Tag: School’s out Friday

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School’s out Friday

This is John Green. He of ‘Looking for Alaska‘ fame. He of the number 1 position on the New York Times Bestseller list for Children’s chapter books right now for ‘The Fault in our Stars‘. He of ‘Vlogbrothers‘ fame on YouTube.

OK. Unless you’re a Teacher-Librarian you probably have no idea who John Green is. But if you watch this video, you’ll get a sense of the kind of guy he is. He’s fun. He writes novels that teenagers love. He’s an author who understands how to use social media well to engage a new kind of audience. He’s someone modeling the new ways people need to work now to generate readership and income. Worth taking notice of, and perhaps sharing his story with your students.

His Vlogbrothers work on YouTube is something he started with his brother Hank in 2007. It was a really interesting premise called Brotherhood 2.0.

Brotherhood 2.0 was a project created by John and Hank Green in 2007. It started on January 1st of that year with the premise that the brothers would cease all text-based communication for a year and instead converse by video blogs every weekday. The project was made available to the public via YouTube and on their Brotherhood 2.0 website.[2][3] On July 18, 2007, Hank Green uploaded a video of himself playing and singing his song “Accio Deathly Hallows” in honour of the seventh Harry Potter book. This video was the first Vlogbrothers video to make the front page of YouTube, and the starting point of the brothers’ success as vloggers. The project ended on December 31st, 2007, but due to their popularity the brothers continued making videos even after the final day had passed. Now Hank and John continue to create vlogs, but less frequently (every Tuesday and Friday, as of 2012).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlogbrothers

The video above is from the Vlogbrothers channel. If you like quirky stuff, tune in.

Big weekend ahead. My brother is getting married in my front garden on Sunday. So that means Saturday is dedicated to cleaning. Lucky me!

Enjoy your weekend – make the most of whatever comes your way. : )

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School’s out Friday

Here’s one of the commercials that was aired for the first time during the Super Bowl in America. It’s the new Volkswagon commercial, ‘The Dog Strikes Back‘, and it pays homage to the Darth Vadar commercial they aired last year. Take another look at that one (makes me laugh every time I see that kid jolt at the end!) and see if you think the new commercial holds its own against the newbie.

Now watch this. Your appreciation for ‘The Dog Strikes Back‘, will be heightened, when you see the effort that went into it’s creation. Bolt (the dog) is one truly impressive canine, and I was pleased to see it was his Australian Shepard heritage that was attributed to his impressive intelligence. 😉 And how about the recreation of the Star Wars Cantina! Just how much money is committed to television commercials these days?

My appreciation for my soft pillow is what I’m looking forward to after a hectic working week. I’m off to a work colleague’s party tomorrow night and have to adhere to the 60’s clothing theme she’s prescribed. A visit to Savers tonight found me the unflattering attire I’ll adorn for the occasion, but I’m betting it’s going to be a lot of fun. I hope your weekend finds you having fun too, somewhere along the line.

Enjoy. : )

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Thank God it’s Saturday

OK, a departure from the norm. It’s the sign of a busy week when I don’t get a School’s out Friday post up. I just could not keep my eyes open last night, and now I’m feeling bad. So, for those of you with nothing to do on a Saturday night, here, for your viewing pleasure, is ‘Star Wars Uncut‘. All 2 hours and three minutes of it on YouTube. Casey Pugh was the mastermind behind this project, where members of the public were invited to create 15 seconds of footage fron Star Wars episode IV (you know, the good one, none of that episode I – III rubbish) all of which was then then edited to recreate the original film. It’s a celebration of creativity!

Enjoy the weekend. It’s 10.23pm here on Saturday night, and my eyes are closing again. Best get myself the sleep I need so I can face another busy week ahead. : )

 

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School’s out Friday

Ever played Angry Birds? I became addicted while I was travelling through Italy last year. I had no Internet access in my room at night, and the only game on my phone was Angry Birds, something my kids had played. I opened it up one night and lost myself in the quest to blow up pigs with a repertoire of birds with hidden talents. I reckon I’d have a lot of fun playing it live in Barcelona too.

