Metaphors are a tool used to compare one thing to another. It is essentially saying that those two things are one in the same. The use of metaphors is a perfect way to make writing more creative and diverse. When giving examples, being able to relate something directly to a thing everyone knows is a good way to get the point across. It is important for students to understand how great this concept is. When using a metaphor as a teacher, the students will learn more quickly. If most students in the classroom are into sports, relate the subject of your lesson to a sports concept that means the same things. Use it as a metaphor to really help the student understand. You can do this with any particular interest or movement; all you have to do is find a way to connect the two.
I decided to concentrate on one of the top ten metaphors of 2005. The metaphor deals with hurricane season, and many broadcasters used baseball terms to relate the impact of the weather. The most popular of these baseball terms was catcher’s mitt.
The particular phrasing for the metaphor was that the “Gulf Coast was a catcher’s mitt for hurricanes.” This implies that all hurricanes for that year gravitated themselves to the Gulf Coast. The catcher’s mitt, or the Gulf Coast, caught all of the storms that year. It seemed to catch them more frequently in that year than in recent memory. The metaphor that is used helps to show that everything was being pulled into that general area. It was a lot easier for people to say this phrase than to try to go into a long description of how the Gulf Coast had attracted all these storms in its particular area.
Memes are extremely important for us as teachers to focus on. Popular culture dictates what is going on in our classroom, and memes are a key concept to this culture. A meme is anything that sort of catches fire and becomes a fixture for society. Everyone has heard of a lot of the most popular youtube videos because they all become extremely popular through word of mouth and sharing. That is exactly how these things are created. Every single day, we see something new that pops up out of nowhere and becomes the next “it” statement or entertainment. Meanings are changed constantly based off these pop culture references. Teachers need to be careful as to what they do in the classroom and what their students are doing and saying. I have personally heard in many places where a certain number of wristbands can tell things about your personal life. I never experienced that in my high school, but a high school in the next county had this issue. These are just trends that have to be focused on in order to stay more connected to your students. I know these things can be extremely hilarious at times, but we need to pay attention to the deeper meaning of these subjects as we progress to the classroom.
The most interesting thing that I took out of the novel was the fourth question he raised to society. He asked, “Is it possible to preserve the best of American traditions and social institutions while allowing uncontrolled technological development? He goes on to say that many would say yes, but they seem to hasten their response after giving it. People as a whole are not completely sure of what to say regarding this topic. I, on the other hand, believe there has to be some sort of rationale in thinking on how to use technology. I also do not think about doing all the negatives that can be done with this type of control. I choose to do the normal, everyday sort of things that the average American does with his internet and technology. I see obvious examples of how negative of an impact technology could have on our society as a whole. I think it is interesting that he brings up the points of George Orwell, Mary Shelley, Ray Bradbury, and others who forewarned us about the obsession of technology. It seems that they saw something negative coming, but nobody seemed to truly listen. That being said, I do not feel as if anything has progressed to a point of being worried. Our traditions and institutions have not been overtaken by the technology of today. If anything, the technology has only enhanced each of these experiences to this point. There is no doubt in my mind that it could all drift toward the negative side of things, but currently, everything seems to be fine and dandy.
Most of the article deals with what to teach our students and what we should know as teachers prior to entering the classroom. The value on patriotism, rights, and amendments is expressed throughout the whole article. I, for one, think these are important concepts to have a grasp on in the classroom. I am not sure if teaching patriotism is the right route to go, but informing your students of their right and amendments and allowing them the chance to express them is important. They need to have a firm sense of what is going on in the world and in our nation. They need to know what it means to live her and the importance of the things we are blessed with.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is simply a great novel. It is the exact contrast Little Brother by Cory Doctorow for me; I loved it. In a futuristic setting, Suzanne Collins creates a Survivor type game to be the center piece of the opening novel for the trilogy. There is only one catch; only one person is able to walk out of the game alive. This combination of Survivor-esque tactics and Gladiator style battling create for an interesting novel. The back story is just as amazing. The futuristic world has crumbled into a dwindling society. The area that Katniss grows up in is run down, and many of the people struggle just to find enough food to eat. There are different districts spread throughout the modern day United States and one capitol. The capitol is where all the nice things are. They create this battle of teens throughout each area to determine who can bring ultimate glory and honor to the district in which they live. This novel even has a potential romance building that can be focused on for the future of the trilogy.
