Today we started horror week in our podcast. We watched Eyes Without a Face for Monday. I’m excited for this week because as a genre, horror movies have always been much more straight forward and easy to sit through. Although last week’s animations choices were strong, the animation is not a genre. It’s a style that encapsulates other genres, which means that if the animated movie is of a genre that doesn’t appeal to me, it will be difficult to experience. Traditional horror films are very linear and easy to sit through and experience with the exception of some more experimental films. I’m excited to talk about how the use of horror elements translates to real-world themes.

How Can We Talk About and Understand Film?

Prior to starting this senior project, Nate and I hadn’t really done much constructive and thoughtful criticism of the films that we watched. Generally, our conversation revolved around whether or not films were “good” or “bad.” We had never taken the time to dive into some of the themes a movie explores, regardless of how good or bad, the film was. With this project, we’ve been working towards acknowledging what a film does, aside from being “good” or “bad.” Additionally, I usually had not seen many of the films that he would bring up around me, so this project is an opportunity for us to watch the same films, and be able to have actual discussions about them. So far, this has been working for us. Many of the movies that we have watched have been thoughtful enough to the point in which we can actually incorporate our personal experiences into our discussions. This, in my opinion, has been the highlight of our project so far, simply because it allows for more complex discussions that can allow us to enjoy a movie for more than just its cinematography and music choices, etc. Furthermore, the sources that we have used–which are usually film critique videos–have been a format for us to discuss our films. Most of our conversations were short and never led to anything deeper than what we liked and disliked, but with this project, we’ve been very successful in drawing out our conversations with talking points, similar to how film critiques do. I think at this point, something that Nate and I should focus on is finding a real, unique format for our podcast. Part of our “advertising” for this podcast was it being very casual, where we’d steer off track at times, but so far we haven’t stayed true to that advertising. 

We recorded our third podcast episode and the last episode of our first week. This week was dedicated to animation, sow e ended strong with A Silent Voice and Akira. Thankfully, as this week ended, so did my turn editing these episodes. I enjoyed this week a lot, but because animation is not a genre of its own, some of the movies that Nate and I watched felt very disconnected and very unrelated. I am hoping that as we dive into actual genres such as horror next week, we will be able to compare and contrast these films much more thoughtfully.

Wow, I completely forgot this existed. Ok, well here we go.

Yesterday, Nate and I recorded the first episode of our podcast–which is was our backup idea in case our first senior project idea couldn’t be followed through with. With no clue at all about how to record a podcast, we somehow managed to make it through today with little to no technical issues. The focus of this episode was a movie by the name of Waltz with Bashir. It’s an animated documentary about a soldier’s recollection (or lack thereof) of events during a war. Because of the weight of the documentary, we chose not to crack any jokes during this episode. We also sunk our heads into the real-world history of the events in the film.

Overall I think that this was a successful first day. The mistakes we make early on will be corrected in the future, as we grow much more experienced.

 

Welcome to your brand new digital portfolio/blog at blogs.lrei.org!

Your portfolio can be used for many things through out your middle and high school years, including:

• Documenting and reflecting on your learning, passions, and interests, both in and out of school
• Curating and highlight work for your Family Conferences
• In some instances, your teachers will ask you to submit, reflect and comment on work in this portfolio

It is our hope that you also seek to make this a personally relevant learning space in which you curate work that is important and meaningful to you. As you build this learning space, we also hope that you will use it as a way to connect with other learners in the LREI community and beyond.

Your LREI account (Mail, Docs/Drive) credentials will automatically get you into your blog. Here are a few things you’ll want to take a look at:

1. Change the name of your blog. To do this, go back to the Dashboard and click on the “Home” symbol, then on “MS Digital Portfolio Template” under “This Blog.”

In the field for “Site Title,” add a new title. You can use your first name if you want (e.g., “Mark’s Digital Portfolio”), but don’t use your first and last name. You can also create a title that doesn’t have your name in it. Be as creative as you want, but keep in mind that the title should relate to the purpose of the portfolio.

After you’ve added a new title, click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page.

 

2. Add a Post

For the most part, you’ll be adding items to your blog as posts. To add a new post, you can click on the +New button in the top bar of your blog, and then select “Post.”

You’ll want to give each post a title, and assign it to a Category. These categories are broken down by class and grade (e.g., fifth grade, core, etc.). This will allow you to organize and sort information so that you can control the look and feel of your blog. If you take a look at the menu bar under the blog title, you see the different groups of categories (e.g., class, grade, teacher, etc.).

When you’re done with your post you can click “Publish” on the side to make the post appear on your blog

For assistance, come see Clair in the Tech Lab, check out our comprehensive support site, or take a look at our Edublogs User Guide guide.

You can also subscribe to our brilliant free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.