Category Archives: education

CEE Conference + Workshop

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Next week I will be at the NCTE Conference on English Education, conveniently located in my new hometown, Fort Collins, CO. If you will be in town for this conference, please send me a note and say hello.

My CSU colleague, Cindy O’Donnell-Allen and I will be holding a workshop at the conference focused on our recent work in our English Education courses. The session is titled “Pose/Wobble/Flow: Thinking through Privilege with Preservice Teachers.” Here is a brief summary:

What strategies might help preservice teachers recognize their cultural positionality and understand how it might shape their instruction and interactions with future students? Participants will examine online texts, artifacts, reflections, and other materials generated in the course to identify three dimensions of students’ developmental process—pose, wobble, and flow.

For those of you going to the conference, the session will be held next Saturday at 10:30 a.m. See you there!

Ten Reasons I Haven’t Been Blogging (and That Time I Went Bowling)

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Oh, hello there.

Fancy seeing you ’round these parts.

There are excuses aplenty for the radio silence over here. Here’s the general gist (though I hope, with the summer, to be a bit more present):

1. While I’ve been pretty quiet here, I’ve been busy doing a ton of writing elsewhere. There are several “in press” things to update y’all about when they’re available soon. Likewise, I’ve still been occasionally blogging over at DMLcentral. Did you see Iron Man 3? Me too.

2. My first year at Colorado State has been an intense one. The adjustment to university labor has taken more of my time than I anticipated. I enjoy the work, but it is that–”work”–and so time previously spent blogging is now spent grading, office hour-ing (pretty sure that should be a verb since it’s a different mental space than other forms of work on campus), fretting over dwindling class time, and slowly finding allies interested in broadening campus diversity.

3. Did you know everyone I collaborate with that is not at CSU works in a different time zone? Yeah, ol’ Mountain Standard ain’t so hot with the West Coast/Central/East Coast folk… pretty much everybody. This year has also taught me I’m not so great at trying to do basic math (there was a month long period where I was consistently an hour or two early or late to meetings…). To see a bit of the work happening in my classes this semester, check out this resource from NWP’s Digital Is.

4. Oh, Ally and I bought a house. No biggie. Packing, moving, signing (and more signing) and painting and fence building and picture hanging and furniture shopping and house hunting and HOA-ing … that didn’t take any of my time during the months of January through now. (Olive appreciated the new tactical advantage of spotting dogs and rabbits and potential threats that are blocks away to bark at.)

5. Super secret writing project #1. I’ve invested a lot of time into this project. And currently topping 70,000 words, I’m not ready to share too many details yet. Stay tuned.

6. Super secret writing project #2. See #5 (except for the 70,000 words part… this one’s still got some incubating to do).

7. Not so secretive writing: I have a special edited journal issue out now (will link in a separate post) and a couple of other co-authored pieces trickling into press throughout the summer. Huzzah laboriously slow academic publishing schedule. Pretty sure much of this work has been in various stages of review & revision for the better part of a year and a half.

8. My colleague Cindy O’Donnell-Allen and I will be launching the third iteration of the Saving Our Stories project with local elementary school students. It’s going to be amazing and it will warrant summer reflection.

9. I have joined the advisory council for the Northside Aztlan Community Center.

10.

#SurvivorTheVoiceAmazingRaceMadMenBreakingBadSharkTankTVMakesMeFeelLikeAChumpButIWatchItAnyway

 

Bonus: And then there was that time I went bowling for the Department of Education. (Did I mention I’m really bad at bowling?) [The camera adds 10 pins… or something.]

Bowling PSA from Antero Garcia on Vimeo.

 

Catching up on DML

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A busy semester with updates in abundance soon. For now a few quick, DML-related notes:

 

Coming up soon: discussing mobile devices and pedagogies, creating action, and driving in the snow.

The Cat Will Mew: Monopoly and the Loss of the Iron

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It took a Monopoly-related announcement to get me out of my blogging hibernation.

The bulk of the article is focused on the fact that the new Monopoly piece will be a cat, based on a popular vote. It is mentioned, secondly that the feline will be replacing the iron as your capitalist token of success or failure in the game.

The first iron was patented by Henry Seeley on June 6, 1882. It weighed 15 pounds and the slow process of moving metal across fabric revolutionized (I would argue) gender stereotypes in the U.S., guided directions of western fashion,  and ushered in the worst design for ironing boards that would follow. Entire wars were fought and scientific discoveries hinged on the element its name derives from. Think about how important this iconic design and the lessons of industry and society are for the young people that scorch the streets of Baltic Avenue in their circular pilgrimage to the Boardwalk.

And to be replaced by a cat.

A cat?

A cat!

What are cats good for? Nothing. Cats are good for the internets. That’s it.

