Getting back into the groove...

School started back up this week, so I've been crazy-busy trying to learn all my new students' names, helping the Drama Club get ready for their next one act performance, and just generally trying to keep my sanity. My classes are slightly bigger this semester (no inclusion classes this time), which means twice the papers to grade whenever I assign work. Sigh. I had over 1,000 unread items in Google Reader from this week; I've done a blitzkrieg on reading/commenting and have my fingers crossed that I didn't miss anything important.

As for my challenges...well, I'm much better at the reading than the reviewing part. :) I hit up a used book store a few weeks ago, and I've already made my way through a few YA novels.

Bonus links:
Not to brag or anything, but I got 100% on this logic test. The high school Math flashbacks that came with it weren't as great...
Leila over at bookshelves of doom, one of my favorite YA book blogs, is starting a YA-themed fiction magazine. Click on the link for more info and submission guidelines.

Reviews, Blog Improvement Project posts, and Dream King Challenge updates coming soon - hopefully

The gauntlet has been thrown...

I started my last semester of grad school on Monday. This week has been exhausting! I only have two classes, but because we start student teaching the first week of February, we have to cram a semester's worth of education into one month. Yikes. My classes are interesting, though: The Teaching of Reading (very helpful for English teachers, believe it or not) and Culture and Schooling (aka Diversity in the Classroom). A lot of reading, but it's mostly helpful and interesting and (let's face it) nothing I can't handle, as I am a reading fiend. One of the most useful books so far has been Cris Tovani's I Read It, but I Don't Get It, which has really helped me understand how I read, as well as how I make sense of what I read. I'm sure it will be useful for my (future) students, as well.

One of the articles that I got a lot out of was Dr. Ruby Payne's Understanding and Working With Adults and Children From Poverty. I didn't agree with a lot of what she said (rebuttals are available here and here), but her idea of "3 voices" really struck a chord with me. According to Dr. Payne,

Inside everyone's head are internal voices that guide the individual. These three voices are referred to as the child voice, the adult voice and the parent voice. It has been my observation that individuals who have become their own parent quite young do not have an internal adult voice. They have a child voice and a parent voice, but not an adult voice.

What an internal adult voice does is allow for negotiation. This voice provides the language of negotiation and allows the issues to be examined in a non-threatening way.

Educators tend to speak to students in a parent voice, particularly in discipline situations. To the student who is already functioning as a parent, this is unbearable, and almost immediately, the incident is exacerbated beyond the original happening. The tendency is for educators to also use the parent voice with poor parents because the assumption is that a lack of resources must indicate a lack of intelligence. Poor parents are extremely offended by this as well.

As I was reading, I realized that that's one of the reasons I dislike my (temporary, part-time, weekend) job so much. So many of our customers are older (and richer), and they tend to talk to me like I'm either 5-years-old or really, really dumb. They like to put exclamation points on the ends of all of their sentences: "Well, aren't you a good little cook!" "You sure do look busy over here!" etc, etc. They also frequently ask me a question, and then proceed to talk right over me as I'm answering them. It's very frustrating, but at least now I can think of it in terms of education and use it as an example of how NOT to treat my students.

In other news, Bea over at Feeling Kinda Blog Today has challenged everyone (I guess?) to join her in reading 52 books in 52 weeks. I am already on books 3 (the aforementioned Tovani tome) and 4 (The Fourth Bear, by Jasper Fforde). I love reading Fforde - a friend of mine described his books as "English major porn," and while I wouldn't go quite that far, they are really entertaining in a geeky, literary in-joke sorta way. Yay, books! I'm trying to beat last year's reading record by reading 100 books this year. I'm also counting YA novels, which is probably cheating because they tend to be short. Not to mention a horrible guilty pleasure. I mean, research for when I'm a teacher. Yeah.

In other other news, my friend Ashley has decided that she must lose 50 pounds* before her boyfriend gets home from Iraq in March. I figured, what the heck, I could stand to get in shape, too, and so we began a Serious Workout Regime this week. We started with this strip aerobics/hip hop dance video hosted by Carmen Electra, and holy crap, I have never been so sore. Until the next day, that is, when we hit the elliptical machine at the University fitness center. Yowza. The Regime has been temporarily suspended, pending a full recovery of my poor back and thighs.

