Testing, testing. Hey, I can blog from my phone, if I can stand the mini keyboard

Teens and Music...could I make that Teens and Books?

Since my last post about movies and kids, I  found this blog post about the style rookie's obsession with Hole. Hole is (was?) Courtney Love's band. I'm not a huge fan, but the style rookie is,  and that is what is important. Style Rookie is a blog written by Tavi, a 14 year old girl obsessed by fashion and in possession of unique talent and aptitude for fashion-and self analysis. I read it for fun--and it is fun, ranging from complaints directed at Seventeen's addiction to appearance, to explaining her love of certain music, to her favorite shoes (miu mius at present), etc. Tavi's videos and photos show real talent.  But this post is about the power that music wields over all of us, all our lives. It starts before we realize it, but I became aware of its influence at about Tavi's age. We all laid on our beds for days listening to whatever touched our hearts, unconcerned that our parents could hear it too. It never occurred to me that my mom might learn something about me that I did not want her to know. I don't think she did, because she was mostly upset at how loud it was. She did protest "Dead Babies" by Alice Cooper, so I played it louder. I would have tortured her with "Cop Killer" if I was a little younger.

So...knowing all that, I felt tears rise in my throat reading her recent post about Hole and getting through 8th grade. For me,  it was a mixture of Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, and Simon & Garfunkel. OK, that was embarrassing, but true. I swore that I would have "Bridge Over Troubled Water" played at my wedding because it was so romantic. Even my best friend asked, really (little dark)?  By the time I did get married, I was much more likely to play Bowie, Talking Heads or the Tubes, but that is another story. "I'm 18, and I don't know what I want...I've got a baby's brain and an old man's heart" explained exactly how I felt then, and for Tavi it is Hole:
At some point during the second half of 8th grade, I became sadder and angrier; to this I do not credit teenagerdom, or angst or any hormonal whatever, just learning, and not the kind that I was supposed to be getting from school. This is when it became necessary for me to talk my way into the computer room during art class to listen to “Northern Star” instead of researching whatever I said I would research and to bring my cassette player to gym class so I could silently confide in Live Through This...

So I want to remember Tavi's post when the school year begins, and they walk in with a song in their head, sure that what I have to show them could never deserve their time or attention. It does, but it will be competing with some important "teenagerdom" muses........

BOONDOCK SAINTS VS BEOWULF

As I prepare to start a new year with Beowulf as my headliner, I  am struck my some of  the incongruous ideas that my students and I will share regarding heroes. Beowulf can be a hard sell in 2010, but I usually manage to make them remember it. They will agree that many of the ideas they hold about true heroes probably do come from this 1500-year-old adventure story, without much change once it was written down.  But does Beowulf still represent any kind of hero they would recognize today?

Many of my male students are great fans of the 1999 cult movie BOONDOCK SAINTS. I must admit, it has a certain appeal for me as well.  The heroes are Boston twins who decide that the justice system--nor their religion-- cannot handle the sins of the truly evil anymore, and God tells them to handle it themselves. At the end of the movie, the twin "saints" invade the courtroom where a mafia boss is about to be acquitted of his crimes and take justice into their own hands-violently and irrevocably earning the title "boondock saints" in the neighborhood. This is their pronouncement as they prepare to kill the defendant:

"Now you will receive us.

We do not ask for your poor or your hungry. We do not want your tired and sick. It is your corrupt we claim. It is your evil that will be sought by us. With every breath, we shall hunt them down. Each day we will spill their blood til it rains down from the skies.

Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal, these are principles which every man of every faith can embrace. These are not polite suggestions — these are codes of behavior. And those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost.

There are varying degrees of evil, we urge you lesser forms of filth not to push the bounds and cross over into true corruption, into our domain. But if you do, one day you will look behind you and you will see we three and on that day you will reap it. And we will send you to which ever god you wish.

And shepherds we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. We shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti."

These sound like the words of righteous men, but are they? Our children have grown up in an American world in which it probably seems that  justice is not often served--the unethical practices of Wall Street, dueling political parties who deal in the lowest common denominator when serving their constituents, religious leaders who have betrayed, hurt those they are meant to protect, ridiculous people becoming famous celebrities while true heroes struggle in anonymity, school bullies implementing new, more humiliating ways to denigrate the innocent--so it is no wonder that this kind of  "saint" becomes heroic.

 Sometimes it feels as though I am swimming upstream all day long, just to stay in place, with my discussions of good vs evil or blog prompts that attempt to connect their lives with the novels and poetry we read. And then I wonder if the Boondock Saints have just returned the justice system to its Anglo-Saxon days, where the evil are destroyed.
http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/assignments/beowulf/beowulf.html

THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT COLLEGE ESSAY: SENIORS 2010

I wrote the following post last August as I planned for a senior class which blended Honors Seniors and AP level seniors. The AP level seniors elected not to take AP Lit, so they came to me. I figured that if they were willing to do a little extra work (1 mini project a quarter), then they deserved the extra quality points. We would design how that happened as we went along.

