Why Do I Have To Teach In The Future?

Take a good hard look at Michael J., because that is how I feel right now. When did it come to this? Studying for today (an ongoing event for the last 8 hours) I have basically had to stare at this screen. Sure, I got up to go to the bathroom and to get dill pickle Pringles (why God?) and to go get my Gallagher book (thank you God!) and to plug my phone (also an Internet portal) into the wall... as much as I utilize this technology—I can't help but ask: is it really making anything easier? Is it making me a better teacher?

Like so many things, it depends on how you use it. Unfortunately, I am an impish, impulsive, adult-onset-ADD(probably due to this contraption)pop-culture-consumer so my ability to procrastinate or find other things to do just within this white demon is endless.

Okay: so schools "have been slow to react to the emergence of this new participatory culture" (Jenkins p.4), and I would tend to agree.

All of this "no cell phone" talk is absolute garbage. EVERY student has one. EVERY student pulls them out during class. The new teacher attitude is "pick your battles"—which is to say: "as long as I can get through class...then I won't even bother reprimanding anyone for cellphone use."

I'm sitting in the back of these rooms observing the students—many know that I am going to be their new teacher—and they are constantly pulling out some sort of device. In MORE THAN ONE class, the students were given time to "work" on their projects and they were allowed to pull out their contraptions. Two students (that I witnessed) were watching video media on their devices and all the teacher said when she saw it was "turn it down."

WTF!? I feel like a dinosaur. When I was in High School (here we go Grandpa...) the thought of WATCHING A MOVIE during class was literally science fiction. Sure, once you were in college you could watch films on your laptop during lectures, but what was the point? You could just as easily stay in your bed and watch movies and get the notes from someone else—why torture yourself in that uncomfortable chair?

Maybe I've seen too many techno-horror films (The Net, etc...)



Ok: so we need to close the gap, educate all in new literacy, digital media studies, yada yada enough already.

I completely agree with this article that just passing out the technology is not enough and that what is needed is an actual functioning knowledge to utilize technology to the best of its ability. I think that it is possible to bring out the best in some people but unfortunately there isn't enough of a filter in place where we need it most (YouTube, MySpace, etc.) to block out the worst in humanity (as the article suggests).

This article hits on a ton of the worries I have with technology and getting it into more hands and I really hope to look deeper into it when I have more time and am not having panic attacks over my teaching (IN TWO WEEKS)...anyway, I am going to integrate more differentiation and new literacies into my classroom than the students have had all year—but I'm going to be smart with it and hopefully show the students that they can accomplish something worthwhile and of quality without wasting a ton of time or integrity.

And I won't be a hypocrite.

Best Recut Movie Trailer EVER:

4th Posting for CI 5461 2/19

At this point—I believe that I am not working intensely with my 120 students on writing during my student teaching. Therefore it is ultimately difficult to apply the immediate pertinance of the Dornan et al. and Adger reading.

However, there will be "informal" writing assignments in my 9th and 11th grade classes (according to the syllabus) and whatever else I conjure up in my time there (along with the 50+ years of teaching I will do post-student teaching), so this information will be critical to turn back to.

Things I found to be super helpful: (1) Differentiating assessing, evaluating and grading. (2) Student Self-Evaluation template and guide on p. 184/5. (3) No Red Pen! (4) Higher Order Concerns and Lower Order Concerns p.187. (5) Simple advice of steps 1-6 on p. 191/2 (6) Sample Rubrics on p.193/4.

Things that made me ponder: (1) I couldn't tell if I agreed with the assessment of the student paper on p. 195. (2) How much does Dornan et al.'s idea of a Portfolio (200-204) differ from Romano's Multigenre Paper? Could you utilize a multigenre assignment throughout the semester as a type of portfolio? (3) Continued outrage over the politics of assessment p. 206

The Adger piece felt much like a smaller retread of the Dornan et al. chapter, with one major difference: it focused heavily on vernacular in various dialects.

I remember dear Michael Dennis Brown teaching us to never fear the comma, the dash, the semicolon—"this is how we speak and we should write how we speak," he would say. When put up against Adger's piece however, it is safe to say that perhaps Brown wouldn't proclaim to certain classroom audiences to write how they speak. Indeed, we are looking for "proper English" are we not? The "student's dialect may interfere in writing"(115) Adger explains.

