I feel I should make a public statement on the discussion board furore that erupted last week. A breakdown in communication led to a confrontation between myself and one of my learned colleagues. Things were said, questions were raised, Wikipedia articles were cited, disciplines were mocked - it got ugly, but I feel I am a wiser person because of it. I now know the pitfalls of discussion boards and how tone does not translate well across monitors. I also now know to think before I post; perhaps an online sarcasm-meter could be experimented upon? My colleague and I have patched things up and all is forgiven.
Something I've been wondering: what is the policy on students signing up for online services for educational purposes, considering Facebook have an age restriction of 13? Do we need to seek permission from parents if we wanted to set up a class Facebook profile or Twitter feed?
It's interesting to see that people have started to revolt against netspeak or textspeak, with a Facebook page created for people against talking "lyk dis". Many of the people I have seen join this page are people I went to school with who I used to get annoyed at when talking to them on messenger. Personally, I've never been a fan and I have gotten much flack from people who ask me why I insist on using full English text in phone messages and chat windows - the answer is simple; I've worked hard to become fluently English, so why should I discount that? I don't think there is a place in school for using netspeak, despite what David Crystal might say. It's not necessary, especially when it seems that it is being phased out (in terms of microblogging, I rarely see abbreviations of vowels in people's Twitter feeds). The basics of English are still having to be taught to many year 7s and above, so I really can't stand up and defend using Netspeak in the classroom at all.
On another note, I'm less enthusiastic about wikis now, as I tried setting one up earlier and got a headache!
Hopefully, a more lighthearted post will appear during the break (I did see Chicago the other week and I'm eager to give a review), so until then...
Who are the people who edit Wikipedia? Yes, it can be done by anyone, but what are the things people are more likely to edit - the things they are interested in or knowledgable about. In the following documentary, people discuss their use of Wikipedia and whether or not it is a reliable source for information. Interesting points for discussion: is the information we want students to look up likely to be wrongfully edited (especially in Simple English Wikipedia); Wikipedia is a collaborative enterprise, i.e. social constructivism at work; the need for students to cross-check references; do the students know how to use Wikipedia appropriately (once again, critical literacy). Here is the documentary, it's an interesting watch:
And Michael Scott's interpretation of Wikipedia and why we need to teach our students the possible dangers of blindly following Wikipedia articles:
Finally, an examination of the pitfalls of Wikipedia (including the Encycolopedia Britannica debate), College Humor Style:
With Andrew Lloyd Webber writing a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, I thought I'd try my hand at coming up with a concept for another musical sequel - Les Miz 2: The Beggar Cometh.
This new musical, following on from Les Miserables and set roughly ten years later at the onset of the First World War. Ms and Mme Thenadier have now relocated to Germany to benefit from the spoils over the War, only for a series of comedic events to occur that eventually end up with Ms Thenadier (here given the name Lewis) being a tank driver on the battlefield and Mme (Cheri) Thenadier becoming a hospital matron. In an amazing turn of events, Lewis comes across Marius (now a commanding French officer) and betrays him, leaving him at the mercy of the Germans. Cosette (disguised as a male officer and infiltrating the Germans) has to decide whether she follows the virtuous path set out for her by Jean Valjean and saves Thenadier, her childhood tormentor, or lets the Germans have their way. Marius, meanwhile tracks down Cheri Thenadier, seeking her help to return Cosette to him from the person who created her dark, tormented side.
The new musical contains songs such as: Revolution!, A Flee In The Dark, Soldier Girl, War Of A Thousand Faces, The Beggar Cometh, The Trouble With Yemen, Bullets and Bombshells, Espionage Of Life, The Marching Song, Master of the Burn Ward, Decadent Deceit and many, many more.
It's a work in progress - I'm open to suggestions.
(This post was written with tongue firmly in cheek - I'm aware Les Miserables takes place a long time before WWI. This disclaimer has been added to prevent Mr Hugo from rolling in his grave).
I find wikis to be the most useful tool to be used in a classroom context that we have covered so far. The more interactivity available in Wikis, as compared to something like a walled garden, appeals to me as a better resource for keeping a class log, but on a more structured level than a blog. Basically, I feel that the use of a wiki is somewhere between a walled garden and a blog. The question remains: what is the best application of a wiki in a classroom setting? I think the concept of using a walled garden as a class hub for students, parents and the teacher can be applied to wikis, with the added bonus that students can edit (and thus have some sense of ownership) of content. There could be a general information page on the class and then specific pages for each learning area. A downside to this would be the possible time limits of the teacher and convincing students and parents to comment or spend time editing pages. A more realistic application of wikis in the classroom would be setting one up for a specific project, tying together a number of learning areas and giving students the chance to post their own comments and link to their own research as they find it. I will write a later post, detailing a worked example of how I see this working.
