Scribbler's Den

I arrived at my desk this morning to find evidence of some activity.  Someone had taken the time to carefully wrap a selection of my items in gladwrap.  It is amusing and I give the prank a 5 out of 10.  If I was to do this though I would wrap the entire desk as well as things the victim would actually use.  The only thing wrapped that I use with any frequency is the chair and honestly it is more comfortable now anyway.

Now I have to find out who did it and wreak revenge on a much greater scale than that which was wrought upon me. Mwaahaahaa!!!

My geography students are studying cities and the issues they face.  This week we are focusing on water management which is a primary concern for any town, let alone city or megacity.  To explore this facet of city management we started to watch Blue Gold: World Water Wars.

Blue Gold is a fascinating and disturbing look at how humans, namely corporations and cities, are managing water.  I first read about the film online at a torrenting commentary website called Torrent Freak.  I often download documentaries (that have been screened on TV overseas) via torrents because they aren't screened or released on dvd where I live.  By the way, Youtube is another great source of documentaries.  Anyway, I had no qualms downloading Blue Gold: World Water Wars because of Torrent Freak's article about the film.  Basically the filmmaker is happy the film is spreading via torrents because of the new audiences he is reaching.

My geography students are in Grade Ten which means most of them are around 15 years of age.  This age group, as most of you can probably attest to, gets bored pretty quickly regardless of the media I show them.  It is hard to compete with PS3s and the myriad of other media they access.  Well, this film had them hooked.  All of my students were clearly engrossed in the film to the extent they wanted me to stop the film several times so that they could discuss it.  If you are teaching geography or science I believe this film is worth watching.

Update:  Attached is a short comprehension sheet for the first half of the film.  If you end up adding to it please consider sending it my way :) - Download

My year 11s are in the middle of a short story unit. We have completed a recap of their short story knowledge and genre features.  We have also read through a series of stories and analysed them.  To cement this knowledge I thought I would throw a couple of short films their way and compare their structural features and key signifiers.  This exercise also helps break the monotony of text based instruction.  I have inserted the videos below.  I hope you enjoy and find them useful.

This is the first film, Copy

Cool Cat Teacher posted this video today about the use of mobiles for planning.  The last scene is hilarious and definitely would not be taking place at my school.

I would love for students to be able to use their phones as planners but I think schools will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to a time and place where they will consider it.  I can hear the arguments now;  they will be off task, phones will be misused, phones will become a tool for bullying ...

I would remind school administrators that these behaviours are happening right now anyway, in spite of their rules and policy.  I don't know what the solution is but I do know students LWAYS have their cellphones with them regardless of the school rules.  Teachers and students may as well take advantage of that.