And now a clip of "how it should have ended..."

Berger (Monday/Wednesday) was mildly successful in that they were interested in talking about it, but not so successful in that almost all of their journals reflected the idea of "original work" as "true meaning" that we need to get back to...

So today I brought out the Atari.
Well, I brought up the Atari on Google. We looked at the original gaming console, and they were amazed at such "old-school" technology. So I asked them what's changed since then? : MORE BUTTONS. Lots more buttons.

Yes. Brilliant. But how did we get more buttons? Technology advanced, and POOF! More buttons!?...

"People furthered technology."
Fabulous. How? (Questioning them felt like pulling teeth!)

"By taking what others had, and improving it."
But Atari came first - don't you wish you could go back to Atari, and that PS3 never existed?

...
that sunk in a bit better...

We then discussed forwarding information, learning from others around us, and then switched over to our reading for the day, McKibben, and true conversation began :)

Fabulous tales of exploitation were told, we discussed "Shark Week," shark-finning, and I asked how other sources are exploited. One student mentioned vampire stories, and another brought up Twilight. Jackie's right - it gets them talking, and I'm glad I wasn't the one to bring it up because it never ended: Twilight books, movies, soundtracks, graphic novels, television shows (True Blood?), other movies, and one of the most popular sources that bred them all - Dracula (but not the book - they still went to the old black and white film!). 

We talked about what moves all horror films had in common (scary music, a shower scene, something popping out, blood, etc., etc.), and how each film still remained unique (the way they use the commonalities, and the audience they're intended for)... it was cool....I related that to genre of text, and we started talking about what expectations we have for certain texts, but ran out of time... *sigh* Conversations like today make me wish class wasn't just an hour long.