And we're done!

Marks went in today; if you didn't show up to see, then you have to wait for them to be printed off.

No, you can't come and ask me tomorrow, I'm busy with a new class.

Read the paper, read the blog

Read the Toronto Star, read the blog ... and see what an iPhone is capable of instigating in foreign governments. Read this article.

You have the power to annoy a lot of totalitarian governments ... in your pocket.

oh, my ... another Friday post

well, I have to admit it, I really never like "professional Wrestling", even when it was big back in the mid-80's. I was surfing around on the internet tonight and dug up this link from the Ultimate Warrior about George Orwell, 1984 and Animal Farm.

Seems I'm not a silly person, although I do question some of the other ideas on "Warrior's" blog. (Seriously, that's the dude's name ... he legally changed it back in the 90's to "Warrior".

Later still ... I saw this:



ok, with that ... have a good night!

Friday Dec 2

Right ... here is the pic for the stuff due on Monday:

I will text remind you to come see this on Saturday.

Friday Dec 2

Thursday Dec 1

ok, remote controlled stuff on your iPhone is cool ... but this, my friends, can be described as "next level"

The Ball. Evolved. from GoSphero on Vimeo.

I hope Santa follows my blog...


Right, sorry this second half of the post is so late ... but we basically finished the play today .. we got questions 34, 37,38,39 42, 46,47, and 50 for homework.

Knarly.

Wednesday Nov 30

I'm so glad to see the end of this month. Meh, at least I have Shakespeare.

(Picture is unrelated)

We saw until the beginning of Act 4 (I mean IV) of the play - we'll see the start of it again tomorrow, December 1...

I'm kind of hoping ot be able to get into the computer lab (or A computer lab) to help with the Culminating Activity this week ... but I strongly urge you to get it done ASAP.

I'll use the RemindMe thingy tonight to let you know.

OK we got questions on the text, too:

12, 17,18,24,26,27,31,33 to be exact.

OK, on with tomorrow!

Tuesday Nov 29

Last day of 1984, all official like, too. Ahh, that's better.

We started with watching a bit of the Shakespeare play were doing. See the previous post for the funny version. Simply awesome. What a play.

We got close to the break and went and did the survey for the boss.

After break, we did the character sketches together and made sure that stuff was ready to be handed in tomorrow. Um, yeah, see the pic on the right for the stuff that is due tomorrow. It's there, fo'so.

It was interesting to see who was working on what. We'll see tomorrow, we'll see.

Let's hope the rain goes away. Let's get on with it!

and right at the end of class, we played with this:

Something I found on the Youtubes

Hey, this is funny

Monday Nov 28

Ah, man. Mondays. Not sure I should post this, but I will:



Ah, man.

In any case, we started Titus Andronicus today with an Introductory Prezi:

Intro to Titus on Prezi

I'm hoping that works... it was pretty cool getting that together.

After that, we watched for a bit; students seemed genuinely interested in seeing more of the film. After break, we got some time in the lab to work on the Culminating Activity.

Something from today

Something from Saturday's Toronto Star you can use for your Culminating.

Oh, and if you use an iPhone, here is something you might want to consider reading if you are stuck for a topic.

I take my coffee with just a little milk, thanks.

Riiiiight

Oh, Friday. Ah, Friday.

Let's pause for a moment, shall we?

Ahhh.

That's better.

We finished the novel today - an effort Hercules himself would take pride in, to be sure. Man, that was hard. Awful descriptions of torture and just .... ew. I'm glad it's over and that we can get onto something more civilized, like Titus Andronicus, by William Shakespeare.

I'm sure THATS typical, boring, Shakespeare (he he he he he ehe h)

After we finished the novel, we got questions for homework and we're armed with the knowledge that we'll do the character sketches and arm ourselves for Shakespeare on Monday. It'll be excellent. After break, we got a chance to work on our Culminating Activities in the Computer Lab.

All was good.

Thursday Nov 24

So today we got to Page 280 in the text. That was a slog, but we got it done. We got 35 36 and 37 assigned for homework for tomorrow.

After we were done reading, we got a chance to get into the lab and do some work for the Culminating Activity for this course. Because I have all the blogs already bookmarked, I'll be checking what my students got accomplished today and tomorrow shortly. Nothing like a real Big Brother watching what you are doing, eh?

