My reflection, is it my dad's fault?

For my reflection on this class and my entry into the art and science of blogging, I would like to express gratitude for the challenge. It is always good to express gratitude, it always good, to see something that at first seems undoable or in the case of this class. At first,I must tell you, I was intimidated by the electronic two-step I needed to learn how to do to begin blogging. It was a cobweb shaker, I have some computer skills. I e-mail, I do research, type papers, use a flash drive. Heck,I even had a Face Book account for a minute. (It died from non use). Each of these.... ,the things that have required me to stretch my e-skills, I have met these things with a chip on my shoulder. I didn't want to be so negative and I don't know why this is, I don't know why I am such a troglodyte in this one area. I love the world I do, I love it's vast diversity, diversity of and in people,landscape, geology,geography the endless variety of nature, all the universe, an unwinding fractal.

       Why is it then that I am so silly when it comes to computers and all the things they can do? I don't think I view the world generally as if from the curmudgeon's perspective. I like new things, change is good, I embrace the growth that goes along with change. My fear here is echoed when I consider a memory I cherish.

       My father, now a light somewhere, had a VCR, and a television and an old school antenna strapped to his brick chimney. The challenge for my depression era father was to summon enough patience to switch out the antenna cable from the back of his the TV, and plug in the VCR cable. This was only done when my mother, a light now too, wanted to watch a movie (only British drama and murder mysteries, David Niven, Rex Harrison, and some times, after a drop, Richard Burton or Richard Harris). The movies came from the Bert's Gas and Movie just off Hwy. 49 in the small town in which they lived. At Bert's they would argue over their selection(s) before long my dad would yield and to home would come ( for three nights, four if you rented on a Tuesdays) David, Rex,Richard and Richard and all their Gentlemanly brethren for the weekend.

     During the preceding dinner, my father could be sensed to be anxious and even more cranky than usual.  He rarely took more than one glass of wine during his meals. On movie night,however, the consumption would double. The after dinner smoke, more robustly inhaled . It was movie night, so by 8:30 when he called to duty, to The Switching Of The Cables, he was a nervous wreck. This was technology and he was required to master it. He had mastered his rifle and survived WWII, he has fathered four boys,had a career,a home, and all the fruits of a life well lived. With my mother settled in her rocking nest with knitting to hand ,my father would begin. His first step would be to move our TV ,maple cabinet and all to one side, so he could get at it's innards. Then with  bi-focals pushed up to forehead level, he would click on the flash light and ponder both the antenna cable and the backs of  VCR ,TV and their accompanying cables.He had resisted the my mother's suggestion that he color code each cable with tape "they have lots of colors at the Western Auto" she told him. "Too much trouble" was his reply. After a contemplative moment, he would unscrew the antenna cable,this accomplished, he would wait a  further moment to consider his next move.Then he would find the loose VCR cables and because he had waited he would ,as the process would go, forget which went where. This is the stage where my mother would become extra interested in her knitting. She knew what would happen next. She could set her watch by it. My dad, now solidly on the road to paralyzing vexation, would try to put the out- put plug into the receiver of the same designation,and the input plug  would go....you can guess the rest. The struggle would last 10-15 minutes, my father doggedly putting in plugs, pulling out other plugs, turning our TV to see the expected visage of one of the Richards only to be foiled again, and again. The ensuing anger calling for a smoke break on the porch to think things through and get a clearer picture of the task at hand. Meanwhile my mother ever diligent, had finishing the arms of my Aunt  Pat's birthday sweater.

   After, pitching his Camel filterless into the swimming pool, he would begin anew, glasses up, flashlight on, plugs in hand. My mother new better than to offer advice or encouragement.She actually had not been a knitter before we got the VCR, but somewhere along the way she decided that,as her mental health was at stake, she needed to something while my dad did battle with electronic demons of his generation. By this point the evening, often, approaching 9:00, (code for bed time), hung by the thinnest thread of luck. Patience, any semblance of organization along with my father's command of gentle English, had dissolved under the thermite of my father's frustration.With the unspoken threat of my mother's retiring for the night, my father would gird the tatters of his focus and give it one more try....once more into the breach, to quote a Richard.He would place all the plugs in the right places, turn the TV to it's best vantage and sink, exhausted, onto his side of the couch. The movie would, at long last, blaze before them, my mother appreciative of the technicolor gentlemen in their Saville Road suits, but even more, if in secret,loving the perseverance of another sort of gentleman and that  he would spend time in his idea of hell so that she could watch
a movie with a David a Rex or one of the Richards.

