These past couple weeks have been extremely busy, but I think very productive. There were a number of highlights:

-       Last Monday, Miguel and I began talking about gender, homophobia, and bullying.

• We began with the gendered advertising remixer, which was a great success just like it was in Grecia’s class last session. The students really found the tool to be funny and it was very useful in starting to talk about gender stereotypes. After taking turns playing with the tool, we filled in a chart detailing what was “boyish” and what was “girly” about each ad, and then proceeded to think of examples which broke down these stereotypes (i.e. female superheroes). They liked the remixer so much that the students had me show it to students from Bernadette’s class the next day during their break. 
• After playing with the remixer, much of our subsequent discussion began with students saying things like “that’s gross because that’s gay.” However, by the end of the discussion, I think the students seemed to really comprehend the consequences of homophobic slurs and bullying. I showed them the video of the ten year old who refused to say the pledge of allegiance because of the lack of equality for LGBT people, as well as a short news clip featuring Cheryl Kilodavis’ children’s book My Princess Boy. I think that seeing boys their age who liked to dress up like girls and kids who were committed to the rights of LGBT people was a new experience for the students, and afterwards their answers to my questions were (on the whole) much more sensitive.
• I also showed them the ACLU video featuring the mother of Seth Walsh, one of the gay teens who committed suicide last year. Although it’s usually difficult to get the students to be quiet when they are watching a video, they were absolutely silent when watching this one. I really think that they grasped the gravity of the issue. Juan even recounted to me one of his cousins who was gay and who was bullied in the same way, and amazingly, Angel even confessed that he has been mean to “boys who act like girls” before. It was a really, really awesome moment to say the least.

-       Since last Tuesday, I have also been working with students one-on-one to create personal videos about their friends and families.

• Using the pictures they took with IDEPSCA’s cameras, the students learned to order their pictures into a coherent narrative argument. We discussed the notion of editing and montage, and how making a video is just another way of writing a story (i.e. it has a beginning, middle, and end).
• Before recording the voice over for their videos, I had the students write out what they wanted to say for each of the pictures and memorize it. Framing this activity as constructing a “script” made them much more excited about the writing process – most of the time, it’s hard to get them to jot down more than a couple sentences, but when they know that the writing will go towards the making of a movie, they were willing to write whole paragraphs!
• Overall, I think the videos have been coming out pretty well. I’ve been noticing that most of the voice overs have been filled with comments like “this is ….”, but I’m really encouraging the students to be more descriptive by using phrases such as “I like this, because ….” instead. Also, Joselyn has been very creative and poetic with the way that she took her pictures, so I’m curious to see if her video will turn out to be different than all the others.
• Here are links to all the individual family videos I’ve done so far. Included is also a link to a video/drawing activity that Miguel did with the students (I’m assuming he already discussed this at one of the staff meetings).
  • http://vimeo.com/25120156 (Yesenia’s Video)
  • http://vimeo.com/25111213 (Arleth’s Video)
  • http://vimeo.com/25537951 (Luis’ Video)
  • http://vimeo.com/25110725 (Juan’s Video)
  • http://vimeo.com/25537598 (Joselyn’s Video)
  • http://vimeo.com/25538185 (Sade’s Video)
  • http://vimeo.com/25110391 (Miguel’s Activity)

-       Finally, here is a link to a video that I made with Bryan last week. He wasn’t pleased with the video he made with Miguel, so he told me that he wanted to make a new one that was more like a “real movie” (presumably, a Hollywood feature film.) So here’s his animated story about a roller coaster monster, complete with credits and him doing the voices for multiple characters. He even wanted me to make a trailer for the movie, but I said that probably wasn’t necessary for a movie that was thirty seconds long.

• http://vimeo.com/25110510 (Bryan’s Monster Movie)

Objectives/Themes/Approaches:

-       Bullying/harassment (how to frame the discussion, using appropriate vocabulary)

-       Embracing your gender identity. Beyond gender binaries and stereotypes.

-       Connecting homophobia to xenophobia: discrimination against immigrants and queer people. (Mariella: “it’s the same thing, two forms of discrimination”).

• Intersecting identities, queer immigrants, queer youth of color.

-       Sharing different forms of discrimination.

• Introducing the topic both with personal anecdotes and by outlining various histories of oppression.
  • Historical Context => laws/stigmas against interracial marriage, against international marriages, against same-sex marriages.

-       Bringing all of the discussions back to the topic of LOVE.

-       Helping students to understand that laws can be unfair. (many have trouble understanding this, given their answers on the surveys).

