5 Weeks Gone By

Article posted October 4, 2005 at 04:32 AM GMT • Reads 311

As much as we all dreaded the idea of the summer ending and school beginning, five weeks into the first quarter, and it feels as if we never had summer vacation. It’s as if the routine takes over and we go into cruise control. The first week and a half was difficult, waking up early, squeezing in last minute beach time and doing homework, yuk! Now it’s all business, work, work, work. Of course there are a few of you out there that hang on to the summer fun a little longer, hanging out late on weeknights and even later on the weekends. But now that we are five weeks in, you summer stragglers are suffering. I’m sure there are one or two of you that somehow manage to maintain respectable grades and a thriving social life. But those students are rare and age quickly. For the rest of you social butterflies, take a look at that progress report you’ll get on October 14th; it’s your warning; take heed. Freshman, this will be the first of four long years of high school. Make it count; you won’t get a second chance. Juniors, on the other hand, you’re at the end of the road; college applications go out in January. If you’ve have your sights set on a specific college, this year is your last chance to make a strong impression.



So let’s look forward now. We will use this blog to discuss many topics. At first I will leave it open for you, the students, to converse for a while. Then I will guide discussions by creating topics of discussion. I will treat these blogs like journal entries, printing them every few weeks and assessing participation.



You should be just about done with your independent book and personal narrative by now. Reflect on the first five weeks of school and the assignments so far. Let’s start the discussion there and see where it goes for now. Remember- keep it clean; this is an extension of our classroom. School rules apply.

Rosa Parks

Article posted October 26, 2005 at 05:20 AM GMT • Reads 58

"When she sat down, she stood up for America," Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth of Cincinnati said.(Evans, M. Newsday. 25 October 2005)



Rosa Parks has died. What a sad moment; one of the last remaining icons of the Civil Rights Movement has died at the ripe age of 92. It sounds like a million years ago, but it wasn't that long ago when Rosa Parks and others like her struggled to be treated with respect and dignity. Imagine what it was like to be her, living fifty years after sparking one of the most significant moments in American history. I wonder what was going through her mind when she got on that bus on that fateful day, December 1, 1955. Do you think she got on that bus thinking- “today is the day I change the world”? Do you think she got on that bus thinking- “I am tired of being pushed around”? Or do you think it was just one of those days that everything was going wrong, and when that man told her to move to the back of the bus, it was the last straw?

As a student, I’ve heard of Rosa Parks throughout my school career, especially during January, you know that special month set aside specifically for discussing civil rights since that is when we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Rosa Parks is known as the woman who would not move to the back of the bus. That doesn’t sound so significant to a child or even a teenager, especially today. But, when you stop to think about what life was like for African Americans during the fifties and sixties, when the laws were written specifically to punish African Americans for trying to exercise the same rights as their Caucasian counterparts, it is difficult to imagine that African Americans took it for so long. How did they continue to live under such oppression? How did society convince African Americans that they were less than human and did not deserve the same rights as people of European descent? I’m sure that over the last fifty years psychologists have hypothesized numerous theories trying to answer those questions and many more.

While laws have changed since then, thanks to the bravery and persistence of such icons as Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Dr. King, and countless others who took a stand and demanded equality, we still have a long way to go. I thank Rosa Parks for what happened that day; whether she intended to change the world or not, she did. And, unlike some of her contemporaries, she got to live for fifty more years to see the progress made since that December day in 1955. Rosa Parks was a living monument of the Civil Rights Movement, and her death signifies the end of an era.



Here is the link to the Newsday article from which I pulled the quote: "She sat, stood up for all"

Natural Helpers

Article posted November 1, 2005 at 03:28 AM GMT • Reads 164

I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with the Natural Helpers program, but until this weekend, I wasn’t quite sure what it was myself. I was honored when I received notice that I was selected, by students, as a person that they trusted. Some of you may remember that a few weeks ago there was a homeroom where they passed out surveys for you to fill out, asking you to identify both students and teachers that you feel comfortable talking to during difficult times. Juni, Sherry, and Ms. Reynoso then took those surveys and tallied up the student and teacher names that show up the most. Those people were then invited to spend the weekend at Camp Quinipet on Shelter Island where they learn to be better listeners and effective communicators. They also learn how to react when they are faced with a friend that confides in them about something that may require adult or even professional intervention.



While by this description the retreat sounds pretty boring, it is anything but. I was only able to spend a few hours there on Saturday because I had other obligations to tend to. If I had been able to stay, I would have stayed the whole weekend. While I was there, I got the chance to sit in on one of their sessions. From the moment they arrived on Friday evening, they participated in workshop sessions where the facilitators worked on building trust and breaking down walls. The facilitator was really good at getting everyone (kids and adults) to talk about things that make them uncomfortable, like stereotypes, racism, and other issues that are hurtful. In the session I saw, students role-play parts that demonstrated how we treat each other in hurtful ways and we don’t even know it. Students easily realize this is important because if the people attending the retreat are those people identified as trustworthy of listening to our problems. They have to understand how their actions can be hurtful and can scare someone off from coming to them with a problem.



To some of you the retreat may sound corny, talking about feelings, role-playing, sharing stories, etc. But, when you are sitting in the room with so many students that represent the different groups of our community, listening to them talk about how they feel when someone says this or that, it is the most powerful discussion you could ever participate in.