       So, I guess I am my father's son when it comes to electronic technologies. I must ,by his example, persevere,and with luck gain the rewards one gets from accepting a challenge.

 I don't know if I have satisfied the requirements of this course, I feel I have tried and have learned a lesson or two, one about mastering technology, and the further lesson of trying when I am not sure what to do next. Till next time.
 

Search Results, how deep the world

As my knowledge of the blog-medium grows, so does my curiosity. At the beginning of this class, I was....clueless? I kind of knew of the concept of blogging. I knew it was an on line journal/diary/howl space for anyone with access to a computer to post their feelings, thoughts angers and hopes to an audience. Like in any medium, the blogger needs a following and to have a following the blogger must be interesting. By interesting I mean entertaining. The the subject matter is important, politics for instance,is always a subject with a target on its back. Finance, another, as well as education, and I suppose self help blogs are all fertile ground for the eager blogger. The challenge for Mr. Ms. blogger is to be interesting/entertaining and to keep the spirit of the blog going. This seems like it becomes a challenge after a while. The well is only so deep.The various blogs I have reviewed in the past few weeks all have one thing in common. Though they may be of opposing sides politically, or blogs about education or children with disabilities,each blog is well written and, it seems, the blogger has done his or her homework.Further, the blogger has included links( something I still don't know how to do to) other articles on the same or similar topic(s). The link, (a further indicator of homework doing) is often as interesting/entertaining an article on the level of the preceding blog.
  Without consistently good writing, with out a depth of thought a blog can run out of steam and devolve into a ranthole with nothing fresh to say and no one to say it too.
   The blogs on which I did research tonight all had excellent and interesting writing. I was especially impressed by e-learn space " the art of blogging parts 1& 2. by blogger in chief George Siemens ( 12/06/2006). Part one,contained a series of how to readings as to how one goes about setting up a blog or blogs ( if you are ambitious)as well as a blogger's code of ethics and what to do if you encounter an e-evildoer.     
    The second part shows a number of links to blog sites that have information on classroom blogging, science/education blogs as well as blogs written by classroom teachers. These I found the most interesting as they were the words of the common teacher. The people who, on a daily basis, teach our children.
  Finally, e-learn space provided a large number of links to a variety of subjects. A small sample: community slashdot, movable type edschoolblogs and stumbleupon all great places to find thoughts and discussion about a variety of topics ( mostly education based). Till next time.             

Blogging in education

As I research the vast amount of choices in just the Ed. Blog world, I am struck by the vast difference between the blogs that seem to be focused on subjects like " Clean, Bright and Sparkling": helpful tips on a clean classroom to dress code issues. In many ways, I guess these are important topics but I can't stop wondering if these type of  blogs are more fluff than relevant content. The average,diligent teacher , will in his/her daily rounds, keep the classroom clean, do a ten minute tidy and insist that the students help keep their environment clean. Much of what is said is stating the obvious.
  Then there are blogs that live where the rubber meets the road. I go back to Jezebel.com time and time again because unlike soap commercial blogging, Jezebel gets to the point or points in a clear and unblinking way. My most recent read on Jezebel was about efforts in many Middle Schools to change the student conversation and phraseology away from " That's so gay!! and the other stinker " That's retarded" many schools including the middle schools in Corvallis where I work, have been  developing an alternative vocabulary for students to use when quantifying an event or statement. For instance "That's so whack" of my favorite:" Doofy." One middle school councilor has done a student survey of favorite words to use instead of offensive adjectives. She then complied the rather large list and boiled it down to a top ten. Then, she commissioned small cards with the "That's so.........."   and That's........" etc. on one side and the top ten list on the back. The student can feel free to say " That's so......." and refer to the card, read and substitute an alternative adjective and emote to his or her hearts content. With time, a little practice, the thinking goes, the student has a shiny new list of adjectives and a shiny new skill as well. Everybody wins!
 As I work with disabled students, I have become maybe too protective, but I see/ hear of so many "Special Ed." another pejorative, see their struggles and feel their frustration over how difficult learning can be. What makes this all the more painful for many SPED students is hearing the word Retard!! so carelessly thrown around as if it doesn't apply to anyone or it carries the same emotional weight as any other word.
    As we continue to evolve as a species, one mile stone to look for (it is still distant) is how we think about and understand those with disabilities, Jezebel, seems, to me anyway to be engaged on searching for and achieving that milestone.There are always those who must drag the rest of us into a new way of thinking about the world and the diversity of it's people as well as the diversity of it's environments. With this in mind we can develop a more accepting educational culture.It is entirely possible that the student that is bullied, made fun of because of his or her differences, may, one day, be the M.D., scientist, writer or politician that because of his or her "strange" gift ( read Asperger Syndrome) lifts us to a new milestone along our journey.              

