Libby Says...
I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week teaching a class in Dallas. It was an end user Notes class. To be honest, it's been probably 10 years since I've last taught an end user Notes class (or maybe more). It was a great experience, although more tiring than I remembered. Here are a few things I learned or discovered while teaching this class...
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I was doing some blog reading this morning, allowing myself the luxury of reading more than just a quick browse through the blogs on my daily read list in Bloglines. As I do sometimes, I had my attention caught by an entry on a blog I don't read all that often, and followed links from there. It makes for a topically related walk through other people's brains. Today's voyage was primarily about science-fiction and fantasy. I've loved sci-fi/fantasy since I was first a reader - I remember reading the Lloyd Alexander Prydain books and the Tolkein's The Hobbit around fourth or fifth grade and got sucked in completely. I was already a reader, but I think that these books made me the unstoppable, want-to-read everything person I am today. Anyway. I digress. My point was that in my blog-wander this morning, I found some interesting things you might want to peek at: When I taught "The Tell-Tale Heart" this year, we did a great "Producing Poe" exercise (based on this PBS lesson plan), where the kids decided how they would produce a movie of the story, from music to lighting and actors. They were focused on picking a mood and evoking that mood through all their choices. Perhaps next year, a nice capstone to that lesson would be to show this video of the 1953 animated version of the story. Eerie and spookily done. (via SFSignal.com) The Internet Review of Science Fiction (IROSF), where they're trying to create a true literary magazine dedicated to SF (currently free). One story from the current issue that caught my eye -- "Telling Stories of Your Life: The Use of Second Person Narration in SF," an essay about point of view in science fiction, especially second person. This topic is of interest to anyone discussing point of view in literature - and might be a good hook if your students like science-fiction (or if you do!). An earlier related article discusses voice in more general terms. An amazingly cool online exhibition of science fiction at the University of Delaware: From Verne to Vonnegut, A Century of Science Fiction. This annotated, illustrated list is the best in sci-fi, categorized for your reading inspiration. Two wide-ranging discussions (by wide-ranging, here I mean appearing on blogs across the blogsphere), one on how and what to suggest to kids who have been hooked into reading through the Harry Potter books (Here and here). Harry will be done this summer, and it would be a true shame to let those readers go - so these bloggers have started categorized lists of suggestions. Here are a few of mine: SCIENCE FICTION 12 AND UNDER: YOUNG ADULT: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card; Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series; Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide books; Glory Road, Starship Troopers, and most everything else by Robert Heinlein ADULT: Old Man's War/Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi; David Weber's Honor Harrington series; Dan Simmons' Illium and Olympos; Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky; most anything by Spider Robinson, although I particularly like the Callahan books FANTASY 12 AND UNDER: The Dark is Rising sequence, by Susan Cooper; The Prydain Chronicles, by Lloyd Alexander; Watership Down, by Richard Adams YOUNG ADULT: Summerland, by Michael Chabon; Old Kingdom books, by Garth Nix; Heir of Sea and Fire books, by Patricia McKillip; The Belgariad series, by David Eddings; Robert Silverberg's Majipoor Chronicles; Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn books, by Tad Williams ADULT: A Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin; Anne McCaffrey's Pern books ALL AGES: Neil Gaiman books, like Stardust, Good Omens, and American Gods; C.S. Lewis' Narnia books; JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books; Orson Scott Card's Enchantment; Robert Aspirin's MYTH books are a serious giggle The other discussion was on how sci-fi had been ghettoized as a genre and how it's breaking out now (here, here, here, here, here, and here). I've never thought sci-fi fantasy was a ghetto, but I know that many people have looked askance at my reading it over the years. Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
Thursday was a good media day for English teachers and other language geeks. I know you're always looking for clips to play in class to enhance the multimedia experience for your students. This morning on they way to work, I was lucky enough to be running a few minutes late. When I run late, I sometimes get to hear my favorite NPR show - Engines of our Ingenuity. Today's Engine's episode (transcript or audio of episode 1926) was a discussion by guest Andrew Boyd on the topic of rhetoric. Rhetoric's original meaning is persuasion, although it has come to mean any complex writing. English, humanities, history, and philosophy teachers probably have a good background in discussing rhetoric's origins - popularized by the sophists in ancient Greece, sophist rhetoric was attacked by Plato as not leading to truth. Take a listen to this episode and consider Aristotle's belief that "logic is required to find truth but rhetoric is necessary to communicate truth." This clip would be a good introduction to rhetorical writing or speaking, dissecting persuasive writing (ads or marketing), or convincing students that "persuasive communication isn't an unpleasant afterthought, it's a vital part of bringing ingenious ideas to life." Then on The Colbert Report - the Colbert versus Sean Penn "Meta-free phor all; Shall I Nail Thee to a Summer's Day?"(video)... Who does metaphor-offs? I love Colbert! "Love is a full-length mirror?" lost out to "love is a battlefield" in the human emotions category. Of course, if you want to show this clip, you'll need to be comfortable showing/discussing George Bush's dirty and blood-soaked underwear and its metaphorical meanings, because that was Penn's metaphor-of-choice for the evening. Still, he beat Colbert 10,000 to 1 in the contest, moderated by former poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Giggle. Colbert closed with promises of a hyperbole-off with George Clooney in the future. I can hardly wait! Some links of interest regarding rhetoric or metaphors: Read Aristotle's Rhetoric as hypertext. Then, take a look at some links for rhetoric and composition - from definitions to blogs and writings. You might also want to familiarize yourself with some rhetorical terms, from alliteration to zeugma, with examples. If you're thinking about producing some rhetoric yourself, you might look at some examples, first, from this archive of speeches, sermons, lectures, debates, etc. What's a metaphor? Here's one answer. And some suggestions for using metaphors in creative writing. Some metaphors we live by and with. And some metaphor poems: I taught Fog and Fire and Ice and The Eagle when taught metaphor and simile in poetry a few weeks ago. So much fun! Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
