Hello Everyone! My name is Ally Aubry and I am senior (fourth year) Art Education major at Penn State, although I am a native New Jersey girl.

Growing up, ever since I can remember, I have been fascinated with various accents seen across the United States. Although I have always grown up in the East Coast, I have had the privilege of having family and relatives from all over. It is amazing that you can cross a border into another State, and the accents and sayings completely change. For example, I have family in Boston, Massachusetts and they all have heavy accents. One popular sayings that I often hear people from Boston say is "Wicked Smart". This term, especially the word "wicked", is placed in front of basically any adjective. However, Bostonians are known for saying the term "Wicked Smart" due to popular media and visual culture. It is important to note the phonetic differences in how people from Boston say it. For example, although they pronounce wicked as it is read, they pronounce smart as, "smarhhht" - they essentially drop the r sound and add an H. Although it has the same meaning, it is pronounced differently. This has become a landmark saying for Boston, being seen on a lot of their historical memorabilia and on downtown souvenirs.

One way in which this saying is used in popular culture is in the hit and classic movie, "Good Will Hunting":

http://youtu.be/ymsHLkB8u3s

In this video you can see a scene in Harvard (Harhhhvarhhd) Bar where Ben Affleck and Matt Damon talk about what it means to be "Wicked Smart (Smarhhttt)".

In terms of using this in terms of images, this saying can be seen on Boston memorabilia and souvenirs seen everywhere. For example, on this website: http://www.chowdaheadz.com/wicked-smaaht-college-tee.html , you can see the saying being used on a t shirt that displays it in a collegiate way, again illustrating the idea of being "wicked smart".

I hope this helps you understand a little bit of a saying/phrase in Boston, Massachusetts!

http://egyptianquest.wix.com/arted322#!home/mainPage

For Grade 7

Jennifer,

Thanks for all the constructive criticism and suggestions. We are going to revisit our Web Quest and simplify what we can for your students. It says two pages of paper per student on the teacher page, but we will make sure to include this in the instructions also.

If you find that the course load is too heavy, many of the assignments can be cut in half or reduced. For example, the storybook project can be reduced to just two pages if some students are behind. Second, the reflection portion of the project can be cut down to 1 day and focus on 1 single questions. Lastly, as far as the tombstone/afterlife bag if they do not have time to decorate a bag, they can just bring in the items or photographs and explain in the discussion in a similar manner.

In addition, we are open to alterations on the projects and if you have any questions or comments about grading and how the project is coming along (time wise), then just shoot us an e-mail to keep us updated.

Leah's Email: LMarshallEllert@gmail.com

Ally's Email: AllisonAubry@gmail.com

Thanks and we look forwarding to hearing from you.

I think this web quest is off to a very great start even if they are having technical difficulties. They are creating a complex and fun project that I think the class will enjoy. The steps for how to use iMovie were very descriptive and helpful, and I feel very bad that they will not be able to use iMovie. Hopefully this group can figure out another way to explain the process, since they did a nice job of that. Something that would be helpful is maybe if they took screenshots of the process of using the designated movie maker. For example, someone who has never used a movie maker may have difficulty following words & text, but have an easier time following screen shot images that clearly demonstrate where the buttons and tools are at. This may also apply to use a camera/video camera because some students may not have been exposed to these prior (just something to keep in mind).

Also, I think some of the links the group is using direct students to go on YouTube. I think sometimes in schools YouTube can get blocked easily by the school privacy settings, so I would double check with that so you don't run into any difficulties.

I think this task will offer students a great way to interact with each other and work together to problem solve the process. I think that they will be so excited to show each other their stop motion because of how creative and fun the process is. They created a nice rubric at the end also so the evaluation and assessment is very clear. The theme of the website is consistent, easy to navigate and easy to read. They picked a difficult topic to display on the website and with all their problems I think they are doing a great job and I cannot wait to see the final product!

Group 6 Web Quest looks really great. At first I thought it would be really hard to teach a class on how to use Google Sketch Up virtually, but this group did an amazing job at explaining and giving resources. I even noticed that they used a video website called "School Tube" which I am assuming is a school safe version of YouTube. The layout, colors, and design are all very pleasing, easy to navigate, and I could find everything. I really want to be able to use this web quest for one of my classes in the future, it's so cool. I cannot wait to see the final product.

My only concern and comment is that your website says it is sponsored by someone but no where else on the web quest could I find more information on this person or what he does (unless it was included in the art history section). Also, are the students presenting this to each other? How are they interacting and talking with their peers? The rubrics and everything are clear and as a teacher there are a lot of resources on the Teacher Page, however I think there is a miscommunication in time and how long they should be spending on each task. I think a helpful way to solve this would be to include a time line with each part of the task (maybe address the amount of days to spend one each part).

I think this is appropriate for the grade level also. It is a mature project that I think they will have fun with because they get to include basic drawing skills and transform it online. Sketchup is such a cool Web 2.0 tool that I think the students will love. They are also exploring different countries and cities, and are told not to stick to cities of the United States. Overall, you can tell this was well though out.

egyptianquest.wix.com/arted322

leah & i are having trouble with our website, every time we click "publish" it comes up that we do not have a website and then it erased and did not save all of our work and claimed that we did not have an account...very confused

correct URL:

http://allyaubry1.tumblr.com/

my above was incorrect