Blogs, books, steampunk and seatbelts...

I came across this blog by UK English teacher Jeffrey Hill.
He shares some lesson plan ideas which include video / youtube clips as starters for discussion or activities... http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/lesson_plans/

I enjoyed this link to the OK Go music video featuring a Rube Goldberg / Heath Robinson contraption http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/2010/03/music-video-ok-gothis-too-shall-pass.html and the interesting background article from the Sunday Times (March 2010) about it : How a group of geeky scientists created the world's coolest pop video by John Harlow http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7069950.ece

In the Times article John Harlow mentions Steampunk, and by chance the latest edition of Magpies (May 2010) has an article The (not so new) Steampunk Revolution by James Roy, which is a good introduction to the genre. It refers to Michael Pryor, an Australian steampunk author - and here is a link to a blog post by him on "the joy of steampunk" http://randomhouseaustralia.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/the-joy-of-steampunk/

This is an interesting blog - Literary Clutter "Bookish bloggings from the cluttered mind and bookshelf of Melbourne author, George Ivanoff. His current teen novel is the computer-game inspired Gamers' Quest."
See the labels for some recent posts about steampunk and interviews with some key Australian authors in the genre...

There is a whole weird and wonderful world of steampunk to explore out there, and here are author Richard Harland's tips for aspiring steampunk writers : http://www.richardharland.net/worldshaker/WS.steampunk/steampunkwritingtips.htm

Another item from Jeffrey Hill's English blog before I go - this powerful ad http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/2010/01/video-embrace-life-seatbelt-ad.html and his LESSON IDEAS : "There are several ways you could use this ad. For example, stop it half way through and get students to speculate what the ad is for. You could then discuss how effective the ad is. As a follow up, get students to design a poster for the campaign or record a voiceover for the ad."

Oh, and by the way, do you subscribe to Magpies ?