That was made at the Chronicle's site after the recent blogging story was about the idea that teachers may have the right to blog but not from school computers, on school networks, or on school time. I only wish that meant that teachers were not allowed to grade papers, write lesson plans, write recommendation letters, research projects, answer questions, etc. from home computers, on home networks, or on personal time. Of course, it doesn't really work that way. But it does bring up a few interesting thoughts... First, I happen to agree in principle with the comment, most specifically for blogs like mine, where I can say what I want about any subject I want, without fear (I believe) of punishment, assuming I adhere to the very sensible rules of not identifying my students by name in a way that could endanger them. I've also made a personal commitment to my principal that she won't have to find out anything by reading it here - so that if I have a gripe or complaint, she's promised to have an open door and I've promised she won't learn about something first from another source. Seems fair. On the other hand, if my blog were intended for communicating with my students like one that I read, I would like to think that it would be a different story. Still, embedded in the there is idea of the always-on worker. This idea isn't new, technologists especially have been dealing with its repercussions for years - but as technology has become ubiquitous in each given industry, it has become an issue that industry needs to address. It seems that, sadly in some ways, the flood of this type of technology has just hit schools - most teachers now have laptops and cell phones, many of which are provided by the schools. And my school system, for example, provides the phones with the expectation (given up front, of course) that you will almost always be available to answer the phone for your students, their parents, and your colleagues. Now, is this a good idea? Absolutely. There should never be an excuse that a student didn't understand the home work, and perhaps the frustration that goes along with not understanding. Instead, students can call, ask a quick question, and get the issues straightened out. Many times, the call is an extremely quick one and helps the student so much that he or she is a star in class the next day -- winning scenario all around. On the other hand, there is the expectation that you answer your phone, check your email at home, and work, well, much of the time. This always-on attitude that pervades the workplace (not just mine, but many) requires that we, as the workers (both teachers and those in other fields) to decide what our lives will be like and when we will work, then set our boundaries, and then stick to those boundaries. Firmly. It's not something that I do as well as I'd like - I find myself working most nights and weekends and feeling overwhelmed by it -- skipping yoga and my runs because I know that I have work waiting, or because I have responsibilities to yearbook or other school projects. In fact, this week, I was so busy that I didn't get to blog as much as I'd like, since I do only blog from home, on my home network, with my home computers... :-) Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
I'll post more about this when I know when the story will run, but I'm being interviewed Friday by a Houston Chronicle reporter for a story on teachers who blog. I find the idea interesting - apparently I'm one of the few to do so who blogs under my own name. I'm fortunate to have a principal who was willing to be open-minded about my pre-existing blog. It's become a part of who I am and I didn't want to give it up. On the other hand, I've definitely caught myself editing some of the things I've thought about posting because now I know that my students might find me (not that they'd be interested in googling their boring English teacher) and that I am not in the same industry full-time anymore. Well, I'll post again after I speak to the reporter and see when the story will run. Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link
Thanks to my mom for pointing out one of the articles from this week's NY Times magazine, "What it Takes to Make a Student." The article, written by Paul Tough, describes the current standing of the No Child Left Behind act and how many people are trying to judge its success and failure. The article spends a significant amount of time describing the KIPP schools (my schools!) and our mission, techniques, and successes. It's interesting - much of what the article talks about it more prevalent at the middle schools than at our high school, in that we're trying to "grow up" the model. Not an easy task. You have to find just the right balance of keeping the rigid structures that have helped our kids to succeed as much as they have and giving them enough rope and freedom to make their own mistakes, succeed on their own, and, yes, tough as it is, fail on their own. Otherwise, of course, we aren't preparing them to be college students and working adults very successfully. Finding that line of how much to maintain the middle school chanting and SLANTing (read the article -- it describes how a student should listen and participate in class) is tough, but we're "plowing on" with it, as my principal would say. We grow up the model in many ways, but our school does have extended hours, extended days, and many extremely bright and dedicated teachers - people I'm proud to work with. Of course, so many of those teachers are young and new to the field... or, like me, not so young but new to the field. I just hope that we continue to get and keep teachers with both the dedication and intelligence - I agree with the article that our kids benefit from hearing the conversations of "professionals" and the elevated language that often comes with that. Permanent Link to this entry: Permanent Link |
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