In any case, I thought about how leaders are being seen these days, and about the film Shake Hands with the Devil, which we might have watched in the first unit. Did you know that the President of Rwanda has a Titter page? Did you know that he responds to DM's?

Isn't that a little flat - that you can send a message to the President of a country and that he'll respond himself? Meh - perhaps I am showing my age again.

Wednesday Nov 23

I started off a little "light" today, as I knew today was going to be ... difficult. I showed everyone the app Ocarina, which is a pan flute app for you iOS device. Funny stuff, man.



So today ... took up the two questions for homework and added another one - 34 - to the list that are due Nov 30th. As a part of that discussion, we talked about the Star Wars Kid, ORLY and one of the newest internet memes, the UC Davis Officer. We linked these to the book, being able to think for oneself and being able to express one's opinion without fear of those in power.

After, we read until page 263 of the text. I hate stopping half way through a chapter, but I more or less had to this time. Meh, life goes on. After the break, we got a chance to watch the rest of the 1984 version of the film, 1984. The scene with O'Brien and Smith in the small room, was, well, really uncomfortable for some.

Others were on Facebook or playing video games, much to my chagrin.

After the film, we got a chance to search Twitter for Occupy Toronto and got a bit of a chance to talk and comment on what they were doing. Some, of course, didn't know what they were doing.

Me? I say I can do only so much to help you learn about what is going on in your world. I can read the books to you, I can show you the movie interpretations, too. You have those distracting pieces of technology in your hands... use them for something other than playing Angry Birds and do some learning with them

It starts here:

Learning in Hand

And it never stops.

Sample Blog Post on 1984

This would be something that I'd like to see from you for your "Blended Section" of 1984:

Last school year I wrote this comment:

Of course, I also see media people using Facebook to illustrate “just how awful I am”, or share pictures with even more people, without my permission, really. It’s kind of scary how public private information has become.

I'm thinking this is the idea that I go with for this blog post. I've spent my time in the last few months reading and thinking about Facebook - how there really isn't any time or place for privacy anymore. We learn things in the open:



now, in the above example, this is rather a small thing. But what if someone in my class put it out on Facebook that they were studying 1984? If they get a crowd sourced answer and submit it as their own... does that make it cheating?

And what of people, especially teachers being "Mobbed"? What of people putting silly comments online and being fired for them? And it just isn't Facebook anymore. It can be Youtube, twitter ... just about anywhere.

Well, common sense needs to be employed at all times, man. Simple as that. I know people want to get their silliness out there. But just remember that what ever thing you post today, your grandchildren will be able to Google search twenty years from now.

Tuesday

Whoa, sorry this lost is so late. Man, it has been a day and a half around here.

Not to mention as I sat down to write this post some ...ahem ...Character ... was BLASTING their car radio five feet from my window. I counted to ten. It's ok.

If it was you, don't do that.

Today, we read a fair amount - we got to the beginning of the third part of the novel, and read where Winston gets arrested. We watched some of the 1984 version of the film, as well as a brief snippet of the version from 1954. Yeah, no one liked that second one. We got question 31 and 32 assigned for homework.

In the "Talk about Apps" speech, I mentioned a few apps for use in taking and manipulating pictures on your phone. Here's the Colour Spash App at work:

Here's the Hipstamatic app

and finally the Comic Life app:

hey here's one more of the Comic Life app:

Hope that helps you characters to get some good images up on your blogs! Go Wednesday!

Mon Nov 21

First of all, please be thankful for Friday's PD session. He was awesome, and I'm pretty sure I'll be mentioning the name of the Dude who ran the session for a while.

And now, on with Monday.

We read. A lot. We got from pg 85 to page 140 today. Seriously. I'm glad we're making up for lost time, as the last few days we've not been able to read as much as we should have. We're almost back on track.

We got 25, 26, 27 and 28 for homework for tomorrow.

We also got our Culminating Activity for this course as well. If you are unsure about anything, drop me a comment on the bottom of this blog post. Should be all good.

This just got emailed to me. Synchronicity.

Be good, see you Tuesday!

Thursday Nov 17

Well, let's get the drugery out of hte way ... we finished our test on the first half on 1984. When that was done, students got a chance to finish off material that was due - papers to be handed in, blog posts to be published ... in general .. "Stuff".

