Course Reflection

I  remember first day when you told us that the most important thing for me is learning you. I want you learn. I thought oh man, it's not new, all of teachers say this, then they ask us to memorize many things. I confess it was the first time in my whole life that I enjoyed when I was doing my homework. Sometimes I had stress because of my school memories in Iran, but I can say I learned a lot of cool things. This photo that I attached it here is the nearest idea in my mind about your class. Before you ask us to make a blog, I did not hear about it, but now I can add anything in any times on my blog by the tools you asked us to work with them. In this Blog I put movie trailer, photos, my presentation slides, and so on. I think this blog can clearly shows the proccess of the things we learned. I want say "THANK YOU" Ms. Gitte for everything you though us during this semester, and sorry if I sent you too messages sometimes.😊😅😄 I hope to have another class in the future. 😊

Summary of one new text

Beyond the Music: What Jazz Teaches Us
July 8, 2014- Darla S. Hanley

Jazz music gives us a lot of things beyond the sounds. Jazz is more than music. Teachers of Jazz, try to cultivate the best musical practice on their student and student of Jazz, try hard to gain from past and the present experience to elevate music to a new level. In studying and performing, Jazz musicians develope focus habits of playing, discipline, and to communicate through professional vocabulary teamwork and to listen to constructive feedback.

New Visual Project (Education Rocks!)

A Cool Pop Culture App

1. Celebrity Guess

                 

2. Google Art & Culture

3 UNIQUE Pop Culture Websites

1. https://www.penny-arcade.com   

2. https://www.allmusic.com

3. http://www.darkhorizons.com

Summary of Blues

Blues is a kind of genre which has taken from African Americans who came from Africa. Indeed, the root of Blues genre is traditional African music. The typical instruments this is used in Blues genre are: Piano, Bass, Guitar, drums, and so on.

Pop Culture in My Country, Iran

Pinterest & Explanation

1. A song from my parents generation. Marziyeh/ Migozaram Tanha

2. A song that is from a genre that is new to me. Mr. Fingers/ Can you feel it

3. A song that shows my generation's value. Moeen/ Halgheh Talaee

4. A song from a different culture. Edith Piaf/ Non, je ne regret rien

5. A song whose lyrics I can explain. Adele/ Someone like you

6. My all-time favorite song: Mozart/ Opera Magic Flute

Reflection Unit 4 (Music)

Reflection Unit 4, Music

This unit was the last unit of this course in this semester that I enjoyed it like the other units. Like the other units I learned a lot about this season such as the variation genres and the roots of some genres such as Blues and rock and roll. My Aha momentin this unit was when I learned about the variation of genres of music. I could not believe that music has a lot of genres such as EDM, Meme, and house. It was the first time that I heard about this genre and I do not why I did not know about them. In presentation day, when my classmate presented about their genre and played a song about it. I figured out I did not research enough about music. I did not knowabout the root of rock and roll until I presented about it. When I was researching about it, I learned how it is important the music of African Americans and how much their music has affected the other genres of music in America. The articles I read about music helped to earn a view about the popular music during 50 years in America and knowing about the root of music especially the Blues article. My bumper sticker is:For knowing music you need to learn about its roots.In my opinion, knowing the root of music can help us to earn an understanding about music. 

Special Event (House of Blues)

Alba and I decided to go to the House of the Blues. First we thought Blues genre is boring but it was not. We really enjoy it. We danced with song and ate delicious foods. When I came out from there I had a good feeling and I think I like try it again. Now I am fan of Blues genre. 

