Thing #6 - Mash it UP!

I look forward to becoming a grown up, the man I want to be, the eager student, the wise sage on the stage, and now, at last, the Guide on the Side. I am a huge fan of scrap booking as a means of relaxation through artistic expression. My "old school" nature engenders a love of the real feel of artifacts from my various exploits and adventures - the receipt from the expensive gourmet meal, the stub for the roller-coaster that ripped the heart from my chest, the perfect photo that ordinarily overlaps, yet mimics approximately the extra-ordinariness of the  comparison....but these applications are an oldmanturningyoungerman's digital dream works! When I can't wait to get out there and upload my digital adventure record to Flickr and then spend a day or 10 in personal satisfaction....then I am Busting-at-the-Seams giddy to provide these opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding of the heretofore difficult, dry, and boring concepts of setting, characterization, plot, theme, mood, tone in a format rich beyond the dreams of avarice over the 5 piece paragraph, the multipleguessbraindead assessment....well, I am impressed! There is so much very doable and valuable cool stuff in just this one place. The beauty of it is that one test run, leads to another and another and then to the glorious pedagogical realization....that only the iceberg's tip has been glanced, not even really seen, far from being witnessed or explored.....Literacy Arts Indeed!