Change+Your+Life+Challenge

   //I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, // //and see if I could not learn what it had to teach,// //and not, when I came to die,// //discover that I had not lived.// //--Thoreau, Walden//

=** The “Change Your Life” Challenge **=

The Transcendentalists, above all, were concerned with living good and thoughtful lives. They were brave enough to go against the grain of common wisdom; they were creative enough to determine new ways of looking at familiar concepts. Emerson stated the importance of progress by denouncing consistency in //Self Reliance.// He claimed, “with consistency, a great mind simply has nothing to do,” insinuating that in order to be great, one must always be pursuing change. Thoreau took an even more radical way of testing these ideas, by renouncing his possessions and old way of life and going to Walden Pond. In Mary Oliver’s poem, “Going to Walden,” she discusses the importance and challenge of “finding Walden where we are.” And that is just what we are going to do.
 * Assignment Context:**

Your task is going to be to design a life-changing experiment, carry it out, and then reflect on the experience. The range of your experiments will all differ, since you are all unique individuals. Some of you may choose to spend an hour a day trying to break out of your normal routine, while others may go to the woods for a few hours, alone, and sit listening to the wind in the trees. It all depends on who you are, and what piece of yourself you’d like to change for a while. Some experiments might even be mostly internal--something like trying to create a change in the way you experience the world.
 * Task:**

As a result of your experiment, you will create the following products:
 * Products:**
 * 1) A one-page, single spaced script about the experience (due Tuesday, April 1, 2008)
 * 2) Photos that match the events, tone and mood of your experiment. (The photos can be your own, ones from the [|Creative Commons side of Flickr.com], or a combination of the two. Have about 40-50 to start. Digital is best. Otherwise we have to scan them.) Here are two more links you can follow to find free, legal photos: [|www.morguefiles.com] or [|www.freephotosbank.com].
 * 3) A digital story version of the experiment. This will be completed in class the week after we return to school from Spring Break. There are lots and lots of computer programs that you can use to complete this project. Photostory 3 is great, as well as Moviemaker for PC's. There is Garageband for Macs. I will show you how to put this together using Power Point and an iPod.

You must consider each of the following items when completing the project. Each item will correspond to a paragraph in your script. In this section, you will openly and honestly discuss the aspect of your life or personality that you would like to change, and why.
 * 1. Identifying the Need for Change:**

** 2. Transcendental Inspiration for Change: ** In this section, you need to discuss a specific principle of Transcendentalism that has served as your inspiration for the experiment. You should include quotations from the readings that help explain how the text has motivated you to make this change. Was it Emerson’s //Self Reliance? Nature?// Was it Mary Oliver? Thoreau? Or a combination? You must avoid the trap of oversimplifying Transcendental ideas. If you feel lost, you can also refer to any or all of the readings in the Transcendentalism packet. Here are some links to some solid Transcendentalism websites:

[|www.transcendentalists.com] [|VCU's Transcendentalism Website]

** 3. Experimental Design and Rationale: ** In this section, you will describe what you will actually //do// in the experiment. Will you go to the woods and write in a journal? Will you try to stop thinking and just //be//? Will you stop using your cell phone? In this section you will also include specifics: duration of the experiment, the rules of your experiment, and how you will measure your success.

** 4. Reflection in the Pond…aka, What did you learn? ** In this section, you will discuss your experience. You will describe your feelings during the experiment, as well as what you learned from it. You may also discuss how successful you were and why—was making the change difficult? Easy? Were you an utter failure? Why? (NOTE: You do not have to be successful to get a good grade—just be thoughtful about what happened and why.)

Links to Sample Digital Storytelling Projects:
The topic of each sample story is not the same, but the product is similar to what we will create once you have completed your experiments.

[|Mixed Race Me by Yunnie Tsao Snyder]

Due Dates, Points and Other Requirements:
Scripts are due on April 1, 2008. You will need a strong, polished draft of your script on this day.

This project is worth 100 points. You will be graded on the quality of your experiment, your adherence to the guidelines (make sure you have included all the parts of the assignment), the quality of the speech delivery (pacing, volume and tone of voice, poise, clothing choice, visual aids) and the marriage between text and images.

By Monday, you will need to turn the following things in to my teacher folder:
TO TIME THE POWER POINT AUTOMATICALLY WITH THE AUDIO: GO TO THE "SLIDE SHOW" DROP DOWN MENU. THEN CLICK ON REHEARSE TIMINGS. THEN, AS YOUR POWER POINT PLAYS, PRESS THE FORWARD ARROW WHEN YOU WANT THE SLIDES TO ADVANCE. AFTER THE SHOW, YOU CAN CHOOSE TO SAVE THOSE TIMINGS. THEY WILL PLAY THAT WAY WHEN YOU PLAY YOUR SLIDESHOW!
 * 1) Your Power Point presentation
 * 2) Your audio file
 * 3) A copy of your script (this will be a Word document)

Inserting Audio into Power Point Directions:



**Completed Projects

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