Promethean Planet is a must-have bookmark for educators who have a Promethean Board in their classroom. The Web site helps teachers share creative ideas and lesson plans in a variety of subject matter. As a language arts teacher, I use this Web site primarily for grammar lessons. I like to search for pre-made flipcharts (which are very similar to Power Points), and modify them for my students’ needs.
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has a very useful Web site. I visit it often to search for ideas and communicate with other educators in my field. Whether I’m searching for articles, videos, blog posts or looking to join a discussion, this Web site has it all for English teachers. It’s a great way to keep up on the latest trends in language arts.
Class Zone is a great source for language arts teachers in the Anchorage School District, which subscribes to the Web site through its partnership with Holt McDougal – formerly known as McDougal Littell. The book company created Class Zone to coincide with its textbooks and offer a digital approach to motivate students and support a diverse classroom. I like using Class Zone because it allows students to read our thick textbook online, instead of lugging it to and from school every day.
“Teens and Technology – a good match?”
by John Matuszak
Overview
This article introduces studies that show the amounts of electronic media kids are exposed to and explains how more hours spent on technology doesn’t equal a positive effect on teens. The study proves entertainment technology, such as television, MP3 players, Internet, video games, cell phones, can become addictive and negatively effect a teen’s social and emotional environment.
Youth experts in the article call for more parental interaction to help calm the media blitz teens are experiencing nationwide. One report reveals about three in 10 teens have rules regarding their TV, video game and computer usage at home. As for what they can do on the computer, only half said they have specific rules. The most interesting note was 70 percent reporting a video game console or TV in their room, all of which are hidden from parental supervision. “The only freedom the kids have is on the computer,” said Janene Donarski, a counselor with Family Therapy & Development Centers in St. Joseph, Mich. “They have an escape in the Internet.”
Exposure to entertainment technology has become such an issue, psychologists are urging to add addiction to Internet and texting to the diagnostic manual for mental illness. For instance, according to a Nielsen Company study, teens with cell phones averaged 2,272 text messages a month. In the article, a high school junior admitted to sending 500 text messages a day – that’s nearly three text messages a minute. Another report found that 8- to 18-year-olds average close to 53 hours a week on entertaining technology – or an eye-popping seven hours a day.
“Thinking About Story and Applying Story Maps”
by Jason Ohler
Overview
These chapters introduce “Thinking About Story” and “Applying Story Maps,” and explains how a digital story should consist of three parts – story core, story mapping and story types – in order to effectively engage the storyteller’s audience. Storytelling has such a rich history that it still thrives in today’s digital world. Whether the story is told in books, movies, jokes, digital stories, or orally, the human desire for a good story should never go extinct. In these chapters, the key for telling a successful digital story depends on specific guidelines set within the development of a story core and story map that the storyteller has followed.
In Chapter 5, “Thinking About Story,” introducing the story core helps students concentrate on the value of their experiences by constructing effective ways to materialize those events into a potentially powerful story. The basic idea of a story core involves a main character, which goes through a transformation. Whether the character resists change, is challenged by circumstances to keep from changing, there must be a tipping point – or “tension-resolution dynamic” – in order to have forward motion or internal rhythm so the audience can make connections.
Tension-resolution dynamics usually works well in sports stories: i.e., a talented football player in the 1960s is kept on the sidelines because of his race, but he keeps his wits, trying his hardest despite the circumstances; he reaches a tipping point, realizing he must voice his concerns on the inequality in order to succeed, and eventually he surpasses even his own expectations.
