special labor day edition: the art of the essay

Over the weekend, please post an essay to your blog (title: WRITING ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH) in which you respond to the following prompt:

As we have discussed in class, an allegory uses characters and a narrative structure to help the reader think about abstract concepts.  In an essay of no less than four paragraphs, explain how the Katha Upanishad qualifies as an allegory.  You may want to include: the abstract themes of religion and death; how death appears as a character; how Nachiketa symbolizes what's best about being a teenager; and anything else that supports your main points.  If you get confused or need help, please feel free to reach out to a friend, comment to this post, or send me an email over the weekend.  But whatever you do, don't wait until the last minute!

august 31

JOURNAL TOPIC: ["Walking in LA" by Missing Persons; "These Boots Are Made for Walkin" by Lee Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra]

On your walk home a dog starts talking to you.  As soon as someone else walks by, the dog stops.  He only talks when you're alone.  And he tells you a secret that can save the world.  But to share it, you'll have to divulge your source, and that might make you sound crazy.  What will you do?

AGENDA:
1. Journal

(PLEASE REMEMBER TO LEAVE YOUR JOURNAL IN THE BOX FOR YOUR PERIOD!!!)

2. Finish Katha Upanishad and ask/answer questions
3. Prepare for weekend essay
4. Hopefully you've made progress this week.  Please write about your experience as an independent learner and post it on your blog (Title: I AM GSD).  If you didn't get things done, write about that too, because I will be back on Monday and looking to rev up.

august 30

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: "You Talk Too Much" by Run-D.M.C.; "Communication Breakdown" by Led Zeppelin]

So many phrases say the same thing: Talk is cheap. A picture's worth a thousand words. It's not what you said, it's how you said it. Since words are so easy to create we tend to mistrust them. We use our intuition to "read between the lines" and determine what someone really means.  Describe how we listen, read, and learn without depending on words.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Finish reading Katha Upanishad (take notes for your blog post)
3. Big Questions
4. Prep for Hack to School Night
5. Literature Analysis: Resources

HW:
1. Post your notes from today (title: STORY WORLD)
2. Post your first impression/offering as a comment to "What's Your Big Question?"

hack to school night

(my t-shirt from OSCON)


To be clear: the word hack has been associated with definitions ("sharp cough, "cut with unskillful blows," & "illegal/unauthorized computer access," e.g.) that do not describe what we do.

We make connections and facilitate conversations that help people learn.   We build, analyze,  evaluate and modify tools and working conditions to make them better.

You know how they say, "[So'n'so] just can't hack it?" Well, maybe [So'n'so] can't.  We can.

So, at Back-- er, Hack to School night this Wednesday (8.28) evening, we are at it again. Get here whenever you can. Bring whoever you want. Offer them the benefit of what you know and find a way to learn from them too. Share new ideas about technology and how you can use it to get ahead in life.

Here is the program:
1. Learner-led conference (see below)
2. Periodic "Intro to OSL" presentations
3. Sign-ups for "friend of the course" events and "digital drop-in" nights

Here is the process:
1. Think about these questions and your answers to them;
2. Bring someone who cares to Hack to School Night;
3. Have them ask you these questions, be suitably brilliant in your replies, and demand that they take notes so that you know they're paying attention;
4. Turn in their notes to me, get your extra credit, listen to me brag about you briefly;
5. Go home and finish your homework.

Here are the questions:
1. What is this class about?
2. What is the easiest part of this class?
3. What is the hardest part of this class?
4. What have you learned so far?
5. What is your Big Question?

august 29

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Please reflect on your independent work process.  Are you getting stuff done?  What about your working environment is helping you achieve?  What's holding you back?  What are you going to do next in order to succeed?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Katha Upanishad (continued)
3. How we organize for learning

HW:
1. Make sure your notes are organized
2. Create a post for your blog in which you describe your routines for organizing your school stuff,  managing your time, and learning/remembering new information (title: HOW I LEARN)

back to school night

Smhs Back to School Night 2018 by dpreston1441 on Scribd

this just in

Smhs Costa Rica by dpreston1441 on Scribd

august 28

JOURNAL TOPIC
What does it mean to "fit in" with people? How important is it to be accepted by others, even if it means changing the way you think and act? Explain your answer.

