Hyper for hypertext and cukoo for Coco puffs.

                           I just read some information recently concerning reading with hypertext , and how this digital text format of reading actually mimics the act of reading itself; as well as how one would help someone to read, or even perform many of the skills involved in literacy. That's the part I get.... and I certainly support  hypertext reading as a powerful tool for literacy instruction and learning. However, it's the visual distraction that I have a problem with. I inherit a lifetime legacy as a linear reader, and frankly it even bothers me to watch news television with ticker tape to read on the bottom! Enough choice already..... why are there so many cereals in the cereal section of the supermarket?  It seems every cereal must have a fruity, nutty, and chocolaty version of itself. I think the peanut version of every cereal  started with cocopuffs, and then they all had to follow suit!  It's really a little out of control. That's one of the things I liked about Maine in the first place. I could finally go to a grocery store where I could find rockstar parking right out front, and there was such a lovely lack of choice in this supermarket. Ahhh, I could finally breathe, the way life is supposed to be.
                 Whenever I think about how "too much choice" for anything can be a cause for stress, I always remember the summer that I worked at an international camp for children. There was a large group of kids from Russia at this camp These children were coming from a country that was still remembered the  food shortages of the cold war in the eighties, and early nineties. The kids enjoyed most of the activities, but they were visibly frightened by the excessive cereal choices afforded to them at breakfast. The overload of cereal choices put some of the children on the verge of tears. They were clearly overwhelmed. Too much choice can be highly stressful; whether it's with our cereal, or with the visual space for our reading. If the child grows up in the literal world where hypertext is commonplace, their literacy will surely develop accordingly. In the meantime their teachers will have to find the means to cope with the visual assault and distraction that can sometimes be part and parcel of hypertextuality?

"Bless Your Stress," and you shall become unburdened. (and maybe even empowered.)

                                     Hopefully some of you can relate to this mantra. It has become my mantra this week, as I am moving through the most technologically dense week that I have ever experienced in my lifetime thus far. Most of my unusually lengthy contact with technology this week has been for this literacy coursework, but I have also had to learn and do more for my teaching life. I became fearless this week, and went ahead and initiated and developed a wiki for my department's needs. I did it to be competitive and proactive, and....... it worked! I felt a great sense of empowerment with my new found fearlessness with technology. However, this technological "baptism of fire", is causing what is commonly called "information overload." If this to be my new "way of life" this year and for years to come, than I'd better have some strategies to cope with my deficient status caused by acute over usage of technology. I found some tips such as: taking time outs, not checking email until lunch, etc. You can find more of these tips on a blog called "Ten Tips for Managing Information Overload" on: http: edtechpower.blogspot.com.                            

The Summer of My Lost Learning.

                   If you are a language teacher, World or English,  then you have probably resorted at some point to using a variation on the popular theme of " what did you do  on your summer vacation?" for a student writing prompt. Let's face it, there so much organization to handle at the beginning of the school year, that this is a quick, easy, no brainer way to jumpstart our students into writing. It's a great way to personalize learning. It helps us to get to know our students better, both personally and  academically,while we are still struggling with putting the faces together with the names.  After reading a few of these writing assignments, we will learn a lot. We will probably be able to ascertain which students summer vacations were not exactly chock full of  growth experiences from those students who enjoyed many different enriching activities both personally and educationally. I found a blog which offers a variety of activities to help parents, teachers and students combat summer learning loss.  This blog "Updates on Thinkfinity" describes a site called a Summer Learning Microsite. I think pushing this site on kids is probably our best bet. Something tells me that there is probably not much we as educators can do to involve parents in their child's continuing education during the summer if the parent chooses otherwise. We, as teachers are not present during the summer. So for those children who do not have home guidance, but do have an interest in learning then maybe aiming this at our interested students might a way to go to combat summer learning loss. Check it out at: http://hickstro.org.  
                  

Gypsies must resort to begging, borrowing and stealing technology.

