I have never been so excited for a movie to come out in the theatre’s since “Interview with a Vampire.” Also, I have not been so enthusiastic about a book series, as well. When I went to see this movie on Saturday, I walked out of the theatre in a stupor; I couldn’t believe that they had slaughtered such a fantastic story line. The actress that played Bella was terrible! She did not connect well with Edward, little lone convince the viewers that they were star-crossed lovers. At certain points in the movie, I felt like it was a “B” movie. How heartbreaking considering all of the hype that was presented! My boyfriend went in hopes of grasping the concept of the book better, and he ended up falling asleep. The story-line moved so quickly and did not develop the characters well. I hope that someone will intervene and salvage the next movie. I am scared to see how they will slaughter Jacob’s formation. 
But I still am a fan of the books!
Sad about the Twilight Movie
Classroom Humor
Professional Humor
There have been many times in my career that I have felt various emotions in all kinds of situations. Some have been saddness, frustration, guilt, and humor. The humorous times I seem to remember the longest. I have some memories that have practically brought me to my knees in laughter. For example, last year I was trying to teach figurative language in poetry and prose. The entire year I had been harping at the kids to remember the importance of using their suffixes and prefixes in words when trying to define the meanings. I had one child that was very sweet, but she didn’t register everything exactly the way she should. When I took up the figurative language vocabulary terms and began to grade them, I looked down at this child’s paper reading her definitions. Because the class was in dead silence doing work, I had to crawl underneath of my desk acting like I was doing something in order to quietly get out the hysterical laughter. This child had written: 1) Personfiction (for personification)–A person who reads fiction 2) Assonance–A word that smells bad. I stopped there and almost lost my mind! A word that smells bad! How could you smell a word? This is just the tip of the iceberg for another instance in Elizabeth City, NC.
In Elizabeth City, I taught some of the toughest kids around. They were on the streets, in gangs, selling drugs, etc. I had to go in there with an iron fist and demand respect from each and every student. It was a fight everyday to keep order and the lessons flowing. One day in the fall, after we had encountered a gang fight in the hallway and death threats from the students, I came to school dressed professionally with a silk orchid shirt and black dress pants. For some reason, I had eaten something the night before that kept bothering my stomach. I realized this, but I had a long lesson to teach on the Battle at Gettysburg. When I was giving the visuals of how horrible the battle was to each side, I felt my stomach begin to roll. Ignoring this, I went on to say, “One hundred thousand soldiers…”, and then I turned around quickly to write on the board. Bluuuurrrrrrrt…a long drawn out sound of flatulence came bellowing out of my body. I stood with my back to the classroom for about ten seconds. I knew that two very vocal African American girls were sitting right behind me, and I had just “farted” right in their face! I could hear them begin to snicker, but I couldn’t look at them. If I didn’t keep my composure right then, I was going to loose the whole class; I just kept on teaching. I ignored the whole situation until the class left at the end of the period. Afterward, I sat down and laughed so hard that I cried. These are not the only two funny instances in my teaching, but I have to say that they are the only ones that come to mind right now.
Heather Thomas
What are your concerns/suggestions about the public schools?
Public education is a very sore subject to many people. Some believe that we are lazy and just want to push their children through the system. Others believe that the school does not teach what it did thirty years ago. Some of this is true, but it is not the fault of teachers. People need to look at the leaders of the schools including the government. We have people who have never experienced the veracity of a “teaching tired”, as my father put it, trying to make decisions for the future of education. I am worried that everything has turned into looking at the numbers and not at the product as a whole. We cannot freely teach these kids because everyone is worried about teaching the test. In my opinion, “the test” doesn’t have everything that a child needs to survive in life. I am horrified by the guidelines of NCLB. (Even though I know that something had to be done on a national level.) We are catering to these children and allowing their parents, some of whom have a fifth grade education or less, to dictate what goes on in our schools. We are electing school boards who don’t even know the word curriculum–little lone how to spell it. These are the people telling us how to teach! No wonder so many school systems have failed under the current guidelines. The administration runs scared half the time and then we are left on the chopping block! Fortunately, I have a wonderful superintendent and principal, and they allow us to be wonderful in our school system. But the sad thing is they are always fighting a school board that is clueless about what goes on in the classroom. That is the fault of the people electing them! Now little “Johnny” is going to continue reading on a third grade level in the eighth grade, because noone wants their “numbers” to look bad! Who is going to help Johnny have a productive and full life? Oh NO….I forgot, he’ll get elected to the school board and dictate how many teachers are needed in the schools. Or he will helop determine the budget to an entire system. Let’s keep our numbers looking good!? To hell with the numbers! What about the kids and how we mold a society of future leaders?
Letter to the Absent Student
Dear Mike,
I am writing to inform you of what you missed today in the wonderful presentation of Mrs. Fetty. We went over the importance of teaching our students the proper way to utilize the internet. She covered the terms that are important to know about internet validity. I loved the game that we played with the internet terms! You missed it!
Overall, I felt like this was a wonderful presentation. Out of everything I have seen so far, she really made me stop and think about the benefits of using technology in the classroom. I give her an A+!
Heather
Computer Response
- How can the technology do your research for you? In what ways do you feel that the tech will change how you and your students use information?
- How would you use all these databases with your kids?
Humm…technology. I think it is great to have, but it is not everything. I think technology is very cool. (Don’t get me wrong) But I think it makes people lazy most of the time. It just spits the information out and doesn’t make you work for it. I think that all children should be versed on how to utilize technology to their benefit, but they should also understand what it takes to use other sources as well. Reading a book has not escaped our society, YET.