I'd be happy for suggestions and for comments on what you believe the broader uses of wikis could be? Could wikis be used as a whole-school initiative, i.e. creating a wiki for an entire school?
Just a quick one - Dave Grusin's The Goonies finally saw a release from Varese Sarabande, which I shall have very soon along with Jerry Goldsmith's early effort The Spiral Road. LaLaLand promise to release something major on the 23 March, so I'm anticipating that along with their upcoming release of David Arnold's complete Independence Day score. I picked up Elfman's Alice in Wonderland and it is superb, a true return to form for Danny Elfman. I'd post more, but right now my ears are all for Andrew Lloyd Webber...
After spending the last couple of days closely listening to Andrew Lloyd Webber's newest musical Love Never Dies, my first reaction is that I like it. The story, being a follow-up to his smash-hit The Phantom of the Opera, is perhaps lacking in integrity and plays out like a soap opera, however one could find numerous faults with Webber's adaptation of Gaston Leroux's original horror-romance. It needs to be said, however, that people don't tend to flock to ALW productions for the intricate stories, rather they go for the tunes - and Love Never Dies certainly delivers on that front.
The fact that LND is a sequel to Phantom will immediately prevent a lot of people from giving this new musical a chance, which is a shame because there is certainly some magnificent stuff in it. I've only really known the show for a year, after seeing it live in Perth last March; however in that year Phantom has jumped the ranks to become one of my favourite musicals, only below Les Miserables. The idea of a sequel excited me musically - where could ALW take the voices from Phantom and how would his matured orchestral style benefit the score. The result is a score that bears more resemblance to Sunset Boulevard in it's romanticism than Phantom of the Opera, which isn't an issue since Sunset is easily Webber's best since Phantom (up until now, that is). Love Never Dies is also set in America's Coney Island at the turn of the 20th Century, so it makes sense for the music to be stylistically similar to Sunset. A carnivalesque atmosphere permeates LND, but it's the expected love scenes that really stand out.
HERE BE SPOILERS. YE BE WARNED!!!
The gist of the story is that The Phantom (under the name Mr Y) has set up an attraction on Coney Island called Phantasma, where Meg Giry is the headline act (an ooh-la-la girl) under the watchful guidance of her mother, Madame Giry. It seems that Meg has been smitten by The Phantom after the events of the original and wants to impress him by being the showgirl she thinks he wants. The Phantom, however is still pining for Christine Daae - the woman who was trained to be the best soprano by him and ultimately chose Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny over The Phantom in the original musical's climatic scene. Christine, now married to Raoul and with a ten-year-old son Gustave has accepted an invitation to perform at Phantasma, strangely unaware that it is the Phantom enticing her back into his clutches. Christine and family travel to Coney Island, where it is revealed that her relationship with Raoul is struggling (likely because of the feelings she still holds for the Phantom) and that the Phantom and Christine shared a night of passion before Christine was married to Raoul. From here, it's not a long stretch to realise that Gustave is actually the Phantom's son, something which Raoul is blissfully unaware of. The situation comes to a head when the Phantom makes a deal with Raoul to pay off his gambling debts if he leaves before Christine sings. Raoul ultimately loses and Christine sings, leaving her to finally be the Phantom's prize. Everything would have ended nicely, except that Meg Giry, furious that Christine has returned to take away her fame (and affection from the Phantom), kidnaps Gustave and attempts to drown him. The Phantom rescues the boy, but Meg has found a gun and threatens to kill herself if the Phantom doesn't choose her. The Phantom talks Meg out of it but makes the mistake of saying (or singing) Christine's name, causing Meg to crack and shoot Christine. Christine dies, leaving the Phantom to care for his son. Phew! So, it's not a great story, but again - it's about the music!
"The Coney Island Waltz" sets the mood for the show and builds the tension inherent in revisiting these characters. The Phantom's first appearance in "Til I Hear You Sing" is breathtaking and is what sold the concept of the sequel to me. The revelationary "Beneath A Moonless Sky" is likely the most beautiful piece ALW has ever written, but is probably also the most likely to get the mire of Phans for it's suggestion that Christine and The Phantom consummated their affair. The first meeting of Christine, Meg, Madame Giry and Raoul is a clever waltz, "Dear Old Friends", that reminds of the orignal show's "Prima Donna". Gustave's meeting with the Phantom is an interesting rock-ballad "The Beauty Underneath" that parallels Christine's first meeting with the Phantom in "The Phantom of the Opera". The "Entr'acte" is Lloyd Webber's orchestral sensibilities at their finest, really gearing excitement for the second act. "Devil Take The Hindmost" is my personal favourite from the new show and scores the deal between the Phantom and Raoul and sees the score at its most lyrical. The much-talked about aria the Phantom writes for Christine and is the dramatic highpoint of the show, "Love Never Dies" is indeed a showstopper and despite appearing in past Lloyd Webber productions feels comfortable here. The finale, "Please Miss Giry, I Want To Back..." has all the swells of a typical ALW finale, but brings together the tapestry of motifs created for the show. Overall it is a sumptuous is score and in time I think I'll like it more than The Phantom of the Opera.
