"What Teachers Make" by Taylor Mali

I love this guy...if I could pay him 3K to fly him to Mercy, I would.

Fun Day in Pittsburgh

On Sunday I returned yet another rental car and this time, instead of taking the bus back, my friend Dawn and her two kids, Cameron and Zada, came and picked me up from the airport. We then went to the Carnegie Museum, which has both a History Museum and an Art Museum. The current exhibit right now is Dinosaurs, and what they did really well was try to place the skeletons in front of or near paintings of what they would have looked like alive. They also had them hanging out in shrubbery and what not, and those details made the exhibit stand out over all the other dinosaur skeleton collections I've seen. I split off from them for awhile and went to the Art Museum, and then later we all drove up to Mt. Washington, which has a really nice view of downtown Pitt and some of the bridges. All in all, it was a nice getaway from Indiana! Yay!

Muffler Man Sighting!

While driving back from Pittsburgh with Dawn and her kids, I spotted this Muffler Man in (I think) Kitanning! This one is of the cowboy variety, and you have to love the thoughtful extra: giant hamburger. For more on Muffler Men, check out this terrific website, Roadside America.

I heart Zotero!

I have been trying out some of the plug ins that work with the new Friefox 3 browser, and so far the clear winner by a wide margin is called "Zotero."

As their website says, "Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself."

And they are oh, so right. Ok, so here's how I've used it. I downloaded the plugin (after downloading the new browser). Whenever I find a webpage that Ztero thinks is an artcile, it shows a little book icon in my search bar. I click on the icon, and poof! The web adress plus any citation info is saved. If I want to access the info, I just click on the Zotero box at the lower right hand corner of my browser, and I can see all my saved pages/articles. If it isn't an article, Zotero takes a "photo" of thepage I want and saves it. Then, I can organize all my pages into collections (like bookmarks).

But the fun doesn't stop there! I can create a bibliography/workscited by selecting whatever I want, right clicking, and choosing the citation style: Here's an example:

Copland, M. A. (2003). Leadership of Inquiry: Building and Sustaining Capacity for School Improvement. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 25(4), 375-395.

Delfino, C. S. (1998). From the Secondary Section: "But I'm Not a Reading Teacher": The Lament of the Middle and High School Teacher. The English Journal, 88(2), 17-19.

Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research (1st ed., p. 848). Jossey-Bass.

I can also take notes on something I am reading and Zotero will save those notes! I haven't used that feature yet, but as soon as I do, I'll write about it here.

Anyway, download it now! Now!!!

3 weeks down, 7 to go!

The time is going by quickly since today marks my official 21st day here in Indiana, PA. Granted, I flew home last weekend so that I wouldn't spend my first Father's Day sans father cooped up in my house, so that not only took up a weekend but makes it feel like I have been gone less. I think every time you go home, the counter starts over. So, either I'm at day 21 or day 7, depending on how you look at it.

Anyway, now is the time on Sprockets when there is a lot to do. I front-loaded a small paper and a large presentation in one of my classes, so those are done, but I have a large paper and a large project left. To do. In the next 10 or so days. The good news is both paper and project are totally relevant to either my dissertation or my actual job, so yay. I just need to do them, and I think I've been enjoying a bit of a break from the stress I left behind at work before the stress of the next two weeks kicks in.

I took a really amazing 30 mile bike ride this weekend. It was great until mile 20 and then I ran out of calories to burn (I had only eaten cereal for breakfast) so for the next 10 miles I had visions of vegan burgers.

Above is a pretty pastoral picture from the ride.

Dissertating, the Blog

For accumulating and reflecting upon my pre-dissertation research, I started a second blog using Wordpress instead of Blogspot because it is more amenable to uploading video, audio, photos, etc.

So, you can see that here: http://dissertating.wordpress.com/

Also, a useful tool that I discovered the value of after our network administrator (at work) updated our browsers, thereby causing me to lose YEARS of book marks, is called Del.icio.us. It is a social bookmarking site, which means anytime I save a bookmark, I can also see who else has saved that same bookmark. Or, in more practical terms, it keeps all my bookmarks in one place, so I can go anywhere in the world, and as long as I have internet access, I can see my bookmarks. Additionally, I can "tag" those bookmarks with key words so that I can find what I need later on. So, let's say I find several sites or pieces of media on "skills transfer" then I would tag each saved bookmark with that phrase. Later, I could search my books marks for "skills transfer" and then find only those. The more bookmarks you have, the more tagging makes sense.

Yay!

Every Wednesday during the summer IUP hosts a picnic/BBQ for the whole community: students, faculty, staff, Indiana residents, etc. Last week should have been the first one of the summer but it was canceled due to rain (I had forgotten about how much rain can fall here in 30 seconds). So, today I took Ellie to the picnic and she did pretty well, for her. She only freaked out twice when two people (both professors of mine, naturally) came at her head too quickly. But, she is making new friends and perhaps even learning that people want to pet her and she likes to be pet! I.E. people=good thing!

