E-Learning--A Teacher's Perspective

Everybody keeps asking for student feedback and reflections on E-Learning. Hey, how about teacher feedback? Even though nobody asked, it's never stopped me from expressing an opinion.
I'll be right up front--I'm not a big E-Learning fan. Concepts that I could teach in minutes took entire lessons. My feedback was restricted to brief written responses that in many instances seemed inadequate. I wanted to discuss student writing, seek clarification, have them defend their answers, see peer responses, initiate real-time group discussions. That's why I entered the profession, to engage in real learning, not virtual learning. Oh yes, did I mention eye strain from staring at a video screen for up to eight hours? Many students did!
Okay, now that I've had my whine, I will admit this: I was impressed with student responses to online lessons. And I understand how important E-Learning is especially when pandemics surface, it's just that if I had my choice, I'd rather be part of the real classroom with live students!
In the meantime, get ready for more of the same. H1N1 is proliferating and all teachers are to start preparing for round 2 of E-Learning. Let the fun continue....

Slumdog Millionaire

Originally published as Q&A, Danny Boyle directed Slumdog Millionaire, and won the Best Picture oscar.
How did an Indian boy from the slums of Mumbai win one billion rupees on a gameshow? Thought to have cheated, the police decide to "interrogate" him. In the novel a female attorney rescues him before he can be tortured. In the movie he isn't as lucky.
The movie follows the novel structurally. The biggest difference is that Ram Mohammad Thomas' love interest is almost non-existent in the book but omnipresent in the movie. His flashbacks revealing how he serendipitously came to learn every answer growing up in India, differ radically from novel to screen: but both entertain equally!
Swarup even manages some thought-provoking questions. When Ram is treated to a night out by four affluent American college students, he debates the relationship between poverty and desire.
And I wonder what it feels like to have no desires left because you ... smothered them with money even before they are born. Is an existence without desire very desirable? And is the poverty of desire better than rank poverty itself?
After reading Slumdog Millionaire, you might be surprised how you answer that question.


http://class1a1.wetpaint.com/?t=anon

The Mercurial Tom

Serial novel #2.
This one is easy, but with a twist. We have our title. Students have to compose one 55 word Micro Fiction and incorporate the main character’s name “tom.” This can come in any guise! For example he could be named Tom, or incorporated in a word such as tomcat, tomfoolery, tomboy, found buried inside a word such as atom or atomic, or perhaps used as an acronym…”He belonged to the secret society Terrorists On Missions”or maybe it’s the first word from each line..








Forgotten
The boy didn’t know his name. Couldn’t remember a thing.
On the offchance, he approached a stranger.
Mystery shrouded the whole situation.
Perhaps he was worrying for nothing..
Probably a simple explanation.
“Of course I know you, Son. Your name’s Amnesia.
Or then again, is it Alzheimer? Come to think of it, I’m not sure myself.”
Deckard

Micro Fiction

Princess
Where does she go? The streets?
Out till all hours. Me pacing the floor. Midnight.
My beautiful baby, where are you? So young.
Finally a sound.
I open the back door. No restraint, my voice betrays me: “Where have you been?”
She looks down. Remains standing on the back carpet. Ashamed.
Her only response.
“Woof.”
Deckard







Infinity
The yearbook picture didn't do her justice.
She had infinite beauty: golden-blond hair; flawless skin; perfect teeth; statuesque.
Descended from royalty?
He sat with her in the IT lab.
The instructor said, "Right click on the screen."
He removed her scrawled handwriting with a Kleenex.
Infinite beauty, yes. Infinite intellect, no.
Deckard

Review: Village By the Sea

The dawn of a new repertoire company has emerged at Hwa Chong. This daring, and may I say eclectic group of Sec 1P4 boys transformed a simple classroom into a breathtaking landscape that made Slumdog Millionaire look like a child's production. The adaptation of Village By the Sea was at times daring yet sublime, extravagant yet subdued: this multi-faceted production captured the essence of the novel and brought it to the stage in ways that left this reviewer searching for words.
How a group of Sec 1 boys, or perhaps classically trained stage actors would be the more apt description, transformed a simple classroom into the slums of India and eventually the mean streets of Bombay still boggles the mind. The props were magical and this reviewer could taste the sea salt when the ocean storms struck and was transported to Bombay inhaling the heady mixture of cardoman, cinnamon and joss sticks.
Just as realistic was watching the lead not assume the role of Hari, but inhabit the role where at times it seemed the young man was actually speaking Tamil! Forget Pacino, Brando and DiCaprio, there's a new talent on the horizon and he deserves to be watched. Intently!
Vangelis, one of the most respected artists who scored such hits as BladeRunner, would have been moved by the musical score that pervaded the entire production and carried it at times from whimsical, to threatening, to hypnotic but never intrusively. Word on the street is that Andrew Lloyd Weber is interested in this brash, young talent.
Narration has often been the bane of stage and screen productions. Not this time. The narrator moved the story along effortlessly until he literally disappeared and audience members were engrossed in the cutting and incisive dialogue.
The three-camera filming that took place during the production can mean only one thing: there will be a screen adaptation. And with three cameras, it could be slated for Imax. Let me just say that after witnessing this production, I don't think a five-story screen will provide a large enough backdrop to encompass what these young men have accomplished.
Hats off, bravo, encore and just one word of warning--look out Slumdog Millionaire, there's a new academy award production worthy of Best Picture in 2010.

Temporary Blog for 1A1

1) Please read the short story by Somerset Maugham "The Verger." This is for Monday, May 18th.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6785439/The-Verger-W

2) Please define the following three words:

atheist

agnostic

devout
Quote: Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible. Stansislaw Lem

3) Next week, May 18 - 22 we will be studying micro fiction.

4) Now that you have a rough draft of "Animal Farm" chapters 6 - 10 on the topic of Napoleon's "rise" to power (2 main examples from each chapter), please write an introduction and conclusion to your essay. The full essay must be finished by Monday, May 25th. Finished and typed essays are due in 10 days!

Your essay's length is a maximum 400 words. Use the P.E.E. formula of Point/Evidence/Explain. Use the best two examples of Napoleon's tyranny from each chapter and very succinctly, construct your essay.

Confessions of a Chai Junkie

I was hooked the moment I tasted my first glass of chai--Indian sweet tea. Stall operators throughout India begin their morning by brewing the most intoxicating mixture of cardomom, fennel, anise, ginger, cinnamon and cloves to bring sleepy residents to life. Done properly, it's a pure assault on the senses with every taste bud rioting and saying thank you. I became so enamored with chai that I convinced my wife I had to buy a motorcycle. My excuse: to use it to get to work. The real reason: to expand my range in search of the perfect glass of chai.

And expand my range I did. No tea stall was safe in a city of 8.5 million inhabitants as my quest continued for the ultimate brew. I was relentless and left no chai seller untasted, but like most compulsives, that elusive perfect elixir was always in the next neighborhood or over the next hill.

It was through a pure serendipitous act that I happened upon my liquid nirvana. Pondicherry is a small French town two hours drive from Chennai. I needed a fix after my hectic two-wheeled journey when I happened upon the tea stall operator by chance. Instinctively I knew I was in for something special when I saw his throw. That's the distance he throws the finished chai from a full to an empty glass. This fusion process is critical to oxygenate and mix the spices. He held the full glass above his head and with a an uncanny ability tossed the complete contents into the bottom glass at his waist. Not a drop was spilled. When he handed me the finished product a perfectly-formed head sat atop the chai. I took one sip, wiped the foam from my upper lip, pulled out my notepad and wrote two words: Mission Accomplished.