The Idea Men are Plotting…

My original topic started out as books that were being censored in schools.  That topic was a pretty interesting one for the first round of blog responses.  From those articles I learned that literature, like sex, religion, war, and other topic can be a touchy one (even a school newspaper, which my other blog responses are about).  People are quick to go and outlaw books.  For instance a few being The Adventures of Huck Finn, As I lay dying, Catcher in The Rye, and so the list goes on.

Once the blog reviews came in, I had to switch to something that was more about writing then reading.  That is when I switched to the censorship/advancement of student publications in schools.  There really weren’t that many article directly correlated to high school/middle school, which lead to a lot of college papers having censuring issues.

I did learn from my articles that journalism in schools is on the rise.  In almost everyone of my articles, I reported how a newspaper or a journalism class was being established.  Grants and other funds are coming in to help support students in their endeavors to form meaningful writing.

Censorship seems to put its ugly head in when articles are satyrical, leading to others not understanding references.  It also would seem that censorship in schools leads to underground papers like Tyro.  Is it that kids aren’t adults yet and should be censored or is it that we don’t want kids to be adults yet?

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I had never heard of or used RSS until this blog was made.  Quite frankly, I really like the aggragator.  This is cheesy and duh, this is the internet, but all the world is at my finger tips.  News comes in from around the globe from various publications letting me know what is happening in the world of sports, A & E, or what ever my choice for articles may be.  RSS is definately a good to have in the classroom as a teacher due to the fact that an article that comes up might have some significance to a class discussion.  Also in a Pop. Lit class, and the use of RSS, articles are all about and open for discussion.

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I will admit that at first I was pretty anti-blog, but I think that I have really loosened up.  It isn’t to the point where I would use it in a classroom, but it is a good way to find out the views of others on topics.  One thing the blog did do for me was open me up to the work of RSS (all ready discussed).  Thanks to RSS…losely the blog, I was able to read a lot of really interesting articles on various topics.  I feel like I have been exposed to more problems that our school systems/education plans are facing.  Also, going with these problems are resolutions, trying to ensure a better learning environment for most of us.

 THANKS,

ERIC OWEN

Teacher loses job for helping student newspaper

By Eric Stevick, Herald writer

For this blog response, I think I am tapping into some interesting boundaries.  I received a blog response through RSS to this article.  Upon reading it, there are tons of responses to Monica Guzman’s entry.  But before I look at some of those, let’s take a look at the article.

At Cascade High School in Evert, Washington, Kay Powers, a 22 year veteran teaching English and journalism, was placed on administrative leave for helping students produce an outside publication using school property during school hours.  Basically her dismissal is based on these 5 things which will be condensed.

1. Powers was told not to let school resources be used by students for independent publications.
2. Powers was told newspaper must be published not during school hours and away from the premises without school materials.
3. Powers allowed students to:
   1. Skip class to work on it.
   2. Violate school policies.
   3. Mishandle money collected by students.
4. Drove students in her car without parental permission and allowed students to be in her classroom unattended after school, weekends, and on evenings.
5. Didn’t cooperate with the district’s investigation.

I think that I need to talk about the reasons for dismissal.  I can remember riding with my teacher to go out for lunch.  The thing is I wasn’t the only person who ever did that, lots of other kids did it as well.  I can remember working on independent movies in my cinema classes that weren’t for school during school hours.  My friend and I even used the computers in cinema class to create a T.V. show for the local cable channel for our internship, which showcased the work of our fellow students’ media ability.  We would work on it during a class period that there was a class.  The school knew that we were doing it but we never got in trouble.  I can remember staying after school to work on projects then just locking up and leaving once I was done.  So many people did it and it was never a problem.

Maybe there are some other issues that took place at this school.  Maybe stuff was being stole that is why no one could stay after like I was able to.  Or maybe there are just strict rules that need to be followed here.  But, when we look at the other things like letting students skip class, violation of school policies, and her non-cooperative attitude, I suppose there should be some punishment.  She is being rather insubordinate to the superintendent.  I figured that cooperation toward a superior is important, especially after 22 years of teaching.  I don’t think she should have been fired unless there are other factors that have not been mentioned.  She should receive some kind of probation from equipment or she is not able to teach journalism for a while.  Firing seems way to steep.

