read dis blog b4 u read anybody elses lol

I read “Dis maks my Teacha cry,” by John Przybys. The article explores the link between the classroom and students who are text messaging. Text messages have developed their own language in and of itself when it comes to punctuation, word use, spelling, and other conventions. The article discusses these issues with teachers of English and sees if they are ever concerned with the path for which English writing is heading.

Most teachers surprisingly show little concern over the text messaging occurring in the classroom setting. Most teachers found no issues explaining to kids that there was a time and place for text speak. Most students had no trouble figuring out when that time and place was.

The fear amongst the general population is that this text speak will produce a generation of illiterate Americans not well suited for the ever-changing job market. William Kist says, "I think the general public is more upset about it than English teachers are. It's certainly the position of the National Council of Teachers of English that these alternate spellings and punctuations actually open up an incredible opportunity for a dialogue (with students) about the English language." Kist’s view is one of a few English teachers in Academia who seem to believe that there could play a positive role in the teaching of English.

I personally do not think that students should be confused about where text speak is appropriate and it is not. We live in an increasingly independent society. We have deemphasized the role of the teacher for years now, and all of the sudden now we seem to need them more than ever. The role of the teacher is to show students how to read and write in a language suitable to professional discourse. The few students who are unable or unwilling to learn standard English will be the one’s who suffer. Text speak is not an issue as long as we continue to emphasize to our students that there is a time and place.

The emphasis is all we can really hope for the benefit of our students. Students are not as stupid as it is believed. The fact that most teachers are not overly concerned shows us that. Our student’s will turn out fine and towards the end of the article one teacher even points out that kids have had slang for years, it just was never really written until now. It is my belief that as long as students are writing in some form, they are learning. As they mature so too will their writing.

To read or not to read.

The article I read was "County's Students Not Following National Reading Trend." It was about how there was conflicting data about how much students, and teenagers over all, actually read. The National Endowment for the Arts released data that showed a decline in students scores and their desire to read outside of the class room. Where as Kay Haas, language arts coordinator in Olathe School District disagrees. Haas says that it's opposite from other sources. "Haas said that instead of buying traditional books, today’s teens are reading different genres, such as Manga, books based on Japanese animation." Haas says that they are not doing the right kind of studies since students interest vary so greatly. Other schools have seen a drop but nothing that has been a significant change.


I agree with Haas. Just because students are not reading what would be considered appropriate texts doesn't mean they're not reading. I myself read both Manga, as stated above and traditional books. Everyone has a different interest and I don't think asking questions and labeling all students as poor readers or as an age period that doesn't read is right. How accurate are those studies? Not every place is the same.

“What makes an effective assignment?”

The article I’ve read, written by Traci Gardner, from the NCTE site, was about the effectiveness of issuing writing prompts that are too generic for students. Gardner explains in the article that some teachers don’t realize and don’t intend to give the writing assignments with very generic prompts that causes the students to hand in poorly written generic essays back to the teacher. She compares two very different prompts, one being the default and bland “Write a response to this novel” and the other prompt which is full of detailed information on what the essay should consist of. The difference in the essays were dramatic. The detailed prompt helped the students think more about what they were writing and fully shows why generic prompts shouldn’t be issued so often. I strongly agree with everything in this article.

I find myself writing better with instructions that are detailed because it leaves me with the full understanding of what is expected in that assignment. It may seem that it would be more bothersome to have the teachers write a whole explanation on what they want in the essay but I believe if it was done, then two things will happen: 1.) Students will put the necessary information in the essay that the teacher intended them to write about and 2.) I think it would cut down on the rushed Q and A time at the end of class because the students don’t fully understand the assignment. The teacher could go on with other obligations that they need to complete without having to stop or cut the class short to answer the onslaught of questions about the assignment. This may upset the students that don’t want more class time but if the teachers fall through with making more detailed assignments, that increases the grades for others, then I think it’s a “sacrifice” the teachers need to make.

Two Million Minutes-sending the wrong message?

The article I read was about a film called "Two Million Minutes" by Robert Compton. The film is a documentary that criticizes American high school students by giving the message they don't work as hard as their foreign counterparts in places like China and India. The article implies that high school students in the U.S are more lacksadaisical with their education. I wholeheartedly disagree. First of all, high school students in America that are from China and India are not only from a different country, but a different culture as well. I think it's absurd to press a stereotype onto every student because it seems to be the norm. Saying that all American high school students are lazy and don't work as hard as their Asian peers is close-minded and wrong. Since when is it okay to lump people together based on their culture and background? Isn't that what we've been fighting against in this country for years?

I will admit that the message the film is trying to get across is more about globalization. The idea behind it is to wake up your average every day suburban middle class high school student so they don't lose their possible jobs to foreign competitors in the future. However, the way the article speaks about the film, the impression I get is that it is close-minded and stereotypical. I feel that how hard a student works has to do with too many factors to pin it on just one. Students' home lives, extracurricular activities, teachers, peers and own personalities determine how hard they work in school, not the color of their skin or the country they were born in.

English Language Classes for Parents

The article i read was entitled "Learning the language their children speak" by Paul Nyhan. This article was centered around the idea of diversity in schools, mostly in language. It is a difficult task to teach children with different first languages but even more difficult to communicate with parents who have no English backgrounds. The Toyota Family Literacy Program was designed to develop a family's English language skills, not just the children. They awarded different elementary schools, including those in the Highline School District, with up to $600,00 to spend on teaching parents and students about the English language. I think that this program is a great offer. Obviously they award this funding to schools in need of a change. The parents come into the classroom and spend a great deal of time learning English for themselves. Then the parents join the children in class and get further hand on learning. They are in no way forces into participating. I think that it is program that needs a little tweeking though. The parents are investing up to six hours a week on top of their work, for some that is impossible. I think that giving lighter classes (shorter) more often or at night could help this.

This program brings about not only the importance of being able to communicate efficiantly but also of parent involvment. One of the most important factors in becoming a teacher is to create a community in the classroom and become partners with the parents. By having parents come in, they meet teachers and get involved in what students are doing. I think it is a great way for them to experience the classroom that their children are in for the majority of their weeks. Also, being partners with parents will further the learning at home. Being able to communicate how a student is doing or what they should be doing differently is important. If the parent cannot speak the same language, this creates a barrier. Also, the article mention that some young children are forced to be translators for their parents who cannot speak English. This puts alot of weight and pressure on children and I think classes such as these can help ease that tension. I do think it is helpful to have thse classes provided but I don't think that it should be required for any parents to attend.

Video Games in Libraries

I read the article titled, “Guitar Hero and Other Games Draw Teens Back to Libraries”, by Christy Arboscello. This article is about the growth of young people going to metro Detroit libraries. However, there’s a catch to this. These kids aren’t going to the library to do their homework, they are going to play video games.
This library (Rochester Hills) is fully stocked with games for PlayStation 2 and 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, and others. On any random day, 1,300 games are taken out. Because of the amount of high demands for video games, this libraries circulation has gone up about 12%. Also, in the Clinton-Macomb Public library their 300 games can barely stay on the shelves, and the circulation has gone up by about 7%. On the contrary, when the Rochester Hills library began allowing the public to “borrow” the video games they had a problem with thieving, but they were able to come up with a solution and the crime rate has greatly decreased.
Christine Lind Hage quotes, “Getting teens to come to the library is right up there with getting them to go to church: It's not exactly the first place they want to go.” This may be true, but as far as I’m concerned a library is a quiet place meant for reading, studying, doing homework, etc..To me, this sounds like a library turning into an arcade. "It's a big social event," said Stephanie Jaczkowski, a 17-year-old home-schooled senior from the township. "I've met a lot of friends there, and they're really good friends." I understand that it’s always beneficial to be social and to have special friends but making them at a library playing video games is way too farfetched for me. Go to the park, movies, homesteads, etc.. to do this, NOT the library. I absolutely disagree with this entire concept of having video games in a library. It’s complete absurdity. What happened to the traditional quiet library? What about those people who look forward to going to the library primarily for some quite time? Now they have to listen to these kids playing guitars, dancing, and so on-this is what arcades are for. I understand that yes, it may be difficult to get kids to go to a library, but bribing them with video games when they get there is by no means a way to fix this problem. How many of these kids take out a book while they are there or get REAL work accomplished? Perhaps, I’m wrong but I totally disagree with what these Detroit libraries are doing.

