Auslan Signbank (is this a perfect use of the internet, or what?)

Many moons ago, I learned some Auslan - Australian Sign Language, as used by the deaf community.  As you may know, this is not the same as the sign language used in the UK or the US, even though our countries all share English.  As it happens I haven't used it much, or (to be honest) retained a lot of what I learned twenty years ago, but some has stuck, and come in handy from time to time.  (And one of my best true funny stories is about an unexpectedly handy application of Auslan...!)

 

Working with a slightly tricky kid the other day, where something lateral and quirky was more likely to catch his attention than plain vanilla, I used some fingerspelling.  It did catch his attention when I repeated a word in this unexpected way).  But his attention drifted when I had to attend to other students, and when I had time to get back to him, he was definitely grumpy again.  Hmmm, I thought, I wonder if...?  Less than a minute of googling and I'd found the Auslan signbank online.

 

How to sign 'grumpy'?
http://www.auslan.org.au/dictionary/words/grumpy-1.html

 

 

 

This is an utterly brilliant use of the internet.  Many moons ago, I had a couple of books (the more comprehensive one hugely bulky) that contained signs.  Trapped in drawn diagrams, because that is what print books can do.  But on this page, the little video shows you the word/idea being signed.  You can replay it as often as you like.  You can search for any of the other over 4000 signs listed via the alphabetical list or just the word you want.  You can search on medical terms only.  You can see in which parts of Australia a particular sign is used.

Here's what the site includes:

• a dictionary
• a special medical and health dictionary
• grammar examples on video
• videos of deaf people using Auslan naturally
• information on the deaf community in Australia
• links to Auslan classes

To my knowledge, there aren't students using sign at my school (ie. I don't know if we have any who use it at home, but it's not used at school) - my use of it is as an attention-getter, something different, a way to cut through and get a kid's attention (which I can then deploy in the direction I'd like it to go...); and as a window on another way of looking at the world.  The grumpy sign certainly illustrates the frustration/crankiness/grumpiness of the student who prompted this search.(He'll be back and I'll be ready!).  Maybe I'll get to use this sign instead.

 

One to share with other teachers - English/drama, for example.

 

Cheers

 

Ruth

Blue eyes, brown eyes: Jane Elliott's exercise in prejudice

Photo used under Creative Commons license.  LINK

 Jane Elliott, a teacher, first tried her blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise with her class in an Iowa school in the 1960s, in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King.  You may have come across mention of it in your teacher training, or after.  While Wikipedia isn't the be-all and end-all of research, it's not a bad source for an outline of what she did, and what happened next (and check the citation list for further links).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott

Photo used under Creative Commons license.  LINK

This came up at school recently when one of the seniors, from a Society and Culture class studying belief systems and associated -isms was asking me to help her locate information*.  Blue-eyed/brown-eyed came up in the discussion, and while looking for information we came across this 29 page pdf which covers the blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise and after in great useful detail (the Wikipedia article seems likely to have drawn on it, and it's not Stephen G. Bloom's only article on this topic).  Find it here:

Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes:

The Experiment that Shocked the Nation

And Turned a Town Against its Most Famous Daughter

By Stephen G. Bloom

http://www.uiowa.edu/~poroi/seminars/2004-5/bloom/poroi_paper.pdf

Here's an interesting fact from that document:

It was Jane, for instance, who complained to the Crayola Company about its single flesh-color crayon, and today there are ten flesh-color crayons — from ebony to sand. It was Jane who complained to pantyhose companies about nudecolored pantyhose, and today there are dozens of nude shades hosiery companies manufacture.

I have tried a version of this exercise with a senior class, some years ago: not as intensely/intensively as Jane; but it still had a distinct impact on the kids, got them talking and thinking. 

So, a link to share with your History/English/Society and Culture teachers, or any you think might find it useful.  Seemed a waste not to blog it.

The student also went away with a copy of The Wave, by Morton Rhue, a fictionalised version of a similar exercise.  Lots of different ways to approach and consider an idea.

Cheers

Ruth

* when we'd finished this discussion, the student remarked that the Pew Internet research site I'd referred her to for an earlier assignment had been just what she needed, so she had come back to me.  Nice to get repeat business from confident customers! - I hadn't remembered that occasion, as we have so many kids here and it's hard to recall every detail of every day's discussions and conversations.  I appreciated knowing.  The happy life of teacher librarians: repeat business from happy customers!



The Periodic Table of Storytelling

You don't believe me that there is a Periodic Table of Storytelling?  Behold!

