Teaching kids who really need...

I'm in a Knowledge and Employability English class, and I am watching the students work on a writing/Movie Maker project.  I was pleased to see that some of the students chose to write a story instead of throwing something together on movie maker.  Not that those doing the movie maker project are any less capable, but the writing assignment is a bit more difficult than the movie maker assignment, and I'm pleased to see that some of the students chose the more challenging route.

The quality of some of the stories that I am reading is quite beyond what I expected.  Although, these stories are supposed to be fictional, they are eerily close to reality for many of these kids.
Many of the students in this class do extremely well just by showing up for class.  I am always excited to see them, and I am always enthusiastic for them when they are in class.  The kids in this class will not graduate. Some of them may get a certificate, but none of them will get a diploma. That is unless they go back to school and upgrade classes that they have missed. Will this happen? I honestly don't know. Can it happen? That one is easy... yes, it can.

I have grown to care deeply for these kids; however, in many of the cases this feeling is only one way.  I am okay with that.  Many of them come to school, not because they want to learn, or be cared for, but because it is a safe place for them.  At school they don't have to dodge bullets, or beatings, and they are warm and protected. 

Unfortunately, many of them make poor choices that often result in their suspension, or even having to go somewhere else, and this breaks my heart.

It is so easy for many teachers, parents, authorities, etc to marginalize, forget, or even exacerbate the situations that many of these kids find themselves in.  It is also unfortunate that many of these kids do the same things to themselves, and this the real heartbreaker.

Ellipsis...

I have come to the realization that my favourite punctuation mark is the ellipsis. You know, those three or four little dots that you sometimes see at the end of a sentence, or phrase. I find that you can convey so much in just three dots, or periods, or full stops, or whatever you want to call them. You can leave so much unsaid, but understood, or you can intimate, or insinuate many thoughts feelings, beliefs, or actions without using any words.

I'm also amazed at how punctuation has so much in common with our lives, or vice versa. We have those moments where we pause, or exclaim, or question, and we often feel like we are living someone else's life as if we are walking quotations. We can feel like things have come to an end, or that things are just beginning, and often we feel the need for a break somewhere in between.

Life is like that. In fact, our lives can be written, edited, reviewed, changed, expressed, sung, whispered, imagined, etc. We often have moments of happiness interjected with moments of sorrow, and for some, it can be the other way around.

Commas are my weak spot. I either use them when I shouldn't, or don't use them when I should. As a writer, and an English teacher, this is not something that I should be struggling with. I will say that I have gotten better, but I know that I still have a little way to go before I can confidently say that I am a comma connoisseur.

I love languages. I love learning how they work. I have studied over 14 languages; some just because. I want to qualify the last statement; I have studied 14 languages, but I only speak, somewhat, 2 or 3 of them. Having said that, I could probably make my way through many of them if I spent a little time with them. I am fascinated by how languages work, and this has often been the focus of my studies, but I guess you can't study any aspect of a language without learning how to communicate with it a little.

As I stated at the beginning of this post, the ellipsis is a wonderful punctuation mark. It lets the reader know that this is the end, but there is more to come, or at least more to think about. It is an idea that makes me wonder...

Gobsmacked

I'm finding myself with a lot to say, but not being able to say it. I feel somewhat like I'm suffering from literary locked in syndrome. I guess the old saying is true, if you don't use it, you lose it. I used to think that only applied to body building and language learning, but I guess it applies to many other things as well.

I have been thinking a lot about the direction my life has\is\will be taken\taking and I find that things aren't as clear as they seemed to be in the past. This is alright though; because that means that I'm not alone. After all, isn't this part of the human condition? I am convinced though that if we always knew the whats, whys, and the wherefores, we would either lose those moments when we suddenly feel linked to the universe and everything makes startlingly clear sense, or we would, even worse, lose an appreciation for those very special moments. While I lived in England, I saw a lot of castles, and throughout my travels through Europe, I saw many beautiful cathedrals. How does this connect with my previous thought, you ask. Let me tell you. I soon found myself not feeling that sense of awe and wonder that I felt when I saw my first castle, or my first cathedral, and it saddened me. The good news is that as soon as I became cognizant of this lack of gobsmackedness, (nice word, eh? I just made it up), I decided to change how I experienced things and I soon found myself gobsmacked (probably my favourite word in the English language) again.

To be honest, I am pulling a sort of stream of consciousness thing here. I usually sit down with a focused idea as to what I want to write, but I haven't had one of those since December 8, 2009, which was when I last posted. However, since this blog is the only form of writing that I have been able to do since... well, since for a long time, I don't want to let this dry up. The fact that I am writing at all right now is a good thing, even if it is short. Having said that, I will try to commit to writing every week at least, if not more.
This means that this post will be shorter than some, and much less poignant than others... if any of my posts can be considered poignant that is.

I have actually been brewing and percolating some thoughts and ideas, and as the beginning of this post states the material is there, but I have just been unable to communicate it. Give me a couple more days and hopefully I will be back to my old self, spewing forth words, thoughts, ideas, and images that will leave you... well... gobsmacked.

What's Important

I was putting my children to bed tonight.  Part of the bedtime routine is that I tell them "Little Girl" and "Little Boy" stories.  These are stories that I make up on the spot.  Some are shorter and some are longer, depending on how I feel and how well the creative juices are flowing.  Someday, I will write these stories down. 

Tonight was one of those nights when I felt a shorter story was called for.  I had just finished digging out the driveway; it was covered with about two feet of snow and I could no longer put it off.  (The truth is, my wife wouldn't let me.)  Anyway, it took me some time and energy to finish, and I could feel every muscle in my body begin to let me know how much they cared for what I did.  Since my muscles are a very selfish lot, they resented having to work on someone else's behalf, and decided to pack it in for the night... (with my luck, they'll pack it in for the next week or two.)