 Unfortunately, I was taught by their unremitting insistence upon resting on their AP laurels that sometimes things do not go as expected.  I dragged them kicking and screaming through some innovative (my judgment) mini projects that I will assign to my Honors students this year, because they could have been fun.  But one project will remain the same--the college essay. I had been reviewing college essays from first semester seniors since I began teaching at my school, and was always upset at the gap between what I knew about the students and how little of that showed up in their college essays. Having AP students in my class last year, I decided that there was an opportunity to use their superior writing skills to lead the entire class to a superior group of essays sure to make all of my kids make it to the top of the pile in the Admissions offices of their chosen colleges.

To no one's surprise but my own,  the best essays came from the students who were not afraid to think about themselves and their futures "outside the box."  We listened to a few of  NPR's This I Believe segments, and used that prompt as a way to start. The higher level students had a tough time letting go of their As being the defining trait of their personalities, but we got through it. This I Believe confounded most of them at the beginning.  It is, to an extent, about how well you did in school, but the best essays came from the interesting kids, no matter the level.

And my only job in this assignment? I told them to write about themselves and what THEY judged to be most significant about their experiences. I told them: Write about yourself, remembering what you believe. This year, we will be sharing our essays with each other, after the trauma of college admissions letters arriving February through April. Revisiting their September essays in April will be a good exercise in self-reflection: another critical skill for a successful adult. 

From August 2009:

 First essay this year is going to be the college essay: I review so many that are BAD, and it happens primarily because they do not know what to write about themselves. I think I will start by having them make a shortlist of the most important ideas in life. They can all tell me what they want to OWN in 10 years, or what they want to be DRIVING, or what JOB they should score, but few of them are able to identify what lies at their own core--maybe I should do a kind of "this I believe" (NPR)thing--they could podcast it, and then they could create an essay from that--the podcast will eliminate some of the conversational smoke they all blow in the written version. Now I have to come up with some models.

UPDATE February 2011: This project went great this year: different kids, different experience. I have the privilege of teaching 10 AP level seniors which includes an Asian and a Hispanic student, two musicians and two artists in addition to my more "traditionally" gifted students. (this is pretty diverse in a religious school.) Wow.  What a difference a year makes. They each made a personal blog, and they keep me honest. And we are all having fun and learning.

see high school bits

Why I Love Summer

OK, I have used Wordle for years. Below is last year's summer wordle I made for my long-suffering family, who don't  see me much during the school year. I thought I would update it for this year, and try as I might, it will not create a wordle that contains the name of either my husband or my oldest daughter. The first one was of course dazzling, including all the flowers in my garden, all the books I am reading, my favorite summer songs, my summer knitting projects and numerous references to the best family on earth. It's late, so I am figuring my best bet is to post both so no one is slighted. Tom and Sam, your names were as large as everyone else's. I swear. Wordle, it's summer. You should chill out.

Today's bit of beauty....

Most beautiful thing I have seen today. Commercial, still art. What a strange world we inhabit!

http://www.alexandermcqueen.com/int/en/corporate/specialprojects_pumafiverings.aspx

Wonder Woman: 2010 version please!

I have the great fortune to live with three fabulous "wonder" women, my daughters, who don't let me get lost in my teacher-mind. Yesterday I discussed female comic book heroes with my youngest, who has been less than impressed with the female images in comic books and graphic novels: even less so after seeing Wonder Woman's new costume (left) and watching a recent History channel special on comic books. So here is her take on how she would draw/write a female hero:
1) flat shoes or boots. duh, gotta be able to run.
2) always a low unobtrusive ponytail, so there would be one less thing to grab, and no hair in her face.
3) some makeup, but not enough to look like a model, cause she's not. She's too busy to live for clothes and makeup.
4) and she could have glasses, and still be hot.
5) always dark colors--need to blend in. Also, black is never wrong. This ain't Miami Vice, mom.
6) NO skirts regardless of length, but yes, spandex for ease of movement. My daughter is a black belt in tang soo do, and still doesn't get the big loose clothing she always had to wear. Bike shorts would be optimal.  Short porn star skirts (her term is not printable) are not practical, and not the look her hero is going for. Women are stronger kickers than punchers, so those legs have got to be free!
7) And the hotness of the hero should be generated by the "kick-ass" internal engine of the female hero, not what she wore, anyway.

This conversation made me think the female comic book heroes who are drawn "sexy" (albeit in a 1940-1950s weird bondage, stripper way) to express how cool they are  inside. But we are still working on the transition to creating more than one way for the female to be sexy. So Superman has huge muscles because that is recognizable as a sign of power, cause men are the stronger physical specimens. Brawn works. And men can be big and strong and smart. But women are still drawn as sex symbols--ready for bed--not ready to defeat the bad guys. Admittedly, it is changing, but we did not turn up much when we googled comic book artists who drew contemporary female heroes. I mostly read graphic novels, so I only know Marjane Satrapi or Lynda Barry, not quite what she's looking for. And we did not discuss this, but I wondered how young men are supposed to recognize real life female heroes, if they do not dress like Lara Croft or Zelda???
photo:http://www.newsarama.com/comics/new-wonder-woman-costume-100629.html


UPDATE: here's an article from NPR about female super heroes: some good candidates! Can't get behind Angelina Jolie, though. Is  that jealousy? http://n.pr/cMv1I2  Most of these are not comic book heroes, but video game or film versions. Maybe  the  comic medium just missed us.

