Teaching Journal 10/22-10/26 Week#9

This week brought a first for me: conflict with a student. While my lesson plans went over well and teaching went great with nothing new to report, really, my issue of the week is of a different measure. Throughout this semester I've had a student that has come to class late consistently. I've approached her out of class and asked if she had a medical reason for being late or if she was just late of her own accord, and always the same answer is given--"I had to be somewhere else and just got finished." Her excuse seemed very private and the only other thing I told her was that she would need to show me documentation for me to allow her to makeup missed in-class work. The student is otherwise a responsible student, does homework, and writes well so the only minor violations she's received are for tardiness, 3 times equalling a minor violation. So Friday she came to class 35 minutes late. I have never addressed the issue in class before, always waited until after, however this time the student asked me in the middle of class in front of everyone what I wanted her to do to makeup the freewrite that she missed in class. When I told her we'd talk after class she said, "Well, I'need to leave early, too."  I was already upset that she came to class so late and let the door slam behind her while everyone was writing, but I held my cool. I really felt like she was trying to push my authority, when ironically enough, authority was what she missed in class discussion. So I replied, "You aren't making up the work because it's part of in class work for a reason and you are being counted absent for today if you are leaving early, also." This must have upset her a great deal because she spent the rest of the time she was there rolling her eyes at me and clicking her pencil on the desk. About 5 minutes before class was up, she started crying and left class. One of my other students before leaving said, "You are just trying to be fair to us, Mrs. Jones. Don't worry about it."

My first concern is that my other student recognized that I was baffled by the situation. I don't want them to see me uneasy and feel the need to comfort me. Also, I sent the other student and e-mail asking again why she was late. The student replied that she is in ROTC and that the group leader is not bringing them back from mandatory meetings until 5:30pm when our class starts at 5:15. I've asked for a written statement or an e-mail address for her leader to explain that the student's grade is being harmed by the tardiness. The student says she doesn't want me to talk to them. I'm really at a loss of what to do. I mean, if she won't bring me documentation, then I'm right for her grade to be docked because of this, correct? I may need to come speak to you in person about this, Albert, but I really feel like there's nothing else for me to do about it.

Teaching Journal 10/15-10/19 Week #8

This week my students spent most of their time dong lab work on Project#2. I don't have a lot to report other than I am pleasantly surprised about how well their storyboards turned out and how well their rough drafts of Project #2 turned out as well. I have a group doing exploring how music has influenced their literacy and one group has done a project on how technology has influenced them. Two other groups have created videos on Youtube. The most entertaining project is one of the Youtube videos in which one of my students presents his literacy history in a galaxy far far away, with the Star Wars them song, and then battles technology while he's dressed as Darth Vadar. The really have put a lot of work into their projects, however, several of the groups need to work on strengthening their arguments a bit.  Overall, it was a good week. No major problems just major successes with creativity and great effort.

Teaching Journal--10/8-12--Week #7

My class is at 5:10-6:15, so I'm reflecting on last week's classes before my class this evening. Last week went very well, so there is much to talk about.

Monday we discussed Wysocki and their homework assignment was to do a dialectical journal before class due to the large amount of terms I knew they would not know. Their journals were fairly lengthy, and not near as in depth as what I thought they would be, or rather, I hoped they would understand more of the reading than what they actually did. We tackled three main concepts with Wysocki: format, argument, and purpose, so they would at least have those to think on. When talking about format I asked what they thought of the layout of the article and the way she highlighted certain things, formated  with pictures, and drew the human eye. Many of my students were comfortable talking about the very surface level critiquing. They said she was using her piece a s a visual example of her text and argument. This is when I reminded them of the Project #2 and that they should consider experimenting like Wysocki. However, they struggled with her overall argument. Several said she just didn't like nude pictures, others thought she was being a critic of art, a few admitted they didn't make it passed the fifth page of reading without losing the main concept. So for this struggle, we broke down each page with a main thought or point and pieced it together. this took about ten minutes of class, but many of them were taking notes and understood the vocabulary better afterward. Next I asked what the main purpose was. This is where I think the most interesting point was made. One of my students, who was female, said that she thought the main argument was that we have "beautiful" in our own minds versus what the world tells us to consider beautiful. Then a male student said "Well I thought the argument was that authors frame their articles sometimes to be so confusing that you can't find the main argument, because that's what she was talking about with the picture: where your eyes are drawn against what is important."  Even though he was complaining about the piece being long and dense and he was struggling to understand, I still thought that this was a very intelligent answer, that we as a graduate class didn't even talk about. So I opened the class to discuss the issue and it went very well, even when I asked how many females agreed and how many males. It was split down the middle by gender. The females agreed with the female student's comment and the males agreed with the male student. I just though it was very interesting what the student preferred to defend.  At the end of class I reminded them to meet in the library on Wednesday, and that Project #2 was underway. I also told them the day they would receive their papers back by e-mail, which varied by order in which they turned them in. I dedicated myself to do three a day until finished.

