Twilight Guys at JFK....someone should tell Kaleb!!!!

A very funny thing happened at good old JFK last week....and it was all suppose to be kept a secret. While waiting for second load buses to arrive, a student of mine, Nick, asked if he could talk to me. The expression on his face had me worried, he looked....scared. Was he having a hard time in another class? Was something going on at home? Who knew? The he whispered so no one would here: "Ms. Truitt, can I borrow that book everyone is reading? But I don't want anyone to know." I laughed but struck a deal that I would go buy a few extra copies and lend him one (the money alone I have spent on purchasing copies of Twilight for my school is depressing... at least to someone who is in the process of buying her first house). The next morning it happened again, another male student, Devin, asked if he could borrow my Twilight book, but only if I promised eternal silence...."on pain of death," I replied. These two boys were not only in the same class but sat at the same table. On the way to lunch, I made a comment to both of them: "You know what is funny, you both asked me the same question about a certain item." They first looked petrified then broke out laughing, relief evident in their voices, they weren't the only ones anymore. Later in the week, one of my drama club students, Brandon, asked me if he could borrow the book.....it is spreading my friends!! Of course, Brandon is not as shy as the other two about it. I finally got them to pose for a picture for the site, but decided to play a little trick on them. I told them I was fixing my camera but was really recording them as I asked them why they were so embarrassed about people knowing they are reading the book.  As you can see, they are quite funny about it. Brandon has finished Twilight and is currently reading New Moon; I will be posting his story next week. Also, look for Nick and Devin's stories when they are done. Click on the clip and enjoy the show!!!!  Someone should let Kaleb over at www.twilightguy.com know that if we simply called it Vampires of the Night (or at least go and visit his site and tell him about venture over here), we maybe could get more male readers to join the ranks

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Vampires, and Werewolves, and Special Editions of Eclipse--OME!!

I have read chapter one of Breaking Dawn. I will save my responses till later this weekend, because I want to give everyone a chance to read it. My Walmart actually had it on Tuesday!! Eeeek!!!! I did create a short book teaser trailer for Breaking Dawn. This was my first time messing with I-Movie on my mac, so be gentle. Also, don't forget to answer this week's Twilight questions, vote for our Twilight theme song, and watch our product placement ad!

Twilight Project Segment 2 Preview

Hello to all the students, teachers, and all those who fall in between....we are now gearing up for our second student segment. This is an opportunity for my students to voice their opinions concerning some oh-so-important questions regarding everyone's favorite tale of vampire-clumsy girl love. This week we focused on the following two questions:

1) What themes, or life lessons, can we take from reading Twilight?

2) What scene are you looking forward to most in the movie, or what scene are you hoping ends up in the movie?

Take the time to ponder these questions and feel free to share. Why? Because sharing is caring. Say it with me now....sharing is caring. 

P.S -The picture is of me and my mini me at school....but she is way cooler than I ever was in middle school.  Don't forget to check out our Product Placement Thursday Post and vote for your favorite theme song!!

Product Placement Thursday....

Today we are introducing a new aspect of our Twilight Project - Product Placement Thursday!!!! Say what???? Well it is a known fact that part of the whole movie making business involves a little thing called product placement. This is where a character will reveal his deepest feelings to the girl he likes while drinking a pepsi (the pepsi can is facing the camera proudly in all its consumerism glory). Companies pay for these advertisements. My students and I were joking around today about this phenomenon ( we are currently wrapping up our study of mass media), and wondered what sort of products would be "placed" in a movie like Twilight. So we came up with one, JFK Anti-Wrinkle Cream. I filmed it quickly at the end of rehearsal (we are putting up a play we wrote about intolerance next week) and decided to post it for all to enjoy. We hope to post one a week. Remember we are a goofy bunch, and our spoofs are out of the deepest Twilight love. Please let us know what you think. If we get enough of a response, we will post one every Thursday...taking suggestions from you...as well as asking you to make your own!!!! Don't forget to let your fellow Twilight fans and your favorite Twilight websites know about our little venture over here!!!!

