FOOT - Pleasure Texts: Good & Bad

     The other night, my boyfriend and I decided to watch a movie, and we picked "New York I Love You". We were excited because it has an all star cast, including Rachel Bilson, whom I adore. Also, it features about a dozen different love stories involving the city and the people in it. Each story is directed by a different director, which my boyfriend was excited for because he has a film degree and loves all things film-related. Unfortunately, the stories were very very bizarre and we did not enjoy it very much. Seeing the different lighting, sound and editing choices that all of the different directors chose was really interesting though. I have noticed that I am much more inclined to pay attention to these small details than I was before. 

     Speaking of film, over spring break my friend Ryan is shooting a film-short in hopes of getting into film school at my house. My boyfriend is helping him, and I am pretty excited to see all of it happen. The story is about an insomniac who accidentally kills his girlfriend, and she starts haunting his dreams, so he never sleeps. Due to the insomnia, he still sees her because the lack of sleep is making me mad. I am pretty excited to help work on this, and maybe in my readings of "Great Films and How to Teach Them" I will learn a few things! I'll be sure to post some of the work we did, maybe as a video, if he is able to get part of it online for me.

     Another I guess you could call 'pleasure text' I have been reading is actually called The Dog Cancer Survival Guide by Dr. Demain Dressler, DVM. My pug, Polly, was recently (Valentine's day) diagnosed with mast cell tumors, and she has been going through chemotherapy for it. We actually went for her second treatment today, and her main tumor's swelling has decreased by fifty-percent! The vet said she is pleased with how Polly is doing so far in the treatment, which is great news. The book has taught me how to cook homemade dog food with cancer-fighting foods in it, what supplements to give her, how massage can help, and even how to meditate with her! The book has been helpful for me in the rough time, but we are hopeful for her! It was for my Kindle, and it updates automatically anytime new information in found. If you know anybody going through anything like this I would highly recommend the book for them.

UPDATE 3/4: Polly is doing well! After her chemo appointment on Tuesday, they said her main tumor has decreased fifty-percent in size! And the doctor is really pleased with how she is doing so far :)

PYTASH - Jago, Chapter 3

After reading the third chapter of Jago's text, I really wanted to dig out some classics and start reading them. I also am hopeful to have a choice in what classics I get to teach, too. I know it varies drastically on what school you are at, but I am hopeful to have some say in what I teach. I really liked the idea of 'Keeping Track of Reading' with the sheet that Jago included. I wish that I would have had one of those in middle and high school. I remember some novels or pieces that I have read, but forget many of them. If I would have had that sheet I think I would have remembered more. Also, I think that if we all had done that, westray to  could look back at the sheet and see how much we were reading as well. Something else I liked about this chapter was the part when Jago was talking about the reading lists she gave her students to read. It reminded me of our class last semester, and how we were able to have some say in what we were reading, but we had a few choices. This way, you are not letting students go completely astray to choose a novel, but still not making them read something maybe they are not interested in at all. I know that when we got our lists last semester, I went online and looked up the synopsis of all of the books and chose from there. I could see some books that made me say "Oh god no" and others that made me say "Oooh, I like this one!". I plan to implement both a reading list and a sheet to keep track of reading when I teach, because I think it would be great for the students. 
-Katie May

FOOT - Great Films, Chapter One, and Activities

While reading chapter one in Costanzo's text, Great Films and How to Teach Them, I instantly became interested in the text. I truly love movies, and I would love to incorporate them into my future teaching. So far, the book seems to really encompass an appreciation for both film and literature, and it seems like it will be a great tool to keep on my bookshelf. As I mentioned in class today, my biggest fear of teaching both a book and a film is that students will either skim a text or not read it at all because they know they will be watching a film afterward. One idea I had to guard against this would be to do the assessment(s), such as a paper or test before watching the film. I think by doing this, and maybe even not telling them they will get to watch the film, they won't skimp out on the reading and the film will be like a reward for them. You could also implement key terms that we study in English classes, such as motif, theme, mood, character, setting, etc. into studying the film. This is kind of like what we did in class today when we watched the beginning of Lost. Although I have seen the series before, and that opening sequence more than once, I was still excited to watch it. I think by choosing something up to date and interesting, we can help the students remain interested throughout the activity. I know this is not possible all of the time, but it wouldn't hurt.
     Something else I noticed from the text that I liked about using film was how the book mentioned that movies can show us something that we don't get to physically see when we read. Sure, we can see in our imagination, but the book mentions how in a film we can see someone falling in love, whereas in the text the author is telling us they are in love. I found that pretty interesting, and that might be something we don't notice as a difference between the two until it is pointed out to us. I think that both film and literature are crucial elements in understanding a story, even though they are very different. -Katie May

FOOT: Twilight Article Response

I just finished reading the article about the Twilight book series on our syllabus. I have to make a few things clear, first. I am very irritable when it comes to these books, primarily because of the hype. A lot of the time when things hype-up and I was not a part of them from the beginning, I never want to be. Not to mention they cast the two actors that make me cringe to play the lead roles! I also am not a big romance fan. I hate to sound so cynical but I really can not help how I feel!

Reading the article though has really made me appreciate Stephenie Meyer. She was once just a stay at home mom, and now she is probably a millionaire. What I really liked about the article was reading how in-touch Meyer is with her fan base. The article reads "She set up StephenieMeyer.com, a more personal site that revealed aspects of her life, including pictures and stories about her family and her Mormon upbringing. More important, she directly engaged with her readers. When fans posted messages, Meyer's response was personal. She'd write back or blog about it" (Carpenter, 2008. LATimes). This quote shows how engaged she is with her readers and fans, and I think that is great. Perhaps if I were teaching this novel or teaching a novel with an author who was this engaged, I would encourage my students to write to her/him, or maybe write one whole e-mail as a class. It would be really neat to have them contact them or be contacted back. Or at the very least, have the students check out that author's blog.

FOOT - Little Brother Final

     After finishing Little Brother, I can conclude that I really enjoyed the text. As a reader, I really got to watch Marcus grow up. Although the book was less about teens and more about 'taking over the system', I feel that at the same time it was a coming of age story about Marcus. He himself even says that he 'looked so young' in photographs that were only a year old, when really I am sure he did not change much physically, but emotionally and mentally.
    I also really enjoyed the VampMob and his tales about LARPing. They were hilarious and reminded me of the movie Role Models where one of the characters was LARPing throughout it. I also was able to think about several more ideas for lessons and lesson plans. I think that there is a lot you could do with the text, including maybe a co-lesson with a history teacher about the government. I think that character profiles would be fun to teach, too, since we get to watch so many of the characters change and grow throughout the novel. In conclusion, I can really get into the idea of teaching this book, and I think the students would enjoy reading it, too.