MySpace strikes again!

Last week, a gorilla briefly escaped from the Columbia, SC zoo. There doesn't seem to have been many injuries (certainly no unfortunate mauling of any innocent bystanders) but the ramifications aren't quite over for a former elected SC official.

If there is one lesson that we must teach our students, it is to use networking sites responsibly. We have conversations about online predators, but we also need to talk about how what we post on social networking sites can effect our livelihoods and relationships. Just ask Rusty DePass.

Now I don't know Rusty personally. In fact, I've never heard of him. But I'm going to gander that he isn't too terribly bright. After the gorilla escape, he posted on his MySpace page that he was sure "it's just one of Michelle's ancestors — probably harmless." The posting then was publicized on a state politics blog. Now he is making public apologies and I would gander that his political career has ended, whatever it may be.

We have to talk to our students about the things that they say to others, so why aren't we talking to them about their Internet postings? This is a valuable conversation to have, no matter the age. What you put on the Internet is out there for everyone to see and share. It is in permanent publication and can really hurt you if you aren't careful. As we address media literacy in our English classrooms, we need to address social networking sites. They aren't going to go away and almost all of our students participate in them. It is a conversation that has to be had.

Five Things I've Gained from Reading Literature

What to Do
Copy the questions and instructions below, and paste them into a blog entry, a note on Facebook, or a discussion forum—anywhere that you can reach the people you want to. You can use the comments area on this blog entry if you'd like as well. Delete my answers to the questions, and add your own. Feel free to any extra instructions or invite specific people to answer the questions when you post them. You might ask all the students in your class to complete the questions in their journals or as part of a exam review activity, for instance.

The Questions
Think about the literature you've read—short stories, novels, plays, memoirs, and poetry. Any literature counts, from picture books to epic poems, and from romance novels to sci-fi fan-fiction. Answer each question, and explain your response in a few sentences. Just copy the questions, remove my answers, add your own, and then invite others to respond.

1. What piece of literature has stayed with you, even though you haven't read it recently? This would undoubtedly be Gone with the Wind. It was the first piece of true literature that I ever read--my first foray away from Sweet Valley High and Nancy Drew. I still have the tattered first copy I ever owned. There's a little duct tape on the spine, but it was definitely handled with love.
2. What character or story has influenced something you've done? Well this one isn't necessarily literature, but there's a link. I can't remember the exact date that I first saw Dead Poet's Society, but I knew right away that I wanted to be that English teacher. I knew that I wanted to influence students to make a difference in their world and to really appreciate the universal themes in literature--instead of just rhyme schemes. Robin Williams made me want to help high school students enjoy reading as much as I do, and to enjoy it without all the technicalities that we sometimes kill it with.
3. What character or piece of literature seemed to relate to a recent news story or personal experience? I recently linked a Sports Illustrated column about professional athlete Joe Delaney with "To an Athelete Dying Young" by A. E. Housman. This also relates to Brett Favre's recent fight to stay on past his own prime. Using the prose examples help to take some of the sting out of the poem itself--just the short lines and stanzas seem to give some students hives.
4. What character has made you wonder why he or she did/said something? Which one hasn't? I spent most of my time during the Twilight series wondering why in the world Bella Swann thought true love was hers. More specifically, though, might be Elizabeth in Alexandra Ripley's Charleston. I deeply wanted her to see through her suitor's (his name escapes me) charms before it was too late. Would the story have been as good if there was no murder, though?
5. Name something from a work of literature (such as a character, setting, or quotation) that you find beautiful or vivid. The most beautiful thing I have read recently comes from Cynthia Rylant's book, God Went to Beauty School. The idea of God coming to earth and living life as a human being in this day and age is amazing to me. The poem, "God got a Dog" is particularly beautiful and sad all at once. God sees the dog, lonely and hungry, and realizes that He made it and feels that He has to take responsiblity. The compassion is heavy on the reader. The entire book is well written and enjoyable--but also deep in philosophical thought.

It might be swine flu...it's probably just spring fever...

So I actually live in the little town with two "probable" cases of swine flu. A neighboring school cancelled a soccer match with us because of the fear of flu. I feel an aching right now deep in my bones--a deep desire to be at home on the couch or out in the yard or even on the beach. I don't think it's swine flu--I think it's spring fever.

It is as hard for the teachers as it is for the students to stay motivated at this time of the year. The weather is nice; things are winding down. There are better places to be than in a building with 800 teenagers. I wish they would realize that we struggle at this time of year to. It seems that teenagers believe that just because we teach, we love being here all the time and have no other life. Seriously? I miss the beach! I wanna lay around and do nothing.