*this is a completely arbitrary number on Ashley's part, as she doesn't own a scale and, consequently, has no idea how much she actually weighs

Books Read in 2008

Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix**
The Babysitter, R.L. Stine**
The Babysitter II, R.L. Stine**
The Babysitter III, R.L. Stine**
The Babysitter IV, R.L. Stine**
The Baby-Sitters Club #1: Kristy's Great Idea, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #2: Claudia and the Phantom Phonecalls, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #3: The Truth About Stacey, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #6: Kristy's Big Day, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #31: Dawn's Wicked Stepsister, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #38: Kristy's Mystery Admirer, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #44: Dawn and the Big Sleepover, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #45: Kristy and the Baby Parade, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #46: Mary Anne Misses Logan, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #47: Mallory on Strike, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #48: Jessi's Wish, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #50: Dawn's Big Date, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #52: Mary Anne + Too Many Babies, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #53: Kristy for President, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #55: Jessi's Gold Medal, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club #58: Stacey's Choice, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #1: Baby-sitters on Board!, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #2: Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #3: Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #4: Baby-sitters' Island Adventure, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #5: California Girls!, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #6: New York, New York!, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #7: Snowbound, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #8: Baby-sitters at Shadow Lake, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Mystery #1: Stacey and the Missing RIng, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Mystery #4: Kristy and the Missing Child, Ann M. Martin**
The Baby-Sitters Club Mystery #6: The Mystery at Claudia's House, Ann M. Martin**
Bella at Midnight, Diane Stanley**
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
Bluford High: Search for Safety, Paul Langan**
Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
Captain Wentworth's Diary, Amanda Grange
Chloe Does Yale, Natalie Krinsky
The Cider House Rules, John Irving
The Clique: Revenge of the Wannabes, Lisi Harrison**
The Clique: Invasion of the Boy Snatchers, Lisi Harrison**
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Laurie Viera Rigler
Congo, Michael Chrichton
The Crossing, Gary Paulsen**
The Dashwood Sisters' Secrets of Love, Rosie Rushton
The Dead Girlfriend, R.L. Stine**
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart**
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
The Dollhouse Murders, Betty Ren Wright**
Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist, Liz Kessler**
Encyclopedia Brown Mystery Collection, Donald J. Sobol**
Enthusiasm, Polly Shulman**
Esperanza Rising, Pam Muñoz Ryan**
Enthusiasm, Polly Shulman**
Ever, Gail Carson Levine**
Fear Street: Cheerleaders: The First Evil, R.L. Stine**
Fear Street: Cheerleaders: The Second Evil, R.L. Stine**
Fear Street: The Knife, R.L. Stine**
Fear Street: Lights Out, R.L. Stine**
Fear Street: Secret Admirer, R.L. Stine**
Fear Street: The Secret Bedroom, R.L. Stine**
Fear Street: The Stepsister, R.L. Stine**
Fear Street: Switched, R.L. Stine**
Fear Street Super Chiller: Bad Moonlight, R.L. Stine**
Flush, Carl Hiaasen**
Forever..., Judy Blume**
Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best Friend Must Do in Europe, Jane Harrington**
The Fourth Bear, Jasper Fforde
Gamiani, or Two Nights of Excess, Alfred de Musset
Gen 13: Netherwar, Christopher Golden and Jeff Mariotte**
The Ghosts of Charleston, Edward B. macy and Julian T. Buxton III
Gossip Girl: Because I'm Worth It, Cecily von Ziegesar**
Gossip Girl: You're the One That I Want, Cecily von Ziegesar**
Gossip Girl: I Like it Like That, Cecily von Ziegesar**
Gossip Girl: Nobody Does it Better, Cecily von Ziegesar**
Gossip Girl: Nothing Can Keep Us Together, Cecily von Ziegesar**
Gossip Girl: Only in Your Dreams, Cecily von Ziegesar**
Half-Moon Investigations, Eion Colfer**
Halloween Night, R.L. Stine**
Halloween Night II, R.L. Stine**
His Dark Materials: Northern Lights, Phillip Pullman**
His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife, Phillip Pullman**
His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass, Phillip Pullman**
Hoot, Carl Hiassen**
How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls, Zoe Dean
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, Ally Carter**
Inquiry-Based English Instruction: Engaging Students in Life and Literature, Richard Beach and Jamie Myers*
I Read It, But I Don't Get It, Cris Tovani*
The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
Just Ella, Margaret Peterson Haddix**
The Last Temptation of Christ, Nikolas Kazantzakis
Less Than Zero, Brett Easton Ellis
Let the Circle Be Unbroken, Mildred D. Taylor**
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow**
The Locker, Richie Tankersley Cusick**
Lords and Ladies, Terry Pratchett
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare
The Nanny Diaries, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich*
Nightjohn, Gary Paulsen**
Odd and the Frost Giants, Neil Gaiman**
The Once and Future King, T.H. White
The Open Shadow, Brad Solomon
The Other Boleyn Girl, Phillipa Gregory
The Other Woman, Jane Green
Peeps, Scott Westerfield**
Peter and the Starcatchers, James Barry and Ridley Pearson**
Pirates of the Retail Wasteland, Adam Selzer**
The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot**
The Princess Diaries Volume II: Princess in the Spotlight, Meg Cabot**
Rising Sun, Michael Chrichton
Sammy's Hill, Kristin Gore
The See-Through Kid #1: Getting Even, Elissa Snow**
The See-Through Kid #2: Wacky Wedding, Elissa Snow**
Shakespeare's Secret, Elise Broach**
Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Louis Sachar**
The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom, Lisa Delpit and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy*
The Snowman, R.L. Stine**
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide, Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black**
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Seeing Stone, Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black**
Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli**
Stitch ‘N Bitch, Debbie Stoller
Superpowers, David J. Schwartz
Sweet Valley High #3: Playing With Fire, Francine Pascal**
Sweet Valley High #34: Forbidden Love, Francine Pascal**
Sweet Valley University #12: College Cruise, Laurie John**
Sweet Valley University #15: Behind Closed Doors, Laurie John**
Through Ebony Eyes: What Teachers Need to Know But Are Afraid to Ask About African American Students, Gail L. Thompson*
ttyl, Lauren Myracle**
Tunnels, Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams**
Twilight Saga: Twilight, Stephanie Meyer**
Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Stephanie Meyer**
Twilight Saga: New Moon, Stephanie Meyer**
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer**
The Uglies Trilogy: Uglies, Scott Westerfeld**
The Uglies Trilogy: Pretties, Scott Westerfeld**
The Uglies Trilogy: Specials, Scott Westerfeld**
White Teachers / Diverse Classrooms: A Guide to Building Inclusive Schools, Promoting High Expectations, and Eliminating Racism, Julie Landsman and Chance W. Lewis*
The Wish List, Eoin Colfer**
The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon

Audiobooks:
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis**
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight, Margaret Cho
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
The Ruins, Scott Smith

Graphic Novels:
The Complete Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Bill Wellingham
Fables #10: The Good Prince, Bill Wellingham
The Killing Joke, Alan Moore
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier, Alan Moore
The Sandman #1: Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman
Y: The Last Man #10: Whys and Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughn

TBR:
Becoming Naomi León, Pam Muñoz Ryan**
The Corrections, Johnathan Franzen
Eldest, Christopher Paolini**
Heroes Don't Run: A Novel of the Pacific War, Harry Mazer**
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostovo
The Hours, Michael Cunningham
In Her Shoes, Jennifer Weiner
Kneeknock Rise, Natalie Babbitt**
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, Douglas Adams
Lush, Natasha Friend**
My First Year as a Teacher, edited by Pearl Rock Kane
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Oddballs, William Sleator**
Rant, Chuck Palahniuk
Riding Freedom, Pam Muñoz Ryan**
Soundings: A Democratic Student-Centered Education, Mark Springer
What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things That Matter Most, Todd Whitaker*
Zlata's Diary, Zlata Filipovic**

italicized - in progress
bold - educational research
* - for school
** - YA

Constructivism vs. the crazy lady

This weekend, I attended two teacher-themed conferences. The first, a middle grades summit, was held on campus. It was pretty interesting - I met Mark Springer, bought a copy of his book, Soundings: A Democratic Student-Centered Education, and attended a panel for Team QUEST, a multi-age team (6th, 7th, and 8th graders) in a Lee county school. The theme of the conference was "Democracy in the Classroom," so of course it focused on student-centered teaching. Since that's how I plan on running my classroom, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, I generally enjoy conferences (when I don't have to present), so no surprise there.

