Big Boy

Big Boy, originally uploaded by dogwelder.

NOBODY TELLS ME NOT TO POST!

Oh, so the last post doesn't have to be posted, eh? Well, we'll see about that!

I love the idea of using the blog format with kids. If I were to use it in my classroom, I'd set up secure blogs on a private server. Other people would be able to read what the kids wrote, but only my class would be able to comment - there is free software called Movable Type that would be perfect for this. I would encourage my students to write freely on their pages, but remind them that anything they write will be visible to the world, so no identifying personal information would be allowed. Students would probably feel blogging was a way to sneak notes in class, without realizing that they were building their writing and communication skills. Education by trickery- my favorite method!

And with that post, English 495 is complete. All papers turned in, all posts posted, all presentations presentationated. Two classes down, three to go until I am A MAN WITH A DEGREE.

VIDEO

If Nick's going to add a video, so am I. (double-click it to make it start)

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This is a True Story: Writing fiction vs. writing about fiction vs. writing around fiction vs. writing about friction

I like writing fiction. A heap. A ton. A lot. I've been trying to be a little more organized about how I write - try to write a little every day, that sort of thing - but there's nothing better than the random moment in the canned veggies aisle at the supermarket or at the car wash when an idea suddenly appears - like a winning lottery ticket, unexpected but highly desired - and demands to be explored. Sometimes I enjoy being told what to write, and sometimes I find it constricting, but no matter how I feel about a story, once I really get started I always - ALWAYS - find myself writing things I didn't expect. There is nothing quite as wonderful or scary as telling a story and not knowing what will happen next, of knowing that I will be the first person in the world to discover where this story leads.
I'm not as big of a fan of writing about fiction. I find it gets more difficult as the piece gets longer. I love a good two page story, really enjoy work that's around thirty pages long, and struggle with anything longer. With short works, the author is forced to leave a lot of breathing room, a lot of space for analysis and interpretation. As a work gets longer it becomes more refined, more defined. The space for interpretation shrinks. The only way I can find significant subjects for discussion in longer works is by fracturing them into smaller segments, sifting through the broken bits to find subtext. It's not that I can't read a novel- I like reading novels - but I almost always lose the sense of the novel as a single cohesive unit. Instead, it becomes a series of interrelated vignettes, sort of like taking a long movie and converting it to a mini-series. The trick is finding a book that can be fractured and have each section stand on its own as interesting/valuable while still connecting to the other sections of the story.

Writing around fiction: Yeah, there's usually some around.
Writing about friction: Don't most stories contain friction?

Final Exit

At this time tomorrow, I'll be giving my exit interview.

Roshni Didn't Want to Have Her Picture Taken

Roshni Didn't Want to Have Her Picture Taken, originally uploaded by dogwelder.

I took it anyway.

From my recent trip to Tatooine

From my recent trip to Tatooine
Originally uploaded by dogwelder

A gift from Mo!

Myth Myth Myth

Here's my magic myth of magic: Iimo and the World Web

Sara is ready to WHOMP IT!

Sara is ready to WHOMP IT!
Originally uploaded by dogwelder

Making a Myth / Breaking a Myth

Here's the thing about myths. Classic myths, for the most part, were made up by thousands of people. As the stories were told, retold, and re-retold, parts were created, modified, and eliminated through years of the greatest text editor ever written, the oral tradition. They've had a lot of time to get refined and polished. All the rough patches are worn smooth by centuries of rewrites. The ultimate editor was the audience- if something didn't work, the audience discarded it.

Unfortunately, I don't have centuries to create my myth (at least I don't think I do. As me again in 2208), and despite what Walt Whitman claims, I don't seem to contain multitudes. Generating the a complete, internally coherent mythology in a few weeks all by myself is pretty difficult. I was only able to complete it by accepting that my myth will never compete with any of Ovid's (unless you tell it to all of your friends, and they tell all of their friends, and so on, and so on....)

That said: I had a lot of fun creating my myth, and trying to apply the mythic formula to modern problems. I don't know how effective my myth is, but I think it's cohesive.

I'm not going to be teaching at the high school level - I don't plan to right away, any way - so I think that I would not have my students generate a myth out of whole cloth- at least, not as their first assignment. I would probably first have them construct myths using characters we've studied, then move on to creating mythological characters of their design. I could see it as a great group project. Every group could be instructed to create a canon of mythological beings, discuss the features of each being, and explain how they interact. It would be an easy way to overlap classroom standards, combining writing, reading and even artistic skills (they could draw the beings, and a map of the mythological worlds they inhabit). My main goal, as with any creative assignment, would be to convince my students that creative works don't always have to be perfect, that the act of creation is sometimes more important that the work itself. My wife is in an improv class, and one of the things they sometimes say is "dare to suck." It doesn't mean you should try to suck- it means you should try new things, even though they may not work.

