A second assigned short story that I wish to talk about is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie.  While there is an actual collection of short stories which make up the entire body, we were only asked to read one.  This particular story is a about a young Native American who talks about the everyday racism he deals with because of his dark skin and long hair.  The young man talks about a particular night where he went to a 7/11 on a hot summer night to get a creamsicle. He describes the way the clerk stereotypes him because of his race.  The young man goes on to talk about issues that he has dealt with in his life such as alcoholism, a broken relationship, and the job he currently holds. The youth also takes about dreams he has; as well as restlessness that he has been experiencing his entire life.  The story ends with the young man asking about what he thinks his future will entail.      

For this week’s blog I would like to summarize one of the assigned short stories. The story is The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.  This will not be an in-depth literary analysis, but a short plot overview.  The story begins with a narrator who is never named.  She is taken by her husband John to a house in the country where she may recover from an illness which is plaguing her.  Her treatment for this mysterious sickness is to rest.  She is encouraged neither to work nor write; which she does in secret in a journal, which she hides from her husband.  While the narrator feels that physical and mental simulation would in fact help her condition, her husband thinks otherwise.  She is confined to a room where she begins to do nothing but stare at the yellow wall paper which covers the room. From the lack of human contact, she begins to give the wallpaper more and more human qualities, until finally has a mental breakdown. The story ends with the narrator ripping the wall paper from the walls in a desperate attempt to free herself.  While there are several symbols in the story, the main one is the yellow wallpaper.  At first the wallpaper is nothing but wallpaper.  As the story progresses however, the wallpaper becomes a physical manifestation of her confinement, a prison if you will.  Not only physically where she is forced in to isolation by her husband, but mentally as well in the social convention of marriage, where a women’s husband had complete control over her.      

I was amazed at the number of podcasts and topics that there were while we were researching them.  I was very surprised since it seems that I have been using the internet my entire life and had never heard of or heard a podcast before.  I found podcasts on Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter.  After I was done checking out all the nerdy stuff that interests me, I began to look at other podcasts that could be used in an educational setting, and not just purely for entertainment.  I found a really good webs site that was labeled 10 Educational History Podcasts to subscribe and listen to.  I’m a really big history buff.  If I would not have proceeded to becoming an English major I would have become a History major.  I started going through a few of them and I found the podcasts very entertaining and I actually learned a few things that I had never known before about the Roman Empire, Alexander the Great, and the Crusades.  I was trying to think how these history podcasts could be useful in an English classroom setting and I think I found one.  Whenever you’re about to begin a new set of works in your classroom which were written during the same time period, they could be used to allow your students to get a cultural understanding of what was going on at the time.  While I did not find any, I’m sure there are podcasts out there about Victorian England, the Industrial revolution, Civil war, Civil rights movements, etc.  I think this would be much better than having your students read the dry introduction at the beginning of the books which many a time I have found myself forced to do so.         

This week’s readings were dedicated to the use of video production in the classroom.  While I have never experienced firsthand making a video production for an assignment it class, I have had a second hand experience.  Last year my brother and his friends took on the task of producing a final scene in of Macbeth by incorporating the theme of Star Wars into it.  To do this they cast Macbeth as a Sith lord and Macduff, Young Siward, and Ross as Jedi knights.  I remembered watching in amusement because I’m a huge fan of both Shakespeare’s Macbeth and George Lucas’s Star Wars and had never dreamed that something like this could be done.  I watched as they planned out screen combat moves, introduced props, backgrounds, and music.  Afterwards they discussed characters tones, facial expressions, wardrobe, and camera angles.  At the time I had thought that it was just a fun project that really little thought had gone into.  They had made most of the dictions on the fly and seemed to be having a really good time with it.  Now that were learning about video productions I’m starting to learn just how wrong I was.  So many little things can change how a film in received by an audience.  There was a reason that they made the character Macbeth wear black, just like there were reasons for a hundred other little things they did the way they did.  I’m really looking forward to one day having my own classroom and seeing just what can all be done with video production in the classroom.         

For this week’s assigned readings we were asked to read about podcast and their use in the classroom.  One way which podcast are being introduced into the classroom is through the use of audio book reporting.  This seems to be a fresh approach on an assignment which is probably as old as the field of English itself.  Not only does allowing students to use podcast to do book reports is engaging for the students because they are using a form of technology; but it also adds audio learning to  the classroom.  Allowing students to use podcast also allows students to practice much needed public speaking skills which will be important for students in the work place to possess. Students when producing a podcast must look at things such as tone, speaking clearly, and be concerned about not boring their audience by keeping them intrigued.  The only drawback that I can see is that students will not be practicing their writing skills, so such skill like spelling and punctuation may become rusty from non use.  

With the free time that we had in class I looked at Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch blog which is dedicated to using technology in the classroom.  There is alot of posts and alot of info which is a bit overwelming at first.  The things that I found that she talked about most were apple products and twitter, which is great if you use apple products and twitter but if you do not then your surfing through alot of info that that you can not use.  She does have info on new technology and customer reviews which are coming out which can be used in the classroom.  For example there is a new video camera coming out in the near future which has special comand buttons in mind for students doing projects.  Finally she does have personal things on her blog which allow you to relate to her as a person; such as photos and short three to four sentence long remarks on other persons blog and tech.