In class several times Dr. Oldakowski mentioned a project where students had to make Facebook status updates for a major character in a book that they were reading to aid in classroom discussions.  I thought about taking the idea one step farther.  Perhaps for a project in an English classroom setting students could design a Facebook page with not only status up dates that the character would likely post if they kept a Facebook as the plot proceeds throughout the story.  They could add things such as placing their selected character from their favorite book we read in class into a relationship with another character from another work that we read explaining why they did so.  I think this would be an engaging way for students to do in-depth character analysis to obtain a deeper understanding of the books we read.  They could also make a friends list for that character, using characters from the book that the character is from as well as other books we have read.  They could design a profile picture; say where they live, their age, favorite music, movies, where they work, events, who they would poke, etc.  What do you guys think? 

From this week’s readings I was able to gather that not only do blogs have a place in the classroom, they are revolutionizing it.  Blogs in the classroom allow shy, meek students to voice their opinion on matters without having to physically do so which at times can be intimidating.  It also gives a time cushion for students to gather their thoughts and consolidate them so that they no longer have as great a fear of being embarrassed in front of their peers.  Blogs also allow students to express their creative side because when designing their blogs they can choice things such as their blogs titles, layouts, colors, designs, links, pictures, etc.  While at first I thought that at times having underage high school students blogging on the internet could be harmful to their safety. After all any computer with an internet connection could access, read, and comment “perhaps cruelly” to a student’s writing; which would have the opposite effect that a teacher is seeking when they are trying to build up a student’s confidence as a writer.  I thought it was fascinating that there was a device out there called the Intranet, which is just like the internet, but can be cut off from the outside digital world.  This is a perfect device to still allow your students to enjoy and learn to use blogs while keeping your students safe from cyber bullies and cyber predators.

In a private setting blogs are good because they get students use to a regular writing schedule.  A student keeping a personal blog over the summer would allow students to keep their writing skills sharp when many students’s writing skills begin to digress from the long absence of not using them. While the context of a personal blog is not always academic, the fact that students are often writing to their friends are in fact learning a literary practice because they are practicing writing for a specific audience.     

In the assigned reading, we are told many stories about how educators are adapting lesson plans and teaching strategies to enhance their student’s learning by incorporating digital Medias and tools into the educational realm. In some regard this is great.  When teachers introduce new digital tools into the classroom not only does it make the class more engaging for the students, but it often allows students to use more senses which attributes to students retaining and learning information easier.  Some tools such as Flickr, iMovie, and Wordle seem to have great success in the classroom from what I have gathered in Miller’s book Multimodal Composing in Classrooms.  I do believe that if you are not carful however, that students could become too dependent on these tools.  In this week’s assigned reading, an educator by the name of Carol is talked about.  Carol is a very open teacher when it comes to using digital tools in the classroom and assesses her students by using digital tools to do so.  All her students are doing quite well until she tries to use traditional quizzes to measures her students progress.  Here the students struggle and average much lower in scores than previously in the year.  This story reminds me of a similar experience I had back in my senior year of high school.  We were told to write a research paper by only using source that were books from the school and local library.  While both were sufficiently stocked with material, my classmates and I spent most of our time finding our sources because just about nobody knew how to use a library index.   This is understandable of course because research topics are much easier when doing so on the web.  While digital tools do make our lives easier and should be used, it is also important to never forget how to use older forms in case we ever need to fall back on them.                 

This week in Miller and McVee’s Multimodal Composing in Classrooms, a particular quote that caught my eye was “The biggest challenge, I think, is going to be getting over our fear of relinquishing our personal control in the classroom as teachers.  We are used to being the authoritarians and the leaders, the ones with the answers.”  I believe this statement to be very true.  Teachers, in my option and experience, who do not have control of their classrooms are breeding grounds for anarchy.  This is especially true for educators who are trying to introduce new forms of digital technology into their classroom.  As students we have all had those times in the classroom when our teacher could not find the control button for the volume.  Because of this, you either have the movie, clip, etc threatening to blow the speakers out of the wall, or you have half the class trying to tell the teacher how to access the controls at the same time.  Either way you have a disrupted classroom that is running wild.  Miller says to combat this that it is wise for educators to practice the use of the digital tools that the educator is going to use, and I cannot agree with him more.  When I am preparing to give a presentation on a particular subject I check, double check, and triple check my work and software that I will be using.  Having technical difficulties in front of an audience is not only embarrassing, but it is also downright unprofessional.  According to Miller, 53 % percent of educators do not use digital devices in the classroom.  While some of these teachers I’m sure are old and are stuck in their ways and there is nothing you can say to persuade them otherwise.  I am sure however, that large parts of the 53% mentioned above are afraid of my scenario mentioned earlier happing though.  I think as time goes by however more and more seminaries, conventions, and classes will open up to help educate educators, and given them the opportunity to practice their computer skills until they become confidante enough to incorporate them into their classroom.  In a way, educators are on the frontier of the educational world when it comes to using digital tools in the classroom.  Like the pioneers of old, we will have to overcome one obstacle at a time until we reach our final destination.                