Since I wasn’t there when they first arrived on Friday evening, I’m not sure if there are any specific rules about the people that attended the retreat and whether they can talk about their experiences last weekend. Several of my former and current students attended the retreat this year, and I’m sure some of you have attended in the past. I would love, if you were comfortable doing it, for you to share what you thought of what you learned on the retreat. For those of you who did not attend, feel free to respond to my description of the retreat.

Plagiarism

Article posted December 19, 2005 at 01:36 PM GMT • Reads 62

Historically, plagiarism has always been a sticky issue. For this reason, each year teachers across grade levels dedicate at least one project, if not more, to a project or paper that requires students to cite all resources from which they draw their information. Through this process, students are expected to understand the importance of copyright laws and the severity of breaking those laws.



Even with so many years of training, it seems that students understand the idea of attributing the work of others only when required to do so and not as a habit. It is important that students develop such a habit in order prevent “unintentionally” plagiarizing someone else’s work. “Unintentionally” is used cautiously here, noting that one cannot plead innocent when he is expected to “know better.” Similarly, when a driver is pulled over for running a stop sign, claiming that he did not see the stop sign and did not mean to run through it does not make him any less guilty. Taking on the responsibility of driving a car means taking on the responsibility of all of the traffic laws as well. Students as young as eight years old are taught, at some level, that plagiarism is wrong and that credit must be attributed to the originator of the work.



With all of this in mind, at what point should a student be severely punished for offending copyright laws? Could we say that at the elementary school level students don’t know the difference between copying and summarizing? Or maybe students could skate through both elementary and junior high school until they reach high school where they will be completely accountable. Is that fair?



With technology changing every time we blink, the amount of resources available at the click of a mouse has grown exponentially. With the availability of so many resources so readily, copyright issues get even more complicated. At the forefront of that issue over the last few years is the file-sharing craze which started with music and has moved to DVD's and software as well. While those battles are still being fought on the frontline of internet shareware applications and the multimedia industry, what about the vast availability of images and documents on the internet that are posted and copied so easily? Just because an image is on the internet, does not mean that it can be copied and pasted freely without citation or even permission.



While the technicalities of the realm of public domain on the internet are still being sorted out, the fact still remains that if you did not write it, say it, draw it, photograph it, sing it, or record it, then you must cite it.



Now think about how many times you have broken copyright laws on one level or another. If you had to pay a ten dollar fine for every word, image, song, or movie that you pirated or plagiarized, how much would you owe? If those words, songs, or images were yours, would you want someone to use them and take credit for your work?



Take a look at this commentary made by Newsday reporter Susan Cheever: Just Google 'thou shalt not steal'

BOOK REVIEWS

Article posted February 6, 2006 at 04:22 AM GMT • Reads 242

Since the beginning of this school year, each of you has been required to read independently. The parameters of book choices have been fairly broad, and I have been pleased with many of the selections that I have seen in your logs. The minimum requirement for independent reading is that you read one independent book each quarter. But, because I am constantly assigning reading logs, you are sometimes forced to start another book even though you already completed the minimum requirement. While of course there are a few of you who have not been reading, I have estimated that approximately 85 percent of my students are reading. That’s great news!



Sometimes the hardest thing about independent reading is choosing the right book. One of the best ways to choose a book is through peer recommendation. Now that we are in the third quarter and all of you have at least two books under your belt and the third in the works, it is a great time for you to share your opinions about the books you’ve read this year. It will be interesting to see what you all are reading.



In responding to this blog I would like you to do three things:



1) Tell how many books you’ve read so far (be honest), and tell how that number compares to how much you’ve read in the past.



2) Give your opinion about how you feel about the independent reading assignments: choosing a book, reading each week, submitting weekly reading logs, and filling out literary elements forms (again, be honest but keep your comments appropriate).



3) Insert a personal book review for your favorite independent book so far.

Welcome to BlogNation

Article posted August 7, 2007 at 09:24 PM GMT • Reads 237

Here we go into a new school year and all that goes with it like, new clothes, new friends, new attitudes, some good and some bad. I remember those days (about 75 years ago) dreading the end of summer, yet also looking forward to seeing everybody, how they've changed, where they've been, who cut her hair and who let his grow long. I remember anticipating the first day of school and thinking that I will be much more serious about my academics and do much better than the year before. I remember deciding how I wanted to change my style and dress a little differently. I'd buy some outfits that were not really "me," but I wanted to change "me" anyway. I'd wear the new style during the first couple of weeks of school then regress to the "real me" once again. Then there were the teachers...but I won't go there.



So what will this year bring for you? What kind of changes are you looking forward to making? Do the same things go through your mind that went through mine so many years ago?



Only time will tell what our future holds. We are bound together for the next 181 school days, for better or worse, and I'm sure we'll have a little of both.



To make our time together a little more interesting, I've established this blog. BlogNation will serve as a forum for discussion of many topics in our class. Here we will deal with topics both in the classroom and around the world.



As part of our class you will be required to create your own blog. Your blog will serve as a journal of sorts. Throughout the year I will assign various topics for blog discussion. You will be expected to respond to my blogs as well as those of your classmates. (more on that later)



Let's see where this goes and how it works out. Let me know what you think too.