It’s been a long time since I posted on this blog – a reflection of my increased/hectic workload over the past weeks. In addition to this I have been without internet access for the whole first weekend of my half-term break.

Anyway, today I went to see one of the most charming films I have ever seen – Ponyo. It was written/animated/directed by the incredible Hayao Miyazaki, who created masterpieces such as My Neighbour Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle – films which I have used in the classroom before with great effect. Words can’t really describe Ponyo, but I did think this snippet of a review from the NY Times which came close:

The two were separated — as fated characters invariably are — but she’s found him. Now, as she races along the surface of huge peaking waves she has summoned up by the force of her power, Ponyo is expressing not only her bliss, but also ours [Source]

It really is an absolute marvel and pleasure to watch – it had much more impact than seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D. Go and see it now!

They report that:

Examples of good practice encouraged pupils to make connections across traditional subject boundaries and to respond imaginatively to technology as a resource. This extended and reinforced pupils’ development as creative learners. The following example comes from one of the primary schools visited. Here an understanding of the choices made and techniques used in film-making enabled pupils to be analytical, collaborative and imaginative.

A snapshot of the lesson is then cited:

From criticism to creation

A Year 2 teacher combined reading and writing with other approaches to interpretation, evaluation and presentation. He encouraged pupils to make connections, ask questions and reflect critically on ideas and actions. He had chosen a Japanese film, My Neighbour Totoro, as the stimulus for learning, splitting the film into sections to study different aspects of the story. This session came as the culmination of work with pupils through which they had learnt to analyse film from the different standpoints of setting, sound, action and language. Discussion at the start of the session demonstrated that the pupils had a good understanding of these categories.

Each pupil was given a small whiteboard with the different categories as headings. During the first showing of the film clip, the teacher helped pupils identify key moments for focusing on the areas for analysis. During the second showing, pupils used the whiteboards to record their own responses across any categories they chose. They discussed their observations and evaluations, showing considerable knowledge and an ability to challenge each other constructively. They not only questioned and challenged each other’s responses to the clip ‘as film’; they showed curiosity and imagination in exploring the culture and assumptions that had shaped the film.

Finally, each pupil wrote an ending for the story they had been watching. The writing was highly imaginative, with a strong sense of place and, in many cases, a sophisticated vocabulary and range of expression.

Famous at last… in an anonymous fashion!

The slightly confusing title to this post sums up my slightly confused state regarding this blog. I have so many different things rushing around in my head at the moment that I sometimes forget to blog or simply cannot pick what to focus in on – life, literacy, work or just general observations of the world around me? For example today I have been thinking of the upcoming Pirate/Seven Seas themed week we are having at school, where I am really hoping to plan some ‘out of the ordinary’ stuff to really inspire my class. I’ve also discovered a really interesting way in which fans of one of my favourite TV shows Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles have utilised Web 2.0 technologies to try to revive the cancelled show. On top of that I am in the process of finishing off my first written assignment for the MA in New Literacies I am completing at the University of Sheffield and have lots of conflicting ideas about ideological literacy, of which I could post a series of blog posts about. So many different things – all linked to different areas of life…

Where do I start?

I couldn’t let the major event of last week pass without writing a quick blog post. I’m not talking about the ‘big freeze’ but rather the finale to David Tennant’s association with Doctor Who. Most people who watch Doctor Who talk about who is ‘their’ Doctor – a large proportion of the people I know associate the show with the likes of Tom Baker and John Pertwee. I started watching the show when David Tennant took over the role of the Doctor, therefore most of the episodes I have seen feature him. It’s actually quite strange how you can become so attached to a series such as Doctor Who and when something like a complete change of cast happens it becomes quite significant. This is something that has been part of my life since 2005 and now the era has ended.

One of the most significant moments for me was when the Doctor went to see different companions at the end of the episode before he regenerated. The most poignant being when he visited the granddaughter of the woman he married and then the wedding of Donna, giving her a winning lottery ticket bought with a pound coin her late father had given him years before:

I am unsure what the new series will bring – it will probably be brilliant. However, this era will always be the one that I remember most as it has become part of my culture.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook then there is a strong possibility that you will know I just got a new MacBook Pro. I dual booted it straight away so I could continue to use Windows but have found myself loading up the Windows side less and less. I appear to be converting to the ways of the Mac.

As previously mentioned I enjoy playing World of Warcraft (when time permits) but have had to stop over the past few months due to the fact that my ageing Windows XP computer has not been able to cope with running such complex graphics. I also feel I have been missing out on something else… Second Life – the alternate reality space where many of my digital literacy friends and colleagues choose to communicate and collaborate.