***Outside my window a red Chevy Blazer just drove by with a aqua couch strapped to the hood and—I kid you not—a man was standing on the back bumper grasping onto the couch and the hood of the car and yelled: "I'm king of the world!" Wow. I just had to share that.***

Where was I...oh yeah, I think that THIS reading would be appropriate for CI 5644. We are all entering the mainstream classroom so being able to spot and assist students with varying vernacular dialects would be more pertinent than what to do for a new ELL/ESL student.

Links:

Great Quote Site

Critical Thinking

Make Your Own Book!

CI 5481 Discussion Leader Questions

In Lauren Cantent's new film The Class, written and starring François Bégaudeau, an unengaged student named Souleymane is asked to read his "self-portrait" aloud. Confidently he states to the class: "I have nothing to say about me because no one knows me but me."

Besides my obvious plug for this film (which everyone must see), Souleymane reminds me of the child in the Heath piece who tells his teacher: "Ain't nobody can talk about things being about theirselves" (105).

This seemingly simplistic dialog between white teacher and black student speaks volumes about the disconnect Heath sees between the in-group and the out-group.

Once the schools are desegregated (in Trackton—the town Heath researches), black parents complain that the "[white] teachers won't listen" because "nobody play by the rules [the black students] know" (107).

In the film and in the schools Heath visits, the white teachers seem to be merely wanting their students to be mundane "question-answerers" who can spout "formulaic responses to appropriate occasions" (110). Heath notes that often an adult will speak to a child through ruminations, expecting that child to be a "passive listener" giving the adult an excuse to speak to his or herself. While the Heath piece examines parents with their very young, I cannot help but find similarities in the classroom today.

In one room I observe in, the teacher rambles almost the entire hour (to his large 11th grade class), speaking about his childhood, his past, his history. He will throw in generic questions ("and what year was WWI?") to which the students will fill in the blank. He will then move on and cause the room to be one big passive ear.

I DO NOT want to condemn this experienced teacher from whom I am learning volumes, however it is worth noting that in his all-white AP class, there is intense discussion, profound questions ("are you justifying the hijackers of 9/11?") and enormous room for thought and debate. Why can't this same thing be happening in the the large—much more diverse—11th grade class? Aren't those students just as capable as the AP class? Do we—as white teachers—perpetuate the passive listener and ask only the generic questions that can only beg formulaic responses?

How do we remedy the idea of talking "at" students instead of "with" (115)?

If some students are deliberately raised to not share personal information with others (or strangers), how can we expect them to delve into our deeply personal projects (i.e. telling audiences about their community, their families, their lives)?

Grammar Link

Grammar Link

Post for 2/12 - Grammar, etc.

Rick and I were just talking about the many directions we are currently being pulled and it honestly is becoming increasingly difficult to even care about the three classes we are in right now.

I'm a little confused as to how this semester was set up for a variety of reasons, but mainly because now that I have been to my teaching school, met my teachers and seen my classroom(s) - all I want to do is focus on my student teaching.

So, here is the dilemma - do I plow through this weeks readings like last week - hoping to retain a shred of the information? Or do I simply skip all of it so that I can read what I will be teaching and keep on trying to create a bomb curriculum?

Well, lets give it a go.

Grammar? Oh man! Zzzzz.....

Nothing fires me up like "The Developmental Nature of Syntactic Complexity"! Okay, I will ease up. I'm sure that all I written thus far is riddled with grammatical errors because I simply am not a pro. This reading is a good "review" for me, being that I am basically at square one on grammar.

I'm Done With My Rant:

I am thankful for the line: "it may be neither desirable nor possible to hasten syntactic growth, which is more often a matter of maturation and writing experience than something that can be induced artificially through writing exercises" (84). Like so many things, I believe, we cannot just jam words and grammar into students' minds. It takes experience, maturity and practice.

I want badly to scribe poetry akin to Blake, Frost and Shakespeare - but my ability to even begin that goal starts with reading and analyzing their work.

