Final Posting Final Class Final Destination: A New Beginning

Okay, so I could not help but think back to my Montessori days (side note, is it not odd that something that was once my entire life is now almost forgotten because I am so immersed in this program?) when I spent time EVERY DAY reading to little ones. Picture books: is it even possible to state their significance. I read a book about a little penguin named Pete to this adorable little girl named Emma. At one point in the story Pete is called "Pint Sized Pete," so I said to Emme: "Emma, you are Pint Sized Pete!" Not only did she love this, she called me "Pint Sized Pete" everyday after that and asked me to read the book to her quite often. When other children would come up and listen in and perhaps get scared when Pete loses his way, she would say: "Don't worry, he will be okay. . ." or inform the scared child that in the end, Pete makes it just fine.

What Emma learned from this story, what all the children learned from the stories I read to them, what every child learns from anyone who reads anything to them—even if they only look at the pictures—is immeasurable.

Selfe (2004) in Toward New Media Texts: Taking Up the Challenges of Visual Literacy that teachers in the past have "typically presented [new media text] as second-class texts: either as 'dumbed down' communications that serve as 'stimuli for writing by [...] no substitute for the complexity of language' or as texts related to, but certainly not on an equal footing with, the 'real' work of the course'"(71). To me, this is as absurd as it is super bogus (thanks Rick). As I

write this, all I want to do is go read The Watchmen (thanks Danger!) which is pretty much the coolest book I have read in forever. However, it is a graphic novel and therefore no where near as sacred as Crime and Punishment or The Crucible. Selfe adds that we continue to do non-visual texts because they are familiar. So, while the graphic novel sections of libraries and books shelves edge the musty classics into corners, we teachers keep denying areas of literacy because we are afraid of it or simple don't "get it." So, instead of taking the things youths are looking at head on (MTV, YouTube, MySpace) and integrating positive, educational and constructive aspects. . . we shy away in fear as the unmonitored shit storm grows.I really hope that the above picture expands for all to see as it took me longer to figure out how to upload a Comic Life picture than it did to make said picture . . .

So it begins with my father reading to me (or this father reading to his daughter), my love of the spoken word and the written word meshed in the best possible way as far back as I can recall. I then spent years mowing cereal and catching up on Duck Tails, Little House on the Prairie and other TV shows that fascinated me with their characters, arcs and stories. I soon became addicted to comic books and found the Batman graphic novels to be the ultimate in story and depth of artistry. It was not long before Matt Povlony and I were racing through Boxcar Children books in school at Nativiy of Mary. Those tales lead me to dig deep into action and adventure novels like Jurassic Park. Soon after that I was ready for the ultimate adventure to Middle Earth with Frodo and the rest of the Fellowship. My love for reading and story lead me to my college education at the University of Minnesota. Enrolled there I was able to travel throughout Ireland and learn more about the literary giants that lived there and changed literature with their beautiful language. All of these (albeit small) glimpses into my literary journey bring me to who I am today: a man with mere days standing before him and his first High School classroom.

Thank you.

Now how amazing does this movie look?