There’s no time for Angry Birds now. School resumed this week, and it’s full on. I’ve loved seeing our students return and have enjoyed showing our Year 7 & 8 students the Overdrive platform for ebooks and audiobooks. Right now though, I’m exhausted and am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning.

Beautiful weather awaits us here in Melbourne this weekend. I’m looking forward to spending some time sitting outside and soaking up a few rays.

Enjoy whatever comes your way. : )

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School’s out Friday

This is the winner of the 2012 Chevy Superbowl competition, designed to outsource production of a commercial that would appear during the American NFL Superbowl final. Interestingly, one of the comments in the YouTube comment thread was this,

“Ok, I counted at least 24 occurrences of the US Flag in the background. How many did u count?” Bmbhere

It made me go back to watch it again as it was something I hadn’t picked up on when I first viewed it. I bet you take a second look too!

Beautiful weather here in Melbourne at the moment. A glorious weekend awaits, as does a return to school on Monday. That’ll be a bit of a shock to the system after what has been a wonderful and restful holiday break.

Make the most of your weekend. Hope the sun shines on you. : )

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School’s out Friday

IKEA Heights from DaveAOK on Vimeo.

If you’re in the mood for a good laugh, look no further than Ikea Heights. This is a melodrama shot entirely in the Burbank California Ikea Store without the store knowing. My daughter and I were in hysterics last night watching the drama played out with the cast using the store as their set and regular unknowing customers and Ikea staff as extras. There are seven parts available on Vimeo. Here’s part two to keep you going until you hit the Vimeo site. (Thanks go to JoKay and Lucy Barrow for sharing the link on Twitter last night)

Ikea Heights (Episode #2) from DaveAOK on Vimeo.

In my later high school days and early College years, during holiday periods and free days I found myself drawn to daytime television. Days of our Lives was the soap opera that consumed me. These were the days of the Salem Strangler, and it seemed like most people I knew were watching and talking about this drawn out plot line. I even remember the College Cafeteria having a television screening it, and there was silence as we watched, punctuated by collective gasps as the next plot turn was spelled out. What was always a constant, was the fact that you could miss a run of episodes, and the next time you tuned in, it was like nothing much had transpired. Incredulously, looking at the website today, it seems that plenty of actors from those days are still in the show. I’m pretty sure if I tuned in, I’d be up with the current plot line in no time!

For those of you who harbour similar memories, here’s a stroll down memory lane with some classic emotions on display from Dr. Marlena Evans.

Holidays are in the process of evaporating quickly here. The shock of returning to school was tempered today when I made what was going to be a quick visit into a four hour stint! Next week will be occupied with preparation for the start of the school year. Best make the most a sunny weekend I figure!

Enjoy your weekend. I hope it’s a good one. : )

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School’s out Friday

Jim Gates shared this video on Twitter earlier in the week, and I knew instantly it just had to be the focus of School’s out Friday. I worked in a bookshop from the age of 15 through to 22, and I can’t imagine the hours it took to create this stop motion video. Sean Ohlenkamp and his wife own Type, a bookshop in Toronto Canada. They, and 25 volunteers, spent quite a few sleepless nights it seems reorganising these books to create the effect we see above. I love the little touches, like the textas and plastic figurines getting into the act too.

I’m sure a video like this evokes a response in people who love reading. Some will see it as a homage to the printed book, and the bookshops that are facing troubling times as we see  ebooks begin to make inroads into the way we consume reading matter. I think it’s a very clever marketing tool for this bookshop, and with over a million views on YouTube, I do hope the owners are seeing an increase in foot traffic to their store. They should do, it’s also been featured in the Toronto Standard and The New Yorker.

I’m in the process of writing a post about our school’s decision to use Overdrive, a platform for downloading borrowable ebooks and audiobooks to devices. I’m sure there are many out there who see the move to files for borrowing as a threat to libraries, but I’m very comfortable with what we are doing. Look out for the post. I hope to have it up in the next couple of hours.

We’ve seen a few grey days here in Melbourne this week. The prognosis is for a sunny weekend. Bring it on I say! It’s my husband’s birthday tomorrow – we need some sun so we can crank up the barbie for family and friends.

