HOMEWORK due TR June 11:

Maude Lebowski: What do you do for recreation?
The Dude: Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback.

I desired to describe the introduction to my all-time favorite: The Big Lebowski - but I cannot find the introduction online or my DVD copy at this moment - so I pulled out another classic - Wes Anderson's 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums.

First, let me state that this description is heavily biased and based on the fact that I am simply in love with Wes Anderson movies and have watched Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and Bottle Rocket about a million times.

The best way to describe Wes Anderson pictures - I think - is with this word: meticulous. Starting one of his movies is like walking into a very neat and orderly room, one where every little thing fits neatly into its place. Each little thing in that room may be a little tarnished or seemingly broken in a distinct way, but nevertheless it fits nice and neatly into the little Wes Anderson room that he has created.

The Royal Tenenbaums begins with symphonic music and the classic Touchstone Pictures introduction (blue font and lightning bolt). The first image is an over head [c.u.] shot of a light wood table with a date stamper on the right side frame. Immediately, a pair of hands places a book down flat on the table with the green cover upside down, another set of hands reaches up and turns the book right side up so that we (the viewer) can see the book is titled The Royal Tenenbaums. The second set of hands opens the book, takes out a card and stamps the book (with what looks like "November 7th, 2001") and the card (library style) and then takes the second card with their right hand and immediately it cuts to the title sequence of the film, a tiled makeup of that same green book cover. As soon as the new shot begins so too does Mark Mothersbaugh's (Wes Anderson's music man) "111 Archer Avenue"



[The above is NOT the introduction to the film - rather the music to which I am referring.]

The music works perfectly with the visuals, which change right on beat - finally we reach the perfect title credits of the movie. All pink, all caps "THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS" about a white notecard on an ornate plate that reads: "Cordially request the pleasure of your company at home . . .". The title has been imprinted on the film but it leads directly into what is written on the card. The color scheme matches that of the book you first saw, which is pink, green and white. There are two candlesticks in this shot, one on each side of the note card, and a cute little white mouse with pink ears and a pink tail to the left of the ornate plate. All of this is before a green curtain (the backdrop). The next seen is the "PROLOGUE" and begins as though you had just opened up the book - Alec Baldwin begins reading the book aloud as a voice over and the film begins.

It is difficult to describe just how spot on Wes Anderson makes everything appear. Each shot is so meticulous and precise, the actors in this particular film seem to have been written perfectly for their roles as well. This film is not aiming for action/suspense/romance cliche audiences - this film is ALL Wes Anderson and you either love it or (I assume) hate it.

I happen to be a movie fanatic and even if I did not love all the actors and the story line and the scenery of Wes Anderson's films, I would simply marvel at his perfectionism. I love when filmmakers take their work this seriously, and yet make hilarious material. He lets no detail go lightly, and yet his film is not so serious that you don't want to quote it or laugh at it all the way through. It is a rare feat to be able to accomplish what he does with this film.

To teach film/editing techniques, I would go through exactly what I just described above and have a lesson where we sit and try and get to the bottom of how Wes Anderson did what he did. Perhaps I would then be able to let them each try and shoot a 5 or 10 second film with a video camera and edit it using iMovie (or another film editing type of software) and try and create that same attention to detail - which not only would allow them to see how difficult it is - but to appreciate such detail in the future when they see it.

I posted my commercial analysis on Web Vista - I could not post it here - so here is The Link - and you just have to look under "week one discussion" to find it!

Small description: I analyzed a commercial about a "dumb blonde" in a library. She asks for a take-out order - thinking that the library is a fast food restaurant. The point is - at the end they show a brand new Mercedes - she is dumb and pretty, where a Mercedes is very pretty and very smart. Kind of creative, I thought - it utilizes and perpetuates stereotypes which is sadly the commercial world norm.

HOMEWORK due for Sunday June 7:

Common!? That really took me by surprise. Judging by that introduction, I would have NEVER guessed that the camera was going to pan to the left to Common. I am a huge Common fan, and it precisely persons like him that I wish to share with my students.

Since I am embedded in the classroom each day, I cannot help but think of my students - almost individually - as I listen to the speaker in the video. Even when I get to my lucky "video days" it appears almost all of my students need to constantly check their phones or play a game simultaneously on their iPod Touch. I had to take away an iPod today that two girls were playing a game on simultaneously - I kid you not - AS SOON as I confiscated the iPod, BOTH girls whipped out their cell phones and began texting. I almost couldn't believe it, because I was sitting RIGHT NEXT TO THEM. "Put it away!" I had to chastise them. Needless to say they were peevish and incredulous and very reluctant to rid themselves of all of their media even though we were already WATCHING A MOVIE!

