Always With The Excuses - and why video games are a great resource!

Insert any excuse that you'd like me to have right here for not updating for ages.

I can honestly say that this last term was crazy. I don't want to make this into a blog about teaching because, as much as I love teaching, I want to have this outlet that is something more than teaching. I hope that makes sense because sometimes words get super excited in my head and they get jumbled. Anyway, that is neither here nor there.

But, at the recent Myth & Magic NZATE Conference (New Zealand Association For/Of Teachers of English) I actually presented a workshop on using video games in the classroom. Basically, I spent an hour talking about BioShock, The Last of Us, Portal, Mass Effect and so on. And, more excitedly, there were actual people who were in there to listen to me. Actual teachers and fellow game nerds. As well as people who were just curious. (I kept telling myself "baby steps" because there is still a stigma surrounding video games.)

My PPT  This is the Keynote that I had with it. It lost some of the formatting when I had to move it into the google drive shared folder but hopefully it gives you a view of what I talked about.

So, I spoke about my passion for video games and not just the idea of playing the games but the richness of the worlds that are being created and how we can reach some students through this new medium. I explained that by watching cut scenes from games you can delve into creative writing, film techniques, computer science, social media, social commentary, gender studies and much more.

I hope that people took away some positive ideas from my presentation and I left my email address on there incase they wanted to contact me regarding my thoughts.

Anyway, I have time on my hands again and I want to get back into my weekend round ups. (Baby steps).

I also have to admit that I learned a lot about my ability to handle stress during the conference. I normally run on a high amount of stress and sugar and a butt load of coffee. But during the conference I pushed myself too far and, hopefully, I have learned from this mistake and will endeavour to take more time out for myself.

Enough of that though - I have a couple of questions:

1. What game do you think is worthy of study in a high school class?
2. Would you have liked to learn about video games in school?
3. What would you like to see in my blog?

I will leave you with this lovely ditty from the ever awesome Weird Al. I hate the original with a passion but I can handle (just) this parody. Might even use it in my class...



Peace and pancakes,
Jaime

Weekend Round Up #14

Four days till school break...I promise I'm not counting.

It's been a rather slow week for me geek wise but busy marking wise...no comment on how that is going.

Anyway, we'll start with some more posters for X Men Days of the Future Past. Quicksilver designs aside I'm feeling a little excited for this one.

Admittedly I find it strange that Iceman is with Kitty rather than Piotr but then I remember the third film in the X Men series...and I shudder. I can't wait to see how it does. Especially since I've just re-read the comic arc and it seems completely different. (Yes there is a little sarcasm but I'm still hopeful!)

Secondly, apparently the important type people over at Universal are planning a Battlestar Galactica film. As a reimagining of the series. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure it's been done and done pretty damn well. If you don't remember I present the following image as evidence:

All I have to say is what the frak!

Next is a cartoon bite from Philip Defranco's channel. I'm a huge SourceFed fan and was lucky enough to meet some of the talented people at Comic Con last year. Someone has done some quaint animation to snippets of their clips and I just find them hilarious.



And another video - This is the behind the scenes of "Let It Go" from Frozen in 25 languages. I know people are getting sick of this but I find it fascinating to watch these ladies sing.



And, finally, the latest Godzilla trailer dropped...



This I'm going to see and I'm going to enjoy it because it can't be worse that that fiasco in New York that time that we should never speak of!

I just re-watched the trailer and now my flatmate is laughing at me for getting so excited...I don't care! I used to sneak up in the middle of the night to watch the classic films. So many memories.

So, I hope you all had a lovely week.
Until next time...
Peace and pancakes...
Jaime

Five Reasons I Love Being A Geek...

Your eyes are not deceiving you. The above picture is of a TARDIS. Not the real TARDIS, though, in my dreams...It is a cupboard made for me by my own father - this was my Christmas present from him to me. Handmade. Just for me. I'm still pinching myself because it doesn't seem real.

This is one of the numerous reasons why I love being a geek. (Not the live chicken eating geek.) And it's also one of the reasons I love my dad. And my mum, of course. They both sneaked it into my house the other night and would have gotten away with it if it hadn't be for those snooping kids...oh wait...Facebook...they would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for Facebook. Mum could not resist posting a picture on Facebook.

Let's launch into my top five reasons why I love being a geek. (In other words, why I love being me.)