In terms of it being a sequel, I feel the music is more about the parallels between this show and the original, rather than outright statements of previous themes. The motifs for "The Angel of Music" and "The Music of the Night" do reappear here, but they are highlighting dramatic moments, such as Gustave entering the Phantom's lair and Meg remembering Christine from long ago. An outright statement of the previous score comes right before "Love Never Dies", with Christine having once again to make a terrible choice between Raoul and the Phantom through song, much like "The Point of No Return" in the original. As I already suggested, "The Beauty Underneath" reflects Christine's first meeting with the Phantom in "The Phantom of the Opera", whereas "Til I Hear You Sing" offers similar chord progressions to "The Music of the Night". "Beneath A Moonless Sky" hints at "All I Ask of You", both musically and lyrically. "Heaven By The Sea" reminds the listener of "Masquerade" in the ensemble performace, whilst here instead of an opera within an opera we have Meg's vaudeville act "Bathing Beauty". It is the parallels to the previous score that remind me that it is a sequel, rather than the altered characters.
Ultimately, I find the score to be sublime and a nexus of Andrew Lloyd Webber's skills as an artist and this is what makes it a musical masterpiece. Will the show be a success? I don't know - the story is weak and screams out "soap-opera", but taking the merits of the music alone it should find some success. I do hope it comes to Australia, because I will gladly go and see it. I'll leave you with some footage of the London show to try and convince you to give the album a listen.
This is how I see a day of changing pedagogical ideas in a primary classroom (year 6):
Students start the morning by signing their name off the class register using the SmartBoard (this sounds mundane, but takes the form of students moving their names into a speech bubble that has been created by the teacher - students can also edit the font and colours of their name, depending on how they are feeling that day). First up there is a fitness session that is tied in with maths: the students need to find an average time for running three laps of the oval (to be put into an upcoming assembly item). Once the students have run and gotten three times, they return to the classroom and as a group come up with the number of laps that can be done in 45 and 20 minutes - this acts as both a lesson in finding averages, changing units and how to use Microsoft Excel.
We now move on to an integrated literacy/Society & Environment session with students viewing ABC's Behind The News (BTN) and the students pick out relevant stories to further investigate. Today's task is based on the note-taking process, whereas previous tasks have been on writing reports or extrapolating the original story. Using one of the reports on BTN, one involving the furore over Peter Garrett's home insulation bungle, we carry out an investigation on why this is such an issue, looking at factors such as what insulation is, how it works, what has gone wrong, the money involved, the politics involved with the aim of making suggestions as to how this problem might be fixed (tying together Science and S&E).
We end the day by practicing the upcoming assembly item, as written by the students and focussing on our recent Healthy Lifestyle unit of work. The students have come up with The Biggest Winner - a TV program based around healthy eating and fitness. The script has been edited as a class (using the SmartBoard) and we are now up to the live performance in the undercover area.
This is partly based on a day I was in school last week, with some minor tweaking of the BTN material. It's interesting to see how student-centred these lessons are and how the use of technology is an accessory to what is actually being learnt. The teacher acts as the driving force, shifting the focus from one subject to the next, with the students doing a lot of investigation and inquiry.
With the increasing interactivity available with Web 2.0, there is a greater need for teachers to be open to experimentation and inquiry-based learning within the classroom. A constructivist approach needs to be used, with ICTs used as a tool and integrated across all learning areas. For this to happen, teachers need to be aware of Web 2.0 functions and students are capable of achieving using the internet. From what I have seen in schools there is a shift taking place amongst students, where new technology is being brought in and teachers are using it in their lessons (sometimes against their will).
A lot of what I see is still very much Web 1.0 based and there seems to be resistance in allowing students to do more complex and interactive Web 2.0 activities. There is still an awe factor in classrooms that make using computers something special, instead of something normal - I've seen students in year 7 shout "Yes!!!" when they are allowed to use the internet for a project. I think teachers are beginning to understand the value of having ICTs in the classroom, but we're still a while away from total normalisation (depending on the school). To change the students' thinking we need to change our teaching, so I propose shifting to Pedagogy 2.0, with more interaction, more questioning, more social construction and more guided discovery. More on that in a later post.
And trust the British to come up with a comedy skit that perfectly demonstrates the "wow" factor of "The Internet" - this is how I currently see the internet being treated in schools and it needs to change. (Unfortunately I'm not able to embed the video, as the embedding has been disabled - but here's the link:)
I'm a 21-year-old, currently studying to be a primary teacher. I'm also an aspiring writer and composer and I like to teach kids how to swim in my spare time. Normally I have far too much on the boil that nothing ever really gets done.
