Kids are great

Confessions of a bibliophile

Ok, the following are my all-time favorite books-in no particular order. I offer no apologies.
The Count of Monte Cristo, The Diggingest Dog, Nineteen Minutes, The Tiger on Your Couch, The Oxford English Dictionary, Reviving Ophelia, Janet Daily's Calder series, The Golden Book version of A Child's Garden of Verses, Lace, The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher, The Woman in White, Jane Eyre, The 776 Stupidest Things Ever Said, The Physician’s Desk Reference, Little Women, Rage of Angels, The Thorn Birds, The Three Investigators series from the 1960/70s, Little House on the Prairie, Interview with the Vampire, Small Miracles, The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank, Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!, and any collection of poems by Robert Frost.

What's up with travel sites?

So, I went to Expedia.com to compare air fares to the next NCTE conference. Ok, it was a class assignment, but the point is I found myself looking at air fares. The LOWEST fare on Expedia was $697. Just for kicks and giggles, I went to the website for Southwest Airlines. The same flight, mind you. A list of about nine flights came up and the HIGHEST fare was $392. Same departure date, same seating. What's the deal? The convenience of checking six airlines at once (Southwest was not even on the list BTW) costs an extra $300? Where's the convenience if they're not going to show me the cheapest fares? I don't get it.

Same question, insert "fiction"

I got more out of the writing about fiction than the other “writing about” assignments. This was the first time I approached a piece of literature from the point of view of one specific critical theory. In keeping my critical focus, I disallowed myself the freedom to wander off topic and discuss all my thoughts and feelings about the story. This helped enormously in keeping my paper short enough. When it comes to critical writing, the most difficult aspect for me has always been knowing, or rather choosing, what to leave out. I doubt I’ll be working with critical theory in junior high, so, while it helped me with my writing; this assignment probably won’t come up in my work as a teacher.
The creative writing we did was, as usual, not a learning experience for me. I don’t like parameters. If I’m going to be creative, let me be creative. Don’t tell me to be creative in exactly this way. As a high-school or junior-high teacher, using prompts like those we were given may come in handy. Children function better when they know exactly what is expected of them. Not all students are creative and not all of them are self-starters. Not everyone is comfortable to just get in the car and go. A lot of people don’t feel safe without a map in hand. For some young writers, being told to follow the yellow-brick road may be the only way to get them to the Emerald City.

Writing a myth

Writing a myth is obviously different from studying myths, in that we are creating something new, as opposed to just looking at what someone else has done. It enhanced the studying of the myths by forcing us to put into practice what we'd learned. Reading about the elements necessary for a particular myth to fit into a given category or genre is dry and borderline boring. Using those elements in the writing of our own myths gives them color and purpose.
Myths are generally pretty interesting reading material. They get somewhat bizarre and take us to places we wouldn't normally go (and often don't want to go). Writing something like that allows for enormous creativity and can be quite therapeutic. I was quite angry when I wrote mine, so producing something as vile as the deer scene (those of you who read it know to what I refer) was a harmless way for me to vent that.
As far as using this for my future teaching career goes, I probably will. I think that, if the students are allowed to write their own myths and vent some of their craziness, they will be more open to studying existing myths and the craziness of others. Teenagers like to be gross (especially the boys) and they live to shock people. A lot of myths are both gross and shocking to modern-day readers. They'll probably get a kick out of studying a story that focuses on feces for a page and a half (a trickster tale I remember) or reading along as Zeus changes himself into a farm animal to seduce someone else's wife.

On Poetry

Honestly, I learned nothing from the writing about poetry assignment that I can use. When I was in grade school, poetry and drama were both still common subjects. I've been writing about poetry since I was a child. I enjoy it. The dissection of a poem appeals to my analytical side. I love puzzles and I love words. Poems are word puzzles. I love seeking out patterns and hidden meanings and, in the process thereof, learning something that I may not have known about the poet and/or myself.

I did learn something by the poetry writing assignments. I had never written a found poem. It was a lot of fun. Instead of using my own words, I got to twist other people's words to express my meaning. That being said, I hate having limits put on me when I'm creating. I spent many years after high school enjoying poetic license. If I'm creating something, I expect the form thereof to be entirely up to me. Being told exactly what or how to write is, for me, intellectually akin to being put in a cage.

As a teacher of students who will probably not be as friendly with creative writing, the exercises we did may prove to be quite useful. Children who are especially wary of writing poetry may feel empowered and encouraged by the idea of producing a found poem. It may prove to be a very helpful first step in getting them to write poetry.

As for the performances, they were great. Poetry is meant to be performed, or at least, read aloud. It relies greatly on rhythm, rhyme, and tone. No poem can be fully understood until heard. Concrete poems need to be seen in addition to, but not in lieu of, being heard. Even my own poem had more meaning for me once I heard it spoken aloud (as opposed to being spoken silently). A couple of the poems changed for me almost completely after having heard them being performed by the poets. My future students will probably prefer death to reading their own poetry in front of their classmates. Again, maybe the found poems will get the ball rolling.

Hi all,

I am a double major at CSUN: English ESM and Linguistics with a TESL minor. I will graduate in May and enter the credential program this fall. I was a cadette girl scout leader all last year, so I have plenty of experience with my target age group. I also have an adopted thirteen-year-old sister who is certifiably insane. (Again, necessary experience for a future teacher) I am a licensed esthetician and worked in dentistry for twelve years. I love both those professions dearly, but neither offers health insurance, which I need. I need to change careers, and since I was tired of hearing people tell me I should be a teacher, I decided to just go ahead and become a teacher. I home-schooled my sister for a few years and have been tutoring, officially and unofficially, since the fourth grade. Teaching has always come pretty naturally to me and I find it fun and fulfilling. Originally, I was a Spanish major and planning to be a Spanish teacher. My AA is in Spanish. One semester I did a service-learning project wherein I taught English to the Spanish-speaking employees of the local hospital and I fell in love. (with the experience, not the students) I knew I had found my calling. I must teach ESL. I later found out that ESL teachers are generally English credential holders, not Spanish credential holders, so I switched majors and added the TESL minor. To assuage myself after giving up Spanish, I added a Linguistics major for fun. Yes, Linguistics is fun. I love words and language.
I have two dogs and one cat. I will soon be inheriting a kitten to add to the group. I have no children of my own but am frequently "blessed" with the charge of others'. In fact, one of my first real jobs was as a nanny.