OKAY - so this chapter is SUPER helpful - albeit, very dry for my tastes. That is the thing, you simply can't (in my opinion) spice up grammar. These are the rules (FIGURE 4.2, etc.) and regulations of writing - which I must teach to my students! However, light bulbs in my head really only light up when I see something breaking form.

I will need to re-visit this chapter - thoroughly - when I am teaching writing, because it has so many good examples of what to do and what not to do.

I like the peer editing diamond as well as the blunt reasoning. YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS BECAUSE: [fill in awesome reason I can give to my students here].

I may try and return with something more profound to say, for this Sunday night however, I'm saying "ciao."

Young Writers' Conference

Feb. 5 Readings • Ruminations • Genres Aplenty

I simply cannot go on until I mention Wing Young Huie. This wonderful artist from Duluth shared profound images with the Junior High students at the Young Writers' Conference today at the Weisman Art Museum.

This man profoundly brought the core of the multigenre paper to brilliant life.

Juxtaposing image with quotes by the subjects in the pictures, he told fascinating stories about our world, our cities, our humanity and our cultures. In placing his art throughout the city for anyone to see, he created an open dialogue about what it means to truly be alive in our world.

I live near Frogtown and I know Sam lives in Frogtown and the stereotypes and attitudes that swirl through the air about that area of St. Paul are varied and usually quite negative. What Huie was able to do in his artwork - which involved poignant and powerful images of Frogtown residents - was expand "our knowing beyond factual exposition to include narrative thinking and emotional content" (Romano p. 131).

As Huie spoke about his work and the context from which the images sprang, you become enveloped in the photo. Although they were taken just blocks away from my house, I felt like there were worlds exposed that I had never seen before, never appreciated as much.

The city can be and ugly place. Waiting at bus stops I tire of the litter, McDonald's trash, depressed faces, dirty-snowy streets...but in these photos, you were able to stop and look at the people. The beautiful people. We make up our world. We are beautiful. It was incredible to look at Midway and other spots that I have lived around for the last decade in such a different light.

He then tied all of this into looking at each other in different lights. To never assume we know everything about someone based on their outside appearance. He talked about how he is judged as a foreigner - even though he was born and raised in Duluth,MN.

We can all relate to this. I am judged as a very young man. One older tour guide at the Walker today told me that I looked like a "12-year-old." It is difficult and altogether odd in our ageist society that I would be taken less seriously because I look young. It sounds like a pathetic hardship in retrospect but it is part of what Huie was talking about.

I think utilizing his work in conjunction with any multigenre works we will do in our classrooms is an excellent way to tie into the photography aspect Romano is passionate about. Even that simple photo of his father behind the bar at the bowling alley added a ton (for me) to his story about his father. I go back to that photo when he later receives the letter from his 83-year-old mother who pleads with him to understand his father's unspoken love.

A picture says a thousand words and when you help give it context, or let the persons in the picture speak their piece, well, I think the picture can talk forever.

[The picture I have added here is a one from Huie's project "9 Months in America" in which he was commissioned to travel the US and snap photos of whatever struck him. This one was at a demolition derby in which Huie noticed the one Asian man (who had consequently lived in that southern town for 15 years). Huie noted that he felt like the man had been "photo-shopped" into the picture and questioned whether that's what people thought about him. I encourage you to look at more of his work. He has an outside installation coming in 2010 on University Ave. so hopefully we can all take our classes there on a field trip!]

John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009)

All at once it is though I should feel everything and nothing for the passing of this man. He was published in The New Yorker at 22 (I turn 27 this Friday) so I have to resent him a little bit for being more of a "go-getter-genius" than I am.

I honestly don't know if I have read any John Updike. I feel like I have always known his name. Them man published something like 50 books in his lifetime. That is astounding to me. I continue to wind through my days like a spinning ballerina on an antique musical toy - perhaps I will publish one day - perhaps I will teach like a pro - perhaps I will be respected, revered, read.

How was this man so prolific? What drove him? What did he have that I don't? Obviously all these ruminations are quite useless, I'm sure he would chastise me for sitting here thinking about him when all he wanted was for me to read his words. I think I will search for some of them right now.

There was only one John Updike. I'm sad that he has left this mortal coil.