976.604 (Oklahoma, Territorial and early statehood periods, 1866-1907) The Musical

LaFollette High School is now in its second week of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and yours truly was the lighting designer. I love working with the musical crew that Pam hires and my favorite "musical spouse", Brian, showed up in the last few weeks of rehearsal to be a simply awesome human being and run spot light with a student and offer actors some direction. Brian and I went to college together and are both education majors - it's always nice to have a comrade for the musical process.

Photos are pulled from the Lafollete Event Photos Facebook Page and are taken by the lovely Jeneene Olson-McConley. These are just preview photos - I'm sure she'll have more up this week or next and her photos always make the yearbook for LaFollette, too. I'll be taking my camera tonight to capture some of the lighting looks that I created, but I always love Jeneene's photos.

Looking on as Ado Annie and Will smooch

Judd killing Curley in the dream sequence.

Will freezing as Aunt Eller shoots her gun.

The Farmer and the Cowman Should be FRIENDS

Laurey and Judd

Aunt Eller saying a word for the cowman.

I just love that THIS is in the show.

People will say we're in love... and they'd be right!

One more week of shows this week and then were finished... and hopefully I can be rid of all of the earworms that have festered in my head for the last 3 months!

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Week Two

Yes, it's week eight of the semester. Yes, I'm JUST posting about week two. I'm unapologetic. Life is crazy, especially now that Oklahoma is officially opened at LaFollette High School.

Week Two's theme for YA Literature for week two was "Identity and Graphic Novels". For this week, we read two graphic novels: March: Book 1 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell and Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol.

March: Book One is a non-fiction graphic novel about Congressman John Lewis' life being a young adult during the Civil Rights era and what it was like to be a part of lunch counter sit-ins and non-violent marches. The graphic novel pops back and forth between Congressman Lewis preparing for President Obama's inauguration and what he experienced as a member of the Civil Rights Movement.

3 Delights for March: Book One

1. The illustration in this book is powerful and done in completely black and white. It really tells the story in a unique way that makes the book more powerful than it might have been as a non-graphic novel.

2. The book does a great job showing all sides of the Civil Rights Movement - not just Martin Luther King, Jr., but also some of the other leaders, how students participating in marches and sit-ins practiced terrorizing one another to learn how to not react when white community members might do similar things, and how to protect themselves in the face of violence. It's also a great way to tie history to the present, as John Lewis is a real-live Congressman.

3. March is part of a series focused on the Civil Rights Movement. I'm excited to see the next few graphic novels when they are released.

3 Defects for March: Book One

1. It's a positive-negative, folks. The illustrations really ask readers to practice some higher visual literacy skills - there are some pages that follow typical panel format, but there are others that blow the typical panel format out of the water. This might be harder for first time graphic novel readers to understand and follow.

2. I wonder what color would have done to the illustrations - I think that the "shades of grey" produced by black and white illustration is great, but I think this could have been really powerful in color, too.

3. There are depictions of violence in this book! It's the Civil Rights Era, and there was violence against African-American citizens, so it's only right. I think it's done tastefully, but it is something to consider when recommending this book.

Anya's Ghost is a supernatural fiction graphic novel, focused around Anya, a young Russian emigre student who is having a hard time fitting in at school. When Anya falls down a deep hole, she finds herself faced with a haunted girl's skeleton. The ghost girl, Emily, trapped in the hole for 90 years since her death, makes friends with Anya and travels home with her when Anya is rescued. Emily the ghost intially starts off as a blessing in disguise - she helps Anya with homework, talks about her secret crush with her, and even helps her learn how to dress better and talk to others. But Emily isn't all sweetness, and Anya soon discovers that she's befriended a spirit more sinister than she thought.

3 Delights for Anya's Ghost

1. This graphic novel deals well with the themes of fitting in and discovering your true identity. It's great to see the immigrant experience dealt with in a YA graphic novel.

2. The illustrations are FANTASTIC - they're all done in a blue/violet tinted grayscale, which for the suspense/horror side of this graphic novel works particularly well. It's also interesting to watch the changes that happen to Emily's character throughout the novel. 

3. Easy to follow panels, this is a great "first-timers" graphic novel. It's very easy to follow the layout and the pictures clearly express what is happening in the story.

3 Defects for Anya's Ghost

1. It's PRETTY girly. You might be hard pressed to get a boy to read this graphic novel. I mean, even the black and white images have a purple tint. Male fans of Babymouse! might pick this up, though.

2. The very easy, basic panel structure might get boring for a more advanced graphic novel reader. They'll fly through this one quickly.

3. I don't know if I love how body image is dealt with in this book. It's find overall, but I wonder if it couldn't be better.

808.899283 (Adolescent literature) - Stop Animation

Our second project for class was creating stop animation videos - Rebekah wanted us to know how to do this so that when our public library teen technology event rolls around, we have some choices of what to teach to teenagers.

For my stop animation video, I decided to use my miniature Dalek that I got as a Christmas gift my my husband, and since Valentine's day was quickly approaching, I decided to give the video a Valentine's Day flare. I set up my Canon Rebel T2i on a tripod pointed at my kitchen "island" with a very narrow focus and I used one of my "daylight" lamps from my cupcake photo rig for filler light, as my kitchen is a little dark.

