What do teachers make?

I had to post this after I saw that my sister-in-law posted it on Facebook. She is an English teacher in Canton. There is a little bit of language at the end, but I think what he says is extremely powerful :)

Foot- Pleasure Reading: The Hunger Games

Thanks to spring break, I have FINALLY finished the Hunger Games and all I can say is OMG. Literally. If anyone is on the fence about reading these books, hop that fence, run to your nearest bookstore, and get to reading. The story is amazing. The characters are lovable. The issues the book makes you think about are chilling. Also be prepared to cry a lot. I bawled for the last three chapters of Mockingjay. As much as I wish that I could write about what I thought about this book in detail, I wont. Doing so would ruin the books for you, and I refuse to do that. So all I can really say is that they were amazing.

I am really excited for the movies to start coming out next year, but I am also very nervous about how they will portray the books. So many movies made from books have been completely disappointing and some have even ruined books altogether for me. Looking on the bright side and hoping that the movies will be just as amazing as the books, thought I would share my picks for actors for my two favorite boys (team Peeta all the way:)

Alex Pettyfer = Peeta

Gaspard Ulliel = Gale

One of my favorite characters in the book is Haymitch. Although he is a drunk and is inebriated through a good portion of the novels, he is amazingly loveable. I think that he cares a lot about Peeta and Katniss, and although he makes them mad a lot, he always has their well-being in mind. Besides the main characters, I am really interested to see who plays Haymitch. They need to cast someone that can get his character just right because I think he is extremely awesome and important to the story.

Firestone Experience and Multi-Modal Test Prep

I think that there is a lot of tension between the role of a modern high school and standardized test preparation. In the digital age, teachers and schools are becoming more aware that being able to read and understand novels and other forms of traditional writing is not enough to be literate anymore. Students need to know how to look at and understand all kinds of texts, including the Internet. When teachers have to focus so much on preparing students for standardized testing, I think that it is harder for them to keep this broader definition of literacy in their minds and involved in their classrooms. How is a teacher to incorporate multi-modal literacies into their classroom when they have to make sure students will pass the OGT? When I first thought about it, I literally could come up with nothing to combine the two. Because of this reason, I do not see standardized test preparation as something that could easily be merged with multi-modal literacies.

At Firestone this complication was seen. I am sure it is the same at most high schools. Students are given OGT packet after OGT packet and expected to answer the questions. The questions presented are ones that are not easily paired with multi-modal learning models. The kids read a story and answer the questions, over and over again. The boredom in their faces is not hard to detect and their boredom is followed closely by their detachment from the material at hand.

For this reason, it is extremely important to shake things up a little while preparing for the OGT. If we bore students to death everyday leading up to the actual test, I believe that they will have a huge chance of being burnt out when test time arrives. Including multi-modal aspects into test preparation would be very beneficial because the monotony of the preparation with packets would be alleviated, plus the broadening definition of literacy could still be addressed. The question is, how do we do this?

As a future teacher, I have several ideas for this that I could use in my future classroom. The first idea is online test preparation. While thinking about multi-modal literacies and test prep, I found a blog focusing solely on OGT test preparation. It is aimed towards school districts, high school curriculum directors, superintendents, teachers, and parents. Although the bloggers profile is kept confidential, by the professional nature and detailed knowledge about the test, I assume that the blogger is high up in the educational field. This blogger suggests using online test prep for the OGT. Her reasoning is this:

“In today’s times the lives of many students consist around the internet. Online learning is one on one instruction. Online practice test products give students another avenue for learning. Because the OGT is required to pass in order to get a high school diploma every thing that can help students to pass should be used.”

After giving reasons for preparing online she mentions a source that teachers can use. It is called IQ-ity. On this site, teachers can customize content for each student. The teacher and parents can then view the student’s progress and help the student in class and at home. Although the program is available nationwide,

“IQ-ity’s tool for online practice test help is completely aligned with Ohio’s state standards and benchmarks of the OGT. The tool was written by Ohio teachers that have years of online teaching experience. It also features a simulated OGT test that uses ODE tests blueprints. The test system can also be customized for schools. Students will also find study tips and test item strategies.”

Other software test preparations that can be used are programs such as Bright Education and Study Island. These also allow students the freedom to prepare for the test at home.

