7/11 Heroes aren't Hard to Find in SI

I am loving SI.  May I just pause a moment and state this publically?  As my friend Jan often says, "My brain is full."  My brain is full . . . and it does not stop working.  Even when I go to sleep at night.  I really liked what Kim Keith did with the Heroes Demo: and her emphasis on exposing students to more than one story.  I did want to see some heroes, though, who were women.  So I was a wee bit disappointed that there were no Power Puff Girls or no Wonder Woman.  Hey---even the highly sexualized Charlie's Angels from the 70s!  (Well, maybe not them.)

Ben's demo with the one-sentence story was great.  I really loved some of my sentences. Here are some favorites: 

"Mushrooms aren't just for eating," exclaimed Wanda.
Feeling clammy, Clem the oyster burped up a pearl.
Sexting was how Anna got through the night.
The spider coursed down the drain, spinning and twirling in the rushing water. 

I also loved the "Bad Writing" exercise! 

7 15 SI Democracy’s Demise

15 July 2013                                                                    The Charlotte Observer             10B

Today’s Obituaries

Democracy

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA—Democracy, born in the United States of American on 4 July 1776, died today after nearly 50 years of declining influence.  Originally born to be for the people and by the people, Democracy had become, over the past several decades, slowly corrupted by capitalistic, money-grubbling fat-cats who infiltrated its ideals and acted on them much like a slow growing but no less serious, fatal cancer. 

Democracy saw many triumphs during its lifetime: the abolition of slavery, the legalization of voting rights for women, and the creation of Civil Rights chief among them. At the time of its death, Democracy was actively engaged in LGBT rights, and was showing some success in this area, when it died. 

Survivors of Democracy include everyone who values love, acceptance, and equality.  Memorial gifts may be made to any library, where it is hoped that future generations may read and learn about Democracy.          

(Inspired by Erika’s Demo today and our discussion of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson’s ideas of democracy.) 

7 12 Universal Themes and Jung

Today was the most important learning moment for me so far.  It might be the most important learning moment for me for 2013. This happened during Wendy’s demo when the issue arose of whether or not universal themes exist.  I mentioned Jung’s collective unconscious and universal archetypes.  Lil really problematized this for me, saying that there really are not any universal themes, and what is more, Jung just ain’t all that anymore (and has not been for decades). 

This made me stop and think about my knowledge base.  Mentioning Jung was pulling on a knowledge reservoir from my college days (circa 1978-1982).  That’s a long time ago.  What new knowledge have I added to this reservoir? None.  Yet I am pulling on this like it’s topical and relevant and – most importantly – unquestioned.   What else am I failing to question?

We have to constantly interrogate what we know, what we think we know, what we believe, what we think we believe, and WHY.  Do I believe this because someone I respect said it?  Is that enough of a reason to believe it?  How do I take in knowledge and beliefs, turn them inside out and wring them out to squeeze out those underlying assumptions?  What is informing what I believe and know???

7/11 SI "Bad" Writing

Great takeaway idea today --- I really want my students to interrogate the notion of good and bad writing.  I believe freshmen come to college with a lot of ideas about this.  If they self-identify at all as a writer, it’s as a “bad writer.” They will say this, and then cite evidence to support this, ranging from poor grades in “English” in high school to their SAT scores.  So how they are valuing themselves, seeing themselves as writers has everything to do with external measures of “good writing.”  What I enjoyed today in class was thinking about an adaptation of Ben’s Demo, wherein I could ask students to bring in a sample of their “bad writing” and then delete names, shuffle, and distribute to a different class. That class would be asked to provide feedback, which then would work its way back to the original writer.  Just thinking on the page here . . . wondering how to upset my students’ self-assessments as “bad” writers.     

7/10 SI: "Marks" and Technology and Technology

This is a blog in two parts.

Part I:  "Marks" by Linda Pastan

"Marks"

My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I'm average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass.  Wait 'til they learn
I'm dropping out.


First, why are women constantly assessed by everyone in their lives?  We are or are not good mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, grandmothers.  We are or are not good drivers, dressers, dessert makers.  We are or are not too thin, too fat, too cranky, too bitchy, too silly, too straight-laced, too wild.  Are men judged like this?  Are they?  I just don't think so. (And I want to know what she did to get the "plus" in bed?)

The other thing this poem raises for me is the way my students must feel.  My students have five or six evaluaters -- and all of us are valuing different things.  It's very likely that my students feel overwhelmed too and just want to quit. DON'T QUIT!!!