The first time I shot the photos required, I only took about 200 pictures. I took those images to Windows Movie Maker and set each photo to last 0.1 seconds. I was absolutely dismayed at the jerking of my camera and the less than smooth "motion" provided by these pictures. I decided to scrap those photos and reshoot. My second take had a little over 300 pictures and I was far happier with the result. I added music from SoundzAbound (thanks ECB and Badgerlink for giving Wisconsin residents access!) and added a title screen and credits in Windows Movie Maker.

All said and done, the project took about 3 hours to complete, including the upload time to YouTube. The time probably could have been shortened to a little less than 2 hours if I hadn't taken the time to reshoot the photos. For future stop animation projects, I would definitely want to purchase a remote clicker for my camera - there is still more jerk in the images that I would like, but that is due to me having to physically touch the camera to take an image.

For your viewing pleasure, here's "A Dalek-table Valentine".

808.899283 (Adolescent literature) - Week One

Okay, so we're technically in Week Five right now... I'm just really really behind in updating my blog. Things have been NUTS and they'll continue to be so for the next few weeks, as I have an interview next week Wednesday for an academic librarianship position. SCARY THINGS!

Week one's theme for Adolescent Literature was "Perspectives on Adolescence and Childhood" and we read two novels on this theme: Sarah Dessen's Just Listen and Jacqueline Woodson's Miracle's Boys.

Just Listen is a novel about Annabel, the youngest of three sisters and a model, who has a falling out with her best friend, Sophie, over the summer and returns to the school year to find herself isolated and friendless. In her aloneness, she meets Owen, a loner who is passionate about music and has a habit of telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Owen strikes up a friendship with Annabel, one based on sharing music and time together. As they grow closer and Annabel becomes more comfortable with their friendship, Annabel tries to find the courage to open up about what really happened on the night when her friendship with Sophie ended.

Miracle's Boys follows the story of Layfaette and his older brothers, Ty'ree and Charlie, and the struggles the boys go through trying to grow up in New York after the death of both of their parents. Ty'ree, the eldest boy, tries to support the family as best he can, and Charlie has just returned home from a correctional facility. The story focuses on Lafayette's coming of age and how the boys need to make choices to be there for one another to overcome their struggles.

I enjoyed both books, which really surprised me, as I'm not normally a realistic fiction fan. Both books just seemed to have an excellent balance of tough stuff, teen angst, and humor. Both books were successful in their messages as well.

More to come about the other books read in class later this week and over the weekend, at least until I catch up.

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Introduction

I'm in an adolescent literature class this semester, which started with us reading about game literacy and the integration of multimedia into teen programming. We were given an assignment to build a video game level with Sploder, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) builder that is entirely online and doesn't require any type of download. I am rather impressed with the platform overall, and was especially entertained when their introductory email was written as if a child had applied for the account; the email told the "parent" all about Sploder and included a link where they could see what "their child" was doing. I have to give the folks at Sploder props - they really wanted the parents to be involved.

The process of creating a level was entertaining and interesting, and I think that most of us in the class had a whole lot of fun. My level is playable below or at this link if you don't like the embedded play (I don't, personally).

Make a Free Flash Game

I'm going to be doing quite a few blog posts for this class. The posts will have with similar post titles, with each post getting a new chapter heading, or, where I can, the detailed Dewey number for specific types of adolescent lit. There will be quite a few book reviews (we're expected to read 2 or 3 books a week), as well as more multimedia projects. I'm excited to see where the class takes me!

746.46 (Patchwork and quilting)

Christmas has come and gone and this holiday season and my funds for purchasing gifts was minuscule. Grad school will do that to your budget. So most of the gifts this season were handmade, including a quilt for my sister-in-law, one that was supposed to be a gift for her bridal shower, which never happened because of a pushed up wedding date. I had already purchased the fabric for the quilt, so it was basically a no extra cost gift. It's not "done" yet, but it's pieced. Just need to get a nice batting and backer.

Pieced quilt. 

Close up of quilt.

Close up of quilt.

The quilt doesn't have an official pattern, it's just a series of 4"x4", 6"x4", 8"x4", and 10"x4" squares and rectangles cycling through a pattern with each row, alternating reds and blues. The starting pattern is laid out like this: 4", 6", 8", 4"(white), 10", 4"(white), 8", 6", 4". The following rows cycle through this pattern, taking the block on the left and then putting it on the far right of the row: 6", 8", 4"(white), 10", 4"(white), 8", 6", 4", 4". Next row then looks like 8", 4"(white), 10", 4"(white), 8", 6", 4", 4", 6", and so on.

I didn't pay attention to the exact fabric order, just ensured that squares next to each other weren't made of the same fabric. Rows vary on how they match up - sometimes a row will have 4 or 5 seam matches, sometimes only 2. It's easy to cut out and easy to stitch together, though. It was quick work (maybe 4-6 hours total) to cut and piece.

792.9 (Stage productions)

Well, folks. Our production of "Barefoot in the Park" had opening night yesterday and is playing through this weekend. I'm mighty thankful to the lovely photographer, Jeneene Olson-McConley, who took some stellar shots of the set and the actors doing their thing:

Pre-show set

Mr. Velasco and Corie - Fixing the Heat

Mr. Wiese, High School Principal, playing the role of Delivery Man 

Planning the Evening - Making Mom More Interesting

A Little White Lie - Mom and Dad? More like Blind Date!

Another week and my life is my own again, but in the meantime, we have a play and it's going fantastically! Much love to the cast and FANTASTIC crew who helped me build this set.