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Post by Mezzaphor on Feb 16, 2008 3:35:29 GMT
Dork457 made the comic where Mort was going stabbity on the turkey that wasn't Alistair, but it could have been Alistair.
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Post by Count Casimir on Feb 17, 2008 3:36:30 GMT
Nah, todd, his was the one with Mort butchering a turkey.
EDIT: Ninja'd!
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Post by todd on Feb 17, 2008 11:26:32 GMT
Thanks. It's been months since I read the guest comics, and so I couldn't remember who had drawn what.
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Post by Midnight Meadows on Feb 18, 2008 0:47:21 GMT
*manly tears*
Gunnerkrigg 2nd Graders......awesome....
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Post by moonlitshadow on Feb 24, 2008 20:29:19 GMT
This whole thing is so sweet. It's amazing how intelligent kids are, and how we seem to forgot that. Thank you for sharing this with us, I hope to see more about this class!
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optern
Junior Member
Posts: 84
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Post by optern on Feb 24, 2008 23:42:18 GMT
Aww, this is so adorable! What a wonderful thing for them to do!
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Post by monkeybucks on Mar 14, 2008 22:16:01 GMT
I definitely agree - best thread! (Well, this and questions to Tom). It's so cute ^^ And insightful! o.o
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Tojo
New Member
Posts: 45
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Post by Tojo on Mar 28, 2008 3:06:29 GMT
This is so cool! I'm surprised 2nd graders can follow this. This is just so cute!
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Post by sunniva on Apr 24, 2008 22:14:53 GMT
Aaaaawww!! This is so great, it just made my day kudos to teach for creative methods! And my admiration for those kids, they seem to have an impressive grasp of such a very foreign language at such an early age. Just out of curiousity, do you find this approach effective as a genuine supplement to regular teaching, or is it "simply" a way to let the kids have some fun with their subject? Also (this might sound a bit primitive), it's stuff like this that really makes me appreciate what the web is doing for us. I mean, they're in Thailand! Mr Siddell's in the UK! It just blows my mind away every time I think of it! And ofcourse, as always, kudos to mr Siddell for making something so original and yet so versatile, I don't know how else to say it
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Post by silvercat on May 27, 2008 11:00:18 GMT
hey I wondered if there's any update on this? Have the children finished their plot outlines? Did they illustrate them with fan art? Are there any other wonderful observations they've made recently?
Can we please share? *irresistible bambi-eyes*
(ps: I hope there's no other thread where all my questions are answered and I just didn't see it ;-) )
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Post by pudgimelon on Aug 26, 2008 5:15:45 GMT
Wow Tom, I just finished reading that Wizards article and I wanted to thank you for mentioning my kids. I'll pass along your comments and I'm sure they'll be thrilled to learn that you enjoyed their Valentine letters so much. They really love your comic. To them, Gunnerkrigg is EXACTLY the way school should be and Annie and Kat are EXACTLY the kind of friends they'd love to have.
So thanks again for your wonderful comic and the kind words about my students!
And to reply to the comments in this thread: I had to take some time off from work for personal/health reasons last semester, so I didn't get to finish reading the comic with that group of kids, but I know from talking with them that many of them continued reading it on their own.
I'll be back teaching at a school next year, so I'll hook a new group of kids on the comic, but in the mean time, I also own an afterschool/weekend learning center and many of the kids there use my computer lab to read the comic in their free time, so I'll ask some of them to do a project based on the comic (perhaps some fan fiction or a puppet show or an animated movie). I'll leave it up to the kids to decide what they want to do.
As for whether or not the comic can be used as a genuine supplement for learning or just a fun-time activity, I guess it really depends on how it is approached. For example, in my second grade class, we read the comic during homeroom, so it was just a fun way to start the day (in the same way that my teachers would let us watch clips from "The Electric Company" during my homeroom when I was a kid. (Morgan Freeman's singing is a hoot, btw)).
Some of the themes and vocabulary are a bit advanced for 2nd graders, but I would often replace or define difficult words or just simply ask the kids: "What do you think is happening here?" and see what they come up with. It's a great way to assess comprehension and gives them a chance to practice conversation skills while discussing the comic.
But really, almost anything could be used like this, including movies or TV shows. The reason I like Gunnerkrigg, as opposed to Sam and Fuzzy or Dr. McNinja, is that the protagonist is a student (which helps pull the kids into the story) and most of the themes are not too "adult-oriented", so it's acceptable for classroom use. The whole wierd-vibe-triangle theme between Annie, Eglamore and Reynardine isn't even picked up by 2nd graders, so to them Reynardine is just the coolest 'pet' ever and Eglamore is just scary/cool in the way only gym-teachers can manage. So I guess it really depends on your audience. For example, if I was dealing with teenagers, I might recommend Megatokyo because it more "teen-oriented" with themes about video games and dating.
I actually tried introducing the kids at my center to the Abominable Charles Christopher, because I personally think it's one of the beautiful comics on the web right now and I find it quite funny, but the kids were actually bored stiff by it. That's not the comic's fault, ACC is totally brilliant, but it doesn't have a relatable protagonist (for Thai kids, at least. they just don't "get" big dumb yetis) and the artwork and some of the jokes are a bit esoteric.
So while there are many fine, high-quality comics on the web, I think there are only a very few that could be used in a classroom, especially with a younger audience. Gunnerkrigg Court is almost perfect, imho, for my needs in the classroom.
It can be read "just for fun", or it can be used as a genuine learning supplement. There are lots of learning opportunities that can be mined from the comic, its characters, and the setting. Thai culture, for example, really loves ghost stories and the supernatural, so the kids get a big kick out of Mort and the White Lady really scares the crap out of them. I can ask the kids to write their own ghost story or perform a play featuring Mort's misadventures and that's a perfectly legitimate learning opportunity. I can even ask the older kids to find out more about the legends and spirits that populate Annie's world, including Muut, Reynardine, Coyote and the black dog. A report written about French or Native American mythology compared to Thai mythology would help the kids see similarities and differences between the cultures (Thais are terrified of geckos, for example, so they might be interested to know what other people in other cultures think is "scary").
Anyway, if I ever do come up with a "Gunnerkrigg Court Lesson Plan", I promise to post it here for other teachers to use. Also, I promise to let you guys know when my kids produce any more GC related stuff. I think I'll try prodding them into doing a GC puppet show, that'd be really neat, and I can post the video on Youtube.
I'll keep you guys posted on how the next group of kids takes to Gunnerkrigg and thanks again to Tom for creating such a wonderful world for my kids to explore!
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Post by popo on Aug 26, 2008 7:00:40 GMT
pudge I'm in love with you
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Post by Tom Siddell on Aug 26, 2008 12:10:31 GMT
Thank you for letting us know, Pudgimelon. I look forward to anything you have in the future.
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