All Blog Posts (229)

March of Time Newsreels Now Available

From 1935 to 1967, Time Inc's newsreel series, "The March of Time®" chronicled the events of our lives. The March of Time® separated itself from its competitors using its trademark "pictorial journalism," mixing highly-produced, long-form, documentary-style stories with dramatic re-enactments. These award-winning motion pictures recorded global events and brought them to big screens around the world and then… Continue

Added by Frank W. Baker on July 13, 2009 at 12:34pm — 1 Comment

The motor city... get ready for the Live Poets!

http://livepoetssocietybx.ning.com

While it's nowhere near as intensely populated or heavily trafficked as Making Curriculum Pop, my students and I have created a Ning where we'll continue posting our writing, photography, music and videos both in preparation for our workshop at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit next week (www.alliedmediaconference.org), and to document our trip. Keep it live and follow us (not on twitter, but on our own site!) as we traverse the midwest and… Continue

Added by Lauren Fardig on July 8, 2009 at 10:13am — No Comments

Media Literacy Embedded in New P21 Curriculum Maps

Media literacy is embedded in the new Science & Geography curriculum maps released today by P21 at NECC. According to the press release: "The 21st Century Skills and Science and Geography Maps demonstrate how the integration of 21st century skills into science and geography classes support teaching and prepare students to become effective and productive citizens."

Note: the press release, surprisingly does not provide links to these documents, and finding them on the P21C website… Continue

Added by Frank W. Baker on June 30, 2009 at 1:43pm — No Comments

Detroit on the Horizon!

Hey there,

So, as I'm on AIM with one of my Detroit project super-stars, emailing someone about our lodging, and working on updating the Ning we started, I'm feeling the tangible taste of this adventure. Backing up a bit, this is a trip that I conceived in my head before I ever taught at BK. I have attended the Allied Media Conference in Detroit for a few years now, and also the first ever conference, called the Bowling Green Zine Conference, in 1999 on the campus of BGSU, in Ohio. I… Continue

Added by Lauren Fardig on June 22, 2009 at 9:43pm — No Comments

Julia's ABC Song Finds Its First Images

Find more videos like this on Making Curriculum Pop

As a special education teacher, I need to modify instructions to fit different students' needs. Creating a new version of the ABC song was also started because of one of the students I worked for a couple of months.

Joe enrolled in kindergarten in the middle of January. He was developmentally delayed along with other… Continue

Added by Julia Kim on June 21, 2009 at 5:00pm — 4 Comments

The Music Instinct: Science & Song (PBS Special)

National Broadcast day/time: Wednesday June 24, 9-11pm (check your local PBS listings)

Title: The Music Instinct: Science & Song

Description: This documentary provides a groundbreaking exploration into how and why the human organism is moved by music. New work in neuroscience is giving us clues to the mysteries of how and why music penetrates the brain and the emotions. The program follows visionary researchers and accomplished musicians to the crossroads of science and… Continue

Added by Frank W. Baker on June 17, 2009 at 12:51pm — 2 Comments

We Need Music to Survive

“My parents love music, but at the time they were unclear about its value. The confusion is understandable: We put music in the ‘arts and entertainment’ section of the newspaper. But music often has little to do with entertainment. Quite the opposite." Read the remainder of this essay.

Added by Frank W. Baker on June 13, 2009 at 3:16pm — No Comments

Media That Matters: Tools for Change

Media That Matters: Tools for Change

The Media That Matters film resources illustrate the use of short films on community transformation projects and as vehicles of self-determination. The presentation we received in class was one of the more powerful sessions we had (for me), as it showed how a) the accessibility of new media technology, b) grant resources for traveling and filming, and c) short films that explicitly expose details on community development, contribute to d) media as… Continue

Added by Raven on June 4, 2009 at 1:55pm — No Comments

How Twitter Will Change The Way We Live (TIME magazine essay)

Excerpt: "Put those three elements together - social networks, live searching and link-sharing - and you have a cocktail that poses what may amount to the most interesting alternative to Google's near monopoly in searching." Read Steven Johnson's essay here.

Added by Frank W. Baker on June 4, 2009 at 10:14am — No Comments

SAT Scoring for Pearson

Hey is anyone out there an SAT scorer (current or former) for Pearson? I'm wondering what they pay, and what you think of the opportunity. I've applied.