JFK's 1st Twilight Guy

You all know him as the boy who yelled the Harry Potter killing curse at a sub once....the boy who went into edward mode in our first video posting...and the boy who drew our first comic....now I present his twilight story:

Well as you know by now, or if you don't, I am Maurice. I am very crazy and outgoing. But I am a die hard Harry Potter fan, not a groupie, a fan! I am in love with the wizarding world. My world came to an end when I met the vampire world, Twilight.

I was so in love with the HP series that I refused to read Twilight. I thought it would be a girl's love story. You might be thinking I am one of those people who stereotypes--NO! I felt Twilight to be the enemy of Harry Potter. But my teacher Ms. Truitt and my best buddies Khyera and Sallie kept pressuring me. I finally finished the 7th book of HP and was bored sitting in class.  Ms. Truitt saw this and placed the book on my desk. I was actually sweating....I read it and it was GOOD and I LOVED it.

But I needed more, so I asked Ms. Truitt if I could read New Moon and Eclipse. It sorta felt like I cheated on the Harry Potter series.

So thats how I became a Twilight junkie. For now, I'm going into Edward-Mode. BYE!

Please leave Maurice a comment and let him know what you think about his first blog. Also, don't forget to check out his comic below. The whole point of our site is to explore the relationship between the fans and the novels. We look forward to bringing you more stories. Keep voting on topsites, and tell your friends to stop by!!

When Harry Met Edward

(Click on picture to make it bigger)

If you have read a good portion of the posts on this website, you have read about our very first Twilight Guy named Maurice. Tommorow, I will be posting Maurice's Twilight story, but here is something to tie you over. Its part one of Maurice's comic: When Harry Met Edward. A gripping and overly dramatic meeting of young adult literature's two most powerful male figures. Join Novel Novice as we travel through their conflict, their battle of the literary giants...and stay tune for more episodes. I hope you enjoy the teaser! Please check back tomorrow for Maurice's story and a posting about our theme song contest. Also, please don't forget to scroll down and read (and of course comment, can you tell we are comment crazy here) today's posts concerning Twilight Top Sites and Twilight Tuesday. 

Please take the time to vote for us on Twilight Top-sties! I know we are having some problems with the picture but you can still click on the link and vote. The link can be found on the right hand side. Please help this site grow!!!! We can't do it without you!!

Gah! Twilight Tuesday....

I don't know if you all are as excited as we are about today's Twilight Tuesday announcement.... (waitng for you to recover from fainting)....Yes, thats right, on Sunday we will get our first glimpse of a scene from the highly anticipated Twilight movie. If you haven't done so yet, check out the article on www.mtv.com! I am not sure about anyone else, but my students and I found the question and answer session to be rather tame compared to the extreme joy and anxiety that resulted from learning that we would be seeing our first look at the movie that we are drooling to see! If you noticed I did mention the word anxiety....my twilight students are highly nervous about seeing the clip. This is something I can understand. All of the pictures and behind the scenes footage has left me really impressed (with the exception of the poster which I think looks horrid), but thats nothing to seeing an actual clip, an actual visual representation of what we dreamt of while reading the novel. Here are some of the questions proposed by my students after learning the  news, granted some are in jest, but some are pretty legitimate:

"Are there going to be shirts being ripped off, please?"~Jessica (On learning that they might show a fight scene).

"I am scared the movie is going to be completely different."~Amanda

"I want to see him die."~Sallie (Refering to James of course).

"I am anxious to see where they place the bite mark."~Christen

"I want lots of close-ups of Edward."~Kaity

Out of the nine students questioned, only 2 people were going to watch the MTV Movie Awards prior to the annoucment. Of course, they all plan to watch now. Briallant move MTV!

Now its your turn....

How do you feel about seeing the clip on Sunday? Anxious? Excited? Both? Will you be looking for fatal flaws or accepting the movie for what it is?

