Video Conferences March 1, 2010

Last week, my class used a video conference to communicate with a group of students in Sweden comprised of fellow PSU pre-service student teachers, students from England, and students from Sweden.  I appreciated the experience because one of the members of the group in Sweden was one of my good friends, so I got to say hi to him.  It was also a valuable experience because we were able to learn a bit about education programs in Sweden and England, and compare them to America’s programs.  Although I don’t at this point know very much about education in foreign countries, from what I heard during this video conference, it sounds as if some elements of Swedish and British education appeal to me much more than some things that we do in America.  Obviously, Europe doesn’t have to adhere to No Child Left Behind, which frees them from excessive standardized testing and the pressure placed on schools to perform and meet requirements.  While schools in America often fail and get closed from not meeting the standards of No Child Left Behind, we were told that struggling schools in Sweden and England do not close, but are given more money to help them improve.  This is the opposite of what is done in America, but to me, makes so much more sense!!

While the video conference was interesting, I think the time could have been utilized better if both parties were give time to prepare for the discussion.  My class did not know we were going to be conferencing until five minutes before it happened.  I think it could have been an even more valuable and information session if we would have prepared some questions or done research about European education systems before jumping right in.

Video conferencing is an amazing tool that has the potential to open up many doors.  I know my high school only used video conferencing my senior year for about five students who were taking a class taught by a professor at a different school.  I was not a part of this and only heard about it, so our conference last week with Sweden was my first experience.  I think video conferencing could definitely bring benefits to the classroom if used appropriately and effectively.

Reflections on Films March 1, 2010

Over the past few weeks, in one of my other LLED block classes, we have viewed three films about teaching English: The Dead Poet Society, Dangerous Minds, and Freedom Writers.  Of the three, I had already seen Dead Poet Society and Freedom Writers, but Dangerous Minds was new to me.  I want to take some time to share my thoughts and reactions to these films as a future educator of English.

Dangerous Minds (1992)

Plot synopsis from the internet movie database:

Louanne Johnson is an ex-marine, hired as a teacher in a high-school in a poor area of the city. She has recently separated from her husband. Her friend, also teacher in the school, got the temporary job for her. After a terrible reception from the students, she tries unconventional methods of teaching (using karate, Bob Dylan lyrics etc) to gain the trust of the students.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112792/

My reaction:

I have been reflecting on this movie for a few days and am still not entirely sure how I feel about it.  I think many aspects of the film were unrealistic, but since I do not have much experience in urban schools, I cannot really be sure.  Honestly, this movie made me slightly concerned about my future profession as a teacher.  I don’t know where I want to teach, but I hope I will be prepared for any situation or type of school.  At this point, the thought of teaching in a classroom like the one in Dangerous Minds is incredibly nerve-racking.  There are several admirable traits that I found in Michelle Pfeiffer’s character, Miss Johnson.  I admire her bravery and determination; she did not give up or back down when her students were unresponsive or rude.  I hope that I can have that same kind of strength and will in my future teaching experiences.  I also admire her devotion to her students and want to embody the same empathy and compassion for my students as she had for hers.  It’s so important to show your students that you care about them and to fight for them and teach them life lessons.  I hope to have a positive impact on my students, as she did on some of hers.  While I admire her strength, determination, and devotion to her students, I don’t agree with all of her methods.  Her aims are good, but some of her means are flawed.  I think some of the choices made by Miss Johnson were inappropriate; teaching the students karate moves and having a male teenage student spend the night alone at her house were probably not wise decisions.  Yet, according to this movie, her actions were effective in gaining the respect and trust of the students and in actually making a difference in their lives.  I am very interested in knowing how her actions would have played out in real life; I don’t think they would have the same results that Hollywood created.  Overall, for a movie, I thought it was touching and inspiring.  At first it made me nervous, but by the end, I felt empowered and motivated.  I won’t follow all the methods of Miss Johnson, but I will try to match her devotion and determination.

