Our Daily Apples....

Hi all...

Just wanted to blog and say how much, like others before me, I enjoyed seeing all the digital stories last night. It was a bit like "raiding the apple barrel"! I got to take a small bite out of each, or rather I got a small glimpse into the hearts and minds of each of my cohorts.

I was touched, moved, excited, scared, entranced, enthralled, enjoyed, and all that jazz that all of us felt as a collective whole seeing each others stories. I felt like I got to know many of you better seeing them and have a whole new understanding and appreciation for each of you. I feel a lot closer to the group now. So, thanks for sharing! There wasn't one I didn't enjoy watching...they were all so unique and insightful into each of you. Believe me, some of you really took aim and hit the mark!

Let me see if I can recall each apple in the barrel: Stacy with her Inauguration adventure, Susan with her account of her mother, imagery of gardens and peaceful places and how her mother impacted her growth and the growth of her children (loved the picture of the sky and the tree), Lillian and her steps on her life's journey (Wow! powerful imagery), Penny and her son's yearning for his father's return to sword fight (sooooon! pretty red dress, Penny!), Becca's beautiful account of her great grandmother, the farm, and her beautiful singing in the background (want my CD!), Patience and her poignant account of her two brothers - how brave and inspiring (brothers are great!), Maryann and her puppy love of Sam's little life (aahh, to be a puppy and nap), Tracy and her wonderful and inspirational family (they're keepers :-), Toni and her journey through life's passages inspired by Kenny her brother and her husband (Toni, you rock!), Chrisann's passages from Arkansas to DHS to marriage and carriage (soon! - loved the music!), Aisha's witty and lovely homage to Pakistan (food - yummm), Glenn and his elementary school and his powder puff girl! (you will teach the world, Glen!), Jenifer's inspiring connections to her "home by the sea" and beautiful grandmother! (you ARE a DIVA), Rachel and her wonderful story of her grandfather (cute baby photos and I can't believe he never missed a birthday! :-), Wendy's fabulous sports montage of her kids and their narration (how many photos? It was truly awesome - your kids will always have that), Melissa's jazzy and clever African dream vacation (great idea for the classroom! Great idea!), and I seemed to have missed Nicole's and Amy's (how did that happen? ). I am missing someone....oh, yes, me!
See! I have a memory like an elephant :) Even when I forget!

I can definitely see how to make some interesting activities and lessons using the digital stories now, after seeing all of yours! But, I'm really glad that Amie let us do anything we wanted to get used to the process of making them. I will try and list some ideas for teaching digital stories on the Wiki this week.

BTW - I think Amie Rocks! What a great teacher!

So, the digital story was really a highlight assignment of this semester...I wish we could make another...maybe we will for the Social Studies tech class next Fall.

See you in the Apple Barrel!


Jill

Taking Aim for Fantasy

I've enjoyed this class a lot over the past several weeks. Learning about blogs, Wikis, and digital stories gives so much to think about with regard to the classroom of elementary students I'll be teaching in the near future.


Personally, I hope so much to have an upper level elementary grade, because I enjoy literature so much. I love reading and writing -- always did. There are so many genres to read and relish. I can't wait to teach them!


I have this idea about the genres, stories, and books that I will enjoy sharing with my students. But, after observing students during the course of the past year in my field classrooms, I realize that they share a different knowledge about books. The books students are enjoying now have often replaced the ones I would have thought to find. I see some of the ones that are, of course, Caldecott and Newberry prize winners, but overall, the majority of books are new territory. With time, I'll read them and acquire them, according to the grade level I end up teaching.


The good news, is that so many good ones survive the test of time, especially ones from the genre of Fantasy. Take C.S. Lewis for example. His Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian have been made into movies. Now, this reading is tough for even the oldest and best of readers. What intrigues me is the story content. Most of the children now love these stories within his writings, and they want to read the books after seeing the movie. But, the text style and vocabulary is so complex that elementary level students would have to have a different version, most probably - one more simply written.


Now, another author that I love is J.R. Tolkien who wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (see image of the character Legolas played by Orlando Bloom, above). Many of you have seen one of two of the recent movies, at least if not all. Two things, the content is complex and so is the reading...but, my instinct tells me that once again, children LOVE these stories! Why? Because they are filled with wonder and excitement and adventure! It was my cup of tea when I was younger reading the books from cover to cover, and I just smile from ear to ear getting to see them so wonderfully made into moving pictures that capture the imagery of the author's thoughts. I am able to really see what was in both Tolkien and Lewis' minds when I see both the Narnia and Lord of the Rings movies. I have to ask if there will ever be such great imaginings between two contemporaries as these? Can someone please tell me? I'd love to indulge my appetite further, but I've read all they've written and I'm now at a loss, and sigh....


Anyway, I think it would be a wonderful fifth and sixth unit to have the students take such fantasy works as these and to create a reader's theater and writers workshop which would cover a myriad of VA SOLS in both reading and writing. This genre of fantasy would really be something I could sink my teeth into -- or my arrows! Wouldn't it be something for Hollywood to come out with a cutting edge movie about William Tell, and the kids go wild over it, -- dude! BTW - did you see the recent movie King Arthur starring Clive Owen and the character/"archeress", Guinevere? Wow! Yes, it might be a bit unsuitable for younger audiences where violence is concerned - war is never pretty...but I remember my parents taking me to WWII and Clint Eastwood western films all the time. I saw a lot of classic films during the sixties, and later went on to read the books.


Now, these old books turned into movies are the resurrected classics made state of the art with new and fabulous digital technologies, and I hope to see many, many more take my breath away like these have done in theaters recently....and even then, there are many new books, such as Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux that has capturing the hearts of young readers. And, other examples are The Bridge To Teribithea, Harry Potter Series, Spiderwick, Inkheart, etc... The genre of fantasy is wonderful, and if a child's (or an adult's) love of reading is to be "sparked" -- I think that this is the one genre not to miss when taking aim.


I will put these books in my classroom, even if they are abridged. Hopefully, my readers will find them challenging but will possess the skills to master the reading of them as written and intended and will enjoy them -- if I'm lucky enough to have 10-12 year old students to teach. I want to set them on fire with my aim to teach them how wonderful it is to read, and learn.


Thanks for reading!


Jill