After break it was the Poetry Cafe.

yes, this was as yummy as it looks...

in any case, please remember that I am off to see this guy tomorrow, and I will see you on Monday - we're starting work on our Culminating Activity then, as well as a rather cool unit on Shakespeare.


Just as a final addition to this post, here is an article about what is happening right now in the Canadian House of Commons...

Wed nov 16

Right, today we put the finishing touches on the first part of the study of the novel 1984. Me, I'm enjoying the discussion and the reading of the novel. A lot.

We got a chance to talk about the Elements of the Novel today and we got the low down as to what questions were due, too.

Numbers due are: 1,2,3,4,6,7, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 21 and 22

With The Elements and vocab 1-25. Woot!

After that, we went to the computer lab to work on stuff that is due tomorrow, the Poetry blog post and the blog post for 1984, too. I'm impressed with the amount of work done, to be frank. It was almost perfect ....

On to the Thursday and the Poetry Cafe!

Tuesday Nov 15

OK, the stuff has all been marked, I will update the marks for tomorrow.

Wednesday we're in the lab, by the way, working on our blogs and stuff for poetry and for 1984. It'll be awesome.

As announced at the end of class:

Right, before that, we read to pg 84, the last lines of which we read today were:

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."

Profound words, man.

We got 21 and 22 assigned as questions, too. Stuff is coming due on Thursday, so lets make sure we get it done!

We watched this poem:



and this one:

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Another poem from my hard drive:

...and don't forget to feed my fish!

Monday Nov 14 - day 15ish

Whoa, I'm getting caught behind, if only a little bit, these days. I do have marks ready to go, but today was a weird day.

First, we took up the homework from Friday. We now have the following questions completed: 1,2, 3, 4, 6,7 ,10, 11, 12, 15, 16 and 18.

After we took up the homework, we did a little on the difference between the APA style report and the MLA essay format. It is all good.

It was at this point in time that the Student Services Head came in and did an hour on How to apply to College". She's awesome. Then, break.

After break, we did some poetry but did not get to the poet presentations. Tomorrow. Then we read until page 66, to the end of Part One, Chapter 5 in the book. I'm so stoked about this book, man.

Right, after class, I checked my email and saw this in my in box. An interesting article about increasing numbers of high school students doing credit classes online. Seriously, it's the way of the future. I mean you can do an entire degree online, why not a high school diploma?

Speaking of which, I mentioned in class about the KhanApp and the OpenAppMkt in class today. Both are highly recommended for people who want to get ahead in life and do some learning with the thing that distracts them in class. That would be your cell phone, people...



Anyway here's a poem I found on my hard drive:

AssignmentS for Thursday Nov 10, 2011

All work for this 1984 Webquest is to be submitted to the teacher by the end of class today on paper - please do not post the 1984 webquest to your blog.

1. Watch this:



a. What are three or four things you HAVE to do if you are a citizen in 1984?
b. Who is the main character?
c. What kind of life does he lead?
d. What are two other characters mentioned in the novel or video?
e. What does the government really want in this novel?

2. Get to a discussion group or a forum on 1984 – click and paste 10 questions people have ask about this novel that mean something to you:

3. Watch the Apple Macintosh 1984 video on YouTube:


Why, do you think, this commercial has been voted the best commercial several times since being aired?

4. What kind of guy was George Orwell? (Please do not click and paste the Wikipedia or some other biography of him; perhaps read the Wikipedia biography and give me YOUR impression of him.)

5. After watching the Spark Notes video and the Apple Mac commercial, what kinds of connections can you make to Animal Farm, the novel we just finished reading?



SECOND ASSIGNMENT

AFTER FINISHING THE WEBQUEST ON PAPER, LOOK FOR A POET FOR YOUR PRESENTATION THAT BEGINS ON MONDAY NOV 14TH.


THIRD ASSSIGNMENT
Take a look at the 1984 Unit outline and start/ do a blog post for the Blended section of the novel study.

Wed Nov 9

Ah, man. Wednesdays.

We had the unit test/quiz for Animal Farm at the start of class. It was pretty stright forward, and we got it completed by 1pm. I got enough of the Animal Farm assignments handed in, so I am a relatively happy person at the moment.

