Where is he off-base? No one is closer to the gamut of how technology is, isn’t, and could be used in schools than you. If you don’t have an intelligent opinion on the topic is it really fair to expect politicians making the decisions? How long has it been since they’ve sat in or worked in one of the classrooms they’re debating?

Make sure to bring your response to class tomorrow, typed. Be polite. Yes, these will be online comments, but I definitely don’t want them to look like typical youtube-ish commentfare. No “first post!” or “in Soviet Russia educational technology cuts you!” or whatever joke that would somehow reference WOW.

Be a good ambassador of our school and the classroom.

Here’s the article again, make sure to reread it before composing your response. I want you to be in the habit of knowing you can have a voice in the world. Whether this is something you particularly care about or not, I’m sure you’d be less happy with our school if we didn’t have any of the technology we do. Imagine… you could be reading chapter 29 of a textbook right now and summarizing key terms. Just like I did when I was your age. For four terribly boring years of high school in a row.

Obviously my class has been a different experience than you might be used to. The last few weeks have been different as we haven’t been in the middle of any real projects, whereas we have been rather deep into Lord of the Flies, essay writing, studying the growing global food crisis, the Human Footprint and other abstract interests… but I’d like you to look back and consider the year more as a whole since your last POL and Student Led Conference. What have you accomplished? How have you grown? Where have you stumbled? Where are you proud, and what have you squandered?

Be frank and honest, as always. And for the Humanities portion of your conversation in particular I’d like you to choose a piece from the last few months to discuss. Whether it’s an essay or spoken word or a poem, be prepared to present it in whole or excerpt (if the piece is too long). Then be prepared to discuss it. What about this piece made you want to bring it up today? Is this your proudest piece of writing? What is good about it? What could be better? How does it represent your growth or your challenges this year? How could it be better?

I’d like you to discuss your intellectual engagement in my class as well. Is my class one that, mentally, you’re sleeping through? Are you learning anything? What’s been interesting to you, and why? Do you struggle to pay attention? Are you contributing as much as you should? And where are you with this final media project? Are you excited? Do you have any particular ideas you’d like to share?

I can’t wait to meet with you. These conferences are the most meaningful part of the year for me because I get to hear my students talk about what they have (or haven’t) taken away from my class, and what that means to them. Since this is my last year here, hopefully I’ve made an impact.

much love - and remember to help your parents sign up for a time slot!

ephraim

(Not, this picture is from a t-shirt I am frequently tempted to buy from bustedtees.com)

The year is rounding up, and there are exactly two extra credit options on the table. One of them much more significant than the other. They are both reading clubs, and will meet once a week, every week, until Summer. Not that you can’t join if you have an A already, and I hope you will.

The first is the History Club. We’ll be reading Howard Zinn (historian, activist, and hero of mine) and the People’s History of the United States. I have a few copies in paperback, and a few copies in audio, as does the library. Come talk to me and somehow we’ll get you hooked up. This is the book that made me realize, for the first time, that I don’t hate history. I just hate the particular history I was taught; and particularly how it was taught. As if it was clean and we were regular heroes, always. It’s complicated, ugly in places, and brave in others. It’s also the most interesting thing there is when told right. Which I think Zinn does. You will learn about, for instance, the way a band of indians took control of Alcatraz in protest - and held it for two years!

We will meet for the first time this Thursday at lunch and establish guidelines, routines, and the reading schedule. You MUST be ready for the meeting each Thursday. You must be prepared to speak intelligently and have ideas and opinions about what you’ve read. I will not be leading the conversation. I’ll be more of an eavesdropper. How much extra credit is it worth? Impress me with your contribution to the conversation. What questions do you ask? What ideas to you offer? Do you encourage others to share? Impress me. How much you do determines how much you get.

The second reading club is called The Resistance, and we will be reading Cory Doctorow’s new book - released today - called Little Brother. It just came out so I’ll obviously be reading it for the first time along with you. We will meet every Tuesday at lunch to discuss in the same fashion as the History Club. This is a work of fiction about high school students and, ostensibly, the effects they can have in their world when they’re willing to fight for what they believe in. Should be an interesting read considering what I know of Cory (boingboing).

