Ode to an Orange

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/odetoorange

https://odetoorange.tumblr.com/post/190496365945/christmas-morning

For this project, I created a Tumblr account.  I got the idea from the assignment description. As I was reading it, I realized that I had no idea what Tumblr was and decided that I wanted to try something new.  The only thing I knew about the app was that my cousin had mentioned it a time or two in conversation. So I created an account and began to explore.  Tumblr claims to be a place to express yourself through pictures, GIF’s, text, audio, and other things. A lot of their posts are fandom related, but there’s other random material in there too. I was able to search things by hashtags, pictures, accounts, and GIF’s.

At first, I was looking up the word “orange” and scrolling through tags, GIF’s, and quotes.  I quickly learned that “orange” is a very broad term and I was rarely finding things that tied to the food. I would repost the few food related posts I found with direct quotes from Ode to an Orange.

Eventually, I got to the point where I realized that I wanted to contribute to this media, rather than simply consume it.  So I created a quote from the reading as well as a GIF.  The quote came from the beginning of the reading where the kids keep changing their phrasing to their mother in an attempt to get an orange.  The quote had lines directly from the reading, then I finished it off with something of my own.  It read:

We’re getting a cold…

We want an orange…

May we have an orange?

May I have an orange?

I need an orange.

I even learned how to change the color of the text to make it look more artsy! *cheesy smile*

Creating the GIF was a little more challenging than I was expecting. I loved the image of the orange at the end of a stocking, so my husband and I recreated it. We filled a stocking full of a bag of cuties, and created a GIF where the cuties were piling out of the stocking.  We quickly discovered that timing was everything.  We had several failed attempts, but I’m pretty pleased with the final result.  It was exciting to learn something new, even if it was as simple as creating a GIF.

I enjoyed learning about a new type of media, however, there were some moments of discomfort.  While it was fun exploring Tumblr and what it had to offer, I also discovered the raunchier side of the app too.  The word “orange” also ties to something called “citrus scale” which is a sex rating on fandom posts.  So I had to navigate through fandom sex stories as I was looking for pictures of fruit. It wasn’t exactly pleasant, and I’ll honestly most likely be deleting my Tumblr after this assignment. As a teacher, if I were to do an assignment like this, I would need to be sure that the students won’t be encountering things like this.  So, Tumblr might not be an option but Facebook and Instagram and other drawing or video apps would be safer candidates.  I would need to screen the things I suggest, but also balance the line of avoiding micromanaging. And if something comes up, it’s at least a great teaching opportunity and I can help the students learn how to find good, uplifting media instead of the degrading stuff that’s out there.