The Lorax is on the Banned Books List?

I'm generally annoyed with the subject of banning books but when I found out they banned The Lorax I realized it was time to use my blog for the betterment of mankind. Not that anyone reads my blog except my family. Oh and my classmates--who incidentally are coerced to for a grade : )
Seriously guys? "The Lorax"? Good grief. Not only that but The Giving Tree and Harry Potter. Okay I'll give them Harry, witchcraft and wizardry is dangerous after all. As are free-thinkers. Better just to get rid of books and shift our right arms so they are raised at a 45 degree angled, palm-down salute to our fuhrer. Wait, where are we again? Oh that's right America. Narrow-mindedness is a disease and there is a cure. It's called reading. 

As my sister said in her blog (http://nikkimantyla.wordpress.com/), I do recognize the need for censorship for our children. But as she also said, which I feel a need to second, is that each parent should be able to make the individual decision for their children. I don't pretend to be an ultra liberal, I'm not even close. And while I don't believe that every facet of life should be explored and declared a form of art or literature I do believe that there is beauty and joy to be found unexpectedly in some of these books that we are banning. What is the point of a book like Catcher in the Rye? Maybe there is a teenager who just needs to know that something they're feeling is normal. And To Kill A Mockingbird? It teaches us to avoid prejudices and racism. Obviously somebody missed that point. And what the devil is wrong with The Lorax? Is it because we think they are tree-hugging liberals? Maybe we should kick all the liberals out of our country while we're throwing the book out.
My response is probably not as educated as some but I couldn't help ranting for a minute. I don't even usually write during the week but I couldn't help myself. Just let the kids read!

Kicking Where It Counts

Well it happened. I finally got to teach the seventh graders. The very same seventh graders that took advantage of me in my weakened state last week.
I had known about this for at least a week and a half ahead of time. But true to my nature I didn't prepare really until the last minute. In case my professor happens to ever read my blog I'm going to refrain from telling you how much.
These kids don't want to be there and they're a little hard to teach. I tried to make it fun! We studied natural disasters and we talked about current events like Katrina (which, by the way, was 4 years ago. Weird, huh?), and I asked them to share any of their own disaster stories. My mentor teacher gave me a funny survival book that I can never seem to remember the name of and I read that to them as well. They liked that part.
So their assignment afterward was to
option 1) Write a short story about a disaster--real or made up, serious or funny
or
option 2) Write instructions on how to survive a disaster or emergency--again, serious or funny
I have to share my favorite one. I started laughing out loud as soon as I read it and I even made a copy of it before I handed all of their papers back to them. Alex starts, "if Barrny comes and kills evryone here are the rules"
1. Find a place to hid[e] but not that hard Barrny is stuped
2. use what ever you can as a wepon
3. come out of hiding slowly or he will kill you
4. look at your suroundings
5. run for your life
6. Don't fall for the "I love you" he wants you to come out so he can pump you full of led
7. Whach for flying Balls of fire
8. have a friend But not that good [a] friend so if he goes to shot you put you "friend" in front of you.
9. if he finds you kick him in the tenders
10. these rules may not work good luck
Oh my gosh I was dying! "Kick him in the tenders"? Seriously? So funny! I would have given him full credit just from making me laugh so hard but he missed the vocabulary. They only half-listen to me. I also got more than a few stories about killer bunnies and how they attacked the world. I began to wonder where the fascination with rabbits came from. When I got in the car to leave I noticed that I was wearing my shirt with a pattern of bunnies all over it. I suddenly knew where they received their inspiration. I promise they're not killers on my shirt.

A Little Plug For Poetry

This is my little spiel on how much I love poetry and at the same time it is a little plug for a few of my friends. They have recently begun a website called the Daily Poetry Club. For anyone who is an aspiring poet or really just feels like letting their creative, poetic juices out of the corners of their minds they've been hiding in, sign up and start writing! You don't have to be good, everyone is very supportive. Although the little thumbs up/thumbs down button at the bottom is a little unnerving people don't push those too much unless you're off topic. And let me just say here, don't go off topic. I almost lost my membership due to an incident with this. I luckily sweet talked the president into letting me stay. Phewf.

Now on to my love for poetry. A good chunk of the things I read come from my big sister. It's taken me a few years to realize I don't really care if I'm following in her footsteps. Our brains are far too similar for me to pretend I don't like all the same stuff she does. I even stole the idea for that picture of my books from her.  As we've gotten older it's been nice to see her copy me every once in awhile as well. I steal her favorite books, she copies my haircut; I choose the same major, she begs me to take her shopping. This list makes me feel superficial... ANYWAY. Geez I get off topic so easily. The point is that she introduced me to a little Billy Collins, whom I have quoted below. After a lesson in my Shakespeare class I decided suddenly that I was going to be a poet. She figured if I was going to write it I should have a little more of it to read. The one book I had wouldn't cut it apparently. She made me fall in love with the poem "Marginalia" which I have taken the liberty of copying a few stanzas of.