Dead Poets Society (1989)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/

Plot synopsis from the international movie database:

Painfully shy Todd Anderson has been sent to the school where his popular older brother was valedictorian. His room-mate, Neil, although exceedingly bright and popular, is very much under the thumb of his overbearing father. The two, along with their other friends, meet Professor Keating, their new English teacher, who tells them of the Dead Poets Society, and encourages them to go against the status quo. Each, in their own way, does this, and are changed for life

My reaction:

I have seen this movie several times now, and it always makes me cry.  Besides being a tear jerker, I think there’s a lot going on in this movie.  I believe that Robin William’s character, Professor Keating, has great aims.  He respects his students, he challenges them, he encourages them to live life to the fullest.  Keating inspires them to follow their dreams, to seize the day, and to remember what’s important in life–the big picture over the small, insignificant things.  He gets to know his students, actually really cares about them, and builds relationships with them.  All of these things make a great English teacher, in my opinion, and the type of teacher that I want to be.  Keating is very inspiring, as is the film as a whole.  While I think what Keating stands for is fantastic, I don’t agree with all of his methods.  I think he actually took things a little to simply and needed a bit more structure to his classes.  From what they showed in the movie, it seemed like they mostly just talked all the time during class.  I think there needed to be clearer learning in his classroom.  I definitely want to embody the attitude of Keating, but I think I can do that through more definitive classes.  Overall, I think this is a very moving film that has some good lessons for teachers.

Freedom Writers (2007)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463998/

Plot synopsis from the internet movie database:

Hilary Swank stars in this gripping story of inner city kids raised on drive-by shootings and hard-core attitude – and the teacher who gives them the one thing they need most: a voice of there own. Dropped into the free-fire zone of a school torn by violence and racial tension, teacher Erin Gruwell battles an uncaring system in a fight to make the classroom matter in her students lives. Now, telling their own stories, and hearing the stories of others, a group of supposedly “unteachable” teens will discover the power of tolerence, reclaim their shattered lives, and change their world.

My reaction:

Like Dead Poets Society, I have seen this movie several times now and am always very touched.  I think this film is my favorite of the three.  I don’t know how realistic it actually is, but it’s based off of a true story.  I think Hilary Swank’s character, Erin Gruwell, is a great model of a superior English teacher.  Much like Professor Keating, she truly cares about her students, gets to know them, builds relationships with them, and helps them with their lives.  In addition to teaching them English, she teaches them lessons about life.  Through her class, her students experience incredible personal growth. She has faith in her students when no one else does.  She gives them hope.  I definitely admire her for her perseverance in what began as such a hostile, hopeless environment.  I admire the progress that she enabled her students to make, in both their academic and personal lives.  I admire her compassion.  I wish all teachers were like her, in fact.  One thing that I admire in Erin Gruwell more than in Professor Keating is that I feel Erin was able to impart similar values and lessons while still also teaching English.  I completely agree with both Keating’s and Gruwell’s views on helping students grow, but Gruwell was also able to help them grow academically, while I feel Keating did not do that very much.  Overall, Freedom Writers was inspiring and motivational and offered a good example of a devoted, caring teacher.

All three of these films were inspirational and had good lessons for future English teachers.  In each film, there were aspects that were unrealistic, and some methods taken by teachers that were inappropriate.  Yet, overall, the idea behind each film was what I believe in: teaching English while helping students grow and learn life lessons and values.

Making Lessons and Novels Applicable February 24, 2010

I am very concerned with being able to apply all material in my future English classes to my students’ lives.  This is something that has been a part of my teaching philosophy for awhile now, but I’m still working on how exactly to go about doing this.  Last semester, took at Philosophy of Education class at Penn State, which was the best class I have had yet in college.  My views on education were changed, some of my personal beliefs were changed, and even some of actions were changed as a result of this class.  One of the many influential texts we read and discussed was John Dewey’s Moral Principles in Education.  The entire work is compelling, but here are a few passages that especially stand out to me:

“The subject-matter of the curriculum, however important, however judiciously selected, is empty of conclusive moral content until it is made over into terms of the individual’s own activities, habits, and desires.  We must know what history, geography, and mathematics mean in psychological terms, that is, as modes of personal experiencing, before we can get out of them their moral potentials.” (Dewey 48-49)

“In many respects, it i s the subject-matter used in school life which decides both the general atmosphere of the school and the methods of instruction and discipline which rule.  A barren ‘course of study,’ that is to say, a meagre and narrow field of school activities, cannot possibly lend itself to the development of a vital social spirit or methods that appeal to sympathy and cooperation instead of to absorption, exclusiveness, and competition.  Hence it becomes an all important matter to know how we shall apply our social standard of moral value to the subject-matter of school work, to what we call, traditionally, the ‘studies’ that occupy pupils.” (Dewey 31).