D-Day...or the Day of a Thousand E-mails

Calling all Twilight fans...young and old...students....and teachers.....engross yourself in the power of the written word! Tomorrow is the time to let the Ellen and Oprah shows know that you want, no demand, that they have members of the Twilight movie cast (and of course Stephenie Meyer herself) on their shows! This project was thought up by those motherly moms over at Twilight Moms! Special thanks goes to Twilighters.org for the heads up on their oh-so-wonderful site.

Links:

Oprah: http:www.oprah.com/email/reach/email_showideas.jhtml

Ellen: http://ellen.warnerbros.com/

Feel free to comment on this post to share some ideas on what to write for any fellow fans who may be suffering from writer's block (though I bet we all could talk about the books for hours). 

Thanks Tara!

Tara is our new favorite super-hero. She graciously created our wonderful banner and button! Now we are in her debt forever...meaning if it ever comes to a war between Edward and Jacob fans we must pledge allegiance to her side!!!! Please check back soon for Tara's Twilight Fan Story. We are looking forward to posting other Twilight Fans stories here on our blog, so keep posting and we might ask you to contribute!! Tomorrow check back for my students' reactions to Twilight Tuesday!!

Please don't forget to vote below in our theme song contest! (Voting ends Tuesday). 

Segment 1 Student Responses

How did you first hear about the Twilight Series?

"My sister read it first, and she kept bragging about how good it was, so I started to read it." ~Sharon F

"[I heard about it from] my teacher Ms. Truitt and my friends. But they made me do it, sorry Doby (HP reference)." ~Maurice

The rest of the quotes involve students blaming me incessantly for their now all-consuming obsessions, so I think we can just skip that part....besides we all know it's the outstanding work of Meyer that is the culprit. 

If you could create the soundtrack for the Twilight movie, which songs would you include?

"All Around Me"~Flyleaf

"Crazy in Love"~Beyonce

"Helena"~My Chemical Romance

"The Ghost of You"~My Chemical Romance

"Seize the Day"~Avenged Sevenfold

"I caught Fire"~The Used

"Breath"~Breaking Benjamin

"Never Too Late"~Three Days Grace

"Comatose"~Skillet

"Brokenhearted"~Eighteen Visions

"Moment" Aiden

"Lips like Morphine"~Kill Hannah

"Forever"~Paparoach

(All song choices above were suggested by students)

"Marvelous Things"~Eisley

"My Body is a Cage"~Arcade Fire

"Walcott"~Vampire Weekend

"My Last Breath"~Evanescence

"Understanding"~Evanescence

(Songs suggested by the nerdy teacher who has way too much time on her hands, or is just too fascinated with these books....)

"Iris"~Goo Goo Dolls

"Painted on my Heart"~The Cult

"Seventeen Forever"~Metro Station

"Hide and Seek"~Imogen Heap

"Lullaby"~Billy Joel

"You are the Moon"~The Hush Sound

"Untouched"~The Veronicas

"Do What I Have to Do."~Sarah McLachlan

(Songs suggested by some of you, who are just too awesome for words for posting comments)

*We will have two more major posts coming up in the next week! Thanks to Twilight Lexicon and Twilighters for taking the time to showcase our site. I can't express our gratitude. If I can ever figure out how to make a button / banner for this site, I hope to link to other Twilight sites in order to keep this project going. (If anyone can give me some pointers, please do) We can't do it without all of you fellow Twilighters out there! On Thursday, we will be posting a story on Maurice's Twilight expirence! Next weekend, please check back for our second round of questions and pictures! Our main goal is to get all of you Twilighters invovled as well, this being said....

Please take a moment or two to look at the song choices above. If you had to pick one song as the theme song for the movie, which one would you pick? At the end of the week, we will announce the winner! I purposely left off Muse because we all know how connected it already is to the books. The plan is to have my students analyze the top favorites for another weekly segment. 

Please keep checking back for more goodies!!