AGENDA
1. Journal
2. Allegory & allusion
3. Introduction to the Katha Upanishad

HW:
1. Post a response comment to the Katha Upanishad page
2. Copy/paste your comment as a post on your blog (title: KATHA UPANISHAD)

how to get youtube embed code on an iphone

To show this one, I'm embedding a video from my iphone!  But, to tell the truth, I only watched the first few seconds of this video, so please comment to this post and let me know if it helps.

how to get youtube embed code on android

Some of you have had challenges getting the embed code from YouTube so that you can post it on your blogs.  I just did some research with Samantha and we figured it out!

Check out this website for more information:

http://www.tomsguide.com/faq/id-2327797/embed-youtube-video-website-android-smartphone.html

august 27

JOURNAL TOPIC:

Recently I saw a motorcyclist get hit by a car and it made me think: What would you do today if you knew you would not live to see tomorrow?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. The history of the world and the world of history
3. The oldest stories
4. Introduction to the Katha Upanishad

august 24

JOURNAL TOPIC:

Choose your own.  You can write about whatever's on your mind.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Audit blogs & reflect on the week
3. "Richard Cory" recitals (?)
4. Preview of coming attractions

HW:
After you post your video, please post to your blog (title: REFLECTION ON RICHARD CORY).  Begin with this:

"When I memorized the poem "Richard Cory" I started to think about it differently.  I thought about why he might have killed himself, and I thought about how the poem relates to my life today.  It seems like..."

why we share what we write

Sometimes we get so caught up in the technicalities of composition that we forget the original purpose of communicating.  This video of a musical composition is a powerful reminder.

august 23

JOURNAL TOPIC:

Do you see a difference between learning and being taught?  How do you learn differently when you're doing it independently?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Memorize, record, & post "Richard Cory"
3. Catch up on any unfinished work
4. Add some design to your blog

august 22

JOURNAL TOPIC
Many of us use the word boring to describe anything we don't like or understand. How can a book be boring to one person and interesting to another? Describe something you really like and imagine how someone else might think it's boring. Use a specific example.

AGENDA
1. Journal
2. Review Whyte's "The Right to Your Opinion" and answer the following question in a paragraph (minimum) post on your blog: Are you entitled to your opinion?
3. Work on "Richard Cory"

august 21 [sigh]

Turns out the testing software passed the test and we're back in the lab/ 235.

If you have time afterward, please have a look at the new Big Questions page.  We'll discuss in class tomorrow.

august 21 [UPDATE]

Apparently the testing software wasn't up to testing today, so we are meeting in 619 as usual.  

Please bring your brain.

august 21

JOURNAL TOPIC:

Why are there so many tests in school?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Testing

a seven year-old can pass this course

I just found this post from 2016 and thought you might like to see it. -dp

Today I'm home with my daughter.  So what am I up to?

Playing Legos and making chili con carne.

I have also been posting to the course blogs and answering emails from students.  Earlier my daughter was looking over my shoulder and saw the picture of her fish.  She read the post and cracked up (I already told her the story at dinner, but she didn't know it was online: "Daddy, you TWEETED that?")

When she saw the post my daughter noticed something else on the blog.  "Daddy," she said, "Why did you type that you never learned to read?"  I explained the reading assessment idea and showed her the video of me reading Fox in Sox. We had just finished a conversation about how learning should always be fun, even in school.  "Hey," she said.  "I can do that."

I answered with a smile: "Yeah? Prove it."

So she did.  And check out the look she gives me when she pronounces Dr. Seuss' name correctly.





Do your homework. For the grading period I may just make it simple: can you do what a 7 year-old can do? And the most important thing in this video and this post is what she DOESN'T do.

She doesn't get distracted by the dishwasher. She doesn't even look up when the timer goes off. And she never, ever, EVER gives up.

august 20

JOURNAL TOPIC: ("My Back Pages" by Bob Dylan/ covered by The Byrds)

Why is it that so many young people want to be older, and so many older people want to be young? How do you feel about your age? Be sure to explain your answer.

1. Journal
2. Socratic seminar (topics: remix/creative commons; socratic method; right to your opinion; "Richard Cory")

HW:
Memorize "Richard Cory"-- due Friday, August 24

Why "Richard Cory" now, when most World Literature courses start in chronological order with something else? 

