I Stand Here Ironing

How does the weight over the iron and the fabric affect the metaphorical meaning of ironing in this story?

The Cask of Amontillado

What things about ourselves or others do we want to bury? What masks do we present to the world?

And then, several weeks ago, I emailed a teacher because I stumbled upon her site via reddit.com. She's using The Hunger Games book to connect with her students. I wanted to know just how she was able to adapt a contemporary novel to a high school academic setting. Here is her response.

Yellow Face

If you ever have the chance to go see a production of Yellow Face, do it. It's a wonderful take on race and the "American Dream" that we all strive to create.

From Yellow Face

We are beautiful when we acknowledge and appreciate our differences without determining a ranking of better and worse. This is my "American Dream." What's yours?

Visual Literacy

"The Things They Carried," by Tim O'Brien, really hits me each time I read it. However, as I worked on my visual literacy project, I found myself breaking down emotionally as I saw the precarious thread that the boat hung on. As that boat swung back and forth in my little jar, barely skimming the ground, I felt the soldiers hanging in between sleep and wakefulness. I felt them as "at night, not quite dreaming, they gave themselves over to lightness, they were carried, they were purely born."

Visual Literacy and the Classroom

From an article entitled "Visual Literacy and the Classroom" by Erin Riesland: The New London Group, a cohort of educators and researchers interested in examining the teaching of new literacies, explains literacy this way: "one could say that its fundamental purpose is to ensure that all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to participate fully in public, community, and economic life."

Now, go listen to the band Coheed and Cambria. Here's a song called "Far." I know that's not exactly visual, but I'm going to tell you something awesome. This band's singer wrote a series of comic books/graphic novels. I own the first set. The songs are a type of soundtrack to the visual storyline of the comic books. 

So this is what I realized: Students aren't interested in one-dimensional learning. We have to think across plains and find, with in our subject matter, things that they can interact with on multiple levels. This band gives you those multiple levels...and that's why they're my favorite band.

Life is a Dream

In order to put a class on even footing, you have to make things new again. It's the only way to learn new things and keep students interested in the subject matter. Take these images, for instance. 

 We all know what red cotton thread looks like.

But did you know it was so jagged up close? 

And flower petals?

Did you know they were so bumpy?

Ken Robinson "Out of Our Minds with Creativity"

First of all, here's the link to this wonderful TED talk.

And here's where I made my meanings:

My youngest brother being...himself.

My youngest brother is a special kid. He's smart, but he just can't learn the same way other people do. He's insanely creative and just does horribly in school, no matter how hard he works. A passing grade for him is worth just as much (and I tend to think they're worth more) as all my easily won As.