Here is a link to the GoogleDoc that has my lesson plan in it.
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IPT286 for Fall 2012!
13 years ago
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Google Sketchup Lesson Plan
So it turns out the Google Sketchup isn't quite as complicated as it seemed. It's actually REALLY cool and not too hard. I had to watch quite a few tutorials to figure it out, but Google did a great job of posting really simple and effective tutorials to go with the program. I know there is a lot of stuff I could potentially do with Sketchup but have not figured out yet, but the basics are there and I am excited to use this in my future teaching.
I'm not sure if I am supposed to post my lesson plan onto this or not, but since I'm not sure how to attach a word document onto my blog I won't worry about it. But I will post a jpeg image of my Google Sketchup example. It's SOOOO cool!
A FRONT VIEW:
AN AERIAL VIEW:
A BACK VIEW:
I'm excited to show this off in class in all its glory!
I'm not sure if I am supposed to post my lesson plan onto this or not, but since I'm not sure how to attach a word document onto my blog I won't worry about it. But I will post a jpeg image of my Google Sketchup example. It's SOOOO cool!
A FRONT VIEW:
AN AERIAL VIEW:
A BACK VIEW:
I'm excited to show this off in class in all its glory!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Play Trailer
So I've been sick for the past few weeks with the wonderful flu, so now I'm playing catch-up! I tried my best with making a movie for this weeks assignment. I've never done something like this before! Rick suggested I make a promotional trailer for my senior directing project because promoting my shows in a High School setting is DEFINITELY something I will be doing in the near future. This could make an interesting assignment where I can include technology in my classroom having my students create promotional videos for their productions.
I do not have a web-cam or a microphone so I decided to use production photos taken a week before my show opened as the basis for the promotional trailer. I think it does a good job of capturing the essence of my piece and I hope it is helpful in motivating audience members to support the arts!
This was quite the challenging assignment, my illness aside. I had no idea how to use Windows Movie Maker (because I don't have a Mac) so I got to learn by trial and error. It wasn't as hard as it looked but it was definitely challenging and caused me to really work to make a good trailer, albeit a short one.
I've tried uploading it to my blog but my internet is WAY too slow at my house, so hopefully I can get it posted on campus where the connection is faster. Stay tuned to check it out!
Jason
I do not have a web-cam or a microphone so I decided to use production photos taken a week before my show opened as the basis for the promotional trailer. I think it does a good job of capturing the essence of my piece and I hope it is helpful in motivating audience members to support the arts!
This was quite the challenging assignment, my illness aside. I had no idea how to use Windows Movie Maker (because I don't have a Mac) so I got to learn by trial and error. It wasn't as hard as it looked but it was definitely challenging and caused me to really work to make a good trailer, albeit a short one.
I've tried uploading it to my blog but my internet is WAY too slow at my house, so hopefully I can get it posted on campus where the connection is faster. Stay tuned to check it out!
Jason
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Helpful Books
Here are some books that I have found to be extremely helpful in my theatrical experience. Some are more complicated than others, but as you progress in theatre you will want to become more and more familiar with the concepts taught in them. Most of them are books written by contemporary theatre-makers working in the field today. I HIGHLY recommend reviewing them and getting familiar with their principles.
Playwriting: An Overview
Everyone has a story to tell. Our stories make up our lives. We live them first hand, then recount them throughout our lives at numerous parties or other social gatherings, tell them privately to family or friends and even embellish and change them over time. Telling a story is the basis for playwriting. All playwriting is is telling a story. It can be a true story. It can be a fictional story. It can even be a little bit of both. But, in the end, playwriting is just telling a story on the stage.
That doesn't sound too hard, now does it? The following video tells a story. Look at how the story is formed. Who are the characters? Where are they? Where do they start? What happens or changes? Where do they end? How do the change? These are all things we can begin think about when approaching playwriting.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eHr-9_6hCg)
Now let's think about how this story is put together. Aristotle, a famous Greek philospher, wrote a book about theatre entitled "The Poetics". In his book he discusses the things that must occur during a play in order to tell a story properly. These are those points:
EXPOSTION: A play must tell us the setting, time period and those involved in the story so we know who is who. (ex Bambi and his mother eating grass in the winter time outside the forest)
INCITING INCIDENT: This is something that happens in the play that get's the story going. (ex. Bambi's mother hears the hunters coming and tells Bambi to run)
RISING ACTION: The main action of the story, what happens. (ex. Bambi and his mother run towards the thicket and they become separated)
CLIMAX: The highest point in the story where we find out whether or not the protagonist will succeed (ex We hear the gunshot and know Bambi's mother is dead)
FALLING ACTION or DENOUMENT: Where the loose ends of the story are tied up to give closure. (ex The stag telling Bambi his mother is gone and inviting him to follow)
Here is an image that demonstrates the Aristotelian Plot Structure:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Freytags_pyramid.png)
Now think of a story in your own life and imagine you were going to tell the story to the class. What exposition would you give? What would the inciting incident be? What occurs during the rising action? The climax? Was there a falling action or denoument?
