1960's Heisman winner Reniya.

Film Your Issue

This via email:

Film Your Issue Global Competition
High School and College Students Invited to Create Short Films for FYI -

USA Today, the United Nations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and
other organizations and media leaders have joined forces to engage young
adults (14-24) in contributing to the public dialogue on pressing social
issues using the power of the Internet and user-generated content.

In its 4th year, FYI - Film Your Issue has grown into a global
Internet-based competition that invites high school and college students in
the United States and around the world to express themselves on pressing
contemporary issues by creating and uploading short two-minute films on
issues that impact them and their generation.

Beginning February 15, films can be uploaded to multiple participating
platforms, including MTV, YouTube, and American Film Institute Screen
Nation, as well as promoted on MySpace TV.

Awards and prizes include internships at USA Today, the United Nations, the
award-winning PBS Series "P.O.V.", and the Humane Society of the United
States; a $5,000 college scholarship from the Gates Foundation; having your
film broadcast on Starz; having entries distributed by the Associated Press
to its 1,800 Online Video Network media outlets; being profiled on MTV News
and presented at the NAACP annual conference; VIP Pass/film presentation at
AFI Silverdocs; the Walter Cronkite Civic Engagement Leadership Award and
Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award; and many more.

Visit the program's Web site for complete program information, filmmaking
tips, and full descriptions of the program's awards and prizes.

Moving Pictures

Vincent and Kearia looking for breadcrumbs.



Marlene capturing footage of a good young adult gone bad.



Buster the Clown autograph session.



Luis the interloper.



Holy cow...did the earth move? Productivity from Dictionary!

Pics from filming

I've been trying to snap some pictures of you guys working the last few days. Here's a few:

We promise you that no one was harmed during the shooting of this film.

Now that's what I call working towards good shot composition.

Checking the footage.

Canisius Poetry Presentation

Today Sababu Norris brought in his squad of poetry performers. Here's some pics. Click to enlarge.

Genre Movie Trailer Rubric

Today we're going to stop for a second to take a quick look at the evaluation tool I am giving you.

Oh Wow!

Now it's even easier to find new posts on other student's blogs.  Check out the new widgets I've added to the sidebar.  When you post, my sidebar is updated.

Food for thought:  Give a catchy a title to your post to see if it attracts more comments.

Tidbits

I want to address a few things with you this morning.

1. I will accept no late blog postings after Tuesday, February 26th. At midnight, those little horsies turn into pumpkins.

2. I love the comments so far. Here is an exchange that I was especially impressed with. Also, there is an interesting exchange going on with someone from outside McKinley right here. Don't feel the need to praise. Try to stick to the question the writer raises. If a writer doesn't raise a question, avoid responding to that post.

3. Don't lose points for stupid reasons. Again, there is a specific format I want you to follow:

Title Field: Post Title
Blog Post Field: Title, Author
Pages Read
Response

Here is a response utilizing the ideal format.

4. Some of you folks are reverting to plot summary. Choose a question from the response prompts linked to your blogs.

Hard at Work

Saw an interesting site today. Here's Kaysha setting up a shot with Brittany and Ladazia while Ashley takes charge of holding up the sheet. Nice work gals!

Commenting on Your Peers' Posts

Hey folks, just a quick reminder. I am not asking you to comment on other people's posts for the purpose for evaluating them. You need not point out spelling or grammar mistakes.

What I'd like you to do is wrestle with the ideas expressed. Answer their question. Raise a question. But don't correct...people hate that (and that is coming from an English teacher!). I'd like us to focus on higher order concerns.

Lastly, if you'd like an easy way to find out who has recently posted on their blogs, you can do the following:

1. Download this XML file to your desktop.
2. Go to Google Reader
3. Make sure you're signed in to your Blogger/Google Account.
4. You should have a Google Reader account already. If not, accept one.
5. At the bottom of the column on the left side click on "Manage Subscriptions"
6. In the yellow toolbar click on "Import/Export"
7. "Choose File" and figure out where you saved it.
   
8. Upload it.
9. Oila. If you were successful, your Google Reader should now look like this.

Every time one of your peers publishes a post, it will be sucked (for lack of a better word) into your Google Reader. Now you can be kept up to date with what your fellow classmates are doing, and comment accordingly. You can also easily subscribe to other blogs, news feeds, etc.