Union officials tend to think that the punishment is too harsh for Powers.  Mike Wartelle, a regional union representative states that:

“I just think the superintendent’s decision clearly lacks proportionality.”

Superintendent Carol Whitehead seems to think differently.  Her only quote was:

“My job is to protect students,”

Powers was the advisor of the 2 papers (Tyro and Stehekin which are both student arts newspapers) before this lawsuit came up.  Before this law suit, there was a little fiasco in 2005 which was just recently settled.  The school district demanded to review each issue of The Kodak, which was a school newspaper.  Due to this, Tryo and Stehekin have now gone underground.  This is where the entire problem lies, I presume.  The school doesn’t want students to work on once sanctioned papers during school time.

Journalism coming to more schoolsA $500,000 grant will enable 24 city high schools to run media clubs, aided by professionals and interns.

By Martha Woodall

Oh blessed grants, thank you for helping run media clubs.  Let’s see the quote from the horse’s mouth:

“Officials from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today are scheduled to announce a $500,000 grant to the School District of Philadelphia and the Prime Movers at George Washington University in Washington to establish Prime Movers/Philadelphia.”

Hah NCLB, you wretch, victory is not emanate!  People still believe in electives and extra curricular activities.  What this grant will do is give a rebirth to after school media programs.  Also, this grant will be bringing professional journalists to help teach high school students about the aspects of journalism.  Well ghee-whiz, this is a pretty sweet deal; after school activities with journalist and interns… and it is free!

Dorothy Gilliam, founder and director of Prime Movers at George Washington University states a very interesting statistic in this article.  She says that:

“It is a national problem because . . . about 40 percent of the 17,000 high schools have no student media. The Knight Foundation has made an extensive commitment to getting [student] media started nationally.”

Let’s stop for a second and think about this, roughly 8,500 high schools nationally have media programs.  Let’s stop and think again and pose a question.  How many of these 8,500 schools, are well off Urban, Suburb or Upper Class schools?  I would suspect probably most of them.  Well, that leaves the others high and dry.

This is something that really got me going in a happy way, but also in a sad way.  With the funds, computers, digital cameras, software…oh and teacher training! YES I say…YES!  That means there are teachers willing to spend their time after school to further learning.  The thing that gets to me though is how all these other schools that are lacking funds may never get the chance to experience this phenomenon unless they have grants.   

Here are the specs for what will happen for these students that participate.

“The clubs will meet twice a week and each will be assigned two Temple interns. Professional journalists from area media, including KYW-AM (1060), NBC10, CBS3, the Philadelphia Tribune, Philadelphia Weekly, and The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, will spend 90 minutes with students weekly.”

Now, what will this do for the students writing?  I have a few hypotheses about this.  If students have funding and professionals helping them learn and create meaningful journalism then students will have many tools including the writing process in the belt of knowledge.  Another is If students enjoy writing then they may continue into journalism or writing as a profession.

Overall I hope that the nation can see the good that thing that is happening in Philadelphia with its after school media club.  It would be great if low S.E.S schools could get grants for after school media programs.  Maybe it could give a hope to students that don’t write so well, want to find a way to express themselves in a medium, or are simply looking for some extra fun.

I have responded to the following people’s blogs:

Tyler

Another one of Tyler’s

Eli

Nathan

Michael

Johnathon

Christina

Shakura

I have responded every time to a blog but I can’t find them all so if anyone happens to look and see mine on there let me know.

“Students learn to craft articles for newspaper”

11/14/07
Agnes Hagin

Continuing on with my theme of student newspapers, censorship, and promotion of student writing, I found this article titled “Students learn to craft articles for newspaper” by Agnes Hagin.  She has wrote an article about Rockmart Middle School in Rockmart, GA which has a newspaper.  Yah, big whoop huh…well, yes it is…to me at least!  In terms of a Middle School newspaper, I can’t say that I have heard of one.  On top of that, I can’t say that I have ever heard of a journalism teacher for middle school.