WIKI WORK: Grades and Learning-friends or foe?

Working on our class wiki, I instinctively know that the students are achieving authentic learning, but I am also still bound by more traditional assessment policies. So there is a constant struggle between wanting to roll with it, with the kids, and fitting the learning experience into a framework in which I can assign them grades. (I just read those two sentences, which prove how torturous the relationship of the learning and the grades are.) My latest attempt as a solution will place the focus of the grading on early stages of wiki creation, rather than their unique products. If they are to create quality content for our wiki, perhaps an initial mini-lesson about good vs great wikis would improve their evaluation of their own work. The steps in this mini-lesson might go like this:
1) critique two selected wikipedia pages together in class.  I will choose these--a good one and a great one. After judging the pages, we will decide what makes the great one great. 
2) students will work in small groups to develop a list of traits they see in a great wiki page, post the lists on our chat page in Studywiz.
3) homework that night: review and comment on at least two other lists. Comments will include comparison of items which show up repeatedly as well as items which you feel are not useful or are repetitive, with an eye to voting on the final list items next class
4) list of "Great Wiki Traits" finalized in class. NOW they develop a rubric for their own performance as we go into next phase of project. If needed, practice use of rubric or traits model in class on a wiki page from last year's wiki.
5) go to Tech Center and start with their  rubric in their hands. I usually provide a wiki start page with some ground rules and links to get them started. The first wiki the seniors develop include various world mythology pages. They work in small groups formed by the preferences they noted on our mythology newsboard in the classroom. 

I can assess their work on developing the "Great Wiki Traits" as well as their honest, purposeful evaluation of the other traits lists on the chat page.  As they work on their own wiki, I can point out the aspects of the rubric that they must attend to. As always, we will stop and evaluate the plan as we go--once they get into the wiki construction, they may see flaws in the rubric and need to amend. I love that part. I am thinking that this may tighten up the project, while ensuring that control of the wiki does not rest entirely in my hands. Any suggestions, things I missed, always welcome

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: new theme for BritLit?

I voraciously cruised twitter this week, grabbing every tweet about ISTE that I found. I was jealous of everyone there, while simultaneously astounded at their intensity only two weeks after school had ended.  I need, really need, the summer weeks to recharge and de-tensify myself. It takes the entire 10 week period—I may be able to teach a course part time or do a ”camp” like last summer’s July PBWiki camp, but mostly I need to spend time sleeping till 8, going to the Y, taking care of my home, enjoying my family and randomly filling my head with books, knitting, hiking, vinho verde, my nieces, swimming and other quotidian ephemera, all of which somehow find their way into next year’s teaching. Random has turned out the operative word.

So, while I yearned for the excitement of hanging out with people who would not look suspiciously at me, English department geek, I also recognized my own style of firing up the muse. And only two weeks into my hiatus, ISTE tweets provided me with my first light bulb idea for the summer. SOMEONE (I was sure I favorited it, but now I cannot find it) noted that we teachers are still the best source of "character education" out there. I still hate the term, but I do acknowledge our power. Reminiscing about my own my path to inspiration and personal morality as a teen, when I fell in love with Anne Shirley and Sydney Carton I recognized that my entire value system, still working hand in hand with my more traditional religious practice today, was cemented sophomore year in college the first time I heard the line “Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know and all ye need to know” read aloud. Still gives me chills.

That is still my number one commandment today. I need at little beauty in my life each day—how you choose what is beautiful, or how you define “truth,” well that is another subject for another post. BUT revisiting the concept of teacher as character educator, secondary English teachers are in a particularly useful position. For the past three years, my Brit Lit juniors have walked into a classroom the first day greeted by posters, quotes, and music extolling the myriad ways that the HERO is at the center of all Western culture. Of course we start with Beowulf and almost everything we read subsequently gets the once over from that first look at what makes someone heroic—either his deeds, the community that supports him, or the values he embodies. It works, and provides scaffolding for their eventual understanding of where we all come from—all of us share a piece of British culture, even in this country of immigrants.  But what if I turned the hero archetype on its head and talked instead about what heroes inspire, rather than what they are made of? To introduce respect as a theme for the year and then analyze the topics, characters, values, community by what garnered respect, which inspired it, and what happened to a community-–or a story, or the dialogue, or even the devices used by a writer-- when respect is absent, could bring up some very interesting discussions.

Thanks, ISTE. Back to knitting and working through respect as an anchor for my juniors 2010-2011. I am going to ISTE Philly 2011 even if it uses up my book budget-I'll just record podcasts of all our texts!