It's easy to see that all these elements are already present in our lives, in each story that we live out. Doesn't this make playwriting seem a lot less daunting? It's simple if you follow the basic plot structure and remember, it's nothing more than telling a story.
For this class you are required to write a 10-minute original play. The topic can be anything of your choosing. Please click here to see more information on the assignment.
That doesn't sound too hard, now does it? The following video tells a story. Look at how the story is formed. Who are the characters? Where are they? Where do they start? What happens or changes? Where do they end? How do the change? These are all things we can begin think about when approaching playwriting.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eHr-9_6hCg)
Now let's think about how this story is put together. Aristotle, a famous Greek philospher, wrote a book about theatre entitled "The Poetics". In his book he discusses the things that must occur during a play in order to tell a story properly. These are those points:
EXPOSTION: A play must tell us the setting, time period and those involved in the story so we know who is who. (ex Bambi and his mother eating grass in the winter time outside the forest)
INCITING INCIDENT: This is something that happens in the play that get's the story going. (ex. Bambi's mother hears the hunters coming and tells Bambi to run)
RISING ACTION: The main action of the story, what happens. (ex. Bambi and his mother run towards the thicket and they become separated)
CLIMAX: The highest point in the story where we find out whether or not the protagonist will succeed (ex We hear the gunshot and know Bambi's mother is dead)
FALLING ACTION or DENOUMENT: Where the loose ends of the story are tied up to give closure. (ex The stag telling Bambi his mother is gone and inviting him to follow)
Here is an image that demonstrates the Aristotelian Plot Structure:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Freytags_pyramid.png)
Now think of a story in your own life and imagine you were going to tell the story to the class. What exposition would you give? What would the inciting incident be? What occurs during the rising action? The climax? Was there a falling action or denoument?
It's easy to see that all these elements are already present in our lives, in each story that we live out. Doesn't this make playwriting seem a lot less daunting? It's simple if you follow the basic plot structure and remember, it's nothing more than telling a story.
For this class you are required to write a 10-minute original play. The topic can be anything of your choosing. Please click here to see more information on the assignment.
All About Me!
(My computer is having some SERIOUS issues uploading photos right now. As soon as I can fix the problem I'll get a photo of myself on here!)
Hello class! My name is Mr. Langlois (Mr. L, if you want) and I am super excited about this new school year with you here at Westlake High School. I thought it would be good to give you a little information about me, so here we go!
I was born and raised here in Thousand Oaks, CA as the oldest of 6 children. I am an alumni of the Conejo Valley School District where I graduated from Colina Middle School in the year 2000 and from Westlake High School in 2004! GO WARRIORS!! In 2011 I graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Education and a minor in Spanish Language.
Naturally, I LOVE the theatre and everything about it. I especially love musicals and the work of playwright Neil Labute. I have dabbled in all forms of theatre including acting, choreography, set and light design, make-up design and stage managment, but my true passion is for directing. I cannot wait to get our program up and running and get to work with you all on our school's theatre season.
Some of my other loves include cooking, puzzles, Minesweeper on my laptop and watching (and often critiquing) movies. I have one pet: a Beta Fish named Adolf who has stuck by me as a loyal pet for years now.
Well, that's a little bit about me. I'm sure you will all get to know me a lot better as the year goes on and I hope to get to know each and every one of you. If you ever need anything from me, please know that my office door is always open and I will be glad to help you in any way I can.
Hello class! My name is Mr. Langlois (Mr. L, if you want) and I am super excited about this new school year with you here at Westlake High School. I thought it would be good to give you a little information about me, so here we go!
