By Justin Carrington
Good morning, governors! (be sure to say it with a British accent). On the last episode of Downton Poe (you get it…Poe Hall – the place we met for class)…
Class started with Ruie giving out student IDs for all students. Be sure to keep up with your student ID as you travel around the UK (some places provide student discounts…and what do teachers love? Discounts!). Please be advised that contact information has been posted to the course Moodle site. Be sure to provide this to friends and loved ones back home so they can reach you if needed. During this time, we also signed up for kitchens/rooms in University Courts.
Shortly thereafter, Calm Colleen provided us with an especially calm reading of our scribe notes from our last class together. During her report, Kevin shared an interesting anecdote, in which he admitted to having knocked out the power in an entire wing of the dormitories on a past trip. Sounds horrible, right? Not so much. Instead, Kempt Kevin used this slight mishap as a teachable moment for us all (in brief, make sure all of your electronic devices – especially your computers – are “dual voltage”). If you don’t perhaps you’ll get to share a teachable lesson with next year’s group…and buy a new computer (the things we’ll do for teachable moments).
Next, Ruie introduced the “Letter to Self” assignment. In past years, Ruie has had students write letters to themselves, and she would mail the letters to them in the future. Recently, however, Kevin found a website that allows you to compose letters online and to have them “delivered” electronically on a date in the future. Kevin then introduced the tool (lettrs.com) and provided us with a handout (hey, multiple intelligences!). Judging a book by its cover, the interface appears incredibly easy to use. Although there are a number of ways that you can have the letter(s) you composed “delivered” to you, we will want to have them sent to ourselves electronically on September 20th (the day before our last class meeting).
After spending some time working on our letters, we had a brief “Where I’m From” Prezi showcase. Natalie was the brave soul that dared to share her Prezi. Amazed with the medium of prezi, Ruie suggested that we share our Prezis at funerals (Watch out, funeral home directors…Ruie is on to something!). Chelsea, Elliot, Stephanie, Sarah, Anne, and Lauren also provided us with a glimpse in to their worlds. Someone then pointed out the lack of diversity and summoned Sleepy Spencer to represent “Team Testosterone.”
After a brief break, Gareth then enlightened us with his vast expertise on Charles Dickens—or CD as he refers to him. Dr. Cordery opened his presentation by sharing a visual that illustrates two of his loves—football (not that American thing that rarely involves foot-to-ball action…the real thing that we’ve proceeded to call soccer) and Charles Dickens, the man whom Gareth refers to as the “special correspondent for posterity.” As a side note, if Gareth’s career as a leading literary scholar doesn’t work out, I’m convinced he could rake up the big bucks impersonating characters from Dickens’ works (#justsaying). In addition to the sharing some insight on the literary works of the man known as Charles Dickens, Gareth also shared some of Dickens’ visual works (i.e. Dombey & Son). If you’re interested in perusing some of these works feel free to visit www.projectboz.com.
I believe that’s all for this week’s episode of Downton Poe. On the next episode 20+ teacher leaders arrive in the UK!!!
Good morning, governors! (be sure to say it with a British accent). On the last episode of Downton Poe (you get it…Poe Hall – the place we met for class)…
Class started with Ruie giving out student IDs for all students. Be sure to keep up with your student ID as you travel around the UK (some places provide student discounts…and what do teachers love? Discounts!). Please be advised that contact information has been posted to the course Moodle site. Be sure to provide this to friends and loved ones back home so they can reach you if needed. During this time, we also signed up for kitchens/rooms in University Courts.
Shortly thereafter, Calm Colleen provided us with an especially calm reading of our scribe notes from our last class together. During her report, Kevin shared an interesting anecdote, in which he admitted to having knocked out the power in an entire wing of the dormitories on a past trip. Sounds horrible, right? Not so much. Instead, Kempt Kevin used this slight mishap as a teachable moment for us all (in brief, make sure all of your electronic devices – especially your computers – are “dual voltage”). If you don’t perhaps you’ll get to share a teachable lesson with next year’s group…and buy a new computer (the things we’ll do for teachable moments).
Next, Ruie introduced the “Letter to Self” assignment. In past years, Ruie has had students write letters to themselves, and she would mail the letters to them in the future. Recently, however, Kevin found a website that allows you to compose letters online and to have them “delivered” electronically on a date in the future. Kevin then introduced the tool (lettrs.com) and provided us with a handout (hey, multiple intelligences!). Judging a book by its cover, the interface appears incredibly easy to use. Although there are a number of ways that you can have the letter(s) you composed “delivered” to you, we will want to have them sent to ourselves electronically on September 20th (the day before our last class meeting).
After spending some time working on our letters, we had a brief “Where I’m From” Prezi showcase. Natalie was the brave soul that dared to share her Prezi. Amazed with the medium of prezi, Ruie suggested that we share our Prezis at funerals (Watch out, funeral home directors…Ruie is on to something!). Chelsea, Elliot, Stephanie, Sarah, Anne, and Lauren also provided us with a glimpse in to their worlds. Someone then pointed out the lack of diversity and summoned Sleepy Spencer to represent “Team Testosterone.”
After a brief break, Gareth then enlightened us with his vast expertise on Charles Dickens—or CD as he refers to him. Dr. Cordery opened his presentation by sharing a visual that illustrates two of his loves—football (not that American thing that rarely involves foot-to-ball action…the real thing that we’ve proceeded to call soccer) and Charles Dickens, the man whom Gareth refers to as the “special correspondent for posterity.” As a side note, if Gareth’s career as a leading literary scholar doesn’t work out, I’m convinced he could rake up the big bucks impersonating characters from Dickens’ works (#justsaying). In addition to the sharing some insight on the literary works of the man known as Charles Dickens, Gareth also shared some of Dickens’ visual works (i.e. Dombey & Son). If you’re interested in perusing some of these works feel free to visit www.projectboz.com.
I believe that’s all for this week’s episode of Downton Poe. On the next episode 20+ teacher leaders arrive in the UK!!!