I know, it's hard to read detail.  But it's worth it.  Toddle over to this link:
http://computersherpa.deviantart.com/art/Periodic-Table-of-Storytelling-203548951
and click on the link on the right there that says, "Download this image" to view it on your screen.

If you love it, you can buy a copy here:

http://www.deviantart.com/print/19205959/?
(the photo print is cheaper than the fine art one).



Here's the Artist's Statement:
Get a poster-size print of the Periodic Table of Storytelling! Writers, hang it up on your wall in a location where you can stare at it for inspiration and/or throw darts, if necessary. Fans and bibliophiles, keep a copy handy for easy reference so you can keep track of hairy plot twists. English Lit teachers, get one for your classroom and watch student interest soar!


These prints have a white, sciencey background (lab coat sold separately) and the box of examples at the bottom has been removed. 16-inch prints look good; 20-inch prints and larger appear truly impressive. I recommend clicking Photo Prints on the right--that'll get you a good 20-inch print at a lower price than the Fine Art prints offer.


This poster emits high quantities of Sciencium rays. These do not interact with matter in any detectable way, with the sole exception of making the person standing in front of this poster feel smarter. Bask in the tropey, sciencey, awesome-y rays!

This is but one example of the burgeoning field known as infographics.  As with any other sort of information, they can be used for good or evil; but the many good ones out there attest to their usefulness in providing a pictorial representation of information that kids can enjoy, relate to and learn from.

Share this one with your English teachers!

Cheers

Ruth

Guest Author Sarah E. Glenn (

Add caption

Vampire Review is very proud that guest blogger and author Sarah E. Glenn stopped by to present this fun look into the motivation behind her recently released title: All This and Family, Too. Available $5.00 Kindle edition and $15.99 in paperback.

Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts 

Guest Post By Sarah E. Glenn  

I've tried reading the 'serious' vampire novels - people like Anne Rice, etc. They really don't hold my interest. Even now, having written a vampire novel, I still don't read most of the vamp stories out there.  


To me, the devil is in the details. There are a lot of brooding vampires out there with both angst and income of unknown origin. Every vampire began as a human being, with desires, fears, and hopes. How did they get from there to here? That's what I want to learn. Some novels simply define vampires as a separate race, but I never find those as interesting.

When I do read vampire novels, I enjoy authors like MaryJanice Davidson (Undead and Unwed) and Christopher Moore (You Suck). Their characters never brood for undefined reasons. In fact, they often brood over problems they've caused through their own ignorance and stupidity. That's something that resonates with me, for reasons that would take too long to enumerate. 
My own stories frequently involve extraordinary people in ordinary situations - ones they are ill-equipped to handle. It wouldn't be any fun if everything went smoothly. Things go awry in very amusing ways - not for them, but for me. 

All This and Family, Too is the story of a lesbian vampire who moves into a gated community and learns that deeds can be restricted in more than one way. Cynthia Leach no longer has control of her work or waking schedule, nor an appointment book for the vampire hunters that drop by. Will she survive this tightly-regulated environment with the mixed blessing of her loving but dysfunctional family? 


Sarah E. Glenn's Bio: I have a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Kentucky. I've held a number of entirely unrelated jobs since that time: art intern at the billboard company, NCIC operator for my local police department, and teaching assistant for medical terminology. I like to write mystery and horror stories, especially when they include a sidecar of funny. 

Vampires Los Muertos Will Turn You Into A Mindless Zombie (Guaranteed)

I find it quite amazing that a movie made in 2002, Vampires Los Muertos, would look so much like The Hardy Boys television series filmed twenty years earlier. Not much seems to have improved since then in the way this low-budget action-flick was shot, directed or edited. In fact, many of the lines and scenes presented are so 1980's (lame) that I give it credit purely for having such an ominous groan factor. (I wouldn't be surprised if you end up laughing out loud if you have the stamina and desire to watch it.)

HUGE GROAN FACTOR:

The movie is full of incredibly lame scenes and overused movie lines. Here are a few examples:

• "Anybody who wants to make a run for it now would be a good time."
• "It's a trap"
• Hydraulic wench repeatedly gets jammed but the vampire hunters insist on using it until their stupidity proves so very frustrating the movie becomes funny (and it's supposed to be a horror film).
  
  EVEN MORE LAME: Main character Derek Bliss (Jon Bon Jovi) questions his rag-tag crew of vampire-hunters about what motivates them to hunt. Then, as he continues standing before them looking stupid he admits: "Me? I'm a dumb son-of-a-bitch who'd rather be surfing." 
  
