Two Situations: Blackboard and the flu

Okay, here are the situations:

1. I have an unfortunate case of the flu and missed my Technology for Teachers class, Student teaching in the Secondary classroom class and student teaching yesterday.  And my Shakespeare class today. The staged reading for my student teaching class was Monday--it went extremely well and I will post pics later. Now I'm trying to play catch up with my classes.

2. My mission which I've chosen to accept: write about Blackboard.

The "Blackboard Academic Suite" is on every NYU student's Academic page. Students can get assignments and readings from Blackboard, they can submit work and communicate with class members via message boards and email. It's also a tool for teachers who use it for communication and posting assignments, suggested readings, etc. When a student logs into her NYU account and goes to her Academics page, the Blackboard section comes up on the right hand side of the screen. See below:

I personally like the hearts next to the class names--there's something nice about that touch. So you click on a class and you go to that class' Blackboard. There are different sections within a Blackboard--Assignments, External Links, Announcements, etc. This semester I've spent the most time on Blackboard for my class,  Technology Resources for Performing Arts Educators.  I usually go to the Assignments section. For each class the professor has a folder with the assignments and directions. (Recently they've become quite challenging). This is what the Assignments page looks like:

For this class, there is a lot of crucial information for completing assignments. By creating a folder for each class with the assignments and some directions, Blackboard is being utilized in a way that is simple and efficient. It also makes it easy to go back to earlier assignments, review the directions and clean up your work.

I don't think Blackboard really has a negative--it's all in the way the teacher uses it and expects the students to use it. For one class we had to post a response a video on the message boards. We also had to respond to a classmate's response to the video. In this particular instance the flow of information was a little choppy; you had to tinker a bit to see how the tree of posts was laid out.

Every teacher uses Blackboard differently. Some just post additional readings and the syllabus there and you don't have much reason to go to Blackboard unless you need those things. For other classes you post all of your assignments there. For my Dramatic Activities in the Elementary Classroom our teacher had us post all of our lesson plans and warm-up activities there so the class could share with each other. The professor asked us to choose our favorites and put them in our final portfolios which was a smart idea on his part. I'm grateful to have those lesson plans and warm-ups now.

Overall I think Blackboard is a good tool for teachers and students. Teachers use it to fit their needs and students have no confusion about where to go for things. They can also send class emails out from there with just one click. That recently came in handy for me for my Student Teaching class.

Alright, I'm out for now!

DG

Student Teaching: Documentary Theater

Here's the situation: I am a student teacher at a middle/high school in Brooklyn. Today I taught my 4th class of a unit on Documentary Theater to a theater class of juniors and seniors. The form of documentary theater that we are doing is sometimes called interview theater or verbatim theater-the dialogue is taken word-for-word from interviews with people somehow connected to an event or subject matter.

"The Laramie Project" is a well-known documentary theater play, centered around the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young man in Laramie, Wyoming. He was targeted, tortured and killed because he was gay. The members of the Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, Wyoming and spent weeks there interviewing people directly and indirectly connected to Matthew Shepard and the tragedy that was the brutal end of his life. When they left they had done over 200 interviews. From those interviews they created the characters and dialogue for the play, one of the most widely performed plays in the country now. I saw the show with the original cast from the Tectonic Theater Project when it was off-Broadway. It was the most moving piece of theater I've ever seen.

Below is a link to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the organization founded by Matthew's parents. Their vision is to "Replace Hate with Understanding, Compassion and Acceptance” through a variety of educational and outreach programs, and by continuing to tell Matthew’s story.

http://www.matthewshepard.org/our-story

"The Walk" is the working title of the interview theater project I am developing with the students. The piece is centered around the SlutWalk movement. What is a SlutWalk you ask? This past January Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto policeman, said the following at a college talk on personal safety:

"You know, I think we're beating around the bush here. I've been told I'm not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized."

This comment incited an international movement of marches called, "SlutWalks" to protest what many believe to be a society that blames the victim and not the system. The students that I'm working with had a range of reactions to the name, "SlutWalk." I have mixed feelings about it myself.

The students have created characters around short bios that I gave them. The characters are in some way related to the SlutWalk movement, some indirectly, some more directly. They did character work, interviewed each other in character, dictated the interviews and edited them. Today they brought the interviews in and read them in small groups to each other. It's a difficult subject matter and our time is so limited. The curriculum I originally wrote for a documentary theater project, centered around 9/11, is actually two units: creating the piece and then organizing it and putting it up as a production. The students involved in "The Walk" are doing everything in four classes and one rehearsal--then they have a staged reading on Monday, 11/14!

I'll update next week after the staged reading.

This image of the Toronto SlutWalk was taken from:
http://generationvegan.tumblr.com/post/4324013478/slutwalk-toronto-3-soo-amazing



For more information on SlutWalks go to:
http://www.slutwalknyc.com

DG

"Help Desk: Introducing The Book"

The situation: Watching a YouTube video about operating a book.

I just watched a YouTube video titled, "Help Desk-Introducing the Book." It's a clever and funny video about a help desk in the middle ages. A friar-type character calls the help desk for help operating...a book. He's been waiting around all day for help. The "techie" comes and laments that it's always tough with "a whole new system" because everyone needs help. First the techie shows the friar how to open the book. Once the friar opens the book, he fears turning the page will make the text disappear. He says, "So I turn the pages?" But the techie reassures the friar that he can turn the pages backward and forward and the text will remain.

Toward the end, he asks, "How do I quit for the day?" I laughed out loud. It seems so obvious to us but this scenario must have happened. In today's world, it's a similar scenario for people that are just learning how to operate a computer. It is brand new to them and they NEED help. But the friar gets it finally, we think. He says, "And when I'm finished I just close it?" Once the friar is happy and seemingly understands the basics, the techie leaves only to be urgently called back. "Now I can't open it!"

This is a still from the video when the friar asks what to do when he wants to quit for the day.


It's funny and not too long. Check out the video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cd7Bsp3dDo

I'm out!