He’s a huge fan of the creative commons license, and is making his book available for free online as an e-text. He’s traveling now, so it’ll take him a day or two to put it up however. In the meantime here is a link to the release announcement. You can buy the book in paperback, audiobook, or read it as an e-text (you would be able to print it out, but this takes a lot of paper).

Let me know if you are interested in one, or both of these reading clubs. Several of your grades are not as high as they should be. Which will be a conversation of it’s own during your SLC’s, I’m sure. But which also means that enrollment in both these clubs should be good! It’ll be fun and interesting, I promise. And definitely well worth your time.

Hope to see you there.

much love,

ephraim

It’s that time of year again chicos.  A bit of a run of irregular weeks ahead as we’re into the thick of STAR testing week now and gear up for Student Led Conferences next week.  Monday is our Cultural Day in honor of Cinco de Mayo, and Tuesday-Friday are all minimum days to allow for conferences.  Just like last time, Andrea and I would like to ask that you help your parents sign up for an appointment slot using an open Google Document.

Click here to fill an appointment. 

You may be asked to sign in before you’re allowed to make changes - and make sure to save once you’ve typed your name in.  Slots will go fast so if you don’t have a very flexible schedule make sure to reserve a spot soon!

Hopefully both of your parents can make it; either way we’re looking forward to meeting with you next week and can’t wait to discuss your progress, reflection, and goals.

Much love,

ephraim.

An interesting article was forwarded to me by a colleague this weekend. As we’ve discussed, funding for educational technology on a state and federal level are constantly being reduced and challenged. If we have time on Monday I thought it could be fun to discuss, as a class - without my thoughts - the following article. Here is the first few paragraphs, please follow the link for the rest.

Classrooms Have Become Unnecessarily High Tech

by Matt Baxter

“Three cheers for the non-stop, high-tech assault on the public school classroom. Hip! Hip! Hoo . . . what? Five billion dollars spent annually on education technology? Test-taking software that instantly tabulates on wireless devices and reports if the students have learned anything? Web design to show Grandma in Milwaukee the new art project?
The integration of technology into public schools has its place, because technology is obviously an important part of our lives. We need our children to be computer literate, so they can use the self-service checkout at the library and so they can keep up with the Joneses by ordering online. Whether the children grow up to be software programmers or they have to punch a clock, it’s all computers.
But exactly how important is it that we inundate the educational process, specifically elementary and middle schools? In high school, where future goals and plans are pinpointed, there could be more of a need for understanding the finer points of your friendly word processing program.
In the younger grades, however, students are learning how to learn, they are learning how to get along with those ubiquitous human creatures that still populate the earth. Very little in these early grades needs to be digital, electronic or high def.
Other potential crises include the constant need for technological assistance, ongoing teacher training, upgrades to systems and programs, and much more. Education is not inherently such a flexible institution. Things should be put in place that can work for more than one or two years before they become obsolete.
I don’t think 20-year-old science textbooks that tout the advent of the four-pound cellular telephone are particularly relevant, but most math, language, and social studies lessons from the good old days are still trustworthy. Why not just mark out any inexact passages with a forty-nine cent permanent marker rather than spending $30,000 on all new textbooks?”

Click here to read the rest! 

Frequently educational issues like these are debated and rarely do students have a chance to weigh in and enter the fray of discourse.  So, how neat would it be to have everyone in our class write out some thoughts and respond?!  Whether you agree or not, they’re talking about you and what you ‘need for a good education.’  Perhaps you have something to say.  But let’s refine our thoughts and writing before we make any hasty comments?  They’ll be in digitally permanent ink, and have your name on them.

It’ll be nice to have a full and semi-regular week back at school.  Hope I didn’t inadvertently get anyone sick!  And if so, tell me, I’ll owe you soup and goodwill.

much love,

ephraim

So coming back to school on Thursday was apparently a bit of a false start. By lunch I wasn’t in great shape, and it was only downhill form there. I apologize for the second half of the team having to deal with a frustrated teacher in no shape to teach - hopefully you got something out of the day. But know that I came back too early out of love, because I missed you and wanted to get closer to moving forward on this project and your essays.