When I met Angela Thomas at the Centre for the Studies of New Literacies in July we had a long chat about Second Life and some of the fascinating stuff she is doing with Virtual Macbeth. I promised that I would sign up and take a look when I could and now that I have a MacBook Pro now seemed like the perfect opportunity. I was warned that one of the most important things to do was to change the default avatar, otherwise I would be labelled a noob (a person who is new and doesn’t know what they are doing). I have literally spent all day in Second Life trying to customise my avatar and make myself appear unique in the dense population of the virtual world. A population that derives very striking parallels to the real world – not least the fact that you have to use real money to buy clothes.

Above is the completed avatar that I use in Second Life, under the name of Multiplo Innovia. Do add me as a contact if you use Second Life as I could still do with a hand finding my way around!

In Orange Class we’ve been doing quite a bit of work based around the story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colours, which included making our own coat of many colours and watching the DVD production of the musical show. The children really enjoyed experiencing the story through music and quickly started to learn most of the lyrics – quite a interesting way of developing comprehension skills don’t you think?

Last week we went to see the touring production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat starring Craig Chalmers at Whitley Bay Playhouse. We were sat on one side of the theatre surrounded by mainly secondary school children and adults.  I thought our children may have been too young to appreciate the show fully but never in my whole career have I seen children so happily engrossed in anything. There were smiles, cheers, claps and general excitement throughout. The best part for me was the megamix finale where every child stood up and started cheering and dancing (for a full ten minutes) -it was such a strange sight seeing one group of children dancing away while the rest of the audience sat down. It really made my year to see them so happy.

I’m currently in the midst of a half-term break. However, I have literally not stopped since walking out of the school door on Friday. I’ve been dashing about all over the place and yesterday I travelled to Hathersage (in the picture above) to visit Elaine Millard who I first met at the UKLA conference in Greenwich. Not only is Elaine’s published work exceptional, she is also one of the nicest people I have ever met. We enjoyed a lovely lunch and managed to sort out her blog, which is now online here . Elaine has been one Orange Class’s most active followers on Twitter and we are hoping she will visit Orange Class soon! But we will accept tweets in the meantime!

I’ve also been spending some of my time reading some of David Barton’s fascinating book ‘Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language.” He suggests that literacy takes place in many different domains which embody different types of literacy. I feel like I have been dashing around in different domains all week!

So it’s that time of year again… October?! Already I have seen Christmas advertisements appearing in shops and on television. My local supermarket has had Christmas chocolates in-store for the past few weeks too – the season seems to begin earlier every year. Don’t get me wrong -  I’m a huge fan of the festive season and look forward to it. My friends and I always maintain that Christmas doesn’t start until we have seen the Coca Cola Christmas advert on television – we then know that the holidays certainly are a’coming.

What’s interesting is how the Coca Cola advertisement has become embodied in our Christmas season. Indeed, I remember one year the advertisement was changed and our reaction was certainly not one of joy to the world. The multimodal approach taken to advertising over the festive season is certainly an interesting one. Some companies can pull out all the stops and really create a highly charged and emotional piece of advertising by manipulating modes to persuade and evoke an emotional response. There have been some real gems over the years including the Argos Christmas Wish commercial, with particularly effective use of the visual and audio modes. It’s just a shame that the same company changed their strategy and produced this the year after.

So despite what certain advertisers and supermarkets think Christmas certainly isn’t here yet – not until Coca Cola decides to air their commercial.

A few people have asked me to post some information about the Doctor Who work my class completed last week. It was planned with the aim of beginning to engage some of the learners who had negative attitudes towards literacy. I’ve always found using the children’s own popular culture in the curriculum to be an effective way to make them realise that literacy is relevant to their own lives. This isn’t a new idea of course – you just have to read some of the work of Anne Haas Dyson, Elaine Millard and Jackie Marsh (among others) to understand the importance of popular culture in the curriculum.

I chose Doctor Who because I knew a large proportion of my class were immersed in the world of the Doctor and his travels in the TARDIS. I wanted the children to see how they can be part of imaginative worlds and that their stories can extend beyond going to the cinema, supermarket and to their friend’s house for tea. I therefore decided to edit the Doctor Who main titles to include the names of the Year 2 classes (see above). The video features the Doctor and Martha Jones as they set off on a new adventure – I designed it so the children think about what happens next. It was an instant hit after the initial surprise of actually seeing Doctor Who appear on our interactive whiteboard. The video hooked them in and we were ready to move onto the next activity – drama. I set the scene by explaining that imagination is important when creating new stories (even with familiar characters). The children then had to imagine that our data projector (suspended from the ceiling) was actually an alien spacecraft – the results were fantastic. Children’s worlds of popular culture from home, the playground and school were fused together to create a stimulating activity.

The next stage involved the children creating character profiles and their own versions of the stories. We had much more imaginative ideas that usual with most children choosing to incorporate other characters and settings that we did not discuss in any of our lessons. I embrace this – letting children control writing as a craft to communicate their own ideas is something that I believe should be valued and cherished.