Class, I want this done in four minutes, thirty seconds and counting...

...and then you get distracted by George, don't do that*, and it becomes an elastic four minutes, thirty seconds....unless you deploy a handy little online countdown tool like E.gg Timer.

Put in your own set time (three minutes and twenty seconds, five minutes, whatever)  on your own laptop/teacher PC and when time's up, it pings.  Whether or not you were distracted by George... and it's objective, so difficult to argue against.

Or you could get kids to open a new window on their machine and set individual timers.  Although that could have a cacophony effect...

Cheers

Ruth

* as referenced here.  Including a link to Joyce Grenfell's original monologue, lovely (and all-too-accurate) observational comedy.

Trailers for English: the Batman lesson

I've been working all year with the English teacher who has a low-ability Year 9 English class.  All but one boys.  It's an interesting challenge to find material for them, that is within their scope, not patronising, not childish but accessible and attention-grabbing.  We've done a 'film trailer' lesson with them already, using 2012 (which a number had seen, and all thought RUBBISH) and The A-Team.  It worked out well, and they had lots to comment on and discuss in class.

Wanting to cover tone, colour and suchlike with them, we hit on using Batman as our example.  Contrast/compare can really help these kids see the differences and therefore be able to comment on them, and most have some idea of Batman based on the most recent films, so it gives them some secure ground under their feet/confidence to contribute.

Compare the 1960s Adam West/tv series Batman, not afraid of the daylight:

image source

with more recent versions, usually shown at night, and in FAR cooler gear:

image source

In showing trailers/clips from each, there's plenty to talk about - use of colour, tone/feeling, the way the stories are being presented, the characters are being presented, how music and voiceover are used.  Lots of obvious details that the kids could pick up on - the suit, the badge, two versions of the Joker etc etc - that could be used for discussion/elaboration.

Here's the list of trailers/clips I compiled for the lesson in the library - some we showed twice.  In their next classroom lesson the teacher has a worksheet prepared for them to work through as a class group, to make notes and discuss what they've seen.

Batman: Trailers and Clips

1960s Batman introduction (TV series)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jgE-lrfZ3k  

1960s Batman shark scene (TV series)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0UJaprpxrk  

1989 Batman film trailer (Tim Burton)

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi850985241/

2005 Batman Begins film trailer (Christopher Nolan)

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2743468569/

2008 The Dark Knight film trailer (Christopher Nolan)

http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/170/The-Dark-Knight-Trailer

2008 teaser

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi324468761/

The boys said they'd MUCH rather wear the latest Batman's suit, not the stretchy purple number from the 1960s; but they found Heath Ledger's Joker much scarier than Jack Nicholson's (esp. since some of them recognised Jack from one of his more recent films, a comedy).

They also found the 1960s Batman corny (well it was...); and the two teachers' reaction to the shark clip (labelled Bat Ladder!  Helicopter that requires careful piloting until this inconveniences the plot! the shark! - we had tears of laughter!!) rather funny too.

I've created several lessons for English classes based on film trailers and clips - with YouTube, TeacherTube, direct projectors and computers, it's much easier to do than it once might have been (at the start of my teaching career one of my jobs was setting up the reel to reel film projector for colleagues, films out of big round tins...) and it's engaging for the kids, visual literacy...and fun.  Fun's good for learning.

Cheers

Ruth

PS if you reproduce this blog entry or list anywhere, can you please acknowledge the source?  Thank you.

Gallery of iconic chair designs

One for your Design and Technology teachers and students.  This gallery on the homelife.com.au site has images of twenty iconic chair designs, with the bonus of links to more information about each designer and a separate/additional image gallery focusing on that designer's work.

Cheers

Ruth

Graphic Festival in Sydney

GRAPHIC is a new festival focusing on animation and comic-book culture.  Among the featured 'names' are Kevin Clark and Neil Gaiman: meet the mythmakers of the modern world is one of its taglines. 

Read more about it here - it's on in Sydney at the Sydney Opera House this coming weekend 8-9 August 2010. 

