Pictures (MEDIA) for Creep story.

Unexpected Events . . . Two Moments

Worst Date MASH UP STORIES

My worst date was Valentines Day two years ago.

So my old roommates little brother got back from his mission and he asked me out. I thought, sure, why not? Because who doesn't want a free dinner? He said that he wanted to take me to a Hale Center Theater show..okay!

I had been dating this guy for a few months at this point. So we had this big date planned, it was supposed to be a surprise, I didn’t know where we were going. And we ended up driving out to his family’s cabin at sundance, and he had brought Paranormal Activity 2 to watch. So, very romantic.

The drive was like and hour and a half, and we got there a little late, but it was good. The show was great, up until the second act where I started getting that "he's going to hold my hand" vibe,

Twenty minutes into the movie, he is dead asleep. He is actually snoring. I wake him up to tell him I have to go to the bathroom and he then tells me that I actually need have to go outside because his family shuts off the water to their pipes in the winter so they won’t freeze. Apparently that’s normal.

So I was gripping the program in my hands for dear life, and I'm like, "don't touch me! Don't touch me! Don't touch me!!" and he still reaches over, takes my hand away from the program, and holds it. First date. Blind date. Not okay.  

3 Monologues

Alexandria:
Sooo....I sorta have this missionary that I'm waiting for. Yeah...*giggles* But anyway! The day before he left, I went over to his house to say goodbye and we were hugging and crying and I kissed him and stuff and I got back in my car, ready to leave...and I backed into his mailbox. His mailbox is brick, and I knocked it over...yeeeeaaahh. Didn't scratch the car, but I knocked over the mailbox, and he made me stay there until his parents got home! They were really mad. So...I didn't exactly get to say goodbye to him in the most romantic way, but at least I got to spend more time with him....

Isabella:
So me and my family were like...crossing the street, and I was the last one in line. Right as I was in the middle of the crosswalk, I dropped my purse. So I went back to get it, and I like...fell on my butt! I don't even know how I did, like...I was rolling on the ground and my hair was in my face and like...traffic was backed up and it was really embarrassing, but luckily nobody in my family saw.

Kristen:
So my old roommates little brother got back from his mission in August, and it was October...Yeah, he was fresh off. He asked out my roommate, but she was too busy, so she told him to ask me out. I thought, sure, why not? Because who doesn't want a free dinner? So we started texting back and forth and he said that he wanted to take me to a Hale Center Theater show, no biggie. So he lived in Murray, I lived in Provo, and the theater was in Salt Lake...so he drove all the way down, picked me up, and drove all the way back up to Salt Lake. The drive was like and hour and a half, and we got there a little late, but it was good. The show was great, and then we hit intermission.

At intermission, he wanted to take one of those pictures with me. You know? The kind where you hold the camera yourself and his arm was around me...and it was kinda weird, but I was like...whatever. So the second act starts, and I was getting that "he's going to touch me" vibe, so I was gripping the program in my hands for dear life, and I'm like, "don't touch me! Don't touch me! Don't touch me!!" and he still reaches over, takes my hand away from the program, and holds it.  now, I'm thinking to myself, "We've still got the rest of the play, dinner, and the drive home. Uh-uh". So I leaned over and said to him, "thanks, but that's a little too fast for me" and he was like, "Oh! Sorry!" and he let. Go.

So then dinner. For some reason, seeing the show 9 to 5 makes me go back into my southern accent...so I had a southern accent during dinner which made me look like this dumb blond bimbo. So that was...cool. To make matters worse, the waiter was flirting with me and  this kid kept pointing at things with his lips.

...Let me explain that. On his mission, a social custom was to point at things with your lips, so during the whole dinner, he's pointing at things with his lips like...*demonstrates* and it was so...eugh! It was just weird.

So finally he drives me home, and he asked for a second date. We went to the freshman dance here on campus where I made a great effort at giving off bad vibes. It must have worked because that was the last date I ever went on with him.

My Monologues!

So when I first met Jordan I kept saying to myself I'm not gonna date him, I'm not gonna kiss him because he's leaving. It was the beginning of the summer and he was leaving in a week for his internship in LA. You know I think we all think we know how things are gonna go in our lives, and our relationships and that we have self-control, but then we don't. He had asked me to dinner or something I can't remember for Monday and I was like okay....I was kind of hesitant. Because the night before we were also going to watch Fiddler on the Roof  so I didn't know if this was all supposed to mean something, but I was like Fiddler on the Roof, that's harmless right? I mean it's a 3 hour Jewish musical. Well, I guess it's about love, but it's arranged marriage. And we were going to watch it at his grandpa's house, WITH his grandpa, so- harmless. So Sunday I go over and I get there and he opens the door and he' standing there still with his church clothes on, and his sleeves sort of rolled half way up and he's smiling at me and looking literally like Jim Halpert in the flesh and I was like...dangit. So we're watching the movie and he sort of has his arm around me and I'm like whatever nothing's going to happen, I'm not gonna kiss him he's leaving in a week. And then he says, I mean I don't remember it this way, I don't believe that, but he says that after the movie (after his grandpa had gone to bed) that I kissed him. I don't think that's true. It was mutual. So yeah, I have no self-control.