In all seriousness, this article in Slate illustrates my real concerns about the loss of the iron. The history of U.S. labor (on the same day that the U.S. Postal Service announced plans to discontinue Saturday delivery – some speculate to continue nationwide union busting) is being lost on the post-industrial generation that will grow up with credit card tracking, unhackable, cat-filled games.

Sure, the people voted, but the people are wrong. Yes, I’m an advocate for democratic action … BUT (and it’s a big but), look at the context. Is Monopoly at all about fairness, equal footing, or direct democracy? NO! It’s about chances and bankrupting your grandma to the Stone Age and going directly to jail without passing go.

Pedagogically, Monopoly is an important tool for demonstrating socioeconomic practices. In reading “the world” of Monopoly, the ways it limits reflections of actual society are important within classrooms. It is was a relic of problematic foundations that this country is built on.

I’ve complained about Hasbro’s poor Monopoly decisions on this blog before.

As I write this, I am concurrently planning work with my colleague focused on helping Latino youth in Fort Collins help rewrite the history of Northern Colorado in an effort to recognize the continuing contributions of the migrant labor force. In doing so, we are playing with the idea that the elementary students we are working with will “remix history” to validate the past, present, and future of historically marginalized communities. We are rewriting world-based texts to change society. In similar ways, Monopoly is doing the same and the implications are insidious.

We’ve let Hasbro  ruin a Purr-fect game for meow and forever.

That time I gave an ignite talk for an audience of one

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During the NCTE convention last month I gave a five-minute ignite talk. It was fun and stress inducing and of a different style than the other presentations and meetings I participated in while at the Las Vegas conference. Apparently, the talk was supposed to be recorded but it wasn’t. I was asked to repeat the ignite talk in a small room directly to a camera … which is weird. I tend to feel more comfortable being awkward and bumbling in front of a group of people than being awkward and bumbling in a room with one person. In any case, I’ve blogged about all three of these topics before (and I’m currently trying to write up something academic-ish about Dark Twisted Pedagogy). Enjoy!

 

 

Tweeting, mediation, and worrying about doing it wrong

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Just because we can have an entire class via Twitter doesn’t mean we should. Scrolling through my morning news the other day, I cam across this Chronicle blogpost: “In Classroom Experiment, All Discussion Happened via Twitter.”

Based on the article, the experiment took place for one class. It’s not clear if the class will sustain its Twitter use beyond the single lecture. Some students “had created Twitter accounts just for the class” so I suspect this was a bit of a one time thing.

Just to be clear, I am a fan of Twitter and I am a fan of using Twitter for learning and classroom engagement. I’m also a fan of experimental classes where things go kinda bananas once in a while (see my recent post about arming students with chalk or dig for student tweets about geocaching). My Composition 301d course began with a chaotic run through of “Do Move Say”.

So a class that uses Twitter to explore cellphone culture makes a lot of sense to me. I think it would be really strange not to have Twitter integrated into that class. And I’m reading into this, but it doesn’t seem like it is. Integrated, I mean. As a one-off activity, I wonder how effectively Twitter is used as learning tool as much as simply an Oulipian constraint for the class to hurdle over. In my own practice and in the way I see others integrating Twitter in ELA classrooms, it is the persistence and amplification of voices over the course of a semester that makes Twitter a valuable resource.

I think what troubles me most about an article like this is its implications for non-tweeting readers: it sounds like maybe this is the way to use Twitter. I am slightly terrified of this article encouraging others to gather a bunch of people in a room and ask them to silently tap on phones together. Why even show up? The powerful hashtag spaces I tend to lurk like #engchat and #literacies help connect me to other educators that are discussing similar topics that interest me. But the whole point is we don’t have to be anywhere near each other for this to take place.

In my own research, I’ve been drawn to the ways that mobile devices and apps/resources like Twitter can help mediate communication and experiences. By cutting off other kinds of communication practices, Twitter is being forced into a kind of tool that isn’t so useful for developing conversation. It is inauthentic. Having a class sit in a class and tweet in order to “get” Twitter isn’t what Twitter seems designed for. A backchannel? Great! Asynchronous communication? Awesome! Prolonged communication across spaces. Rock! Lecture and discussion in a silent room? Not so much.

To Professor Groening’s credit, this is an experiment and a temporary one. I just question the premise of the experiment to begin with: “The Twitter discussion was just one of the course’s many experiments in “experiential learning.” Others have included asking students to create photo essays with their cellphone cameras, and a final project in which students use their phones to organize flash mobs.”

And I’m sure the class was fun. The syllabus looks neat (and most students on the hashtag seemed to enjoy themselves). However, I think about the lessons this sends others about using Twitter in learning spaces. For one class in one space: go hog-wild. When the Chronicle reports this as awesome (and why is this even report-worthy to begin with?) I get a little worried about what kinds of pedagogical directions this sends.