In 310, we have done a lot of discussion on the writing process and how it is on going.  It is a process involving brainstorming, editing, writing, more editing, and finalizing.  In this journalism class taught by Nicole Seymour, she teaches many things including the writing process.  This is a breakdown of how a full semester goes:

1)     Review the writing process which includes basically what we discussed in class.  Work from brainstorming up to publishing.

2)     The school paper is divided into 6 categories such as sports, editorials, A & E, etc and each student gets to decide on what they write.

3)     They have computer labs to do research in of an approved list of material.  Once completed, it is inserted into appropriate column.

From the article, there is a quote that Seymour said that I liked.  She said “There is a method to writing an article. It is not let’s write something.”  This reminds me of the conversation we had about Elbow and his methods of writing.  Where Elbow is all about writing and getting the garbage out, it seems that Seymour is more about using the writing process.  I think that is ok though because writing an article is more for the audience versus coming up with what matters to author.  Of course the writer’s views can be translated in but not in an opinion-esk manor.

“The primary focus is to learn how to craft a well-written piece.”…which means what overall?  Overall, a well crafted piece of work brought through the writing process will help these students greatly on more standardized writing.  So despite thoughts that journalism doesn’t help it does.  Through learning about what makes a good article and the writing process, students will be much better off in the end.

**NOTE** The link for the article redircts to the article but the article doesn’t show up.  I tried to google the article to give a link but I can’t find it.  If anyone would like to actually read the article, I can email it out.
THANKS

Student newspaper shut down at E. Coweta

Published 10/12/07 in The Times-Herald

By W. WINSTON SKINNER
winston@newnan.com

Winston Skinner starts this article out with a compelling thesis:

“Smoke Signals, the award-winning East Coweta High School student newspaper, is on ice — the remaining copies of the last edition impounded in the principal’s office.”Without reading any more of the article, I started to wonder what the reason is for this paper on the ropes.  Could it be profuse language, anti-Semitic references, sexist remarks, or simply bad taste?

This is a list of problems that happened in the Sept. 25^th edition. (Directly pulled from article)

1.      Opinion column “…that satirically suggested the bottom 25 percent of fifth grade students on a standardized test be euthanized to remove “the bottom of every class.”

Go here to see his article and you can judge

http://times-herald.com/media/20071012_SmokeSignals2.pdf

2.      Criticism of a beauty contest “Judging who is the most beautiful in our school certainly does not contribute to our education,”

Her article.

http://times-herald.com/media/20071012_SmokeSignals1.pdf

3.      Use of profanity: “It was hell” in reference to a boot camp experience.  Also the word “bastardizing” which is NOT offensive according to “The Oxford American Desk Dictionary”

4.      A home coming shirt that Caitlyn Van Orden stating in reference to the newspaper “Maybe When I’m A Senior Citizen I’ll Get My Freedom of Speech. I thought I was born with it.”

I want to address each of these individually.  With the opinion column, it is just like Jonathan Swift with his “Modest Proposal”.  In his proposal, he talks about how children could have an alternate use…sell children of low poverty to high lords for cash.  The fatter the, better…yum yum!  The student who did his proposal parody, named Justin Jones is a genius in my mind.  I can see students getting offended to this based on their lack of knowledge of Jonathan Swift.  I think at that point, maybe it is time for those students to expand their horizon and read up on Swift.

Now on the terms of the beauty contest, this ridiculous and I agree with Van Orden.  She makes comment when in wonder to hurt feelings leading to low self-esteems and eating disorders, and a hierarchy in school now.  I think this is something that should be documented and published in a school paper.

“He (in reference to Principal Derek Pitts) said he wanted the newspaper to be a positive, uplifting publication,” Van Orden said. “He only wants things that show East Coweta High School in a positive light,” Mrs. Van Orden added.  Newspapers aren’t supposed to be chocked full of cutesy articles.  Newspapers deliver the news and news is like the truth, it sometimes hurts.

