[PYTASH] Chapter 5

Using song lyrics as poetry is one of the simplest concepts that seems to be overlooked by teachers. Not that the top 40 has the greatest lyrics going on right now, but that could also be something worthwhile to study -- the downfall of poetic justice popular culture gives to a listener.

The positive attitude she goes into it all with is also a key point I think is overlooked by a lot of teachers. I think a lot of teachers think to themselves "oh, the students are going to hate this, but I have to do it" and that ruins the unit for the students because the teacher isn't rubbing off their passion for the content onto the students. While a small part of the chapter, I think it's important to take note of her positive attitude.

The way she read the poems was: Poem->background information. Whereas with literature, it is often the background first. This is actually a solid idea. I can read about a poet and poem's background all I want, but if I don't know what it's about or understand the literary techniques employed, then it will go in one ear and out the other. By giving me the content first, I'll be able to interpret the poem and understand it and then get some background on it to reenforce or reshape my view on its meaning.

[PYTASH] Chapter 3

The amount of books a student should read. Oh, my. Reading this chapter as a student in high school, I would have wanted to hunt the author down and disfigure her. As a pre-service teacher, though? No. In fact, I agree. While students do have extra curricular activities and other classes, I remember in my regular high school English classes it would take almost an entire month, if not longer, to read a single book. We continue to bring standards down and coddle the readers by having them only read one or two chapters per night, when we need to get them to be able to consume a larger amount of literature in one dose to even bother getting to real critical thought and intellectual growth. While Jago may have it a bit extreme at 20 books for her sophomore class, at least she is pushing against the norm of maybe 3-5 in a semester like it was in my school, which simply isn't enough.

There definitely needs to be some balance, and students need to be given the opportunity for critical thought, too. By reading 20 books, students may be flying through the books so fast, they don't have the time to actual stop and smell the literature for its beauty and take their thinking to deeper levels. There are more factors than just English class needs, but I definitely have to take Jago's side on the matter.

[PYTASH] Chapter 1

At this point, the classics vs. young adult literature debate is more than belabored as we have discussed this quite a bit during our education classes in the past. Jago's view on YA lit. actually surprises me and I wonder how this view will continue to show through the book. While in our class last semester, the author had a more liberal view on the matter, Jago is stern believer in using the classics to learn and YA is simply pleasure reading. I definitely agree with this, but not to the extent she seems to in the way she voices her opinion on it.

I would love to spend the entire year studying the classics in a high school classroom, but students simply aren't interested in it enough. There needs to be a way to hook them in. Themes don't change over the years. We're still the same humans dealing with the same identity struggle we always have. There will always be a contemporary piece that reflects well the same thematic concepts of a classic that would interest the reader more. You can then pair it with a classic and get them interested in both stories as they are similar and they'll see the worthwhileness of the one they're not interested in.

[FOOT] The Socially Networked Classroom (sort of)

Didn't get too far into this yet, but I'm super stoked on its presentation and the models its using. It's an extremely informative book thus far, and isn't cumbersome, as a lot of textbooks are. It's forward thinking in what it's trying to utilize to bring a classroom together. I didn't think I'd ever run across a book that actually understands the power behind Web 2.0 tools. Albeit it's already falling behind with new technologies coming out, but I'm not here to discredit it -- the book is spot on for what we as burgeoning teachers need. It is useful in integrating tech such as Facebook and Twitter into the classroom, which may make the students feel more at home. I still have a lot more to consume in the book before I could have something worthwhile to say, but I'll at least get this up here.

[FOOT] History of Facebook

With the release of The Social Network just this year, this article read just like the script of the movie. Drunk Zuckerberg makes a site, screws over some people on the way, and is now super important, but young and cocky. What the article fails to mention is the coming dissent of facebook, or the fact that as it has become more and more popular (and thus, powerful), it has also become a child's playground more than a professional networking site. While the original facebook was a place for college students, and older people to connect and work in a professional manner, Facebook is now a land of mindless farmville-ing and myspace immigrant scene kids taking mirror pictures. Oh, and now the middle aged people are starting to really get into it, including a lot of parents. It's all very odd, but I see nothing but the same downfall that myspace had, and other such popular sites have also experienced.

Social networking will always, in some way, be a part of our lives for years to come, but it will most likely be continually changing every few years as they expand and then retract.

[FOOT] Oral History of the Internet

I'm just going to open by saying this article was dauntingly long. As someone who is an avid computer user and knows his web history, it took a lot of effort to keep reading through this. Started with the whole Soviet Union scare and then it was trying to get it in the home, etc. etc. I guess I'm not sure what to say because this is common knowledge in my circle of friends (yes, we are all computer geeks). Yes Microsoft has done terribly unethical things in their day, but its also completely reinvented the internet and computing as we know it. People have to do what they have to do to get things done, and I'll take innovation with a few sacrifices along the way. What I do find interesting is that they never once mentioned AOL, which was a HUGE player in the internet boom. It completely neglected it, which was a huge misstep on their take on the history of the internet, especially for it coming to the masses. AOL was vastly important to this in the early '00s.

I think knowledge like this is extremely important. As technology integrates into our lives more and more, we can't stand to be ill informed on the matter; the same as politics. The technologically uninformed will be taken advantage of, just as the politically uninformed masses are in today's society.

[FOOT] Little Brother Post

Just finishing the first half of our reading on Little Brother, I'm impressed by the novels ability to convey a serious message, but turn it into a relatable YA choice through its characterization and all of its descriptions. Its language is never daunting, but its not a children's book, which creates a happy medium where high school students have the opportunity to expand their vocabulary without feeling overwhelmed by the material (i.e. Shakespeare, William Blake, James Joyce, Faulkner, etc. etc.). It's Orwellian relation could make a great segue and comparison novel. I have found that as a technologically inclined person, I may be more drawn to the novel. Some of the language choices when referring to the technology may confuse the less informed, which can make the novel a bit of a niche category for computer loving teen boys.

What I think is most important about this book is the way it looks at your rights and how you should stand up for them. While it's a fun plot and you can feel wrapped in the characters the way a good book should, stepping back and looking at the book's overall themes and the way they are presented makes for a great discussion topic. It can pair literature with the real world and real problems going on, especially seeing how quickly technology is taking over our lives. Here is a comic that I think could stir good discussion as well, depending on the grade level, as they would have to know who both Huxley and Orwell are.

Orwell v. Huxley comic.