Hello Class!! Today was a big day in the good old English class but first things first:
HOMEWORK: Print your own copy of the Dante text and bring it to class on Friday. Don't print it in the library or you will owe them your lunch money. Also, Ms. Smith really likes the conversation about why a just and good God allows evil to exist, so keep returning to the page and commenting.
Today was our National Geographic Day. We met Philip and Mikayla (sp?) Tarlow in the computer lab. Lovely people, quite nice. The rest of the time we looked at the learning platform we are going to use with Dante.
It is an interactive website (up and running February 4) that is fun and easy to use. It is all about journeys. Any kind of journey you can think of.
There are two main steps for the process:
1. Create your journey
2. Create a story about your journey
We then got an inside look at the five main pages on the site!
- The Home Page- it's the home page where you can navigate where you want to. There will also be about 25 regular columnists who post 3 times/month about journeys.
- Design Your Journey- this page is about how to construct a journey; it has story board and adopt a story to help you get started.
- Tell Your Story- this page has tools for telling about your journey, such as a link to free images and sounds!
- Idea Lab- this is the "out there" page of the site, you can post your journey, all of the worksheets for designing your journey are on here.
- Gallery Page- it has pictures on it from different stories.
- Story Garden-here is where you can show the progress of your journey if you so choose to post it.
You do not have to post on the gallery or story garden but it is a good idea because there are multiple contests you can enter...
We then divided into groups and came up with possibilities for our own versions of the afterlife that were similar to the Inferno.
Group 1 - physical journey - mountain (get to peak), amusement park, mall, hotel, climates, levels of atmosphere, parking garage
Group 2 - imaginary journey - "Alice in Wonderland"/Through the Looking Glass, a "second life" game, a video game where you choose your adventure or fight enemies depending on how far in hell you are, board game ("Life"), Willy Wonka and his crazy candy factory...
Group 3 - social landscape - interview people from different professions, religions, cultures/countries, ages, social classes
Group 4 - service story - rehab facilities, homeless people (how they got there), psychiatric ward, veteran's clinic
All of these ideas represent a different way to demonstrate the punishment of people in hell or the afterlife, just to keep a clear idea of what this is for....
Last thing: There is going to be a compass uploaded that is the who what when where and why of the project.
- Where is your journey going to be?
- Why did you choose this place? (this is where you go deeper into the meaning and motives of your setting)
- Who will your audience be? (obviously the class, if you post it, many more people) (how do you want your audience to feel when they see it? Motivated? More compassionate?)
- How will you tell your content?
All of these questions get combined for one paragraph about WHAT your story is. Having this complete before we read helps you pull ideas from the Inferno that you can work into your own idea of the afterlife. It can be your opinion or you can make up something that isn't your opinion.
REMEMBER- anything you post for this will be a reflection of you FOR EV ER, so be appropriate, and make sure it is your best work!
The rest of the time we got to absorb and reflect, got our papers back, and got to eat the fantastic donuts, thank you for those.
Don't forget your homework :) you know you love it: Print your own copy of the Dante text and bring it to class on Friday. Don't print it in the library or you will owe them your lunch money. Also, Ms. Smith really likes the conversation about why a just and good God allows evil to exist, so keep returning to the page and commenting.
Over and out.
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