Have you ever been in a fight with a banana slime monster and needed a quick getaway?
Do you want to be cool and hip like Hannah Montana?

If you answered "yes" to either of these questions, then you need the Hip Hover Board 5000.

It spins, flips, sings, takes pictures and, of course, hovers!

People have been using hover boards for centuries! It's an American tradition!

Buy this board for only $20898 dollars or else!

---

This advertisement features three logical fallacies.
- Appeal to Celebrity: This fallacy says that if a celebrity believes something, then it must be true.
- Appeal to Fear: This fallacy appeals to emotions, and tries to persuade by making you fearful of not agreeing.
- Appeal to Tradition: This fallacy appeals to traditions, and says that since we've been doing something for centuries, it must be the right way to do things.

Oh, snap!

For more awesome logical fallacies, check out this site.

Your blogs about alternative energy got me really excited! It is so incredibly amazing all the technologies that we are using to come up with a solution to our energy woes (as comically described above).

Some blogs that I particularly enjoyed:
- Caitlin's indictment against wind power
- Itzel's hope for rainbow power
- Danielle's description of a WAVE FARM (woh)
- JD's blurb on banana power

Check 'em out! And leave comment love. :)

This weekend, you and your debate partner should work on your Affirmative Cases. For your official prep, you need only finish your case outline, type it, and bring your typed draft to class on Monday.

But, since you know what to do to finish your case, you may also research and collect evidence for all your arguments.

I also uploaded the case used during the debate on Wednesday so that you can see a finished Affirmative Case, complete with introduction, conclusion and evidence galore.

Check it out here.

Happy researching!

Today we read two chapters from Maya Angelou's Wouldn't Take Nothing for my Journey Now.

In your own blog, write a response to these two chapters. Here are a couple suggestions of what you could post:

1. A quotation that struck you from the reading, and what you liked about it
2. A "found poem" from the reading with words or phrases that stuck out to you
3. Your own idea of "the good life" and what that looks like to "live well."

After you post your blog, go to Google Reader and read and comment on at least three other entries posted by other members of Team Vista.

As part of our Life & Death Project, we read "Our Town" (1938) by Thorton Wilder. In Act III, Emily goes back to the land of the living and realizes that she never realized anything at all. She has a farewell to the world, and for your writing assignment tonight, you should copy the style of the Emily's monologue. (Need the handout? Click here.)

I enjoyed writing this, because I kept remembering all the things I love about life that I would certainly miss if they were taken away from me. Remembering what you'd miss is a great way to remember to appreciate what you have.

Good-bye world...good-bye gentle sunrises and glorious sunsets. Good-bye Mom, Dad, Caitie and Jas... Good-bye blue & green room, and red curtains, and artwork still unfinished. Good-bye students - I barely knew you. Good-bye mismatched socks, and holy shoes, and cowboy boots. Good-bye freeways, and free-drives, and singing out loud with all of my heart. And coffee, and blueberry muffins, and tea, and toast with jam. Good-bye green grass, green trees, blue sky, and whimsical cloud creatures. Good-bye ocean, mountains, lakes, rivers. And sea shells, and sand on my feet, and wind in my hair, and sun on my face.

Oh, stupid planet. You were so much more than I knew. I wish I had opened my eyes to notice.

I look forward to reading all of your good-byes! I hope you love the rest of your day - all that is left of it, anyway.

-k

Bonjour mes étudiants!

As you are all slaving away finishing your Perspective Blocks, I am looking ahead to the next project -- the Life & Death Project. It's gonna be sweet & I'm very excited.

Since we all love music so incredibly much, I wonder if you can think of any songs that revolve around the idea of life & death?

Yazmin's song she presented in class a couple weeks ago is one of the songs that first comes to mind: "Gone, like yesterday is gone. Like history is gone. The world keeps spinning on. We're going going gone."

Any others?

Bianca gave me Twilight a couple weeks ago and I finally sat down to read it. It's actually all I did last night! Honestly, I was skeptical about the craze over this book. A human falling in love with a vampire? But it caught my interest and now I'm falling in love with vampires too.

I also completely understand how sometimes you guys can't put away your books when we're trying to work on other assignments in class. It's a hard book to put down! I'm excited to read it later. Thanks for the recommendation, guys.