I believe very much in making everything relevant and applicable.  I want to have my students discuss moral and social issues drawn from texts and novels.  I want my students to actually grow as individuals, as well as academics.  However, this is easier said than done.  Since choosing to become an English teacher,  I have been trying to figure out how to best apply meaning and relevance to all material.  The question is: HOW DO YOU MAKE ALL MATERIAL MEANINGFUL, RELEVANT, AND APPLICABLE TO STUDENTS’ LIVES? So far, I’ve encountered some excellent ideas, but I’m still searching and learning.  Through my Philosophy of Education class last semester, I gained fantastic insight into this issue, but it was more about why we should make lessons relevant and make connections between the classroom and the real world.  This semester, I am investigating more into how I can do this in a high school English class.

English Companion Ning

The English Companion Ning is an incredible resource, and offers many great ideas of how to connect class material to real life.  One of the discussion forums is about Teaching Social Justice.  I definitely believe in teaching social justice, so this caught my attention.  The discussion description is: “A place to share resources and ideas for teaching through the lens of social justice and for the common good.”  As I read through the posts, virtually all of the teachers shared books that they were using that deal with social issues and through which lessons and discussions about social issues can be made.  There are dozens of responses with dozens of books, but some that appear numerous times are the following:

Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Night, anything by Sherman Alexie, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Frankenstein, The Jungle, Animal Farm, Brave New World…the list goes on and on.  There were some really great suggestions, but not really many ideas about what to actually do with these texts.  I think almost any book can produce great discussions and lessons about social and moral issues.  So, I turned to another discussion forum, ‘Teaching Texts.”

This forum includes a wealth of ideas about novels and how to teach the morals and social issues in them so that they apply to the students’ lives.  Here are some lesson ideas from teachers across America on things to do for Of Mice and Men:

“Consider asking students to think about a time when they [felt like they] were responsible for taking care of another person or thing. Even if only a few students could relate to this, ask them to share their experiences if they are willing.”

“I like to break students into groups to “rank” the ranch citizens in a “social hierarchy.” Who has the MOST power? Who has the LEAST? Then the groups compare their rankings and the emerging definitions of “social power” that underlie them. It never fails to get everyone in the class involved.”

Here’s the link to this particular discussion forum:

http://englishcompanion.ning.com/group/teachingtexts

Peter Smagorinsky offers some ideas about promoting discussion, which can include discussion about morals and social issues, in his book Teaching English By Design.  Many of his methods involve small-group work.  In my future classroom, I can assign a few chapters in a book, like Of Mice and Men, for homework.  When the students come into class the  next day, we can begin by a small-group activity, like one Smagorinsky writes about:

-Free-writes: Have each student free-write individually for a few minutes, then read their work to a partner.

-Have students in groups create concept maps

-Groups of students plan and/or create a movie version of a text

-Freeze Frames: students choose a scene from a book and pose in that scene to have the rest of the class figure out which scene they are depicting

-Dramatic Re-enactment: Read a play or act out scenes from a text

-Jigsaw: Split students into groups and give each group a topic, based on the reading, to discuss.  After several minutes, students reorganize in new groups and receive a new topic to discuss.

These small-group activities can all be implemented into the classroom to get every student participating.  After spending time in small groups, the class can move into a large-group discussion, if desired.   By using one of these methods, teachers can get students to discuss moral/social issues and themes that arise in novels but are connected and relevant to real life.

I’m still learning about how to accomplish my goal, but will update this blog as I learn more.

PLN Update February 11, 2010

This is the end of week three of my blog and personal learning network and I would like to devote some time to reflecting on my experience and progress thus far.

I have very recently gained a better understanding of the concept of a PLN and the purpose of my blog.  From this point forward, I am  going to lean more towards pulling together the information I gain from all of the resources in my PLN–Classroom 2.0, English Companion Ning, NCTE.  This blog will become a central location for me to gather and organize the findings of my research as I grow and learn how to become an English teacher.