This novel focuses on so many aspects of life today. It deals with government influence and how they are trying to control what goes on in our lives. It deals with how society has always had a tendency to watch even the most grotesque things and not think twice about it. Americans today have an obsession with reality television and peoples’ misfortunes, and this aspect of life can only get worse from here. This shows a time where all of these things have gotten out of control. All of these bad habits and circumstances have progressed to a stage in which things are as bad as they could be.
Outside of those things, young adults will(and do) love this novel. It has had a pretty high level of success. It really presents things for anyone and gives a great interest to both genders. There are enough battle scenes and manly things to keep the boys of the younger generation eager to keep reading. The girls will find themselves relating to Katniss in some aspects and maybe even enjoying the potential love building. The mental aspect to the novel is just a plus on top of all that. It constantly keeps you guessing and wondering what is coming next. This is a great novel to introduce into the classroom, and one that I think the kids would respond to. It is engaging, and it would be something that would actually hold their interest.
Personally, I did not care for Little Brother by Cory Doctorow all that much. It just never really grabbed my attention, and I even had a hard time finishing it. It just did not catch my attention, and I failed to focus on it completely at any point. The book is about the government watching over us in everything that we do through technology. Technology is used to overpower the normal individual, but Doctorow’s characters use their knowledge of technology to evade all the obstacles in their way. The rebellious teen angle is an interesting one to take; I think this aspect would grab a lot of young adults’ interest. Most teens try to do anything possible to live outside the lines set for them. The novel plays a lot of attention to security measures taken by both local authorities and the federal government. The security standards and control they have over technology is overbearing. This has been something people in the United States have been worried about for a long time and is often referred to as Big Brother, stemming from George Orwell’s novel 1984. Technologies uses can be negative as seen in parts of the book, but they can also be positive. Doctorow manages this aspect quite well honestly. He mixes in these bad uses and negatives that can happen with too much technology but gives a great way in can be used right after it. I was amazed at how many things I actually learned that you could do through this novel. There were many times where I was hit by a term that I had never heard of. Google and Wikipedia definitely became my best friends while reading this novel. It is kind of shocking to me that this novel can give away some of the knowledge and “how-to” on the issues it does and get away with it. The novel was a good experience; however, I cannot honestly say I will ever read it again or recommend it. I just was not enamored by the book.
In class, we discussed how to analyze an image or picture that you see. We did a search online to find out different things that appealed to us, and the suggestion was even thrown out there to write on an image for our projects that were coming up. Since we were doing infomercials, I began researching different products that intrigued me. The main one that got me was Bottle Tops. This was around the time they came out, and they are a truly great invention.
There are many things that seem to pop out as soon as I look at this picture. The first would have to be the graphics that say SNAPS ON! and AS SEEN ON TV! The word Bottle Top at the top of the picture stands out as well. It comes in an obvious set of 12 which is displayed by the words and the tops in the background. The framing seems to emphasize the can of coke with the bottle top being placed onto it. It is interesting that they use a red bottle top to go with the red can as well. I think it works as to not take any attention off one or the other. They also display the other colors in the background to make sure that they are seen. The picture at the top right is kind of an afterthought. You see it, but it does not really stand out at all. She seems to be enjoying the invention, but I personally feel as if they could have done a lot more to stress how great these tops are. The lighting is interesting as it focuses on the can and top as well. The lighting seems to dim the further back in the picture it goes. The background of the image is also blurred to prevent any attention being taken away from the product. Overall, the image seems to stress the importance of the actual product. I think they should have done a lot more with the visual effect at the top, but it really works to entirely focus on the can and top.