This video is the start of the plan:

These are our photos:

A Song That Touch Me Emotionally

There are a lot of songs that touch me emotionally. One of these songs is “Hotel California” from Eagles. This song reminds me the great days when I was in high school. one of my friends gave me the CD of this song and when I listened to it, I fell in love with it especially when I read the lyrics and found the words hardly because I had never heard such a song like this. Indeed, the song start with a romantic words and space and at the end finish with a scary space! This song touched me emotionally so much because my friends and I used to sing it most the time when we were together. I love those days that I had great friends, I had great times with my friends, my lovely nephew was kid and so cute, all of my family members were in one city, I was hopeful to future, and I had no stress about future. Also, when I listen to this song now, I miss my dear friends a lot. The interesting point is they have a same feeling with me about this song. My friends and I stayed good friends for years, but now every one of us are in a different part of the world and we could not see each other for 3-4 years. I like once again we gather and have fun. 

Reflection Unit lll (Movie)

Reflection Unit lll (Movie)

This unit was my favorite unit, but unfortunately it went fast. I really liked to have more fun with movies. Just like the two previous lessons, I learned new things about movie. My Aha moment was in that session that you showed us the first animation and horror movies. I really like that session. Indeed, I am interested in movie, but I did not know about the first movie or animation and how they were built, specially about horror movie that a train was moving and the people of salon escaped. My Bumper Sticker is “Explore the world of motion picture”because I really could explore some part of the cinema world that it was so excited. In my opinion, each person is interested in movie and cinema should explore and know about the different genre, first movie, big company production, or how first movies made and by who. If I claime that I am a movie lover, but I do not know about these things it means I am a superficial watcher. In this unit I learned about different genres, in fact some names of genres were new to me such as Chick Flicks, Road Films, or concert films. The other interesting experience about this unit was making a movie poster or trailer. Although I was confused how should I make it, the good points about this project was I used a new tool and I learned how to use it. Unfortunately, I could not attend to class in presentation genre movie, but when I was making my slide about “Chick Flicks” I knew I do not like this genre. Also, I read about the other genre and saw the others slides and learned about the content of movie and that a movie can be in more than one genre. I did not know about different genre, I just knew comedy, horror, and drama genre, but when I wanted to explain what they are, I could not. Now I know the content of each genre and I can explain it to the others. Also, I can know my favorite genre and choose the correct genre in Netflix when I am watching movie or series.

Bumper Sticker: Explore the world of motion picture!

Movie Trailer Notes

Movie Trailer Notes

Dan, a student has everything a college student could possibly want- the looks, fame, great friends, attention from every girl and talent in his gymnastics, his passion. Yet, he’s unhappy, deeply troubled and has trouble sleeping at night.  One night, he meets a guide and from there his journey of self-discovery begins… Also, Dan experiences some weird events such as somebody shoot him, but he does not hurt. He is afraid of being weird, he thinks he is different, and he is worried if his girlfriend figures out. The guide tells him that you are special not strange, and you have some magic abilities that can use it in a good way, but the main reason you cannot sleep well or you do not have a good feeling about yourself is that when you were a kid a witch cursed you, so the only way you can get rid of it is improve your magic abilities and fight with the witch. Dan decides to tell his girlfriend about his magic abilities and his plan to fight against the witch. At the end Dan with the help of guide and his girlfriend can fight against the witch and defeat her.

The Movie Trailer (Dan & His Amazing Power)

Genre Movie (Chick Flicks)

Team Project

My Reflection about Unit II (Pop culture)