Bookings, info, downloadable program etc. here. (Source of the screenshot image above).

One to get out to the manga/anime/graphic/comicbook/Supernovaisoverforanotheryearandmylifeisadesert crew.

Cheers

Ruth

The happy life of teacher librarians: take the compliments when they come...

I meant to post this last term, saved the draft and somehow life got in the way... so here's a chuckle from the end of last term.

In the last week of term 2, my school has "Spirit Week", which involves a variety of extra events: morning tea for senior citizens, concerts for the senior citizens and local primary school students, a disco for the kids, raising money for charities (chosen by the kids), Jump Rope for Heart, Motivational Media. 

Four days have clothing 'themes', so on Monday I wore 'school uniform' (my year adviser school jersey, the correct colour skirt and black shoes - it was very hard to spot other teaching colleagues among the throng, but boy oh boy the kids were like meerkats trying to catch out teachers 'not in full uniform' and asking if you had a note if you were out of uniform!).  On Wednesday, Pyjama Day, I took a teddy bear but wore civvies, as I had to go somewhere straight after school (and really really didn't want to totter around school all day in ugh boots and flannel jarmies). 

Yesterday was "Hippies and Heroes".  I studied my wardrobe, and in the morning put on an outfit including RM Williams elastic-sided boots, a Drizabone short coat and an Akubra hat.  All Australian clothing icons, popular with rural folk, like, say, farmers (worthy heroes, the men and women on the land, no?).

Tossing on the hat and coat in the school carpark, I added a Buchanan tartan scarf (lairy colours, it must be admitted) as the morning was a tad on the chilly side.  There have been some beautiful frosts on the way to school this week (it hasn't been cold/wet enough for black ice, which is rare anyway, so one can admire frost without fretting).

Near the library door, some of the Supernova/scifi/manga/graphic novel crowd (who have spent endless hours since that wondrous event telling me all about it, showing me their loot, telling me even more about it, showing me photos of the loot they can't bring into school...) erupted in whoops of joy.

MISS! THAT'S SO COOL!  YOU CAME AS DR WHO!

Ah.  Right.  "Thank you.  Thank you ver' much.  HowEVER did you guess?"

(Tom Baker, I presume...)

The happy life of teacher librarians: take the compliments when they come...

Cheers

Ruth

PS Today's theme is Where's Wally.  Requested garb: red and white, one/other/both/stripes.  Tricky.  But it worked better than you might have expected.

Australian Museum: resources for education

While toddling about the Australian Museum site being gobsmacked by science photography, I thought I'd locate a couple more useful links to pop on the blog.

The Education Services site has a bunch of possibilities to explore, including videoconferencing, teacher previews/talks, competitions and more. http://australianmuseum.net.au/education-services

The Collections section is the gateway to exploring an extensive number of options, including biodiversity, natural science collections, interactive science activities, cultural collections and more. http://australianmuseum.net.au/research-and-collections

Also:
Animals http://australianmuseum.net.au/animals
Minerals and fossils http://australianmuseum.net.au/minerals-and-fossils
Cultures (including Australian Aboriginal  and Ancient Egyptian material) http://australianmuseum.net.au/cultures

Worth sharing with your Science staff, Society and Culture teachers, Aboriginal committee/liaison group/Aboriginal studies teachers, History teachers and others.  You don't have to be in Sydney or NSW to make use of many of the resources on the site.

Cheers

Ruth

Amazing science photography

There are three finalists in this year's Eureka Science Photography prize.  Take a look:

http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/Breakfast-on-the-Fly
http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/Burn-Out
http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/A-kaleidoscope-of-dust-and-gas-in-Orion

and maybe share them with your Science staff?

You can also search on past Eureka Science prizewinners (there are lots of other categories as well as Science Photography - it's near the end of the list) by clicking here.

There are also Eureka teacher resources, state-specific and all!  Find them here: http://eureka.australianmuseum.net.au/teacher

No blog entry yesterday.  Yup, I know.  Not slackness, just a crazybeans day.  As happens.

Cheers

Ruth