In terms of the “profanity” I consider neither of those words to be profane.  I can remember teachers in high school talking about people in history fathering bastard children and reading texts with the word hell.  With use of these non-profane words in the articles, I feel that it adds a more personal swing to the stories.  If we look at the context in which each is used.  “Hell” was used in terms of describing boots camp and “bastardizing” was satirically when talking about the values of life.  Neither are their to offend, they are strategically placed to illicit strong feeling

Lastly, this quote summaries everything that this article is about: “Maybe When I’m A Senior Citizen I’ll Get My Freedom of Speech. I thought I was born with it.”  I will say this much, I think that students do need to be selective on what they write about because there is a matter of can they do it tastefully or not.  Both the articles I read I thought were tasteful and are comparable to some of the articles that I have seen in the paper here at GVSU.

http://content.times-herald.com/356256997994953.bsp

This article caught my eye immediately due to this phrase “…free from censorship by school officials”.  When I read the first couple lines: “A student newspaper in Los Angeles called L.A. Youth is giving a voice to teenagers, free from censorship by school officials. As Mike O’Sullivan reports, the paper deals with controversial issues from sexuality to violence, and such ordinary problems as getting a date in high school.”I thought to myself…this is unbelievable!It is about time there is some kind of a periodical out there that is for kids by kids.  Like what it is stated above, some touchy subjects that may not be talked about in a school setting is now blown open.  For example, Daniel Marx is in the process of writing an article on the issues of peer pressure and drinking.  Also Alana Folsom is writing an article on the pressures of getting into colleges.

I think I should analyze this newspaper from a Christensen aspect.  These kids are taking a topic that invokes some kind of an emotion and bringing to the tablet.  What is great as well is that peer pressure and college are topics that all high school students fear.  On a personal level, I had great anxiety of college and dealt with peer pressure when it came to consumption.  These articles can alleviate a lot of stress on others with these same thoughts.

But off of Christensen, what can this do for students and writing?  I figured it would be a positive experience toward a career as a journalist.  But according to the article, “most of the student writers do not want to pursue a career in journalism, but want to communicate their ideas, and find someone to listen”.  When I think about it, seeing how this is L.A. these kids may not have an adults to talk to but through their writing, they have a huge crowd to read their ideas.

Overall, this is my first time ever hearing about anything like this and I thin it is awesome.  I wish that more communities were willing to work with students to have them bring issues out of the schools and into the community.  Not only is this great for other students, but parents could read this and see what is important in a teenager’s life.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-10-08-voa55.cfm

Dr. James Shapiro is a man who definitely knows and loves his Shakespeare.  When I was listening to him talk about excerpts from his book and the pre-play Q and A, I could tell he was a very passionate man.  He boasted a lot of his vast knowledge of Shakespeare.  He has the right to seeing how he has spent his life researching him.  I did learn a lot from all this but when I reflect, I sort of found him as being pompous and condescending toward anything not Shakespeare.

            During the pre-play talk he had mentioned how in ten years, the people who read Harry Potter would look back and say that it is stupid and wouldn’t be able to figure out why they liked it.  I though that it was pretty ignorant of him to say that he could presume that people would think that Harry Potter is stupid in years to come.  Kids and adults alike will continue to read Harry Potter and it will have the same value as before.  To this day, kids and adults alike still read C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and find it just as or more charming than before.  Sorry to say, in terms of Shakespeare, kids will only read him because they have to.

            Something Dr. Shapiro said did stick with me in a positive manor.  He said there were tons of different elements in this play.  What is meant by elements are…well, I guess themes.  Here are the themes I noticed: love, hate, jealousy, revenge, sorrow, secrecy, and humor.  Character emotions are like firecrackers and could flare, flying out at any moment.  With these ideas in mind, I would try in invoke feelings in my students with these themes.  This is where Christensen could come into play.  She preaches about social injustices, so let’s draw on these ideas that make us angry or disgruntled.  I could have my students do some prewriting on a time in which the felt these themes or emotions.  But the thing I would want to stress that this isn’t a rant or a put down secession.  The idea of the assignment is to draw out a theme and write.  To even show that this isn’t just busy writing, I could write as well.  Now the experience is more apparent seeing how I would be doing it too.

