claymation mania!

So in our tech class, we worked with claymation. This clip is an interpretation of Shel Silverstein's "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out." I had a lot of fun working with claymation. I have always been a big fan. The Sinbad movies--pure genius.

Aside from my own pleasure at the activity, I found myself thinking about how useful it could be in getting students thinking about how to interpret a scene from a piece we are working on, in a fun way. Then, as I am student teaching in detroit, I came to my constant problem: money. Our class needed a camera and a computer with imovie capabilities for every three people. Even if the group sizes were larger, the cost of procuring the technology is simply not an option.

So I started thinking of what options I had. I could have the students create diarammas of scenes. I could have them create progressive scenes in play-doh--essentially creating the steps of claymation, but not having the capabilities to run them together.

I realize that at some point I may not be working in the urban school setting. I also feel like my complaint is becoming an annoying refrain here. It's just hard to see so many interesting possibilities with technology, only to realize I don't have the capabilities to put much of any of them to use in my class. Suggestions, anyone?

distance

How little distance is too little distance when dealing with students?  I know my mentor teacher keeps some pretty tight boundaries.  I realize this is a somewhat individual question, but I sometimes feel like I relate TOO much with my students.  Am I setting myself up to be undermined as far as discipline later?  I still get on the students' backs to do their work, but I end up "relating"--which is a horrifically cliched movie (the white girl in an urban school "relating" to her students)--that I really set out specifically to avoid, but I somehow find to be my best way of dealing with students.  Any suggestions?

Privilege

I admit it.  I have a chip on my shoulder about privilege.  I grew up being told both that I had privilege and so I'd better use it for good, and that privilege and the people who have it usually suck.  But I'm thinking, what if the job I can find is at a school with very privileged kids?  I can't go around dismissing my students as spoiled brats.  So what I need to do is do what my parents did for me--challenge the students that they have privilege, so they ought to use that privilege for good.

I think just having a diverse course pack, which I am already planning on, will help.  I don't want to stray too far into pure social justice, since I am an English teacher, not a Social Studies teacher.  But I can assign them to read an article about privilege, or an article like the one Shari gave us about the pool incident--just something current so discrimination doesn't feel historical, and assign them a debate or an essay on the subject.

Those are my thoughts so far.  Let me know if you have further ideas

Taxonomy and Rubric

So I'm going to go against the grain here and probably annoy my teachers, but what exactly are we intended to use the substantive conversations and taxonomy for?  I realize I will be using them a lot in the coming year, but I am having a rough time picturing myself filling out data grids in order to complete my lesson plan.  I can't picture myself examining whether my class had 81% of HOT thinking.  I like the ideas behind the rubric, and I hope to live up to them, but I can't picture myself referring to them much.  And I'm hard pressed to see the taxonomy as anything but silly.

It doesn't help (and I know these are bias sources) that my mother, who taught in secondary and community college developmental ed for thirty years and is ABD in a doctorate on the needs of developmental english studies told me she never used a taxonomy, that she didn't bother to learn Bloom's (which was all the rage then) and overall she's been lauded as an exceptional teacher.  My uncle, with similar credentials, remarked, "they aren't still teaching that crap, are they?

Please respond if you have a clue, because this is impeding my motivation.  Thanks.

Questions

I just noticed I had some questions in my comments.  

As for the use of audio/film (or dig vid) in an English class--I don't think English is restricted to the printed page.  Or literature.  They are living breathing bodies of self expression (because you are just kidding yourself if you think you don't put yourself in there somewhere).  From documentary to fictional shorts, not only is it an art form, but like creating writing, creating media makes you more aware of what goes into a product.  I am hoping it will help them to view TV, movies, the news, etc. all with a more critical eye.

As for my writing--no.  I'm not published.  I write a bit of everything and I'm currently trying to get published.  I actually have a recently raised from the dead writing blog on blogger.  Writer's Nest, Elizabeth Davies.

Diversity

So I've been thinking about diversity in the classroom--both because of Shari's class and because I'm going to West International for my student teaching.  I'm trying to think of ways to incorporate diversity into my class.  First off, I'd like to brush up on my Spanish.  It would be nice to meet students half way if I'm expecting them to practice "academic" language.  I want to make it clear from the start that while diversity is awesome and the way it should be, the world, in fact, doesn't work that way and we'll be managing a few survival skills as well.

I'd like to make a course pack of short works from diverse writers that can supplement the textbook, if I must use it.  In order to foster a sense of connection to the texts as well as diversity, it would be cool to do a personal essay and then follow it up with one page reactions to texts on what is similar and different to their lives, what they would have chosen to do, and why the character made their decisions.

That's about as far as I've gotten.  Let me know if have any further ideas.

Learning curve