Official Part 1 of JFK's Twilight Project (Week 1)

Wow, thats all I can say. To see the excitement on my students' faces today as we worked on this project brought me the sincerest amount of joy! Then to check one of my favorite sites, Twilight Lexicon, and to see our project mentioned....WOW. I can't wait to tell my students on Monday :-)

To show you exactly the kind of humor my kids bring everyday into my life, I now present "going into Edward-Mode,":

....to explain....my students are very inventive. Part of the reason I think the story appeals to students, especially male students, is the gothic / supernatural aspects of the stories (i.e all the really cool vampire and werewolf stuff). One day while passing out papers, I heard one of my students say, "oh nooooooo, he went into Edward-mode." I inquired immediately of course! They explained to me that Edward-Mode is just a term they made up for all of the abilities that Edward has that they wished they did: strength, speed, agility. Then they offered to show me exactly what they meant. 

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Please check back Sunday for my students answers to this week's questions. The questions for this week can be found in the post before this one! Keep posting, I know my students will love to hear your thoughts!!

Twilight Project - Segment 1 Preview

Today I beamed as I heard the morning announcement...."Attention students, have you read or are you reading The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer..." My Twilight project at JFK Middle is in full swing. I am very excited to bring our first segement tomorrow. I provided the participants with a two paged packet of questions surrounding both the novels and the movie. For once, students happily scribbled down their answers, in complete sentences no less! (Yes, this was an attempt to be funny, though I am sure it is lost on all non-teacher types). Our first segment will focus on two areas:

1) How did you first hear about the Twilight series?

2) If you could create the soundtrack for the Twilight movie what songs would you choose and what scenes would you choose them for?

I also plan to post some pictures of my students "twilighting out," and hope to post a video of what my students call "going into Alice and Edward Mode."

How can you help with this project? By answering our two segment questions....

Just to repeat (Because thats what good teachers do...wink, wink):

1) How did you first hear about the Twilight Series

2) If you could create the soundtrack for the Twilight movie what songs would you choose and what scenes would you choose them for? 

For never was there a story of more woe...

 My Twilight coverage will not be ready most likely till the middle of next week, but to introduce my student's work here is a quick Q & A with some of my students concerning the casting of Bella and Edward:

Student Blogger Questions of the Week: 

How do you feel about the casting of Rob and Kristen as Edward and Bella? 

"I think the cast are perfect for the movie. They look exactly how I pictured them.(Though) I still think Edward looks weird." ~Sallie B. 

(To explain, Sallie's "weird" comment was in reference to the LA Times pictures that I showed my students during class of the infamous "Treetop Scene." Yes, I actually showed them to my students during class....hey, it had to do with lit....and I am a Lit teacher). 

"I love all the actors, the look just like they are described in the book. Edward looks just like I thought he would. Bella looks so much more plainer than Edward does, he looks like a God against her. Alice looks so cool with her pixie cut. Rosalie and Emmett look like they belong together. Carlisle looks like he knows more than anyone will ever know in their lifetime." ~Khyera M

(Khyera quickly explained to me that her MySpace is filled with the trading card-like pictures from the Comic-Con video. She also excitedly burst into my classroom one morning to show me that her computer background was the Twilight movie poster. She was the first person in my class to read the book!).

"Bella looks sorta of nerdy and weird[but] I think they [meaning Kristen and the producers] portrayed Bella good. Edward [meaning more specifically Rob rather than the character] is a traitor to Harry [a.k.a Harry Potter series]. The actor drinks diet pepsi! Come on!"~Maurice L

(Let me explain. Maurice has one of the rarest senses of humor that I have yet come across. At first, he absolutely refused to read the Twilight book. He would not dare to betray the Harry Potter series. Yes, in his mind it was a betrayal. But peer pressure can be quite overwhelming, especially when you have a teacher goading you as well. Maurice is now a die-heard fan, and his complete story will be posted later in my look at the series, but he still has a hard time fighting between his love for Twilight and his love for Harry Potter. He doesn't like his two worlds meeting. Though I will be the first to point out that when I showed him the teaser trailer he actually danced with joy. He and his friends also came up with a saying "he went into Edward mode," but I'll explain this one at a later date).