Part II: Technology Demo from Ashley

I could have talked all day about Ashley's demo on technology and its effects on society.  In my daybook, I explored ideas about alienation and loneliness as they connect (no pun intended) to technology.  I agree with something that Nicholas Dearmas said today, about how everyone wants to think that their generation is the most . . . whatever (fill in the blank). While we may think our generation is alienated due to an over- dependence on technology, consider that  Eliot's The Wasteland, written in 1922, is all about alienation.  And think how untechnological the world was in the 20s, especially compared to now. Alienation and loneliness are a central aspect of the human experience and that those very feelings are what drive us to do all sorts of things in an effort to avoid the abyss. . . so we engage in communities, we marry, we have children, we do what we can to feel connected.  And before instant chat and Facebook we wrote letters, we visited people for weeks at a time, we belonged to churches and other social communities.

I think of my great-grandmother Wertz who lived on a farm in Saluda, S. C.  They had hundreds of acres and also ran a saw mill on their property.  There were 12 children in that family, all of whom worked the land along with the hired help.  They lived out in the middle of nowhere -- seeing folks when they attended Trinity Lutheran Church on Sundays -- and maybe on Wednesday evenings as well. But they certainly were alienated from society.  Now, they probably were not lonely because they had such a large family, and no doubt steady saw mill customers.  But my point here is that life before technology was not necessarily more connected or less lonely.      
  

7 9 Socratic Seminar

The Socratic Seminar is something I've heard my colleagues talk about but I did not know or understand. So I was glad to have a chance to participate in it.  I like the idea a lot and can see places where it would work well in a First-Year Writing class.  We could do it to unpack a difficult essay we're reading . . . I also wonder if I could adapt it somehow and use it to comment on students' writing? Not sure how/if that would work . . . but I am just thinking on paper here and want to mention now so I don't forget about it.

I am writing this late -- it is the post that was due on Tuesday but I had to rush out and be in my life.  Cousins in town for one night only --- home late and too tired to bloggggggg last night.

I also loved the writing about lit that Lil led us through. The body biography assignment about "Envy" (Bebe Moore Campbell) was really an insightful assignment for me.  It complicated the kind of easy usual group work of just "illustrating" key points from a story. It also was hard for me to equate body parts/places with ideas/actions from the text.   Working in groups to determine what we included on our illustration called for   collaboration and negotiation.

  

7 8 SI: Revision & Digital Presentations!!!!!

RETHINKING REVISION

Revision Day!  Today we worked on our institute piece and of course, I worked on The Opal Bracelet.  What I really appreciated was thinking about revision in a new way.  I am becoming more and more suspect of my own extremely narrow and unhelpful views about revision . . . which connects to why I want to inqurie into it . . . because I don't think I teach it well.  I think it's like I've been thinking about revision like someone who thinks that to play means only to skip rope when in fact there are lots of ways to play--jumping rope being just one of them.  What I liked doing today especially during our revision writing time was being able to "add."  This worked well for me.  And I have to say, that I have not really thought of this as an act of revision.  But of course it is.  I also noticed that I get bogged down in my writing with research data interruptions --- in today's case, I wanted to write Zippy's entry about the first time she learns that Jews are being gassed.  And to do that, of course, I had to know the date when such info was first written about in the paper or reported on the BBC.

DIGITAL PRESENTATIONS AND FEEDBAAAAACK!!!!!!!

 I am so happy that I finally got my digital piece all put together in a movie format.  I paid $4.99 for the iMovie app and it was money well spent.  Steve helped me try to figure out Doceri . . . I still had trouble making it work even when he found a way.  In the end, iMovie saved the day.  And now I know how to do iMovie, so big YAY for me!!! I am NOT digitally inclined so I am really proud of myself for persevering!!!

Meanwhile, what was so cool was doing the digital gallery crawl and checking out what others did.  I learned so much about so many people. . . it's amazing how revealing we are in our writing autobiographies.  It's a great way to get so know someone.  I may try to use this assignment early in the semester in my writing class.  I also appreciated the chance to write feedback for each of the DPs I viewed.  The post-it note is a great idea --- another one to keep doing in class.  

I loved today. Really glad my project worked, at long last.  Really glad that I did not freak out about it not working and trusted that the Digital Gods would smile upon me.  

Looking forward to being with my writing group tomorrow!!