This is me, what i think and what i do

Kathryn's blog won't let me comment, so here it is...

Kathryn, I really enjoyed your blog entry on the Bright Ideas Conference. You went to two of the sessions that I didn’t go to. I agree with your thoughts about Rob Petrone’s session, which I attended with you. An “anchor” is a good way to describe the way that popular culture creates a frame of reference for students. In my pedagogy project, I used short stories in the same way that Mr. Petrone uses pop-culture. I also liked the example from There’s Something About Mary, it was pretty funny scene and it illustrates dramatic irony really well. The session titled, “Media Studies as a Practical Framework for Engaging Critical Pedagogy in the Classroom” seems like it was very interesting. I am always interested in any strategies that give students independent voices. It sounds like Kelly Merritt and Jim Garrett have similar ideas to Linda Christenson. They want students to read, write and rise up with their own voices. I want to know more about “students reading themselves as they would a text.” Does this mean their writing or their personalities? Maybe I will ask you about it in class later. I found a site about media literacy in the classroom online, (http://www.mediachannel.org/classroom/). You should check it out if you want more information about analyzing media in writing. The third session that you went to sounds really strange. I can’t imagine students wanting to play-act in the high school setting. Students at this age are too self conscious to open up and make this activity successful. It is an idea worth trying out when teaching younger children though.

It won't let me post on Anita's comment :( This blog service should fix this problem of cutting off comments after so many days! Here it is anyway...

Anita, we seem to share many of the same fears about our pedagogy projects. I also had a hard time getting started because I kept thinking that the project would be over the students’ heads. I agree with your connection between successful writers and avid reading. I think that the more someone reads the more vocabulary and writing styles they are exposed to and the better they will write. I incorporated short stories in my pedagogy project, which was a multi-genre paper. The short stories were used to teach concepts and prompt students to write. I agree with you: students get tired of writing in journals every day. They need to be stimulated with literature. I’m tired of writing these blogs and we only have to do them once a week! Try not to get too frustrated while writing your lesson plans. I’m sure that by the amount of pre-writing about the project that you are doing in your blog, that your project will be great. I found a cool site about dealing with the stress of being a teacher, and how to avoid teacher burnout. I think Professor Rozema should have handed it out before assigning the pedagogy project! (http://712educators.about.com/library/weekly/aa051701a.htm

This one is posted on DJ's site, just wanted all my comments on other people's blogs to be in one convienient place.

DJ, I agree with you about NCLB! Just like you, I had no real understanding of NCLB before the presentation that Nancy Patterson gave. I really like your writing style by the way. You write just like you talk, which can be hard to do. I agree with you that NCLB takes money from the schools that really need it. I liked it when you said, “Seems to be a better measurement of parent’s wealth than student achievement. NCLB forces schools to give lots of standardized tests. It costs lots of money to schools who don’t have cash to burn, it penalizes schools that need the most help, rewards those that don’t need it and pretty much keeps the status quo.” It really is a measure of the school district’s wealth. I read an article in one of my education classes about the MEAP results in the school district in Michigan. The rich, private or rural schools always score higher than the city schools. The teachers simply have more recourse to teach with. I am an avid Bush hater as well, and I was amazed at the connection between the McGraw Hill and Bush families. It is very convenient that Bush never mentioned how their families share an island by Florida together in his speeches about the benefits of NCLB. But he would leave out his personal benefits from NCLB. I found the official site of the United States Education Department and their page on NCLB. If you want more information about NCLB you should check it out. I thought the site was very informative. http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml