Final Project

PREFACE

I promised my mother before she died that I would continue to write. Perhaps a book, I thought, or more likely, scattered rants and uninteresting rhymes scribbled on sticky notes and napkins that float away easily with a stiff wind. I guess she wanted me to promise because she knew what peace it brought to me. Self-therapy, I guess. I remember making that same promise to myself years earlier on Black Hawk Mountain after deciding not to jump. The wind was stiff there as well. In the small harbor village of Boscastle, England, there is, what tourist brochures describe as, a conservation area amongst some of the most beautiful countryside within the British Isles. I made the promise there while sitting on a jagged rock, which I boldly claimed as my own, and licking the droplets of mists from the ocean air off my lips. The sun was dipping her body below the horizon and the shadows stopped dancing. I thought of it as enchanting as well as a catalyst for change. It started to rain. The promise was again made in cell 34 of Blue Earth County Jail some years later. This time I wrote the promise down, as if I needed the reminder. I used a dull pencil so as not to stab myself or anyone else. There was no wind.

My story, my life, is written for myself. Each one of us has a story, and you, the reader, are no different….

Week Six - Image Essay

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Incredible Bargain Prices on Quality Publications

Tired of boring cognitively draining text books? Sick of the monotone drawl of english folk acapella's belting out lyrics of out-dated theories and paradigms (enough to make even Gallagher's ear's bleed)? Tired of educational DVD's that lack useful content, contain ho-hum imagery, and are linguistically a nightmare in the area of commentary ... makes my glottal stop STOP! Well then I have the collection for you!

I.B. Learnin Inc. is proud to offer a NEW collection of quality U of M English Cohort 2009 Books, CD's, and DVD's. You heard right... the cohort is out ... in publication that is. This incredible collection, entitled Beyond the Sunset: A Journey with the U of M 2009 English Cohort, contains a plethora of beautiful music, magical imagery, and mind-blowing content. Edited by Yellow Dart Inc., including Matt "Krazy" Knutson, Emily "EZ-does-it" Somers, Meagan "mispronounce my name again and I'll..." Hymes, and Abi "A bi checkin' yo gramma beach" Narish, this collection is sure to be exact and error free (unlike this blog).

In addition to divine grammar, this collection offers a magical collection of heart-warming imagery, inspiring hope and promise to those seeking educational euphoria. Photographed by award winning Brittany "B. cool" du'Monceaux, Jeff "just sit down and let me take the pic" Bernett, and Kristin "Kute pics only" Bergsagel, Beyond the Sunset is sure to excite your optic nerves and stimulate your retinas. And speaking of stimulation, the writing style and compilation of Beyond the Sunset is a pure masterpiece, a hairball of classical rhetoric regurgitated on parchment. Written by award winning gold-star-in-third-grade writers, Anna "An na nother great story" Johnson, Jamie "Get to the point" Geissler, Erin "no error in my writin'" Murphy, Kate "the Great... need I say more" Kleinberg, and Kelly "Kick %$#" Rudh, Beyond the Sunset is an anthology of pulchritudinous poems and prose.

And what would a music/photo/writing collection be without the resplendent lyrics and exquisite sounds of the English Cohort Philharmonics? The orchestra, lead by Molly "the Maestro" McCarthy, is of world renowned fame. Including oboist Matt "snake charmer" Centers, Adam "slip of the thumbs" Hayes on triangle, and uber famous thrash metal guitarist, "the big 'O' Rebecca Oberg, the McCarthy orchestra is sure to dazzle and bewilder audiences of all ages.

Accompanying the orchestra is Joe's barbershop quartet. Lead by Joe "dead kittens from the ceiling" Adams, and including members tenor Jason "Danger" Carpenter, bass Josh "The Lion's Lair" Lehr, and baritone Sam "man I sing good" Homan, "Joe's quartet has toured world-wide and appeared several times on national television. After a debut appearance on Hee Haw in 1971, Joe's Quartet found immediate fame, landing appearances on The Dukes of Hazzard, The Tonight Show, The Office, Tiny Toons, and a special guest appearance on Friends, playing the Friday night gig at Central Perk. Joe's Quartet also made it to the big screen, with cameo appearances on Steele Magnolias, The Piano, The Gods must be Crazy, and recently, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. In addition to group success, Sam achieved individual fame playing Oliver "Daddy" Warbuck in the 2004 Broadway production of Annie and Jason was cut in half by magician Hans Klok on televisions The Wonders of Magic special.

Closing out the CD /DVD is one of the most inspiring, touching, moments ever captured in video cinematography, a tender, wistful performance of the chart-topping single "Super Bogus" by trio Jen "Just call me Angel" Jones, Kim "Cumbia my Lord, Cumbia" Kubsch, and Rick "Filling the souls of the the youth with song" Filipkowski. Choreographed by Abdullahi "Light on my Feet" Bashir, Jen, Kim, and Rick danced and sing in perfect sychronization, leaving the audience mesmerized in wonder. You won't want to miss this epic performance, now captured on a convenient 14 DVD/CD/Book Collection set, for the low low price of $484.53.

The CD, featuring "Super Bogus", "The Night I slept at the Kitty Kat Klub", "Reflection, reflection, what's your connection", "Techno - ology Remix", "Pest Control", "Corporal Punishment" (solo by Joe), and "The Paradigm Jive" can be bought separately for only $43.27. Please make checks payable to Morrow Educational Products ... Making fun of the world... one person at a time.
So, what was this blog supposed to be about? Oh yeah, a photo essay... which I chose to be about technology. In Sara Kadjer's article, "Unleashing potential with Emerging Technologies", she states, "It's as if our instinct lead us to take what we've done in the past and reproduce the process using different tools to create the same product" (214). I think this is somewhat true in using the new literatures, they are just simply tools to engage students. I think by using new literacy’s and technologies to supplement traditional texts, we are better able to engage the students. Once we have the students engaged, I feel it would be easier to bring them back to a more traditional approach, but we need to get their attention first:

"Recently, however, our single-minded focus on alphabetic texts in composition classes has come to seem outdated, even obdurate, in the face of practical realities" (Selfe 72).

"Global communications - for example--exchanged via increasing complicated computer networks that stretch across traditional geographic and political borders and that include people from different cultures who speak different languages--increasingly involve texts that depend heavily, even primarily, on visual elements (New London Group)" (Selfe 72).

As technology continues to change, I think, we as educators, need to be aware of those changes, and embrace some of their uses. Through using these tools we may allow access to literature that students may not connect with otherwise. For example, when VCR's and DVD's became popular, more and more educators used them as tools to show visual representations of a text in the form of a movie, documentary, or performance. These tools have since, become the norm; I don't know many classrooms without them. Just as the technology continues to grow and spread in today's world, we too, need to sprout up, embrace the new world, and extend our branches of knowledge ....