I gave all my student bloggers the assignment this weekend to write about something. Anything. Then I didn’t do it either. What do I want to write about? Unlike when I sit down to write when the mood strikes, this time I am writing because I have to, completely taking away the authentic reason for doing so. Then again, I need to write often and much, in order to keep this muscle engaged and limber. So…. what to write about? I could:

• Write about signing my divorce papers and that I have to change my name back
• Write about all the work I have to do
• Write about a former close friend who now won’t even look at me
• Pretend I forgot to write
• Write about Halloween and Willa the Wonder Dog’s fascination with our pumpkins
• Or the fact that Chris’ pumpkin looks like a slasher movie gone terribly wrong, complete with fake blood

Dunno. Any suggestions??

Kill me now. There’s a girl painting her nails in the chairs at the end of the hall outside my office. What the hell?

OK, I’ll admit it. I’m a little bit on the crankyside today. There was karaoke last night for a good reason although all the people could really sing, and I didn’t get that.. I mean, the point of karaoke is supposed to be all about sucking rocks but rocking anyway, no matter how flat and nasal your voice sounds. This would be why we sing karaoke in bars, not work — because you’re supposed to be terrible. Last night there was a woman who sang a song from Chicago and she sounded (and looked) like she’d just finished performing in the Broadway play. That’s no good. No one can get up after that and sing, unless they’re also really good and — of course — there were some of those people there. As Chris put it, it was Juilliard night or something (and one girl who rocked out even sang Fame — whatever happened to drunk giggly girls singing off key versions of summer lovin’? Not serious soul sisters r&b’ing Chaka Khan better than the goddess herself. That ain’t right).

Just give me my drink specials cheap, my bar full of professionals drinking to forget about work tomorrow, and my karaoke singers terrible and not caring a bit. Cause that’s what it’s all about.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get to see our University choir perform Beethoven’s ninth symphony, the “Ode to Joy” with the NJ Symphony. I don’t get to go to classical concerts or even any concerts as much as I’d like, and when I do I always swear I am going to go more often. Yesterday was no exception — in fact, it was one of the most beautiful concerts I have ever attended. I had never had the chance to see this piece be performed live before and it just blew me away, even from the third tier of the enormous, gorgeous concert hall. I know very little about classical or Beethoven, but a deaf man knew what joy sounded like and he captured it, giving me chills and tears at the very same time.

Just back a little while ago from a lovely weekend out on Long Island at my aunt and uncle’s, one of my favorite places in the world. We took Willa, who had her first experience with big water on the beach at the Sound, and spent two nights enjoying the time with family and the beautiful weather. I love crisp fall weekends with bright blue skies and crimson leaves, and it was such fun to watch Willa play with my aunt’s standard poodle Charley in their huge yard. Much like doggie sleep away camp for her, with all the new people and sights and smells. She slept all the way home in the car, exhausted from her fun, while Chris and I talked politics and gorged on Doritos (seriously addictive). A relaxing time for all of us — and just what the doctor ordered.

I’ve been really lucky this week to get the chance to teach and learn in a wide variety of settings — from a fourth grade class in Newark where we worked through math and creative thinking (and boy does the student teacher in that setting ROCK) to my freshmen and I talking about Kite Runner to now, sitting here with my literacy in the content area students, learning from their case presentations. All week, I haven’t left a class without so much to think about and on, things I want to learn more about and teach better. The students inspire me — whether they’re 9 or 60. They’re coming to class with so much else going on in their lives and they’re really working on this material, making sense of it and relating it to their lives. I listened to one fourth grader read her writing about the tricks she uses to understand multiplication tables (she taught me a thing or two) and to my seniors talking about literacy in the biology classroom. They’re really working hard to think these things too and I have to say, I’m impressed.

I am reading Kite Runner with one of my classes and finding it really interesting how their thoughts help me think through my own and even challenge me to see the story in new ways. There’s really nothing easy about this book — it’s about tough things that happen to people and the ways we manage to survive despite them. As I read it, I find myself constantly thinking about, “What if that happened to me? What would I do?” as well as wondering how my students are liking the book — is it interesting to them? Do they find it as compelling as I do? I mean, this is a book I can get lost in because I want to know what happens next, and as I re-read it now, I want to think about how I might take from this story and think about my own. That’s what a good book does, I think — makes you want to take it back to your life and share it with people. It’s a powerful story, for sure.

Brownie the Cow Has Some Parents Alleging an Unfair Test - New York Times

An interesting piece in the NYTimes education section today about an essay question on the 4th grade test has me thinking about parents, protest, No Child Left Behind, and the Internet. It seems that parents are contesting a question about Brownie the cow that, they feel, is ambiguous and much too difficult for the average 9 year old. Having read the question (through the article), I can see their point — understanding a change in behavior through a story as well as the motivation for that change is definitely a higher-order, inferential sort of task. There’s nothing wrong with asking students to answer higher order questions — the real issue comes in how the city of New York is using the test, namely as an admissions test of sorts. There is such pressure riding on the exam, which is used for admissions to magnet schools in the city, that a group of parents are not only protesting but have created a website against the question and high-stakes testing more generally (you can see it here).

Now these are parents who obviously have the time and money and specific knowledge of either how to build a site or to get someone else to do it (this looks like it has been professionally done and has a company name attached), as well as being the parents of students fighting to get into the elite magnet schools. These kids have an active and powerful voice working for them, and that’s a good thing. My question is — how else is the Brownie the Cow question hurting kids in the NYC school system? If test scores are actually down 60%, as the site alleges, what does that mean for the other kids?

When we use standardized tests as a diagnostic measure to assess not just kids but an entire system, we tie almost everything to the outcome of a few questions, which are fallible (as any question would be). The state insists the test was not designed to be used this way — more as a way to get a picture of sorts of the performance of kids and schools over a given period. But assessment has run away with the system, and the information gathered on a student throughout the course of the year by his or her teacher does not weigh the same as the outcome of a test in which Brownie the Cow is the ultimate gatekeeper.

Visualizing Meaning is a project at Cornell University that asks faculty to share the graphic, graph, or other visual representation that has made an impact on them — and the range and types of submission are really interesting. There’s everything from photos to a range of graphics, and often there’s no correlation between the subject area of the professor and the item they chose. It’s just whatever struck them hardest, and it definitely brings back the point that much of what we “read” is visual in orientation and, sometimes, the visual is much more powerful than words can ever be. Check it out for yourself — the link is the beginning of this paragraph.

Google launches literacy project

Interesting. Google has gotten into the literacy game by creating a portal that brings together literacy resources within the Google family — information listed on Google Scholar, general Google (according to certain search terms), Google Video (are they trying to be the next YouTube? Is that even possible?). Literacy is definitely the hot issue to be involved in for just about anyone, and yet it seems there’s something good that might come out of this. Kids at 826NYC, the literacy project begun by Dave Eggers and now across the country, are going to put together videos to post of the work they’re doing in Brooklyn, and other potential exists for ways to connect up some of the things going on across a variety of literacy spheres. But will it be corporate? Too corporate? What is the role of corporations in literacy activities and pedagogy, and what should it be?

Just a few questions as I try to catch up on work after being down for the count all weekend. Mmmmm, viruses suck. On the bright side, I am caught up on my sleep and read myself silly since I was in bed anyhow. Sometimes the best thing you can do is shut off all the contraptions and curl up in bed with a couple of warm cats and a good book.

By the way, you can find the Google literacy project here.

I finally got photos up from Quebec and a couple of Willa. Check them out at my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65163240@N00/