PLN at KIS

What I’ve learned about myself as a
1) writer
2) thinker
3) producer
4) social being/ networker
5) problem solver

PLN – which stands for Personal Learning Network – seemed nothing more than a ‘C-block class’ to me when I first encountered such a differently shaped class. Frankly, I should say that I was a little bit ticked off at the fact that I had to deal with a ‘new’ thing, and I couldn’t be bothered; without knowing that such system will find out things about me that even I wasn’t aware of.

I am a freshman in high school this year, and I came from a Korean public school, where English was treated something like a dog-food. It was no wonder that I was afraid to write about my opinions, because I knew I’d have many flaws that I fail to detect. So, naturally, I developed this sense, so that I give a deep, depressing sigh when I am put to a writing moment. I thought this sensation would last for way longer than I expected, but soon, as a student going through the PLN program, I found out that writing is freaking fun, and that writing about what you really like is what makes it fun. Unlike other classes or occasions when I have to write, I was given an opportunity to actually become a writer, a real writer, for the 77 minutes that I had in C block, and during my own blogging time. As a writer, PLN was more than a mere class but a huge device that I desperately needed, which ended up discovering my potentials. Now that I have had my chance to find more about myself, I will be using this momentum to keep going further, until I become a ‘real-world-writer.’

A while ago, I wrote a post about ‘navigating’ my career through the PLN program, and as this piece of writing tells me, I have to admit that PLN had made me into a deeper thinker in general. What I mean by a deeper thinker is that I have become more mature in terms of thinking, and such change had made my writings look better compared to the ones in the past, and I have actually become a more efficient problem-solver. PLN was never an easy-A course, and it required the students to take full responsibility and maturity. Writings needed to be in a form that is appropriate to the audience out in the world, therefore I spent more time than any other writings, when I was typing for my blog.

Other than being a more creative thinker for the sake of writing, I can also say that I have become a more responsible problem-solver. Before, due to the fact that there were always people at the back in case of a problem, I didn’t care much of what I did. If I made a mistake, I could easily lean back, hoping for those supporters to push me back up. But, in the world of global and networked society, such method didn’t work out. So, PLN had introduced me to how things in the professional-world are done, and how I needed to grow up. As a result, I developed a sense, so that I prevented many mistakes from occurring, and even if it did, I was able to find the most efficient ways to come up with a solution.

PLN was also being a guideline of how I should produce quality work. Mistakes were fine, because that is the source of all the good experience and education, but such thing did not make laziness tolerable. Once, I was thinking and dragging too much with my project, and I was inflicted with a low grade which now, I think I deserved. That had taught me a valuable lesson that if the production rate is significantly low, no matter how high-quality my other works are, people would not be interested, and will abandon my idea easily. Laziness is never accepted in the pro-world. In the end, I grew up, and kept on producing whatever I needed to produce at an acceptable rate. After all, I wanted attention, and I needed to prove myself that I deserve such thing.

Lastly, as PLN – personal learning network – is self-explanatory in the sense of being a guideline, I was introduced to the whole new world of socializing and networking. Before I even knew PLN existed, I thought just talking and chatting to my friends was good enough to be considered ‘networking’. However, now that I saw how world-wide network was running, I was dazzled, and was excited to try so.

Unfortunately though, seeing from what I have done, I didn’t really succeed in becoming a good, world-wide networker. I had a habit where I was lazy to do stuffs that I didn’t usually do. So I did use Twitter - Mr.Burell’s probable favorite networking application – but I never used it as I used MSN and Skype with my friends. That is the conclusion, but is never the end of the story. Just like how I learn from my own mistakes, I did the same thing for this particular event, and I will, not may, develop as a young networker, and hope to be recognized, linked, and running.

Now that I finished writing about such a special program that I faced for one full semester, my head nods automatically in agreement that PLN was the course that had influenced me in the most ways. I thank Mr.Burell and myself for giving me a chance to experience this sheer brilliance, and I will never make all the times I spent here a waste, but will develop this into something that will shine in the future.
Photo credits to marttj

This revolutionary course that I took this semester, revolutionalized me as a person.

I certainly became a better writer that cares. Through my project, I had real audience. In order to succeed, I had to have a good writing that catches people. I’ve learned to make the title catching, and I’ve learned to make sure the audience wanted to read. To do that, I had to think about the sentence styles, order of what I write about, and maybe throwing some nice metaphors. I’m starting to care about what I write a lot. And one can observe my improvement in writing if one reads my own blog.

As a thinker, I’ve learned to think. After doing a project about something I’m interested in, I’ve learned to think in my own way, that things  I like can turn into something like this. After realizing this, I’ve learned to write about things that I like. And to me, writing is just like thinking. When I write about something I like, then I feel good. I’ve learned that ultimately, I would want to please the audience, but it all starts from pleasing myself with my own thoughts.

As a producer, I’ve learned that I’m a producer now.  I produce things. I’ve produced my website, I’ve produced the interviews, and I’ve produced the productivity. I never turned in anything. Everything I did in this class, was what I produced. I’ve learned that by producing, I can learn more.

As a networker, I’m not a big user of twitter. But using our connection, we’ve reached three big-time interviewees. One of the tools that helped us was facebook. There are many “non-educational’ ways to use facebook, but it still keeps people in touch. It’s easy to contact people, and it’s easy to expand my network by becoming friends with my friends’ friends. This method led us to interview three big basketball figures in Asia. Connection is important, because with one, you can have a million.

As a problem-solver, I’ve learned to consider everything possible. One of the problems we had in our project was the contact with Graham Bensinger. It was great that we got into cantact with him, but we just couldn’t arrange the time for our interview. We’ve exchanged tons of emails trying to figure out the time. When we finally did, about 6 hours before the time arranged to interview, the time difference between Korea and US changed because USA just entered the spring time. So we could never do our interview. The problem was the time difference. But I’ve failed to consider USA entering the spring time. After that, we fortunately got new interviews, so we never contacted Graham anymore. Mr. Burell did suggest some video chats that we could do regardless of the time difference, but interviews are live, and I wanted to do it live. For the next interviews, I made sure the time difference didn’t change. So maybe it’s not as a problem solver, but I’ve learned to learn from the mistakes.

Again, I thank Mr. Burell for this revolutionary class. It was the only real experience I had at school.

You will become a five year old child despite the fact that you are a grown up. You want this fun, I know. Then, come over to New Amsterdam Theater. You will be able to see real live animals on stage. Can you imagine them coming from the audience area at the beginning of the play? It will be up to you to bring some children you know and see the difference between a mere film and a live production. Come to watch The Lion King:

Commercial of The Lion King

The Circle of Life

Composed by Elton John of Aida, lyricized by Tim Rice of Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar, and directed by Julie Taymor, based loosely on Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, this production was created and named after Walt Disney Animation, The Lion King. How much more fun and realistic is this musical than the animation? Breathtaking views with various colorful backgrounds and grand of music and vocals come together in this production.

What is different about The Lion King from other musicals? It has animal characters. Moreover, it isn’t just focused on action, story, music, and actors and actresses, but gives a strong emphasis on making the amazing background setting of Africa with paper and wood material. The differences are that animated version is entirely differentiated by Julie Taymor and characters’ outfits are based on human looks; faces of lions and hyenas are mask. Body outfits of lions are based on attractive looks and personality. Those of hyenas are based on their monstrous looks and personality as well.

This production is so attractive. Do you want to feel the difference between the production from the video? Come over here to the New Amsterdam Theater and see the difference yourself!

Imagine that you are stuck in a dark and mysterious labyrinth and a ghost will never let you go until he really has to. You want to feel that desperate chill? Then, come over here to Majestic Theater on Monday and you will be able to feel the chill and face your deadly danger. I know that people love to feel scared through stories and this is one of those stories. Be ready to see two corpses and be ready to scream.

Commercial of The Phantom of the Opera

Angel of Music Second Part and The Phantom of the Opera

A team of visionaries created The Phantom of the Opera’s $40 million production; Maria Bjornson’s gothic set design, Harold Prince’s nicely and fantastically directed works, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s thorough and chilling musical masterpieces, Gillian Lynne’s powerful and energetic dance, Charles Hart’s sweetly written lyrics, and a team of actors and actresses made this production into a world famous musical.

Firstly, it is led by world famous soprano and popera singer Sarah Brightman as Christine Daae, followed by the famous baritone singer Michael Crawford as Phantom and Eric, and a tenor singer Steve Barton as Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny. The beginning is important to each new production and they succeeded in becoming well-known more than twenty years ago.

Musicals do not let the music step aside. Chills always wonder inside some of the music, especially in ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, ‘The Point of No Return’, and in some moments, the music that is played when the Phantom takes Christine to his deep and mysterious shelter is very creepy. However, it is nicely chilling to hear this song, particularly at the part where Christine’s voice rises to high C.

Not just chilling effect, but romance, entertainment, and gloom are important and emphasized and mentioned. ‘Think of Me’, ‘Angel of Music’, ‘The Music of the Night’, ‘Prima Donna’, ‘All I Ask of You’, and ‘Masquerade’ are the songs that make this musical special. Christine loves Raoul instead of mysterious, scary, and murderous Phantom as songs ‘Think of Me’, ‘All I Ask of You’, and ‘Masquerade’ will tell you. Christine prefers him over Phantom because she doesn’t know much about him except he’s a great teacher as ‘Angel of Music’ shows you.