I won’t be in today though, because I don’t want to make yesterday’s mistake of trying to teach before I’m really better. It’s not fair to anyone. For full disclosure (and a random story moment!), know that the one year of college I competed in Track and Field I was a part of the 4×400 meter relay team. I was the stronger leg, surprisingly, running with a Senior Team. We were at the Section Finals - for everyone else this was the last moment they would ever compete competitively. I was chosen to run the first leg. I was excited, I was feeling good. We had a strong chance of finishing first in our division.

On your marks.

Set.

Bang.

Except that half a moment before the bang I’d jumped up in anticipation. It was a false start. I disqualified the whole team. No second chance. Just like that I’d taken the whole season my team had been training for - their senior and last season - and accidentally wasted it at the finals. Disqualified all of us when we likely would have won. It was not a proud moment. It was a few days, in fact, before I could look most of my teammates in the eyes. Anyway.

So I’m not here today but I’m with you in spirit. Turn your essays into me on Monday. I want them perfect mes amies. Here’s your agenda otherwise:

Vocabulary Test!

I’ll save it to last, and I know that you didn’t get your vocabulary game this week. Which is why you can play it for the first part of class. Teach whoever is in the room with you how to lead you in it, but pay attention - this will probably directly influence your score on the test later today.

Watch a 20 minutes of The Human Footprint. I sent in a DVD with Mr. Miller, hopefully it’s made its way to class. And yes, that was the appropriate use of “it’s” and “its.” And yes, it wasn’t until college that I finally figured them out! The first class is just a few minutes in (I shortened the clip), and the second class is about 10 minutes in. If you can’t get the video to play, have Jason help with codecs.

Once you finish, a quickwrite. 5 minutes. Whatever you’re thinking. Hunger, poverty, luxury and excess. Lord of the Flies. Conditions that lead to genocide. How do all these themes fit together? Do they, at all? Any ideas - however random you might think them - share them. After the quick write share out with your table. Then the best observations/remarks of your table with the class.

Also, Jason needs to teach both classes how to access email and transfer blogs to the school wordpress server. You’ll need to use them for upcoming SLC’s and POL’s. He said he should be available tomorrow, but if not there will be about 20 minutes left of the film as well.

Now take a minute’s break. It’s test time. Afterwards please grade your partner’s test the way we normally would. Leave the scored tests on a neat pile in my desk. I’ll check them out and enter grades either this weekend, or Monday.

I’m writing a story for you, the same one you wrote this week called “How is your heart?” I’ll be ready on Monday with it :)

Miss and love you,

(And very proud of the work you’re doing for the hungry in Haiti. Seriously, I really am!)

ephraim

The good news is, it’s not my Crohn’s disease flaring up. The bad news is, it’s definitely the flu. One of those ‘every bone feels broken’ kinda flu. I’m out again today but I’m confident I’ll be back tomorrow - though be nice to me, my throat won’t be in any shape to regulate.

I’ve heard from quite a few of you with frustrations about the Lord of the Flies essay. Which I’m sorry to hear. I think “essay” is one of those words that once you hear it, it’s as if a wall of dark ominous clouds suddenly rolls in, the lights dim, and lightning strikes and a general sense of foreboding and depression fills the room. But that’s not the way it should be.

Essays are more about thinking than writing. You should look at them as a debater - someone focused on the quality, force, and clarity of their thinking. You have something to say, dagnabbit, and you’re going to lay it out for us so clearly that no one would dare disagree!

I know how easy it is to get stuck staring at a computer screen, the words stop flowing, you start to doubt you have an original idea on the subject or whether you really should have passed the 8th grade at all. I’ve been there too. But I’d propose that being stuck is often something else entirely; you might be ready to write the perfect essay, you’re just not sold on it, and feeling reluctant.