Once I was working on my friend's movie musical and I was the production designer. And as the production designer you worry about colors for the sets, and costumes, and props and make sure that everything looks good and right together, and that it has the right feel for your film. So we were about to shoot this dance scene that had like 6 couples or something and one of the girls was missing. And nobody knew what to do and then finally I remembered that I had this dress in the back of my car from this wedding I just went to so as the good production designer that I am I spoke up and told them that actually I had a dress that would work perfectly in this scene that was the right color and style and everything and then they put me in the movie. So there I am dancing with these people who have been practicing the choreography for like 6 weeks, or a few months and it's like step, turn, jump into this guy's arms and sing! Well, of course they weren't going to use my voice, but I told the director to just put me on the end so I wouldn't stand out. And this poor guy that I was dancing with had to deal with me stepping on his feet and stuff, and the director, who's my friend, thought it was funny so I'm actually in the final cut of the film even though i'm on the end! Sometimes you wanna be back stage as a production designer, but then sometimes you end up dancing on stage in a musical.

So I asked Sariah's dad to lunch because I anted to ask him for his permission to marry her. So I called him and we're planning to go on Saturday and I'm nervous but I'm ready. And then Saturday morning at like 9 or 9:30 Sariah calls me and is like well my dad just called me and told me that he wants me to go to the temple with him so I don't know, I think lunch is going to be late. And I was like ok, that's fine. You know that actually works out better for me because I have a huge assignment due at 6 so yeah that's fine, that sounds great. So I go back to sleep. And then I get another phone call about five minutes later from her and she says   well, actually, my dad says he wants to go to the Mt. Timpanogos temple with all 3 of us, and he wants us to be there in 30 minutes. Soooo I say ok. What else could I say? So we go and meet at his house and he drives us to the temple. And on the way there he's playing this conference talk and it's a really great talk, and super spiritual, but it was called "What to look for in your future spouse," by Gordon B. Hinckley. And it's so awkward! And I don't know what to say and I'm guessing that maybe he wants to talk about it when it's over because it finishes up right as we're getting to the temple, but he doesn't stop for us to talk about it, he just gets out and starts walking up to the temple. And so Sariah goes in to do baptisms and we go to do endowments and so I'm assuming that he wants to talk in the temple and that we'll talk about it once we're int he celestial room. Because we all know why I was there, and what I wanted to talk about, and why I had asked him to lunch so I figured he just wanted it to be a spiritual experience, which is great! That's fine. So I walk into the Celestial room and he's praying so I sit down next to him and wait for him to finish and ask soon as he's finished I'm about to open my mouth and say, "So Greg," right when he says, "Alright! Let's get going Sariah is probably waiting." And I'm like what??? Are you kidding me? What's going on? I thought we came here to talk about me and Sariah! So I have no idea what to do or what's going on. So we get in the car and Sariah mentions that she's really hungry and Greg says, "Well Alex is still taking me to lunch!" You know he's kind of a jokester, but we were all going to go to lunch together. And so the car is silent and I'm in the back seat and Sariah is in the front and then her dad says, "So what did you guys think about the conference talk." And I'm like well. Now's as good a time as any, I guess. So from the back seat I was just like Greg, you know I love Sariah, I love your daughter and I want to marry her. And I wanted to get your blessing first and hear any advice you have for us. And he was really nice about it and we all 3 were at the Olive Garden and he was asking me lots of questions, and giving us advice about being married. But I got the blessing.

Kristen's Monologues

Monologue 1: 

So . . . um . . . . yeah (Flick hair)There was this time we went to Mamaw’s house and when we got there my mom and Dad wouldn't let us go in a certain room.  And I thought why not ? and then I heard this clippity clack and Riley came running out, and I was like a PUPPY!!!!!!!!!  He was really little and cute but at first I was scared he would bite me but I am glad we have him because he keeps me company and is fun to play with. 

 Monologue 2:

Well I don’t really know one, except for the time Mom was like it was going to be okay, but it wasn't.