I was born and raised here in Thousand Oaks, CA as the oldest of 6 children. I am an alumni of the Conejo Valley School District where I graduated from Colina Middle School in the year 2000 and from Westlake High School in 2004! GO WARRIORS!! In 2011 I graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Education and a minor in Spanish Language.
Naturally, I LOVE the theatre and everything about it. I especially love musicals and the work of playwright Neil Labute. I have dabbled in all forms of theatre including acting, choreography, set and light design, make-up design and stage managment, but my true passion is for directing. I cannot wait to get our program up and running and get to work with you all on our school's theatre season.
Some of my other loves include cooking, puzzles, Minesweeper on my laptop and watching (and often critiquing) movies. I have one pet: a Beta Fish named Adolf who has stuck by me as a loyal pet for years now.
Well, that's a little bit about me. I'm sure you will all get to know me a lot better as the year goes on and I hope to get to know each and every one of you. If you ever need anything from me, please know that my office door is always open and I will be glad to help you in any way I can.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Copyright Law EVERYWHERE!
So for this week's assignment we had to learn all about copyright law and then give a critique of an educational video found on TeacherTube, discussing how well or not they adhered to copyright laws and fair use limitations.
We Didn't Start the Fire
This video, it seems, was a bit abusive of the Fair Use guidelines. While it was produced under the presumption that it gives an overview of modern-American history, it actually turned out to be more of a music video set to a Billy Joel song. While I love Billy Joel, no citations were ever given in regards to the song that played the entire video, or any of the images used. They acquired dozens of images and movie clips from important moments in American history that, arguably, would be educationally beneficial to use when teaching the subject. However, under the terms of fair use, the amount of images used was a bit excessive and the video seemed to be more entertainment oriented, rather than educationally oriented. Had they even given recognition to Billy Joel for use of his song, or listed a sort of "works cited" from whence they gathered the images to make the video, then yes, I would argue that it was all done under fair use. However, since no effort was made to cite any of the sources, I would say that this video is indeed under violation of copyright law, even if it was intended for an educational purpose.
A Fair(y) Use Tale
This film was, first and foremost, quite entertaining. It is a video about Fair Use, done humorously, made entirely of short snippits of Disney cartoons. The best part is they actually demonstrated and excellent example of Fair Use to teach the idea of Fair Use to educators. All the films and music that they used were cited properly in the credits at the end. The extent of the clips used was not excessive, and it was CLEARLY educational and for an educational purpose. This may arguably be the BEST example of Fair Use and copyright law in education ever to exist...ever!
We Didn't Start the Fire
This video, it seems, was a bit abusive of the Fair Use guidelines. While it was produced under the presumption that it gives an overview of modern-American history, it actually turned out to be more of a music video set to a Billy Joel song. While I love Billy Joel, no citations were ever given in regards to the song that played the entire video, or any of the images used. They acquired dozens of images and movie clips from important moments in American history that, arguably, would be educationally beneficial to use when teaching the subject. However, under the terms of fair use, the amount of images used was a bit excessive and the video seemed to be more entertainment oriented, rather than educationally oriented. Had they even given recognition to Billy Joel for use of his song, or listed a sort of "works cited" from whence they gathered the images to make the video, then yes, I would argue that it was all done under fair use. However, since no effort was made to cite any of the sources, I would say that this video is indeed under violation of copyright law, even if it was intended for an educational purpose.
A Fair(y) Use Tale
This film was, first and foremost, quite entertaining. It is a video about Fair Use, done humorously, made entirely of short snippits of Disney cartoons. The best part is they actually demonstrated and excellent example of Fair Use to teach the idea of Fair Use to educators. All the films and music that they used were cited properly in the credits at the end. The extent of the clips used was not excessive, and it was CLEARLY educational and for an educational purpose. This may arguably be the BEST example of Fair Use and copyright law in education ever to exist...ever!
Monday, September 14, 2009
I Plurked!
So, round two!
This week we were supposed to go hunting for blogs relating to our own field of study (theatre) and technology in the classroom. While that is all well and good, here is the thing: such blogs don't really exist. Theatre typically follows a non-traditional teaching model, so the way in which technology is included into a theatre curriculum is really done on an individual teacher basis. I scoured the internet looking for blogs/sources that related but to no avail. Theatre education is so much more about physically doing things with our bodies, rather than lecturing or doing things in cyberspace. There are a great deal of resources for theatre educators on the internet, but not a whole lot of blogs (in fact none that I could find).
