Blogging about Blogging

I like to blog when I have something to say.

For those of you who don't know me well, I usually have something to say. My problem is that I rarely have anything to say that is educational-blog-appropriate.

A blog is like an online journal; a collection of shareable thoughts that other people can have access to. Sometimes your friends will read. Sometimes random people you don't really know will read. Sometimes, like in this class, your professor will read.

Isn't it amazing, the writer's block we suddenly get when we know that our professor will be our audience, reading our collections of thoughts? I can't think of how many times I've typed something and saved it to my drafts only to delete it and write about something menial.

*Sigh*

Self censorship. Only for the brave of heart.

Elton John Multi Genre Project

I was looking around for examples of multigenre projects and I found this one. I thought it was very informational and extremely creative on the student's end.. One of the good things about multi genre projects is that we are able to view an abundance of information but we don't really feel like we're learning. Still we are able to take so much away from it. I think that is one of the many benefits of multi genre writing. For those who like to be visually stimulated by educational content, this is an area in which they could easily be interested and the possibilities are certainly numerous and rewarding.

Learning a Language

I'm trying to learn a language and I cannot help but wonder why I wasn't made to start sooner. It's seriously frustrating. Studies show that the best time to teach a child a second language is during the very young years of his or her life; preschool and, most importantly, prepuberty.

In that case, why do we start language learning at the high school level? Did any of you take a language before ninth grade? I'm not sure if this just happened in my high school, but I know that I was only required to take three years of Spanish to graduate.

What were your experiences with language learning like?

Three Rules

In high school, we did play one improv game I always really enjoyed. We would do it while we were reading a novel (The Hunger Games, for instance. I'll use that since it's popular). There would be a certain number of characters from the book chosen (this is determined by the teacher. So, let's pretend I'm the teacher and I chose three characters: Catniss, Cato, and Peeta).

The audience (the rest of the class) sets the scene (For example, they'll say "Let's pretend Catniss, Peeta, and Cato went fishing...") Then, students will volunteer to play one of the characters. After the three lucky students volunteered (or were chosen), they came to the front. The audience then made up three rules.

The rules were usually silly like "the person playing Catniss can only talk in questions" or "none of the actors can say words ending in 's.'" After the three rules were established, the scene began. The scenario had to be played out, with each character behaving as they would in the book, and all three of the rules had to be obeyed.

When an actor broke a rule, the class caught them by yelling "Off with his (or her) head!" and booed them until another actor jumped in and took over his or her place as the character in that scene.

To add some twists, the teacher made up new rules. Sometimes, she would pause and tell everyone to perform an action. It would quickly turn into a game of Simon Says or memory.

It was a good ten minutes of fun :) and educational, believe it or not. Just thought I'd share!