I was always peeved by students and teachers who whined about not liking school, so I've decided to shut my trap and just get my work done. I'll keep weighing my options and wonder if I can get what I want from this program, but for the next month I'll concentrate on doing my work.
If one of the smartest teachers I know says I should stick it out then I guess I have to give it a year. I really like the quotes Len passed on to me:
"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of
the shore for a very long time." Andre Gide
"Ships are safest in harbours. But, then again,
ships are not built for harbors..."
On the funnier side of things, I've been reading a hysterical comic strip - The Boondocks by Aaron McGruder. "A Right to be Hostile" is a collection of the last few years of his series that satirizes Black life in Eurocentric White America, circa 2003. I love this book. It's such a departure from the warped ways African Americans are depicted in the media. It's also a great example of how important media production by the marginalized is to creating authentic representations of life in America. Now, a lot of people thing McGruder's work is counter-productive to improving race relations in this country. Read and decide for yourself.
Help, I need to know the cheapest alternative to paying TypePad $15/mo for the Pro version so I can create a multiple author blog. I want to research if blogs can extend a physical sense of community previously created, e.g. a blog where my former students can post letters about the books they are reading. This is something we did last year and it was the most successful reading instruction practice I tried in ten years of teaching elementary school.