After that, we started the reading of 1984. Man, what an awesome book. Rather creepy, too. We read only a bit of Chapter 1 and people were fascinated by it. In any case, we took a break then did some poetry and got back to the reading. We had this video playing about the Two Minutes Hate

Finally, we need to start people signing up for Poet Presentations, which start Monday. People, people.... get one!





OK, on to Thursday! w00t!

Tues Nov 8

Whoops, sorry this one is late. What can I tell you - long, long days on Tuesdays.

And Wednesdays.

Anyway, yesterday we finished Animal Farm. People were annoyed by it, were entertained by it and thought it was kind of confusing. All of which is ok. We got this assigned to us:

Ch8-10 all questions
Entire Novel - all questions, too

Don't forget, you also have to have the terms done for this novel for tomorrow (Wednesday). Should be a good one.

After we got to break, we heard some poetry and did some discussion of the terms for Animal Farm. Then, we did a brief introduction to the next item on our agenda, the novel 1984.

It's going to be an EPIC win.

Just remember ... Big Brother is watching you.

Monday Nov 7 day 11 ... I think

Right, today we read to the end of Chapter 9 of Animal Farm and got a chance to work on stuff that is due Wednesday...

Oh yeah, you also have to see the pic:

Oh, yeah, I said I was going to set up the link to the film Passchendaele, starring Paul Gross. If you want a film on your to rent list that is about Canada... that's a good one to see at least once. (And that IS the proper spelling... ask IMDB.com and Wikipedia, in any case... ;)

Right, we also heard two poems, How to Live, and "On Samsonite assembly line 72". I've read them before, and I thought I did a pretty good job. Lemme know what you think.

And... as promised:

Try this audience polling system at Poll Everywhere

And ... we can start the sign ups for a poet presentation tomorrow! w00t!

Something I just saw

I'm floatin around in teh interwebs, and I run across this idea about "Managing your online reputation".

Seems my humble little class take on a greater meaning for those in it.



and just to creep you out, I saw this:



Peace, yo.

Day 9

OK, what a day, what A DAY...

First, we took up the questions from Animal Farm. Lots of people didn't have it done.

How did you KNOW that, SIR?

I have eyes, man... but I have two ears, two eyes .... and one mouth. There's something to be said about that idea...


In any case, we got to the end of Chapter 7 read in class.. and we got to the end of Chapter 7 questions to do for Monday. All Animal Farm stuff will be due Thursday.

We also started Poetry today - I will be getting the due dates up as a pic tomorrow. Just so I have it here, Poetry due dates are as follows:

Task 1: twice between Nov 7 and 17th
Task 2 Nov 14, 15 or 16th
Task 3 Nov 17
Task 4 Nov 16

(You need to have the poetry Unit sheet beside you to be in the know about that list...)

Anyway, Friday Nov 4 is a PD Day. I feel like this is what I am going ot be doing tomorrow, but you never know:



Have a safe weekend, we'll see you on Monday.

Day 8

Ah, yes....day 2 of four this week is done. Wednesday will be awesome.

We finished the presentations for the Story Unit today - some wonderful speakers and discussion about what to do with online learning and networking was had. I also got a chance to point out a couple of the articles not picked by my students - following UFC fighters on Twitter, for example.

And this guy:



Anyway, after break, we read form Animal Farm and got to the end of Chapter 5. We got assigned question 4 from Chapter 1-4 and 1 and 2 from Chapter 5-7. WE WILL BE TAKING THEM ALL UP TOMORROW.

Get 'em done!

Right on, after that I was able to let people work on their final copies of their essays. I'm stoked for tomorrow!

Day 7

Ah, man. Day Seven. We made some pretty weird references in the class. The first was to a pair of high school teachers that teach Physics from Scarborough:



Some really good discussions in class regarding the presentations - the alst day for them is tomorrow.

After the presentations, we read to the end of Chapter 3 and were assigned the questions 1,2 and three from Chapters 1-4 from the questions. Make them done!

Finally, we read a part in Animal Farm about Candy Mountain. (Well, actually in the book it's Sugarcandy Mountain" ... but whatever):



Have a great one!

(I'd rather be here ... ;))

Day 6 - Oct 31

Yup, we're working away on stuff on Halloween ... I think I was the only one in a costume, by the way...

In any case, we did a bit on essay writing today - something which we'll do again tomorrow, too. Writing your ideas down on paper is important in getting a good mark in the class. Yes, I am looking for rough notes for this essay, too.

