Farewell!

I wish all of you the best of luck in your future endeavors, and make sure to drop me a line to inform me of your educational success. I have decided to seek new opportunities outside of the Buffalo Public School district, but can be reached via email (mrmalley04@yahoo.com). Better yet, befriend me on Facebook.

It's been a pleasure teaching all of you and good luck in all that you do.

To anyone outside of class who has been checking in on what we're doing, I am retiring this site, as I'm no longer tangibly in room 305 (although spiritually I will always be there...or something like that). If you like the kind of stuff my kids did, stop back. I'll be posting links to my new classroom blogs in the coming months.

Questions? Problems? Concerns?

Seeking guidance? Use the comment section of this post for any questions related to class and I will respond promptly or address the question in class.

Exhibitions

Between June 4th - 11th you will be presenting an exhibition of your knowledge/learning/understanding you gained from your inquiry project. You will select a date tomorrow.

As I've said before, I expect your exhibitions to be a creative repackaging of the ideas and essence of your project. Look to the last post for ideas, but I do not expect, nor would I encourage, you to stand in front of the class empty handed and talk at us for five minutes.

Senior Inquiry Project - Exhibition Ideas

Today in class we discussed your ideas about your exhibition. Here are the ideas you came up with. Make sure this says at the top of your "to do" list. If the print is too small, you can look over the outline form right here.

Drum Roll Please! Final Reflection

Comments are Back in Business!

Hello folks. Back by popular demand! COMMENTS! You are required to make five comments between now and Friday, May 24th. Keep me posted on the bulletin board by highlighting the appropriate space on the checklist.

Note: These comments are to be about content and ideas, not observations about grammar/spelling/punctuation. If you find that one of your peers have made a comment based on mechanical concerns notify me right away so that I can rectify the situation.

Effective Searching

Fine Tuning Your Blog

This Week - Editing Workshop

This week we're going to look at your first posts about your research process. I'm going to assign ten of you to copy and paste your week one process post to Google docs and print out five copies.

1. Sign in to Blogger
   
2. Open Microsoft Word
   
3. Find your 2nd blog about your research.
4. Copy the text from your blog and paste it into Microsoft Word
   
5. Print five copies to the library: the printer with WCP55 in the title. If you can fit multiple copies of your post on one page, do so to save paper.
   

Infotrac

The BPS pays for student access to Infotrac. It is advisable that you familiarize yourself with using a database as you will do much college research in this medium. Here are some advantages to using this database:

1. hundreds of thousands of articles from magazines, reputable journals, newspapers, and other sources.
2. search terms are not limited or blocked
3. articles have been reviewed to ensure accuracy
   

When you use Infotrac, you have to choose a different citation form on the Citation Machine. Choose "Work from a Subscription Service Accessed through a Library - one or more authors
Author." It is under "Non-print" but you must choose to view more sources.

Citation Machine Instructional Video

Hey folks. If you're checking this from school today (Monday), then right on! Take today to work on the blog post that is due today. I'll see you tomorrow.

Hey, if you are having trouble adding an annotation, then check out this video! I made it last night.

MLA Citation Practice

Barack Obama article from Rolling Stone

Directions:
1. Go to Room 305.
2. Open up a new tab. Sign in to blogger, and create a new post.
3. Put the following information:

• The names of both people in your pair.
• Use the Son of citation machine to create MLA style citations for the following articles (open each in a new tab)
  
• Flash mob article from CNN
• Global Warming wiki
• Publish that post.

(You should have a total of five tabs open: Rm305, a new blog post, the citation generator, and the two articles.)

Senior Inquiry Project - The Body Section

Next Monday, your 1st blog report on your research is due. Here are two samples of the type of writing that goes into the body section.

From Jessica's paper on self mutilation:

Our English 4 teacher Mr. Malley introduced InfoTrac Novel Database to my class and that is where my research began. I found out that this site was very easy to use and filled with information I needed to answer my question. In an article I found by Pamela Daniel, she explains that the body releases body chemicals called endorphins that give the self-mutilator a feeling of well-being. This good feeling the person experiences does not last long, and this is why I think that people may hurt themselves more. Daniel answered my question in more than one way. She stated that someone might self-harm to stop feeling rage, loneliness, being numb inside, or emotionless. Some may feel that they need to release all the tension they keep bottled up deep down inside. Many people that self-harm like the sight of their blood or like picking at their scabs and having it leave a mark on their body. An alternative method mentioned in this article is to draw on yourself with a red marker or tempera paint. If you are one of those people who likes to pick at scabs and never let them heal, then you should purchase a henna tattoo kit. As many people know, a henna tattoo kit allows to make a temporary tattoo that stays on longer than a .50-cent tattoo. When you place the henna provided on your body and pick at it, it will leave a red-orange mark on your body like a scab would (Daniel).

From my paper on Mark Twain:

So, I began my search at my computer. It was a simple method. I went to Yahoo and typed in “Mark Twain humor.” I clicked on the second result, which led me to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 1998 The Kennedy Center established the “Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.” The center, which proclaims itself “the nation’s busiest arts facility,” celebrates, in the words of John F. Kennedy, Americans’ “contribution(s) to the human spirit” (“Welcome”). Their prize is given annually “to honor the brilliant minds that elbow American culture to see if it's still alive—and make us laugh about it” (“Mark Twain Prize”). The site celebrates Twain’s humor:

For a man who gleefully named characters Spinal Meningitis Snodgrass or Huckleberry, Mark Twain was always painfully aware of what he called "the baseness and hypocrisy and cruelties" of the human race. Twain's humor was always a thin veil, if any, of his social criticisms. His fearless observations outraged many while delighting many more.

