#report back

I always have difficulty teaching students to use the SWOT tool for analysing the current situation. No matter how I word it, there is always one and often more students who use the Opportunities section to put their ideas and recommendations.

Two approaches I am going to try this year:

Explain the concepts of Constraints and Affordances from game design, use these instead of, or within the "Opportunities" section of the SWOT.

Create a massive board. Have half as "now"/situational analysis, and half as "future". On the left, in the NOW half, have the SWOT template, on the right in the FUTURE half, have a Recommendations section and an ideas section. Make pre-made cards around a specific case study - we are working with a drone pilot this term, and a games convention as our class clients - and then get the students to place the cards in the correct sections. Do a few rounds, with it getting more difficult each round, and also maybe have a timed round. Throw in a round with newspaper articles (eg pandemic, 5G, Brexit etc) - where does that go in the NOW section? How does that then spark ideas and mitigations for the FUTURE section? Obviously, then get them to do a SWOT analysis, make their own cards (post-it notes) and put them in the right sections.

“Portland, Oregon”, Earth Night:

The doors,windows and ATMs of Bank of America financial center were broken and the building was painted with messages against the destruction of Atlanta forest. Bank of America was attacked because of its funding of the Atlanta Police Foundation and the cop city project attempting to replace the forest with police infrastructure. Fuck cops Fuck banks From the west coast, solidarity with those defending the forest.

The plot of Simply Irresistible is STUNNINGLY similar to the plot of the 1993 film Like Water for Chocolate, in that it’s magical realism using food as a conduit.

Simply Irresistible has a weak plot, weak characters, and weak covers of songs.

Like Water for Chocolate has beautiful cinematography, complex characters, developed relationships, and a lovely (though very early 90s) instrumental score. It also takes place in Mexico and we all know that Latin America has cornered the market on magic realism.

Like Water for Chocolate moved me to tears. Simply Irresistible moved me to say “lmao wut?” in the group chat MULTIPLE TIMES.

But where Simply Irresistible truly shines, where it outpaces Like Water for Chocolate, where it becomes the superior film...

It has a MAGIC CRAB. Who gets to eat custard at the end. Sorry, spoiler alert, magic crab eats custard. He also wears a tuxedo. Hope I didn’t ruin it for you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

cassandra: what’s some advice you should’ve taken but didn’t?

brother, a lot of things. but probably not to give your everything to someone or try too hard to be liked :(

when i kissed the teacher: what’s the wildest thing you’ve ever done?

i.... i don’t know! i have had a very boring life so far :(( i am still a kid though so i will do something wild and report back

on and on and on: what’s a moment you wished never ended?

this one day i went walking around a lake and sat with my feet in a stream/waterfall for a while- it was so pretty and and lovely and what happened after we left sucked but i want to go back to that day it was so perfect