It was dark and raining outside and storming a little, and around 6 o’clock Riley, our dog, had to go to the bathroom.  But he won’t go outside by himself in the rain, but I was scared to go outside because it was storming.  But Mom was like, it will be fine just take the umbrella out so the Riley will go to the bathroom and not get wet.  So I was like, but what if I get electrocuted with the umbrella, and she was like you’ll be fine and I was like okay I’ll go.  So Riley and I went out and it takes forever for him to go to the bathroom and I didn't want to be out there, and right after he finishes going to the Bathroom there was this huge flash of lighting that lit up the whole sky and then this loud clap of thunder.  It was like a loud boom, you know like boom, it sounded like . . . boom.  So I dropped the umbrella and I ran back through the garage to go back inside.  And Riley is bouncing behind me because he is little and trying to keep up with me because I am running so fast and I get inside and fall to the ground because I am so happy to be safe, and I was like See mom I told you it wasn't safe out there!

Monologue 3:

This was last year, and I wanted to go and visit my daughter Kristen in Utah.  Her cousin Emily was already planning on going so we decided to go together.  Emily had told Kristen she was coming but we wanted it to be a surprise that I would be there too.  The problem was Emily and I were flying standby.  Flying from North Carolina, we struggled getting seats to fly from Charlotte to Phoenix but we both made it.  The flights were even tighter from Phoenix to Salt Lake, but Emily got on one and I was stuck in Phoenix.  The other problem was Kristen usually calls me during the day, but since I was sitting in air ports where the speakers were really loud and she would guess where I was, I had to ignore her phone calls, which she thought could have meant something happened to me.  But Emily kept contacting Kristen letting her know where she was and when she would hopefully arrive in Utah.  The other problem was Kristen was watching a high school play for a class and kept having to leave the play to talk to Emily to try and find her a ride to the air port.  Luckily I caught a plane to Salt Lake, picked up a rental car and Emily told Kristen that her Uncle was just going to pick her up and she would drive to Provo to meet her in the morning.  It’s was around 8:30 in the morning and Kristen was getting ready to go to class when we knocked on her door.  She opens the door and her face is priceless.  Emily is standing there with a video camera and Kristen first looks at her and then sees me.  Her mouth drops open and her hands  hit her face and then she slams the door!  Kristen reopened the door and immediately gave us both hugs, she was just so shocked to see me.  For the rest of my life I will remember her reaction and I was so happy I got to go and see her!

Monologues

Aubree

i like dice
I'm from Vegas, so yeah you know
i like to roll them because I make little games with them
I have these dice, all kinds of colors, blue, green, yellow.
I would make little stories with myself
tell me stuff about my future husband and my children my house
If I get a 3 I get a boy. If I roll a four I get four kids
I would make them really detailed. I have 3 die. I would roll all 3. If 2 were the same number I'd have twins. more than the odd one out--identical. less than odd one out --fraternal.
Multiple dice mean I have more options

I Loved it when I was little.
I once explained it to my aunts and uncles and they were like you're so smart and I was like I'm only 3!
Yeah, I like them and they were consistent too!
It's fun...it's like terro cards for my brain
My mom calls them my autistic moments

Alex.

Mr. Clown was my tuppy. He was given to me when I was baby by my gramma Lou. gramma on my dad's side. and I loved mr. clown. he was my buddy. we did lots of stuff. but I would play with him so he would interact with the barbies and like kick them. so he was way bigger so he would always dominate the GI joes so they would fight. Little boy stuff. cuz boys like fighting.
He has a little rattle inside him so he had a rattle and you could shake him and stuff.
he was gund G-U-N-D. gund. Cuz that's anice brand stuffed aminal.

And I sucke don his hair. he has 5 little hair from out from underneath his hat. I probably bit him off cuz that's what you do. Then I sucked on his hat. Kind of like when you're a kid and you suck on your collar. So now his hat is kind of like pehc  like a flame. like fire.

he was manufactured in 1986 so he was always older than me. We did adventures together. nothing out side, but we would do stuff.

His body was half blue and half yellow. His arms were red. Arms and legs. His hands are little white nubs and his feet are bigger..little..yellow nubs. And he had a little polka dot frilly thing around his neck. Not a tutu but a little clown frilly thing. And his head is yellow. his whole head is yellow. So it's like he's got a hood on, more like a skin-tight suit so his face is white, but his head is yellow. and a little red triangle hat. anyway yeah, mr. clown.

Alex Avila.

When I was little I got a Paddington Bear. He was my friend and I liked him a lot. I got it for Christmas or something. Then when I was older--like 6 or 7--my sister got a notebook with a Paddington bear on it. So I found it and kept it because it had a Paddington bear! And she never knew what happened to it. The end.

