Thursday, February 28, 2008

Thursday, February 28

Discussion of versions of War of the Worlds -- the book, the broadcast, the movies. Modern "personalist" ideology and H.G. Wells.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Wednesday, February 27

From a documentary film about Orson Welles we watched ten minutes concerning the 1936 "War of the Worlds" broadcast, after which we finished listening to that broadcast.


Tuesday, February 26

Students took a brief quiz over the final chapters of The Time Machine.
After that we listened to the beginning of the famous 1936 broadcast of the Mercury Theater's adaptation of War of the Worlds.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Monday, February 25

Discussion of The Time Machine ands its ideology. Was H.G. Wells a Marxist?

QuizTuesday over the entire book, after which we will listen to the famous 1936 Mercury Theater of the Air broadcast of Orson Welles's adaptation of War of the Worlds.
Monday, February 25

Discussion of The Time Machine and the ideology behind it. Was Wells a Marxist?

Quiz Tuesday over the entire book.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Friday, February 15

We watched a bit more of Metropolis (the ending) and discussed the film, comparing it with The Time Machine. Mr. Potratz supplied some political/historical background.



Thursday, February 14

Mr. Potratz was absent. The class watched the beginning of Fritz Lang's silent sci-fi classic film, Metropolis (1926).

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Wednesday, February 13

Students took a quiz over Chapters 1-8 of The Time Machine, and we graded it.

We discussed the historical and ideological background of the book.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Tuesday, February 12



We began reading The Time Machine, and we had an evacuation drill.



Quiz Wednesday to begin the period.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Monday, February 11

We discussed "the God concept" in 2001, examining the "Creation of Adam" imagery in the film and reading and discussing a handout of comments on the film's meaning by Kubrick himself.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Friday, February 8

Everybody Reads (postponed from Thursday).

Distribution of The Time Machine.

HW due Monday:
Read Chapters 1-4 (pp. 3-34) of The Time Machine.
Quiz over the reading on Monday.
Thursday, February 7

Huh?

Students worked in small groups to try to untangle the meaning of 2001, especially the final section. We then heard reports from the small groups in the full class, and discussed them.

After that, we used the Everybody Reads period to watch "To Jupiter and Beyond" again and postponed Everybody Reads until Friday.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Thursday, February 7

Huh?

Students worked in small groups to try to untangle the meaning of 2001, especially the final section. We then heard reports from the small groups in the full class, and discussed them.
After that, we used the Everybody Reads period to watch "To Jupiter and Beyond" again and postponed Everybody Reads until Friday.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Wednesday, February 6

We discussed possible parallels with Homer's Odyssey in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and then watched the conclusion of the film.

The school's dramatization of The Odyssey opens tonight and continues through Saturday. Extra credit available for attending.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Tuesday, February 5

We watched more of 2001: A Space Odyssey, up to the final section of the film.

Mr. Potratz announced that students could earn a full 20 points extra credit simply by attending a performance of The Odyssey this week in the auditorium and bringing him their ticket stubs.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Monday, February 4

Snow-shortened period.
We watched another 23 minutes of 2001.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Friday, February 1

We watched twenty-five minutes more of 2001, A Space Odyssey.

Blog Archive