          I have a little bit of gripe. Have you ever experienced feeling that your department has been left out of the loop during the integration of new programs or technologies at your school? Hey, if you don't teach one of the core subjects, particularly English and Math, sometimes you may be feeling this way. I integrate plenty of English and Math into my subjects, but anyway. The current curriculum standards for World Language  are not even complete, so nobody wants to touch us, or grace us with new technology in our classroom, or even give us a classroom. They sent me out this year,  a traveling gypsy on a cart, roaming throught the hallways to find my assigned classrooms. No homeland. I feel like a Basque. Anyway, I get to see which of the core subject classrooms have been rigged witht the latest tech craze, such as the interactive whiteboard. Looks like a lot of fun, but I won't be able to touch it until I am trained in it's use. When is the next training date for this? Nobody has hooked me up with the interactive whiteboard. So, here's my question: When are we going to stop dumping technology into schools and expect amazing results without providing proper training? I found an interseting blog about this topic. You can find it at: http:// LarryCuban.wordpress.com.

This road is under construction: Paving the way for the Learning Process.

                  My school has recently been chosen to adopt a new way of teaching and learning. The program is called RISC, or Re-Inventing Schools Coalition. RISC is a non-profit foundation established to transform education systems around the world. It is characterized by student centered performance. For the past year, our entire k-12 staff has been" abuzz" with different levels of acceptance for this program, myself included. Presently, there is no certainty that this program will  ever be totally "accepted" by our school system  After reading some information about how historically education has been moving from a focus on curriculum content to the student learning process, I am more convinced that the RISC program will indeed help us to move forward in that direction. Part of what we all do as educators involves, scaffholding. Scaffholding our students onto the next level, scaffolding our students into believing in their own learning ability. Scaffholding students to become empowered by their own investment into their own learning. It is in this way that students will place more value on their education. In the words of Bob Dylan, "Oh, the times they are a-changing."

To infinity and beyond

                             I have recently read information about how difficult it will be in the Info Age to restrict student's learning sources to a sanctioned body of literature. I know this is the case, and it has been frustrating for me in the past few years as I struggle to find a balance between books and static handouts and the Internet resources for class lessons. I realize the necessity to blend a student's educational experience in school with the reality of their interest and participation in technology outside of school. Each year, I make a few baby steps in  the direction of using more Internet to enhance my world language program. Although, I don't believe that shoving a computer in front of kid's faces every day is the way to go, I know that they are ready, willing, and able to use more digital technology and Internet during class. Just today, I had a student tell me that he had learned the numbers in Spanish up to 100, when I only required them to learn to 20 for the next few upcoming lessons.  I believe that I may possibly have facilitated this progression towards..... infinity.  Instead of providing students with a hand out of the numbers information, I told them that if they needed more practice, than they could use the Internet as a source for the numbers information. He did so, and is now way ahead of the game.  I am going to invite students to use the internet this year for many of the thematic lessons that we will cover in class. I think it is important for them to see that Internet information resources are welcome in my class for many different purposes. Along with the other technology that I use in class, I am hoping that this will build more bridges for students,  as I struggle to learn more about digital writing and reading resources and bring them to the students in my class. Continuing in this direction for students may mean a lot more work in accommodating differentiation for students, but I do believe it will enhance learning for many students. I'd better brush up on my math skills, no....... wait, the Internet will take them to infinity...and beyond. It's the beyond that I worry about.

For the love of Socrates

                          If you are like me, then perhaps you don't have a huge stockpile of remembered  quotes from famous philosophers. If you had a liberal arts education, then maybe you have remembered a few quotes, and they may pop into your consciousness from time to time in reaction to different situations. One of my favorite philosopher quotes is from Socrates, and you can't get any simpler than this. "Know thyself." I love that quote, and I always think about it takes a lifetime to know yourself, so how could we possibly ever imagine that we could come to know someone else? Food for thought.
                       I was happy to learn more about Socrates and to apply his ancient perspective about writing to our present state of digital writing. Some historians have interpreted Socrates reaction to literature in this way, "There is no need to write, it will corrupt the human mind and destroy the memory of mankind." I have to admit, he might have had a prophetic point there.  Presently, there is so much uncertainty about so much digitally written information; the manner in which it is disseminated so rapidly, and the ever changing means to participate and consume in our digital writing world. These are bound to be a confusing and scary times in our human literate history.         

Keep your books and papers in a cool, dry place.