When you think of an essay as the most awful form of torture imaginable, that’s what it becomes. For the sake of actually getting it done, you might as well decide that it might be kinda cool to write an amazing essay on Lord of the Rings and actually prove that - even though you’d prefer not to write them often - there’s a sort of joy that can come in that. This is about self-control, this is about mind-control. Stop making yourself stuck.

Today’s Agenda:

So, I definitely think you should spend some time working on your essays in class today. If you’re done, hooray! I’m proud of you, and you can get feedback, make edits, and start polishing the beauty. If you’re not done, shucks, get help, bounce your ideas off your peers, but be focused and don’t waste time. Write down every good idea and argument. Make sure you have three pieces of evidence from the book. Make your arguments well, and don’t get stuck fingermute and wordless behind a computer screen.

Please read and discuss, briefly, this article on food shortages.

STAR Test Prep - I’m not sure how far you got yesterday doing test prep, but it couldn’t hurt to spend a little more time.

Haiti Hunger Project - I still haven’t received most of your group’s project pitches/descriptions. Please email them to me at eross@nc.hightechhigh.org

Read this article on gaming the essay portion of the SAT.

And finally, I’d like you to work on a quickie. You will have 15 minutes to write. Your prompt is: How is your heart?

Be creative, be sincere, be meaningful, be funny. None of those things are much, by themselves, but together they go an awful long way.

Sadly, I’m sick as a dog today.  I’m not sure whether it’s my Crohn’s acting up (which it feels like), or a particularly nasty flu - but either way I need to spend a day or two in bed.

The timing is rough, but I trust you’ll get on just fine without me.  Here’s what I’d like you to be working on today.

First, following up on our conversations and research about the hunger plight of Haiti, I’d like you to watch this TED.com keynote by U2’s leadsinger, Bono.  He uses a particularly powerful language to describe what’s happening in Africa as an “emergency,” and discusses possible reasons Americans (and Europeans) are so eager to help when there is a sudden, unexpected emergency (like the tsunami of 2003), but so hesitant to do or care much about the thousands that die daily.  Exactly the ideas we’ve been wrestling with.

What the video here.

Jason (IT) may need to unblock the video for it to play.

You will also have time to work on your Save a Haitian Project today.  But I’m not sure how much.  I’ll leave that up to whoever is in the classroom working with you and based on how much you’re getting done.  I would like you to send me an email (eross@nc.hightechhigh.org) and tell me what your groups plan is, though, and how well it is coming along.  I will be sending $15 to the UN’s World Hunger Programme to feed 10 people for a week.

Remember too that you’re Lord of the Flies essays are due tomorrow.  If your group hits a loll for whatever reason while I’m gone make sure to work on it.  Get feedback from tutors and peers.  If I’m gone tomorrow I will extend it to Thursday, but know that I have high expectations.

Almost finally, STAR testing is next week so if there’s someone covering a period for me that would like to dig in and tackle some test prep, please do.  There are some resources on the back table of the room.

And finally, if Jason (IT) has time it would be great if he could teach everyone how to access their nc.hightechhigh.org email accounts.  He could also show you how to move your wordpress digital portfolio’s to our school server.

Love and miss you.

Thousands are slowly, painfully starving in Haiti.  Hunger riots are breaking out.  Where is this on the news?

I challenge you to do something about it.  You will have two days.  First, learn more about the food crisis happening in several impoverished parts of the world right now.  Understand this is not an academic exercise; it is real.  Then do something about it.  What you do, and how you do it, is up to your group.  But the requirement is that you help at least one person inside Haiti.

Often I’ll read about the heart-wrenching conditions in various parts of Africa, and wish there was something I could do, but the truth is Africa has always felt far away.  Haiti is different, they’re in our own backyward, not too far off the tip of Florida:

Start with research.  How bad is the problem?  How did it get to this point?  What are we doing about it as a country?  Is it enough - is our response sizable and quick enough to make the difference?  Are there organizations to help?  What can we do as individuals?  Here are a few links to get you started.

Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger - NYTimes

The Silent Tsunami - The Economist

How The Rich Starved The World - NewStatesman

News.Google.Com 

More details on this mini-project in class.