I was thinking about my last blog and how I could in the future if I ever get to be in the position of teaching a classroom of my very own students, how I could motivate them in a subject which some find unbearable. I am brought back to my second grade teacher who everyday would give three raffle tickets to each of us.  At the end of the day whatever tickets we had left (we could lose them if we were bad). We would write our names on the back and place them into a giant jar.  At the end of each day, she would draw three tickets from the jar.  The “chosen” would then walk to the front of the room and reach their hand into the mystery box and take out a prize.  There was always spectacular prizes, fancy pens which lit up, pencils that changed colors when you touched them, candy, and so much more.  She would then discards the tickets at the end of the week and the cycle would begin again.  Well, it did not take a rocket scientist for us to figure out that the more tickets we had in the jar, the better shot we had at having our names drawn. 

            Now how can I use this same concept for 16, 17, and 18 year old teenagers?  I really don’t think taking away their tickets for texting in class would get me very far.  I could however, motivate my students academically by awarding “tokens, tickets are for little kids” to students who for instance perform well on weekly pop quizzes.  These tickets if saved up could be redeemed for things such as a “get out of home work free card,” or “one day late pass for a major assignment pass.”  But you know there will always be that person who is the perfect student, turns everything in on time, and finishes the class with 107 %.  So that’s why at the end of the year I could have a Chinese auction for themed baskets.  I can have things such as a movie basket with movie theater candy, pop corn, and the latest blockbuster hit.  Another example could be an iPod basket that contains a new iPod and 25 dollars worth of songs.  An outdoors basket with flashlight, ham radio, water proof matches, and delicious freeze dried breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert is another example.  The list goes on games, sports, sport teams, Disney, coffee, tea, music, books, gourmet foods, exercise, etc.  The sky is the limit.  You are only limited to your imagination.          

So while I was reading chapter two of William Kist’s book The Socially Networked Classroom, a particular passage caught my eye. 

“I ran in to one of my former students recently who wandered if I still had a copy of the video adaptation they had done-an urban street video version of “The knight’s Tale” from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales… I challenge any British literature teacher to name a project that would have the students still talking about Chaucer 10 years later.” (pg22)

This got me to thinking.  In high school I knew all kinds of kids that while reading works such as Chaucer, Milton, Swift, and Shakespeare were bored out of their minds.  While I unlike others in my class knew that I wanted to farther my education in English; none the less, other did not.  Not only did many of them who had various employment opportunities lined up for right after graduation wonder “why do I need to learn this,” but “what the hell is this guy saying”.   Unlike my peers I enjoyed reading, interpreting, and analyzing works of great authors.  I could never get enough.  Despite my teachers best efforts she could never get certain students involved, especially into Shakespeare’s plays. 

I am a huge fan of Shakespeare, not only for his beautiful poetic verses, but also for his stories and plots.  Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth, all have the classic elements of a great story; love, betrayal, murder, suspense; all the ingredients for a spectacular story. To introduce Shakespeare and his many plays to my future students I would like propose breaking my students up into groups and have them make videos of modern day translations of the acts; and then combined each groups to create the full play.

 I believe this way of learning a Shakespearean play would be a very engaging activity.  If students learned what Shakespeare’s plays were really about then I believe it would create a student that would be more eager to spend the time to learn and read Shakespeare’s and other works in the Elizabethan language. Not only would the students find the experience stimulating to be watching their peers and judging who developed the most compelling scene.  The students would be analyzing and interpreting their scene for themselves; and would be witnessing Shakespeare’s play how they truly are supposed to be.  Shakespeare’s works were never meant to be read like they are in so many classrooms across the United States, they were meant to be preformed.