Campus Slander

The article I choose to read and post about is titled "Gossip and Slander at a Campus Near You." The article consists of a website located on college campus's called Juicy Campus.com. This website allows college students to post confidential "shout outs, accusations, open threats, personal attacks, and even death threats" that never allow the sites reader's to know who has posted and their e-mail addresses become untraceable. Many college students have voted to ban the cite from their campus's, although the cite does still exist. There is nothing that can legally be done to remove this site, because it's protected by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. In my opinion, this seems to be a harmful site to college students. I feel that having a site like this around is not condusive to learning and may even become harmful if any acts are followed through with. Don't get me wrong I do personally believe in the freedom of speech, but I feel that a site such as this is beyond speaking freely and has no buisness being on a college campus.

"No Child Opponents Criticize Law: Control should return to teachers, panel tells educators"

This article, written by Alan Borsuk, on February 8, 2008, states that a number of the critics of the No Child Left Behind Act gathered at a convention in Milwaukee to appeal to the Wisconsin State Reading Association arguing against the loss of control teachers are experiencing in the classroom. It is their belief that teachers should be allowed to decide what curriculum they will teach to their students and what methods they will use to do so. In their opinion, the No Child...Act dictates exactly what, and how, teachers will teach in their classrooms. The opponents of the act are especially frustrated with the emphasis placed on phonics and rigid, set curriculum expectations in reading programs. They argue that standardized testing is not an effective way to gauge how well our students are being educated. In their opinion, teachers should be the ones to evaluate their students and decide what they have learned. To achieve the highest standards in teaching, they feel that excellence should be encourage within the school systems, at all levels, from teachers to principals. They argue that the power should be placed at the school level, not be filtered down to the schools from higher authorities that may, or may not, have a real grasp on what goes on within the school systems.
I am inclined to agree with these opponents. I think it would be easy to make decisions based on statistical information, without actually having to experience what truly takes place in the classrooms. I have always found fault with standardized testing. I think it is impossible to use the same test for so many different types of learners, being taught by so many different kinds of teachers, in so many different environments and expect that test to accurately depict how much students have learned. Even if those tests show what students have learned, it is impossible to know, based on the tests, why students have, or have not, learned a particular fact or subject. There are far too many variables to consider as to why and how students learn the way they do. The teacher in each individual classroom is, and should be, the greatest authority on what his/her students already know, what they still need to learn, and how they will best learn it.
As far as reading programs are concerned, I also think the teacher should be given the authority to decide on his/her own teaching methods. Not all students learn in the same ways and who better to decide what ways to teach those students than their teachers? I especially appreciate the statement made by one of the opponents, a professor of education at the University of California, by the name of Stephen Krashen. Krashen said "'the obsession with phonics" should be replaced by "an obsession with libraries" and putting books in the hands of children."' This is so inspiring to me. As a lover of books, and an avid reader since Kindergarten, I am saddened, and worried, by the turn I see our literate culture taking. With technology becoming such a huge part of our society, I fear that fewer and fewer children are stepping into libraries and feeling the joy I felt when thumbing threw pages and pages of reading material, wondering what wonders were waiting for me within those pages. That experience played a major role in instilling in me my love for reading. There's something to be said for the power of hands-on experiences. With all of the regulations being placed on teachers today, how can they possibly be expected to ever follow their own paths and excite their students in ways only they could know will be effective?

Online...The New Way to Diversity?

