Book Buzz: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

February 7th, 2011
Sherman Alexie

Image via Wikipedia

Have you read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie?

You haven’t?

Run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore or surf your way over to your favorite e-retailer.

If you are an educator, this book is a wonderful read for a 7-10th grader.   Arthur “Junior” Spirit has a lot of things going against him;  he was born with hydrocephalus, he lives in poverty on the Spokane Reservation, and pretty much everyone except his best friend, Rowdy, bullies him.  Junior, however, is brilliant, a talented artist and a generally hopeful kid.  So when his teacher gives him some surprising unsolicited advice to leave the reservation and attend school in the predominately white town of Reardon, Junior takes the risk.  Thus begins Junior’s part-time Indian life off the reservation.  Throughout his diary, Junior’s heartfelt, poignant and downright hilarious cartoons help to illustrate both the confusion that all adolescents experience and the angst from Junior’s own unusual situation.   Junior’s journey is far from smooth and is peppered by great triumphsand  tragedies, but also the day-to-day experiences of an average teenager.

You should be forewarned:  there are are some mature themes in this book including, but not limited to alcoholism, racism, and sexual maturation.

Why I liked it, you ask?

Well in the midst of describing some tragic and heart-wrenching situations, Junior’s voice rings true and manages to make you laugh.  This is the story of a real kid, one that your students will relate to and enjoy.  He is likeable and a great character to lead students into deep discussions about racism, stereotypes, Native American treatment and adolescence.  Alexie includes fantastic cartoons throughout the book and this will appeal to readers that are interested in cartooning and Manga.

Sample Illustration

At the end of the day, Junior remains hopeful and finds himself outside of labels such as Native American or white.  In our “melting pot” America, this is a viewpoint that can’t be taught enough to our students.

Let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did!

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“Waiting for Superman”

October 22nd, 2010

Maybe you don’t watch Oprah.  Or perhaps you are not a big fan of the Huffington Post.  Chances are, however, that if you are an educator you have heard and may have seen “Waiting for Superman.”

I had the opportunity to view the movie last night with the University of San Diego’s School of Leadership and Education.  After leaving “Waiting for Superman,” I felt both emotionally stripped and emotionally charged. This documentary provides snapshots, glimpses into the problems that I have observed for the last 13 years of working in the field of education. Wearing the caps of both educator and parent, this film reinforced my desire to be a change agent in the field of education.

When Geoffrey Canada said (I paraphrase), “It was 1977 and I thought that the answers were simple and I would have the problems solved in two-three years tops…” I had to laugh. I myself have often held the arrogant belief that if I were part of the solution, the problem would disappear quickly. Maybe the problem has simply been that I have not been working on the solution.  After all, it is easy to identify strands of the problem. For example, we know that those students who are capable of learning, are not learning. We know that many inner-city public schools are “drop-out factories.” We know that there are teachers who are not insuring that their students are learning to proficiency. We know that our country lacks strong national curriculum, a feature of almost all high-performing school systems in the TIMSS report. If we can identify these fairly straightforward issues, the rest should solve itself, fixed by 2012.

However the more I learn about the educational system, whether through my graduate studies or through my experiences as an educator, I can’t help but to liken the problem to cancer. Cancer starts out simple, a few cells here and there, but as it thrives it can become an intricate mass of destruction. When a surgeon faces a complex tumor, he or she is faced with the dilemma of removing the malignancy without damaging the body’s organs as a whole. In education, all of these simple problems seem to metastasize into a complex and potentially fatal growth that has become systemic. So we who hope to be educational reformers have to decide how to make the first cut without forever scarring the system. Watching Geoffrey Canada and Michelle Rhee, reformers with radically different methods, I thought how brave one has to be to take on the role of “surgeon” for our schools.

Watching the film I found myself asking, what is the method for change? Guggenheim included the map graphic depicting the complexity of local, state and federal influences on our school systems. Is it possible to have a national solution to change in our schools, without a massive non-partisan paradigm shift? We know those non-partisan moments are possible, as evidenced by the across-the-aisle work on No Child Left Behind. This example also shows us how problematic a national movement can be if not carefully constructed and executed. Having said that, what might a national solution look like? Or should we be taking a page from the Harlem Success Academy, KIPP, SEED or even the Preuss School here in San Diego and effect change for the local population one school at a time. Can our nation’s children wait for a solution that is garnered gradually through local movements? I have to believe that effective educational reform will be a combination of the two.