I also took my bike out for its inaugural Indiana ride. I initially had planned on riding the Hoodlebug Trail but if you go to the website you will see the photo of a biker on a mountain bike. Aha. As I found out "crushed asphalt" does not agree with my super thin road tires. Not only was the bike feeling slippery and squirrely (not to mention the extra vibrations from the loose ground), I was concerned about one of those tiny specks of crushed rock getting into one of my tubes and giving me a flat.

So I quickly exited Hoodlebug and found myself in some strange part of Indiana I'd never been to. It was sort of like Hillsborough back at home: acres of green lawn, giant house set back off the road, hilly. That didn't last too long, though, before I was spat back out on route 422. or 244. or 242. Whatever it was, at least it had a nice marked shoulder.

I kept on going, riding through town, for about an hour and then came home and realized that vigorous exercise plus 84 degree weather= gross. But, it was fun to be out exploring, and I am looking forward to next week, when my night class switches to the afternoons, so I can go on group rides organized by the bike shop that loves Jesus.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

This came across the WPA listerv tonight. I think it is worth reading...but I can't give away the secret. So, for those of you interested in the conversation about reading online, check it out. And post your thoughts under comments!

Digital Ethnography

Two of Mike Wesch's videos on You Tube have been circulating among educational communities for awhile: "Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/ing Us" and "A Vision of Students Today."

It is worth watching a few of his other, less famous, videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mwesch

Love Me Some Onion

From the Onion.com

Le Velo Est Arrive

My bike arrived today, promptly at 11 am, the beginning of the delivery window. I think the Fed Ex man was not sure of what to make of my hopping up and down with enthusiasm while saying "Yay, Yay" and clapping my hands.

Anyway, when Zeph had helped me take my bike apart to make it fit in the shipping box, I was totally paranoid that I wouldn't be able to put it back together again (nor take it back apart at the end of the summer). Today I realized that while my paranoia is often justified (Ellie has yet to be eaten by large dogs and my house hasn't burned down), this one was for no reason. I stopped by the Indiana bike store (where they love Jesus as evidenced by the music playing) and bought the multi tool I needed, and then righty-tighty, lefty-loosy'd my bike back together. The only think I am slightly concerned about was it was hard to reattach the handlebars exactly in the middle, so we'll see how that goes. But at least now I know how to do all my own adjustments.

Tomorrow: I ride!

Dr. Pagnucci Asks (#1)

Even though I am using this blog for writing about life in Indiana, PA, the real reason for its existence is so I can have a "reflective research blog" for my Technology and Literacy class. So, interspersed with ramblings about Tofutti and the weather will be posts like this one.

Dr. Pagnucci asks, "How do you understand literacy, based on what you read and your own experiences? As literacy teachers, what should are goals be? What are we trying to do when we teach literacy?"

To begin any conversation about literacy, you have to define your terms first. There are as many definitions, or ways to interpret, literacy as there are episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

So, if you take a broad view, literacy is the ability to read signs. Signs can be most anything: people's expressions and body language are signs, so if you have interpersonal literacy, you can "read" people. Then there are literal signs- the symbols we encounter in text (letters) and in the world (brands, street signs)- and many think of literacy is the ability to put phonemes together. Information literacy is a big buzzword these days, and so if you teach that, you teach people to be able to not only read text online, but also to be able to sort through the unlimited amounts of information. In this way, sometimes literacy is also considered critical thinking, but in order to have something to think critically about, you have to be able to read the signs in the first place.

I suppose I can take any of these views of literacy, depending on what argument I am trying to win ;). But, really, I think having a rigid definition of literacy is to over simplify something that can't be that easily reduced.

But, perhaps more illuminating than what I say is what I do ...to be continued

It is hot.

"It is hot," saith the Paper. Ergo, it must be true. I am glad I am not just whining for no reason.

A 2 Hour Drive and 3.5 Hours Bus Ride for Tofutti

Today I had to return my rental car to Pittsburgh, and so since I was going there anyway, and since there is nary any Tofutti Non-dairy cream cheese to be found in this town (Ok, well, I haven't checked that health food store yet but they were closed on Sundays because, apparently, they love Jesus like the rest of Indiana).

Whole Foods recently opened a store in Pitt, and though sometimes WF customers stress me out, I decided to stop there on my way to the airport. If you're going to drive 2 hours anyway, you might as well get some Tofutti while you're at it. Well, possibly for the first time ever, Google Maps let me down. Or, maybe I shouldn't blame everything on them. I had written directions but I usually have a printed out map so I can see whether I should stay on the road for a very long line or just a short line. Regardless, I got off on exit 5 and was spit around, over the freeway, and then back out heading the other way. Hmmm. I drove around for awhile and then had a battle of wills vs. common sense which went something like "Don't waste time on a wild Whole Foods hunt. Go return your rental car." "What, are you crazy? I will not give up! Pittsburgh will not beat me!"

Anyway, I remembered last year my advisor saying that the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, which I was near, was a place where they had bagels and outside cafes and young professionals with babies. Aha! I thought. Where there are bagels and babies, there must be a Whole Foods. SO I followed my yuppie radar (takes one to know one, right) and eventually, one hour later, triumphed!!