 

NCTE 2012 Schedule and Research Forum Invite

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FACT: This photo is featured prominently in one of my NCTE sessions … that’s how awesome this conference will be.

 

The NCTE annual conference is coming up this week. It’s going to be a busy (and awesome) conference.

I’ll post my general itinerary below (noting that there are some time conflicts that are problematic). However, I’d first like to invite all NCTE members to a general Research Forum meeting. Cindy O’Donnell-Allen and I will be co-chairing the Research Forum. The meeting will be held bright and early:

Saturday, November 17
8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Diego Restaurant, Convention Center Walkway

Cindy and I are interested in using our meeting time at NCTE as an opportunity to collectively share a vision for where our research is headed, who conducts this research, and how it is articulated to NCTE members and the general public. A couple of goals we have include integrating even more teacher voice within NCTE’s research and to encouraging the work of early-career researchers. We are particularly interested to hear from you about what specific research initiatives you would like to see NCTE pursue in the coming year. Please join us.

 

Also worth noting is the CEE colloquium taking place on the Monday following the conference. It will be awesome:

RAISING THE BIG TOP: ARTS, LITERACY, AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Monday, November 19, 2012, 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

This day-long workshop will interest K-adult teachers, teacher educators, graduate students and researchers. Presenters/performers include representatives from Cirque du Soleil, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts and a local school. They will be joined by English education faculty  from Colorado State University: Pam Coke, Antero Garcia,  Cindy O’Donnell-Allen, and workshop facilitator, Louann Reid.

If you’re interested in attending I believe registration info for this post-conference workshop can be found here.

The rest of my itinerary follows and includes an (awesome) ignite talk, an (awesome) workshop focused on critical media literacy, an (awesome) roundtable discussing digital third space stuffy, and an (awesome) morning session about storytelling as critical consciousness. It will be an awesome conference and I hope to see you in Vegas. Send me a tweet to say hello!

Hope to see many of you there!

 

Quick note: I’ll also be making a quick stop at LRA at the end of the month. Send me a tweet if you’ll be there.

Being “That Guy”: Race and Violence Ruining Wreck It Ralph

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I think it’s getting worse. I used to hold my tongue and nod along with everyone else. The problem is I’m tired of not seeing folks of color in films. I’m tired of picking “good” YA texts for the classes I’m teaching and seeing white privilege reinforced on every page. I’m tired of not seeing the lives and experiences of my former South Central Los Angeles students represented in the books we read.*

I’m pretty sure my students might be getting tired of me: I’m a bit of a broken record when it comes to race and politics of representation when discussing literature, popular media, pedagogy, NCLB, relational aspects of connecting with students.

Sometimes (often), I fret about whether it might be best to let it slide. For one class, let the “race-thing” not be brought up. For one movie, don’t let the first thing you say when you walk out of the theater be, “Well, that’s gotta be the whitest movie ever made.”**

But.

But I just can’t. It feels irresponsible not to.

Case in point: tonight I saw Wreck It Ralph. It was fun. The videogame references, the unexpected plot developments, the playful short film before the feature: it was better than its marketing campaign led me to believe. But then…

See, here’s the thing: I’m pretty sure every character is white (except for ancillary villains shown in a bad-guy support group at the beginning of the film… hmmm…). Ally pointed out that title character Ralph might possibly be something non-white. And that’s good, right? I mean he is the protagonist. Except that the attributes we learn about our hero is that he has halitosis, a penchant for making bad decisions, and oafish strength. Not exactly the apotheosis of a young person’s role model.

And then there was the police brutality. Without giving away anything in the plot, there is a part of the film where Ralph is detained. Though he’s already restrained in the sweetest possible way, the two cop-like figures take to physically accosting him. This is done for laughs. Like the part where Ralph can’t move so the cop tasers him in the face: funny, right?

I know. It’s just a movie. Let it go.

But.

But I just can’t. I think about the ways these humorous scenes slowly reinforce lessons about social behavior and normality for the packed theater I sat in. Mix the giggles from this scene with the giggles about the use of the word duty/doody and it’s not quite clear where the line is drawn. And if Ally’s right and Ralph IS supposed to be non-white … well then, congratulations, Disney: you just got America to laugh at police beating up a person of color.

This turned into a frustrated rant. Sorry. I am actually genuinely interested in a pedagogical issue here: when is it our responsibility as teachers to “turn off” the critical lens? Ever? Does it ever interfere with our other content responsibilities?

 

*This week, my class is reading and discussing David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy. I really like this book. It also, however, makes me wonder about the politics of queer identity in YA. Who gets to be gay in YA texts? Is this also a marginalized white privilege? (Future blog post about this at some point.)

**Film in question, by the way, was the Perks of Being a Wallflower. Seriously though, EVERY character was white. Seriously.