5. In the words of John Green:

"…because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff… Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. " 

In this case nerd and geek are interchangeable. They just are. I love being enthusiastic about stuff. And my enthusiasm spills over. It shows in my work, especially when I am teaching about anything I am slightly enthusiastic about. When I was able to teach Looking For Alaska by John Green I was excited. When I watched The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for the second time I was enthusiastic to the point of jumping out of my seat. (Great film by the way, if you haven't seen it...) In short, being enthusiastic about 'stuff' is fun.

4.

Fandoms. This is definitely a two edged sword because some fandoms can be terrifying. Just open tumblr and type in SuperWhoLock - fantastic but bloody scary at the same time. Fandoms are a way to forge instant friendships and create life long enemies. Hence the two edged sword. There is something magical about finding out that there are others out there who love diving into the world that someone else has created and just make it richer. Just tread with caution.

3. My general knowledge from being a geek has just grown exponentially. I'm not exaggerating because you have to have a broad general knowledge to keep up with allusions within nearly every graphic novel, novel or TV series. You have to research ideas to further your own understanding of the things that you love. Hell, just read Y the Last Man and see how many things you can learn about English Literature, various cultures and just basic morals etc. Basically, through embracing the geekiness in my soul I've improved my knowledge on numerous concepts and pop culture, of course.

2. Conventions - where else can you find yourself surrounded by like minded folk who are enthusiastic about stuff. I know that there are quite a few people out there who have started to complain about SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) becoming too 'mainstream' but the first time I went I thoroughly enjoyed it. I flew from New Zealand to California to attend two days of SDCC. Just two. I woke at a ridiculous time in the morning in order to get on line to get tickets. I would love to attend again this year and make it a hat trick but I'm not sure if the timing will work. (Fingers crossed)
I just love being able to look at all the stuff I love under one roof and find stuff I didn't know I loved. Hell, even the pretzel dogs were exciting.

1. I want to cheat and say everything - I love everything about being a geek but my final reason is that there are so many different mediums out there that make being a geek fun. Film, television, novels, tumblr, YouTube, graphic novels, collectables. The list goes on. There is something out there for everyone. This translates into the fact that everyone has their own little nerdy/geeky loves and we should all embrace them. (Okay, so maybe I did cheat a little on this last one. Mediums can quickly be replaced by everything...but a girl has to have some vices, right?)

So there you have it. My five reasons I love being a geek...My question for you, though, is what was the first geeky thing you remember doing? Mine was recovering after my sixth or seventh surgery and watching The Empire Strikes Back on VHS. Dad had recorded it from the telly and had cut out all the ads for me.

Peace and pancakes everyone.
x Jaime

You know it's going to be an interesting day when...

...the first song that you hear in the morning is Jon Bovi's 'Living on a Prayer'.

That alone is enough to make you wonder what the hell is in store for you for the rest of the day. So far, and it's only just 11am mind you, it has been, uh, interesting. And not cool in the Serenity define interesting speech.

I sometimes find myself questioning why I decided teaching would be a great job for me. Now, before you jump up and down saying that teaching is a good job, let me finish. I have no doubt that teaching is a great job. I've had days that are absolutely brilliant, where everything falls together and I feel as if I have accomplished something great.

I've also had days where I swear I want to bang my head into a brick wall, repeatedly, for an hour...

Sometimes I feel as if I take three steps forward and two steps back. Plus manners! Seriously. I don't know about you but when I was a child I was told to always use my manners. Even now I will hold open the door for others, smile and respond when spoken to and the list goes on.

I ask a student to open the curtains and she looks at me, sneer and all, before saying 'nah, don't want to.' This is said in a tone that makes me actually take a step back. I would never have spoken to a teacher like that when I was at school. Then there are the students who won't do anything unless they are given an incentive...normally this is in the form of a lolly.

What this does is make me feel as if I am not trying hard enough even though everyone is telling me otherwise. I guess this is what happens when you put too much of yourself out there to help people learn. (Plus, I have a giant sized headache going on in my average sized brain.)

Anyway, enough of my moaning. I need to salvage something good from this day. ::*::looks around classroom trying to find something to induce a smile::*::

There is nothing of excitement in my classroom. This is not helping. No, wait! In two of my classes I had to hook my computer up to the school projector and my wallpaper was Battlestar Galactica and my students wanted to know about it. They wanted to know whether I thought it was as good as Star Wars. If my mission is to train the next generation of nerds I think I'd doing okay, right?