        By reading the texts you gave us, I learned that all people have culture, some have high and some have low. Also, I learned about fads and trends and the differences between them, now I know trend is for long time and fad is for short time. By researching among websites and You Tube videos and TED talks, I learned about pop culture and how important it is. For instance, I learned from one of the TED talks videos that pop culture may change the future of children, how? The speaker mentioned that when she was child, she was a nerd and shy, her parents had put the name of a woman hero on her and bought her some comics books about this hero, she said this caused her feel well about herself and thought she is a hero. In bell hook video I learned that learning heavy sociology and political concepts can be easier through pop cultures such as movie, TV shows, and so on. By the fad presentation, I knew the old and recent fads, and I found out the differences between fad and trend. For-example, Converse shoes are trend, but Walkman was a fad because nobody uses Walkman these days, but there are a lot of people who use Converse shoes and it still are fashionable. My AHA moment was that I used to think that some people have no culture, and I believed that culture belonged to the elite and educated people, but I understood that this is not true, and everybody has culture. Also, before Unit II, I considered Pop culture with low esteem and I thought I am avoiding it, but it was wrong! I figured out that I used Pop culture whole my life, and everybody uses Pop culture during their life. In this case, the “What is Pop culture” sheet surprised me a lot! MYBumper Sticker is “If you want to know people, look at their favorite pop cultures!”, and it means that the pop cultures one is interested indicate their personality and taste. For example,if someone likes comics books, we can know his/her taste, or if someone likes American Wrestling, it shows their personality and taste.I did not know that Pop culture can change with time and becomes high culture or high culture becomes pop culture and it indicates relativism of Pop culture, which is interesting. I learned it from the paper sheet of “What is Pop culture?”, so all these sources helped me to form the concept of Pop culture.

Bumper Sticker: If you want to know people, look at their favorite Pop cultures!

1950s Fads

Information about My Star, Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is an actress, talk show hostess, and TV producer. She was born in January 29, 1954 in Mississippi. She lived with her maternal grandmother until 6, then she went to Milwaukee to live with her mother. Her mother was a housemaid and her father worked in Army. She was sexually abused by her uncle, cousin, and a friend family when she was 9. She beacame pregnant when she was 14 and her was born dead, this event affected her and after this she decided to change her life. at 16 years old, her mother sent her to Tennessee to live with her father. Her father forced her to read a book each week and write something about it. At this age she was working for a radio station to read the news. At 19 she started working in Baltimore TV as a reporter, but she fired at 22 years old. The direction of TV gave her a chance and ask her to work in a talk show, and she did it successfuly for 7 years, then she moved to Chicago and worked in a talk show, and after 4 years changed the name of the talk show to "Oprah". She also has worked in a movie called "The Color Purple", and nominated for Oscar. She have many achivements such as Emmy and Golden Glob awards and the Presidential Freedom Medal. Also, she is a richest self-made woman in America. She has supported many charities such as Unicef, Women for Women International, V-Day and so on.

Star Presentation (Oprah Winfrey)

My Reflection about Culture

I have learned culture is very complex and has many aspects such as, literature, music, art, food, pop culture, language, and so on. For adapting to a new culture, we need to become familiar with these aspects because all these cultural aspects reflect external part of character of a nation. All of us need to understand each other to living peace, for this reason we need to know each other culture. Talking with my classmates from the other nations was so helpful to me to learn about various aspects of other culture, also watching videos from You Tube helped me a lot because I understood how many people are in the world with cultural variation and we have a lot in common with other people in the world. I really liked the poster session when I saw a variation of food, clothe, music and so on. My Aha moment wasthe time I was reading and watching video from You Tube about culture shock. I could not believe that all the bad feelings I had experienced since I came to America, were common between many people from the other nations. Especially when you were talking in class about when you are using bus every day in a specific way like home to college and college to home and you are becoming familiar with some things you are in an adjusting period and I really feel it. I understood that I am in adjusting level and am happy that I passed anxiety level. I did not know that for adapting to a new culture we need tobecome familiar with the aspects of their culture. I did not know why you ask us to watch Super Bowl or going to a concert but now I figured out all of these are necessary to adapt to a new culture and the more I become involved with various parts an American culture, I can culturally adapt and better relate to Americans.

Bumper Sticker: Know your culture, Know yourself!

Explanation of My Cultural Identity Poster

Explanation:

In this Cultural Identity poster, I intend to talk about music, handicrafts, architecture, food and dancing. In music part, I put a classical Persian music video from You tube and some folk music audio. In handicrafts part, I put some Persian handicrafts pictures. In architecture part you will observe some pictures of old building and modern-day building. In part of food, you will see pictures of some kind of Persian food from the different cities of Iran. At the end you will observe dancing part that I put some videos of dancing from different cities of Iran.

Cultural Identity Poster

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