What is it about this couple that has everyone so captivated?

"I never thought a guy like Edward, so perfect, would fall in love with Bella, [who is] so clumsy. But Edward's 'perfectness' makes up for Bella's 'imperfectness,' "~Sallie B.

"I find the relationship funny and sweet. Bella is just an ordinary girl with nothing really great about her, and Edward comes along and she falls in love at once. Edward makes Bella feel like he is the God in her life. That he is everything she needs. Edward is very cool when he's around her and even when they kiss. He only freaks out about things when it is necessary." ~Khyera M.

"It's majestic and loving while dangerous. Bella loves Edward too much to be human, it is like she is a robot. Edward is almost too perfect."~Maurice. 

(I find it interesting how part of the reason that students seem to be drawn to the character of Bella is because of her "plain-ness." She's not some dazzling heroine, she doesn't have movie star good looks. In an age where that is all one sees on television and in cinema, I think students find it refreshing to see an ordinary girl steal the spotlight. I also think it is insightful of students to realize that their relationship is all consuming, and it is important to discuss the downside of this). 

Please read below for more information on this project. Please leave a comment! It really makes my students' day to know you are interested in our project. 

You can have a Twilight Guy but can you have a Twilight Teacher?

I want to take the time to explain a little bit about the project I am trying to conduct here. As a second year English teacher and a life-long fan of novels, I found myself quite dismayed by the lack of student motivated reading that takes place between the ages of 11 and 18. Maybe I was just a super nerd, though I like to just think of myself as socially challenged, or perhaps unique, but I adored reading. I lavished in my ability to escape into different worlds, become different people, explores other's lives. As my second year of teaching is coming to a close, I have come to realize that it is not that students do not want to read, they just don't know what to read. The world is a fast paced place. Images overload our senses everyday on television and the internet. We have created an entire language for the purpose of chatting on internet social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. I was beginning to think the novel, or at least our appreciation of it, was dying. This was perhaps until Twilight. Last year,  I had a student who I constantly had to tell to put her book away. I know, shocking and depressing, and quite ironic. Here I was a teacher who feared more than anything that students had lost interest in the exploration of literature and I was telling a student not to read (oh the joys of standardized testing and the pressures we all must face as a result). Finally, I asked my student about the book she was reading--Twilight. It sounded interesting, and she was always talking to me about it, and I mean ALWAYS, but didn't seem like quite my cup of tea (snobby brit lit fan here). Over a year later, I finally flipped through my copy of the book (it had been lying around my house for months...a sleeping monster just waiting to devour me). I fell in love, with the story, with the characters, and knew my students would love it. I immediately went to work! Finally I had found a story that I thought I could hypnotize my students with. As a result, I think over half the eighth grade at my school has read or is reading the novel--and its a plague that is spreading. This blog will be used to explore young adult literature in an attempt to compile a list of books that teenagers perhaps might want to read. I hope that it will be a place for students to share their views on books and suggest books for other teens to read. My first giant expose will be on the Twilight series. Please check back soon (most likely by the end of next weekend) for a huge story of my school's reactions to the series. Quite amusing I assure you. Some things to look out for:

1) Converting a male die hard Harry Potter Fan (He actually yelled the killing spell at a sub once in the middle of instructional time).

2) Pictures of my students Twilighting out (or geeking out!).

3) Student Written Reviews

4) Student Predictions for Breaking Dawn

5)Student Reactions to the Twilight Movie (Yes, I let them watch the trailer during my class). 

As a reader of this blog, I hope you will reply to my first series of entries on Twilight and offer suggestions. I know my students are looking forward to working on this blog with me. If you can think of any questions for them, please post :-) I am also taking suggestions on what book or series I should focus on next!!