Added by Lori Rogalski on June 3, 2009 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Teaching Copyright: New Resource

“Kids are bombarded with messages that using new technology is illegal,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation activist Richard Esguerra. “Instead of approaching the issues from a position of fear, “Teaching Copyright” encourages inquiry and greater understanding. This is a balanced curriculum, asking students to think about their role in the online world and to make informed choices about their behavior.”

Added by Frank W. Baker on June 2, 2009 at 8:41pm — No Comments

Game Theory: Video Games for Social Change

CGW (Computer Graphics World magazine) carried this piece recently about engaging young people with video games for social causes. Here it is.

Added by Frank W. Baker on June 2, 2009 at 3:46pm — No Comments

Need help with my master's project: your experiences using popular culture in the English classroom

Much like many of you here, I am a life-long devotee of popular culture. I have nightmares about my iPod dying, I can relate nearly any mundane occurrence in life to a Simpsons episode and I restlessly await the next opportunity to be completely baffled by a new David Lynch film. Unsurprisingly, when I decided to become a teacher, I envisioned a classroom that embraced popular culture as a means of facilitating critical thought. I wanted to create a learning environment that engaged… Continue

Added by Bryan Stevens on June 2, 2009 at 12:00am — 2 Comments

Do you know who Captain Queeg, Howard Beale, and Chauncey Gardner are?

Now, that I have your attention: this is an op-ed in the latest issue of The Christian Science Monitor, one of my favorite newspapers. The writer references "retrotalk" and "retroterms" and says today's TV talkers seem addicted to making cultural references that mean nothing to younger audiences.

Added by Frank W. Baker on May 26, 2009 at 8:00pm — No Comments

We Are Everywhere Youth Summit Animoto!

Hey Everybody!

The youth summit was a great success, and

(animoto_video-1.mp4)

my moving image contribution is an animoto video put together to commemorate the work accomplished there. Animoto.com is a great resource for creating slideshows with some style and finesse...check it out!

Peace,
Lavie Raven

Added by Raven on May 26, 2009 at 1:12pm — No Comments

A Moment of Triumph, a moment of doubt

as I sent the acceptance email for our workshop at the allied media conference,

I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. I am taking steps to make this dream

come true. It’s just that the steps just seem so small, and the journey so far. I’m

not sure that this will happen for us. But I am committing to making it happen,

so it will be – I am the creator of my own destiny, right?

I had the students write “summer bucket lists” of things that they wanted to get… Continue

Added by Lauren Fardig on May 25, 2009 at 12:25am — No Comments

Reflection on Science and Film in a classroom at TTP 2009

As a fan of Science Fiction, in literature as well as on screen, my ears perked up when I heard that during TTP '09, there would be a science education section. I was curious to find out how film could be used in a science class and how students would learn from this type of teaching.

My curiosity paid off, Napoleon and Ryan's presentation on screening the film 6th Day in a science class,… Continue

Added by Caitlin Nagle on May 19, 2009 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Lavie Raven's Final Project: UHipHop Global Unit Plan and Associated Music

Peace all,

I am submitting this description for activating the UHipHop Global research project in my class last year, and student work from the unit this year. I have done this project with students for the last five years, and it blossomed from general overviews of hip-hop to studies of social movements to studying hip-hop and other community arts work as community development. The project involves students studying community arts, hip-hop, and how the two connect worldwide in… Continue

Added by Raven on May 11, 2009 at 11:22am — 4 Comments

Creative Music and Writing with Shakespeare - A Multiple Literacy Approach Utilizing Garage Band

OVERVIEW

This lesson plan was inspired by Dr. Kist’s presentation “New Literacies in Action.” His lecture was very animated and fun. It reminded me how much of a difference it makes to be aware of what the interest of students is and use that to keep them focused and engaged during the learning process. As I mentioned in my blog reflection, Kist’s book is full of inspirational examples, but I was particularly impressed with Peacock Middle School, where the music curriculum had the… Continue

Added by Yoonkyung Lee on May 7, 2009 at 3:00pm — 3 Comments

Final Project: Making Multidisciplinary Connections with Digital Video Narratives for a Web 2.0 Audience

Introduction:

The project reflected upon in this Ning Post provided a multidisciplinary learning opportunity for my students to collaborate with students in another country via short videos that each student produced and edited in my classroom. Our hopes are that the children in Darién, Panamá will be able to learn about the students in Connecticut and create a dialogue between the two Dariens using web 2.0 technologies.…