One thing to take into consideration when signing up for some of these programs is that many of them cost money. There are also several ways to prepare for the OGT multi-modally without any cost. One way that I thought of has already been discussed in class and in our textbook. That is blogs. In my classroom, I could put questions that I think the class would benefit from on the blog and have them answer online. This would get them in the digital community while still responding to traditional OGT questions. It would also be a break from the constant packets.

Another thing I thought of was to apply some of the tasks that the OGT asks students to preform in an alternative and multi-modal way. While doing this the teacher would still need to make sure that the students will be able to understand how to do the same thing traditionally on the OGT. I think that this kind of modification would be suited for the writing portion.  One thing I thought would be interesting to do would be to write a letter to the editor on the website of a newspaper. This would be good because a lot of times on the OGT students are asked to write to an editor or superintendent of their school and state their opinion on an issue that is currently being debated. Writing to the editor of an online newspaper about a current issue would let them practice the format of such a letter. It would also let them be part of an online community and interact with others with similar or opposing opinions.

As I said before, fusing multi-modal literacy and standardized test preparation is not easy, but it can be done. Above are only a few examples of ways the two things can work together. To do so teachers need patience and creativity. Also, schools need to be open to alternative test prep and discontinue the constant packet work. Although standardized testing is not always a teacher’s favorite thing to prepare for, it needs to be known that it can be altered from the traditional ways and other skills besides how to pass the OGT can be learned from it.

 (1008 words)

Foot- Date a girl who reads

Just found this as I was stumbling and thought you all would like to read it.... Enjoy.

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve. 

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow. 

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book. 

Buy her another cup of coffee. 

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice. 

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does. 

She has to give it a shot somehow. 

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world. 

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two. 

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series. 

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are. 

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype. 

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots. 

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads. 

Or better yet, date a girl who writes." 
— Rosemary Urquico

Foot- Extra Credit

I have learned so much about how to make my classroom more multi-modal. I think that this is really important because our students are becoming more and more immersed into a technological world. We need to do our best to include that into school so that what they learn can relate more to their lives. I loved the idea of the multi-genre autobiography. Before doing this project, I never thought that the texts that I grew up with really could be considered an autobiography. I see this now. Doing the project, I saw how each of the texts I talked about influenced my life. I think this is something that our future students need to see as well. They also need to understand that literacy is not just about reading books but reading all kinds of texts. I think that this project does this. I think that it would be a great way to start a class. Not only does it help the students get to know each other and their similarities and differences, but it will also teach them the things I have mentioned above.

One thing that I now want to do in my classroom because of this class is integrate social networking into lessons and the class in general. I never would have thought that this was possible. Looking at blogs and nings in class has opened my eyes to a whole new community and the possibility of bringing that community to the classroom. I think that getting students online is such a good idea because it is teaching them literacy in a Web 2.0 world. They need to know how to communicate online and the consequences of doing so. In my classroom, I want to have the students' finished work posted online. I think this is important because they can share their writings and projects with more than just the class. I could set up a class wiki or Google site, and students could put reading and writing portfolios on it. Dr. Kist talks about this on page 65 of his book The Socially Networked Classroom. One other smaller thing that I want to do in my classroom with social networking is have a Facebook page for the class. I would use this for reminding students about tests and projects that are due. It could also be a place were they could post questions to each other about class assignments. This way I could see their questions, and if they couldn't answer them among themselves, I could.

Before this class, I would have never thought about using social networking to such extents in my classroom. Although I am excited to implement these things, there are many challenges as well as benefits to using them. Some of the benefits I have already talked about. Students need to be literate in a technological world. Using social networking can help them with this. They can see what it is like to put their work out there and have others who they might not even know respond to them. It can also get students more interested in class projects because they will be using the technology that they use outside of class as it is. Although these are really good reasons to use technology in the classroom, there are many things that could hinder this. The most obvious to me is the schools themselves. In my school, I couldn't even get on Youtube. Some school are slowly getting away from anti-technology views, but some have a long way to go. Dr. Kist's book takes this into consideration, as it is divided up into sections based levels of technological access in schools. Another challenge is student safety. Along with the positive aspects of being out on the web with others, also comes the realization that not all of the people using the internet are nice and safe. Students' safety need to be a major concern. Teachers should fully research and be aware of safety issues. Because of the safety issue, parents will be another challenge. Teachers should be fully aware of parents' wishes concerning social networking and keep them in the loop at all times.

These are just a few of the things that this class has got me thinking about. There are so many ways to implement technology into the classroom. I think it is such an important thing to do. There is no escaping the prevalence of technology, so we might as well embrace it.

Foot- the Economy of Film

The things I read in Chapter 5 of Great Films didn't surprise me one bit. I think that today we see this mix of film as art and film as economy all the time. A movies production costs and earnings at the box office are things we talk about frequently. Our society is not in the dark about the millions and millions of dollars spent on movies. We are also very aware of the merchandise that accompanies said movies. These are things we have come to expect from movies.

In our recent past we have seen one major effect of film being a largely economic industry: the writers strike. In 2007, the Writers Guild of America went on strike because they believed that they were not being paid enough for the amount of money the film industry was making (sound familiar... charlie sheen *cough* *cough*) This is obviously an issue that deals with the economics of Hollywood. This chapter reminded me of this and made me realize how controlling the economic side of film really is.

I really liked how this chapter mention independent films as well. I have not seen a lot of independent films, but reading a little about them got me excited for the film festival!

Foot- Pleasure Reading: LOST

All this talk of Lost got me in the mood to try and re-watch it. When it was originally on T.V. my brother and I watched it and LOVED it.... for the first 2 or 3 seasons. I would literally cut out all of the articles and pictures about lost from the TVGuide and posted them all over my room. Then I stopped watching it. I really don't know why. I think it had to do with how confusing it got. But now I have started it again, and I just finished season one about an hour ago. I dragged my husband into watching it with me and he is addicted as well.

After watching the clip in class the other day, I am more aware of how the show was made and the things that happened behind the cameras. I am more aware of how the scenes are shot and the sound effects that are used. It is a wonderfully made show. It would be great to use in a classroom when talking about film like we did in Ms. Foot's class. It has great examples of how the director and people behind the scenes can make a show or movie great.

Pytash- Classics Chapter 5

Through much of high school and college I hated poetry. I didn't want to take the time to interpret it, and I thought it was really boring. The only poems I really liked were by Poe. It wasn't until recently that I really started to enjoy poetry. In my first American literature class we looked at Emily Dickinson's works. I really liked her poems. Then when I took Creative Writing, I started to like poetry even more. Because I have dealt with hating poetry for a while, I can see why high school students would shy away from it. It is not as straight forward as prose. You have to think about it much more to really get the full meaning of what the poet is trying to say.

I really liked how Jago deals with difficult poems in her class. She starts by not asking questions about the meaning of the poem itself, but the imagery within it. I think that this gets the students dissecting the different parts of the poems without them really realizing what it is they are doing. Looking at the individual pieces of imagery takes away the uncertainty of taking on the poem as a whole. Once the students understand the imagery, they can more easily see the bigger picture in the poem. I also like how Jago makes sure to have the students reread the poem again after they have done all of this. It shows them how the poem has literally transformed for them. They will see that they can really understand poetry. It will show them their progress.

As a side note, I really liked the last small section in the chapter about Poe. I think the fact that he discussed how he wrote his poetry and the thought process behind it is something that students could really learn from. I learned something new from reading this! I had no idea Poe used a raven in his poem because they could talk. I thought he just randomly personified the bird. Being the curious person that I am, I looked talking ravens up on youtube... enjoy!

Pytash- Classics Chapter 3

One thing that I really liked about chapter three is the discussion about what makes a book good for a high school classroom. It seemed that the books that should be very thought provoking. This is demonstrated by the criteria that Jago lists for picking a book. Some of these are:

• expose readers to complex human dilemmas
• explore universal themes that combine different periods and cultures 
• challenge readers to reexamine their beliefs (47)

These three points show the importance of books that will make the students think. Good classic pieces of literature do this. Jago backs this up by saying, "Great literature deepens our experience, heightens our sensibilities, and matures our judgement" (47). If this is true, I believe that students will also gain critical thinking skills from dissecting the classics and relating them to their culture today.

Another thing that I learned from this chapter was how much effort Jago asks her students and herself to put into her classes. The list of literature that she has her classes read is staggering. Her sophmores alone read twenty books! This seems like a lot to me. Jago is upfront with her students about the effort that it will require. She says, "I am forthright with my students about the fact that they are going to have to give up some of their TV and telephone time in order to complete their reading. Students have the time for longer books. They just need to be persuaded to reallocate minutes from other pleasures" (48). 