            Once we’re done with the prewriting, we can do a group circle read (another Christensen ideal) or we could do mini groups to talk about these emotions.  This would be my transition into Cymbeline.

            Cymbeline is one of those plays that I think I would keep in the attic when it comes to my classroom.  Shapiro had made the comment of how the audience would either love or hate the play.  I couldn’t stand Cymbeline; it was too predictable and for the first 45 minutes of the play I had no idea what was going on.  The ending was pretty much like Huck Finn where Twain nicely tied all the story up.  Shakespeare quickly lumped some 15 revelations into a scene that was supposed to leave the audience with an “Oh no you didn’t” expression.  All the plays are either lets all die or lets all be happy.

            If the worst came to worst and I had to teach Cymbeline, I would pull out some other examples of Shakespearian work to show a comparison in them.  I could use Romeo and Juliet as an example of schemes that characters have due to problems in their lives.  Posthumus has married Imogen in secret and King Cymbeline banishes Posthumus.  This is similar to Romeo and Juliet because they are secretly in love and neither father likes each other.  There is a “poison” in Cymbeline like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.

            When we (the class) read the play itself, I will assign a cast of students to read for the day.  I would like everyone to read a part from day to day, but if there are some students who just rock, I may have them keep doing it.  I think that I may read the part Cymbeline.  I don’t know because there needs to be interjector at points for clarification.  So it may be a good idea of not, I suppose I would have to actually do this in order to see.

            I am not sure it I would have them write a paper on this play after we finish it or a test.  The test is the write-memorization where the paper would be drawing from internal themes.  I think a test would probably be the best bet because then I could ask very directional questions to see if the students understood.  A paper would be more prudent if I was working with a novel.  Then they could draw more from passages, themes, and symbols.

            I think that, depending on the grade I teach, I will stick to the main Shakespeare plays: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Metro Briefing |
New York

Manhattan:
Reading by J. K. RowlingBy Jennifer MedinaPublished: September 6, 2007 

This article isn’t that big but I need to have it in to help with my other article that will connect.  On October 19, J. K. Rowling will be at Carnegie Hall to read from the new book named “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows”.  Forty different schools will be picked based on how well their reading standardized test scores were (YEAH NCLB…pff) with administrators picking forty students from each of those schools.  On top of a Q & A secession, 5,000 books will be donated to the schools.I had to give a little brief on that because I though that was great.  I like Harry Potter a lot and I am glad it is getting into libraries for kids to read who can’t afford to buy the books.  Now that I have started on this whole Harry Potter thing, I can go to my tie in article of… 

‘Harry Potter’ spurs growth of fantasy genreRowlings’ novels have made ‘reading books for younger readers OK for adults’By: Chris Kridler
Florida TodayPosted: Monday, September 10, 2007 

Cindy Heinig, a youth librarian at
Florida’s Cocoa Beach Public Library says “There’s just been a tremendous surge of new fantasy, and sometimes it’s compared to Harry Potter, but these are all titles that stand on their own.”  That is what I like to hear, J. K. Rowling, like many authors before her, have inspired an outbreak of new fantasy novelist.  This is where I need to have my tangent so bear with me.On a side note, in this article is a young adult writer named Stephenie Meyer.  The series of books she writes are young adult oriented, but more for the female crowd.  This book is a fantasy, romance novel with Bella and Edward being main characters.  Edward is a vampire though, which leads to Bella falling in love with him.  There’s a lot more to the whole story of course but I don’t need to go there.  My girlfriend loves the books and I cannot begin to recount many nights she curled up with one of Meyer’s books in hand.  Meyer first book was “Twilight” followed by “New Moon” and “Eclipse” which this article states that ““Eclipse” has pushed “HP and the Deathly Hollows” out of the No. 1 spot on USA Today’s best seller list.”I felt that it was important to mention her because now that ‘Harry Potter’ is done, what’s next on the list for young adults to read.  Sure the “Twilight” series sounds too cheesy, but it is actually fun.  I have read some of it…(waits for laughs) and it really isn’t that bad.  Vampires, werewolves, and supernatural powers with a love story on top (sounds like the next Final Fantasy huh?).