This musical is a number one among the Great Four; The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Les Miserables, and Miss Saigon and many people all over the world want to see. Ninety percent of the world population is thirsty to watch this and they want their waiting to be over right now. This production has a power to be greatly more popular than other productions. So, please, come over here to Majestic Theater on Monday, at opening night.

If the people of the world take a look at the history of the Chosun Period, Japan very cruelly went fox hunting in Korea. The fox was the last queen of the Chosun Period. But why was the world so inattentive at this moment? It was because they wanted to share benefits with Japan. I want to tell my feelings about the story of the Korean musical named The Last Empress.

The commercial will be added soon…

Rise People of Chosun, The Last Empress

It starts in 1866 when Japan progressed to take benefits from Korea and China during what is now known as Japanese Imperialism. Koreans experienced horror; weak and powerless rulers had to fight against strong empirical powers. In spite of a smart royal family, they could not help the country. And so, Japan takes power and resources only for the Japanese. After a ninja assassinated the smart queen, Emperor Kojong despairs but had to be attentive about reparations. He sent out letters for foreign help, but was ignored completely.

Lee Mon Yeol, Kim Hee Gap, and Yang In Ja, and the actors described the situation well. Passion, patriotism, terror, misery, desire, and unawareness about the future are the top conceptual themes of all the songs. Overture about the misery of the last queen sounds destitute and warlike and it makes you sad. Also, power fights, rulers who married at the wrong age at the wrong time and grownup rulers happy at the imports of new western inventions constitute the themes of the other songs. After the Koreans lost the fight, the last song that desperately called to the Korean people to rise up and hungrily open a new age really relieved and inspired me.

Those who feel sympathetic about this story, I am sure that they will come and watch this if this production visits the city. Most of the songs are not familiar but the story is. I hope that the world people enjoys this and appreciates it. We still can spread the story around through international tours. This production opens in Broadway, London, LA, many regions in South Korea, and Toronto.

Although it makes you unhappy to hear a story of war, you must know about how your ancestors were murdered. Foreign powers committed murders unjustly and just did not care about the deaths they caused. But a certain couple had a different attitude about this. Who are they? The musical Miss Saigon will tell their story.

Miss Saigon Commercial

Sun and Moon, Miss Saigon

If I tell the production history briefly, Claude Michel Schonberg, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Alain Boubil composed, produced, and lyricized this musical and it became one of the Four Great Musicals of all time. Also, the famous Lea Salong took the leading role of Kim in the first 1990 production.

The story runs this way. A main character wanders in a crossroad in her life, whether to stay in communist Vietnam with her evil fiancé or move to a liberal democracy where she can live happily ever after with her other love. It is between the Vietcong or the American. Both men fight for her and the former dies. After that, the City of Saigon began to split, so the remaining GIs had to go back home and they cannot take all of Vietnamese with them including Kim, the main character. Kim waits for her love with her son, Tam. But shockingly, her American lover married another woman when he returned to the US without Kim. Kim had no choice but to commit suicide for Tam.

Vietnamese folk melodies make up the overture, finale, “Sun and Moon”, and “Dju Vay Vai” and western styles make up the rest of songs because the orchestra has both Western and Vietnamese folk instruments. How amazing it is that both can be magically synthesized and create great music with various themes! The various themes and expressions are based on the moods of curiosity, gloom, joy, love, evil, shock, desperation, and obsession.

Is this making you want to watch this production one day? It will be good to know the history of the Vietnam War and feel the pain of a nation and two star-crossed lovers.

Walt Disney Animation first presented it in 1991 and Broadway and West End then released it as musical productions. Scientifically, in the next one hundred years, nothing will be impossible in the world. Animals cannot love humans now but it will become possible. In the production of The Beauty and Beast, it tells the key to this.

The Beauty and Beast Commercial

The Part of the Beauty and Beast in Italian

Alan Menken composed and Howard Ashman and Tim Rice lyricized it based on the video animation and the book by Linda Woolverton. Terrence Mann and Brad Little starred as Beast, Susan Egan and Toni Braxton as Belle, and Burke Moses as Gaston. Just like The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the amazing clarity of the skill of the Walt Disney artists reveals itself in every single performance, video animation, poster, and music. The imagination turns magically into reality like a dream come true.

The story is the same and I do not need to retell it to the reader because it is well-known, but one difference is the rose that in the bell jar. A human takes the role of the rose in a glass exhibition wall and speaks to Belle. I think that the producer had the idea of personification. Humans can easily spread philosophy and thoughts, much better than a rose. Another difference is that the furniture and kitchen stuff do not move their mouths at all, opposite from the case of the rose. Third, a fog machine helps the transfiguration from a prince into a beast. The prince turned and turned and hid through the underground of the gate of his castle and popped out of the fog as a beast.

