I have always identified myself with the character Walter Mitty from the movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, starring Danny Kay. The short story is nice too, but I love Danny Kaye, and the movie is so much better.
If you are not familiar with the story, it is about a man with a normal life and an abnormal ability to have heroic daydreams. Any real world event can trigger a fantasy with Mr. Mitty as the star who saves the day.
I am not quite the daydreamer that Mr. Mitty was, but I have an annoying habit of making up stories about my own life that sound surprisingly like movies that I have seen. My kids hate that. We will be watching a movie as a family and I will start off with, "You know, that is a lot like how your mom and I met. You remember honey... I was the super strong super hero, and you were the free wheeling stretchy girl. Battling villains side by side. But then we were forced to settle down and hide out, never revealing our secret identities to anyone. Remember that sweetheart (in case you are wondering, I am describing The Incedibles)?" By this time all three of my kids are yelling at me to stop.
This is wonderful entertainment to me. Sometimes I will mix stories together like, An Officer and a Gentleman and Top Gun and see if I can confuse my wife who tries to keep up with me. This little game of mine can come into play at anytime, and any place. Outsiders overhearing this storytelling will surely think I have lost my senses, maybe they are right, but I will continue this game. It has nothing to do with me being unsatisfied with my life. I have a wonderful life. I just think telling these stories is funny.
Knowing this about myself, it is shocking to find out that I am having the hardest time understanding Second Life. There are few rules and you can be whatever you want to be. Yesterday I met a lady in SL named Pearl. I just started talking to her, and she being the more experienced SL'er, recognized that I was a noobie. Soon she just starting giving me stuff. Clothes, skins, hair and even some bling. She was very into having me change my look. I must admit to feeling just a little like a dress up doll. It was nice that she helped me but my outward appearance is not very important to me, even in SL.
My real life is filled with fantasy, but Second Life has none? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I suppose the real problem is that I insist on labeling the experience instead of just accepting it as it is.
Showing posts with label story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label story. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Grinch continued...
As I promised yesterday, I made a slide show from children's Kid Pix pictures that were made to show a scene from the story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I created a slide show from kids pictures that I collected in 2001 and 2002. I figured that would protect me from offending anyone or divulging any information about the students (I cut out any part of a picture that had the first and last name of the student). It also shows that I have done this for quite a few years.
I have passed the halfway point in reading the story this year. I only have to read it about 6 more times! I do love the story, but cramming 22 readings into a week wears me out like few other things do. Maybe it is because I try really hard to get into the story using voice inflection, and I attempt to become the characters. Subconsciously, in many ways I copy the Chuck Jones cartoon version. Or maybe it is consciously, now that I have thought about it? In any case, it has been ingrained in me that this is the way the story is supposed to be read, and so every reading is like a recreation of the cartoon (if only in my mind).
I have memorized the entire story. This is not really an accomplishment considering how many times I have read it, but it does lead to some strange things that I have noticed that happen when I share the Grinch.
Sometimes I get lost in the story. It is like when you are driving and suddenly look up and realize you don't know where you are or how you got there, before you snap back to reality. This is very odd when you are in the middle of a story and "reading" with emphasis. And I never miss a beat. How can that happen?
Every once in a while I will mess up one word and know it the second it leaves my mouth. No one else knows, but I still feel like the story is then less than perfect and I have failed my class in some kind of small, but personally significant way.
In nine out of ten classes, some kid will question one if not two words that I read; chimbley and roast-beast. Every time it happens, I want to stop and explain artistic license and the importance of being able to rhyme with the words nimbly and feast.
Well, by Friday at around 11:30am, it will be another year down, and another 460 or so students that I have shared The Grinch with... Ahhhh!