The solution: so much of what we teach in theatre is a changing field. As new theories and ideas about theatre emerge our teaching material and they way in which we view theatre and the world at large changes drastically. So I subscribed to some websites in my Google reader that I feel will be beneficial to keeping me up to date with the ever-changing information in my area of study. Here is a recap:
Job Opportunities in Theatre and Education: This is a blog dedicated to informing theatre educators about job openings in the field all over the United States. With the nation-wide budget cuts in arts programs, finding a job in my specialty is becoming increasingly difficult. My hope is that this blog will keep me updated about where job openings are available as my graduation date draws nearer and I can see what is required to actually get a job teaching in my field.
2009 Educational Theatre Association Annual Conference: I am a member of the ETA as a pre-certification teacher. This blog keeps all the members posted about information regarding our annual conference and other activities. It is also an EXCELLENT way to network with other ETA members actually working in the field.
Theatre-In-Education: This blog deals with not specifically theatre education as is used in a secondary education setting, but Theatre-In-Education which is a field of study regarding applied theatre and theatre for social change. In summary it is based on the work of Augusto Boal and his son Julian in using theatre as an educational tool outside the educational setting. TIE (as it is called) focuses on games and devising performance in order to educate large groups of people/students about issues and teaches them how to address problems within their own communities. TIE is a rapidly growing field and it's tenets are always being applied to the secondary education setting. This blog keeps you updated on TIE activites, workshops and the general reaction to TIE work in the world.
Theatre Mitu: Theatre Mitu is a New York-based theatre group who is at the forefront of cutting edge and innovative avant-garde theatre. They do an annual college tour, educating students across the globe about their theatre techniques and studying cultures. They are coming to BYU this year to do a week in residence as guest instructors. They teach workshops, sit in on classes and will present their groundbreaking production of Death of a Salesman for the TMA department. It is important to be aware of ongoing theatre collaborations and companies so as to better educate students on the NOW in the theatrical world. It's more than just musicals, I promise...
So those are the blogs I subscribed to through Google reader. (I already have a ton of posts to read from them) I also joined the social network Plurk. To be honest I mostly just liked the name, but I also choose to join because it's a new site that I am unfamiliar with, so I can learn something new. Also, I already have accounts on Facebook and Twitter and such so Plurk was a good way to start a professional social network where I can deal with professional educators and not just friends.
I think that's all for this week.
Peace out, e-stalkers!
Jason
Sunday, September 6, 2009
It's bloggin' time...
Well, here I am with a blog! Hooray! I jumped on the blogging bandwagon, well, rather I was required to, but it's all good.
So I guess I'm supposed to post about my background with technology. Let's just say that technology and I have a rough past. Basically I don't understand any of it. I'm lucky I can turn my computer on. I've never officially been taught anything about any sort of technology. I just kind of hit-and-miss (and I miss a lot!) try stuff till it works. I have no idea if I've even gotten this blog thing right. I don't know what any of it is. I'm actually pretty dumb when it comes to this kind of stuff. My brain doesn't really work in a techno-savvy fashion. I'm a theatre major.
As far as goals are concerned, to be honest, I have no clue what this class is about the Prof's blog was kind of confusing. I am kind of overwhelmed by the fact that we are supposed to know all this stuff about technology and blogs going into the class and I know NONE of it. I hope I don't get too behind. I guess that would be my goal: keep up with the class. Hopefully understand some of what is going on. That'd be nice too.
So, do I sign off? I guess so.
You stay class, e-stalkers!
Jason
So I guess I'm supposed to post about my background with technology. Let's just say that technology and I have a rough past. Basically I don't understand any of it. I'm lucky I can turn my computer on. I've never officially been taught anything about any sort of technology. I just kind of hit-and-miss (and I miss a lot!) try stuff till it works. I have no idea if I've even gotten this blog thing right. I don't know what any of it is. I'm actually pretty dumb when it comes to this kind of stuff. My brain doesn't really work in a techno-savvy fashion. I'm a theatre major.
As far as goals are concerned, to be honest, I have no clue what this class is about the Prof's blog was kind of confusing. I am kind of overwhelmed by the fact that we are supposed to know all this stuff about technology and blogs going into the class and I know NONE of it. I hope I don't get too behind. I guess that would be my goal: keep up with the class. Hopefully understand some of what is going on. That'd be nice too.
So, do I sign off? I guess so.
You stay class, e-stalkers!
Jason
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