She also expects a lot from herself when it comes to reading these pieces of literature. Jago spends twenty-four or more hours on a book before presenting it to her class for the first time. She says, "It is not simply a matter of generating new handouts or creating a day-to-day plan [...] but, rather, a deep knowledge of the book itself that I needed to acquire" (50). Twenty-four hours is a lot! She stresses how important it is to have a solid knowledge of the literature that we teach, which is so true. We also need to develop a strong love for the books that we teach in our classrooms. How can we expect the students to even use their free time to read the books if we do not show an excitement for them ourselves? 

Foot- Video Games in the Classroom

This article was extremely interesting. Although it seemed strange at first glance, I can see some major benefits to having a school mentally centered around a video game. One reason relates back to what Dr. Kist talked about in his book. Both he and the founders of Quest to Learn acknowledge the fact that schools are lacking in technology in general. In a world where technology dominates our student's out-of-school lives, why is it almost nonexistent in schools? I think that the Quest to Learn school recognizes this fact and wants to make school relate more to the students lives in the Web 2.0 world.

Another good thing about this school is that it seems very challenge-based. Students are using critical thinking skills to make and create games and other multi-modal things that will help them in their lives. Quest to Learn also seems to combine different subject areas in the student's classroom. They learn how things can be interdisciplinary. This will help them make connections that they would not be able to otherwise and help them in real life situations.

One thing I did not like about this school was the extreme way in which they used technology. I think it is important to remember that while technology is becoming increasingly important, it is not all there is out there. One quote in the article really upset me:

"Why memorize the 50 states and their capitals? Why, in the age of Google and pocket computers, memorize anything?"

How can they say this? Should we rely on technology alone for knowledge. I think it is very wrong to think this way. What if, God forbid, a student didn't have access to technology? How would they gain information. I often think of what a mess I would be in if I were in need of help from a friend or family member and my phone was dead or not there. Because I have become so dependent on my cellphone where all I have to do is push one button to call anyone, I don't know anyone's phone number. This would be the same way with basic information if we neglect teaching it because we have technology to rely on.

Foot- Publish or Perish

This Christmas, my husband got an iPad from his father, so I have got to play around with it a little bit. Because the e-reader aspect of the device is just one small part I had not really given it much thought before. This article got me thinking about how big of a change the iPad and e-readers in general have changed publishing. 

Once again while reading this, I came to realize how many people that are in the technology industry are big jerks. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and now the people at Amazon. It was distressing to see what they were doing to publishers. Publishers are such an important part of an author's writing life, and they are trying to take out this important middleman. It makes me wonder what the consequences will be if they succeed at doing this. 

Looking at e-readers from the point-of-view of someone who loves to read, I am now starting to see the benefits to their existence. The hatred that I have had against them since the beginning is slowly starting to wear away. In the article one statistic really shocked me, and hurt me as a future English teacher. Steve Jobs said, "Forty per cent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year." This broke my heart. It is rare for me to not be reading a book at all times and I usually get through one a month, even with my busy schedule. Reading is such a huge part of my life that I can't image that many people not reading. Later in the article it is said that "Kindle users 'buy 3.1 times as many books as they did twelve months ago.'" That is a big jump! E-readers are really helping people to read more!

Foot- I Heart Novels

Reading this was really interesting to me. These novels reminded me a little bit of fan-fiction. It is a way for amateur writers being able to write to an interested audience. What surprised me the most was the popularity of these novels among the young people of Japan. It's amazing that it is getting people to read in a way many people probably have never thought possible. It is also encouraging young people that want to express themselves through writing and receive feedback for their efforts. While some of the people in the article didn't like the idea of the popularity of these novels, I really don't see anything wrong with it. It gets people reading. At the end of the article, Kiki admits to not reading a lot but mentions that there was one book that she could really relate to--"Deep Love," a cellphone novel.

Finding this article interesting, I thought I would do a little research. I went to the Maho i-Land website to check it out. Unfortunately, it is all in Japanese and as much as I wish I could, I can't read it. So I Googled American cellphone novels and found textnovel.com, an American cellphone novel website. Pretty interesting stuff...

Seeing the popularity among young adults in Japan with these texting novels, I started thinking about reading on mobile devices in general. It made me wonder if we have students that are on cellphones all day anyways, could we get them reading by encouraging them to use their mobile devices to read? Not only can phones be used for these texting novels, they can also be used to read literature. Many smart phones now feature Kindle and Nook applications that are free to download. Classics in these forms are extremely cheap, and can be downloaded straight to these apps. This may be a way to encourage students to read in a way that they are becoming more used to as it is.