"The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when someone asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer."
- Henry David Thoreau

For your perspective block, you need to interview someone about their views on immigration! This is an incredible opportunity to really communicate with someone, and hear what they have to say! They will appreciate you taking the time to listen to their story - trust me!

Remember, you can interview anyone you want, including someone you don't know. The only rule is that the interview must be spoken and not written.

If you want to review the interview notes and questions we went over in class, click here to download them (PDF): Interview Notes & Questions by K. Flewelling, the Stud Muffins and the Flying Pigs.

Your interview notes are due Friday at the beginning of class.

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. ~Victor Hugo

Humanities is the story of human existence, and some stories cannot be said with only words. In the Perspective Project, we are exploring the variety of perspectives within Team Vista -- and there are many. This Friday, we will share our perspectives with music.


On Friday, come to class prepared with:

1) Your favorite song

(you may bring 1 minute of music -- this can be a medley of songs, if you prefer, but it may only be 1 minute!!)

2) A written speech about your favorite song

For your speech, please tell us what it is about this song that you like. You may tell us anything about the song, its artists, what you love about it, how it makes you feel, what it tells us about you, or anything else that you think is important. I warn you, one minute will probably feel like a long time! So make sure to really think about your speech and what you will say. You might even want to time it to be sure it is the right time.

I am so looking forward to a wonderful day of music! I am also excited to share my favorite song with you (still deciding between two... so Friday will be a surprise to even me!)

Much love.
Kay

We will use our blogs to share our ideas with each other and the world. Welcome to the magical world of Internet blogging. I hope you have fun!

Imagine that you are a Haitian -- you live in the poorest country on the planet, and the rising cost of food in your country is leaving you and your family with hunger pains every day. What would you do for food?

Write a journal entry about your day, and what you would do for food.

If you want to further inform yourself about the situation in Haiti, check out these articles from BBC News Online:

Food riots turn deadly in Haiti
Hungry mob attacks Haiti palace
View from Haiti: Aid Worker

Photographer Orphan Tsolak took this picture of a global salad. Its ingredients come from three continents! Lettuce from France, Tomatoes from Holland, Cucumber from Spain, Chilies (peppers) from Zambia, Spring onions from Mexico, Cheese (feta) from Greece, and carrots from Britain.

For this project, we will answer the essential question:

How does food tell stories about the world?

Project Description: In this project, we will explore the history of the world through the foods of the world. You will work on a team of three to take a close examination of one country and its culture – particularly when it comes to food! Your team will guide the class in a discussion and exploration of the culture of your country, and will create one food dish to share with the class. We will also look at the political science of food, and how and why some people have it and some people don’t.

Literature: Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond (select chapters), country-specific literature (Library books are a requirement!!)

Skills Taught & Emphasized
- Lesson planning
- Speaking and presentation
- Cooperation
- Geography knowledge and map-making
- Research
- Cooking

Things You Can Expect:
- Map quizzes
- Country quizzes
- Group work
- Refinement
- Food
- Short reading assignments
- Opinion blogs and commenting

Final Products:
- Teacher Days
- Exhibition at Festival del Sol (April 22) (Food + Visual about Your Country)
- Team Alpha Passport (Your team will create one page)



CALENDAR of EVENTS

Week 1: Food & the World
Intro to Project & What is the significance of food?

Week 2-3: Research Countries (Spring Break)
Write 2 Annotated Bibliographies* on books about your country

Week 4: Awareness & Preparation
Global inequalities awareness and understanding, lesson planning

Week 5: Lesson Plans & Story Telling
Lesson plans & passport pages

Week 6: Food & the World
Teaching Days continue

Week 7: Present & Reflect
Festival Del Sol – April 22
Test (April 24) & Project Reflections

Team Alpha story time was incredibly enjoyable for me yesterday. Your creative ideas and stories are fabulous, entertaining and awesome. I hope you all keep on working through your ideas this weekend.

As preparation for our presentation and display of our photographs and stories on Thursday, this weekend please:

1. Refine your first draft of your story (type this please!!)

2. Write your artist's statement -- this is your opportunity to talk about the photograph that you chose. Write about one paragraph. We will display this by your photograph.

Additionally, please finish the reading in Tom Swift -- there will be a quiz on chapters 16-25 on Monday.

Contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Best,

Kay

Someone in d30fresh suggested that we try to take a picture of the interaction between humans and nature, and when I was walking along the streets of North Park this weekend, I saw this plainly:





I like these photographs because of the angle that I took them. I got down on the ground and shot the pictures close up, so that the flowers become the only subject of the photograph. I think that's how flowers were meant to be seen.