Since this production has similarities to The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Little Mermaid, kids under five will love this musical. First opened in Palace Theater in 1994, it recorded up to 5464 performances between 1994 and 2007. How lovely that it became popular. Please, come over to the theater to watch the performance with great enjoyment and pleasure!

My 2nd finalization of Broadway Collection!

Outline:
1.    Introduction
a.    The plan in the body
b.    Granting
2.    Body
a.    Explanation of my problems.
b.    I look for these on my writings like solutions and how can I explain each production more realistic, please!
c.    What can I improve on each writing.
d.    Do I have to correct several times on this essay, too?
3.    Conclusion
a.    To keep it stuck inside myself for as if like a teacher.
b.    Acceptance of the methods to myself.

So far, I have written sixteen articles about sixteen musical productions I watched in my life and I made many grammatical errors and writing mistakes. Let me explain about my problems and solutions and about the improvements and explanations on each article.
Mr. Burell had advised me and pointed out my five problems several times; that my articles have too many words and that it contains unnecessary sentences and paragraphs. No problems existed in writing and planning but in grammar. Too long headlines, rhetorical questions, too long paragraphs, not italicized production titles, and unnecessary sentences made up the problems. The headlines of 1st or 2nd editions were too long and I had to shorten them to less than ten. Many unnecessary and rhetorical questions had to be deleted. Readers do not like reading if the paragraphs are too long and they will get bored and quit in the middle. They have to be interesting to make the readers go to theaters. So, I deducted some sentences and words. Italicization is an emphasis to make the readers get interested on the topic. I emphasized all of the pronouns and production titles in my articles.
I look for the most descriptive realisms on each article. Even with my best effort, some things are still missing. Like the basic storylines of each production, they emphasize many important realistic points of the characters, historical background, and moods through songs and lyrics. My articles have to be realistic and descriptive. There has to be a variety of methods for this and this includes the description and explanation of details of setting and professional movements of actors and actresses. So, this was why five percent was missing. Second, concerns the melody and combined cultures of modern, ancient, and some folk and traditional musical instruments of other countries. Third, I have to mention what parts interested me after watching. And the last, I have to mention what scenes were visually artistic.
Practicing concentration and caution needs to be improved according to the five problems. I believe that by being concentrated I can avoid the marks of pencil or pen of grammar errors. Second, I have to think whether I am writing the similar sentences I mentioned before. If I do, then, I have to cancel it. Third, I have to deduct some little topics that are not perfectly and closely related to my original topic. Fourth, some types of writings have dead ends and limitations. My articles are different and free and all of my final articles are limited to under four hundreds words. And the last, I have to single the spaces between paragraphs.
Yes, I have to make changes because writers traditionally and habitually do so despite the fact that some of them decided not to do so. Mr. Burell advised again that good writers edit several times until the story sounds perfect. This is a key answer to my question why there are several editions of textbooks. For better-edited grammar, then the students might focus themselves on its perfection.
Now, all of the methods and some of the improvements are stocked in my brain as my personal writing teacher. To keep it stocked and accepted to myself, I have to repeat that as I write something because they are helpful, especially at short ones. So, I do not need to get any more problems pointed out by instructors in the future.

Now, presenting the famous Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet produced in French called Romeo et Juliette. This one, of course, has modernization but with little differences from the book. Let’s go see the difference below.

Gerard Presguvic composed it and Joy Esther starred as Juliet Capulet, Damien Sargue as Romeo Montague, Cyril Niccolai as Benvolio, William St-Val as Tybalt, John Eyzen as Mercutio, Stephanie Rodrigue as Lady Capulet, and Arie, Brigitte Venditti as Lady Montague.

This time, I will mention the differences, especially about the modernization of music and costume. They both are modernized as much as Notre Dame de Paris. Since the themes are hatred, love, friendship, and protection, the music and lyrics are pretty much leaned toward these ideas. Slowness for love, darkness for hate, brightness for friendship, and warmth for protection express feeling in the production. Two extreme colors compose the color scheme for the costumes; dark red for Capulet and dark blue for Montague. I see that the textures that are used for them are clean and nice fabrics. I believe that the strong darkness of each color symbolizes some kind of human’s spiritual power. One thing of interest at the party on the land was the unison of color of both sides, which was strong white. Both sides dressed up into white. Perhaps it meant to tell the audience about the future unification of the two households as both Romeo and Juliet die in a chapel together. I hope so, then, if I am right.

I know why there are some differences between stage and videotapes. It is because they have their own stylish patterns and methods. Such is the case with Notre Dame de Paris and Romeo et Juliette and other musicals from Broadway, West End, and national and international productions that are converted from movies into the stage. Now it’s time to enjoy the upcoming performance in the concert hall.