Yiskah Tucker

December 6, 2007

ENG 3241

Dr. Crovitz

Digital Project Reflection

            Creating this digital project has been an emotional labor of love.  Since the age of eight, Hannah Senesh has been my hero.  I first started reading about her when I learned the song “Eli Eli” to sing at my synagogue.  From that time on, I have had an insatiable appetite to learn more about this dynamic woman.  As the years passed and few things were being published about her life, I would once again return to the few and ragged books that I have read countless times.  My fascination and admiration of her started scaring my grandparents when, at the age of ten, I announced a family get together that I too would make aliyah (immigrate to Israel) and give my life for independence and freedom.  Although the “giving my life” thing kind of faded out, when I turned 21 I followed a part of my dream and moved to Israel to live and work on a Kibbutz, just like Hannah.  My time there opened so many new doors to learning about my childhood, and present day, hero.  I was honored several times to lead birthright groups, American/Int’l students visiting Israel, to her grave and tell her story.  These were truly the highlights of my years there.  To be able to spread the word of her life and strength was such a joy. 

In addition to her strength as a person, Hannah and I shared a passion for writing.  When, at the age of four, she began writing her poetry, she had no clue that sixty years later they would be published in over fifty different languages.  She kept a journal just as I did, and although I also claimed Anne Frank as a hero and role model, Hannah lived her life.  She immigrated to Israel, fell in love, and CHOSE to return to Nazi occupied Europe.  It was this fire and spunk that made me feel connected to her.  I had already written her story and writings into several lesson plans that I have created and implemented in the past, but when my friend asked me for help building a Holocaust/WWII unit, it was perfect timing because it coincided with this project.  The journey of the Hannah Senesh project began.

 I was excited because I would finally have an excuse to be able to create a visual to go along with this unit.  Although I had been saying that I would do this for years, it never became a priority.  I had already helped my friend build a lesson unit and structure it around Senesh’s different writings: journals, plays, poetry, etc… And I then built my digital media project as an example for his students for their final project for the unit.  I attempted to give both a background of her life and create visual images to accompany her two most famous poems, ‘Blessed is the Match’ and ‘Eli Eli’.  The creation of the project itself was interesting.  I had just bought a new laptop with Microsoft Vista, and it was out to get me!  My program repeatedly crashed leaving me frustrated and at some times in tears.  It is frustrating enough when you lose an assignment you are working on, but when it has literally had your heart poured into it as well, that can be devastating.  It was so much fun to be able to go through her pictures and pair them with the words of the poetry; powerpoint was most definitely my friend there.  At one point I was denied the opportunity to use film footage due to copyright laws, however in the last few days of the project the education director of the program got back in tough with me to give me the green light, which made the video a bit more realistic.  The actual process of putting it together, with the video and music/dialogue, was tedious.  I wanted the timing to be just right.  A few days before the final draft was due, my Microsoft Office 2007 trial ended.  Which wouldn’t normally be that big of a deal, but when I went back in to try to alter some of the slides I had created, I was denied.  There was no way for me to get back in without upgrading my entire system, which can be quite a pricey endeavor.  Multiple hours ensued of me recreating my work, but the final product has been worth the sweat and tears.  I am so proud of the presentation, and I hope that it will serve its purpose well, to enlighten many more people about the beauty, artistry, and strength of a young girl named Hannah Senesh.

project done and up on my personal blog!

I am so excited for a new/old oppurtunity that has come my way.  I have been able to connect a classroom here that I worked with in the States with a classroom that i worked in while I was in Israel.  They are going to be able to take pen pals to a whole new level.  With webcams, email, blog sites, and networking sites (myspace/facebook) a new dynamic has been added.  I remember when I was in the fourth grade we “penpal-ed” with a class in Germany.  It was one of the most exciting things for us to get a package of letters.  Now within 24 hours students will be able to come in and be greeted with pictures, videos, even live IMing sessions….

Omnivore type!

Who They Are
They are young, ethnically diverse, and mostly male (70%). The median age is 28; just more than half of them are under age 30, versus one in five in the general population. Over half are white (64%) and 11% are black (compared to 12% in the general population). English-speaking Hispanics make up 18% of this group. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many (42% versus the 13% average) of Omnivores are students.