The article which I decided to read and respond to this week was titled, "Vitrual Path to Diversity." While the article focused the majority of its studies on the African American minority portion, it was quite informative in the fact that because of the online programs which is offered at University of Maryland University College, 32 percent of the enrolled students in the online program are African American. The total number of enrolled students in the online program is 90,000. According to the article, roughly 30 percent of the degrees given out by the univesity, are African American. Now the online programs that are offered by the college are generally aimed for the minority population or the low-income. This is not so much of a bad idea, because a higher education will lead you to a more successful and fruitful life. The online programs also fits into many of the working class people who do not have a lot of time on their hands and have exceptionally busy schedules. However, a drawback of this idea is that much of the online programs which are given are just to recieve a certificate, and as quoted by Susan Alridge, a bachelor's program could be "daunting." In my personal opinion, I am not really too sure if an online program is the best way to go. I feel that college or and form of education needs to have the interaction between professor and student. There is that special bond that you get, that personal attention and the human interaction. When looking at a computer screen, questions may arise and you may have no idea what to do. Though it would be nice to see a higher amount of minorites entering higher education schools, I just do not feel that online is the wisest decision. Community Colleges are a great way to start off, they offer night classes and it can easily fit into anyones busy schedule.

A Spin on Education: High School Classes Teach Outside

I read the article titled, "High School Teaches Thoreau in the Woods," by Larry Abramson. The article describes a very unique style of educating high school students; all classes are held outside in the extremities of nature. Despite the rain, cold, and snow, classes are held in what is described as "a rough-hewn tent that features donated sail material. It's just big enough to accommodate the class and a few visitors." Th e idea of this unique venue for teaching and learning is that it provides students with a very different oppportunity to learn. They are learning on Walden Pond, a place where their main man of interest, Henry David Thoreau, used to go to think. The students are " supposed to be exploring their relationship to self, their relationship to culture and their relationship to the natural world." This school sets itself apart from most traditional high schools. There is no interruptions and switching of classes, and the students that take part in the experience say they thoroughly enjoy it. They explain that there isn't the stereotypical cliques that hinder them from befriending and interacting with eachother.

In my opinion, this is an excellent alternative and fresh way of going about teaching students. Although I also believe that it only will work for certain kinds of students. As ideal as it sounds, I'm sure many learners, like myself, would prefer a nice clean atmosphere with boring surroundings to keep the focus on school work. Some students would maybe find the rawness of the situation to be a bit distracting. Nontheless, as far as writing and thinking goes, many authors and great thinkers would vouch for this type of educational experience. The opportunity to be right there in nature sometimes warrants the mind to roam as free as the creatures that inhabit those habitats-which has potential to yield positive outcomes.

"Education is an Evolving Process"

The article written by Angel Ross, is an interesting article because it clearly shows that Education is an evolving process. The article touches the importance of the "19th National African-American Read-In Monday", in which thousands of students were involved. While reading through the article i found many advantages in the article as an English teacher, and also teaching literature or activities during February, 'Black History Month'. Now it may seen relatively easy teaching African -American literture becuase i am African American, but it is just as challenging, being able to communicate many events in the past that are signficant to African American History and more importantly, what activities and literature can I incorporate in the classroom, so that my students from all natioanlities and ethinic background can learn to appreciate that African American Literture?

It is a fact that education has come a long way for many, but particularly African Americans and this article shows students of all ages, participating and appreciating reading their history. How can books be taught with understanding and fun for all students? I believe that it is equally important to discuss the books aloud with students and have writing exercises or even physical activities after reading books in the class. In the particular case of 'Black History Month', students can share what they know about African American History, and as a teacher being willing to share your experiences with your students. As discussed in the article, Mansfield Culliver, a Read -In participant stated, your parents and me are apart of history. Incorporating real events or stories passed down from previous generations are significant in getting across the message that you (the teacher) was apart of history and one day your students will be apart of history as well.
In closing, this article is a great way to start of discussions about African American History. And it doesn't have to be difficult to incoporate activities that all your students can understand.

This particular quote just sums up my thought while reading this article, When we educate ourselves, we can see times are changing. No matter where we come from, we all have similar needs.