Okay - and here is a link to an xkcd comic - Certainty - this made me smile, cause it's true.


I'm going to post this now as it is 5.08 and I'm still in my flipping classroom.

The Walking Dead...

I'm excited. No, I haven't won anything and I'm not going anywhere fun. I'm excited because The Walking Dead is finally airing here in little old New Zealand. I've seen clips and read reviews, heck, when I was last in the States I was this* close to buying the graphic novels that the show is based on. So I'm looking forward to tonight when I can sit down, possibly drag my dad along since I used to drag him to all the horror films when I was younger since my mum hates them with a passion.

Now, it's not just because there are zombies and it's set in a post zombie world. I'm excited because of the special effects, especially that torso zombie in the park. Seriously, that looks frakking amazing. Plus, although it seems to follow some of the standard rules of zombies it seems pretty intense, which is always good in a zombie film...hell, any horror film really.

From all accounts it seems to be doing pretty well in the States too. I've heard about the second season that seems to be amping up the stakes so I'm really stoked that it is about to start here tonight. Though, I could have ordered the entire first season over a month or two ago from Amazon and would have seen them all by now. Unfortunately, I have to try and curb my DVD buying since I don't know when I get paid next as I'm waiting on paperwork from the UK. Apparently, the teacher's council in NZ wants to make sure that I'm not an international fugitive. Though the thought of me being an international fugitive is so absurd that I find myself giggling. I'm about a stealth and mean as a freaking jigglypuff** though not as pink.

And, while I'm on the subject of zombies, I thought I would mention one of my favourite blogs:
Zombies Everywhere

Daily zombie updates with great little anecdotes along with great survival tips for when the zombie apocalypse happens. Don't say I don't do anything for you - especially when you survive the zombie apocalypse!

Also go here or here for all your zombie bumper sticker needs.

*You can't see this but I'm actually holding my fingers a wee bit apart...
**I hang my head in shame at the pokemon reference...

Dental dilemmas and me being a role model?

I went to the dentist last week where I paid $23 dollars per minute to have my retainer cemented back into place. This was a process that took all of ten minutes. Ten frakking minutes. It was like someone raped my bank account. And, to top it off, the dentist (who was not my normal dentist, by the way, and reeked of cheap cologne) informed me that I probably don't need my retainer anymore and that I should contact my orthodontist to see whether I need it or not. He told me after he'd already done the work, of course.

Plus, he also used me as a teaching tool for his new dental assistant. Mainly due to my cleft palate, which, he also informed me, was rather inflamed. (My palate, that is.) It was at this point I felt like saying, 'no shit, Sherlock' but since he had stuffed my mouth full of cotton pads and had a metal spike thing in my mouth I thought it might be a bad idea.

Anyway, I am used to being used as a teaching tool. Especially for new mothers of children with cleft lips and palates. Apparently, many of my nurses and doctors think that I am a good role model for these young children. You can insert your gaffuws of laughter here...me...a role model...yeah I'm laughing as well but the minute that those mothers come up to you with their wee sprogs, all bundled up after their first bout of surgery my heart (shrivelled as it may be) grows a little and I do my best to make them feel at ease. I repress as much of my nerdy side as possible and suddenly find myself transformed into 'an adult'. I smile at them, sincerely even, and tell them everything is going to be okay. Though, I do warn them that kids are cruel little bastards and they better be ready to support them through the worst of times and the best of times.

Well, that was a random tangent there. Which leads me onto another random story from my youth. As per course of being born with a cleft lip and palate I had to undergo a lot of speech therapy though all I remember of this is blowing paint through a straw and telling the therapist some story about dolls being raped by the boogey man as I played with the dolls and the spastic doll house.* This was all tested by my plastic surgeon getting me to read stories out loud so he and his med students could see how clearly I could speak and all that.

Normally, he picked the books so I found myself reading about how a cat with a hat terrified two kids with all sorts of insanity. ** Except for one time when I had a book of my own. Now, my memory might be a bit hazy but I seem to recall it being a Stephen King book (which was the norm for me at that stage) and I asked if I could read a passage from it instead. I'm pretty sure I found the most expletive leaden excerpt from that book and read that aloud in a clear and concise way. I can't recall who was more shocked, my parents or the med students. My plastic surgeon didn't even bat an eyelid. Then again, I later found out he does surgery not just on people's faces but on women's vagina's as well. I just hoped he washed his hands thoroughly before he operated on me...