  BASIC STORY: Pretty boy Derek travels with a side-kick Spanish teen (don't recognize his name/face), and an attractive woman named Zoey (Natasha Wagner) whose vampire-bitten but who who takes pills to stave off her blood thirst. Along with those three is a hot-looking priest/vampire-hunter, Father Rodriguez (Cristián de la Fuente). The four pick up a token black male (Darius McCrary) but his rough-and-tough character doesn't last long before a sexy vampire woo's him and he's turned "blood sucker" and then killed by his traveling companions.  So the four primary vampire hunters continue traveling in a rickety old bus they borrowed from a monastery called "MT Grace" in search for vampires but Zoey loses her "stay human" pills and begins to turn vampire enroute.
  
  
  IN THIS MOVIE, VAMPIRES (including one intensely beautiful vampire who won't die, played by Arly Jover)* Kill for pleasure and amusement

• Move faster than a projected bullet
• Often drink blood AFTER the human has been decapitated/murdered (is fully dead)
• Hang dying humans from hooks like hogs from the slaughter
• Burst into flames when exposed to sunlight
• Have retractable fangs and dark rings around their retinas
• Can be roped like a steer and dragged into the sunlight where they explode in fire
• Are killed by sunlight, beheading and/or a wooden stake driven into the heart
  
  CONCLUSION: All in all? I'd probably recommend that my readers stay away from this one (if I wasn't so brain-dead after watching it, myself). That is unless of course you really enjoy low-budget films that make you groan mindlessly just like a zombie (as I just did).
  
  The grossest scene (as I saw it) involved a vampire slowly yanking on a victim's tongue before her fangs elongated and that's when she killed him  - through his open mouth. There's one sex scene where it's strongly implied that one of the hunters receives an oral favor and that's where he is bitten (on his unmentionables).
  
  Director and writer: Tommy Lee Wallace

Breaking Dawn : film poster and movie trailer

Over at the lovely Bookshelves of Doom, I discovered the first Breaking Dawn movie teaser poster.

Yup.  That's all folks.  No brooding vampires or werewolves, no brooding/angsty Bella.  Guess they're relying on the font and title then?  I wonder if the book cover designer who chose this font for Twilight got the pat on the back they deserve for such a distinctive font (and that iconic hands/apple cover)?

I will be interested to see what the reaction is from the kids.

They'll be keen to see this...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbPxK5Zj9J4
if the above doesn't work for you.

The books have hardly budged this year, or most of last - borrowed here and there, but it seems as though most who want to read them have, (and more primary age kids have read them than was the case when they were new, so we haven't had new Year 7's leaping on them as we did a couple of years ago), others have seen the films so far and are happy with consumption of the story, and lots of kids, I'd guess, own them to read as and when they wish.  Still, Twilight and its sequels got a lot of kids reading, and they've been a useful springboard/marketing device.

Found the trailer via Twitter.

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 66: Requests (made public) (+ Eragon, book 4)

(Two years ago)

Miss, I want to reserve Eragon book 4
Um, as far as I know it's not written yet - ?
No, it isn't.
So is he going to write it, do you know?
Probably.  Maybe.  I hope so.
Well...
I'd really like to reserve it, Miss.
OK then...

The kids know I have a collection of requests on post-t notes on a laminated sheet in my office .  This is what it looks like pretty much all the time:

It's very much in plain sight, where the kids can see it and I can too.  When a book has been requested and ordered, if it's orderable; Eragon book 4 clearly wasn't) it goes onto a post-it note with the kid's name and goes on here (the white sheet was a rather long list a kid brought in with her).  When the book comes in, we marry it up with the note and the kid/s on the list get to borrow it first.

It's also really effective (in terms of me remembering and in terms of the kid making the request feeling nicely important and valued) to, if you can, ring your wonderful local independent bookshop at lunchtime while the kid is there, to ask them to get in/put aside a copy of this title.  Kids have this happy shine when what they want is treated this way - it's good library PR too. 

I put a lot of my orders through a wonderful local independent bookshop - they know their stuff, especially with young adult fiction, and are fabulously helpful.  And it puts money back into the local area's economy.  And they put up with lunchtime phone calls when I order a single book or two at a time; so the kids also are alerted to a wonderful local helpful bookshop, which is not a bad thing either.

So cut to this week.  Same kid, two years taller, two years older (but still at school.  I'd kinda begun to wonder if he'd still be at school when Christopher Paolini got around to writing book 4....) bounces into my office with a happy smile on his face:

MISS!
Yes?
ERAGON BOOK 4!
Yup, I know, that post-it note is still there...
It's coming out in November!
What, he's written it?
YES!
Really?  Wow.

We look it up.  He has. It will.

The happy life of teacher librarians: wishes do come true.

Cheers

Ruth