Podcasts are a really interesting subject to look into. There are so many out there, so there is really an option for anyone. We reviewed Nerd Fighters, Anderson Cooper 360, and Grammar Girl in today’s class. Grammar Girl seems to be pretty interesting. I have not had a chance to listen to one of them yet, but the topics of the discussions piqued my interest. Nerd Fighters looks like it could be added to the daily lists of websites that I go to. It looks really funny, and everyone could use a good dose of funny in their day. As for Anderson Cooper, he is not really my cup of tea. I am not a huge fan of him, but I am a huge fan of the news.
Education implications are everywhere. Grammar Girl provides a great tool to the education world. She provides lessons on the correct ways to use grammar, and that is something everyone could use. Teachers could easily use podcasts as a way to connect to their students and parents alike. A teacher could easily post lessons or important announcements for people interested to hear. On Scholastic, they provide a list of podcasts that are great for both teachers and kids. There are truly endless activities that can be done with this technology.
This project had to be one of the most frustrating for me throughout my college career. At first, it was a pretty smooth sailing experience. I had my ideas, and everything was flowing pretty well. I knew where I wanted to go with the project and mapped it out accordingly. As problems began to pop up, I was able to maneuver myself around them. The vision of my presentation changed as I was putting it together. It originally was going to focus on just the stereotypes that are presented in a young adult sports novel; however, I chose to mold it into a introduction to that specific genre. It made sense for me to highlight stereotypes still, but I also wanted to put in some of the other features of these novels. There are three core themes or characteristics in this genre, and each were talked about in the presentation. I really liked the idea of presenting this as the beginning of a unit or project for my future classroom. I would love to have my class read some young adult sports novels while in my class, and this project would be the perfect(maybe not perfect) gateway to the genre.
I also discovered that this would be a good thing to do for a lot of my lessons. It would be useful to use this type of project as an opening to any new unit or concept we will be studying. However, the process for completion is very time consuming. I do not know if I would be able to have this type of opening for every project in my first year, but I can see this being a huge part of curriculum by the time my third year rolls around. I think my students would really respond to the use of technology in presenting projects, and they would also maybe be interested in learning to do it themselves.
I had three major problems when putting together this project. The first one happened as I first starting the project two weeks ago. I had just inputted half the slides, and my laptop came unplugged. This would not be a problem for most people, but my battery is zapped which results in my laptop shutting off immediately. It erased everything that I had done and even forced me to download Photostory again. This was by far the most frustrating thing that happened. I put the computer down and took a long break from the project. When I returned to the project, I had a hard time getting my slides to save correctly. They were saving as transparent images instead of the way I had them. After some maneuvering and improvising, I was able to get them to save correctly. My last problem is my fault; I had the bright idea to just save the voice recording for the last minute. This was the biggest mistake I made personally in the whole process. The microphone that I was using would not stop doing a clicking sound, and I had a hard time getting it to transition properly. I was able to at least get this part of the project to be presentable even though I am still not very happy with how it turned out.
Looking back on the project, I really wish I would have done things a bit differently. Seeing the final product, I think there are a few different places I could have went with it that would have been more effective. If I would have focused on maybe a more specific aspect of the genre, it might would have flowed more effectively. However, I do think this would serve as a great example for the opening of a unit or project on young adult sports novels. This project took a lot more time than I was thinking it would, and it was truly a challenge. I am happy and pleased to say that I was able to complete something that was challenging to me. I was very intimidated by the project at first, but I really feel like I learned a lot and can improve my abilities in the long run.
In class, we discussed how to analyze an image or picture that you see. We did a search online to find out different things that appealed to us, and the suggestion was even thrown out there to write on an image for our projects that were coming up. Since we were doing infomercials, I began researching different products that intrigued me. The main one that got me was 