Go figure….I think they have me pegged (except for the male part!) :-)

I was sitting on my couch trying valiantly to read Shakespeare when all of a sudden I saw a very familiar classroom pop up on the NBC nightly news.  It was story on the class that is using ipods to help their ESL students.  About a minute into the report, my phone rang.  My Mother, working on her Masters in TESOL, has been developing a media project for one of her courses.  She had immediately keyed in on the report and had called me to see if I was watching it.   It was so exciting to be able to tell her that my professor had posted a link to the story just a few days before.  I was also able to share a few of the videos that I had found for the teachertube assignment as well as several articles I had found when we talked about the podcasts a few weeks ago.  Helping her delve even more deeply into the subject amazed me.  I eventually went to the apple site and found that they have an entire PAGE devoted to using podcasts and ipods in education. There is a treasure trove of educational resources there, just waiting for teachers to find them.  One of the things that I found most interesting was the iquiz.  A new ipod game that teachers can go into and build their own curriculum based quizzes.  If Macbeth weren’t beckoning, I would love to explore more-the page, however, is being bookmarked…

the wikipedia project!  I am psyched. I will admit that I go by the wikipedia site a few times a day just to admire ! 

I was sitting in the library reading The New York Times when I came across a great story about a ninth grade english teacher.  Not only is he incorporating, even “requiring”, parental involvement in his student’s homework, but he is using a blog to keep them accountable!  I thought this was a cool little example of interesting ways that a teacher can incorporate a blog into their curriculum.  Not only can we involve the students through the blog, but also reach their parents in an easy and open way!  Take a look…

Oh, and another reason why I love the internet, within 30 seconds of reading the hardcopy of the paper I had found the online article so that i could link it here-gotta love that!

Monster.com is worth something!  Got this link sent to me today-great resource for future teachers….

I actively missed class last Thursday. Most people would love being able to get out of classes for a day, but as I was sitting there in Shul, all I could think about was the class learning about podcasts. Here was a topic that I was most excited about discussing, and I was missing it! Talk about your bum timing…It’s funny how you can actually look forward to a class. Don’t get me wrong, I have enjoy the majority of my classes, but this course is one that I don’t sigh when I pull out the syllabus to see what my next assignment is. When I woke up this morning, to be at work at 7 AM, the first thing that I did was check the site to see how I could catch up. It fascinates me to see how much technology there is out there. I was one of the first people with an ipod, the idea of it fascinated me. I have always been an auditory based learner, you know, that person that you see when it is gridlocked on 85 making the most of rush hour by reciting a foreign language over and over and over. So I was also an early boarder on the podcast train. While I was in Israel it was one of my main connections to the States. In fact, I used to have my class listen to Grammar Girl’s podcast at the beginning of every advanced class.  This was something that fascinated the students.  I never have been brave enough to create my own.  I just have too much respect for the world of podcasts to sully it.  If only a few people out there shared this respect!   Having just experienced an absence in class completely out of my control, I loved this podcast that I stumbled across.  Although I didn’t see the consistent podcasting I expected, I adore the idea.  A teacher will update students on the content of the class, sometimes even including lecture.  What a perfect and considerate idea-especially for a classroom filled with a diverse audience (IE me!).  I would love to see this become more interactive.  Perhaps incorporate collaboration from the students? What better way to solidify an understanding of what you learned than teaching it to someone else?   In an age in which it seems everyone over the age of 3 owns an ipod, yesterday I saw a child-IN A STROLLER- with an ipod, a podcast seems the easiest and most direct way to communicate.  Even without an ipod, all a listener needs is an interenet connection to open the door to thousands of different learning possibilities.  We can hear a discussion about literature, from a CHINESE classroom, or listen to AP projects of students in the Midwest, and offer feedback!  We are living in an age of collaboration like no other.  In my Shakespeare class last week we were discussing how letters were delivered.  You’re chilling in London and you hear someone mention they are going to Berlin, which makes you hand them a letter in hopes that someone they come across there might be continuing on to Lisbon…Now we can upload a podcast regarding our class’ content and it can be accessed almost immediately from someone literally on the other side of the globe.  I just can’t get over how exciting this all is…

…how I never realized how much technology is used in the classroom until I started this course.  A friend who is a band teacher just sent me a link  to this great site that he would be using to teach the students about Rosh Hashanah and blowing the shofar.  Using technology is quickly becoming a staple in such a variety of classrooms, isn’t it exciting?!?