On Wednesday we had our first lab day, which went well. They had read their group members' literacy narratives as homework and identified three different points in which they had common interests and experience. So in class, they came ready and put these thoughts together. By the end of class I had them  type out their group members' names, the argument they were focusing on, where they thought each student would branch out in the project and what forum they were using to communicate. All of them turned in very good work. This was a successful day.

On Friday, I had several missing students. I figured this would be the case because it was homecoming weekend and a Friday evening. This made it difficult to do group work with at least one group member missing from each group. So I demonstrated the different forms of presentations they could do and told them to think about which one interested them the most. I then showed the Pixar video of storyboarding and they liked it very much. In their groups they began mapping out on paper storyboards and then converting them to digital. Some of the groups made excellent headway, others struggled a bit, but after  I went around to each group and answered their questions and brainstormed with them, they are doing much better. All in all, it was a great week.

I love what I do, have I mentioned that? :)

Teaching Journal 10/1-10/5 Extended

I chose to hold back my teaching journal for this last week for two reasons. One, I needed to see my students papers before I could completely evaluate how the week of teaching went; I had some concerns based on Draft #1 of their papers. And two, I couldn't tell if last week felt anxious ridden because I was ill or because the students just wanted to be done with Project #1. Nonetheless, here are the results of last week.

On Monday, Peer Reviews were due. I had two students not turn in the first draft of their papers so it messed with the grouping for peer reviews. I had reorganized the groups over the weekend so that the students who did not turn in papers on time, would still need to turn in something (even though it was a violation) so I could help them where they were struggling. One student e-mailed their paper to me Sunday night, 5 hours late, so that I could help him. this student I was lenient with. However, the second student turned in nothing. No draft, no SafeAssign, nothing. I informed this student via e-mail that it was a major violation, and in order to avoid any more violations, he would have to do the Peer Review for the next day. Okay. Both students did the Peer Review, as did everyone else. So Monday's conversation was about how much value their education should really hold in their lives and priorities. I explained that I was not just lurking waiting to write violations, that I was wanting to see them use their full potential and to let me help them push their potential even further. Many students looked inspired and even told me that they appreciated me, so I was hoping this was a revamp.

On Wednesday, we had a great class. We talked about Malcolm X, Alexie, and hooks. I split them into groups, assigned one reading per group, and had them list sponsors in the text, reasons for literacy, and then relate it back to one of the case studies in Brandt's article. We had great conversation about literacy as survival and a way to make their lives new and they genuinely enjoyed the readings. Heather Kaley also observed me this day, and it was all in all successful (even though I was still sick). I assigned them literacy narratives to write of their own (500 words).

For Friday, everyone turned in homework and everyone came to class (which is a rarity for me in a Friday evening class). I used Heather's suggestion in her presentation to split up the technologies in Baron's text, and so we did and had great conversation on the evolution of technology and where we'd be without each of them. It was another great class. I also assigned technology narratives of 300 words due Monday on the technology that has influenced them the most. I reminded them that their papers were due at midnight and to please put all effort forward. One student raised his hand and begged to have until Sunday. Since I knew I was not goin to make it to grading them until Sunday anyway, I went ahead and pushed back the deadline but made them all promise that since they had extra time, that I would get a submission from all of them.

So Sunday rolls around and two students, again and one of the same as last time, does not turn his paper in. I contact them and specifically ask the repeat violator to come see me in my office hours on Monday. Nothing. He will not reply to e-mail, he did not come to class on Monday, and I know that he is one student of seventeen but he was a good student up until Draft #1 was due. He had written in his journal entries that he had anxiety over assignments, and I'm still wishing he would just come talk to me e-mail me back.

