Thing #4 bump, bump, bump

Were there any bumps along the way? Indeed. Speed bumps and pot holes and "lions, and tigers, and monkeys, oh, my!"

(image of crying lion by Iwan Wolkow)

Honestly, most of the bumps were of my own making, but I hate to admit that so I am just whispering it.

I realized once again that I am not very creative, but I was able to make a fairly decent lesson

that my teachers may find useful when they assign author studies as they indicated they would.

My flaws are noticeable, according to a pair of fresh, honest, and uncompromising eyes, but the Photostory will still introduce the assignment in a comprehensible manner. My voice is breathy (a whole semester of speech class to no avail), hoarse, and wobbly and will probably be hard to hear even though I used a microphone. Static bursts interrupt my narration which is boring, boring, boring. Will anyone listen to it? Fresh eyes and ears are doubtful. Obviously, it needs refining. Aaaaaand, my credits page is a mess.

But I did it!

Just as Much Fun as Skateboarding!

What is?? Storyboarding, of course!








The white speck in the otherwise empty parking lot is my car. There is only one uploaded page of my storyboard for two very good reasons: (1) it is not a success story and (2) I had time only to scan in one page before getting kicked out of the building Thursday afternoon. Read it and weep.

Only problem is that I am not linear sequential, and I just don't do this part correctly. This would be another example of "Do as I say, not as I do!" Sorry about that because that is a lousy teaching model. Oh, well. Who's perfect?

I don't believe there is just one storyboard template that will work best for everyone. I used the DigiTales template myself because the layout helped me to think in a linear sequential fashion but allowed me to skip ahead a few frames if I felt it necessary. The template for original shot order works well for those who are making their own shots. In my school, the multimedia teacher insists that the students use a storyboard, although there doesn't seem to be anything formal required. I have seen students plan their projects on a notebook page.

The important thing is that planning or outlining occurs before filming. Using a storyboard requires students to plan the shot order, the narration, the music, and the transitions before production begins. Actors and narrators know what they are supposed to do and say, eliminating guessing and the flubbing of lines!

Evaluating Websites for Author Studies

Because the students will be researching authors of current fiction, I decided to evaluate Wikipedia's article on Ellen Hopkins first using the simple, printable checklist and then the Checklist for Evaluating Web Sites from the University of Maryland Libraries. The simple checklist will be sufficient for my purposes because it requires basic information that can be completed quickly and easily, and the vocabulary is explained in greater detail in the links in the sidebar. It is enough of an overview for the type of site most students will be using--author's and publisher's websites, author's blogs, author interviews, book reviews, and Wikipedia-type information. The Wikipedia article in this case passed muster: the information could be verified elsewhere, the links worked, and it was current.

I would use the second checklist I mention for more traditional research because its scope is broader and the questions more detailed. I like that the checklist asks which authorship clues the url provides because students do not think about the purpose of the site and how that influences content: company (.com), academic institution (.gov), non-profit organization (.org), U.S. Government agency (.gov), and so on.

Personally, I dislike handouts, but I believe the students would benefit from possessing either or both of these and from having to defend their use of the particular websites they cite in their research. I believe I would have students complete and turn in this information as they progress from reading to taking notes. Teachers, please correct me, if I am not on target!

Herding Cats on the Road to #3

If you are not a cat person, you will never understand. I am sitting here in the dark, on my bed, trying to compose a "thing-y" post because Attila, my cat, was ready to go to bed, and the light bothers her. Besides, the upstairs never, never cools off. It is 86 up here now, so I don't want to turn on the lamp, either. :( Picture my predicament and be glad you have more sense....

Thing #1: Databases, Social Networking Sites, and Visuals

Tried Ebsco's Student Research Center and failed to find any magazine articles about Ellen Hopkins so Maggwire worked better for me there. When I searched the Literary Reference Center, I found book reviews and two full-text articles in the first three pages of results.

Renae reminded me that we are losing Literary Reference Center. I need to find out if the state provides it. I checked on that once upon a time, but I cannot remember what I found out! Am putting that on my list of things to do unless someone takes pity on me and emails me the answer, thus saving me from having to think too hard!

Reminders to self: (1)Teaching Books has resources for Ellen Hopkins, including audio segments from her books. (2)The Library Resources Page has a section devoted to webquests.

A search for "Ellen Hopkins" on delicious gave me 48 bookmarks to consider, one of which is a YouTube video of Hopkins reciting her anti-censorship poem.

Nothing on TeacherLibrarianNing and very little on Texas School Librarians, but I could send out a plea for information and might be successful. Nothing on Discovery Education, either, and no images on FlickrCC.

Break time. See image above for my flock of resources, courtesy of Mike Baird.

Search Engines or "I Am Derailed"

Yes. I admit it. I am a Googler, but it's ok. I belong to a support group.

So, I tried Clusty and found that it has been acquired by Yippy, Inc.

Surprise.

This is where you go now: http://search.yippy.com/

It worked really well for "Ellen Hopkins." The results were great (204) and easily accessible in their cloud folders such as Reviews, Simon & Schuster, Photos, and individual titles authored by Ellen Hopkins. There was a cloud folder for a Mary Ellen Hopkins as well, and she is not my topic, but since her results are in their own little cloud, she does not interfere with my research. I really like the way the results are organized in clusters, especially since it lets me get down to results that are not highly ranked. Do you suppose clusters will be called "yippies" in the future?

Oh, hey! This is good, too! I just tried Maggwire, and it's great for locating information which has appeared in magazines! I entered "Ellen Hopkins" and clicked on search. Maggwire indexes over 600 magazines so I was hopeful. I had no results for "This Week," but I got a hit when I clicked on the "This Month" tab, and with another click, I was taken instantly to the magazine article at the publisher's website: Top 10 Things I’ve Learned Since Becoming a Bestselling Author by Ellen Hopkins.

One more, one more....Oh, Bing, I guess, will do for a third. Nothing unusual there. Three tabs gave me the choice of Web, Wikipedia, and Images. I chose one of the images to upload. See upper right.

Time to ride.

Here, There, Everywhere, and Everywhere Else

or Thing #1: Access Information
1. Text=too much of the wrong "thing"
Getting back on track is harder than I thought after a few days off! Using Meriwether and Aquabrowser did little to help me, although I was agreeably surprised to find more author biographies in our district catalog than I had even imagined. That is a good thing! Using the search term "author studies" brought up a list of 557 entries in Aquabrowser, but only one looked like a possibility: Author Studies on the Computer by Debby Reum. The word clouds offered, among others, "criticism," "novel," and "guide."

Meriwether gave me 35 hits, none of which I could use. The Glass Castle and Lit were two titles which kept appearing, and that was interesting. Sort of.

I need to let you know, too, that using Ellen and Hopkins or Ellen Hopkins as search terms netted me the titles of her books.

I need a break. I am going to ride the escalator.