Looking for Alaska

Today I showed you John Green's response to a handful of Depew citizens' call to ban Looking for Alaska. If you're home, here's that video:



If you're interested, here's his website and here's that Nerdfighter's site. After all, these guys are made of awesome. Here's an article about the Nerdfighter's cause.

Digividra

Here's that video we watched in class today.

Movie Trailer Project

Over the next 2-3 weeks you will be using digital video cameras and iMovie to create movie trailers selling your genre. Here are the assignment sheets.








Here's a picture of the MPAA green screen. You can import it and use it as the first shot of your film. Click on the image to bring up the larger version. Then, right click (or option click) on image and save it to your desktop.

New Response Guidelines

Due Dates
Blog Responses (Regular) - 2/1, 2/8, 2/14
Final Paper Due - Friday 2/22
Presentations - Adapting that into an iMovie project


Here are some examples of good responses thus far. They are in now way perfect, but they fall in the top percentage of good responses.

1st Response to the Genre Study

Your first blog response to your book is due by Friday.

Start a new blog response for your new book. To begin the post, type your author's name, the title of the book, and the pages you've read so far. Then, write 175-225 words about your first impressions of the book. What have you noticed so far? Don't merely retell the plot...focus on something larger.

This is your first grade of the third quarter.

Group Blog Response

Yesterday I asked you to blog a group response in the library. In case you didn't get to it, here are the guideline questions:

Why did your group choose to study that genre? In a larger sense, why do you think people read books in your genre? What types of things do you think that particular genre provides humanity?

Your Wikis

I've constructed wiki pages for you. Find your period and blog name, click and add your content. Remember, you are to take the information you organized on Friday and transfer that to the wiki. If any of your group members were missing their research, that information must be added to the appropriate subheading.

Period One
One Man, Three Ladies - Mystery
Extraordinary Voices - Horror
Skool Prisoners - War Fiction
Fab Five + 1 - Sports Fiction
Lecture Ignored - Gothic

Period Four/Five
BARP - Genre Unknown
Education Four Eternity - Genre Unknown
Literature is Powerful - Genre Unknown
Minds of Chained Teenagers - Genre Unknown
Pathological English - Genre Unknown
Ruff Writers - Genre Unknown
United Learners - Genre Unknown
Wudd If - Genre Unknown

Period Six/Seven
Determined Motivated Speaders - Genre Unknown
Editor's Post - Genre Unknown
Hubris of Sugar and Spice - Genre Unknown
Kielbasa, Potatoes, and Everything Else in the Stew - Genre Unknown
Raven's Nest - Genre Unknown

Period Nine
Classy Never Trashy - Young Adult Literature
Hold Your Chin High - Mystery
Hold That Dictionary - Sports Fiction/Nonfiction
MOA(T) - Young Adult Literature
Poetry Prodigies - Young Adult Literature
The Despair of Craig Blitzer - Horror

Organizing Your Information

Today you'll be assembling your blogmates information into a well organized, digestible form. Create subheadings (ex. Major Characteristics) and paraphrase your information under these subheadings.

Steps:
1. Read over the major guideline questions.
2. For each step, group members should look for relevant information.
3. Record the information until all information is exhausted.

Notes:

• Not all information will be important, so don't feel you have to include all the information. Discuss the points. Figure out what's important.
• Depending on the information you have found, you may have to create more subheadings than the guideline questions imply
• Each group member must create their own sheet, but everyone should have the same information on their paper.
• The paper you record information on today is a rough draft. Don't be afraid to cross out or draw arrows.

Starting your Research

Today we're getting going on that wiki. I've prepared a sample wiki about the epic characteristics of the epic genre. It's a tad incomplete but it should give you an idea.

Today you are going to work in teams of two.
You and your partner are going to research the characteristics of your genre. Each pair must fill out a "researching for your wiki" worksheet.
On Friday you will with your blogmates, share research, and layout the information for your wiki.

Genre Study Project Materials

This week we are embarking on a new project. Make sure that if you have a book from the library (or from my classroom library) that you return it immediately. We go back down to the library on Monday.