Category: Media and Mischief

It doesn't add up.

I have a problem.  This doesn’t add up. I feel negative about this. This is less than, not equal to, what I want to see. I was helping my son with some pre-algebra homework, and decided to go to the website his teacher says is a good source for help. I’ve been there before, but the links to the “free” help are hard to find. While searching, I found this page:

No Tears Math

 

Now – here’s the problem. Actually, I have a few:

  1. Look at the “bias.” They advertise if you want to be “happy” and “stop crying” you should use this website.
  2. The pretty girl creates bias as well — the viewer,  girl or boy, sees this girl, who signs her name coyly,  “me,” and she looks happy and friendly, and who doesn’t want friends? And look–she’s holding a sign that says:
  3. ASK YOUR PARENT TO PAY.

As many of you know, in persuasive writing, there is a ‘call to action.’ Well, the call to action is clear on this page, (got to hand it to them on that one!), and it is this: if your parents love you, if they really love you and want you to be happy, and not cry over math anymore, they will fork over their hard-earned cash that, gee, I don’t know, they might need for food or rent, and buy you on-line math help. The more they pay, the more help you will receive, so if they really, really  love you, they will pay more.

Oh, dear.

Well, grab your hankies, dear boys and girls, dry those tears, because I am going to give you FREE help with math: Y+O+U.

Yes. You.

You know more than you think you do–you may just not be aware of all the resources you have. One thing you should know is that the math teachers at our school are awesome, caring people who will do just about anything to help you. For free. There’s homework help after school. There are resources aplenty, and you can use your laptops to search for great, free math help, like:

http://mathforum.org/dr/math/

http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/web/2000/heal/mathsites.htm

http://www.mathnerds.com/mathnerds/ (in Spanish, too!)

I ended up calling some of my math teacher buddies to help out – I was close to figuring it out, but the little extra insight really helped me help my son. Being a Language Arts teacher, I used my own reading strategies to help me dissect and analyze word problems, and that helps a lot, too. I love when a solution really comes together.

Holy da Vinci, Batman!

 

 From The Writer’s Almanac:

It’s the birthday of the comic-book author Bob Kane, (books by this author) born in the Bronx (1916), who was working at DC Comics in 1939 when his editors began asking for more superhero characters to follow up on the success of Superman. Kane thought about it over the weekend, and on Monday morning he turned in some sketches of a character he called Batman. The character made his debut in DC Comics number 27, “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” in May of 1939. He is alter ego of multimillionaire Bruce Wayne and one of the few superheroes in the history of comic books who doesn’t have any special powers. He’s just rich enough to build himself special crime-fighting gadgets. Kane said he based the character partly on Zorro, because he liked the idea of a fashionable rich guy dressing up as a vigilante at night to fight crime. He got the idea for Batman’s costume from a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci of a bat-winged flying machine.

So, burning question:

Your faced with a creative challenge. What do you do? What resources will you draw from, (literally, if you’re an artist, or figuratively, if you’re tangling another sort of task)? Did you ever imagine that Bob Kane would use the genius of a 420-year dead guy to inspire him? Happens all the time.

Grog Goes Green. (Or Not.)

Read this article: For Early Man, Going Green Wasn’t Easy: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112124572

cavepainting

So, even our ancestors didn’t have an easy time keeping the planet from harm. But did they imagine, as they were struggling for survival, that our skies would blacken with pollutants and poisons, our oceans would fill with plastic islands, miles wide and deep, or the land would be filled with garbage for hundreds of years? Who knows?

Here are some questions to think about:

Who’s responsible for our futures?

Is progress always right, or always wrong?

Does technology change cultures, or cultures change technology?

Music to Our Ears…

Video: The Guitar Maker

Jack White, Jimmy Page, The Edge
Jack White, Jimmy Page, The Edge

One thing we can all agree on is that we don’t all have to agree – right? Your tastes in music may be very different from mine. But, don’t be too quick to jump to conclusions and assume I only like one type of music. I like a lot of genres of music – everything from The Beatles to Black Eyed Peas, from Mozart to Moby, and everything in between. I put my i-pod on random shuffle and listen to the surprising results. (When did I download that? Oh, this is one of my favorites. This is new! Cool!)