Three Monologues - Sarah Kron

I have four stuffed polar bears and I take them everywhere with me, so they move with me to my different apartments, they go back home with me, (laughs) and I do this because I grew up in a family with lots of kids and I’ve always had like a little person in my bed. So, I do still sleep with my stuffed animals because I cuddle with them every night and sleep with them because I just need something to cuddle with. I got my first one when I was…five years old; I won it in a raffle. I was at the mall and there’s like thousands of people there and everyone had a raffle ticket and the only item I wanted was the polar bear and I happened to get it. And then…I just kept collecting them as I go along. Because one of my goals in life is that I do want a baby polar bear. As a pet. (laughs) Always and forever.

Yes, I’m 20 years old and I still sleep with my baby blanket every night, I actually have a hard time sleeping without it. It’s pink and it’s little and…I like the way it feels…o-on my face… (laughs), it’s very comforting, actually, you can ask all my roommates, I like hold it up to my face because it’s a comfort to me and it’s actually my pillow – I don’t use a pillow – but I use my baby blanket, and I’ve had it as long as I can remember and (sighs). My parents periodically try and take it away from me and hide it…it’s gone in the trash can before. And actually, yesterday, my roommate put it in – hid it in her food cabinet and I didn’t notice until I was going to steal something from her and then I was like, “Heyyy…that’s my baby blanket!” And I will have it on my wedding night. Probably.

I realize this might seem kind of odd, but it’s really special to me. My grandma – my abuela – passed away when I was like five years old, really young. I can’t explain how close I was with her, how much I loved her, even though I was so young. I’ve never really been that close with my other grandma – the one on my dad’s side. But on my mom’s side, I’ve always been close with that grandma. My abuela. And yeah, even though she was Spanish, I still called her grandma. My Grandma Adelina. (smiles) Anyway, I always loved going to visit her with my mom, so when I found out she passed away, even though I was only five, really young, I really felt it. I really missed her, you know? So my mom got me this little bendable lamb bookmark thing, I was obsessed with reading and bookmarks. And this little bookmark was really soft, like a lamb, and even had those little arms that you could bend back and forth, and you could bend it in half, too (shows this). Anyway. I put it on my desk, right perched up next to my scriptures, like this little lamb was sitting down, leaning against my scriptures, folding its arms. My mom always told me my Grandma Adelina was my guardian angel. And now I understood that a little better, because I had my little lamb, kinda symbolic of my Grandma I guess, sitting there on my nightstand, watching over me. I don’t keep it by my desk anymore, but I’m pretty sure I have it somewhere. I just don’t need the lamb to remind me of the fact that she’s watching over me anymore. Now I just know.

Lindsey's Monologues

Ryan

An object that’s important to me is my pink—no wait—purple bowl. I’ve had it for ten years and took it with me on my mission and now I have it here with me in college. I eat in it all the time. But I like it because it can hold lots of food. It’s not too big and not too small. It’s Ryan size. Except for when I eat oatmeal. I use a bigger bowl for that. Before, though, I used to eat my oatmeal in this purple bowl when I ate oatmeal with soy milk (but now I don’t do that because there’s too much estrogen in soy milk) but I liked it because it has this lip and I would fill it up to the top with milk and none would spill out. But, like I said, now I don’t drink that. My favorite food to eat in it is probably brown rice and vegetables just because it’s a comfort food. I’ve eaten it so much now that if I go several days without eating it I miss it. But the bowl—the bowl I didn’t get it from anywhere. I stole it from my brother’s birthday part. That was twelve years ago! It was holding candy in it. I stole it from him and have loved it ever since.

Betsy

My blanket. I got it from the hospital. I went to the hospital because I was getting reconstructive surgery on my face. I had been working at a camp as the cook’s assistant, just spending the week helping out and having fun. It was really fun. But me and the other cook’s assistant, who was my cousin, went out wandering around one day and we went bouldering. We were just climbing around and one of the rocks broke and fell on my face. It was huge. It broke off my cheekbone, shattered my eye socket, and broke the bone by my eyebrow. So I had to get reconstructive surgery. The lady who brought the blanket was from project Linus—that’s why sometimes I call it my Linus blanket. Project Linus is this group, organization, type thing where they make blankets and bring them to kids in the hospital. When the lady came in the two of us sat and talked for a little while. She asked me why I was there and I told her a little bit of what happened. And then she gave me the blanket. When she gave it to me, there was a poem that was with it. It said…oh, gosh, what’d it say? I lost it, which makes me sad, because I didn’t want to lose it, but it said something like “wrap this around you and it’s like getting a hug.” That was five years ago.

