Axe body spray and lip gloss

Middle schoolers are awkward.  Most of the time they smell horrible and they also have really bad hair.  Why would anyone want to work with middle schoolers their whole life?  I will answer this for you, because they are HILARIOUS!

As I went around one day and told students they needed to either turn in their library books or renew them so they wouldn't be charged for them, one student told me, "I can't."  Thinking that she lost it, I asked why and she replied "The library ninjas already took it from me!"  "WHAT??!?" I exclaimed and she went on to tell me all about the library ninjas and how they function.  The next day she even brought me a picture of what the library ninjas looked like (surprisingly similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

A couple of days later another student needed to use the restroom.  The pass in the classroom is a reusable grocery bag.  As the student was signing the clip board to leave the classroom, he held the bag as if it was his purse and was being very feminine.  This caused my mentor teacher and myself to burst out in laughter (I actually cried I laughed so hard) and we received many dirty looks from the students who were finishing the test.  

So, when we had all of that rain one of the students asked me if school was going to be canceled.  I said that it was doubtful and I quote "we would need some water from the ocean to help us out I think."  So the table group decided that we needed to get fire hoses and connect them all from the ocean to the valley so we wouldn't have school.  I told them I would help them out if they got the firefighters on board with the idea. The next day school was canceled for Salem-Keizer and on Monday when I saw the students who came up with the plan, it was definitely a foot in mouth kind of day.

Needless to say that these students are sometimes nearly impossible to deal with and smell terrible most of the time but they are hilarious if you give them a chance.

I'm not lonely.

A couple weeks ago, my aunt was visiting and she asked me when there would be wedding bells at the Rothweiler house hold.  When I told her not any time soon, she asked if I had a boyfriend, I said nope, I couldn't be any more single than I am.  She then told me that my father needed a son-in-law.  I had half a mind to tell her I was a lesbian and therefore would not be getting married anytime soon and furthermore this would prevent my father from having a son-in-law from me.  But I held my tongue and let her be herself.

About a week ago, a few of my co-workers decided it was their job to get me a date for Valentine's Day.  I would just like to say that I have been on just one Valentine's Day date in my whole life (even though I have almost always had boyfriends on Valentine's Day), and it sucked.  Anyway, all the guys that they suggested are so not my type.  They seem to be nice enough, but are either not funny or not very intelligent or have no dreams besides working at a dead end job.  I couldn't seem to get it through their heads that I don't need a date or a boyfriend.  I am perfectly content working on school and living my life.  But they keep on making suggestions.

So here is a new song that I love.  It talks about being alone and not being lonely and what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.  I don't need a boyfriend.  I don't really want one right now either... I have my dreams and goals I'm trying to accomplish and I don't want to get side tracked.  So this song is for all those  women out there who are feeling the pressure of dating and just don't want to or are waiting for the prefect man. There is NOTHING wrong with you.  Good luck on your search :)

A trip down memory lane...

This past weekend I revisited a youtube video that helped me survive my freshman year of college.  The reason that it was brought to my attention after approx six years of being pushed to the further corners of my mind is that my sisters' birthdays is in a couple of weeks.  They are twins and they'll finally be twenty-one.  While they tell me left and right that they will not drink a lot and get drunk on their birthday, I have still decided to take them out.  It is the duty of the older sister.  But the reason that I suddenly had to watch this video this past weekend is because it starts out with the line "happy birthday twins" and someone said it to my sisters.  Below is the video that I had completely memorized by the end of my freshman year.  WARNING, there is foul language so be careful where you play this.

The Good, the Bad and the Gadgets

Please excuse my reference to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I just watched the movie last night :)

While I have had a blog for a while, I have not really used it.  Having an assignment that actually makes us explore what gadgets that blogs have to offer really opened my eyes to how useful they can be.  Even thought I just posted links to other blogs I follow, this would be an excellent resource for students.  Posting links to educational blogs as well as resources that will be useful for assignments.  The email notification when there is a new post would also be very beneficial for students and parents so they can keep updated about what is going on in the classroom.

As I searched through the gadgets I did notice a lot of not very useful ones like, "A puppy a day" which shows a different picture of a cute puppy everyday.  If I had a blog just for fun, I think that I would definitely use that one.

The great literacy debate.

As a soon to be language arts teacher I know how important literacy is.  However, within the last 10 years or so a debate has started to arise: what does literacy mean?  Looking it up on Merriam-Webster.com simply tells us that it is the act of being able to read and write. This is a very vague definition. What exactly are students supposed to be able to read and write at the end of the day?  This is the constant debate that language arts teachers are having.

Let's be realistic for a moment.  How many of us remember the five paragraph essays that were drilled into us in middle and high school?  "An essay must include an introduction with a thesis, three supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion."  Honestly, who really writes like that in real life?  I have not meant a single person who writes like that on a day to day basis.  And moving on to reading?  While I read The Odyssey back as a freshman and I just taught it again to my freshman, what do they learn from it?  Honestly, you can cheat on your wife and still be a hero is what most of them took away from it. 

