Foot: Pleasure Reading (again)

I just started reading Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.  It is written by Seth Grahame-Smith, he is the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  So far this is a really interesting book.  As far as I know all the facts about Abraham Lincoln are correct... I looked some up online to make sure.  The only difference between this book and an biography about him is that there are vampires in this story.  I think a book like this could help students learn more about Abraham Lincoln without them realizing it.  The vampire bits just seem like they are scary stories or myths people believed at the time.  Even if you overlooked all the vampire bits you will still learn alot about our 16th President of the United States.

Foot: Pleasure Reading

I am very interested in the iPad but I already have two laptops and a desktop computer.  I was trying to figure out a way to justify buying an iPad anyway.  So i googled the iPad to learn more about it.  I ran accross a blog by a teacher who uses her iPad in her classroom.  She is an English teacher and I found her blog very interesting and I thought everyone else would like to read it too.

http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/2010/08/using-my-ipad-in-classroom-this-year.html

Foot: The Battle For Facebook

I just finished reading The Battle For Facebook and I think I am probably the only person in our whole class who doesn't think Mark Zuckerberg is a jerk.  I think he just happened to be the one who launched his site first.  The article even said that the idea of an online social network was buzzing around Harvard.  Just because a couple people had the same idea at the same time doesn't mean that Mark Zuckerberg stole an idea from anyone. 

I don't know why he fired most of his friends or why he alienated alot of people.  The only people who know that are Mark Zuckerberg and his former friends.  I don't really care why.  All I know is he is the inventor of the biggest social network ever.  I have a Facebook app on my phone.  I am never without my Facebook.  Since I am so busy with school, work, and my kids Facebook is how I connect with all of my friends. 

To me this article just made it seem like Mark Zuckerberg did alot of work on Facebook.  The article even said he lost a girlfriend because he was always on his computer writing code.  He wants Facebook to be the biggest thing ever and he doesn't want anyone to take that away from him or to get in the way of his dream.  I don't see anything wrong with that.

Foot: Not so "Pleasurable" Reading

I am sick to my stoumach.  I am sick and tired of reading about teachers who have sex with minors.  I just read this article

http://www.dreamindemon.com/2011/01/26/police-female-teacher-and-teen-boy-busted-mid-coitus/

and it makes me sick.  Teachers are adults, they are in charge of childrens educations.  They should know better than to have sex with students.  Maybe if they made becoming a teacher harder there would be less perverts in the field. 

When I look at high school students, that is exactly what I see.... HIGH SCHOOLSTUDENTS!!!!  They are CHILDREN!!!!  Anyone who thinks otherwise shouldn't be a teacher.  I'm so sick right now I can't stand it!

Someone needs to think of a way to weed out the perverts before they become teachers.  They are going to give teachers a bad name. 

Foot: Oral History of the Internet

I just finished reading the Oral History of the Internet.  I didn't know that they just kind of "accidentally" discovered the Internet.  It seems like none of them think they did anything really big at the time.  They were just winging it.  It was interesting how the article went chronologically from the moment the Internet was invented to now.  I remember when my family got our first computer.  I think it was 1992 and I was 11 years old and we had AOL.  There was e-mail, chat rooms, and games and that was pretty much it.  If I had a report for school I still went to look in the encyclopedias.  Our computer had a word processor on it and I was so happy that I could type my papers on the computer and print them out instead of using the typewriter.  The paper that went into our printer was a real ream of paper, the pages were connected and the edges had holes to help the paper go through the printer.  When it was done printing I had to tear the pages out of the printer and then separate the pages and tear off the edges with the holes.  When I read the article I was remembering how computers have changed as I was growing up.  It was like re-living that time in my life.  It was really neat.

Foot: Pleasure Reading

All of the talk about technology that we did in class and all the technology that we are reading about made me think about a book I read over Christmas break.  I read a book called Matched by Allie Condie.  This book is young adult literature.  It is set in the future.  It isn't specific about what year it is but I'm guessing at least a couple hundred years in the future.  Something happened to end society as we know it and they rebuilt society.  They thought the people from the old society had too much technology and they had too much of pretty much everything.  They picked 100 Songs, 100 Poems, 100 Lessons.... etc.  They got rid of everything else.  They figured if there was only 100 of everything the people could appreciate things better.  They also had a lot of technology in this new Society.  Every student had a "scribe" which is what they used to write with.  No one knew how to write with their hands, they could only type.  The Society didn't want anyone being able to make new poems or stories or whatever, so they stopped teaching people how to write.  They had computers that matched people to each other too.  People didn't get to choose who they married.  The Society matched people based on likes, dislikes, eye color.... etc.  The Society wanted to have the best possible next generations.  Jobs were also chosen by The Society.   I won't give away the ending of the book because it is a very good book.  But they have some very interesting technology.  I would recommend this book to anyone.  I would even like my students to read this book when I become a teacher.  This book is the first in a trilogy.  The second book is going to come out in November 2011 and the third will come out in November 2012.  If anyone else has read this book I would like to hear your thoughts on it too.

Pytash: Chapter 1

I enjoyed the Seven Guiding Principles for Literature Teachers.  The following is what I found important from each one.

1. Students Must Read
     - Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. It is very important because it gives students the chance to control their learning because they learn with the aid of a teacher or more knowledgeable peers.  They are not just lectured to.

My favorite part of that section is the quote from Vygotsky: "the only good kind of instruction is that which marches ahead of development and leads it."

2. Don't Confuse Reading for Pleasure with the Study of Literature
     - This section says students should read two very different kinds of books.  The first one acts as a mirror, which means the students can relate to the story.  The second one acts as a window which allows students to experience other worlds, other times and other cultures.  Students need both kinds of books.

This section also mentions Oprah's Book Club.  Oprah started hosting a new segment called "Traveling with the Classics." Her first selection was John Steinbeck's East of Eden. I have not read that book yet but this section makes me want to read it.

3. Dont' Simply Assign Difficult Books; Teach Them
     - This section really made me think.  It said that sometimes teachers abandon the classics because they think their students won't be able to understand it.  This section says that it's not enough to just hand the students the book and expect them to understand it on their own.  Teachers need to walk their students through difficult books and help them understand.

4. Reading Literature Requires Language Study and Builds Vocabulary
     - This section stresses that students who come to school with rich vocabularies thrive and those who arrive with a language gap never seem to make up the difference.   The book also says that instruction can make a difference.  This book recommends that every teacher should read Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. It said that that book should be mandatory for every teacher.  That is very interesting to me.  It must be a pretty good book.  I can't wait to read it.

5. Reading Literature Build Background Knowledge
     - This section is very important because people don't think about how much background knowledge is important until they read something to which they have no background knowledge.  The more a student reads different kinds of books, the more background knowledge they will acquire.

6. Reading Literature Educates Students' Imaginations
     - I think the most important part of this section is the first two sentences.  "Good literature is disturbing. It forces readers to examine the lives of others objectively from the inside out."  Students need to be exposed to things they are not used to because it gives them the chance to be exposed to worlds and experiences they have never known.

7. Metaphorical Thinking is a Life Skill
     -This section shows that students use metaphors all the time without even knowing it.  They think of metaphors only when thinking about English class.  It is very important for students to understand the power of a good metaphor.