One of my biggest surprises and most frustrating realizations is the radical abundance of portable digital devices that seemingly ALL the students have - not only that - their inability to keep said items out of sight or mind during a class period. The constant shifty eyes and movements below the desk are inevitably so tiresome that most teachers it seems (including, sadly, me) sometimes ignore the texting just to move on with a lesson.

The rate at which the technological boom grows is impossible to measure. Even as Vicki Rideout gave her opening speech, there were developers in labs creating new and more exciting flashy phones that will allow students more and more access to more and more technology. Beach's book (2007) can't even keep up with the newly released iPhones and Palm Pres that enable better graphics, higher resolution internet and faster everything right in the invisibility of our students' pockets.

Before we can get to the positive implications and applications Beach mentions for the classroom, we have to understand and develop ways to keep up on this monstrous beast that is devouring our school classrooms. I am not exaggerating here in the slightest. Working in a school of 1,900 students, I walk around quite a bit and look into many, many classrooms. I see students with earphones in their ears all the time in many classes. It has become so common that the older teachers and even I do not catch it all the time. They make hearing aids small enough to where you do not see them (Bill Clinton shows his off in the new Newsweek) and when will they develop ear phones that small?

The problem is that our economy is in the tank right now. So when something like the Palm Pre comes around, everyone rejoices because some stocks will rise and people will be buying again! We are so consumed with the DOW Industrial Average that we forget to stop and remember what those stocks represent. If McDonald's soars, we applaud. What about childhood obesity? If Viacom and Clear Channel soar, we applaud. What about students wasting valuable learning time on mindless entertainment or listening to the prepackaged disposable garbage on the radio ("lick you like a lollipop," etc.).

Having students "reflect on their gaming experience" (16) or "have students discuss the effectiveness of the strategies employed by participants on MySpace in terms of language, images, intertextual links, and topics employed" (17) is all well and good until you realize that the majority of the tenured teacher at (for example) the school I work at don't know what the hell MySpace is or do not give a rats ass about it. [This leads to a huge discussion about ongoing teacher education/qualification and the tenure system which we do not have time to get into here.]

Okay, so I am on Facebook all the time and I used to be on MySpace all the time, I can easily talk to kids about this stuff. But 1) I can't find a freaking job for the life of me that will let me and 2) How much can I get away with when it comes to keeping to the standards, the curriculum, the material, the district, the parents, the board, the lack of technology, etc, etc, etc.

I can sense where my mind is going and I can tell what kind of discussion we might all be having if we were in a classroom right now . . . I really want to bring up the fact that I simply think it is important for students to learn about all the classic material presented in schools as well. So how do we bridge the gap? My cooperating teacher is an astounding teacher, but I fear that he might be losing his touch with the middle of the road students, the ones more prone to zoning out and reaching for that radical Palm Pre . . . sometimes I sit back and think: yeah, you know what? I would rather play a bowling game on my phone right now than listen to me talk about F. Scott Fitzgerald.

So, how do we compete/incorporate/utilize and optimize everything in the classroom without overkill . . . I mean seriously: more than 8+ hours a day of media in their lives already?

Wow, so I just scrolled down a little on our assignment page and realize that my above tangent may not hit on the exact specifics of the assignment. So I will add some more of my thoughts below:

It is because of the media over-saturation in our students' lives - the pervasive and unavoidable abundance of media in their lives - that a class where media is scrutinized, studied, utilized, created and manipulated is necessary to understand and positively interact with the complexity of our 21st century universe.

One of the most profound goals of the course would be to have students "engage in critical inquiry-based learning" where they could dissect issues in their lives like "the environment, poverty, schooling, racism, sexism, class bias" and more and "critique the institutional forces shaping the issue, as well as media representation of the issues." Students will ultimately "formulate alternative strategies for addressing the issue, with the goal of effective change" (18).

It is in this way, students will understand that they are not merely mindless consumers for media purveyors to feast upon, but capable responsible citizens that demand to have a voice in the 21st century conversation over values and social responsibility - a conversation they are often left out of. In order for students and the youth to respect themselves and the freedoms granted by such powerful technology, we must first treat them with respect and value their voices as well as understand that they are learning and growing and need guidance in their journey.

A media studies course, lead by an able teacher (one who is also looking for work, hint, hint) would be one where creative solutions are thought up and open discussion is held.

