Just some backup story: Sylar is a serial killer who steals others powers by cutting their heads open. For complicated reasons, his ability to steal others powers has ceased to work. Alejandro and Maya are brother/sister from Mexico who also have powers (that aren’t important) and have found Sylar. Sylar claims he can help them find a professor who can explain their powers, but really just wants them to drive him to someone who can give his powers back and then kill them.
(Sylar/Regan and Goneril) talk nice to gain the trust of (Maya/ Lear). (Alejandro/Cordelia) who actually cares about (Maya/Lear) doesn’t trust (Sylar/Regan and Goneril)’s intentions. Despite having previously more connections and love with (Alejandro/Cordelia), (Maya/ Lear) rejects (Alejandro/Cordelia)’s reasoning. Alejandro gets murdered by Sylar and Sylar tells Maya that Alejandro has gone back to Mexico and she believes him. As (Maya/ Lear) begin to depend more and more on (Sylar/Regan and Goneril) they are betrayed and realize how much more they should have trusted (Alejandro/Cordelia).
This also happens very frequently in movies. The good character makes a minor mistake or has an emotional outburst and another character that has good intentions but can’t see the truth trusts another character that eventually backstabs them. It’s particularly dramatic and interesting when the good character that is no longer trusted realizes exactly what is happening but is unable to stop it. They plead to the character with good intentions to no avail and struggle against society to stop the bad character. This shows how even though many people dislike reading Shakespeare and don’t understand Shakespeare, his plot techniques and themes have crept into common life. Many movies include variations of this. Clearly exhibited is the ability of Shakespeare’s work to endure the ages, through even those arts previously unknown. Shakespeare’s ideas are an analysis of human interaction and are, in many cases, universal.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
TED Project Reflection
TED… I have mixed feelings about it. While I agree that it was far better this year than last year, I still had a few problems with it.
This year’s Google sites were an improvement over last year’s wikis. They were easier to navigate and felt more polished. I also liked how we actually met with our groups before the presentation date. However, even more group meetings definitely could have been beneficial. Of course, I realize that it is a bit complicated to organize a meeting with almost 120 students. A lot of the problems with this project came from the lack of work ethic among other grade levels. I guess my group was rather lucky in that, even though some of us did procrastinate, we all got the work done and we distributed and followed through on equal amounts of work. I also can’t complain about devoting too much time to the project. I spent about 4-5 hours on the project and most of that was research time.
The problem I have is that I really didn’t learn anything from the presentations themselves. Any actual learning took place when I watched all the videos for the first time. I felt that the student presentations were too much simple re-wording of the TED videos. Sure learning other “academy-like” people’s ideas on how to solve problems could be useful, but wouldn’t academy discussions to explore how to find solutions be more beneficial? Shouldn’t we be learning problem solving critical thinking rather than how to extend off the views of others? I really don’t know, I’m not a teacher, but I just know that I am unsatisfied with the actual value of the project.
This year’s Google sites were an improvement over last year’s wikis. They were easier to navigate and felt more polished. I also liked how we actually met with our groups before the presentation date. However, even more group meetings definitely could have been beneficial. Of course, I realize that it is a bit complicated to organize a meeting with almost 120 students. A lot of the problems with this project came from the lack of work ethic among other grade levels. I guess my group was rather lucky in that, even though some of us did procrastinate, we all got the work done and we distributed and followed through on equal amounts of work. I also can’t complain about devoting too much time to the project. I spent about 4-5 hours on the project and most of that was research time.
The problem I have is that I really didn’t learn anything from the presentations themselves. Any actual learning took place when I watched all the videos for the first time. I felt that the student presentations were too much simple re-wording of the TED videos. Sure learning other “academy-like” people’s ideas on how to solve problems could be useful, but wouldn’t academy discussions to explore how to find solutions be more beneficial? Shouldn’t we be learning problem solving critical thinking rather than how to extend off the views of others? I really don’t know, I’m not a teacher, but I just know that I am unsatisfied with the actual value of the project.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)