Kelly

Uhm…An object that’s important to me? Hum…let me think…probably my journal, just because it has all my memories and thoughts and my history. I’m not an avid or dedicated journal keeper by any means—I only wrote in it maybe 20-30 times my whole mission. It’s kinda one of those things that’s last on my to-do list, but I do do it every once in a while. It looks like…Uhm…It looks like—this! It’s just a brown leather with the words…what are the words? Uhm…let’s see…I think just something like “Holiness to the Lord”,” written on it, you know. I got it from my girlfriend’s brother three-and-a-half years ago when I joined the church. At first, it was really weird. Because people who aren’t LDS don’t really keep histories or anything like that…It felt kinda like a girl writing everything down. When I first got it, I didn’t know what to write. I would sit down and more of, you know, just write the things I did. It was like when I started, it was more like I was writing the big plates of Nephi and then slowly I got to writing more of the small plates. You know, more personal, meaningful stuff. 

3 Monologues

It was the December after I had graduated high school. I was going steady with a boy - that's what we called it back then, going steady - and he wanted to take me to a new year's eve party. I don't know why, but when the clock struck midnight the boys said "let's kiss all the girls for luck in the new year" and we let them. Your grandfather was there with his date, and I had seen him around town before but we had never spoken. Everyone kissed everyone, but when Doyle kissed me it was different. He pulled back and looked at me and I at him, and he kissed me again. Then he pulled back and looked at me, and I looked at him and in that moment I knew. I knew I had met the man I was going to marry. He went in for another kiss, but my date grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into another room. He said "that's about enough of that!!"
I don't remember exactly how it happened, but Doyle and his date got a ride home with us. We dropped your grandpa's date off first, and then he got into the front seat with me and my date. The boy I was going with had his arm around my shoulders, but your grandpa and I were holding hands down here (motions to other side(below view of the driver)).
Doyle and I were together after that night.

So I was twenty-two years old. I used to smoke. My mom smoked - well she still smokes - but   we were going to quit smoking together. I was living in North Carolina, but I had come back to my hometown for the summer. I got a job at the local community theatre as the Technical Director. My wife also worked at that community theatre, but she took the summers off. It was just by chance that we met one day when I stayed late and she had come in to talk to the manager. We talked a bit, and I thought she was too good for me. She started coming around more often whenever she would come into the scene shop, we all smoked in there, I would quickly drop my cigarette to the ground and step on it hoping she didn't notice. (she still likes to make fun of me for that. I was pretty obvious) When the summer was ending, the job I had lined up back in North Carolina fell through so I asked if there were any jobs I could have at that community theatre. My wife and I started hanging out, she helped me turn my life around and I ended up joining the church.
If things had worked the way I planned, I would still smoke. I would probably be living in North Carolina. I never would have married my wife and we wouldn't have three beautiful daughters. 
I'm a big believer in- I don't know- fate I guess? Choices and actions that lead you down a path to get to where you are supposed to be.

I like to do donuts. You know? Like when you are driving on snow and you pull the E brake while turning the wheel. I had my license for a month, and I was taking my brother to the Frames house. It was pretty dark out, cause it was about eight or nine, and it had been snowing that day. The Frames live on a dirt and gravel country road, and the snow had compacted all day to make the road real icy. On the way to drop him off, I kept pulling the brake and turning the wheel and we would fish tail a little. Then, on the way home, I did it again but I pressed my luck cause I was going over 25 miles an hour when I did it this time. My car slid at least 30 yards - it felt like slow motion, like I could have gotten out and walked next to my car - and it slammed into a tree.
It was almost totaled, but I was able to back it up and drive it back to the Frames and call my parents. The damage was pretty bad. And apparently I had hit my head on the rearview mirror and knocked it off, cause I wasn't wearing a seatbelt. I didn't want his parents to know why I had wrecked so I told them I swerved to not hit a deer. They still tell people how gentle I am, they think I break for animals.

My Monologues

When I was on study abroad, I was in Israel for two semesters-- almost a year. I had a scholarship, but I worked teaching folk dance and at the library to try to support myself. In the end, it turned out that I had a little leftover money. The director came up to me and said, "You have like two hundred and fifty dollars."
I said, "Great! This means I can buy some souvenirs."
So I bought some small things but I thought, "I've got to get Mom and Dad the biggest thing because they sacrificed so much to allow me to go on study abroad." So I thought of Moses because he means so much to the Jewish people. I went into the Old City to look because tourists really liked Moses. And I found a Moses that was made out of olive wood-- which is the tree that has been there for thousands of years before the Savior. The olive tree is very treasured in Palestine. It was fifty American dollars, which is pretty expensive. I knew my parents would love it. So I hand carried it all the way home. I wrapped it up in my Bedouin scarves and carried him in my open backpack on the airplane through all the checkpoints between Israel to England to home. And nothing was broken! I was so excited. That was my gift to my parents and now when my mom moved back in here, she gave him back to me.