My kids feel very disappointed when they get the 'small stories' - as my four year old likes to call them, and so I have learned not to warn them in advance.  Tonight, as I finished what was most likely the shortest little girl and little boy story ever told, I had this thought hit me from out of nowhere.  "What if I never got to tell them another little girl and little boy story?  Is this the last one I want to ever tell them?"

Before you start wondering if I am being overly morbid, let me clarify.  Yes, I could die. My muscles are sure hinting that this is the direction they want to take, but more realistically, these stories could go the route many other bedtime rituals of the past have taken.  I used to sing to my children, and then that turned into playing the recorder for them - and yes, I do play the recorder... rather well, I think.  The recorder was followed by 'phone songs', which are basically mp3s that I have stored on my phone, mostly for the benefit of my children.  After phone songs, it became 'you tube', believe it or not, and then it became a muddle of all of the above.  Then one night, while my daughter and I were waiting for my son to finish brushing his teeth, I told her a "Little Girl" story, and they have been going strong since then and show no sign of stopping.

The truth is that I look forward to them.  I never know what adventures we will be in for until they actually unfold.  I don't plan ahead, and even if my kids have favourites, I often work something new into the ones they want to hear again.  The stories are also great carrots hanging from the proverbial stick, and they will often have to be told to slow down the brushing because they figure the quicker they are, the longer the story will be.  (Don't ever question the ingenuity of children.  It often outshines that of adults.)

Back to my thought... I hope and pray that these stories will continue for quite some time.  They connect my wife and I to our children, and they make me feel, if only for a short time, like a little boy again.

Learn or be learned

I just spent three days at a teacher's convention... to be more precise, it was a leading and learning conference.  I quite enjoyed it for the most part, but it seemed that other than a lot of new catch phrases, not much was new, but then, if the old hasn't been mastered I guess there is no room for anything new.  Before it sounds like I am slamming the conference, teaching, and learning, let me make it clear that all teachers are at individual places when it comes to teaching.  Some are hip-to-the-scene-daddio as far as technology is concerned, while others are up on cutting edge instructional techniques.  However, no two teachers are at exactly the same place, which means that conference's like these are necessary.

What did I take away from this conference?  I have decided that technology is the focus I want to make in my classes, specifically podcasts, vodcasts, etc.  I have already started and the kids have taken to it like... well, let's just say that they have taken to it. 

When I went to school, the big thing for us was being able to watch a video in class, or get handouts that didn't make your fingers turn purple.  It has been said that kids today have no clue how blessed they are techologically speaking, but I believe that the same thing was said when I went to school and I don't want to sound like someone I used to make fun of.  The truth of the matter is that no matter what kids are doing in school today, the kids of the future will be blessed with even cooler ways of doing the same thing, and someone will most likely say that kids have it easy, and don't get how hard things were for their parents, etc when they only had cellphones, laser printers, smartboards, and HDTV.

I, personally, won't complain.  Since some of the things that kids are doing today are much cooler than the things I was doing, and I hated doing what I was doing, then it would be somewhat hippocritical of me to suggest that things were better before, when I would have given my canine teeth to have been able to do some of the cooler things then that are being done now.

At the end of the day, the things kids do in the classroom need to be in line with what they are doing outside the classroom.  If teachers and parents aren't teaching them how to use the technology that is at hand then who is?

Playing with buttons...

I just imported an old blog to this one, and guess what? It worked. If you want to see the results you'll need to go to the older posts and see what was added. It was my first attempt at blogging before I started 'Life's like that...' Check it out and let me know if I should've left it hidden away...

Technology has come a long way since I was a kid, (Damn! I'm sounding like my dad... and his dad...). Things have changed a lot, even within the last decade and one of those changes is that playing around with things doesn't always break it. Before the modern computer, buttons, switches, teletype, etc. was the cutting edge, but the edge was very dull compared to today's standards. There were lots of moving parts, messy inks, and bulbs, tubes, etc. Back then playing with something, ie. messing around with things you don't understand, often lead to bangs, smoke, and tears. Now, if you mess up, you can usually take a step back and start over again, no harm done.

This obviously doesn't apply to all new tech. There are plenty of things out there that can still be bollixed up by the unfortunate neophyte, but I honestly believe that you almost have to try a lot harder to screw things up than you did when I was younger.

Anyway, I enjoy playing around with new programs, computers, PDA's phones, etc. Not only is it fun, it makes me look like I know more than I actually do, and that helps when you are trying to impress the most important people in your life... your kids and your significant other. I may be a faux techie, but if it helps me to stay in the saddle as the white knight for a little while longer, I will gladly keep up the facade...

Experiments...

I'm writing this post from my phone as an experiment. I want to see if the tool that I use to write determines anything about my writing. Will I write more? Will I write less? Will my writing be the same quality, will it suffer, or will it improve?

I used to use pen and paper to write, and then I bought a portable typewriter, which I used extensively until I came into contact with a then new apple computer. That changed everything. I could cut and paste without scissors or glue. I could write many different versions of the same story, just by making little changes and then saving them under a different title. The list of things that I could now do goes on. The point is, that as technology has improved and progressed so has my writing. I will say that sometimes I miss that old typewriter of mine. Will I ever use it again? Probably not. Will I ever get rid of it? Not in the hyperbolic million years. My means of writing has changed over the years, but I don't forget old friends. I may eventually think my words onto a screen, but I will still have my pen and paper drafts, my typewritten pages, floppies, and thumb drives to help me remember how I got there.