I have been exploring the English Companion Ning and find it an incredibly useful tool.  I have found discussion forums for almost anything one can think of in regards to teaching English.  It’s been very helpful for me to read the questions posed by teachers and the answers and discussions with other teachers that arise.  I can see this becoming a go-to site for me as I begin to start my own career.

On Feed February 8, 2010

So I just finished M. T. Anderson’s novel Feed, which we have to read for my Adolescent Literature and Literacy class.  It was kind of weird and I’m not sure how I feel about the style, but I loved the message of the book.  I really loved it.  Spoiler alert. I’ll be revealing some of the ending.

Now, I’ve already explained my aversion to technology.  It’s not all bad; in fact, a lot of technology is incredibly beneficial to the human race.  Yet, I feel that a lot of today’s technology just makes things more complicated and hurts human interaction and relationships.  Feed is set in the future, where most people have computers installed in their brains that constantly upload information, play television shows, display advertisements, and makes instant communication with others always available.  To some, this may seem like an amazing, revolutionary invention that would be huge strides in the right direction for mankind. However, this book portrays this technology as harmful to human intellect and relationships.  People can’t think for themselves, they are victims to advertising, and some of them even harm their bodies.  In the end, the feed actually kills a girl.  There’s a lot more to the story, but those are the basics; I might get into more later.

This book deals with the negative effects of technology.  It makes people lazy, it enables people not to have to think for themselves all the time, it is used as a substitute for real personal interaction with others, and it has enabled us to kill each other easier and more quickly.  My group in another class of my LLED Block is actually working on a project about the negative effects of technology on reading and writing development.  I think we will uncover some fascinating information, and I will include it here on my blog.  I think we as a society need to be careful or a hundred years down the road, we might be too dependent on technology and suffer some of problems in the fiction novel Feed.

I actually came across a technology that’s in the makings that is creepily similar to the feed in this novel. Definitely check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg

Reflections February 8, 2010

I’m taking a class this semester about student activism and we have to read a book called The Free Speech Movement: Reflects on Berkeley in the 1960s. While reading it this afternoon, I came across a passage that really stuck with me.  The following passage is a letter written in 1964 from a mother to her daughter, a freshman at Berkeley:

“I have complete trust in your good sense…so that fun will always be something truly enjoyable and not an extreme attempt to avoid your responsibilities to your work.  However, the choice you will have to make is to a good average student with time to live life to the hilt, or an A student plodding away at the cost of missing the real purpose of college which is to make life more…meaningful.  The purpose of all those wonderful philosophers you are reading is to give you a sense of values to live by, a way of saying, Yes to life.

Your biggest problem is that which plagues imaginative people all their lives–CHOICES.  You will have to decide of three equally exciting things which one to go to, even if all three are equally intriguing…No one but yourself is pressuring you to be a top student.  I only want for your sake that you just get the necessary grades not to be kicked out, that’s all.  I don’t give a damn if you get one A…If college is pressuring people so they crack, we had better say the hell with college and look into what is wrong.  The purpose of the humanities is to be able to live a rich, intellectual and emotional life, to be able to embrace life in all its colors, joys, and tragedies, but never to be so overburdened that one’s senses become deadened and unable to receive the gifts college offers in the first place.”

This passage definitely got me thinking.  I think this woman is very wise.  I completely agree with her belief that college (or high school or middle school) should not be so stressful that students aren’t able to live fully.  I have always been the kid who felt pressured to excel and be perfect and fell apart emotionally if I feel short of my expectations of myself.   I was definitely too stressed in middle school and, although I have a great way since then, I know that I am still sometimes too hard on myself .  I sometimes catch myself feeling way too stressed and pressured and overwhelmed, and try to take a step back and put everything in perspective.  I really think that schools today are too focused on grades, requirements, and degrees and just stress students out.  While schooling and education is very important, there is far more to life.  I do think it is crucial to strive to do your best in school and get good grades, but not to the point where the rest of your life falls apart. I believe in making room for family, friends, community involvement, service, fitness, and hobbies.  Students shouldn’t be so overloaded that they don’t have time to really live.  This doesn’t just go for college, but all levels of the education system.  I will definitely approach my future classrooms with this in mind.  Part of my philosophy is encouraging my students to be involved in the community and world, and stressing them out with the pressure of grades and tests to the point where other areas of their lives suffer, is not something that I will do.