Media, Interpretations

Media is a form of art that is ever changing.  Therefore, media education has come to be defined as conceptual understandings, where the information presented does not specify a particular object of study, or specific body of knowledge to be taught.  Buckingham states that Media has to be based on key concepts rather then specific material to be taught because otherwise the material would constantly be changing to out of date.

            The fact that media is constantly changing could be viewed as a struggle and as a result make it difficult and maybe not even worthwhile to teach in a classroom.  But on the flip side, the fact that media is constantly changing means that there are endless possibilities to how it can be used and applied in a theatre classroom without the restrictions of other subjects. 

            In reading over Sarah’s comments I loved her various examples and endless discussion questions.  Sarah stated, “I could go on and on and on. The reason I chose to focus just on the concept of differing interpretations is for this very reason - you can go in so many different directions with it! Sarah focused her response on interpretations and I would like to add to that idea by discussing not only the endless interpretations but also the endless possibilities available for the use of Media in the classroom.  Sarah said “while you can attempt to get your audience to see something in a specific way . . . there are always going to be people that will either refuse or be unable to see things the way you want to see them.” 

The study and incorporation of media is full of variations and interpretations for what and how new media should be used. Buckingham states that in analyzing media you should incorporate the following key concepts:

Production - production processes, merchandising, international distribution

Language -  genre (the sitcom), form  (animation), codes and conventions

Representation - realism, stereotyping, moral values, images of the family

Audience  - targeting audiences, interpretations, influences, pleasures (comedy) (page 64).

            A class project I would like to do in my classroom would be while studying theatre history and how history itself influenced various forms of art.  For instance in looking at the World War II time period I would have students choose to watch a live action film, or animated film and a theatrical performance that occurred between 1930-1955, and analyze how each was influenced and what message each was trying to portray.  The students would be in groups analyzing and have to give a 20-minute presentation on their findings in a way that represents their findings.  This could be done through media, performance, powerpoint, etc.   In order to compare and contrast these various forms of media, their research would be guided to focus on Buckingham’s key concepts, why/how was each produced, what code, convention or form was used, what is each representing and how do they relate/contrast and what audience were they trying to reach and do you think they were successful?

       

     Similar to Sarah’s comments I would love to lead this unit with discussions.  Students need to understand that before we dive into using and analyzing media how to better understand it.   Buckingham states “There is …a recognition that there are things that students do not know, and which they need to be taught” (page 69).  For instance, in the above project idea I could provide lessons describing general history at the time of WW II as well as live action film, animation and theatrical history at the time.  We could have a class discussion on the use of propaganda and it’s significance during the wartime and how that propaganda was evidenced in the media and arts.

            Just as Sarah gave the example of the “Duck! Rabbit!” there are many different interpretations and opinions of WWII and those were made evident in the art and Media.  These varieties would lead to discussions of why were their so many interpretations?  How was the arts influenced?  Why were they influenced?  Why did the government rely so heavily on media and the arts?  Was the propaganda a success?  How are media and the arts being used in today’s society as propaganda? 

            Buckingham provides valuable key concepts that help to provide scaffolding for teaching students media and then building on that media through projects and discussion.  The best part about incorporating media in to the classroom is that you can go so many different directions and introduce  your students to various interpretations and help to teach them to create interpretations of their own!

Important stuff

I know I'm not a responder this week, but I couldn't help catching a glimpse of Kirsten's post, and how she mentioned that she can't use Buckingham's ideas as they are in her theatre classroom. Specifically saying that she can't teach how media targets its audience, butI Absolutely disagree. I was glad though when she continued on to show how theatre in itself is a media that we can teach in our classroom.

I think that is one of the most valuable things we can teach our students in our day. Especially in a theatre class. Because what is theatre really? It is yet another form of media. Perhaps it has been around for longer than other types of media, but it is definitely part of all of it.
I think that, Especially if our students are interested in theatre, the arts, and are being surrounded by various medias on all sides, they need to know those principles that Buckingham describes.

He lists these key concepts of Production, Language, Representation and Audience to illustrate many things we take for granted our students will know. I think I could make a unit specifically on production, and perhaps integrate it with some technical theatre and even theatre history so that my students get both hands on experience and useful knowledge. In this unit we could talk, like Buckinham mentions, about the technologies involved in theatre practices today, play with some lighting and sound instruments, and then delve into the history of the market of theatre in the US. How did it become what it is today? What is it really today?

