Meta-blog From the Future

So I am a class this semester called "Teaching Oral Language and Media Literacy" which is totally boss and I am learning a lot. We get to talk every day about power and language and technology, which are three things I am theoretically passionate about. AND TODAY we talked about blogging! Blogging is rapidly becoming a widespread tool in high school classrooms for many reasons, and during reading and discussion today I felt wicked validated in my GSS pursuits. Congratulations to you all for being part of something great in my life.

Our current reading is Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson and was published by Corwin Press in 2010. What Richardson discusses in the first three chapters (introductory pointers on the purposes of using blogs in a classroom and how to get one started) weren't terribly enlightening, being an "established" blogger already, but reinforced most of what I believe about the medium. Stay with me while I meditate on this point for a while:

1. The Internet was created with the intention that people across the globe, regardless of any social or intellectual markers, can communicate with each other.

2. A wise man once said, "What the fuck is the Internet?" The Internet is a mysterious tool and is something the generation which follows ours will undoubtedly know more about than we do. It is our duty, then, as teachers, to modify our curriculum and pedagogy to this new literacy our students will have.

Gentlemen and scholars

3. Blogging is more than journaling. I know I frequently arrive here without much to say, or if I do manage to babble for a while, little of the text holds portent, but frequently, I attempt at least vaguely to think about what I write, why, and for whom. Rhetoric is a facet of language that has always fascinated me, and I think the purpose of writing and the intended audience of each piece is frequently forgotten. We get stuck on term papers that only our professor will read, or go to the other side of the spectrum and journal solely for our own pleasure. Here, where I have the opportunity to write for a global audience, on my agenda but with millions of people in mind, I can not only cultivate my writing abilities, but also entertain, educate, and challenge.

Furthermore, I think this applies to more than just words on paper. Sam, in your other blog, where we can find horrifyingly infrequent posts of your decidedly delightful artwork, we can see an artist's entire process, especially now that you've moved into animation. The growth that comes from this, whether you see it or not, is likely monumental. (Do other artists see and/or discuss your work as a result of your blog? I am unfamiliar with your pursuits but I know there's potential). Olive, what the fuck are you doing in a tattoo shop? You are part a piece of artwork... on people's bodies.... that lasts forever! That shit is mega-power! Max is in fucking Colombia teaching English, which is a tool that separates, in many ways, the powerful from the powerless (which may be unfair but that is a topic for a separate post). Calvin... can go to hell. Just kidding but seriously dude what are you contributing? Your last post made me laugh out loud but I don't think it made sense. Did it? Are you part of some East-Coast-Weirdy-Cult I don't understand? If this is the case please accept my sincerest apologies.

In essence, this sick blog has allowed me to continually entertain, educate, and challenge, which I think makes sense on accounta I'm going to be a teacher when I grow up and all.

Here are a few other things that have recently entertained, educated, and challenged me:

- Walter Dean Myers' memoir Bad Boy. Myers is primarily a young adult author (at least recently), which is good because A) all of his books are in large print and make me feel mad accomplished when I read one in a single day and B) kids anywhere from age probably 10 to 19 have the opportunity to read really provocative literature. In a given book, he talks about violence, urban existence, reading and writing, learning disabilities, the concept of "family," and, primarily (it seems), race, among other things. This is an author I will continue to read and, if I have the opportunity, use in my classroom.

The too legitest to quittest guy ever.

- Fuckin' Banksy. You guys must know about him already, but refresh yourself or something. This guy is the beez kneez! Talk about power.
- Missoula's transgender community. There was a showcase of student transgender artwork on campus today that was kind of weird and kind of wonderful and I can confidently say I do not understand them at all as a group of people.
- The Back to the Future trilogy. No kidding, watched the whole thing this weekend. What the fuck is time travel? What the fuck is time?

I gotta go. Macaroni, Kurt Vile, and an outdated handbook for learning conversational Italian await.