I have passed the halfway point in reading the story this year. I only have to read it about 6 more times! I do love the story, but cramming 22 readings into a week wears me out like few other things do. Maybe it is because I try really hard to get into the story using voice inflection, and I attempt to become the characters. Subconsciously, in many ways I copy the Chuck Jones cartoon version. Or maybe it is consciously, now that I have thought about it? In any case, it has been ingrained in me that this is the way the story is supposed to be read, and so every reading is like a recreation of the cartoon (if only in my mind).
I have memorized the entire story. This is not really an accomplishment considering how many times I have read it, but it does lead to some strange things that I have noticed that happen when I share the Grinch.
Sometimes I get lost in the story. It is like when you are driving and suddenly look up and realize you don't know where you are or how you got there, before you snap back to reality. This is very odd when you are in the middle of a story and "reading" with emphasis. And I never miss a beat. How can that happen?
Every once in a while I will mess up one word and know it the second it leaves my mouth. No one else knows, but I still feel like the story is then less than perfect and I have failed my class in some kind of small, but personally significant way.
In nine out of ten classes, some kid will question one if not two words that I read; chimbley and roast-beast. Every time it happens, I want to stop and explain artistic license and the importance of being able to rhyme with the words nimbly and feast.
Well, by Friday at around 11:30am, it will be another year down, and another 460 or so students that I have shared The Grinch with... Ahhhh!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
The Grinch
Every year, since I became a kindergarten teacher in 1990, I have shared one of my favorite books of all time just before the winter holiday, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This means I have shared this story for possibly 17 years with a couple thousand children or so.
I think that I became struck with the story when I was a child watching the Chuck Jones adaptation of the story. I love the book because it shows that even if you make a mistake in life there is a chance at redemption. It is also a reminder to me that Christmas really is more than shopping, and getting stuff. It is more about the joy of being with people that you love and showing kindness to those you don't even know- just because it is the right thing to do.
Now that I am a computer resource teacher in an elementary school, I share the story with around 22 classes every year (K-2 grade). I have created a lesson around the Grinch, and I would like to share it.
First, I read the story.
I read this story to a group of kindergartners today. I thought it was appropriate considering where I began this tradition.
After the story, I explain to the children how they can use tools in the program Kid Pix to create their own picture of the Grinch, or another character from the story.
The tools in Kid Pix allow the children a chance to be creative in expressing their own vision of the story with some pretty good graphics tools. I have created slide shows in the past of student's pictures and they generally turn out to be pretty good for pictures made by young people with only 15 minutes or so to make one. I will try to add a slide show tomorrow...
It seems like such a small thing to do, but it is my way of sharing something that I truly love with students that I work with at my school. It is a pretty lame Christmas present to get, but it has a lot of meaning for me when I share the Grinch with children. I hope the web enjoys it, too.
Merry Christmas!
:-)
Al
I think that I became struck with the story when I was a child watching the Chuck Jones adaptation of the story. I love the book because it shows that even if you make a mistake in life there is a chance at redemption. It is also a reminder to me that Christmas really is more than shopping, and getting stuff. It is more about the joy of being with people that you love and showing kindness to those you don't even know- just because it is the right thing to do.
Now that I am a computer resource teacher in an elementary school, I share the story with around 22 classes every year (K-2 grade). I have created a lesson around the Grinch, and I would like to share it.
First, I read the story.
I read this story to a group of kindergartners today. I thought it was appropriate considering where I began this tradition.
After the story, I explain to the children how they can use tools in the program Kid Pix to create their own picture of the Grinch, or another character from the story.
The tools in Kid Pix allow the children a chance to be creative in expressing their own vision of the story with some pretty good graphics tools. I have created slide shows in the past of student's pictures and they generally turn out to be pretty good for pictures made by young people with only 15 minutes or so to make one. I will try to add a slide show tomorrow...
It seems like such a small thing to do, but it is my way of sharing something that I truly love with students that I work with at my school. It is a pretty lame Christmas present to get, but it has a lot of meaning for me when I share the Grinch with children. I hope the web enjoys it, too.
Merry Christmas!
:-)
Al
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