Red Eye

I am typing this in Detroit Michigan waiting for my connecting flight to Marquette where I will be on vacation for the next week. We took the redeye from Las Vegas and it is currently 6:03 AM I have now been up for about 23 hours so if I mess up some spelling or make a grammar error that's why. There were two wi-fi options here one was free and one was not guess which one I picked? Is Detroit so broke they charge for wi-fi now? Sheesh, Las Vegas is hurting and McCarran had free wi-fi there.

So tomorrow we celebrate my grandfather's 90th birthday party and then we'll visit my grandmother later this week to celebrate her 90th birthday party. There must be something in the water up there that makes them live long lives. So for the next week it's relax, swim, and enjoy myself.

Diversity

It's the favorite word of the left, but while diversity of sex or skin color is important, what about intellectual diversity? How about a diversity of views and opinions? One of the problems with education is the fact that so many educators are left of center at best. Why so few moderates or conservatives? Is it because they have been scared away or simply driven out of their fields by the left? Is is because most people who are on the right side of the political side of the fence are in private industry? And education is not the only place where this lack of diversity exists, the media is overwhelmingly liberal and if you doubt me then why is Sarah Palin not defended by a supposedly impartial press when her AND her family is subject to constant abuse. I mean if a liberal had a child with Downs Syndrome and some attack was made on them could you imagine the firestorm?

I bring up ideological diversity because of an article I found on line talking about a student (who is a liberal) who is disturbed by the lack of intellectual diversity at their campus, and the nasty reaction they got when they published an article about this fact, and the comment I got in my previous post asking about giving both sides, in a way I'll be giving the other side and I may be the only conservative voice they hear this year. During the election last year there were only two teachers at the middle school where I taught out of 12 how voted for McCain and I have found that schools here are usually 75% liberal if not more so I know I am going to be in the minority.

Ah well, such is life.

I have an issue...

And it has to do with decorating my room. You see all English rooms look pretty much the same. Posters of famous writers, genre posters, writing traits, a spot for student's work (I'm OK with that) etc... The details change but you KNOW you're in an English room and that's the problem. I don't want just another English classroom. I plan on bringing in politics, current affairs, popular culture and more. If a student doesn't know by 9th grade the difference between a mystery and science fiction, Putting up this isn't going to help much:


If they've ignored it for the last 4 or 5 years why would they suddenly pay attention now, not to mention that it's just to juvenile for 9th graders, sheesh.

















I'd rather put up a poster more like this:


Che is something of a pop culture icon, but most kids have no idea about the real story of this murdering b*****d and the bloody legacy he left behind. This at least has the potential to make them think. Because the poster is made up of some (but not all) of the people that he executed in Cuba.













And I am definately going to have something like this in my room:

Many of my students will have some memories of this day but I want to remind them of what happened and why on 9/11/01. Again this type of poster will be there to make them use their brains. That is why they are in school after all. They'll be old enough to vote in a few years and I want them to be as informed as possible.














This one is also a must have for my room:


Need I say more? Actions do have consequences after all...











Needless to say the last thing I want is to have just another English room.

9th Grade English

That's what I'll be teaching come this fall. I apologize for not updating what was going on but life and the 4th got in the way. Today I signed my conditional (pass background check for the 800th time) acceptance of the offer to teach at a local HS. This school is urban and will be a Title 1 school in the near future. It's also one of the oldest HS in the area although they have done a nice job renovating it. I'll be teaching 4 regular sections and one honors section of English and I am very excited about it. It will be an interesting switch to go back to high school after spending the last year and a half at the middle school level.

I'm already thinking about how to decorate my room...