Enjoy whatever comes your way this weekend. : )

 

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School’s out Friday

My daughter mentioned this video from Kina Grannis, In your arms, to me as we were driving home today. She’d seen it featured on the Ellen DeGeneres show. Apparently it went viral on YouTube back in November, but it escaped me until now. This is a true labour of love. All of the backgrounds are made from Jellybeans. Yes, that’s right, jellybeans. They were donated by the JellyBelly company – smart move on their behalf. Over 4 million views on YouTube is some pretty good marketing for any company, and their only investment was the donation of bucket loads of their product. (288,000 Jellybeans, to be precise!)

Digital Journal has an article discussing the process. Here’s an excerpt from what they had to say,

“The project took 22 months to complete and a behind the scenes look at the process can be viewed on YouTube (shown below). It took 1,357 hours of hard work and a ‘jelly bean animation team’ that consisted of over 30 people. Add two ladders, one still camera, a producer, director, writer, concept artist and 288,000 jelly beans and the finished product is a new creative video featuring one of Grannis’ popular songs from 2010.”

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/313983#ixzz1ifzFfQ2B

I hope the director, Greg Jardin, has garnered some work from what was a labour of love for him. He deserves whatever comes his way. The ‘making of’ video is well worth watching, and is great for any teachers out there helping students understand the art of stop motion filmmaking. This was a frame by frame shoot.

In the spirit of things, I created a bean art portrait of myself with help from the bean art maker tool on the JellyBelly site.

Nothing like immortalising yourself in Jellybeans!

Have a great weekend. Indulge in some jellybeans perhaps. : )

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School’s out Friday

Thanks this week go to Kathy Schrock, who tweeted about this Christmas Flash Mob at The Carlson School of Management. The saxophonist was joined by 300 of his friends from the University of Minnesota’s School of Music this November, and they are here tonight for your enjoyment. Do watch and enjoy.

I recently got an iphone 4S, and have really enjoyed getting to use Siri, the inbuilt office assistant that you talk to and it retrieves the information you have requested. I’ve done the obvious things like asking what the weather will be like, but have also asked it to phone my husband and send a text message. It performs really well, and I can already envision how I will be using it in my workplace next year. I’m not great at using the calendar on my computer for appointments. I know, I can already hear you gasping as you contemplate how a tech savvy person like me still relies more heavily on hand written diary entries for remembering appointments! I’m finding my system is flawed now as I take my computer or iPad with me everywhere (and the phone too!) and don’t always have the diary. I figure if I ask Siri to send me reminders, and use the calendar on my computer more effectively, then I’m not going to strike any embarrassing moments like double booking appointments. The following Apple ad featuring a jolly fat man has me convinced I can be organising my time more effectively!

Merry Christmas to you all, dear readers. Happy holidays to those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas. I hope you get the opportunity to share moments of fun, frivolity and merriment. Hopefully you’ll get a little quiet time for yourself in there too along the way.

Whatever you’re doing, enjoy it. The healthy eating regime can start in the New Year : )

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School’s out Friday

I knew the good folks at Improv Everywhere would create a little something special for the festive season and give me a little something to share with you all this week. Here’s their Mall Santa Musical for you to enjoy.

School holidays have found me, and I very happy to be held captive. It was a full frontal attack on the shops today as I attempted my first spot of Christmas shopping. I can see I am destined to engage further with retailers in the coming days. Wish me luck.

I was excited today to receive the news that my proposal for the ISTE 2012 Conference was accepted. My presentation is about the work I have been involved with this year at my school, much of which I outlined in yesterday’s post as chance has it. It’s validation for a year where my head was down doing my damnedest to make change happen in a systemic sense in my school. I’m proud of what we have been able to achieve, and will be very happy getting the opportunity to travel to San Diego to share our experience with others from around the globe.

A big clean up this weekend awaits me in preparation for Christmas festivities at my house. We have a skip in our driveway right now, and we’ll be filling it to the brim in an attempt to clean up what’s lying around from our back room renovations (that have yet to be completed, but that’s another story!). I hope your weekend sounds more exciting than mine!

Enjoy. : )