Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Yep, I finally finished it, and for the most part enjoyed this novel. We discussed the juxtaposition of how this novel provided a great push for abolition in the United States, and yet portrays largely stereotyped and racialized characters such as Chloe as Mammy, Tom as the Good Christion (reminds me of Equiano a bit there), Tom's children and Topsy as the Wild African, and various cunning Sambos throughout. Some good stuff in here, and I also enjoyed the journeys that moved away from each other: Tom to the south, George and Eliza to the north.
Twitter help pages
Yes, Twitter. I finally created an account after reading so much and hearing firsthand from teachers I respect that Twitter is an excellent source of information and ideas for teachers. I bit the bullet, and I'm actually really loving it! However, Twitter is quite different from other social media I've played around with, and has taken some adjusting and some Google searches. In addition to these help pages...
Various Education Articles
My hopes for Twitter came true, and I actually discovered a new app just for organizing all of the readings and links and videos I've been finding! Twitter is a concise feed of helpful ideas and interesting theories, when you use it properly (i.e. not following meme characters).
As for the app I mentioned, it's called Pocket, and it's pretty fabulous. It saves articles, videos, whatever you want, across different platforms (laptop, tablet, smartphone) and downloads them so you can view them offline. You add things through the share button, read it later. It has tagging features as is pretty standard these days, and you can easily send an article to someone else (regardless of if they have the app or not). If you're interested, check it out here at getpocket.com, or search for it in whatever your smartphone store may be. I'll see you there!
Showing posts with label professional dev. Show all posts
Showing posts with label professional dev. Show all posts
Friday, November 7, 2014
Thursday, October 9, 2014
October 5 - 11
The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne
This was a book I read for my early American novel class. It was pretty interesting to read something by Hawthorne that wasn't The Scarlet Letter because now I have a better sense of his style. This story features a well-to-do Bostonian poet in 1835 who bands together with some idealists who try to start a Utopian-like farm together. The kind of thing where everyone shares the work and lives off the land, that sort of idea. The romance implied in the title is distantly narrated by the author. A stunning and proud woman nicknamed Zenobia, a determined philanthropist with a focus on rehabilitating criminals, and a wispy young girl who appears without explanation are the key players in the romance. There's spying, sympathy, intrigue, myths, hallucinations, and even a dramatic suicide (!!) with the final line of the novel revealing the biggest secret of all.
(But not really, if you pay attention.)
Bullied: What every parent, teacher, and kid needs to know about ending the cycle of fear by Carrie Goldman
I stumbled by this book when I was idly searching my online e-book library to see what I might read next (since the fourth Temeraire novel is refusing to download properly, for whatever reason). I was intrigued by my educator side, and the synopsis was more interesting than I would usually expect from something about bullying anyway. I've heard so much about it that you'd think I'd be sick to death (terrible, terrible pun...) of it by now. BUT, like I said, the format is different from what bullying pamphlets and lectures I've usually encountered usually take. There are anecdotes! Ones that aren't horribly depressing! It's even funny sometimes, and often hopeful! It also covers an impressive scope of the "who" part of bullying: the usual targets of LGBTQ and students with disabilities, but Goldman also acknowledges that some kids just get flak for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (or wearing the wrong shoes at the wrong time, or whatever). I'm about a third of the way through, and although I don't feel like I've learned any particular strategies as an educator, I do feel like I've grown a bit in how to think about it and approach it. There's a lot of good stuff in here for parents, as well, so I've got some ideas on that part of my future now as well.
This was a book I read for my early American novel class. It was pretty interesting to read something by Hawthorne that wasn't The Scarlet Letter because now I have a better sense of his style. This story features a well-to-do Bostonian poet in 1835 who bands together with some idealists who try to start a Utopian-like farm together. The kind of thing where everyone shares the work and lives off the land, that sort of idea. The romance implied in the title is distantly narrated by the author. A stunning and proud woman nicknamed Zenobia, a determined philanthropist with a focus on rehabilitating criminals, and a wispy young girl who appears without explanation are the key players in the romance. There's spying, sympathy, intrigue, myths, hallucinations, and even a dramatic suicide (!!) with the final line of the novel revealing the biggest secret of all.
(But not really, if you pay attention.)
Bullied: What every parent, teacher, and kid needs to know about ending the cycle of fear by Carrie Goldman
I stumbled by this book when I was idly searching my online e-book library to see what I might read next (since the fourth Temeraire novel is refusing to download properly, for whatever reason). I was intrigued by my educator side, and the synopsis was more interesting than I would usually expect from something about bullying anyway. I've heard so much about it that you'd think I'd be sick to death (terrible, terrible pun...) of it by now. BUT, like I said, the format is different from what bullying pamphlets and lectures I've usually encountered usually take. There are anecdotes! Ones that aren't horribly depressing! It's even funny sometimes, and often hopeful! It also covers an impressive scope of the "who" part of bullying: the usual targets of LGBTQ and students with disabilities, but Goldman also acknowledges that some kids just get flak for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (or wearing the wrong shoes at the wrong time, or whatever). I'm about a third of the way through, and although I don't feel like I've learned any particular strategies as an educator, I do feel like I've grown a bit in how to think about it and approach it. There's a lot of good stuff in here for parents, as well, so I've got some ideas on that part of my future now as well.
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