Your 3 Words

My last assignment of the year was extremely short: three words. The students were to either summarize the year, describe themselves, or motivate others with no more or less than three words that captured their personalities. It was fun to put this together, and it was a pleasure to teach such a dynamic and sweet group of kids!

If you've never actually read...

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, man, oh man, you should. I had seen the play and countless versions of the movie, but I had never read the actual book until a few months before I was to teach it to my 8th grade class. And WOW! The stage version can not possibly do justice to the ineffable description of Dickens. As I'm reading with my class, I am unable to keep from stopping the iPod (on which I have the audio track) every paragraph - or sometimes every sentence - to help them unpack the incredible imagery, beautiful language, and depth of themes and motifs.

Being 13- and 14-year olds, my main goal is to give my students a great experience with a classic work of literature, so that they not only remember it fondly, but so that they also are a little more welcoming of works they get to read in the future. And, dare I say, it's going well so far! My classes are about 2 staves (chapters) behind the other English classes in the building; but, as far as I can tell, the kids (even the ones whom I can barely keep awake on normal days) are really enjoying it! They're participating in questions and answers, connecting experiences and dialog to themes, and (most importantly) laughing at my jokes and acting! :)

In short, this month-and-a-half experience with this novel in the classroom has been outstanding, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to teach such an outstandingly written book. This has renewed my educational zeal, for I am reminded why I got into this profession in the first place - my undying love for literature!

Reading vs. TV

I included the above citation and below letter in my Back to School Night class description for parents.

In an important book on education, Neil Postman notes that “word-centered” people think in a completely different mode from “image-centered” people. He explores the differences between the mental processes involved in reading and those involved in television watching. Reading demands sustained concentration, whereas television promotes a very short attention span. Reading involves (and teaches) logical reasoning, whereas television involves (and teaches) purely emotional responses. Reading promotes continuity, the gradual accumulation of knowledge, and sustained exploration of ideas. Television, on the other hand, fosters fragmentation, anti-intellectualism, and immediate gratification.

Postman does not criticize the content of television – the typical worries about “sex and violence” or the need for quality programming. Rather, the problem is in the properties of the form itself. Language is cognitive, appealing to the mind; images are affective, appealing to the emotions.

Postman goes on to connect the newly emerging dominance of electronic images over words to habits of mind that are having monumental social consequences: to the undermining of authority, the loss of sense of history, hostility to science, pleasure-centeredness, and the emergence of new values based on instant gratification and the need to be continually entertained. The new media direct us “to search for time-compressed experience, short-term relationships, present-oriented accomplishment, simple and immediate solutions. Thus, the teaching of the media curriculum must lead inevitably to a disbelief in long-term planning, in deferred gratification, in the relevance of tradition, and in the need for confronting complexity.” The social acceptance of sexual immorality, the soaring divorce rates, and the pathology of drug abuse may well be related to this pursuit of instant pleasure at all costs.
~from Reading Between the Lines by Gene Edward Vieth, Jr.
(Crossway Books, 1990). pg 21

The most grievous event for a teacher to witness is a student’s refusal to think. Believe it or not, this happens quite often because children today are not used to thinking, only spectating. As your child’s Language Arts teacher, and as one who is concerned with his or her welfare as a human being, I plea with you to encourage and model a reading atmosphere in your home. Most children naturally don’t like to read. Most don’t like vegetables or other beneficial things either. Therefore, please take the necessary steps at home to ensure your child’s mental and emotional health, just as you do their physical health, by increasing their time spent with books and decreasing their time spent in front of the TV!

Inquiry Journal

The homework for our Advanced Studies inservice meeting is to begin an inquiry journal where I investigate how I think and what about. Well, I think I've got a head start on this one, since that the primary purpose of this blog, but I'll give it a more stream-of-consciousness feel today.

The last few days I've been curious about my seeming intellectual backslide lately. As the temperature outside has been rising, my thinking trends have been lessening. I'm not sure if this data correlates, or if there are other factors weighing in, such as: exhaustion from the end of school (likely), distress of creating a summer school cirriculum about 5 days before classes begin, golf lessons, and tonight's dinner. Nevertheless, it seems that even though I (in theory) have more time now to spend reading and thinking deeply about important issues, I in reality am spending less. Thus, my quest for time begins. What is it that sucks all the minutes out of my day?