So, my rebellions may have been small but they were still rebellions. "Damn the man, save the Empire!"

On that note I shall be gone. It's my mum's birthday today and I was up early making her a cupcake cake.

What do you think? Do I get the award of best daughter ever?

*It was made out of two shoe boxes if I remember correctly and the dolls looked like rejects from a mental hospital. You know, hair roughly cut off turning female Barbie into Butch Barbie...
** I love Dr Seuss but when you're sixteen, reading that aloud is kind of strange

SDCC = Geek Mecca?

As I type this I am sitting in the back of the fish and chip shop that I live behind and feeling that lovely emotion that is jealousy laced with a heavy coat of envy. You see Comic Con has started in San Diego and, once again, I am not there. I make plans at the end of each July to make my way over to this amazing event that I have heard so much about but so far my plans have fallen flatter than a pancake on Shrove Tuesday.

It is around this time every year where I proclaim to anyone who will listen that I will be going to next year's Comic Con, come hell or high water. Just to let you know I have been saying this for the last five years and the only conventions I have managed to attend have been the ones in London. I've attended them twice and they were a blast. I got to have my photo taken with a Dalek and I got Danny Trejo's autograph. For those of you who don't know who he is check out this awesome trailer:

And, in real life, he is very eloquent and actually really interesting to listen to. His has some great stories to tell and has a great sense of humour.

Anyway, although I have been to that convention every geek worth their salt wants to attend the San Diego Comic Con. It is the stuff legends are made of and one of the few places where you can really let your geek flag fly higher than ever. Four days of pure insanity after which many return to their 'humdrum' lives and hang up the amazing cosplay outfits they spent a year working on before donning the suits or general business attire that they are subjected to for the rest of the year.

Because I have never been I could be viewing this through the hazy dream lenses that many of us wear in our everyday lives but I know that it is a place where like minded people can get together and enjoy their fandoms with others who also share the same interests. It's a place where you can argue the finer points of Klingon grammar or argue over who shot first.* It's a place where you wouldn't bat an eyelid as the Joker and Batman sat down together to grab a bite to eat. Basically, in my mind, it is pure heaven, even taking into account the BO and other hygiene issues that arrive when you have so many people squashed together in one place.

So, I feel that I can proclaim that SDCC is a form of mecca for those who, like myself, enjoy things a little too enthusiastically. And, as I sit here writing this, a small plan is forming in my mind. It involves costumes, travel and me making a fool out of myself - so far pretty normal, right? My only problem is money. There is the little thing called responsibility but I don't have kids or any form of dependents.

The only question is - which costume?

I'll leave you with this which I stumbled across yesterday...Happy Friday all

*Han did - obviously!

That's Miss* to you...

I have, now, officially finished my old job and have begun intergrating myself at the school where I will be terrorising...ahem...teaching young minds and moulding them for the future.

I am of two minds at this career choice at present. My main state is one of fear mixed with a dollop of excitement. (Actually, flip that, reverse it.) I am excited to see how I do and whether I am one of those teachers that does a good job at actually helping her students, you know. As long as I'm not one of those "I'm gonna yell at you until either you comply to my will or I pass out..." type of teacher.

On the other hand, I'm terrified that I will break children. Not as in physically break cause, let's face it, I'm weaker than non-alcoholic beer. But I don't want to traumatise too many children. I'm thinking minimum causalities are a must, if you get my ramblings. I just remember my days at high school and I don't want to be like the teachers that I hated.

On a random train of thought - I now find myself having to acquire semi-casual attire as I make the transition from student/bookseller into teacher. Whereas the bookstore had a uniform of black and school just had any old clothes you like teaching has slightly different standards. So I must, reluctantly, put away the witty tee's with allusions to Dr Who, BSG and surviving the zombie apocalypse and start shopping for clothes that don't reveal too much cleavage** or tattoos, not that I have many of those.

I'm still going to keep my converse sneakers, though. My feet maybe small but they're fat little bastards and all those fancy schmancy women's shoes hurt them.

I have a couple of questions for you, dear readers, to make this blog more interactive...and because I'm lazy today.

Question 1: What was/is your favourite subject at high school?
Question 2: What do/did teachers do to make learning more fun for you?

*Actually it's Ms but it looks weird out of context
** Apparently boys are distracted by cleavage...who knew.