But then, I went to the SPAGE-sponsored Classroom Survivor conference in Macon. I've had a day and a half to process what I witnessed, and I'm still shocked and appalled. The conference itself wasn't terrible, but there was one break-out session that just completely blew me away - and not in a good way.

After the keynote speaker, we were told to attend a session on classroom management techniques. There were three available (elementary, middle, and secondary), and I went to the middle grades panel. I'm thankful that another MAT student (Lisa) was there with me, because I don't think I could have gotten through it without her.

After everyone had taken a seat, the woman who was supposed to lead the session informed us that we were "very lucky" to have a "special guest" come and share her experiences with us. She then introduced us to "Miss Jan." "Dolores Umbridge" would've been a little bit more accurate. This woman walked into the classroom and informed us that we would be calling her "Miss Jan" and she would, in turn, call us Miss or Mr because that was how we showed each other respect. She also told us that our class would go "one of two ways: MY way, or NOT YOUR way." At this point, Lisa and I exchanged glances, as if to ask, "Is this for real?" I was sure that she would crack at any moment and tell us that this was her way of showing us what NOT to do, but alas...

She then proceeded to regale us with anecdotes about her "effective" classroom management. The two that stand out in my mind:
* After telling us that the most important thing to do was "praise, rather than correct," she told us a charming story about a disruptive young man in one of her classes. While the rest of the class was working on a project (and, I'm assuming, could hear everything she was saying), she called this young man to her desk and asked him if his favorite color was orange.
"No," he said, "Why?"
"Because when I go driving, I see a lot of men wearing orange jumpsuits working on the side of the road, and I think that's how you'll end up if you're not careful."
Lovely!
* She also taught Amy Carter, daughter of Jimmy Carter, and had another disruptive young man in that class. So she asked one of the ubiquitous Secret Service Agents to have a talk with him. The next day, before class started, the agent walked over to the boy's desk, pulled his vest aside so that his gun was clearly visible, and said, "We're not going to have any problems today, are we?"

Does anyone else see a problem here? Lisa and I were both horrified, but judging by the laughs "Miss Jan" got, we were the only ones. What really annoyed me, though, was that we found out at the end of the panel that this thing woman only taught for 7 years, and retired from teaching after her son was born...25 years ago. Also? Apparently, she taught elementary school, not middle grades. How on earth does that qualify her to teach us about current middle level classroom management? And how in the HELL does she still have her certification? Surely asking a Secret Service Agent to threaten a child is enough to get anyone's teaching license revoked...

Yet another reason NCLB sucks...

One of the requirements for my MAT program was joining a whole bunch of professional organizations, most of which have acronymic titles featuring the words "Association" or "Education." One of them (I don't remember which one, actually, but I suspect it was one of the organizations for English teachers) sent me a link to this article from the Denver Post. It talks about a group of schools in Colorado whose reading and math scores have increased significantly in the past four years - one school went from having 20% of its students proficient in reading and math, to having 80 - 90% reading and doing math at or above grade level. When I first read that statistic, I thought, "Wow! That's great. I wonder how they managed such an increase..."

I didn't have to read much further to find out:

Hiza [the principal], who gives kids little vouchers for candy in the hallways when she sees good behavior, did away with science, social
studies and most recesses to focus almost entirely on the basics.

Teachers spent roughly three hours a day on reading and two on math.

Science scores, Hiza acknowledged, have suffered in comparison. Only 22 percent of fifth-graders - the only elementary grade that takes science tests - are proficient.

"There's only so much time in the day," Hiza said. "This allows us to concentrate on ... reading well."

Seriously. NO SCIENCE, SOCIAL STUDIES, OR RECESS. This is an elementary school! What happens when they get to middle or high school and they haven't learned the basics in those subject areas? Off the top of my head, things I learned in my elementary science and social studies classes: inertia and structural integrity (we had an egg drop off the school roof in 5th grade, and it was awesome!); the state bird, flower, and flag of Georgia (brown thrasher, Cherokee rose, and the old red-white-and-blue version); and, most important of all, how to make Gloop. It saddens me to think that an entirely new generation is going to grow up without all that.

How do you explain racism to a 2nd grader?

