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From convention to elementary school
Jun. 1st, 2010 09:53 amToday in my vacation I am watching my sister teach her fifth grade class. I am kind of thrilled by her lesson plans. Her class recently finished reading The Jungle Book and now they're reading The Graveyard Book, and they're working on a project about the similarities and differences between Mowgli and Bod.
Recently I've been hearing a lot from Naomi about her Nook, and it's interesting to watch her integrate it into her lesson plans. She's walking around her classroom reading from the Nook itself. Meanwhile, she's projecting the book in the Nook app and the kids are reading along on the screen. (I am pleased with the fact that she picked the Nook over the Kindle, what with (a) my negative feelings about Amazon and (b) my adoration of Android. The Androidy-ness of the Nook is definitely not very visible, and based on my limited experience playing around with Kindles, it's an inferior design in a lot of ways, but it also lets her loan books and it generally seems to have a better DRM structure.)
Especially given that I first experienced the book via the Gaiman video tour, I'm having my world rocked in a multimedia way. I don't know that it is actually a better experience than having each student have their own paper copy of the book, but it is a lot more cost-efficient in a school that doesn't have the resources for even a school library. Of course, it's really a question of distribution and use of resources--the school did put a nice projector in her classroom, and give her a laptop to project from, and they apparently have a pretty nice computer center. (The Nook is her own.) Computers are the Future, and so they're the way the school budget is going. Meanwhile, my sister's ability to do her job is almost entirely based on how the students' reading skills change, and her classroom library has been entirely provided by her friends and family.
Also, in re: the fascinating WisCon conversation about whether historical fiction counts as a genre, I have learned from a board on my sister's classroom wall that the official fictional genres are: fantasy, realistic fiction, mystery, historical fiction, traditional literature, science fiction. Oh, the joys of elementary school, when these things come from on high and are not open to discussion.
Recently I've been hearing a lot from Naomi about her Nook, and it's interesting to watch her integrate it into her lesson plans. She's walking around her classroom reading from the Nook itself. Meanwhile, she's projecting the book in the Nook app and the kids are reading along on the screen. (I am pleased with the fact that she picked the Nook over the Kindle, what with (a) my negative feelings about Amazon and (b) my adoration of Android. The Androidy-ness of the Nook is definitely not very visible, and based on my limited experience playing around with Kindles, it's an inferior design in a lot of ways, but it also lets her loan books and it generally seems to have a better DRM structure.)
Especially given that I first experienced the book via the Gaiman video tour, I'm having my world rocked in a multimedia way. I don't know that it is actually a better experience than having each student have their own paper copy of the book, but it is a lot more cost-efficient in a school that doesn't have the resources for even a school library. Of course, it's really a question of distribution and use of resources--the school did put a nice projector in her classroom, and give her a laptop to project from, and they apparently have a pretty nice computer center. (The Nook is her own.) Computers are the Future, and so they're the way the school budget is going. Meanwhile, my sister's ability to do her job is almost entirely based on how the students' reading skills change, and her classroom library has been entirely provided by her friends and family.
Also, in re: the fascinating WisCon conversation about whether historical fiction counts as a genre, I have learned from a board on my sister's classroom wall that the official fictional genres are: fantasy, realistic fiction, mystery, historical fiction, traditional literature, science fiction. Oh, the joys of elementary school, when these things come from on high and are not open to discussion.