Revelations February 2, 2010

I have had three revelations so far today that I would like to share:

1. I have always been a Twitter hater, but I think I am actually going to love it. Yes, you heard me correctly. I am falling in love. The thing is, it’s like updating your status on facebook, BUT I don’t like updating my facebook status very much because I have over 450 friends and everyone creeps on facebook.  It’s not that I post statuses that are embarrassing or anything, but at the same time, do I really want 450 different people to know what I’m doing all the time? Uh, no. But, I only have very few people following me on Twitter, and I plan on keeping it that way. I like the idea of being able to update my status but not have the whole world read it. I think it will be an excellent outlet and I’m actually getting really excited about it. Who knew?!

2. We had a very interesting class discussion in my Comparative Lit 408 (Heroic Epic) class today.  We are reading through the Odyssey and today discussed the following passage from Book 9, lines 33-40:

“True enough, Calypso the lustrous goddess tried to hold me back, deep in her arching caverns, craving me for a husband.  So did Circe, holding me just as warmly in her halls, the bewitching queen of Aeaea keen to have me too. But they never won the heart inside me, never.  So nothing is as sweet as a man’s own country, his own parents, even though he’s settled down in some luxurious house, off in a foreign land and far from those who bore him.”

We discussed the contradiction in Odysseus; he represents the conflict in ALL men throughout all time:

the contradiction between warrior ideals v. family ideals.  Men (not all men) may desire or love having a family and home.  They may love or one desire to love their wife, children, and home, and place great value on their family ideals.  Yet, men also love to be men.  As my professor put it, they love to pillage, steal, rape, and kill. At least, that’s what Odysseus did all the time, when he wasn’t at home with his family.  He constantly talks about wanting to get back to his family and how much he loves them, but he partakes in some gruesome events, kills men, steals, and sleeps with goddesses.  We discussed this conflict in modern terms: men are torn between settling down and being a family guy, and being a free man who can sleep around, booze around, and be adventurous.

I found this discussion fascinating and I totally agree with my professor’s argument.  I think a lot (not all!) men today are scum and just want to sleep around.  While many young men want to one day settle down and have a wife and family, they have trouble committing because they don’t want to give up being free and able to do whatever they want whenever they want with whomever they want. This also explains why so many men have affairs (although, granted, women do as well).  I think my professor has made an excellent argument: Odysseus represents the male conflict between warrior ideals and family ideals.

Do you agree or disagree? Any thoughts on this?

3. Today I started creating my summer reading list–a list of books that I want to read this summer, when I finally have time to read for pleasure.  Some of them are what I call “fluff” books and what my high school AP English teacher called “airport novels,” meaning that they are easy reads just for entertainment.  Some of the books on my list are educational, some are books that I probably should have read by now but somehow have not.  You can find this list by clicking on the blue tab in the upper right-hand corner of my blog.  I will updating this list throughout the semester and would love suggestions and input, so please leave comments and recommendations!!

PLN week 2 February 2, 2010

I realized I have not posted another entry for almost a week.  Honestly, it might take me awhile to get into a regular habit of blogging.  I am not a big fan of computers and for my whole life up until last week, I basically only used a computer to type papers, check my email and facebook, and do research for classes.  I definitely shy away from technology and I get frustrated with it verry easily.  Pretty much, I try to avoid it as much as possible. I know, I know, that’s probably not good! It’s a good thing, then, that my LLED block this semester is forcing me to become familiar with technology.  But anyway, my point is that blogging is new to me and not something that I love to do, so it might take me awhile to really get into the swing of it. I promise, though, that from now on I will not wait five days in between posts!

Last week in 420, we created Wikispaces and used them to form groups that will be used to investigate questions about teaching English.  It was definitely a new experience for me, as I have never before had a Wiki.  I was the one in my group who created it and uploaded our questions–it was quite a challenge for me.  Like I said, I’m terrible with technology, so creating this group Wiki page was difficult for me and outside of my comfort zone. But, after about an hour, I succeeded! I’m still hesitant about using it, but I am proud of myself that my group was able to figure out enough to get the site up and running.  So far, so good, I guess.  We’ll be working in these groups on our wikis all semester.

