MY JUNIOR ROMANTICS ROCK

   Just finished reading my BritLit Romantic poetry tests. I hesitate to call it a test, because really they wrote about Romantic poetry. I am so delighted by what happened. For instance, one of the prompts asked them to choose a poem which exemplified the iconoclastic tendencies of the Romantics and explain their choice. So many chose poems I never would not have chosen, but they really convinced me. What makes me smile the biggest? Almost every single essay showed a strong point of view and followed through. Great unit, great kids: this bodes well for 4th quarter British folklore/myth/legend research essays.
   This year I focused on the link between the poetic devices and the feeling/idea the poet wanted to convey. If we could not connect the strategy to the ultimate purpose, we ignored it. The farther we got, the less they wanted to let a device go: so their poetry illuminations were great, the blog posts were authentic, and they had the tools to argue their personal choices. And they wrote concise, sharp essays. I hope they feel as good as I do about it.

High School juniors 1, Coleridge 0

photo © 2010 Stephanie | more info (via: Wylio)
Some days, you just have to go where they lead you, and you cross your fingers that it is a road that leads them to identify your purpose with theirs. As part of the British Romantics unit, I'm teaching "Kubla Khan" this year, trying to make up lost snow time by skipping the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." One of the pitfalls of "Kubla Khan" is that they don't always get how exotic the poem is, that eating honeydew and listening to an Ethiopian play a dulcimer would not have been in the realm of Coleridge's experience when he wrote the poem. They, of course, don't think it is all that big a deal. And then there is the inevitable fixation on Coleridge's opium habit. If you are not careful, the discussion can wind its way to heroin production in Afghanistan--and they tried it today.
But then magic time started when one student protested that she did not know what was going on in the poem, that yeah the imagery was great, but nothing happened in the poem fragment. And suddenly there was a poll on the whiteboard to judge whether it was a bad, good or great poem.  "Good" won. The discussion moved to each person's criteria for judging the poem, and most of those who voted "good" decided the vivid imagery made it good, but it could not be great because it was only a fragment. They felt the poet's purpose was missing, and therefore, the reader's satisfaction would be limited. The person who hated it said it made no sense. We all had to agree to that one too. And finally, I asked, should this poem even be in the book at all? And they answered pragmatically, as only teens can: only if it means we get to skip the longer poem. They crack me up! Have a great weekend.

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.

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!

Let me break it down for you

Revising my poetry devices sheet for the 850th time last night, I realized that they were not using it because they did not see how it could help them. We had just used the Romantic poets to choose common examples of all the traits of poetry for their final exam study sessions over and over again. But no one seems to have put it together. I am embarrassed to say that that I forced myself to relate it to math: "It's an equation, people, all these add up to the prize=meaning and delight."
"I know.....right? Ms Healey, does this worksheet count towards my grade?"

Tonight I am thinking it is all a matter of semantics, of word choice. Let me break it down for you.......
I am confounded by their immediate, powerful response when I read poetry to them and then their complete shutdown when I ask them why they feel so strongly. It sucks the fun and feeling out of it for them, and I do not know why.  Should I turn my lesson on its head-make them take control of the inner workings of the poet's mind? And how shall I do that--more to follow.

NOTES: WHAT ARE WE DOING IN HIGH SCHOOL?

WARNING: the yearend meltdown continues. Remember that I teach high school juniors and seniors. Paramount to my teaching is the knowledge that they are about to be released into the wild, and I do not want them to be eaten alive by other wild animals........
  So many thoughts are roiling around in my mind as I grade research papers, and I realize that they prove my two overriding observations this year:
1) children need more practice in thinking critically and therefore writing critically and analytically because they do not read as much anymore, and
2) the emotional and moral youth of my students may prevent them from achieving what they so desperately desire-independence, integrity and happiness. Add to this the random (really?) ideas that come to me by way of students, other teachers, our student teacher, blogs I read, my kids--
** the move to retreat to young adult fiction for high school students that our student teacher is researching in her classes (not very happily either)
**the negative judgment of the classics as worthwhile (or the canon as I hear it now, though I am not sure what is on that list)
**the acceptance that new modes of writing are equal or superior in their significance and skill sets to the "old"--emails all of a sudden are "long" writing, blogs replace reviews, tweets are great creative tools, etc etc. Why can't we see them as new and not replacements?
**the expectation that everyone copies homework and that's not a big deal (for teachers either). For me, that means reading enotes is as good as reading the novel. Knowing about the book is the same as knowing the book. Really?
**that students cannot sit for long and should not have to.
**everything we teach should be fun and instantly engaging.
**grades are bad for kids. no grades are good.