       Have you ever had the unpleasant task to have to "discard" books? Ouch, it's painful. I find it feels rather sacrilegious. Won't somebody like to read this? All that work, thrown away, just because it's old? I'm sad. Oh well, we've got to make room for the new ones. Close your eyes, toss it in. Thump! Oh no, I know it's not a dead animal or anything, even though it seems sometimes as if books are becoming an endangered species on the brink of extinction. What are they going to do with these books, burn them in a huge conflagration ritual burning of books or something?.... I don't want to be there.
         Books must be kept in a cool, dry place lest they become moldy. I'm going to have to talk to my parents about this. Even if they are moldy, they are still our friends. Paper lasts for centuries, but electronic media is only good for around 10 years before it's format must be converted, at our expense. I'd like to know if during earlier times of print remediation were the cost to the consumer equal to the current expense incurred for print format translation?  Something to think about in this ever changing consumer trend to get the latest and greatest best new technology for our important files. If I had a lot of  electronic media, I would be way more concerned but fortunately I don't. Let's look at the changes in the last 10 years: from floppy disc to CD, to DVD. I guess the next new thing is Blue Ray or something? What an expense! It may cost $2-3000 to retrieve work and files that are only 10 years old! What a racket!
        As Bolter (2001) describes in Writing Space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print, "although print remains indispensable it no longer seems indispensable." That's where we are getting into trouble folks and it's costing us a bundle!
        Here's another thing that  Bolter brought up,  "some educators imagine a classroom in which books are replaced by virtual environments."  Replace the books, well, not anytime soon, I would think, especially in these economic downturn times. I doubt we are really going to see funding allocated for educational pursuits like these. Maybe in a couple of decades or so, but certainly not in large scale in my teaching lifetime.  Maybe in Japan they already have these?  I'll bet they do.  In the mean time, I'll take care of my books. I have to tell you something,  when there is talk about replacing books, I get a little nervous. Part of my familiar professional landscape. Do I have to ask the next question? I think you know what I'm talking about.......I guess I might like working from the comfort of my home. I will say, it would certainly take away all the fuss about snowdays. I hear some schools are already setting up skyping for snowdays. Why not just snow days, why don't we just skype away at the k-3 level? All right , all right, you get my drift. I'd better stop, I'm sounding Andy Rooneyish.  
         Well here's where I'm at, the way Bolter described it:  " In this the late age of print, writers and readers still often conceive of a text as located in the space of a printed book, and they conceive of the electronic writing space as a re-fashioning of the older space of print."

   

Books are our friends: In Praise of Moldy Books

     We are presently living in a time in history which has been labelled by some as "the late age of print." Bolter, (2001), in "Writing Space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print.", talks about what I am experiencing in my life as a huge transition phase. A transition that is not an easy one for me, or "my kind", and one about which I have tremendous mixed feelings. For me, it is a major upheaval in the way that I have traditionally used print for the purposes of reading and writing.
       Let me take you back to 1983. Just starting my freshman year of college. An aunt had given me a teal blue colored plastic typewriter to bring to the college, where I was boarding. It was light and portable, and it was my first typewriter. I didn't take a typing course in high school, I figured I would find my way, one fingering it. I did pretty well with the one finger system, writing my papers in French and Spanish, adding the musical note accent marks in fine pencil or pen afterward. I still have a few of these charming ancient term papers hanging around somewhere. At the time, this was an acceptable way to arrange your coursework in a foreign language program. (I still prefer to add accent marks on afterwards; gives an extra chance to edit!)  Everybody was preparing their work in this fashion. I will admit, as soon as my typewriter ink had run out, I was mooching from my roommate, using her electric typewriter. This one had capabilities that were far advanced to the manual plastic one that I had brought along with me. By the end of college in 1987, some classmates actually had their very own P.C.s for their very own use in their very own dorm rooms. Most of us at this small private college were impressed with this, and considered that these lucky students must come from extremely wealthy backgrounds to be able to afford such an expensive and technologically advanced item for their educational use. When I re- entered academia, so to speak,  in or around  1995 or so, I trekked to the student center on the  university campus to use the PC's for their word processing capabilities in preparing my coursework. I had moved around a bit, and my prized plastic teal blue typewriter must have been sold at a yard sale or something. Maybe it is still in my parent's basement or attic, you never know what you can find there! I do know that you can find books, lots of books,....moldy books. I grew up in a literacy infused childhood. My mother was a children's librarian for a time. We were taught to respect books, and I can remember her saying time and again, "books are our friends."  Every evening, my father would sit at the edge of our beds and read  Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,"  or other classic works of literature.  So, as you can see, which may be the case for many, all of my formative years were associated with the traditional usage of print for reading and writing purposes.
           I am not enjoying this shift that society is imposing upon us. I am in deep mourning for the way things used to be. I do like the word processing capabilities offered by the new digital technology, especially since my professional and educational advancement is dependent upon this, but I and my entire extended family (that was born between 1930 and 1975) does not have much fascination for new technology. We do not communicate on the internet, and we don't even use the texting capabilities offered by our cell phones. This is a difficult transition for my kind. My siblings with children are feeling tremendous pressure to "get with the program." People are constantly trying to shove down our throats how much better our lives would be with more technology. We just sort of look at them strangely. My sister can't afford to buy or maintain a computer ( yearly upkeep cost around $2-3,000) for her school age children, so she was forced to get a gmail account at the library because this is the method adopted by her public school for communication with families. How do we suppose eyesight will be at 75 years of age, trying to re-scribe wavy and contorted groups of letters to gain access to a website?
            I saw the most beautiful  book the other day, it was no more than palm size, the exposed outer edge was gilded, the small red tail of a bookmark trailed out, and it caught my eye. Just moments ago, this whole text was erased.    