LINKS January 27, 2010

I have recently created a twitter, ning account, delicious account, and linkedin account.  I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing with them, so for now I just have them.  I will update and use these accounts as I receive more instruction.  I really just don’t know right now, but they’re there!! I’m pretty proud of myself, honestly.  Like I said, I have always been terrible with technology and am pretty intimidated by it.  Creating all of these sites and a blog on y new mac is quite an accomplishment for me.

While there’s nothing exciting to see yet, there will be in th future, so check out my other sites by clicking on the links below.

*Access my twitter account via the bar on the right hand side of my blog.

http://englishcompanion.ning.com/profile/RachelDabiero

http://www.wikispaces.com/user/my/rld5086

http://www.classroom20.com/profile/RachelDabiero

http://delicious.com/network/racheldabiero

http://rachellynne.ning.com/main/feature/add

http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile?trk=hb_tab_pro

Hello, baby blog January 27, 2010

I have created this blog for a college class I am taking this semester–LLED 420 at Penn State University.  The course is Adolescent Literacy and Literature, but we are required to create PLNs–Personal Learning Networks.  Honestly, I’m still confused as to what all this entails and I could find out tomorrow morning in class that I missed doing something very important.  But from what I can gather, it includes creating a blog, a twitter, a facebook (which I already have), LinkedIn, and a few other sites like these.  I suppose it’s a good thing this class is requiring me to become more technologically-savy, because currently I am definitely not.  I’m taking LLED 420 along with two other classes, all three of which instruct students how to teach English in middle and high schools (I am a junior in the Secondary Education; English major at PSU).  I was also required to purchase a Macbook for these classes, which meant I had to trade in my Dell.  So, I am very new to my baby mac and I am even more new to this whole personal learning network experience.  I hope the project is an enlightening, exciting adventure and that I learn something that I can take with me to my future English classrooms.  It may take me awhile to get the hang of this, but I’ll work on it! Hopefully by the end of the semester, I will have a much better grip on blogs, networking sites, technology, and macs than I do right now!

I am not entirely sure what I’m supposed to be blogging about, though.  Probably I should find that out asap, but for now I’ll just write a bit about myself.  Oh, also I should mention that I recently created twitter, Linkedin, and Classroom 2.0 accounts.  I’ll post the links to those on this site.

So, I’d like to say a little about myself, since this is my first entry.  Like I said, I’m a junior at Penn State University, main campus, majoring in Sec Ed; English/Communications.  In case you couldn’t figure it out, I want to be a high school English teacher.  I will be certified to teach middle school, but I would prefer high school–at least, that’s what I think at this point.  I know without a doubt that this is what I want to do with my life and what I was meant to do.  It took me awhile to figure it out, but once I made the realization, I knew that I was meant for teaching.  I absolutely love to read and I love to write, too.  I was that kid who learned to read and write at a very young age and spent all of my spare time at the library or writing stories.  I must have gone to the library several times a week and had many books memorized.  The public library and my elementary school libraries were my favorite places.  I also wrote a lot all the time!! I remember writing multiple full-length stories when I was in first grade.  I wanted to be an author.  My love of reading and writing grew as I moved through school.  Perhaps one day I will get into more details, but tonight is not the time.  I am too tired and not feeling well.  But I loved English and I love it just as much now as I did when I was in first grade.

I have also loved working with kids and people my whole life. I always volunteered in the church nursery and Vacation Bible School when I was still a child myself.  That progressed to teaching Sunday school classes and spending every summer as a camp counselor.  I have been a counselor at three different camps now, and they were some of the best times of my life.  I spent a week volunteering at a public school in the Bronx for spring break my freshman year in college, and it was also an amazing experience.  I currently tutor at PSU’s Undergraduate Writing Center, where I collaborate with undergrads of all majors, years, and experience levels, and help them become better writers.

So basically, I love to read and write and work with people.  I’m so psyched that there’s something I can do that combines these three passions–not to mention the numerous other great benefits of the career of teaching English!!

Well, I’ll share more fun facts and stories about myself in the future.  And I’ll continue to develop this blog and network.

Rachel