The list goes on. I feel the need to react to these new "truths" in some way--no one wants to fail all the time (meaning me, not them). But everything in my heart cries out for the measured journey to achievement, surviving the bumps in the road, doing the hard stuff and being proud of yourself. Even the characters in the novels know this--Elizabeth Bennett suffers through her life until she knows what she feels. Holden Caulfield won't let go of what he instinctively knows to be true. We all suffered this year with Oedipus as he careens desperately towards truth and damnation in equal parts....... Kind of how life works, isn't it?
Is it true that they really do not need to read, to consider their own visceral reactions to something someone else wrote, anymore? I do know that I will not be teaching carmen figuratum to seniors in the future, because on the list of skills they must have, it is lower on the list than it used to be (a very long story, I assure you). But I would not understand my life today if I didn't know I exist in the myriad layers of human experience that now mark soft spring rainfall as a motif that a billion human beings still recognize as an archetype for cleansing.  But are there skills and concepts that I feel are critical, that aren't anymore? Have I lost my instincts?

And maybe this only means that I need to stop focusing on the kids that take the short cuts or know that doing the minimum will be enough, and focus instead on the great kids, who GET what you read and want to learn with me.....more later. Got to read more papers, hoping that they are the authentic ones.

I think I need to formalize my PLN...............

A “working definition” by David Warlick says that a Personal or Professional Learning Network:

involves an individual’s topic oriented goal, a set of practices or techniques aimed at attracting or organizing a variety of relevant content sources, selected for their value, to help the owner accomplish a professional goal or personal interest.

 My personal goal: to be an even better teacher, of course. But what, specifically, would do that?  Here are the ideas that keep rolling around in my head:

1) I need to think more about how they learn when I choose what to teach. Some of this might have to do with technology, but some might not.  I do believe that their learning paths are changing because of all the media, tech and visual input they have now. I need to take advantage of that. If more of it is going to be in their control, then what I choose to have them read is probably the most critical decision. More to think about here. PLN to adapt my teaching to facilitating??? Hard to let go of loving the content and letting them get a little when I can give them alot. If this was on a teacherblog that some of the biggies read, I would be taking a hit: but so what? I have already decided that my main focus is not networking but teaching my kids. That's where my creativity will go.
I don't want to change just for the sake of change. Maybe my age is part of this. A 26 year old teacher embracing new methods is not really changing so much. Me, I  have done some work or used some techniques that are old school and still good, strong techniques. I am old enough to have figured out that I am not going to get rid of it just because something new has come along. That would be like throwing out the coral cashmere  sweater my MIL gave me 25 years ago, after she owned it for 20. It is still more beautiful, soft and warm than any of the new ones I have. Plus, it reminds me of her, and I still miss  her every day.  Since teaching is an art, I can only hope that my teaching gets better as I add the layers of experience. New is not always better. Old is good. I am old. I am good!

2) I want to find my personal comfort level with change. I do not want to change what I am doing just because ..........everyone thinks we should. Reading expands your knowledge, your self image and your decision making skills. Not reading limits your confidence, problem solving and literacy. It probably does not matter so much what you read, but that you do, that's the common wisdom these days. I guess that's true, but I am so bored by the series mentality, the repetition of the same plots over and over, the inaccurate diction and barely adequate manipulation of the language. I think maybe part of my job is to help them develop discernment in their reading, info gathering, knowledge and wisdom development. SO... PLN to investigate how much do I want to absorb the new without losing the old?? Who would be in this network? Part of the reason I am blogging is the lack of colleagues who have time or interest in discussing these ideas.

3) another idea--how to organize the tools I do use--which tools (tech) for which classes? What order do I introduce? Which ones are best suited to which lesson? So far I have hit on things by instinct (one of my strengths) but that will add up (like my delicious tag for toolsforteachers) into chaos. Chaos is not good. Planning ahead is good.  So how do I put together the big picture? The syllabi that the department uses are almost irrelevant for me now--it is all about what to teach them, not what they need to learn. For instance, BritLit now contains from Beowulf to Martin Amis, approx 1300 years lit. I am not sure that a chronological approach is useful or possible anymore! Back to tools--more thinking needed.  This is one that Gina and I can work on for World Lit.

1/25/10:Learning is messy!  Who is in my PLN already? Most often consulted: Barbara, Gina, Val, Andy. Also important: Fio, Katie, Anne, Geri T.  I think I need people from other departments. Tech PLN: Donna, Holly, Dale, Linda, Fio, Michele A?,  Barry, and my twitter list, EC Ning. This is a pretty weak list: they are not weak, but I need to fill in the gaps in experience and knowledge.
http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=755



More later..............