NY Times article, brought to you by yet another Firefox 3 add on

I just received this week's NCTE Inbox, which is always full of great links to news items, NCTE articles, lesson ideas, and other resources. In it was a link to this article from The Paper "Technology Reshapes America's Classrooms."

The article describes a public school that relies almost exclusively on computers/internet in some ways my HS does- students can turn in papers digitally via a drop box- but in some ways that could potentially be an asset- particularly computer adapted lessons that essentially differentiate learning.

As a whole, the article skims way too much on the important details, like how much time do students spend online vs. interacting with the teacher and their classmates, and then goes off into a tangent about the outsourcing of tutoring to India, but it does at least raise some provactive questions.

The other piece to this blog post is I am using a Firefox add on I just installed called ScribeFire. I can now post to any of my blogs directly from my browser, rather than having to actually go to te blog, log in, select new post, publish, etc. It is neato and I highly recommend trying it out!

Session II, Day 2

From "My Neighbor, Totoro"

One of my favorite movies...being in Japantown reminded me I haven't seen it in years.

A "Staycation" in SF

Yesterday morning, Z and I were listening to NPR, and they used the word "staycation" several times in a few minutes.

Even though I was technically on a real vacation, having flown home for the weekend from Pittsburgh (or is Indiana, PA my vacation?), I thought a bit about the staycation idea since we ended up going to both Japantown (via the Fillmore Jazz Festival) and Chinatown, and ate at one of my favorite Thai restaurants for dinner.

In Japantown, we stopped into Paper-Tree, where I found a great notebook with a whale on it that says, "What lovely friends. They will bring happy happy day for you," as well as a pink elephant tape dispenser that comes with Japanese tape and another notebook with a kitten wearing photoshopped detective hat. That notebook says, "Please enjoy studying with this notebook. The story of pleansat animals."

Later on, we went to Chinatown, near Z's office, to Far East Flea Market get a bamboo steamer basket so I can cook vegetables in some other way than stir fry or microwave-in-a-bag. Dodging our way through tourists dressed in matching San Francisco sweaters and actual Chinatown locals out doing their shopping (those ubiquitous pink plastic bags!), we did feel like we had entered another country because of the price index. At FEFM, we also were very disturbed by a giant box full of "Mr. Fume" at the entry door. Lucky for us all, I couldn't find any images online.

I always love being a tourist in my own town and yeserday was no exception. Yay San Francisco!

QOTD

"Demonstrate your sense of moral obligation." From a sign on the electric scooter store around the corner from Z's house.

First Session Reflections

I finished and turned in my final papers today for my two Summer Session I classes, and though the last day of class isn't until tomorrow, I thought tonight would be a good time to write a brief reflection on these past five weeks.

First off, they have gone by FAST. Granted, I went home in the middle of them, so since I am not going home again (after this weekend) until the end of Session II, maybe II will feel longer. I've developed a good routine of writing at Caffe Amadeus, usually meeting up with my friend Dawn. Apparently Amadeus is an annex of Leonard Hall (the building that houses the English department) because I always see my classmates or professors, which is one of those small town perks, I suppose. There are only so many places to hide.

I'm growing more excited about my dissertation topic by the minute, and am looking forward to starting research for the lit review and developing research methods and frameworks during Session II. I have a couple of independent projects to juggle as well, so I will basically be moving into Amadeus.

Earlier this week in one of my classes we had a guest speaker, a woman in her 40s, who had published a collection of lessons she'd learned from her students. She spoke about how the best part of the book being published was the fact her mom keeps it on her coffee table and shows it off to her guests. As she was speaking, I almost lost it, and was thinking, "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Finishing those papers was another reminder of how my best reader isn't at the other end of the email or the phone anymore, and I was doing OK until the woman unintentionally tripped the grief wire. So, this end of the session feels great, but also a bit hollow, too. Incomplete. There is a voice missing from the conversation. I am looking forward to my first two published pieces coming out at the end of the summer and in the fall, but at the same time, the thing I want most is what I can't have: for my dad to be able to read them.

New Blog Feature: Quote of the Day (QOTD)

In my internet foraging, I usually find a quote every day that I like for any number of reasons. Other than putting them under my name in Gmail, I don't get to share them with the world. So, I hereby and forwith declare a new feature on this blog: Jenn's QOTD.

Just to kick things off, here is yesterday's, followed by today's.

"“First time ever in a nude beach and The New York Times comes.” From NY Times article

"you have this pile of ...crap. And you shovel it into a truck. Its not as fun as you would think." Said by a HS student; from a DVD of a service learning trip I chaperoned last winter that arrived in the mail today