I think his second point, languages is probably one of, if not the most important concept we need to help our students understand. There are so many languages being used in our modern day lives, examples of the new hashtag, show the more recent developments, while physical imagery on a stage shows elements that have been developed over centuries. Going over the genres, conventions, and especially the coding of language in texts (whether it be a play script, or a live performance) is something students need to know in order to interact intelligently about the piece. I think it would be fun to do this by reading a play as a class, analyzing it, and then taking a field trip to go see it, and then analyze the language the production used to express the same script.

This last idea bleeds into the third concept of representation where we'd really delve into what was represented in the piece. How things are represented significantly impacts the Meaning the audience takes away from a performance experience. This is where Buckingham's stuff is really applicable to theatre, because theatre, like film, is all about representation. But I think theatre is even more so about representation because of the close proximity the audience has with the actors and performance space. I think we could delve into this idea of representation, perhaps by simulating the same text by reading it in different ways. For instance, one group could be asked to present it in a feminist light, while one could be asked to present it in a Marxist light, or if we don't want to delve that deep (I'm currently thinking of our TIP scenes in 396), we could even adapt the script to different genres. For instance one group does it as a chick flick, one does it as a horror film, etc, so we can see how one thing can be represented by so many different ways.

These all wrap up into the point he makes about Audience, in that each production that is ever conceived is intended for a specific audience. I think understanding that point is the most crucial thing we can teach our students. For one it will help them in producing and marketing their own art and works. And number two, it will help them to be more aware of what sorts of influences the media has in their lives, and how each commercial, play, film, or website they encoutnter was targeted to them for specific reasons.
To teach that, I like the idea of having them create their own commercials to target different groups in their school. This could be incorporated into a unit on script writing, so they could really delve into this process of audience, which is really what media and theatre are all about.

All in all, I thought the concepts he presented were very useful, and that by adapting them to our needs, we can really be effective teachers to help our students realize what is surrounding them on a daily basis, and hopefully to make at least more informed choices, if not wiser, on their production of art and consumption of media, theatre, and stereotypes around them.

Buckingham's Media Education: From His Classroom to Mine

I love this concept of different interpretations that Buckingham mentioned in his article. Even with his outlined "key concepts" of Production, Language, Representation, and Audience, it's very clear that there are many different interpretations and viewpoints that can be explored while in the classroom. This is what I love most about this article: each of these concepts are open to being interpreted by both teacher and student in the classroom.

This reminded me of a book we read in my Teaching Composition (English) class last semester: Duck! Rabbit! This book, from beginning to end, explored how you can look at just one photo and see two (or more!) different perspectives.

via.

Last One!!!

Clearly all of Buckingham's ideas are written for class that is focused on media. As a theatre teacher, I can't use these ideas as they are written in my classroom. Maybe broadcast journalism and newspaper could use them verbatim, maybe a college film class. As a theatre class, I wouldn't be teaching how media targets it's audience, or about how media re-presents information in a specific way to say something. I wouldn't be teaching them the language of media.

So how do I modify his ideas to where they fit in a theatre classroom? 

Lesson Planning with Buckingham's Four Key Concepts

Ten More Lies They Tell You in High School

1. You will use algebra in your adult lives.
2. Driving to school is a privilege that can be taken away.
3. Students must stay on campus for lunch.
4. The new textbooks will arrive any day now.
5. Colleges care about more than your SAT scores.
6. We are enforcing the dress code.
7. We will figure out how to turn off the heat soon.
8. Our bus drivers are highly trained professionals.
9. There is nothing wrong with summer school.
10. We want to hear what you have to say.

--Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson, 148.

When I was reading the section titled "Representation" in Buckingham's text, I was reminded of this segment from Speak. It shows how differently Melinda and the other students at Merryweather High feel about their school compared to the opinions of their administration, parents, or teachers. I like this idea of teaching students about realism, truth, bias, interpretations, and influences through an activity that involves two different looks at the same subject from different viewpoints. As Buckingham said, "Students can explore questions about accuracy and bias by being asked to produce contrasting representations of an institution or an area that they are familiar with, perhaps aiming at different audiences" (59).

Our Media Culture in our Classroom

Blog comment 8

Something I've been thinking about lately is entertainment and the media and the world and culture it glamorizes. While I was on tour with Young Ambassadors we took a break one morning and went bowling. In the bowling alley there was a large screen with music videos playing across it. One particular Katy Perry music video absolutely horrified me because of the explicit sexual content it was presenting as part of a "Teenage Dream" (the name of the song). Even the Beyonce and Will Smith videos, though not as explicit were glamorizing things like immodesty, immorality, and the "do whatever you want" kind of attitude.