HOMEWORK due for TR June 4: Week 1: Media Studies Approaches

David Considine (1995) in An Introduction to Media Literacy writes how "responsible citizens need to possess the ability to question the accuracy and authenticity of information in all its forms, not just print." This thinking upon which I agree reminds me of a specific day a few weeks ago in which my 11th grade student Basil called me over to his computer. That particular day, my class was unable to avoid the swine flu talk, since it was everywhere we looked that day.

We were doing in-class wikis that day (pat myself on the back) and Basil had his browser turned to a Yahoo! Answers site (remove pat from my back) and wanted to show me what some random person had written about the swine flu. "Look Mr. Adams," Basil explained, "this person says that it isn't even as serious as the regular flu, so I think it is okay." "But Basil," I pleaded, "that is a random person without so much as an emoticon for a picture! How do you even begin to trust that person?" "Well," Basil continued, "this one looks a little more legit than the others . . . so . . . "

The upside to this otherwise saddening discourse was that I was able to talk about online writing with Basil and with the entire class and turn the experience into a reason to encourage students to be cautious with their wikis and only seek out reputable sources in their quests for information.

Considine goes on to add to my point that "consuming information" is not the goal, rather becoming a "media literate individual able to produce, create and successfully communicate" that information—that is the objective. Were 100% of my students able to create sickeningly beautiful wikis that captured their research and turned it into an organic and streamingly communicative body of writing? No. Did the assignment help them on their way? Yes.



Even though I have been a loyal Jimmy John's customer for over a decade, the above advertisement absolutely sickens me every time I see it on TV. The ad is built on the simple premise that kids today (even in a private-uniform-mandatory school) are wild and uncontrollable and the only way we can calm them down is to reward them for doing nothing but behaving as they are supposed to. Often, that is the way I feel about digital literacy. There is a fine line between simply "showing a movie" in a classroom to calm the students down and to help you pass the time and viewing a movie critically as a class to more fully build upon the curriculum. We are watching The Crucible this week in my 11th grade class because I personally think that the film is well done and that it can add to our discussion about the play (which frankly can be quite boring in spite of its rich subject).

I chose not to show A Farewell to Arms because I felt that the movie was a touch antiquated and that it literally would act as "time filler" AND MOST IMPORTANTLY - the visual images of that book are truly profound and I believe they live on best in our imagination.

This brings me to today: a lesson I built around the premise of media literacy. David M. Considine (2000) writes in Media Literacy and Adolescents: Teenagers and Screenagers that "today's movie teens drink, do drugs, have sex but almost never study, work or express their involvement with faith or family." It is because of this awareness at teachers that we have to weed through the sludgy filth and bring forth the quality that exists and put it on a pedestal where it belongs.

To further look at the family's impact on personal identity (an ongoing lesson in cahoots with Sandra Cisneros' House on Mango Street), I garnered several media examples to show to the students. First I talked about Sylvia Plath and we watched her read her tremendous poem "Daddy" on a You Tube clip. The 9th graders could not have taken it more seriously. We then shifted moods to look at Tupac's "Dear Momma." While some students sang along to the song, others were hearing it for the first time. I took time to describe how for this unique song, Tupac sheds his rough, violent image to display the untarnished love and affection he has for his mother. While objectively I would state that most of the music the students listen to is garbage, I truly believe that eventually they will sift through to the quality, and what better role can a teacher take but to help their search?

After looking at a Barack Obama excerpt from his book Dreams of My Father (note that I said "looking") as well as another song about mothers by Kanye West, I was able to sneak in a hilarious clip about a real boy who loves his very real father and is not afraid to show it.



While the students laughed at the father's funny voice, I felt that the video showed a unique and healthy father/son relationship—one we would be wise to try and model in our own lives (if we have children).

While today's lesson went smashingly well, I do have to ask: how often can I do a lesson like this one? Clearly we have to cover "real" content - state standards require Romeo and Juliet - so most of my days simply have to be reading "actual" text, right?

It is difficult to truly state how much of what I do (even today) is for the students and for myself. I want to make it through the day happy and satisfied and somedays (yesterday) it is extremely frustrating to have a well thought out lesson that does not work. I know that I will engage the students in some way if I utilize media - but the challenge is to use the good stuff that actually does something and to have it used to create real dialogue. The students are thirsty for debate and often the clips I show generate conversations that lead students into loopholes and they do not articulate their thoughts as well as they would like to.

I suppose my final and ongoing question here would be: how do I best utilize new literacies, promote media literacy that reflects and builds upon my curriculum and allows for the initial inklings of adult style debate to emerge?

Also, where do we draw the line as educators between using technology to appease students and utilizing media to enhance lessons and develop the critical thinkers we so greatly desire?