However, after reading through the majority of my students papers, I can report that there was VAST improvements made in these drafts! i am so happy because I can tell that my talk with them about putting their best foot forward and giving the assignment all that they had was taken seriously. I genuinely love that they took my advice and seem to be getting what they can out of their opportunities.

Had I reported on the state of my teachings on Sunday, I feel that this would have been a much different submission and I'm glad that I held out and had hope. It restores my belief that I'm asking them for full effort and they know I'm giving full effort as well.

Wysocki IWA

"The Sticky Embrace of Beauty"

Because I was in the group that made this apparatus, I've already helped construct this summary and beginning thoughts:

Anne Frances Wysocki’s “The Sticky Embrace of Beauty” is an article written to question how we assess beauty and what is and is not beautiful, according to socially enacted forms. According to Wysocki, there is a great danger in consistently linking the social and strange in our individual perceptions of the world. Specifically, in our notions of form we have begun to accept that “to be human is to be tied to place and time and messiness and complexity, then, by so abstracting us, this desire [for abstract formality] dehumanizes us and our work and how we see each other” (94). As a result, we objectify all images and see beauty as only what we can view as spectators. This distancing between the image and the viewer can be dangerous. Wysocki suggests we reexamine particularities and strangeness as positives ideas all their own, without looking to social norms to pre-enable them. By acknowledging the forms we are taught, we can then begin to show how they constrain our perception of beauty and uniqueness in visual imagery and how we must depart from them at one point. This departure allows us to reconnect as humans and prevent objectification from being pervasive. Once this is done, we will view images of each other and recognize that we are all “built out of numberless and necessary particularities” (96). Most importantly, we as viewers of numerous kinds of media can understand how objectification spreads not just to images of people, but to all visual components within texts. Thus, we must use forms to teach us, but eventually part from them in order to invent our own unique forms that break norms and question artistic values. We must fight against principles essentially. It is these principles of form that prevent the student from understanding that when they create text in new media formats, the texts have real effects and consequences. Their work has influence on an audience. What they create contributes influence between audience and composer, very much like sponsor and sponsorship in the Brandt reading. When anyone creates text, including photoshopped imagery and similar projects, they are participating in reciprocal communications with an audience that influences larger audiences. 

Synthesis: 

This text reminded me a lot of previous thoughts by Scott McCloud and the mask that is presented in text to separate self from art and created works. It also reminds me of Berger and the situation in which women become objects in art with a dual sense of existence in art and life. Wysocki describes the constructed idea of beauty as the reason for both the mask and the dual existence.

QDJ:

3.     Does the Peek ad work for you as a consumer? Does it interest you and make you want to either purchase the book or at least learn more about it? Explain your answer.

     It works for me, in the sense that I want to know if it's only women used in pictures like this, or men as well. I researched the Kinsey Institute as my Before You Read exercise, so I know that it isn't just women. However, It's still objectification and the fact that it's a female picture to introduce it and gain interest is telling to us. I've never thought about the way in which alignment and text guide the reader's eyes to what advertisers want us to be attracted to. It doesn't work for me, in another way, though. Because I know that the woman in the picture is not completely real, that the picture is adjusted beyond reality. So in essence, it's like a book of drawings to me. Not a real reflection of humanity, or beauty for that matter.

AEI:

2.      Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Do you agree with Kant that “the beautiful is that which pleases universally,” that some things are inherently beautiful? Or do you agree with Wysocki that “beauty is something we construct together” and subjected to social forces?

      I think beauty is both, in the eye of the beholder but also universally constructed.  I think that we are genetically programmed to be pleased with certain physical attributes on bodies, and combinations of several things that our bodies respond to on one specific person is going to warrant many people to find beauty in them. However, I also think that we can learn to appreciate physicalities of people that we didn't originally find attractive, so beauty is also a learned idea. However, socially constructed beauty is where it gets tricky, because I think in this case people learn to discount things they do find attractive and endearing because it's not socially acceptable to. That's why we fight so hard to change ideas of social acceptance, so people can react honestly and be themselves.

