WORK: my new favorite four letter word

      I was one of those people affected by the recession in terms of searching for a job. After a long hunt I finally landed a job. I felt like Elmer hunting Bugs Bunny. I cannot tell you how many times it felt like I was searching for something elusive or how often I felt outwitted.
    Well, my search ended about a week ago. This past weekend I worked my first couple shifts. I am happy to be part of a team again. However, the experience of finding work has humbled me more and has reminded me how important my education really is. I saw how competitive the job market was and this was retail. I can't imagine how competitive the education field maybe.
      This search though, has reminded me that I will need an edge. My education and personal experience in general will weigh equally either in my favor or against me. Thus my philosophy is and will be shapped by my overall experiences.
     I  first recognized this when I tutored last term. My professor told us that she believes people who have had to struggle with something make great teachers. It made sense.  Sometimes remembering what it was like to be in our students shoes helps a great deal. My struggles with math solidified this understanding. Likewise, my new job has given me a great deal of insight. Sometime during the course of my first two shifts I thought to myself, work is my new favorite four letter word. Then I found myself thinking how could I use that word in my future classroom, as a set of rules and or values I'd like to instill in my students. I decided to transform the word work into an acronymn: W.O.R.K, I am still trying to figure out what the "K" would stand for. I currently have kommitment but it seems weird to spell it like that.

Will
Organization
Resolve
K/Commitment


Sometimes life provides classroom learning with the perspectives we need to either understand or to tinker with the thoughts that trickle into our consciousness to make something a new. 

PIPA/SOPA the ONLY good thing about the internet censorship issue...

      Today in synchronized fashion a protest of PIPA/SOPA burst. Wikipedia was blacked out for the day. Several of my friends on facebook shared this: End Piracy, Not Liberty-Google. And google itself  had a censorship bar across its name.   
      Tonight while listening to my classmates cover their respective topics in media skills, EDT 211 began to take on an ironic spin. Skills like Appropriation, Cognitive Intelligence, and Transmedia Navigation filled my imagination with such diluted possibilities. The fate of the internet hovers almost like a U.F.O saucer. The wealth of knowledge that can be utilized by all, and specifically teachers as it relates to this class may go bankrupt. Then what?!
      At present, the very thought of internet censorship does have one positive aspect. It has prompted all of us to pause and recognize just how important this vehicle of information, ideas, knowledge, products is to our lives. How utterly dependent we are on this connection! For years we have traveled on the information highway without any traffic regulations.
       Now we feel threatened. Our way of life. Our constitutional rights. The very mosaic of our lives--our technologically wired brains. How could we function without it?
        On my way home from class, I imagined lecturing about the Constitution. How was I supposed to explain the First Amendment:
                         "Well class in regards to the First Amendment 'freedom of speech' was an ideal the Founding Fathers proposed. However, it has been challenged. One example of this stately hypocrisy is the censorship of the internet. Thus 'freedom of speech' is an ideal which has lost all practicality in its translation."
           Until then we should just enjoy the internet. Sign the petiton and pray that Congress rethinks this whole thing.

                             

...This bookworm likes to squirm in prose and nibble on the pages of actual books...

      I'm a bookworm. I love a good book. On cold days, I can be found curled up in a blanket with a book and a mug (filled with tea, coffee or cocoa). This hobby became a habit in recent years. There is a certain comfort in the pages of a good book.
     Yesterday, in my Renaissance class I was introduced to a book by an author. The book is The Decameron (summary & more text). The author is Giovanni Boccaccio. Essentially, it's about a group of people who are trying to escape the plague in Florence Italy during the course of their journey the begin to tell stories to entertain and otherwise kill time.
      I found myself intrigued by these tales which could be considered one part fiction and one part fact. I was also intrigued by its significance as well as Boccaccio. I wanted to discover for myself why this man and the fore mentioned body of work was regarded so highly by my professor and other scholars.
   This curiosity took me on a short "treasure hunt". I found it at the Mardigan Library, about five or six copies were available at my fingertips. This find was exciting and overwhelming because I wasn't sure which one I should borrow.
     I chose an elder translation and walked down stairs to check out. I felt like such a nerd leaving the library with my book and maybe soon to be a good friend. This statement probably warrants a chuckle or two. It's a good habit to laugh at yourself because the world certainly will.
    Anyways, this newly borrowed acquisition made me ponder the future of books, especially those used in the classroom. I like holding a real book in my hand. It's hard or soft shell housing pages of a published manuscript seems to provide a more intimate bond between reader and writer. I like turning the pages too. You can get lost in the prose regardless of its form but I think we stare at too many screens during the course of the day.
    I wonder what it would be like to referring and or teaching from an e-book?! How amusing would it be if my students teased me about my ancientness if they knew I prefer physical books to e-books or readers. How interesting would it be to watch e-books/readers to completely replace books? Would I have to actually explain what books are/were someday? How long would it take me to become accustom to this device?
     As long as books don’t become the things firefighters target and burn like they do in Fahrenheit 451. I couldn’t imagine a world without books. How could I acquire new knowledge or expect my students to do they same? Though the Internet is convenient, a book is easier on the eyes than a computer screen. Our books were perhaps the first piece of technology utilized in the classroom. However, at one time there weren’t enough to go around, especially in the early years. With that said, I am a grateful bookworm because I can squirm around different flavors of literary soil.

The Decameron Project

A brief background

 There is nothing more paradoxical than the blank page for the writers,

artists, scholars and the like. On one hand the blank page is full of

possibilities. On the other hand it can be a bit intimedating and conjure up

writer's block. On that note I suppose I'll just write about a collection of my

interests.

   I am passionate about the humanities, mainly history, art literature

and collectively cultures. I'm an artist, poet, book worm and a student

historian. I read it but I also write poetry and have since I was fourteen. I

currently maintain a site unifying my interests in the arts.

     Chronologically, I suppose my first love is history, which I am majoring and

planning to teach it. I have enjoyed learning history since I was ten years old.My fifth grade

teacher and my father where the duo responsible for instilling a fascination for

history--first facts and finally the evolution of analysis of such. In a sense I

feel like a dectective in a way sifting through clues of how mankind has lived

and evolved in relation to society.

     Though, I have been cautioned in a study of history class to avoid

modernism, which is comparing yesterday with today a little too much. I suppose

it can loose something in the translation. However, I am not shamed to admit I

am smitten with the past. I feel that our past is our present's mentor. It

teaches us who we are and where we are going, among other things. I especially

enjoy prospecting for that obscure fact or other random piece of knowledge that

people may otherwise not know for some reason or another.

      My particular interests in this broad discipline can be found in the deserts

of Egypt among the valley of the kings and pyramids of Giza. From a more local

standpoint I'm fascinated by the American Revolution, as well as the natives who

inhabited North America before it became settled.