My Student Sample... And Woes.

     As the final product for a persuasive writing unit, the students will take their essays, which should be done by now (Hopefully!), and render them for broadcasting. Each student will take on the role of a newscaster (from a network of their choice e.g CNN, FOX, Comedy Central) and present the information in an appropriate manner, remembering, of course, to keep the network's demographics, and such, in mind. For my sample I took on the role of a newscaster from The Onion reporting on unsettling guidelines that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) abides by for checking the quality of food.  

     As for the woes... Okay, so the reason for the picture and not the video: iMovie, apparently, according to the man at the "Genius Bar," at Apple, said, "iMovie is finicky and it sometimes reads files as corrupt for no reason, because of which it isn't going to let you export or finalize your film." So, here we are! Enjoy the photo (You gotta love how unattractive stills are!)!

P.S. It was not as easy as it seems to come up with a solution. It was about a month after I started having problems that I was by Apple to just give up.

Digital Text

     I really like the blogs, but sometimes I feel like nobody is actually reading them. I know that we can leave comments on each other's blogs, so why don't we take advantage of that? I think it would be both helpful and motivational having people leaving feedback on the blogs. After all, the blogs are really where our opinions are most freely expressed, so why not utilize that as a tool for learning?

Google Sites: Seems really nifty, and convenient for those not so "tech savvy" individuals that want to make their own site.

WordPress: It looks much more sophisticated and mature than Blogger. Furthermore, the website brags that it can transform your site into "almost anything you can imagine"- though I haven't had all that much time to spend on it, that really is quiet the claim!

Kidblog: Really cute and simple blogging. Though it's not as in depth as WordPress it is great for a younger group of students. Also, it has no ads so the teacher will have no fear over what might pop-up!

My Parents' Involvement in my Education

     My parents were not involved at all in my education; they only participated in what was required of them. However, they did pressure me to do well and stressed the importance of school. One of the things that I really wished that my parents had done was participated more in my extracurricular interest; they only attended one of my chorus concerts and maybe an art exhibition. Additionally, I was never able to take lessons in anything because my parents didn't want to spend the extra money for things that "didn't matter". I really did appreciate that my parents were kind of laid back about my education, but I wish they had stepped up when I asked for their participation and help.