What was the tub made of? Commentary on a popular American folk nursery rhyme: author unknown

        Perhaps you have heard the following folk song/nursery rhyme. Have we all heard it sung at some point ? I am curious as to the era and location of origin of this common American folk rhyme, as well as it's intended audience(s). This is the way that I remember it:

Miss Lucy had a baby.
She named him Tiny Tim.
She put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water, he ate up all the soap.
He tried to eat the bathtub, but it wouldn't go down his throat.
Miss Lucy called the doctor .
Miss Lucy called the nurse.
Miss Lucy called the lady with the alligator purse.
"Measles," said the doctor,
"Mumps," said the nurse.
"Out," said the lady with the alligator purse.
So, out went the doctor, out went the nurse, out went the lady with the alligator purse!
Out went the water, out went the soap, out went the bathtub that wouldn't go down his throat !

I have heard differentiation on the doctor and nurse's diagnosis of Tiny Tim's condition as being chicken pox also. In any case, here we seem to have a mentally challenged single mother, who is is physically abusing her underdeveloped child who seems to have a pan-ivore appetite. After the mother, Miss Lucy, places the child in the bathtub, the child, Tiny Tim, proceeds to drink bathwater, eat soap, and tries in vain to ingest a bathtub.  For me, this raises a question ... what was the tub made out of? It might be wood, tin, porcelain, or maybe some other man made substance.  Now, we all know that none of the suspected  materials are edible. Well, anyway, it seems as if Miss Lucy's main purpose for placing Tiny Tim in the tub was to ascertain his innate? swimming skills. At some point in the consumption process, Miss Lucy determines that the child might be in need of medical attention and calls for the assistance of a nurse, a doctor, and a woman who is described as carrying a leather purse. The doctor proceeds to offer a ludicrous diagnosis and also fails to prescribe for the ailment. The nurse gives an equally nonsensical diagnosis for the child's engorged condition. The lady with the alligator purse seems to be right on target to ameliorate the child's likely uncomfortable,  self induced condition. The Lady merely commands the objects to dislodge themselves from poor little Tiny Tim, and miraculously they do!

I have a lot  questions about the tale of  Tiny Tim.

Was Tiny Tim named after a circus side show, the type that was popular around the late 1800's to early 19th century? 

Has this tale originated from a Celtic or Francophone tradition here in the U.S.?-  since the name Tim, short for Timothy is a popular name within those traditions?

What about the role of the single mother in this - how is she portrayed?

What does this rhyme have to say about medical professionals?

Questions like that. Anyway, without getting into too much analysis of this popular rhyme. I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane. What are the versions that you have heard of? What are your suspicions and/ or analysis of this tale?

Thanks.
Jane