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I am inspired to delve into them through my continued graduate work. As a parent of small children, it is hard to be patient and wait for educational reform. However, with movies like “Waiting for Superman” to inspire dialogue among the greater public– the same dialogue we in education have been having for years– perhaps the day when solutions are found is a bit closer. For the sake of Daisy, Francisco, Bianca and the others for whom the public school system is not working, we can only hope.
Have you seen “Waiting for Superman”"?  What is your response to it?

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iPad in the Classroom #2: Brainstormy Weather

July 27th, 2010

It is a gray kind of marine-layer day here in California.   The kind of day that makes me want to hunker down in my jammies, grab my ubiquitous cup of coffee and read a book.  Except now that I am an iPad owner, it makes me want to cuddle that sleek, little rectangle and find something new and different to do.

So reluctantly, I put my NY Times crossword puzzle aside and I continued my quest for great Education related apps.

I found one.

Those of you who are regulars here at the EEC blog, know that I love me some post-it notes.    They are great little flexible tools for planning and categorizing, whether it be for a writing activity or a science classification exercise.

Well, now you can have the same fun with post-it notes on your iPad using the iBrainstorm app by The Universal Mind.

When I first took a look at the stock photos on the iTunes store I was intrigued.  This cool little app seemed to sum up all of the things I liked to have students do with post-it notes.  I started playing around with the tool and came up with a sample writing graphic organizer:

Sample Writing Graphic Organizer using iBrainstorm App

Let’s say a student was assigned to write on types of transportation.  The student could:

  1. Choose a color for topic and thesis and place it at the middle of the screen.
  2. Draw connecting lines out in three directions.
  3. Choose three different colors to represent the supporting paragraphs.  In this example, red = cars, green = trains and blue = boats.
  4. Use other colored post-it notes to add supporting details around each paragraph topic.
  5. Use the “sharpie” tool to add notes/drawings/connections.
  6. Add a title and their name.
  7. Email it to their instructor for feedback!

What I especially love about this app is that it is fairly easy to use.  It uses the standard finger-sweep zoom in/zoom out technology and you simply “finger paint” the sharpie tool.  You are able to type on the post-its making the words neat.  There is also a spelling tool incorporated into the keyboard, eliminating some of the spelling errors that occur as part of compositional risk.

Can you imagine if you had a group of young writers using this to plan!  A very exciting option!

The best, folks, is that it is FREE.  Yes.  FREE.  Quick download it now, before that changes!  What a great little resource for teachers!

What do you think?  Is this a tool you could use in your classroom?  How would you use the iBrainstorm app?

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iPad in the Classroom #1: A Starry Stroll

July 26th, 2010

When we tuned in to  EEC’s blog, we we were shocked to learn that Jennifer Edstrom, Principal Consultant of EEC, had broken down and purchased an iPad, after much skepticism on her part.   In today’s episode, we will learn about one of her favorite apps for the iPad so far.

I promised you earlier that I would begin examining how I plan to use the iPad as a classroom teacher.   One of the first apps I purchased is one that I wish I had been able to use when I was a fourth grade classroom teacher.

I will back up and explain.  In our fourth grade curriculum, we taught a science unit on the Solar System.  Perhaps you do too?  It is a wonderful unit of study.  There was just one problem.  School happens during the day.  So any time I wanted to explain anything in context to the nighttime sky, I was met with blank stares.  It was also hard to have student’s make observations about the nighttime sky and provide meaningful instruction as part of a homework assignment.

So imagine my delight when I found the “Star Walk” app for iPad.   I will admit, there is a huge “WOW” factor involved with this my beginning with this one.  Here is the premise:

Star Walk reads your location using GPS (I will ignore the creepy Big Brother aspects of this).  When you first open the screen you find about sun and moon rise and set times.

On this screen alone, you have all sorts of amazing astronomy lessons including but not limited to:

  • Rotation vs. Revolution
  • Moon Phases
  • Solstice/Equinox
  • Relative position in the solar system

Once you click out of this screen, you begin the interactive part of the app.  When you hold your iPad in any direction, it uses satellite positioning to determine what stars, constellations, planets are in front of you.  So if you lie on your back and hold it over your head, you are seeing a depiction of the nighttime sky.

