NEW ERA

PODCASTING

We have gone from the days of the television with the rabbit ears, radio vision and the victrola to smart tvs ipods and cds.  Podcasting makes it easy for us to take our broadcasts with us wherever we go because that is where the world has brought us with technology today. I want to introduce you today to Parang music.  This is the season in Trinidad and Tobago where we begin the preliminary celebrations for the Christmas season. Parang music is based on holiday sentiments sung in Spanish (which celebrates the integration our hispanic ancestry of the island), it uplifts the Virgin Mary, the baby Jesus, the food we eat the music we play, it encompasses everything and the people and how we live. When you hear this music wherever you are in this world, your heart longs for home, Trinidad and Tobago. http://djfloopstt-podcast.club/trinidad-parang-soca-christmas-classics-video-mix/

This podcast showcases a medley of performances by some popular performers, singing parang songs like Soca Santa, which is a Santa who likes the Trinidad scene like the music, food and women. the soca reference is to the type of music that is popular in Trinidad and Tobago. Some of the more traditional parang songs is sung totally in Spanish and honors the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

CREATING 

WITH COMIC STRIPS

STRIP GENERATORS & LANGUAGE

http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-1212067

Whether you use Dvolver, Strip Generator or any other, these sites are great for creating comic strip stories for use in the classroom.  Comic strip doesn't necessarily mean funny stories, this is just the forum being used to tell your story and it can be sad, action, funny or a combination of all three.  I was able to create the above story using Dvolver with great ease and I consider myself a computer novice.

I would like to see my students using any of these mentioned sites to be creative and show their individual style developing a story line from conception to production. My rubric will be based on creativity, images, text, grammar which includes spelling, punctuation and capitalization.  I will also look at the number of scenes and the number of lines of dialogue.

Students should use stories that come from their everyday lives to bring some sense of reality to it as well as sincerity. However, developing a story out of fantasy is also a good choice in showing imagination.

THINGS TO DO IN GREECE

Island of Crete

https://animoto.com/play/qXLXoWoe11mfJviiUXa4mQ

In my photo story about my trip to Greece, you will notice I am showing an action in each slide. Students can use this forum to tell a story using any creative avenue using videos with added text and background music uploaded from their own computers or from what's provided by the Animoto site.

My assessment of their assignment will be based on creativity, images, correct grammar, including spelling and punctuation. There should be text on the slide or immediately following on the next slide and music should be incorporated in the theme.