21st Century Breakdown

I don’t say good-bye…I say “See you Later”

docpetervenkman84 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:38:04 +0000

For all of the trial and tribulations we have suffered and enjoyed together, this marks the end of both this unit and my time at Shenedehowa.

That is not to say that this blog will die, or that I am out of touch, but instead this blog will hibernate as I move on to Saratoga Middle School and perils and promise that lie on Maple Ave.

All I can really say is thank you for both the opportunity to teach real live living students and teach them something that has never really been taught before.

Remember, you can always go to thatfan.com if you want to check in with me or drop me an e-mail.

Thank you to Mr. Salls, especially, I know none of this could not have happened without your guidance and risk takin upon not only the unit, but myself as a student-teacher. I am forever in your debt and the future Presidents, doctors, and professional athletes that I will teach in the future owe you a debt of gratitude.

Until we met again fair friends, may the sun always shine upon you face, the breeze fill your sails and the road ahead be a challenging, fun, and rewarding one…geez, it sounds like I am dying…

The Window is closing & Presentation schedule

docpetervenkman84 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:06:52 +0000

The window for getting posts done comes tonight at Midnight (or tomorrow morning at midnight if you want to be a pain and be technical.)

I am also including here the list of blogs/links and groups that are going to be presented over the next two days, you have practiced and you will be fine…without further ado:

Period 3 – Thursday

www.daniellecarson-musicreviews.blogspot.com by Danielle and Ryan

www.mlbaseball10.blogspot.com by Taylor

www.americanrides.wordpress.com by Brian and Matt C.

www.celebritiesinfluences.blogspot.com by Kateylyn and Sam

www.realitytv93.blogspot.com by Lauren

www.areyoufit.wordpress.com by Aaron

www.highschoolyfe.blogspot.com by Christine and Serena

www.thedailyskater.wordpress.com by Chris

Period 8 – Thursday

Surprise Blog by Karly

www.jackcarpenter.tumblr.com by Jack

www.everythingthatsawesome.tumblr.com by Meghan

www.aroundbaseball.wordpress.com by Branden

www.aboveandbeyondthegame.blogspot.com by Jose and Zac

www.purelikegold.tumblr.com by Lia

www.celebg0ssip.blogspot.com by Eden

www.insanerumors.tumblr.com by Erin

www.lovethegoodlife.wordpress.com by Karen

Period 9 – Thursday

www.hssurvivalguide.wordpress.com by Emily and Kim

www.freeskiier.wordpress.com by Trail Mix

www.ridesteezy.tumblr.com by Caleb

www.guide2survivinghighschool.blogspot.com by Kevin and Dom

http://wwwcjrandom.blogspot.com by Cory

www.mackiewoods.tumblr.com by Mackie

www.kellbell.blogspot.com by Kelly

Period 3 – Friday

www.hstravelchannel.blogspot.com by Cait

www.maryjaneisthename.tumblr.com by Billy, Sarah, and Ryan

www.usasoccerfans.blogspot.com by John

www.asupdate.wordpress.com by Zac

www.megsky.wordpress.com by Meghan and Skylar

http://yankeesvoiceblog.wordpress.com/ by Dan

http://themusicasylum.wordpress.com/ by Paul

Period 8 – Friday

www.jerseyshoregreatestrealityshowontv.blogspot.com by Dona and Katelyn

www.musicthroughmyperspective.blogspot.com by Zach

www.upcomingblog.blogspot.com by Adrienne

www.dailyteenlifez.blogspot.com by Zahra

http://cheerleadingisitasport.blogspot.com/ by Nicole

www.sprintcupnascar.wordpress.com by Branden and Kyle

www.down4theunderground.blogspot.com by Lauren

www.yanksperspective.wordpress.com by Alex

Surprise Blog by Ibraheem

Period 9 – Friday

www.broandlax.blogspot.com by Bob, Tim and Zach

http://celebritycrash.tumblr.com/ by Diana

http://dancemi55.tumblr.com/ by Lindsay

www.simplepleasuresanddreams.blogspot.com by Jay

www.wolfeb1.wordpress.com by Brian

www.mattaudi.wordpress.com by Matt

www.teenpregnancy101.tumblr.com by Karissa

www.godsmackblog.weebly.com by Kelsey

For those who still haven’t handed in the e-mail interviews (and I will accept being CC’ed or Forwarded the e-mail you sent), here is what you still need to do.

Alternate assignment people: You will be operating the camera tomorrow and your writing portion is due Thursday by midnight.

StumbleUpon.com, Viral Marketing, and You

docpetervenkman84 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:19:33 +0000

Even though I am taking this off the table for viral marketing extra credit…this site is PHENOMENAL getting your name and links out there. I have taken the liberty of “liking” most of your blogs already, but this will help.

Make yourself a profile at www.StumbleUpon.com (Here is a video explaining how this works) and than start “liking” your own blog posts and they will be available to over 9,000,000 people (not kidding here)!

In ten minutes time, signing up and liking one of my posts, I got 75+ hits on one of my posts by using this site. This comes right from their site (Check out the Overview Page):

How can I get Viral/Free traffic from StumbleUpon?