1. Because immediately after this, we will read a piece by an author from another country and discuss how culture influences writing.
2. Because this poem is uniquely, tragically relevant.  I first brought it to a World Literature course when one of the funniest, most beloved people ever killed himself the day before school started.  And I'm concerned-- between 2007 and 2015, teen suicide rates doubled for girls and went up 30% for boys.  According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, on average there are 123 suicides in America EVERY DAY.   Please click the links & read the articles by the beginning of class tomorrow (Tuesday, August 21). Think about Richard Cory and come to class prepared to discuss how literature reflects the versions of ourselves that only we know.

I can't think of anything more important to learn than living.  Can you?

put a creative commons license on your blog

Next week we're going to talk about creative inspiration and collaboration, and how writers get ideas.

As you probably know, the internet has made it easier than ever to find and use others' work as we create our own.  It's important to understand what is available for free, and what we have to license and/or pay for.  So, we will also talk about intellectual property and who owns what in the digital world.

For Monday, please post a Creative Commons license on your blog.  You can do this easily:
1. Open the Blogger dashboard
2. Open the Layout page
3. Click the blue +Add a Gadget box (mine is in the sidebar-right-1 section); this will open another window with a list of gadgets
4. Click the blue/white plus sign next to HTML/ Javascript; this will lead you to a screen that looks like a blog post, with spaces for the title and content
5. You can leave the title empty
6. Paste the code below into the content box

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>.

7. Click 'Save'

When we meet, I'll explain more about Creative Commons and this particular license.  Each of you can then decide whether to keep this license or to change the permissions you want to share with the people who see your work.

august 17

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: Fela Kuti's "Teacher Don't Teach Me No Nonsense"]

What makes a book interesting?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. The Right to Your Opinion (intro/ post a response on your blog)
3. Treasure Hunt

HW: Response to "The Right to Your Opinion"

august 16

JOURNAL TOPIC: (today's tunes: "Move on Up" by Curtis Mayfield)
Hunter S. Thompson observed, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."  How do you respond to challenges that arise from circumstances you didn't predict?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Discuss the Socratic Method
3. "Richard Cory"

HW:
1. Post a response on your blog to the Socratic Method (title: THE SOCRATIC METHOD)
2. Memorize "Richard Cory"-- due in class Friday, August 17
2. Why "Richard Cory" now, when most World Literature courses start in chronological order with ?  Because one year I taught this course, one of the funniest, most beloved people ever killed himself the day before school started.  And I'm concerned-- between 2007 and 2015, teen suicide rates doubled for girls and went up 30% for boys.  According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, on average there are 123 suicides in America EVERY DAY.   Please click the links & read the articles by the beginning of class tomorrow (Tuesday, August 14). Think about Richard Cory and come to class prepared to discuss how literature reflects the versions of ourselves that only we know.

I can't think of anything more important to learn than living.  Can you?

don't take my word for it

how to create a blog post

1. Go to the Blogger Dashboard
2. Click on "Create New Post" (orange box with the pencil icon)
3. Give your post a title
4. Write your post & include any pictures, videos or links you want us to see
5. Proofread!
6. Publish your post and make sure you like the way it looks
7. Sit back, relax, and enjoy that sweet, sweet feeling of success

ted talk on open-source learning

Because-- and ONLY because-- some of you asked:

please audit the member blogs page

I was in the middle of updating the Member Blogs page when my computer froze and I had to reboot it.  I think I remembered to add everyone who sent me an email, but I'm not certain, so would you please have a look and make sure yours is there? And if you haven't yet sent me the email with your URL, would you please take care of that so we can complete the list?
Mahalo. -dp

august 15

JOURNAL TOPIC:
Describe your most memorable moment from this class yesterday.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Blogging
3. "Richard Cory" & memorization
4. Preview: "The Socratic Method"

HW (if you don't finish in class):
1. Email Dr. Preston with: a) confirmation of your name in the Member Blogs roster; your class period; and 3) your blog's URL.  If you run into any challenges please let me know.
2. Get a spiral notebook or a composition book (if you haven't already)
3. Get your "Richard Cory" on