Ender's Game

[Filicireg]

Ok, welcome to High School, not even the third week back, and I have already ready Slaughterhouse-Five and had to write a literary analysis essay on it, blah blah blah. This brings me to the next project, a creative way of presenting the book "Ender's Game". Now, I am a smart kid, get all A's yadda yadda yadda....but I am stuck...I mean REALLY stuck. I am asking for the help of other Sci-Fi readers who have read this book to help me devise an idea...as the prject is due very soon, and I have NOTHING. I thank anyone who helps me.

[Cloud]

a creative way? You mean some sort of live or tangible presentation? Like at a science fair?

[Filicireg]

Yes, very much like that...a ten minute presentation, all about the book, and I have no guidance as to what to do.

[littlemissattitude]

Well, first of all, thank your lucky stars that you go to a school and have a teacher who actually recognizes science fiction as valuable literature. And then, go sit down and...wait, before I say anything else...you have read the book, haven't you?

Edit to add: I'm a tutor from way back...I have to ask that question.

[Cloud]

focus on your strengths and talents and build from there. Are you good with words? Do a skit or a reading. Are you good with tools? Build a set. Are you an artist? Do a pictoral summary.

[Filicireg]

Read the book twice now, hoping to get ideas a second read through. And I am a very bad speaker, have the whole stage fright thing....I like art, but am not good enough to make something that would really reflect the book. My strengths are with the computer...but what could I do? Dont know how to make a web page or something...and holy crap...as I type this an idea just came to me....I could try righting a journal of sorts. Ok, that's one idea. Maybe i could get a few more from others?

[littlemissattitude]

You could always get the class involved and do a re-creation of a battle school battle. Of course, you'd all have to pretend that you were in zero-gravity...but, then again, if I remember high school correctly, most high school students could use a reminder that having an imagination is a good thing.

On the other hand, you are in Florida. Any chance that you could contact NASA and borrow the Vomit Comet? That would really impress the teacher.Never mind...just kidding. (Where is that halo smilie, where the halo is supported by horns, when I need it?)

On a slightly more serious note...although I do consider the battle school re-enactment to be a serious suggestion, as I've always had a good result when doing audience-participation presentations...I think the journal idea is a good one. You could write from the point of view that you are in battle school and describe a typical day or week there.

[Filicireg]

I am so glad you are on this site...and the odd thing is, when I bounced some ideas off the teacher, she thought the exact same thing about the battle re-enactment. Only problem is, how on earth could I get that to work?

I would like to do something that does not require me talking all that much. So maybe I could make the journal as a powerpoint and have everyone read it...except that is boring, how could I make it more interesting, make them WANT to read it? Maybe I should spend a lot of money buying laser tag systems and have a battle royale outside, lol. Or maybe I could spend a minute or two explaining the difficulty I have had thinking of something. I will no doubt be brainstorming all tomorrow, as for now, thanks for the help, hope i get a few more ideas, and good night.

[Cloud]

you could do a powerpoint presentation pretending you are an INSTRUCTOR in battle school perhaps?

[littlemissattitude]

Actually, I don't think it would be all that hard to simulate a battle school battle. You just wouldn't have the particular characteristic of weightlessness. Like I said, encourage the participants to use their imaginations.

But, Cloud's idea isn't a bad idea at all. You could be a battle school instructor explaining to a new group of recruits exactly what goes on in battle school.

Anyway, Filicireg, I hope some of what we've come up with will help you out with your assignment. Be sure to keep us posted on how you are coming along with it.

[Cornelia-Caela-Noah]

You could be the battle school instructor and have positions all set up on a PowerPoint, then get everyone to get into those positions, and say this is how they would have been.

[Filicireg]

Ok, as i lay in my bed last night trying to sleep, a new idea came to me...perhaps I COULD re-enact a battle, but with extremely common "weapons". In other words, have a battle outside using paper balls as weapons, and when a student is hit in the torso, he/she is "frozen". I tested the idea on my teacher, and she loved it. She said I should explain how the batles work in the game, then I could take the class outside and let them have a mock battle.

I love the idea of being an instrcutor talking to a group of launchies, seems like it would be a good way to use my skills, but I don't have powerpoint on y computer for some reason, so I will have to consider a way to work with that. Maybe I could give a speach at the beginning of the mock battle scenario and make it sound like I am an instructor. Thanks for the help guys, hope this works out. Drop me some feedback on the ideas

[littlemissattitude]

Sounds like a good idea to me, Filicireg. Making it sound like you are a battle school instructor and just giving the class a rundown of how the battles work sounds like it would be fine. I think the only addition the Powerpoint would make would be to make it seem more like they were in the highly technical environment of the battle school.

Thing is...and you might not want to hear this, but it is true...you're going to have to learn to be comfortable speaking in public. If you are planning on going to university, you will likely have to give more and more presentations, especially when you get to your upper division work. I can't think of a class I took in the last two years of university that I didn't have to make at least one presentation in front of the class, and in most classes I had to do that several times.

[Filicireg]

Yeah, starting to feel like I am slow becoming less...nervous about that sort of thing. Hope it fades away. Thanks for the advice

[Filicireg]

Ok, I am doing something totally different! I am making a video using video games that I love to tell the story of Ender's game. Now, here is my dilemma, I need a Narrator for my story, so I would like to find a Text to Speech prgram, a free one, that i can use to narrate. I need another program that will allow me to record the narrator, and save it to a file. Anyone that can help, please do!