Online Schooling: Yet another concept I disagree with

In The New York Times, Sam Dillon wrote an article titled "Online Schooling Grows, Setting Off a Debate". The article discussed the new trend of online schooling that is slowly increasing in America . Somewhere around half a million children are taking online classes and some are receiving only learning from the virtual public schooling that now exists. Online schooling is raising a controversy because of it's recent growth and issues like whether or not online learning is a good thing for younger children have started getting questioned. Wisconsin, Florida, and Illinois are all places where online schooling has begun to rise. At the moment most of these online schools only allow middle school and high school students to enter. However, some parents are home-schooling their elementary school children, but legally are considered public school students because the online teaching is taxpayer financed and the children can be subject to federal testing requirements. Online schooling gives students a chance to move at their own pace through lessons, which is different from public schooling greatly. Overall, this new form of teaching is going to be met with a great deal of opposition, but that doesn't mean that the supporters won't go down without a fight.
Personally, I disagree with the majority of online schooling, but do see that it is helpful in some cases. I don't disagree with online schooling because it eliminates a lot of my job opportunities as a future teacher; I disagree with it because online schooling can cause a great deal of damage to a student in my opinion. Students need the actual environment of school because it provides social and personal growth that cannot exist in home schooling settings. Public schools are sometimes a painful and emotional experience for an individual; however, I would rather have painful memories than no social skills and the overall experience of school no matter what grade it is. Friendships, bonding and even boyfriends and girlfriends are all much harder to acheive when you don't attend an actual school. Even though a student may be able to learn at a better pace with home-schooling, they are going to run into much larger problems later in life. Look at me for example, I'm still struggling with public speaking and I never was home-schooled!

Does 0 + 0 Really = 50 percent?

I am posting this entry in response to an article from the Las Vegas Sun entitled, "A Floor For Failing Grades". This article depicts that some schools in the American southwest are making the effort to set a grade of 50, or 59 in some schools, as the new "minimum F". The raising of the minimum F is intended to give weaker students a better chance of passing. Ideally, the goal of this initiative is to keep them from becoming "prematurely doomed" by the numbers that stand strong behind report card letter grades.

The school district in question's grading system convert's each student's numerical scores to letter grades. All students that score below a 60, whether they are 59, 29, or 0, still will earn an F letter grade. The numerical scores carry through and also determine the final letter grades for each semester, as well as at the end of the school year. This proposed highering of the minimum F thus will make it so that if a student has a very low F in the first half of the semester, it could cause him or her to fail the class regardless of a drastic change in overall performance. Basically, they've lost before they've decided to even begin.

Advocates for a change like this continue to argue that this is the way to keep kids from giving up. If students were to learn that they don't even have a shot at passing the class at the end of the year simply based on their performance in the beginning of the year, chances are that would be the end of what little motivation they may have still possessed. Andre Denson, southeast region superintendent, went on record with stating his logic: "What do we tell our students who are failing in October- 'Go home, there's no hope for you, come back in January'? With a 50 percent minimum, a kid has a chance."

Like all hot button topics, there is another side to the argument as well. Many teachers and parents alike disapprove of the new grading concept. Sherry Harmon, a mother of a seventh grader at Thurman White Middle School claims to have very mixed feelings regarding the new grading methods. She states that, "Eventually, kids are going to have to go on to college and into the real world. What happens when someone isn't willing to give them 50 points for doing nothing?" Other parental figures have been noted as saying that even if a student were to slack off, but put in a minimul amount of effort, chances are they should still be able to pull off a C.