So, in that spirit: I dare to let my myth suck.

Sound

Testing Gabcast, tindeck and embed.

If you want to be lazy and use your phone, this is the way to go.
Gabcast! Lizards of doom! #1



If you want to record fancier stuff, you can use Tindeck:


But the coolest looking (and therefore most difficult) method is to use the embed tag. It looks cool, but blogger's editor won't let me properly post the sample code. still, it looks like this:


Embed is also really good for adding annoying repeated sounds that can't be turned off to a page.

A Typical Day at Work

A Typical Day at Work
Originally uploaded by dogwelder

The kids were picking on me today... AGAIN.

purple - or lavender or something

purple
Originally uploaded by dogwelder

CSUN, on Etiwanda at Nordhoff.

Writing Poetry vs. Writing About Poetry

When I write poetry, I don't think much about things like "does this line maintain proper iambic pentameter" or "perhaps I should insert a bit of alliteration at this point to focus attention on the metaphor I'm trying to establish in this stanza." I just write, one line at a time. If it sounds good (and yeah, I do say stuff out loud while I'm writing, if I'm somewhere where I can do that without looking like a loon), If it works on its own and in relation to the previous line, I'll move on. After I've reached a point that feels like the end, I might go over the poem and shift a word or phrase or line, but I don't usually do any sort of radical revision. If it worked when I wrote it, it doesn't need changing, and if it didn't work, I would usually rather start over - maybe saving a section from the original poem that I thought was all right - than try and fix it. I don't feel the need to force meaning into my poems, and I'm not afraid to throw away something I've written that sucks.

I feel more pressure when analyzing someone else's work. Somebody else has created a poem that they feel expresses a mood, or defines a place, or presents an idea worth considering. What if I miss their point? What if I completely misinterpret the symbols they have used, the mythology they have created? Is that a symptom of the author's inability to to say what they want to say, or my inability to hear what they say? I worry that my analysis of other's work will either miss the point of the work or find meaning where none is to be found. And yes, I know that theory says "if you can find it, it's there," but that just increases the pressure to justify what I think a poem says. Sometimes I don't want to spend hours determining that "this poem is a variation of the classic Shakesperian sonnet, with a focus on the eternal power of true love as shown by blah blah blah blah..." Sometimes, I just want to say "I like this" and be donee.

ukelele cow drain spout

ukelele cow drain spout
Originally uploaded by dogwelder

Sometimes, school feels like a cow with a ukelele is spitting rain water off the top of a building.

Not often, but sometimes.

(Almost) Everybody's Blogs

http://495495.blogspot.com/
http://jacobeyoung.blogspot.com/
http://whyblog-ryan.blogspot.com/
http://poopchute495.blogspot.com/
http://sneakyindian495.blogspot.com/
http://hebrewschooldropout.blogspot.com/
http://thepepelucho.blogspot.com/
http://moshappiestplaceonearth.blogspot.com/
http://sumosmom.blogspot.com/
http://keshishyan.blogspot.com/
http://thebloggyblogblogblog.blogspot.com/
http://dclark-english495esm.blogspot.com/
http://missvermillion.blogspot.com/
http://dgskbs.blogspot.com/
http://teachingrewards.blogspot.com/
http://jkgnk.blogspot.com/
http://bearfish30.blogspot.com/
http://www.mattpage-english495esm.blogspot.com/
http://bearfish30.blogspot.com/
http://mis108.blogspot.com/
http://dreamteach.blogspot.com/
http://normaaceves2008.blogspot.com/
http://seelaurasthoughts.blogspot.com/
http://mom4two55.blogspot.com

Did I miss yours? Tell me and I'll add it.

This is where it starts, my friends

Greetings, Captains of Industry!

My name is Luke Gattuso.
I come here in a time machine of my own creation. No, that's not right. I'm a 41 year old college student. I've worked at elementary schools since 1988, and now, barely twenty years later, I'm in my last semester at CSUN. Yes, I am a prodigy, an student genius! Bask in my glory!

I didn't start out planning to be a teacher. I didn't really plan to be anything, actually. I was taking computer science classes at Pierce College, but not really making any effort to pass them. I thought I wanted to be some sort of computer programmer, but the truth was that I found programming boring. I liked computers, but that was because they were fun, weird toys.

Eventually, I started working at an elementary school; not because of a great desire to teach, but because I had no job and my ex-girlfriend's boyfriend's mother was the office manager at an elementary school in Chatsworth, and she said they were looking for teacher assistants. I threw on the thrift-store sport coat I'd bought a few months before, interviewed with the principal, and suddenly I was an employee of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Then, something strange happened- I discovered that I actually liked working with kids. It might be the joy of watching young faces light up as they make connections, as they create and discover.

Or it might be that I'm mentally at the level of an eight year old child.