Oh well. It's not swine flu, so I guess I'll tough it out. A little spring fever never killed anyone, did it?

Yay, spring break!

Is anyone else enjoying spring break as much as I am? So far, I've visited Sullivan's Island and Garden City. I'll redo Sully's this weekend. I'm thoroughly enjoying this break and looking forward to a four-day work week when we return. What is it about this time of the year that makes no one want to go to school? Students just think that they are the only ones that struggle during this time of the year.

My favorite thing about spring used to be teaching Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. There's a lesson for everyone...but especially high school seniors. They have a lot to learn from the elderly and this book helps them be ready to receive it. I loved the warm weather because I was able to teach it and be outside at the same time. High school seniors will listen to anything if you can sit outside while you do it.

So enjoy this warm weather. Read a book. If you haven't read something by Mitch Albom, check one of his works out immediately. He's awesome.

The SSR Breakdown

So I'm crunching surveys from our tenth graders on reading. I really want to honestly know if they are reading and if their attitudes are changing. I don't want to bust anyone. I just want to know...and boy am I starting to know...

The most interesting insight from these surveys so far is the students who believe that SSR is a good thing. They believe that SSR will improve their vocabulary. They don't read outside of school. SSR is their big chance to spend time with a good book, yet they aren't doing it. They are missing their golden opportunity because their teacher doesn't particpate/believe in SSR. I thought the teenagers were supposed to be the hard ones to win over.

I find it heartbreaking that students see the good in a practice, yet the teachers aren't willing to take the time to invest in it. Students that obviously would not be readers outside of school aren't being given the chance to be readers inside of school. Now that's malpractice.

Gratitude

No one goes into education for the money. Sometimes, they do go into it because they love history or they love English or they love chemistry. Most of the time, though, they love kids. They love learning. And they love to see kids learning. And the bonus at the end of the day is a student's gratitude.

I taught Terrance many, many moons ago. I'm pretty sure I had him in English I my first year at Newberry. Oh good heavens, I had no idea what I was doing. I keep thinking of those poor kids and thinking, if I only knew then what I knew now. If only.

But I did the best I could. And that was more than enough for Terrance. When he was a senior, in the spring semester, he came to visit me. We both had long moved on--he to other teachers and I to other students. But Newberry is a small school. You always see each other. You always speak. So when Terrance got to the spring semester of his senior year without passing the exit exam, he came knocking.

I didn't know a whole lot about the test back then. I didn't know how important authentic reading activities were. But Terrance had a weight-lifting class and I had planning and some workbooks. So we sat down together and practiced. We worked on very basic paragraph structures and multiple choice questions.

Our hard work paid off. On the last day of school for seniors that year, Terrance came to me, with tears in his eyes, to thank me for all my help. He was going to be able to graduate.

I ran into to Terrance at the gas station this weekend. Once again, it's Newberry. These things happen. I look back at our time together and think that I could have done so much more. Terrance was the one who did all the hard work. But when I see him, it's the same refrain. Thank you. Thank you for everything that you did for me. Thank you for being there. Thank you for your help.

It's gratitude. That's what makes us come back every day. That's what makes all the headaches worth while--a lifetime of Terrances.

Tips for a Successful Read Aloud

You’ll need to start by selecting the right text for your class. Always, ALWAYS, read your selection in advance. You need to ensure that what you are reading is appropriate for your students and your lesson. You also need to decide whether or not you are enjoying the text yourself. You can’t fake enthusiasm with a bunch of teenagers. They won’t buy it.

When choosing a text, think carefully about what purpose you want the read-aloud to serve. Is this to introduce a new chapter? Do you want to make sure that they know the current events in your content area? Do you want to provide them with an example of your content area in the real world? Choose your text wisely for the most success.

The best time to read to kids is at the beginning or end of class. Read alouds are perfect transition activities. They don’t need to be longer than about 15 minutes—students get antsy if you go longer than that. If you’re reading a novel or other lengthy piece, you may want to plan to end your session at an intriguing point—leave your audience begging for more! You can follow your read aloud up with discussion, journals, write-arounds, written conversations, etc., but don’t feel that you need to grade them.

Reading aloud to teens can make a profound difference in their lives as learners and as readers.

Something I've Never Considered

What in the world is a graphic novel? Maybe you spent time as a teenager collecting comic books—stories of superheroes and villains where the good guy always wins and gets the super-hot girl. If you did, you may even be a self-proclaimed dork. Your mom may have thrown them out, much to your chagrin. But don’t worry, they are making a comeback in a much larger form.