Media/texts to share with students:

-       Gendered Advertising Remixer

• An awesome tool that lets you “remix” and subvert aggressive gender stereotypes embedded in marketing for toys.
  • Lets you take the audio from a “boy ad” and video from a “girl ad” (or vice versa) and mixes them together to produce a humorous effect.
  •  The students in Grecia’s class loved it last session and it was a great introduction to our discussion on gender stereotypes.
  • LINK: http://www.kaltura.org/demos/RemixGenderedAds/

-       “My Princess Boy” by Cheryl Kilodavis

• A wonderful picture book about a little boy who loves everything pink and sparkly.
• LINK: http://www.myprincessboy.com/index.asp

-       ACLU Video on homophobia, bullying, and teen suicide.

• Video featuring the mother of Seth Walsh, one of the teens who committed suicide last year due to homophobic bullying. It’s really, really heartwrenching, so some of it can be edited down for the students (particularly the beginning and the end).
• LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y5CbtXoO74

-       Will Phillips

•  The amazing 10 year old who refused to stand up during the Pledge of Allegiance because “there is not liberty and justice for all, especially for LGBT people.”
• LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iho2Q5eWQyQ

-       “It gets better” campaign (Columnist Dan Savage) => From Miguel

• Features role models, celebrities, and politicians expressing support for LGBT teens.
• LINK: http://www.itgetsbetter.org/

-       Xicano Soul (“Gay Latino Love Story: He Swallowed”) => From Hugo

• Lovely video from Hugo about a gay Latino man and how societal pressures affected him throughout his life.
• LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VzlQghtCeU&wl_token=MvfBSk6bUy3CFEMms1sZ8ThgyiB8MTMwNzM4MDg1M0AxMzA3Mjk0NDUz&wl_id=4VzlQghtCeU

Possible Activities or Projects:

-       Gender Performances (“Character walks”) => Alejandra’s idea.

• Having students pretend to be a character (i.e. wrestler, ballerina) and then analyze the character’s embedded gender stereotypes.

-       Having them deconstruct gender stereotypes in pop culture artifacts that are part of their everyday life.

• Alejandra said she’s tried this before with Grand Theft Auto pictures.
• Idea: Maybe we could even put these pictures in VoiceThread and have the criticism be voice over commentary?

-       Another Idea: Maybe we could even teach students how to do their own video remixes (like the Gendered Advertising Remixer)

• Take existing material from a variety of pop culture sources and mash it up into new and exciting ways.
  • People have been remixing for years.
    • Hip-hop, collage, sampling => Can do “identity remixing.”

-       Having students send a letter or video to President Obama. (Make a change like Will Phillips!)

• Helping students recognize that they have a voice, that even though they are kids, they are capable of making an intervention and making a difference.

Weekly Check-In 6/3

Highlights:

-       Students remaking images of themselves in Photoshop.

• Almost all of the students thought that this was a fun activity. They all experimented with different filters, colors, and fonts, and some of the students became so comfortable with the software that they started driving the computer on their own. That moment, when students’ ask “can I try?” and start to experiment with the tools on their own, is always really exciting.

-       Bryan making his own video.

• So with most of the students, the activity was to take the video they shot with Miguel last week and put the Photoshop-ed image of themselves in the front of it, as an introduction.  With Bryan, however, he had bigger plans in mind! He wanted to tell this elaborate story about a roller coaster monster and his friends, and so I helped him do just that. After creating a hilarious Photoshop-ed image, he drew pictures of each of the story’s events in a sequence. I then took pictures of each of his drawings and then inserted them along a video timeline, which he then provided voice over commentary to.
• The final product was really, really cute. We added credits to his movie and he even wanted a trailer for it, although I told him that I thought this was unnecessary because his movie was 30 seconds long! Anyways, he seemed to really enjoy being creative and I thought this was particularly great because usually it’s very hard to get him to do any work in the class. Many of his classmates also loved the video, so Miguel and I are talking about possibly doing this activity (or some variation of it) next week.
• URL: http://vimeo.com/25110510

Areas to work on:

• There was one thing that stood out to me this week. During loteria, Sade repeatedly said that she wanted the students to call out the cards in Spanish and English, although sometimes they only called it out in Spanish. She’s told me a few times that she feels ostracized because she is the only one that doesn’t speak Spanish, so if that activity could be conducted in both English and Spanish I think that would be better for her.

Questions for everyone else:

-       How did the food pyramid activity go yesterday? I know that my timing is absolutely rotten given that Michelle Obama and the USDA just publicized that “the food pyramid is out, and My Plate is in.” But I still think the activity had the potential to be valuable on a number of levels…

•  I think Liz mentioned this yesterday, but just to reiterate, I picked food cut-outs for the activity that would be somewhat trickier for the students to put in the appropriate categories. For instance, there were some like peanut butter on toast that could fit into multiple categories (proteins and grains). I also wanted to include foods that would demonstrate how health is affected by how a food is prepared (i.e. how grilled chicken would be a healthy protein vs. how chicken nuggets would be part of the extras category. I did the same thing for potatoes vs. French fries.)