To be honest, time-stealers that can be removed are:
1. The Office - Chris and I have watched an episode (or four) per day lately, mostly just while doing dishes after dinner and starting whatever we're doing next (ie, facebook). I HATE getting sucked into shows! Solution: Take care of household tasks (laundry, cleaning, etc in order to kill two birds with one stone)
2. Facebook - though I'm not a junky like most, I do spend a few minutes too many creeping on the book. Solution: Get a life.
3. Working out - I need to find a more efficient way to keep myself a physical specimen. :) The solution I've already inacted is to read while engaging in cardio, which works out (unintended pun) splendidly. Another Solution: Don't eat so much ice cream, and then I won't have to work out so much.

What's weird is that I really don't do much else. I'm still sticking to my previous hypothesis - As the amount of time to spend increases, so does the amount of time wasted. So the question remains - Where does all the time go? And how do I get it back?

"You Got JELIED"

My first editing adventure, this video uncovers the behind the scenes on the greatest serial prank scheme in Campbell Middle School history. Ok, maybe that was a little over the top, but it was fun to do! This video is why I haven't posted anything profound lately... I guess the media/brain function ration is true! Anyway, check out the video, and post your comments! :)

The End is Near...

One (half) day remains of school. And that day is dedicated to the mass-chaos of yearbook signing. I am one school year wiser and exhausteder. [The mispelling accentuates the condition, for all you nonpoetical types out there]. The funny thing is that while most of my other comrades are more and more agitated with the youngsters' May-Fever, I actually am starting to really grow fond of them. Figures: I finally get the hang of it and it's over. Hopefully what that means is that next year I'll get the hang of things sooner and therefore can sit back and enjoy the young life more. [That was a mental note to self].

However, I'm one step ahead of somethings: today I bought a rubber stamp that has a saying I somewhat like, and so instead of wearing out my hand on yearbook day, it's WHAP with the stamp, sign "Mrs. Barnes." Lazy and Brilliant.

I've been reading John 12-13, and I'll have to write about what I've learned about Jesus' washing the disciples' feet. I think I'm going to save that for another post though, for the clock is striking 10:27. I've also been reading about the emergent movement in Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be). Pretty interesting stuff. More to come later. It might be much later, though, because I have to start reading and planning for Summer School (booooo, but good money, yaaaaaaaaaay).

Not too "level 6"ish today, but I've received too many complaints by haters of deep thoughts, so I thought I'd tone it down every once in a while for them...

Jordan speaks against excuses

"Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I led you to believe it was easy, when it wasn't. Maybe I led you to believe that my highlights started on the freethrow line and not in the gym. Maybe I made you think that every shot I took was a game winner, that my game was built on flash and not fire. Maybe it's my fault that you didn't see that failure gave me strength, that my pain was my motivation. Maybe I led you to believe that basketball was a God-given gift and not something I worked for... every single day of my life. Maybe I destroyed the game, or maybe you're just making excuses." ~MJ

This video with Michael Jordan is such a good message, especially for today's youth. So many of the kids I've seen and taught have big dreams but think that great things just get handed over, not worked for. The whole "self esteem" movement tells people that they deserve everything and that they can do anything regardless of, well, anything others do or say. Jordan speaks what is true for not just athletics: to be the best, one must devote everything and give his all, all the time.

I want my students to "celebrate the struggle" of progress, to live life with a passion that embraces victory and defeat with grace, to use every moment to better themselves, and ultimately, to know the One who makes all worthwhile and that much sweeter.

Students deserve better than easy

Maybe I'm a big nerd -- okay, maybe? -- but I can't help making connections, hypothesizing, philosophizing, evaluating and all that other level six stuff. While studying and taking the GRE (entrance into grad school exam), I couldn't help to feel ashamed at my lack of literary repertoire. Even as an English major and one who's thoroughly enjoyed reading (some of my best memories were spent up in the tree reading Hatchet, Boxcar Children, etc), I am clearly not what people who made this test would call well-read. I am not completely discouraged at this, since now I have a vast book list filled with items to grow my intellectual compasity and expand my understanding of the world and human endeavors (of good and evil).