Did anyone else take pictures of the Human/Nature interaction?

Hello students!

You have an exciting array of activities to keep you entertained over the long weekend ahead of us!

First of all, it is time to begin reading our book for this project. It is called Tom Swift & His Amazing Wizard Camera and it is available online. If you want more information about the book, check out this helpful website.

Secondly, please complete your fourth media analysis journal on a photograph of your choice.

Finally, be sure to come prepared with at least 5-10 photographs from our photo shoot at Balboa Park. Please email them to yourself, and definitely get them off of your camera if you have not already done this at school! I look forward to seeing your masterpieces.

all the best!
kay

Your Outside Thinking has two parts -- First, read this article about the movie that we discussed in class:
Mulan through the Looking Glass.

Second, write a movie review about Mulan. Try answering the following questions:

1) What did you see?
Talk about the values that you saw in Mulan (or that we talked about in class).

2) Who sent this message?
Try to imagine who created Mulan – where did those values come from?

3) Is the movie true or false? (Or maybe a little bit of both.)
Talk about Mulan as it reflects the Real China. Do you think that it tells the truth? Why or why not? (Challenge: Try to connect to the Analects of Confucius that we read in class!)

Please post your review to your blog by Wednesday afternoon.

Best,

Kay

Your first official Media Analysis journal is due on Monday! For this assignment, you must select an advertisement in a magazine, and answer the seven analysis questions about it. Remember, first, describe (what do you see?) and then interpret (what does it mean?).

If you lost the handout, these are the seven questions:

1. What do I see?

Record your observations – Write down everything you about the visuals of the media -- lighting, camera angles, how the pictures are edited together. Describe any people-- what do they look like? what are they doing? wearing? Focus only on what is actually in the media, not your interpretation of what you see.

2. Who created this message?

You may not know exactly who created the message, but take your best guess. See if you can identify the author of the message from a close look at the media. Remember that everything you see in the media was created by someone.

3. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

The way that the media is put together is very intentional. Try to see if you can identify the mood or the story that the media is trying to create. What is the emotional appeal? What is the persuasive appeal?

4. How might different people understand this message differently than me?

No two people see an image the same way. Each audience member brings to each media encounter a unique set of life experiences (age, gender, education, cultural upbringing, etc.) which, when applied to the text – or combined with the text – create unique interpretations. Imagine you were someone else – how would that change the way you understand the message?

5. What values, lifestyles or points of view are represented, or omitted, in this message?

In looking at the content of a media message, it is important to understand that there are no value-free media and never will be. All media carry subtle messages about who and what is important. Try to analyze your media for values and points of view.

6. Why is this message being sent?

Try to look at the motive or purpose of a media message – and whether or how a message may have been influenced by money, ego or ideology. To respond to a message appropriately, we need to be able to see beyond the basic content motives of informing, persuading or entertaining.

7. Finally, how can I review my insights and summarize my ideas about the message?

Summarize how the media is constructed and how various elements of the construction trigger your own unique response-- which may be very different than how others interpret the text.


If you feel like you could not answer all of the questions, do not worry, just do your best! We will have plenty of opportunities to refine our ideas during this project.

Contact me with questions or concerns.

Best,

Kay

How does media change the way we see and understand the world?


This photograph is just one moment in time, caught on a camera. But what happened before? And what happened after? And who took the picture? And why?!

These are all questions that we will explore as we learn about the media and how it communicates to us through TV, radio, newspapers and photographs.

The literature that we will read for this project is called Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera: or Thrilling Adventures While Taking Moving Pictures by Victor Appleton and it is an e-book (electronic book). If you think you might have trouble accessing it at home, please email me and we can think together about how to solve your trouble!

In this project, we will create two main products:

1) Media Analysis Journal

You will be responsible to do five close analyses of different kinds of media during this project. For each journal entry, you must both describe and interpret the media. Try your best to answer all seven questions, and remember that we will have time to refine these journal entries before you turn in your journal at the end of the project.

2) Photograph Exhibition

In the second half of this project, you and a partner will work together to create photographic distortions. You will create photographs that do not tell the true story! As part of this component, you will also write an expository essay that exposes the real truth.

Over the next 6 weeks, we will learn about the Media Makers, and we will also learn how to become them.