The question I ask myself after contemplating the subject matter of this article is this: Will it even matter to those it concerns the most--the kids? Whether the minimum F be a 0, or a 50, some kids, I believe may not even care. However, I do think the new policy's intentions are in the right place in the manner of giving kids a second chance of sorts if they were to have a change of heart regarding their performance. Although, such a switch in policy may lead some kids to continue to slack off even more simply because a 50 doesn't seem nearly as bad as a 0. Regardless of scoring, among other things, we are trying to teach our kids the ability to evaluate themselves individually without someone having to tell them whether or not they are right or wrong. We are teaching these children to be concious of themselves not only as individuals, but also as members of their community. Teaching mediocrity, as one blogger responding to this article already put it, isn't the answer. We should be teaching students to have a desire to achieve rather than boosting grades for the simple reason that it may help them if they choose to take the opportunity.

No Child Left Behind

George Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act" has helped some students but hurts many others. Students who are fortunate enough to attend schools with good teachers, have parents with money, and schools with plenty of resources benefit from this act. In order to keep government aid, schools need to have a certain percentage of passing students and if they dont, they lose their aid. So the schools that need the money the most - lose it. The education policies of George W. Bush are not working for every student and luckily he will be out of office soon.
However, Bush called on congress in his last state of the union address to "rereauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act. But the one concrete idea he proposed in the speech—$300 million for public and private school choice—won't generate much enthusiasm in Congress, particularly from Democrats." Why is that? Because americans have realized that taking money from the schools who obviously need MORE money is idiotic. Putting fire under someone to perform doesnt equal results when one is dealing with education. The tough love attitude is misplaced here because in many cases the children's ability is the result of poor circumstance.
As a part of the No Child Left Behind program, Bush wants to introduce "Pell Grants for kids" which would "provide grants on a competitive basis to states, school districts, cities, and non-profit organizations to create scholarship programs for low-income students in schools that have missed their achievement targets under the NCLB law, and in high schools in which graduation rates are lower than 60 percent. " This continuation relys heavily on competition, students should have a motivation but losing all funding shouldnt be part of it. And if these kids have already missed targets, it could be too late.

Good grades= $$

Many parents have different ways of showing affection. Sometimes, for best school effort. The parents give money to their kids. Now, in the article "Good grades pay off literary," school are coping the idea of giving students money for good grades. These statisics of "30% rise in the number of students with high SAT and ACT scores and an 8% rise in college-going students," can be argued with (Toppo 1). These students are given eight bulks an hour for either entering an advance course, or passing a hard test. Even other schools like "at Northeast Health Science Magnet High School in Macon, Ga., principal Sam Scavella says he's trying lots of different incentives for doing the right thing. If students attend Saturday study sessions, they qualify for an iPod, movie tickets or a dinner for two, among other prizes" (Toppo 1). Who can disagree with this?! College students would love this, but I am not one of them.

I personally hate when people get paid for hard work. I have been given other things than money, when I passed a test or hard course. I got a smile, and a pat on the back. Free. I love things that came free. I was a hard worker, and my parents loved to help me when the could. I was mostly on my own, or asked for the teachers help. When I read this article, I felt that students are turning more into money hungery. Why are they giving ipods Macon?! IPods are another distraction from class. That also can make the student play with music, than study for more money or another free movie tickets. No, I think students need teachers with a smile or more complients than $$.
I agree with Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, when he said "Bribing kids for higher test scores — or paying teachers bounties for their students' work — is similar to giving them steroid. Short-term performance might improve but the long-term effects can be very damaging" (Toppo). This reminds me of the dogs. When they are given treats for going to the bathroom, then they learn. "Ah, I go outside for a time. Then I get more meaty treats!" They will just pretend to outside, and bark to come back in. Then, a few minutes later. They get their treat, but you find a mess for the wasted treat. Students are the same way.

My sister is another example. She has a hard time for history, but she wanted to try the money for good grades. This is not the time to spread money around! The gas prices are on the rise, and food is joining behind the gas prices. Why would schools waste money on paying students to do well, than heating or feeding the population? This idea is a stupid one. I don't think money will solve everything. Sure, the statisics prove an increase, but a small one. A greater help is complients, and having the pin saying "Honor roll" than a dollar bill that can last for a soda or a dollar burger. Students do need feed back, and they also need to appreciate the value of getting good grades. Money is useful for food, gas, and paying bills. Not for students who pass their tests or courses.