Comments for Apace of Change

Comment on Full of Sound & Fury by NO CELL PHONES! | Sustainably Digital

NO CELL PHONES! | Sustainably Digital — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:47:09 +0000

[...] Full of Sound & Fury by Damian Bariexca [...]

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Comment on Mea Culpa by Tracy Rosen

Tracy Rosen — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:08:58 +0000

Hi Damian,
I jumped at this topic as I prepare to teach Grade 11 English Language Arts this year. The year culminates in a provincial exam with a literary analysis essay worth 40% of their Grade 11 (final high school year in Quebec) mark.

So the questions you ask are close to my heart.

I haven’t yet read the article and plan on reading it later today so I can look at these questions a bit deeper.

Good post - so pertinent!
Tracy

Comment on Mea Culpa by Dan Callahan

Dan Callahan — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:47:48 +0000

’ve seen this discussed a few other places (notably here, and the point seems to be that, besides a lack of interest, in our quest for HIGHER STANDARDS, we’re frequently pushing kids to read stuff before they’re actually mature enough to even understand the things they’ve read. I tried reading the Lord of the Rings at some point on my own early in high school, but just couldn’t get into it. When I gave it another shot in college, it completely blew my mind. I was ready for it in a way that I hadn’t been 4 years earlier.

Sometimes we also don’t recognize that just because something is considered one of the great books, it doesn’t mean that it’s something for everybody. I had to slog my way through Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness three times and I hated it every single time. Since I was one of the few in my classes that refused to look at Cliff’s Notes, my essays on books were generally devoid of interesting content, since I had no clue what I was actually reading many of the books for (and most of my classmates did only because of the Notes…otherwise it would have been as over their heads as anything else).

Honestly, when children are decreasingly interested in reading books, it’s time for us to actually consider how much it’s the fault of schools for making them dislike it so much.

Comment on By Any Means Human by Tracy Rosen

Tracy Rosen — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:37:36 +0000

I, for one, definitely plan on sticking around. Psychology is a big part of what we do, us teachers…at least this teacher

Looking forward to new posts.
Tracy

Comment on By Any Means Human by Damian

Damian — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:33:07 +0000

Thanks for the well-wishes, folks (and research, @tracy!). When I started this thing, I honestly didn’t know if I’d last a month, but here we are. The posts have been few and far between in the last few months, but it’s something I enjoy doing, and I’ll be making an effort to blog with a little more regularity come the fall (even if it means cutting into my Twitter time, he said half-jokingly).

Hope you’ll all stick around, even if I manage to shift the focus a bit more towards the psychology end of things (what with the new job, and all).

Unrelated whyizzit: Whyizzit that when I haven’t posted for weeks, my RSS subscribers go thru the roof, but when I actually write, I tend to lose 3 or 4? Anyway, if you’re a new reader, thanks for subscribing; why not drop a comment?

Comment on By Any Means Human by jose

jose — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:00:40 +0000

I must shout you out on your blog b-day. Congrats on keeping it around this long. And having a sense of humor is critical to teaching. Because it’s easy to get down on yourself in this job, but laughter is as therapeutic as it gets in this profession.

Comment on Accidental PD by Technoliteracy » Blog Archive » The Worst Job Ever

Technoliteracy » Blog Archive » The Worst Job Ever — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:36:43 +0000

[...] the Clown” for a Pizza Hut children’s birthday party. He tagged Damian, among others, and Damian passed the torch to dmcordell, who passed it on to murcha, who passed it to Britt, who passed it [...]

Comment on Accidental PD by » My Worst Job Ever! Technoscience

» My Worst Job Ever! Technoscience — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:46:25 +0000

[...] describing his gig as “Binky the Clown” for a Pizza Hut children’s birthday party. He tagged Damian, among others, and Damian passed the torch to dmcordell, who passed it on to murcha, who passed it [...]

Comment on By Any Means Human by diane

diane — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 01:19:33 +0000

Damian,

I’m glad you’ve retained your sense of humor during a (challenging, but aren’t they always) family vacation.

Congratulations on your Blog Birthday! I always enjoy reading your posts and I’m sure you infuse your classes with the same mix of fun and learning.

What do I bring to my own classes? A mothering sort of caring, I think. My students seem to like my unusual approach and a relatively stress-free (since I don’t teach a core subject) environment.

They probably think of me as that slightly crazy but basically nice grandmotherly sort of teacher. And that’s fine with me.

Comment on By Any Means Human by Tracy Rosen

Tracy Rosen — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:54:20 +0000

Nice reflection to read, Damian. I’m glad you found some time to write on your vacation…I hope you’re able to laugh as well

I find myself repeating - often - if they’re laughing, they’re going to remember. And apparently, there’s some science behind that:

How Laughing Leads to Learning
http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun06/learning.html

Healing Hearts, Laughter and Learning
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a785035068~db=all