Also, I am horrified how technology invades your privacy as a citizen! Oh my gosh, I saw my driveway through google maps! To me that is a little much, but I can also see the benefit as well. I am sorry. I will have to finish this tonight. I am so tired that I am getting more negative than usual. 
Disagreement to the Notebook Quote
I can see where making technology an important part of teaching is very beneficial. With all of the developments in our current technological boom, the kids need to know how to use these tools to their benefit. The teacher’s need to use this for themselves as well! Sometimes we get caught in a rut and forget that the world is ever changing around us. For some people, without the knowledge of technology, you could not preform certain jobs in the work world; therefore, part of our obligation, as teachers, is to prepare the students to become productive citizens. So in order to fulfill our duty to the children, teachers need to show the students how to utilize technology in the “right way”. Not just for video games, ipods, and other teenage attractions.
Agreement to the Notebook Quote
I say yes to this for several reasons. One being that not all teachers are comfortable using the technology in their classrooms. Sometimes when you force someone to do something, it disrupts their teaching abilities in covering the content. They may become very ineffective with the material and the students. Besides what happened to having “AUTONOMY” in the classroom. I have always believed, “If it is not broken, don’t fix it.”
Another reason would be that technology may not be readily available to every teacher within poorer systems. They may be using what they have, but not ALL teachers will be able to participate. Therefore, the students may just receive the exposure to technology in certain classes and not every class. (This is how it is in our building.) Also, I feel very strongly about having a technology OVERLOAD. You can do too much of anything and it is going to be negative. If you provide technology in EVERY class, then you are going to be taking away from basic instruction that is needed to be provided to the students.
Eddy ROCKS!!!!
Oh my gosh! Eddy was fantastic!! I am still blown away by her presentation. She really made me feel like I was in the presence of GREATNESS. I was so touched by her talking to us like we were an equal part in her editing group. She explained everything in such laymans terms that I did not feel lost or bored at any part of her presentation. I really did not want it to end. Gosh…I can’t wait to read her book. It sounds so interesting.
I really get into this type of writing–writing that re-tells the events and struggles of your family. She really prompted me to think about my own grandmother and her struggles. She inspired me so much that I called my Mammaw right after her presentation, and I asked her to begin writing her memories of her own struggles in childhood. I guess I will be going to her house after school to talk with her about this. As I told much of the class today after Eddy left, Mammaw was brought up in the southeastern region of Kentucky. Her father was killed on the train tracks of Garrett, KY during the Great Depression. (He was drunk and fell off the train.) Her mother, Lillie Belle, was left with five kids to raise during the depression. Lillie Belle was afraid that she couldn’t survive with the kids; therefore, she abandoned them by walking out of the house in the middle of the night. My grandmother, Grace, was only nine years old, and she was the oldest of the five. Although she was very young, she understood that if the authorities knew the circumstances that they would come and separate her and her siblings. She had a four, seven, and two six-month old babies (twins) to feed and take care of. She began to sneak around the neighbors gardens and steal potatos to feed the children. After a month of maintaining the children, she was caught by the neighbors. Unfortunately, one of the twins died right after they were found. She felt as if she had not taken care of it well enough. Her worst fears came true; they did separate all of the children into foster homes. She was sent to a foster home and was basically treated like a slave. She was required to do all of the work and take care of the woman’s children. At 15 years old my grandfather promised her that IF he was able to return from WWII alive, he would marry her immediately. He did. She spent her whole life with him and raised all of us to value family. As a matter of fact, she spent the last sixty years of her life trying to find her own brothers and sisters. Finally, at 75 years old, she found the last of them. It was a real tear jerker, because I was there to see it. Wow…no wonder I have the strength to survive many obsticales–it is in my blood!
Eddy inspired me to think about all of this! I will always be moved by her presentation, and I hope that she knows how thoughtful and brilliant she is. I will be attempting to follow up with my grandmother’s story this weekend. If anything, the family will appreciate the record of this hardship.
Warlick Response
I have to be honest. When I started to read this article, I really had a hard time keeping myself focused on what he was talking about in the passages. I thought, “Oh No! Here is someone else that is going to babble on about some theory which may or may not work.” Then, something caught my eye on page 21. I suddenly became excited and interested, because he sounded like he had been in the classroom. He was addressing issues that are so hard to solve for teachers. He was not just talking about student achievement; he was talking about teacher achievement and manageability. I felt like this guy knew me and actually wanted to help me! He felt my fatigue and frustration; therefore, suggestions to the problems that are faced everyday for teachers were given solutions. Wow…I always thought, “No one cares how we feel!” I was wrong. Warlick gave a type of reality that is very rare to the public eye. I completely appreciate his viewpoints!
“Public education is run by the public. It is run by parents, boards of education, county commissioners, state and national legislators, and the president. Very few of these people are trained educators…” I LOVE this, because it is the absolute truth! We are like puppets in the hands of people that don’t know how in the hell to run a classroom. Shoot! Half of them don’t even have a college education or shouldn’t have one. Gosh, I really felt this statement when I read it. How can a school board run a school when half of its members didn’t even graduate from high school! Uggh.
“Good teachers are doing it on their own time at the expense of their families, their health, and their students as more and more teachers are leaving the profession every month…” I think this is so true. We have to find some relief or some compensation for the sacrifices that go along with doing the job WELL.
Blogging Since April
I have struggled somewhat with the “blogging” concept. It took me two hours to post two blogs the last time, and I still don’t think that I did it right. I just now realized that when I got in to blog this. Oh well…it showed up–I think. I had a very difficult time figuring out how to surf other people’s blogs. I still haven’t figured out how to do this, but I guess I will learn as the class goes on. To be honest, I felt like this was a VERY good experience. I just wish that I would have had more feedback to my ideas. Maybe everyone else feels the way I do about surfing other people’s blogs.
