Oh what a tangled Weebly...

I had originally planned a literacy project using Romeo & Juliet and a website for the class (which exists only in my mind - the class, not the website).  I was playing around on Weebly with a free account and realized I would want access to an actual forum style chat room, not just access to a blog & comments, though they could work as effectively once I got used to it.

In Fair Verona is my first attempt at a class site for a theoretical lesson.  I had thought about splitting the class into "cousins" of the Montagues & Capulets and discussing amongst other family members how the current events in the play made them feel, towards their own family, and towards their "enemies."  At the end of the play, I would have both sides share with the other what they discussed as a family and have them see how their views changed throughout the story.

It's very basic since I abandoned the idea - for now, but I can come back to it at another time when the thought is more fleshed out (or when I have a class to inspire me.)

In fair Verona, where we Animoto

I wish I had found more images for public use, but I'm surprised with how well it turned out compared to what it looked like while creating it - not too painful, even for the first time!  I decided to use Romeo & Juliet as a topic because I knew it would be a likely subject for me in a public high school, and if not this play specifically, surely one of the Bard's other tragedies would be.  I owned the song, and forwarded the music to a more economic starting point, shaving off almost a minute of instrumental and initial verses.  There were other images I had in mind, but I really wanted to stay with what was open to use to have a better feeling of what my students would face as a challenge to being honest with their own work.

This Animoto would be for use in a high school English class as an introduction to Romeo & Juliet, before discussing vocab, setting or expectations.  It fulfills the NETS-T 1, 2, & 3 standards for Facilitating & Inspiring, Designing & Developing, and Modeling technology that would be further used in the classroom.  It could be the first time Animoto is used, as a way of also introducing one method a student could utilize it for in a later project.



Let me know what you think!