My Wednesday mornings are spent as a "Book Buddy" at a local elementary school. I go, listen to the kids read their books, and occasionally help them when they have trouble with a word. Today really threw me for a loop, though. One little girl read me a story called The Bus Ride, which was about a little African-American girl who gets "arrested" for sitting at the front of a bus in the 1950's. I didn't care for the book - it wasn't particularly well-written or -illustrated (all of the "White" people looked Hispanic, I thought, and it seemed to trivialize the historical importance) - but it raised some interesting questions:

Girl: "But...wasn't Rosa Parker the first Black person to sit at the front of a bus?"
Me: "I'm not sure. We're taught that Rosa Parks was the first, but maybe there were others before her."
Girl: "Why did people care so much? It's not like it matters what color your skin is..."
Me: "Well, people didn't always feel that way, though. But it's good that you know that."

Wow. I really had no idea what to tell this poor kid. She even asked me who "the first Black person on earth was." If I really felt like getting in trouble with her parents, I would've told her that some people think Jesus was Black, or that humans originated in Africa.

You know, the fact that she couldn't comprehend the idea of racism makes me think that her parents are pretty cool people, and probably wouldn't have minded.

On water bottles

Treehugger has an interesting article up: 70% of Americans Don't Know Plastic Is Made With Oil:

According to a recent nationwide online survey, 72 percent of the American public does not know that conventional plastic is made from petroleum products, primarily oil. Moreover, 40 percent of the respondents believe that plastic will biodegrade at some point. The survey was conducted by InsightExpress on behalf of Metabolix, a company that manufactures a biodegradable plastic made with corn. In their press release, Metabolix says "...Very few people realize that plastics are made from oil, further contributing to the problems of energy dependence, greenhouse gas emissions and depleting resources. In fact, nearly 10 percent of U.S. oil consumption - approximately 2 million barrels a day - is used to make plastic.

The first (and only) comment on the reddit page for this article states that the fact that the survey was done on behalf of Metabolix makes the results questionable, but I don't believe that. Truthfully, I'm not surprised - I don't think the majority of the people in this country care where plastic comes from, and even before reading this, I was pretty sure they didn't know where it came from.

We had a discussion about plastic bottles and bottled vs tap water in my Folklore and Literature class. Yes, it had to do with what we studying at the time - The Handmaid's Tale; it tied into the whole pollution-leading-to-dramatically-reduced-birthrate-and-male-impotence-theme of that book - and besides, our prof is a vegan feminist hippie. (Love!) Anyway, she asked us how many of us drink tap water rather than bottled, and everyone raised their hand. The issue for us (as poor college students) is cost: who wants to PAY for something that comes out of the facet for free? One girl said that she drank bottled when she was on campus, but that she reused the bottles. Our prof said that even reusing plastic bottles was unsafe, because of the harmful chemicals leached into the water. She suggested using Nalgene bottles, but I found an article that disagrees. And here's another article, from the same source, in which she clarifies her opposition to Nalgene bottles.

After our discussion in class, the girl that reused water bottles went out and bought a Nalgene bottle. I think all of us did, actually - I found a Rubbermaid bottle on clearance at work, and picked it up. After reading that second article (which claims that "2, #4, and #5 plastics are the best to use), I tried to figure out which one it was. There's no number on the bottom, so I guess I'll just have to take my chances. We do sell the bottled-in-bottles-made-from-corn water at the store, but I'm still unwilling to pay for something I can get for free at home.

The next shark lady?

There were a bunch of guys fishing in the surf last night after dark, and one of them caught a baby shark. It was only 2 feet long, if that, and it looked like a (mini) great white. It was so perfect, it almost seemed fake. They threw it back, thankfully. That little shark was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It's also the first wild one I've ever seen, even after 20+ years of visiting the ocean.

Every time I go to the beach with my family, my mom asks me why I decided to study Literature instead of Marine Biology. Growing up, I was obsessed with dolphins and sharks. I wanted to be the next Eugene Clark. We started talking about it again this trip, and I've been thinking. How hard would it be to get a second Bachelor's degree in something like that? There's a great program at UGA. It's not a serious idea by any means, but still something to ponder. I'd love to be a perpetual student, and just keep studying something new all the time.

Oh, well. Time to go pack for my next trip. I couldn't find Heir to the Empire or Eragon at the library, which makes me seriously question the quality of the Fulton County Library System. Well, not really. Instead, I picked up Citizen Girl, about a women's studies grad student who starts working at a non-profit agency, and Vox, a transcript of a conversation between two people who meet on a phone-sex party line. Don't judge - my friend Ian's been raving about this book for forever.