While comics were typically a series of stories, the term graphic novel refers to a format, rather than a genre. They are often independent stories, instead of a series. And the content is vast, and sometimes mature. Graphic novels have a lot of potential for reengaging marginalized readers and engaging reluctant readers. Their popularity is on the rise in recent years. In 2006, consumers in the United States spent nearly $330 million on graphic novels and comics. Librarians only counted for 10% of those purchases. Graphic novels are a popular format that can pull advanced readers, who often don’t have free time to read, back into the joys of literacy. The format can be very time-friendly to the overworked AP student, but can also be very nonthreatening to a more struggling reader. Studies have shown that graphic novels often attract male readers who are reluctant to read much else.

So what do you look for and where do you start? Some graphic novels have great content connections. Nat Turner by Kyle Baker is very nearly wordless. Some primary documents are included as Baker tells the story of Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion, beginning with the Middle Passage. There is no doubt that the message is conveyed through powerful images that will keep you turning each page. And yes, looking closely at pictures is reading.

Confessions of a Blabbermouth includes a teenager’s blog as central to the plot. She uses her blog to vent about everything—including her mother’s boyfriend and the secret he allegedly has with his daughter—in the most public manner possible.

As Jane, of The Plain Janes, walks past a sidewalk café in Metro City, a terrorist’s bomb detonates. Her parents are overtaken by their fear and immediately snatch her to the suburbs, where surely they’ll be safe. She befriends three other Janes and they commence to make “art attacks” on the city. All the while, Jane keeps in touch with a mysterious man who she rescued from the explosion, and slowly comes into her own.

Finally, The Professor’s Daughter examines the true spirit of Victorian London through the eyes of a mischievous girl and a mummy who has opened his eyes for the first time in 3,000 years. He, of course, instantly falls in love with her. But how can their love survive their fathers, the London Police, and even the Royal Archeological Society?

Graphic novels have a great deal to offer our students and young readers. It has been suggested that reading graphic novels may require more complex cognitive skills than the reading of text alone. If you aren’t convinced, visit the media center and ask for a copy of manga—Japanese graphic novels that read from right to left. You will quickly see how demanding these can be for our students, but our students will rise to the occasion.

Like Riding a Bike

As a coach, it's not often that I get put back into classrooms to work my own magic. I'm usually there as a support for the teacher and I like to stay in the background and let his/her magic shine through.

Today, though, I had the rare occassion of being pulled to briefly cover a class. A science class. This might normally be scary for me, but today's science lesson dealt with reading an article and determining pros and cons. And that is something I know a little bit about--reading.

Getting in with the kids and pushing my sleeves up is not assimilar to riding a bike (which I can say since I recently started riding a bike again). If you've got the knack, you've got it. It doesn't get real rusty. You don't forget how to do it. It comes right back to you right away. And that was the way it worked for me today. I enjoyed those kids. I didn't even mind that they were freshmen! I was able to help them find word cues that would guide them towards filling in in their T-chart. And I was really proud of my science teacher for using literacy in her classroom.

When Technology Goes Awry

I've found myself with very little to say these days. But today, my temper got the better of me and my printer took a licking for it.

The long and sordid tale began last week. I installed new ink cartridges. They seem to run out so quickly these days! After I put in the new ones, I noticed they were a little more noisy than usual. To really spell it out for you, I felt like a machine gun was shooting right beside me and I found myself cowering in my chair for fear that it would take me out. Once I got used to it, I was then subjected to the embarrassment as people wandered by my office door and wondered what in the world I had gotten into now. One student insisted that it would go away with time. The same thing had apparently happened at her house. Well it didn't just go away.

In fact, it got worse. No, it didn't actually start shooting at me, but it did start to take paper in. Over and over and over again. Let me go in depth here--if I tried to print, it would pull the paper halfway through the printer and then stall. I would press the resume button and it would take off. It would just pull through piece after piece until I either took the paper away or pulled the plug. (At one point I thought it was possessed. I swear it was working without the plug, but no, I had pulled out the computer cable. That would make for a better story, though.)

This went on all day today. Not even the person at HP Tech Support had any idea what would cause this poltergeist to attack my printer. So I did the only think I could do--I went a little Office Space on it. Nothing actually broke, although I'm not beyond that yet. But I did slam it around a few times. Surprisingly enough, this did not make it want to work for me! I know, the mind reels!

Luckily I had a back up and we are up and running. It's tempting, though, to take that ol' printer out to a field with a baseball bat and give it a piece of my mind.