Nighttime sky view

A sample view of your screen

You can also click on the individual heavenly bodies to learn more about what it is actually are.

Here is what I like about it:

  • A student learns about the solar system/galaxy from a egocentric place.  Children like to know where they fit into the world/universe around them.  They literally believe that the universe is centered around them.   This helps put the learning into their own context which immediately makes it more meaningful!
  • This app allows for inter-curricular teaching.  Imagine starting with the constellations and a discussion about the milky way, however after a student sees the amazing depictions of the constellations, a mythology lesson emerges.    Now, students could use the iPad to research who Cassiopeia was and why a constellation might have been named after her.  Then, using the iPad, they could create their own constellation, name it with the actual star names, decide which mythological character to name it after and do creative writing around it…ALL on the iPad.

This is truly a remarkable app and worth every penny of the $4.99 cost.  Which brings me to a question for you educators out there…how do you plan to pay for your app costs?  Will you write grants?  Use classroom set-up funds?  So curious how you think it will work for you…

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So I now own an iPad (Part Deux)

July 26th, 2010

Happy Monday morning! 

This morning, uncharacteristically, I had some time on my hands. 

Those that know me are aware that this happens only when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars. 

Having said this, I found myself in a bit of work limbo and so took my little iPad down to the closest coffee establishment with free wi-fi and had myself a cup o’ Joe. 

I have now owned my iPad for two whole weeks.  I decided to review my previous report card of the iPad, now that I’m a regular user.  Let’s see what I had to say about it and if any of my first impressions have changed now that we are in a committed relationship:

1. eReading:  First impressions are often true.  I raved about reading A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh and my e-reading experiences have just gotten better and better.  When I think about what this could do for a reluctant reader, it makes my heart sing.   To really appreciate the interactive nature of reading on an iPad, check out the Alice in Wonderland book in the app store.  It will take your breath away. 

Jennifer’s Original Grade:  A 

Jennifer’s Current Grade: A

2. Word Processing:  I wish I could blame this on man hands (who misses Seinfeld as much as I?)  The truth of the matter is that I have abnormally small hands.  Fourth graders that I have taught have longer fingers than I do.  The keyboard should not be a problem.  However, 90% of the time when I tap the space bar I hit the letter “n”.  The other 10% of the time I hit the letter “b”.  I am hoping that over time this will improve.  Otherwise, I will be investing in a dock, which doesn’t make me happy.

Jennifer’s Original Grade: B-

Jennifer’s Current Grade:  C+

3. Applications:  Here I was wrong.  I really, really underestimated the coolness of what you can do on your iPad.   A few of my new favorites for the classroom that I will be reviewing in the coming weeks:  Drawing Pad, Star Walk, Dr. Seuss ABC…. these only scratch the surface.  Suffice it to say, apps for the iPhone and iPad are a testament to the genius that is Apple’s brand.  I still wish it could multi-task.  

 Jennifer’s Original Grade:  A-

Jennifer’s Current Grade: A

4. Design:  It is cooler than I ever expected it to be.  I know, I know…I keep on saying that…but it is.  The way it works with finger-control is just plain cool.  The way it looks with it’s hip photographic backgrounds is cool.  The way it feels in my hands when I am reading is cool.  Children feel this same wonder and more when they use the device.  I can hardly rip the thing out of my own child’s hands long enough to read the New York Times or check my email.   And that’s another thing…I love how everything I need –mail, iTunes, newspaper, internet– can all be found on the home page.  It makes me want to leave my laptop closed permanently, and I would if it weren’t for that pesky space bar issue.

 Jennifer’s Original Grade:  A+

Jennifer’s Current Grade: A+

I love this contraption…I love sitting in my favorite comfy chair sipping my grande, non-fat, no-foam latte with one Splenda (did I mention I am a little high-maintenance) and work on my NY Times crossword, flip to Facebook, answer a work email, and fight off the envious stares of all the iPadless coffee enthusiasts at Starbucks.   I am a convert…plain and simple.

Let the “I told you sos” begin.

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