This quote stuck out to me while I was reading because I've had so many moments that have happened that relate to it. Because of my age, I often feel like I'm straddling the line between a young adult and an adult. I read the same books and watch a lot of the same shows that my age group of students do. We listen to the same music and take interest in the same things. But at the same time, I'm still an adult with adult worries. It's funny, though, because my middle school kids see me as an adult. There was a conversation that took place with my 6th Grade class that involved the game Assassin's Creed. I made a comment that I had played the game and understood what the student was trying to explain to me. He was completely baffled that I, his teacher, had actually played a game that he enjoys because teachers aren't supposed to like those same things.
"However, Alvermann and her colleagues point out that youth are ready and willing to talk with adults about popular culture if adults show a willingness to learn." --Digital and Media Literacy, Chapter 2, pg. 33
This quote sort of goes in line with what I was saying above, and I have to agree. I'm very open to listening to what my students have to say. Like with my 6th Grade student above, we were discussing sentences from our grammar book. One of the sentences mentioned the Gutenberg Printing Press, and I was telling them about it. This particular student actually knew a lot about it because he'd done a project on it the year before. Not only that, though, he had played Assassin's Creed, and in one of the games, there is a task that involves the Gutenberg Printing Press. He immediately went into explaining the concept of the game and the task because I showed interest in what he had to say, even though I already knew about it from playing the game myself.
"Today, many teachers across the curriculum are developing creative strategies to make teaching the research paper more relevant." --Digital and Media Literacy, Chapter 2, pg. 34
I loved the ideas presented in relation to this quote, as these are the sorts of projects I would enjoy doing with my classes and seeing other teachers do. In my own class, I'm working on a research project that involves Greek mythology and turning one of the myths into a comic. When I read the idea, I was fascinated with it, because I thought it would be a fun way to incorporate research and what we're studying in class. I'm hoping this project works as well as I think it will, and that I can find ideas like it to do in the future.
I found this one incredibly funny, especially since I was having SO MUCH trouble finding a meme that worked with what I wanted to say. I'm also terrible at making my own. I should probably be better at this given that I'm part of the younger generation, but I'm really not, so I think this one works perfectly. I do thing Memes can be good for analyzing and deconstructing media, because this is something they're familiar with. I think that really any activities that involve the use of media are good for capturing the attention of students, because it's something that's familiar for them, and using those sorts of things in the classroom is very uncommon, so it's something that doesn't feel like school work to them.
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