However, due to being in the bowels of Pittsburgh, I was almost late to return my rental car and ended up not having time to refill it with gas. Or I wouldn't have had time if my bus back to Indiana had been on time. Since it was late, I could have saved myself a million dollars, but oh well.

On the bus ride back, the driver first talked very loudly to one of the passengers, and then on her cell phone, pretty much the whole time. I learned way to much about her personal life and physical ailments. Also, the guy who sat behind me had been apparently smoking since he was born because the whole ride home smelled like cigarette smoke and mildewy cloth.

So, now I have six tubs of Tofutti in my fridge. I earned those.

Dissertating

I'm pretty excited about my dissertation, which is a good thing and I hope this excitement continues and sustains me through the upcoming months and years when I get sick of it. When I was doing my MA Thesis on creative nonfiction in composition, several people warned me against doing something I was really passionate about because, they said, I would eventually come to hate it. Well, that didn't happen, though there were definitely times I didn't like the thesis process.

Anyway, here is my idea:

Earlier this year, two researchers began to study high schools and colleges across the country, looking for information about what writing is taught at different levels, etc. The HS I work at was one of the three HS to participate (interesting why they couldn't get more schools on board- a lot of schools didn't want to know the findings) and so they did a survey of our students and faculty and collected writing and assignment samples. When I went to hear them speak a a conference, someone in the audience suggested they do a longitudinal study of the HS kids they initially surveyed. Inside my head I was shouting "I'm doing that!" So, what I want to do is follow a number of graduates from the HS I work at through their first year of college.

Unlike the Harvard, Stanford, and now University of Denver longitudinal studies about college writing, my constant is not the college the students go to, but the fact they are all coming from the same HS. They will go to a variety of colleges, and so what I want to know is:

*How do they use/mis use/ not use what they learned about both reading and writing in HS in their first year of college?

*What do they learn their first year of college, in terms of reading and writing, that they wished they'd learned in high school?

*If the HS/College gap exists like the faculty say it does, how do they HS graduates feel about that as they navigate their first year?

In order to provide the framework to answer these questions, I definitely want to look at the cognitive theories of "skills transfer" or "knowledge transfer" as well as the literature on the HS/College gap (as it pertains to literacy). Those are my two lit review starting points, but I fully expect for the exploding world of research to carry me off into many other areas as I go along.

Day 1, Week 2

Day 1, Week 2

Well, I have officially been here for one week now! Ok, to be literal, I have been here 7 days and 40 minutes.

So far it is definitely going better than the first week of last summer. One, I have Ellie here with me, and last summer I had to leave her in her doggie day care for a week before I could fly back home and get her. The house was totally empty without her, and to compound that, during the first week of a new program you don't really know anyone. So, it was super lonely.

This year, I know people. Yay. Also, I know where things are. I know where the health food store is in case I need to extend my search for Tofutti non-dairy cream cheese. I know that Martins has nori but only Giant Eagle carries Soy Vey. I also know that the "sushi" place downtown is to be avoided, but the Mexican place and the Coventry Inn are OK. Actually, I heart the Coventry Inn.

So this sense of familiarity makes the second year, at least initially, much much better than the first.

Additionally, I am taking two classes outside of the Comp. program, so I am getting to meet some new people, almost all of whom actually live here year around (or in the area). So, I'm looking forward to getting even more diversity of backgrounds and perspectives.

It is interesting to compare notes with some of my friends who started their Comp. programs at other schools at the same time as me. I am totally happy I chose IUP: I love the flexibility the program offers, and I love that I can have my fabulous job during the year and then come here in the summer. Even though I would rather be home, I think coming here makes it possible for me to get a lot more work done. I can compartmentalize. If I were at home, I'd have a million distractions. What I also have loved about the program so far is how the professors seem willing to go above and beyond to support what your interests are. At some other, more highly ranked schools, I might be getting to work with VIProfessor on their projects. At IUP, the professors want to work with me on mine.

As a result of that support, I have had a good year with publications. I have a teensy page coming out in a collection on mentoring from Parlor Press in August, then an article in English Journal in September, and I have some other stuff in the pipeline. Without the encouragement (and willingness to read revisions!), I wouldn't have thought of sending anything off to anyone.

July 2- I am revisiting this post to test out a feature in Google Reader. I want to see if it will show this post as being updated. Now back to the future.

Some Things Considered

So far, in my Literacy and Technology class, we've made teacher websites, wandered around in Second Life, and are now blogging.

I definitely have used my limited skills at website creation and blogs in my teaching before, and would like to use Second Life but a) HS admin still a bit leery of the internets, and b) as a HS teacher, you have to decide how much time up front you can afford to invest in training your students how to do something. Many would assume teens are all over Second Life already, but I think sometimes educators overestimate how tech savvy the students actually are. Sure, the social network like crazy and can photoshop their friends to upload on to their social networking sites, but they're not great an using the internet for research (we know this) or really doing anything online that doesn't work for them RIGHT AWAY. I think the internet can facilitate both compulsive and impatient behavior, and I know because I am exhibit A. But that's another story.