-       Did the students seem to get this insight? And did this activity fit well with the fruit salad activity afterwords?

http://www.youtube.com/user/pasta815?feature=mhee#p/u

Here is the link to my channel, with all 5 interviews.

I e-mailed Odilia to tell her that the videos are up and running, and that she can link to them on the FIOB website. Although I have the FIOB facebook account information, I did not feel comfortable posting it until Odilia has had a chance to see the videos completed.

Also, as a side note, Koree and I just wanted to address the comments and helpful suggestions we received in class regarding our project. Regarding the pictures of life in Oaxaca that show up towards the end of the movie, we felt that this worked given what the interviewees were talking about at that particular time. In the beginning of the interviews, the conversation is centered on identity and whether or not they speak Zapoteca. However, the second half deals with the culture and about life in Oaxaca, so we felt that the pictures made sense to supplement the discussion. We did add the FIOB logo in the beginning, and also added the scrolling text information that appears at the end (which is a little hard to see) in the description of the video. We also slowed down the scrolling a bit. Hopefully Odilia likes what we’ve done!

Dipity

Just so you have a more intuitive way to view the tutorials. I know trying to read them in Prezi would be a massive pain.

I have read over and will continue to read over the comments you all have left for Stasi and I. we should have our Final “Final” (;-)  version of the project up for you guys to check out no later than Wednesday afternoon. Also, I have commented on each of your final “presentations” Great job once again guys and gals! And Good Luck to you Professor!!!!

-kOr

In terms of games being an actual avenue for promoting change, I think it is a relatively good one. In terms of awareness, the games are a GREAT way to open people’s eyes and gain interaction on the issue. Although I really do support this avenue for change  as it is extremely creative, innovative and fairly accessible, I believe that no matter how sophisticated “games” for change can be they are still “games” and carry the connotation of being such (no matter what the underlining issues are being promoted). Also, while discussing a few games in class Liz (I believe) mentioned that there is a game that promotes interconnectivity within communities. A game where you help your neighbors with grocery’s, while walking the streets conversing with neighbor which essentially promotes community etc. But what I immediately found interesting about this game Is that although it promotes all the right things people are still in the house practicing versus physically being out in the street practicing. My point is that while games can be positive, they also inadvertently keep people tuned into their computers rather than out promoting physical interaction among people – really making a difference. With this being said, I do recognize that many of these games have donation links and links that lead to more information about the topic. This exercise was definitely one of the best this semester!

            Tina: I was so impressed with how much you have been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time.  You seemed to be a little all over the place in the beginning, and I was skeptical that you would be able to find a way to utilize all of the contacts you had made throughout the semester into one cohesive project.  I liked the way you were able to include the Scripps Kensington residents as well as your contacts at theAlhambrahigh school.  When you are founding an organization as you are, it is extremely important to have as many contacts as possible.  Along those same lines, I think you should consider recruitment ideas that go beyond the digital world.  Having a facebook page is a good way to reach the younger, tech savvy audience, but what about the people who may not have internet access, or who are simply not as social media literate?  We have talked in class about making simple flyers with the ABC logo on it to physically give to people who might be interested in attending the meetings and getting involved somehow.  Also, I am really excited about the idea of possibly organizing events to promote sustainable, eco-friendly transportation- like a neighborhood bike ride!  Events like this would be really fun, and would undoubtedly draw attention to the organization that you have worked so hard to create.  Good luck with ABC’s growth and with making it a more influential presence in theAlhambracommunity.

           Haran: Your website is amazing!  My favorite part is the way the pdf retains the traditional book feel.  Instead of one huge, seemingly never-ending scroll, we can actually flip pages, as we do with real books!  More websites should organize their material in this fashion.  It is such a shame that the library is re-formatting their website and that your hard work is pretty much being put on the backburner.  I would have liked to see what teachers thought of the website, and how they might have used it to enhance their lesson plans.  I think getting feedback from teachers would have been helpful so that we can learn what about the website works well and what could be improved.

            Jason and Liz:  I am glad that you (and Tina) are planning to continue the work you have done this semester into the summer (and beyond).  It is so important to introduce young children to media and technology.  This is especially important for kids like the ones you work with who may not otherwise have the skills or resources to do these kinds of projects.  I especially like that your lessons seem to seamlessly fuse learning about community and health issues with completing media-based projects.  The one thing I would suggest for the future is increasing, or at least thinking more about parental involvement in the projects.  You said that you sent the students home with the links to their projects, but you are unsure whether or not the parents actually visited the projects.  Maybe coming up with some sort of weekly newsletter for the parents regarding Aprendamos and the various projects would sort of reinforce the projects and the ideals you are trying to uphold.  Take the health and fast food lesson, for instance.  It would make sense to involve the parents in this conversation, so that the child’s newfound disgust with fast food could be reinforced and supported by the family.  All in all, though, you guys seemed to have a really good time with the kids, and I’m sure your students (and IDEPSCA) appreciate your passion and dedication.