Anyways, ‘Harry Potter’ once being viewed as a young adult novel may not even be that any more.  In a review written by Stephen King which was published in Entertainment Weekly Magazine, he said “These books ceased to be specifically for children halfway through the series; by ‘Goblet of Fire,’ Rowling was writing for everyone, and knew it.”  I believe this to be true; upon the introduction of the Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup and Cedric’s death in…ahem…a cemetery.  Harry Potter had to grow up and so did his cult reader crowd.

Links for Reference:

Stephenie Meyer at Wikipedia

‘Harry Potter’ spurs growth of fantasy genreRowlings’ novels have made ‘reading books for younger readers OK for adults’

Manhattan: Reading by J. K. Rowling 

Schools expose students to variety of books

By: Brandy Rissmiller

Republic Herald

Students at Minersville Area Schools in
Minersville, Pennsylvania have a pretty sweet system going when it comes to exposing students to literature.  Grades K through 12 are given ample resources when it comes to fall school in the library and the classroom.  For example, Kelly Crowe, a teacher of AP literature atMinersville
Area
High School, provides students who take her class with a full semester of great literature.  Brandy Rissmiller, a writer for The REPUBLICAN & Herald, states that the class reads “ “Their Eyes are Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller, and “Do Not go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas.  Other Students that have taken her class, I am not sure if their read them in there or not have read “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”.

I think this is so stupendous that they are getting this exposure to greats early because I have the same sediments that Crowe has.  She says “Kids never really read the classics until they are made to.”  I never had to read any of those in high school except for these which I can remember: “The Great Gatsby”, “Grapes or Wrath”, “Hamlet”, “Frankenstein”, the staples in a core curriculum.  I read excerpts of Hurston’s novel and Dickens novel, on my own free time, other then that the others are just question marks.  It makes me feel pretty bad that I haven’t read those which Crowe refers to which leads me into another thing that I think.

I think that if my school would have had a system like the next school I am going to mention, I would be aware of these novels which I really need to read now.  Mahanoy
Area
High School has a superb summer system set up for their students doing the transition from 9^th to 10^th and so on.  Michelle Wells, the librarian at Mahanoy says “Students are required to read two books over the summer and four to eight books during the school year.”  I will freely admit that I wasn’t the most motivated individual when it came to reading but when faced with making choices on what to read it may have been a whole nother story.  Some of the choices that the article mentions for student choices are (for what grades I am not sure because it is not mentioned) “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, “Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone” by J. K. Rowlings and “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton. ( I love the Harry Potter Series and “The Outsiders”)

I love the fact that the librarians and teachers are working hard to establish lists of books and novels for their students to read.  I can’t ever remember any of my teachers in high school giving me a list of books to read over the summer or for that matter a list of books I should check out from the library.  Also, these school libraries sound so much more knowledgeable in current and past literature.  Also they sound younger and more hip than the fossils that worked at my high school.  I know this much, I never wanted to go ask the librarians about anything; they scared me.

Overall, I would like to stress that I may not know what Kelly Crowe’s teaching strategy is for these novels, books, and short stories she teaches, but the students love it.  She must be doing something unbelievable.  That is what I hope for one day in my class, students that get excited about Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.  Also I hope that the school I teach at one day has great librarians that are hip and keep great books in the library for the students.

These are some of the links that I included in my blog:

All links to Authors and Books/Novels provided by: Www.Wikipedia.Org

Link to this article provided through Google Reader:

Schools expose students to variety of books