What I connected this to, however, is the growing emphasis on young adult novels being adopted into my teaching curriculum. Just a small chunk of low-down-info, for the honors class I'm teaching next year, we are required to teach a teen novel. Right now, my fellow teachers from across the district and I are choosing one of three delightful little reads (sarcasm inserted). Now I'm not against teens reading teen novels by any means. What I am against is using valuable classroom time (of which I'm becoming more and more aware of its brevity) and valuable instruction time for kids - who choose to be in an honors class - to read something that they could easily read on their own time and could easily deduce the profound (sarcasm again) meanings without my help. The argument by the team who gave us this requirement for the teen novel is that the students need diversity, whether that diversity of old vs. new or hard vs. easy, I'm not sure. Maybe I'll find that out in meetings to come.

My arguments, keeping in mind my connection to the GRE, are the following:

1) Students who choose (as they do in our district) to be in an honors class are signing up for challenge and rigor. The object of most teen novels is to reach out to kids who usually don't like to read by giving them easy-to-understand storylines about topics that interest them. These kids should already like to read if they enroll in honors class, and therefore the purpose of the teen novel is a moot point.

2) There are so many great works out there that have stood the test of time because their themes and ideas are universal and long lasting. Teen novels are usually pretty narrowly focused and deal with current, selfish, or trite issues - hence the simplicity noted above. Teen novels usually aren't "real life" as their promoters say. They usually focus on the tough problems that plague maybe 3% of teens. And worse, they usually promote self-centeredness, which is so prevalent already that it should not be encouraged even more.

3) I want my kids to read something that will benefit them having read it. These future AP or IB students should have guided access to as many works as possible that will help them succeed. I remember when I was given an AP reading list of about 100 books in high school, I was overwhelmed because we only read like 3 in class, and so I was expected to read as many as I could on my own. When studying for the GRE, I was likewise overwhelmed at all the works and authors I was expected to know. Therefore, why not give these young scholars as much deep literature as we can while we have them under our guidance. I would much rather be able to help my students through Orwell's 1984 than expect them to read and understand it on their own time because I'd rather teach them something that is more fun, easy, and "applicable" to them.

Softening them up is preparing them for failure, or at least overwhelmedness, like me.

Not so theological...

If teachers are supposed to externally motivate their students to be internally motivated, isn't that a contradiction in terms?

Yesterday, I had my homeroom engage (though not so much) in an activity that required a smiggin of thinking outside the box. They had to line up in birthday order without talking. Two immediately cheated (I wanted to throw something hard or sticky at them), and then - when I finally got them off their behinds - looked at the floor and chose to be defeated. This lasted for what seemed like hours. Years later, I reminded them, "There are other ways to comunicate, you know," and then I got the deer in headlight look until I was thirty. The worst part was, when they finally got somewhat going (amidst the numerous rolled eyes) and finished with only a few mistakes, I asked them what they learned. The (serious) response, "That you should never have us do something this stupid again," "That that was too hard to do." I tried to redirect them - "What could you have done differently to make it a little better/easier?" Response: "I could've given up earlier."

What's sad is that these few that were actually conversing with me were very serious and this is not an isolated insident. In general, this crop of teenagers is so used to giving up at first sign of difficulty that they never give themselves the chance to grow into something more than they currently are (and let's just leave it at They have a great margin for improvement).

I pray that the Lord creates light in the darkness of the minds and hearts of these little ones, as only He can do, and gives them the willingness to thirst for life, thirst for learning, and mostly, thirst for Him. It's kind of like sharing the gospel - I know that I can't internally motivate them, since obviously I'm not inside them. I pray also that I can find the balance of wanting this passion for them, showing them my passion, and letting it go when they don't take hold (do I don't get so frustrated, drained, and hurt).