After the essay writing, we did some presentations. Some interesting discussion happened before, during and after each of the presentations - something that is rather a cool aspect of this class. (Shhh ... it's a teacher secret that the purpose of this assignment is exactly that .... that students learn more from their fellow students that from the teacher....)

In any case, after we finished the presentations, we got into the next Unit for the course .... Animal Farm. We read to the end of Chapter One. No questions were assigned for homework as we have an essay and a web question on Fahrenheit 451 and Shut up and Sing due ASAP, too.

Other than that, we had a good day today - some interesting discussion, a good read and some time investigating material on teh interwebs. What else could you get from a class?

:):) Deadmau5intheFall :):): First Post

:):) Deadmau5intheFall :):): First Post: Chesser told me to write this !!

Today we created a blog and other stuff on Day 5

Ok, so today was the start of the end of the first unit on stories. We did a unit test in the first half of the class, then moved to the computer lab to complete work there. I can honestly say that I was impressed with the short time it took for most to get their blog up and running.

Seriously, it was good work. Cleaver people in my class. And .... you were afraid of it, pishaw!

and we learned how to embed a video:



Since we had a bit of time, I let people work on their presentations (They are due starting on Monday!) and also the webquest on F451 and Shut up and Sing.

Have a good weekend ...

close to the end of the class we saw this:

Day 4

We finished the Short Pieces Unit today - the list of stories/whatever is up on the blog by now. Make sure you have the questions and the terms for each done for Friday.

Today we watched and discussed the film Digital Nation, a rather interesting documentary film on people using the internet these days. It also suggests some ideas about how me might use our ideas of digital citizenship to change what our government can do.

Just after break I also showed the app Dragon Dictation. It was funny - some of my students were already using it by the end of the class. I'm thinking that I keep doing the "show an app" idea each day - I got plenty.

I also showed Prezi - the link is on the right side of the blog- a great way to show off your ideas. I'll get a link up tomorrow to a great presentation I've used int he past.

Right, sorry this was late, off to a great adventure in rugby!

Day 3

...and Day Three is in the books, or, well ... the blogs.

Today we took up the homework, read a short story by Rex Murphy called "Cellphones"

After that, we watched the film Fahrenheit 451, simply an awesome film. I did notice, however, that people thought it was better to watch it on their own cell phones. I find that kind of funny, considering what the idea presented in the first piece we read today was talking about.

Ah, humour ....

I had only one person actually sign up for their article for the presentation. That is a lot more troubling.

Finally, I also forgot to hand out the report cards ... man. I'm getting old.

Day 2

Right, sorry that this is so late.

Tuesday we read the story The fun they had by Issac Assimov and had questions assigned on it. After that I changed things up a bit and we had a viewing of "Shut Up and Sing" .. which generated some discussion about things like "Freedom of Speech" and the ideas surrounding being a good citizen in a democracy.

Questions were put to students for that one, too.

Have not had anyone sign up for a presentation yet ... which is more than just slightly troubling. Keep in mind that you are doing the work here, not me.

Before we finished the film, I had a but of a show on what you can do with iTunes, specifically iTunesU. I'm hoping that my students make themselves aware of the free material and ideas on there. It's seriously the way things are going into the future.

...the last thing is that I forgot to give out the report cards today ....

have to take care of that .... tomorrow...

Recap of Day One

w00t! One down, 29 to go! Yeeehaw!

Ok, so today ... we started the class. We read two short stories, the first was "The Flying Machine" by Ray Bradbury. (More than likely, we're going to be doing at least one other piece of his writing this week.) After the story was read, the Literary Terms" were defined on the board with the knowledge that for each story the questions and the terms will be done. This took us to break.

After break, we started up with a look at this blog and the links on the right side for the Presentations were poked around on, too.

After that, we read Chapter 5 of Frankenstein and got questions on that, too. I gave about 25 minutes at the end of class to let people do the "Getting to know you" forms in to me.

Check this out...


...and you should watch this video, too:



Finally, this is a bit of fun, from the recently finished Rugby World Cup:



See you Tuesday!

Ready to Go!

Right. This is going to be a very important website for the next few weeks for you. Do yourself a favour and bookmark it now.

And pay attention to the guy at the front of the room, too. He's a solid guy...