I know I don't usually write my blog posts, but with teaching full-time right now it's becoming more difficult to film and edit a video week by week. As a result, expect to see more written posts in the future. If you've been following my "Items of Interest", you would have seen that I posted a link to an article that discussed how two twelve year-old girls stabbed their friend multiple times in an attempt to impress the internet urban legend "Slender Man". For those of you who are not aware of who or what Slender Man is, click here to read up on this creepy, yet fascinating bit of fiction. If you haven't read the article about the two girls, I'll give you the Spark Notes version: Essentially these two girls became obsessed with the fictional character and convinced themselves that he is real. Somehow they came up with the idea that if they were to stab and murder their friend, Slender Man would come and take them to his mansion. During a sleepover with their victim, the three went to a park and the two stabbed their friend multiple times in a public bathroom. The victim survived and the other two are being charged as adults and are facing 65 years in prison. In addition to providing information about the attack, the article was quick to insinuate that bad parenting was the main reasons for this outbreak. To summarize the parenting portion, the father of one of the daughters took a picture of a drawing of Slender Man that his child had made and posted it on his Instagram. The article also mentioned that this father also listened to heavy metal and that his username on Instagram is "Deadboy420". I feel that these pieces of information were completely irrelevant and that the author of this post was grasping at straws to find someone to blame for the incident. Just because her father knew about her interest in Slender Man and that he listens to a genre of music that is very intense does not mean he is a bad father. Yes, he saw his daughter was interested in Slender Man, but does that mean he should know that she is planning to murder her friend for the fictitious being? No. Not even close. There may have been other signs, but just because she drew a picture of him does not mean that her dad would know that her obsession with Slender Man was dangerous. Earlier this week, another incident surfaced claiming that it was a result of an obsession with Slender Man (Click here for the article). I have read quite a few of these articles and most seem to insinuate that websites like the one that created Slender Man should be shut down to prevent teens from reading about these types of characters. I personally find this demand outrageous. These are fictional stories that have been written for the enjoyment of readers, just like every book of fiction throughout time. If these websites need to be shut down, then I also supposed all libraries, book stores, theaters (etc.) need to be shut down as well. They are all the same. They are only mediums where authors and creators can post their stories for others to read, it just so happens that the internet makes it easier for writers (such as myself) to post and publish stories that otherwise would have a hope in hell of being made accessible to the public. I don't believe that the internet is corrupting our children. Yes, it is easy to access a great deal of information at the click of a button, but if parents are concerned about what their children are viewing, they should be taking the proper measures to prevent the viewing of inappropriate content. I know that when I was a kid, my parents wouldn't let me watch inappropriate television, listen to songs with swears in them, and many other things of that sort. I didn't complain, I didn't fight it, I accepted it. These kids also had some mental health issues (as is mentioned in the articles) that contributed to the incidents. It wasn't the internet that stabbed both victims, it was real people. This isn't an issue about the internet corrupting the youth, it's an issue about children not being properly informed about what they read on the internet. We need to be teaching our children that they shouldn't believe everything they read. They need to be taught the difference between fiction and reality. It all comes back to digital citizenship in the end. I strongly suggest reading the article I posted for today (June 13th) in "Items of Interest". It offers some more insight into what I've talked about in this blog post.
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I know it's not Friday, but I won't be able to post this on Friday, so you get it a little early. This video is geared more towards those first year teachers or pre-service teachers. I talk about a situation I had in my class with a student who was treating me with disrespect and I offer advice on what you can do to help prepare for situations such as these. As I am just finishing my first month of a temporary contract, I have decided to share the top nine tips I have discovered as this past month has gone on. I don't claim to be a pro at this whole teaching thing yet, but hopefully I'm offering some new information to all the new teachers out there who are (or will be) accepting temporary contracts. This is Ben and my summary of learning for our #ecmp455 class. We talk (and sing) about everything we have learned over the past four months. Keep your eye out for new episodes of EFT with M and B coming out in May! I'm curious to find out what music people listen to when they study or work on homework. As the first part of a personal project I'm working on, I want to create a study playlist. If you have a particular (school appropriate) song that you listen to when you study or work on homework that you find makes you productive, please post it in the comments below.
Here is the link to the Songza playlist I was talking about. In this post I talk about my work experience with Oxford Learning Centre here in Regina. In addition, I also ask for your help with any EAL education advice you may have or links to resources you know of. Please feel free to comment below! I discuss two different ways up setting up donation pages for causes you want to support. I mention my fellow classmate Matt Giesbrecht and his project called "Funding the Fight". Check it out on his website. Turning a negative into a positive. Putting my idea into practice. Your move Ben. Link to Ben's problem: Problem #1
Is there potential for Neknominations in a classroom setting? I know this isn't a full lesson, but it was my first try at making a video-style lesson for a Flipped Lesson. If I was to use this in a classroom, I feel it would be fairly easy to elaborate on this. Unfortunately, I could figure out a way to save this to anywhere except for screencast.com, so I've included a link here. I should also mention that I used the program"Jing" to make this. Jing is awesome and really easy to use. Feel free to leave me feedback about the video!
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Mitch BrescianiI am currently a Communications Media teacher at Riffel High School in Regina, Sask. I am also a math enthusiast and an english dabbler. Archives
June 2014
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