MM:

Wysocki states, "There is no question that there is a certain necessity to effective visual composition because a design must fit a viewer's expectation if it is to make sense… but if design is to have any sense of possibility—of freedom—to it, then it must also push against the conventions, the horizon, of those expectations" (97). How does this statement apply to Wysocki's article? Does it apply to any other visual art? If so, how?  

     

      I think it does apply to Wysocki's article because she consistently redirects our attention in the text to bold and highlighted sentences, punctuation breaks, paragraph structure, and basically just pushing limits of what articles like this usually present. I think Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock are perfect examples of pushing limits of art. They produce art that many consider unoriginal, yet, it can not be duplicated completely.

Baron--Dialectical Notebook #2

"From Pencils to Pixels"

For some reason, my prior Dialectical Notebook does not show up in the post, so here is my second attempt to make it work. The previous post also keeps me from editing.

Looking at the advancements it’s already made, I have a hard time believing that people are still against it.	The computer, the latest development in writing technology, promises or threatens, to change literacy practices for better or worse, depending on your point of view (423).
I know a lot of people that would not admit to how much they rely on it, but it’s not been that way forever.	I readily admit my dependence on the technology of writing (423).
Agreed. So, can we then assume that literacy levels need to be measured among both high and low classes since they are in different stages of literacy based on what is available to them?	After their invention, their spread depends on accessibility, function, and authentication (424).
I think our country capitalizes on this now; the rarer the product, the more it costs and the more people will fight over it. Iphone 5, for example.	Each new literacy technology begins with a restricted communication function and is available only to a small number of initiates (424).
It’s wild to think about what will be next.	My contention in this essay is a modest one: the computer is simply the latest step in a long line of writing technologies (424).
I bet that when the pencil was invented, people had issues with the fact that stories were not orally told as much.	The pencil may seem a simple device in contrast to the computer, but although it has fewer parts, it too is an advanced technology (426).
This is the reason my husband and I bicker while I’m here at school sometimes. Texts cannot relay how a person says something. I need to hear a voice.	Writing lacks such tonal cues of the human voice as pitch and stress, not to mention the physical cues that accommodate face to face communication (428).
Hmmmm…still sounds familiar with us for our classes.	Questions of validity came up because writing was indeed being used to perpetrate fraud (429).
Wow. I didn’t know this. He can be compared to Bill Gates.	Despite the silence, Thoreau devoted ten years of his life to improving pencil technology at his family’s pencil factory (430).
This makes me chuckle. How could it have been impractical if you can instantly speak to someone that’s miles away?	The telephone was initially received as an interesting but impractical device for communicating over distance (433).
Every technology advancement we make threatens more and more of our privacy. It’s scary when you think about it, and yet I still Facebook and save passwords in my computer.	Of course the telephone was not only a source of information. It also threatened our privacy (433).
This is funny, too. I can just see older people who were resisting the technology, just like my dad does today, shouting in the phone and cursing when they hang up.	People had to learn how to converse on the telephone: its sound reproduction was poor; callers had to speak loudly and repeat themselves to be understood, a situation hardly conducive to natural conversation (434).
I never really stopped to think about where Hello and Goodbye originated for phone conversations. Many people I talk to on the phone start with “yeah” and don’t say goodbye at all. I still find that rude.	Initially, people were unsure of appropriate ways to begin or end phone conversations and lively debates ensued (434).
Thank god they kept on. I am one that readily admits I rely on it heavily.	Only die-hards and visionaries considered word processing worth pursuing… (435)
I didn’t know that early stages of computer didn’t keep up with typing speed. I bet this was a big milestone!	WYSIWYG=What you see is what you get
That’s what I enjoy about this text, though, and what my students enjoy as well. The ability to question.	A writer’s reputation, or that of a publisher, predisposes readers to accept certain texts as authoritative, and to reject others (436).
Specifically in court trials. I think forensic linguists are very interesting, but regardless, I still handwrite poetry before I type it. The screen of the computer being a box is symbolic to what it does to my creativity. It limits it.	We have learned to trust writing that leaves a paper trail (436).
I just think this should be a slogan on t-shirts for techies. J	Even the pencil itself did not escape the wrath of educators (438).

Baron--Dialectical Notebook