Some music I grew up with when I was a teenager, back when I rode a dinosaur to school and only had three channels, included U-2 and Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin’s heyday began long before I was in high school, but once I heard them, I thought, yeah…this is awesome! In college, when I had a broken heart, I listened to Since I’ve Been Loving You about 1,299 times.

During my senior year a friend of mine, Chris, told me about U-2, telling me it was, and would remain, one of the greatest bands. Ever. Period. I wish I knew where he was today so I could tell him his prediction turned out more than true.

The White Stripes is an acquired taste, but I do like their raw, simplistic sound.

There is a documentary called It Might Get Loud coming out on August 27 that highlights the three main musical talents, geniuses, gurus, whatever title one may wish: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Jack White, and The Edge of U-2. Yes. The Edge. That’s his name.

So, I’ll be there, front row seat, hoping to get a glimpse inside the hearts and minds of three very talented musicians.

What are you listening to?

Super Circus Freak-y…

One of my former students LOVED the Cirque du Freak series, long before anyone had taken a bite out of the Twilight apple. If you check out the Dog Ear blog, she gives the trailer a mixed review, stating it gives too much of the plot away. I’ll leave that up to you to decide – remember, it’s always better to read the book first before seeing the movie anyway. The movie should just enhance what images are already in your mind. The casting director’s job is to find the best actors and actresses to portray the characters faithfully.

The movie’s release date is scheduled for October 23, 2009.

Fail.

No, I don’t mean you’re all going to fail.

What I’m referring to is a new use of the word, a verb, “fail.” A verb is an action word. It’s something someone or something (the subject) does, did, or will do. Example: I failed my math test. (Bummer.)

Now, “fail” is also being used as a noun, or interjection. An interjection is an exclamatory remark, such as, “hey!” Fail has come to mean something didn’t work.

Example:

My cousin Lee's cup of coffee, as posted on his Facebook page
My cousin Lee's cup of coffee, as posted on his Facebook page

He titled this photo, “Fail.”

Coincidentally, and with a great amount of serendipity,  this morning when I opened up my Visual Thesaurus account, there was an article about the word fail. Along with that, there was a link to a New York Times article on the Buzzwords of 2008. This led me to think about how language changes over time, sometimes slowly, sometimes overnight. I was pleased to see Jack Black’s Kung Fu Panda “skadoosh” made the cut.

Skedoosh....
Skadoosh...

Changes in language sneak up on us. We don’t really keep track consciously, and then, voila! We’re using words we weren’t a year, a month, or even a day ago.  Think of developing your vocabulary that way, too. Add new words, use them, understand them, and build your brain. Think about it: when someone says “skadoosh,” you know exactly what they’re talking about, because you’ve seen the movie, you have BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE, it’s part of your SCHEMA.   The more you know, well, the more you can know.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night…

 

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Now you’re going to think I’m obsessed with crows. I’m not. (At least I don’t think I am. In any case, that’s between me and my “doctor.”) My husband sent me this link to this story, including video, from Wired magazine. Again, these birds are demonstrating intelligence and creative thinking. Check out this story and links, and let me know your thoughts: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/aesopscrows/

Questions: Who was this fellow Aesop they refer to in the article? What did he do that he is now famous for? Do you know of stories from your own culture that are like Aesop’s? Could you write a modern-day fable? What would be the moral or lesson?

Hayao Miyazaki – Gentle Genius

We all have people we admire, whose work and talents make us all better people. One blog I follow is by a man named Mike Baker, and he had the chance to meet one of his heroes, Hayao Miyazaki. Spirited Away and Princess Mononokeare two of my all-time favorite animated movies. What an incredible opportunity. Read what he has to say about his experience, and start to think about someone you would like to meet, and what do you think the encounter would be like: would your hero live up to your expectations? Where would you meet them? What would you ask them? What would you want them to ask you?

http://mikerbakersdump.blogspot.com/2009/07/hayao-miyazaki.html

For a trailer of the new movie Ponyo, visit here: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1877738009/