The more popular your site, video, photo, etc, the more people will see it. Using the StumbleUpon toolbar, members rate content “thumbs-up” (really like it) or “thumbs-down” (not for them). The more people who vote “thumbs-up”, the more quickly it will spread. Well-designed and targeted content often starts to spread virally through StumbleUpon. The more people who see it, the more they pass it on to their friends (both within and outside of StumbleUpon).

Do I need to create an ad?

No. We send visitors directly to your website (or photo or video). StumbleUpon doesn’t serve pop-ups/intersitials, banners or other invasive forms of advertising.

You can create a specific page/video/etc for StumbleUpon. Make it a fun, entertaining, or informative experience for people who love new and exciting stuff.

If I had a sports blog I would also use Ballhype.com (which takes some HTML work), but this StumbleUpon thing is AWESOME.

Does this bother anyone else?

docpetervenkman84 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:38:21 +0000

By Ben Meyers from Yahoo.com

I know that we all want to get our product out there, but I’m not going to see 2012 now…or should I because it predicting the actual future?

E-mail Interviews

docpetervenkman84 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:05:32 +0000

I just haven’t received many proof of e-mail interviews from people just yet.

Perhaps I wasn’t clear when I needed these turned in by, so I will be accepting them through Thursday.

Here is how you get credit on this assignment as quoted from the worksheet:

“To receive credit on this assignment you must create the e-mail that you have brainstormed below, send it, and print out the e-mail. If you get an answer to your e-mail you can use it in a post, but getting a response is not required for you to get credit.”

Don’t worry, I think I dropped the ball a little bit on saying when I wanted this turned in by, so you still have an opportunity to pull it off and still get full credit.

Yes, teachers make mistakes too, so, I apologize for being unclear on this assignment, but as long as you get it done and turned in you have no worries.

Grinding it out

docpetervenkman84 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:32:13 +0000

As we have said over the last few day…you are really kicking some serious rear end on this unit.

Now the job is to get the last of the 15 posts done and begin to prepare top present your blog to both the class, the Times Union and WRGB.

For those who weren’t in class today, here is the rubric that your presentation is going to be graded on. The presentation is weighted significantly less than the blog itself, but it is still important. Here is the worksheet that we are using to get our presentations together.

Tuesday and Wednesday we are going to take some time to practice our pitches in class, so Thursday or Friday won’t be the first time that you have done this, and we are going to sign up for times to deliver these presentations.

Alternative Assignment People…check your e-mails in a few minutes. Your assignment will be there with the blogs that you have to describe and the people you have to interview (the requirements can be seen here).

To lighten the mood some:

Alternative Assignment and Presentation Ruberic

docpetervenkman84 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:30:31 +0000

Yes, the rumors are true, I took a day off from blogging yesterday. However, with batteries sufficiently recharged I have put together the alternative assignment and the rubric for the presentation of the blogs later this week.

The alternative assignment is here, while the presentation rubric is right here.

For the majority of everyone, don’t worry about the alternative assignment. Just get your blogs ready by Wednesday and we will be presenting them on Thursday and Friday in the Little Theater.

Don’t get too anxious about the presentation…basically, you are just telling everyone what your blog is, what you cover, how it has been going, etc. They are only going to be a few minutes long, so it won’t be too tough.

There is be a worksheet to guide you in your presentation. (For those doing the Alternate Assignment – you will be taking the raw video footage from the presentations, cutting them up, and uploading them to the individual blogs for your presentation part of your assignment.)

The home stretch

docpetervenkman84 — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:39:08 +0000

There are not too many more tools I can give you so you can be successful with these blogs. The success of the blogs relies on your work ethic now and your asking of questions.

I am including a few videos here that can serve as review for you in “Plain English”

RSS Feeds:

Twitter:

Zombies:

If you missed class today then you can check what we did right here. You are going to have to do interviews, but you may do them via e-mail.

Questions, comments, and concerns are always welcomed just comment or e-mail.

Wildcard Requirement #2

docpetervenkman84 — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:32:11 +0000

I feel a little bit better today than I have been in the past few days. I think that everybody has a plan in place that is going to take them to a good place with this project.

With that being said, there is a new wildcard requirement that was released today, and that is you must have a video embedded into a post. If you have already done this, great! If you have used links in the past that is OK just embed from now on…you don’t have to go back and embed videos. (Head here if you weren’t in class and need help doing this).

Here is my example: Great moments in Conch Shell History (For ThatFan.com)

If you are looking for examples from your classmates head over the Blog List and click on some of them.

The Definitions and How To’s section is also growing, so make sure that you check in over there if you have more questions.

Missing Blogs/Posts

docpetervenkman84 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:28:12 +0000

There are a frightening number of people that are starting to fall behind on this unit.

I want to be fair and honest, this unit is going to be graded and due on WEDNESDAY MARCH 3. I will be leaving that Friday, so there isn’t going to be an opportunity to “hand” this in late. If there are major problems coming up, let me know, if something is going on I just need to be kept in the loop and we can work something out.

Basically, you have to do 2 posts per day for the rest of the unit if you only have 1 post thus far (you know who you are).

ALSO, if I don’t send you an e-mail today or make a comment on your blog itself, than I don’t have your blog URL or a correct e-mail address. I need these things. I am going through every single link that I have, so, you will get some feedback sometime today,