Linguistic Diversity

My mother has a strong Polish accent, so I am not bothered as much by accents as some people are. And I so respected the way my African American and Hispanic students in Texas were able to "code switch." I am learning so much from my MSU classmates about World English and also from reading a fabulous little anthology by Smitherman and Villanueva (2003) called Language Diversity in the Classroom: From Intention to Practice. Here is a quote from Kim Brian Lovejoy:

As more teachers develop their pedagogies to accommodate diverse students and their linguistic differences, we will begin to see the kind of programmatic changes in writing programs that can have an impact on large numbers of students and create an environment for teachers to share best practices and to talk, reflectively and productively, about issues of linguistic diversity in the classroom (p. 96).

In honor of this learning in school and in "informal learning" at a wedding I attended over the weekend where I learned about Indian food and dance and marriage, I submit this photo.

The End of a Season

Not much of a video, but a Chippewa River Writing Project friend asked me how my garden was and so I had hoped to take a picture of it and accidentally took a video of it! Last night we had a frost, so my zinnias are gone; today was the Detroit Tigers last game (thankfully they won and so they finished 500); and I had my first fire in the fireplace. The semester has settled into its routine.

I guess this is a once a season blog. I mostly blog in my mind. Is there such a thing? I think of blogging ideas on walks, while I read, when in my classes as a student or as a teacher. I had hoped to be a resource for others, and I need to pick it up!

Now and Then

Today the BP oil "spill" has been capped. It was interesting to listen to NPR discussions about what the "spill" should be called and how BP has co-opted the Internet to influence the "informational" impact. And how the Internet is influencing our language.

Which is one reason why we have to keep reading books, I suppose--to counter this influence. But that sounds like a dumb reason to read books. In past years, I have read Moby Dick and Ahab's Wife on the big sea-like beaches of Lake Michigan, but this year I wanted to read The Old Man and the Sea to think about the fishermen and women in the Gulf. It was fun to pick it up at my local bookstore and read about Santiago's struggle with the giant fish. There are so many who have lost their livelihood due to this catastrophe. Hopefully, this "glocal" issue will continue to be studied. Students have told me that they enjoyed this book; I wonder if they will experience it differently from here on out.

Time to Think about Hopes and Dreams

It is officially summer time! I've had a chance to read two books for fun. One is set in northern Michigan in the late 1950's about two teenagers and the complexities of their lives of which their parents have no clue: Season of Water and Ice by Donald Lystra. The second is Anna Quindlen's Every Last One, which is an amazing story about a mother who deals with unbelievable grief.

Since it has been raining in the past couple of days, I have finally checked in on old acquaintances on email and Face book. One friend from college asked me about "my kids, work, faith, hope and dreams..." Another from childhood had contacted me and asked me about my family. She asked, "Are you the girl from Southgate?" It was strange to reflect on and write back in short form about life. Summer is the time for reflections through reading and writing...and walking on the beach.

Spring Inspirations

I was very impressed with NCTE Past President Kylene Beers when I sat at her table at the New Literacies Summer Institute in 2008. During her presentation, she did a memory activity with us where we paid attention to the fragments she told us to rather than the reading material. We learned a lot about how tests work. At lunch, she told us that if a kid gets hooked on a series, they will become good readers because of the practice with the genre. I've told many worried parents that piece of advice. In her NCTE Presidential Address, she has some interesting observations about whether students ask questions while they read and on what employers are "looking for" from graduates (high school, two year, and four year--which connects us all), and at the same time questions whether job preparation is all that education is for.

Also, I had the chance this week to listen to Rico Gutstein, who teaches critical math at an alternative high school in Chicago. He showed us videos of his work with students--how they "read and write the world mathematically." He teaches high level mathematics based on student-generated themes like the morgage crisis, gentrification of the neighborhood, and AIDS/HIV. We had the chance to watch his students collaborate, communicate, and critique their world. I hope to find a video online. For now, here is a transcript of a student's podcast.

I hope you will find inspiration in your teaching and learning day!
Lucia

Thinking About Teachers

Here is the result of our investigation on teachers on our classroom wiki:

http://philosophyofeducation.wiki.educ.msu.edu/What+Is+A+Teacher%3Fher%3F It isn't quite done, but you can check out what we have so far!

I'm looking forward to our April high school teacher--college teacher Dinner & Dialogue about blogs and Stephen Johnson's ideas on popular culture and growing IQ scores.

Besides television, video games, and Internet--which all need critique of course--so do textbooks! Here is a teacher-developed wiki curriculum: http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/

Check it out!
Lucia

What does "Teacher" Mean to You?

Shifting from one lesson to another, shuffling lessons into units, sifting through pieces of paper and packets--is this the work of a teacher? Is a teacher merely a technician, a manager of time and space?

(Picture above taken from a Brody Hall dorm room window.)

Metaphor in one's imagination or in the cultural imagination has power. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) in Metaphors We Live By suggest that our conceptual system is metaphoric in nature: "Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people."

Is "teacher" an intellectual? a philosoper? an artist? an activist?

Is "teacher" a social service agent? a guardian of knowledge? a change agent?

Is "teacher" a role model? a coach? a facilitator? a tutor? a public servant?

How do teachers see themselves? How does the public see them? Each of these identifiers would privilege or limit certain behaviors or perceptions. It is our contention that if teacher identity could be clarified by the teacher education community, there would be greater purpose and power for this profession. Because the purpose of public schools have steadily expanded over the century and half of its existence, so have purposes of the teacher, thus diluting and distracting from a generative concept of teacher.

We would like to know what "teacher" means to you. No, this is NOT an essay contest. :) Any insights, experiences, readings, questions, or visions you could share with us would help us to explore this complication.

Thank you!

Lucia Elden, Mark Helmsing, Zachary Hunter

High school and college language arts and social studies teachers

Catching Up

I have been working on several issues in the past few months: my credit-based transition program work with local high schools; the use of blogs, including http://hushme.org and discussion with college and high school teachers on using blogs in the classroom, primarily in our Dinner and Dialogue between these groups; and the role of teacher identity.

My next blog entry will be about teacher identity in collaboration with two of my graduate student classmates, in many ways a continuation of my last one in the fall!