We have all seized the white perimeter as our own
and reached for a pen if only to show
we did not just laze in an armchair turning pages;
we pressed a thought into the wayside,
planted an impression along the verge.


Even Irish monks in their cold scriptoria
jotted along the borders of the Gospels
brief asides about the pains of copying,
a bird signing near their window,
or the sunlight that illuminated their page-
anonymous men catching a ride into the future
on a vessel more lasting than themselves.


And you have not read Joshua Reynolds,
they say, until you have read him
enwreathed with Blake's furious scribbling.


Yet the one I think of most often,
the one that dangles from me like a locket,
was written in the copy of Catcher in the Rye
I borrowed from the local library
one slow, hot summer.
I was just beginning high school then,
reading books on a davenport in my parents' living room,
and I cannot tell you
how vastly my loneliness was deepened,
how poignant and amplified the world before me seemed,
when I found on one page


A few greasy looking smears
and next to them, written in soft pencil-
by a beautiful girl, I could tell,
whom I would never meet-
"Pardon the egg salad stains, but I'm in love."

Billy Collins
Sailing Around the Room
Marginalia
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/marginalia/

Nyquil vs The Aspiring Teacher

Last week was rough. I was continuing on in my field study of the average middle schooler experience, I learned quickly that appearing weak to your students does not do you any favors as a teacher. I had a pretty legitimate cold for most of the week and even missed a day (terrible, I know). With the pressure of missing school and work and all of my other responsibilities looming over me, I chose to push myself through the rest of the week. These are not happy memories for me. Nyquil is not your friend if you want to be awake and alert the next day. And when it claims an adult dose is two tablespoons, it’s lying to you.
P.S. Who made up the word homophone and can we pick a substitute for it for Jr. High students? As if they need any help thinking of sexual innuendos.

"Copyright and All Its Glory" or "Mr. Duey the Fraction Man Obeys Copyright"

I first just want to say that I hope I never become desperate enough to rap to my students as did the teacher in one of the videos I watched. Oh dear. But maybe it works, what do I know? The English teacher in "10 Things I Hate About You" raps one of Shakespeare's sonnets and I didn't mind that. I could get into all kinds of stereotypes to explain why that's okay but I digress. As usual.
I first watched a video entitled "Pay Attention", the material of which actually interested me because it was mainly focused on how we are doing as teachers (I include myself by using "we" because I just like to pretend sometimes that I'm already there...) with integrating technology. A good choice for this class, no? But also a good choice for this assignment because the creator brought in a lot of facts. To their credit they included copyright information throughout the entire video. My only critique would be that they did not include the copyright of the song playing in the background. I could be wrong, but I thought that was included under the copyright rules and guidelines.
As for Mr. Duey the Fraction Man, our rapper extraordinaire (yikes), I actually didn't see anything out of line with copyright. He definitely wrote that song himself. Or if he didn't, the person he stole it from probably doesn't want credit anyway. Too mean?

Way to Go Goodreaders!

After reading another blog about Goodreads I wanted to add my two cents about the site. It is spectacular!
Recently, my 276 class had a little field trip to the library. Now I will be perfectly honest, usually I have a really hard time staying on task and keeping my hot little hands from taking my focus off of the presenter by grabbing the ridiculously tempting mouse in front of me and searching the web to my hearts content. But the education librarian, Rachel Wadham, presented to us about the very websites I would have chosen to peruse anyway! It was fantastic!
I might as well just admit to everyone now how much I love Young Adult fiction. With the recent popularity of the Twilight saga and other such novels it seems I get nothing but flack from my Reading Elitest friends. But back to the point. Rachel took us to Goodreads. Through this site I have found out that Rachel has read over 4000 books and a good chunk of those (perhaps even a fourth) are YA Lit. Yay! I suddenly find the courage to stand up for my ridiculous reading habits and say, "I can read what I want friends! I enjoy the juxtaposition of Hemingway and Meyer on my shelves. So there."
Goodreads allows you to list all of the books you've read, which is spectacular because I've been trying to write those down for years with little success because I simply cannot remember them all at once and I unfailingly lose my list shortly after my half-hearted attempt. Now I have my list neatly saved online. And that isn't the only perk (I feel like a commercial ha ha). No, you can also categorize your books. Be as narrow or as broad as you want. And as you add friends and waste time checking out what they're reading/have read you'll usually find more and more books you forgot you read way back when. Bless my dear sister's little heart, without her I would have forgotten half of the books of my childhood.

I'm a Chicken

I'm starting to feel redundant but I'll say it again. I don't know a lot about technology. I bought a mac computer because it was supposed to be more user friendly. I don't believe it. I don't understand computers. I'm not that old, I'm supposed to have a greater capacity for technological ideas, correct? I guess my biggest goal is to not be a chicken and just try. I always get this uneasy feeling in my stomach when I'm about to do something that I don't understand perfectly. But that's part of life, isn't it? So my goal is to be brave! So here we go!