Although not a prerequisite for winning the award, the description, on three different occasions, reference not simple humor, but a socially conscious humor. Past winners of the award seem to reflect this. The first winner was Richard Pryor, a comic known for both his profanity laced tirades and social criticism. A few weeks ago, I caught one of performances at around 2 a. m. on Comedy Central. Even though the show was taped over twenty years ago, Pryor’s humor was still relevant to today’s society. When accepting the Twain award, he stated "I feel great about accepting this prize. It is nice to be regarded on par with a great white man…Seriously, though, two things people throughout history have had in common are hatred and humor. I am proud that, like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lessen people’s hatred!"
The other winners have similar comedic styles. Past winners include Whoopi Goldberg and Lorne Michaels, two artists who also use humor to draw attention to hypocrisy and the ills of society. Goldberg recently annoyed Republicans everywhere while unleashing a profanity-laced diatribe against George W. Bush. Michaels, 2004 winner and creator/executive producer of Saturday Night Live, has established the careers of dozens of comic superstars. People such as Dan Akroyd, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, and Dennis Miller have built careers on the social and political humor employed by that show. It seems that this award focuses on a certain part of Twain’s comic repertoire, political and social satire. When I originally conceived of this I-search topic, the main humorous sources that reminded me of Twain were Jon Stewart’s the Daily Show, Dave Barry’s columns, and The Onion. All three share this socially critical style.

Introductory Post

Today, we have two goals:

Task One: I would each of you to write down your essential question, name, and period number and staple it to my bulletin board. Feel free to make it look nice. Doodle if you want. It's for a display.



Task Two: Today you are working on your introductory blog post. Follow the format:

• How did you become interested in the topic?
  
• What did you know before?
  
• What is your essential question? Foundation questions.
• This is due by Monday. But, class time Monday will be spent talking about the middle section of the project.
• Carefully consider your blog post title. Use a title and a subtitle. The title should be related to your topic and the subtitle should be something like "Before the Search."
• My initial post might (will) read "Developing My Personal Learning Network: Before The Search"
  
• Here are the links to the introductory sections we read yesterday.
  

Introductory Section Brainstorming

(Thanks Gerry B.)

Developing Your Essential Question and Foundation Question

Hmmmm....

Getting to Know Inquiry

Today we're going to listen to an episode of Radiolab, a podcast published by WNYC. Radiolab is a show that inquires into different themes and topics, much like I'm asking you to do. Today I want you to listen to get a sense of what inquiry is.

But first, these three questions




This is a free podcast offered through iTunes. If you like what you've heard, check 'em out.

Senior Inquiry Project Materials

Further Brainstorming Assignment

Senior Inquiry Project

Movie Trailers

ALL Videos are up!

Period One
Class Day - Extraordinary Voices in Room 305


War Fiction Trailer - School Prisoners


Who Killed John Rogers? - One Man and Five Secrets



Gothic Literature - Lecture Ignored


Period 4/5
Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? - Education For Eternity



Horror - Wudd If?



Memoir - United Learners



African American Literature - Minds of Chained Teenagers

Horror - BARP


Horror - Ruff Writers



Starship Enterprise - Pathological English




Period 6/7
Fantasy Genre - Kielbasa, Potatoes, and Everything Else in the Stew



Buster the Clown - Determined Motivated Speakers



Hubris and Spice's young adult literature film can be found on their website.

Mystery - Raven's Nest



Young Adult Literature - Editor's Post



Period 9
The Killings of Craig Blitzer


Mystery - Chin High

Classy Never Trashy's young adult literature film can be found on their website.


Young Adult Literature - Classy Never Trashy II



Young Adult Literature - Poetry Prodigies



Sports Nonfiction - Hold That Dictionary



Young Adult Fiction - MOTA

Screening

Today we will be screening our movies. First we'll talk about the rubric:



Then, each group is responsible for introducing their project. Please share the following:
* your genre
* the books you read
* anything else you need to do to set up your film
* no self criticism!

Finally, we're going to discuss the films based on the following format:

• T - tell about something in the film you liked
• A - sk a question about techniques or meaning
• G - ive advice
  

Movie Trailer Project Assessment Time

Here are the materials I am using to assess your involvement in the movie project/genre study independent reading project:

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.

Adding Your Motto/Mission Statement to Your Sidebar

1. While in "Page Elements," add a page element to your "Sidebar"
2. Choose "Text"
3. Type your motto or mission statement into "Content"
4. Save Changes
5. View your blog to make sure it worked

Uploading Your Comic Life Header

After you have completed your header in Comic Life:

1. In the file menu choose "Export - Export to Image(s)
2. Save the file to your desktop

Then, sign in to Blogger

3. Under Layout (or Template), go to "Page Elements"
4. Find your header. If your template doesn't have a header, "pick a new template"
5. Click "Edit" your header
6. "Choose" a file from your computer. Find your header .gif
7. Choose placement "Instead of title and description"

Creating a Blog Header

Today in class we entered into preliminary blog header design discussions. Today I expect you to work on your finished draft, be it photograph, multiple photographs, or drawing.

Directions for Using Comic Life:

1. Import your photos into iPhoto
2. Drag the photos to your desktop
3. Open Comic Life (App folder)
4. Look to the bottom of "Album" and choose finder. Find the desktop and select it.
5. Choose "Page Format" from the "file menu"
6. Change "Page Size" to "Customize Size (in points). Change the width to 660 and the height to 200
7. Change "Orientation" to "Landscape"
8. Play around and format your picture/pictures/text.