What it means to be literate is changing.  It no longer means to be able to write a five paragraph essay and to read ancient texts.  In an article by Rebecca Mullen and Linda Wedwick, "Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with YouTube, Digital Stories and Blogs," discusses how literacy is changing and what it means for teachers: "Being literate no longer only involves being able to read and write. The literate of the twenty-first century must be able to download, upload, rip, bum, chat, save, blog, Skype, IM, and share" (2008, p. 66).  While I certainly don't think that it falls on the shoulders of the language art teachers to teach all of these things in his or her classroom, I do feel it necessary that they are covered in some way, shape, or form.

Moving into just the writing portion of "literacy" is also the concern with having students create authentic writing.  The aforementioned five paragraph essay is what a lot of up and coming language arts teachers would consider as not authentic writing.  A way to try to introduce authentic writing is by have students use and create blogs: "blogs are highly effective communication tools that create a variety of authentic writing
experiences for students and teachers" (Mullen &Wedwick, 2008, pg 69).  Students have a forum in which they can get advice from other students, the teacher, ask for homework help and share interesting information that they find--all this writing would be a lot more authentic than a five paragraph essay.

Mullen, R., Wedwick, L. "Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with Youtube, Digital Stories, and Blogs." Clearing House 82.2 (2008). 66-69. EBSCOhost, January 13, 2012.

Blogging is more than just "web logging"

My first real experience with blogs was when I went to South America for four months and everyone old me that I should get a blog to share all the wonderful things I was doing.  So I got one, and posted approx 4 times the whole 4 months I was down there.  Needless to say it was not very successful.  I attribute that to two reasons: I had very little free time in which to do anything fun like blogging and secondly, I didn't quite understand all the things I could do with a blog.

After doing some searching for what features I could have incorporated in blog as well as exploring already existing ones, I was able to find out some new and important information on what features can been used in blogs.  Many teachers are starting to use blogs as a way to communicate with their students; some interesting features that are beneficial in this circumstances are search bars or adding an "about author" sections so students have an opportunity to get to know the teachers.

However, probably the most important feature that  blogs contain is the fact that they have a spot were comments can be left.  This is an excellent way to get students to respond, especially when it seems like face time with the students is becoming less and less.   Students are also more apt to share information in a venue that the feel comfortable.  Where area is more comfortable for the internet age to share in than the internet.  Also, the discussion on a blog can continue for a much longer time than a discussion in class, this provides extended learning opportunities for the students.

And so it begins...

I'm not rather fond of talking about myself, however, if you are to follow my blog, I feel like you should at least know a little about me.  My name is Leigh and I am a grad student at WOU.  While being a grad student consumes most of my life right now, I choose not to be defined by it.

I much rather be defined as a coffee drinker; this is more accurate. When I was quite young, I always thought that coffee drinkers had this coolness around them that has since been spoiled by establishments like Starbucks or Dutch Bros. (I do visit these establishments from time to time in a coffee pinch, but I try not to).  Cool like Judy was from the cartoon "Doug" that was on when I was a kid.  I will argue that she is the original hipster.  But that's beside the point.  I love going to original coffee shops and spending hours talking to people... either friends or people I met at the coffee shop itself.  Coffee has been the foundation for many of my closest relationships as well as some of the best college classes I have ever had (thank you Coffee Cottage for being a block off campus!) and lastly, lazy morning sitting on the back patio with my father drinking coffee while watching the squirrels play.  Coffee plays a large role in my life.

I also like to be defined as a traveler.  I studied abroad for four months in South America and gained the nickname of Gitana which means gypsy.  I know that a lot of people have terrible connotations of what it means to be a gypsy, but I rather enjoy this nickname.  Gypsies were nomadic people, and even though I have stayed put for most of my life, I always wanted to be rather nomadic... being able to fit my important belongings in my car and then moving to another place at the drop of a hat sounds like an amazing life to me.  But as I was saying, I love to travel.  I have been to Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, England, France, and Mexico.  Due to financial reasons, I have not been able to travel more, but I love learning about other cultures and the best way to do this is to immerse yourself in whichever culture you want to learn about.  And most places have better coffee than we do in the States (Peru fo sho).

Teacher is another definition that I will gladly accept.  I have wanted to be a teacher for a very long time.  My first real memory of this desire is in the fifth grade with Mrs. Morvac.  I wanted to be just like her.  However, I have realized that I don't much care for the elementary school age students and I really wanted to focus on Language Arts instead of all the subjects.  So while my focus area has changed, my desire has not.  I want to teach and work with youth until I am too old to work or until I can afford to travel as a living, which ever happens first :) 

I hope that this post sheds some light on who I am and what I am like, besides just another grad student.