After that we went to set up and run our show, and it was such a contrast compared to the music videos we saw exploited in the bowling alley. There were values presented about love, faithfulness, family and life after death. It wasn't "religious" necessarily, but it was so much more uplifting than those media clips in the bowling alley. I stopped taking my job for granted in that moment and as a result I was proud to be part of a group that stood for truth and worked to provide clean and wholesome entertainment in a society that is so bereft of it. 

The thirteenth article of faith came to mind which says,  "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."   There is a lot of trashy media out there in the world, and I believe that as teachers it is our job to find the lovely and the praiseworthy and the virtuous entertainment and media and help our students learn to use the media in their lives for good.

  I really liked what Kristen was talking about when she said, "It is our responsibility to use Media as a force for good and not evil.  Media provides students with tools to be able to express their differences and stand up for what they believe in.  As the educator it is our obligation to not discriminate against students and give them equal chances for success.  This notion requires that we are fair, not equal.  Students should be treated fairly and as individuals not as the exact same cookie cutter students.  They are each unique and have various learning styles and abilities, but they all have potential." 

It goes right along with what Hobbs was talking about when she said that we need to "take action." She gives all kinds of examples of incorporating the global news events into our curriculum and taking them as teaching opportunities. I especially liked the example of how the teacher used the BP oil spill to help his class understand the impact this has in the world, the economy, and in nature. I don't know that I'd spend all that time assigning journalism to my theatre students, but I think there are good principles that we can take from it, and apply to our specific art, like integrity, credibility, engaging the audience, etc. 

                 I also thought that Bordo's essay on the ever-skinnier body craze was particularly interesting and relevant, as we're trying to teach our students how to value media. Because, the skinner we get, the more sex appeal we have, and the more value we have as a person in society, or so the media tends to imply. This of course is not true, and we know that God loves each of us as individuals, but I think it is important to bring these issues up in our classrooms, so that are students can be aware of them and see the issues analytically rather than just consuming the media in front of them. She said, "what we are witnessing is a commercial war" (372). I would argue that we are not only witnessing it, but we and are students are thrust into it. We are at war, and not only do we have to fight it, but we need to help our students recognize the war for what it is, and give them the tools to fight it too.

So I definitely agree with Kristen and believe that we need to find what is good in the media, share it with our students, and help our students make sense of the war that is continuously bombarding them, so that they can find worth in themselseves, and a purpose and direction for their lives. Of course, this will not happen in a single class period, or even after a year-long course. But my hope is we can give them the tools to make good decisions for themselves, and they'll remember a little part of what we taught them, as they encounter the real-life situations, decisions, and global events that occur in their lives.

Blog Response 7

Topic: Reflect

Reading:

Hobbs, pp, 104-143

Selections from Seeing and Writing, chapters 6 and 7:

"Omayra Sanchez" (590-596)

"Regarding the Pain of Others" (650-655)

"Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography" (669-676)

How might you engage your students in reflecting on the media using disciplinary tools that you are familiar with? How do the ideas provided in the Hobbs reading help us to reflect on the icons and images described in the Seeing and Writing readings?

So in this reading, I really appreciated the perspective of moral compass that she presented. She presented concerns about maintaining values in our morally degenerative society through our teaching. I really liked that she recognized that there is right and there is wrong, and that one of our jobs as teachers is to help our students navigate through the colossal mashing of those things together by exploring their feelings and opening up dialogues about what goes on in their lives, rather than just ignoring it or saying that you have to come to the same conclusion as the teacher. I never liked teachers like that, because there are definitely more than one interpretations to argue. 

I think it's also a bad idea to just assume that all teenagers are morally ignorant or incapable. Teens can think and have valid experiences and world views that we need to consider. I think the best thing we can do is to try to teach truth. That doesn't necessarily mean bringing religion into everything. Anyway in public schools, it's not an option really. But we can access truth, often by just getting someone's gut reaction to something.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

It was interesting to me, that in many of her allusions to those negatively affected by the sexuality in media, young women were the primary target that she mentioned, but she failed to reference the negative effects it has on guys too. 

I liked the idea of the comparison chart of various celebrities to illustrate some of the contradictory messages about risk taking that she mentioned. I think we could use in conjunction to some of the things talked about in the Seeing & Writing. For instance, this kind of topic about deciphering media and making meaning from it, goes right along with the idea of ethics in creating. I remember the image of the military helicopter photoshopped with the shark picture which won an award. I appreciated John Long's adamancy from a journalism standpoint on credibility. How we need to have integrity in our creations because if people can't trust a photograph, then we can't trust any representation. I think I would link these ideas--the ones Hobbs mentioned on reading texts, and the ones Long represented with regards to creating art. I read the others too, but this is the one I connected with most, and is what I would focus on here.