Blog review 01/21/2012

For my first review, I chose Alexander Russo's "This Week in Education", he apparently compiles and publishes various articles on education and the current environment in America's schools. His site had a number of choices but the one that struck me was a blog on Jezebel titled " Kids are Homophobic Jerks and Teachers Don't Know How to Stop Them". The main point here, being bullying in schools and how teachers and administrators need to do more to stop it. Bullying of every kind is toxic to the learning environment, the bullied student suffers in many' from loss of self esteem to thoughts of and, sadly, completion of suicide. This particular writing was centered the bullying of gay and other "non-conforming" students. The author, who experienced bullying in middle school felt that the school environment, the daily vibe of the school is largely the responsibility of teachers and administrators.It takes more than posters and platitudes, it takes constant focus and diligence to find the students who are doing the bullying. The administrator must have a variety of tools in his/her bag to deal with those students who are doing the bullying. One method suggested in the article, is to have the student(s) responsible for bullying work with students with disabilities as well students with poor or disadvantaged home lives. Often the bullying student is simply not aware of the challenges experienced by those they choose to bully. The hope here is to enable the bullying student to see life from the victim's point of view, see the other side as it were. Bullying often is the product of ignorance and fear. The non-conforming student spoken of earlier,is the perfect target, the bullying environment sees this person as someone who must be made to fall in line, wear approved clothing, listen to approved music and above all, be attracted to the approved sex. Any "deviation" from this norm will result in an immediate and escalating reaction by those designated by the bully. Generally the reaction begins with negative words, derisive comments and group laughs when the targeted person is within ear shot. Should this "intervention" by the bully society fail (and it often does)more robust measures are employed including threats, scrolled comments and graffiti,vandalism of lockers and personal items, followed by physical confrontation. The Facebook/social networking vector is often as or more powerful as any of the other bullying behavior, this includes physical intimidation and hitting. This is because social media based bullying is most often anonymous and the format is conducive to "piling-on" with several people hating on a chosen victim. Social networking can project bullying through time and space. Should the student move for instance,the original bulliers can find the student and continue to victimize even when he or she has moved to a different town or state.
  I have personal experience with bullying and have been through it with my daughter. She fell afoul of a girl who had been her best friend. Something my daughter did ( got her nose pierced, read nonconforming behavior) made this little monster angry and she started a "hate book" on Facebook, what was interesting was that only a few girls responded to the call to hate. The other girls in the circle of friends called the hate book girl out and ganged up on her so vociferously that she had to take the hate book down. Further as the statements remained on the girl's page for three days, I was able to print it and pass it on to the principal. The hatergirl received a two day suspension. It never happened again. I believe my daughter is stronger if a little sadder for the experience.
 I will continue to follow Jezebel for more articles about schools and education, I like this site as it is raw in a sense and definitely takes the side of the victims of bullying in all it's ugly forms.  

I have had 22 hours to think about my last post. Though I do loth the tedious nature of blogging and the mental contortions I have to go through, I found I had a forum to let my feelings out. Last night's rant was a cathardic and I felt better after having written my thoughts on the subject. I plan on addressing the questions posted by Denvy, tomorrow I know the intent of the class is to respond to questions and threads placed by the instructor. I promise to do this faithfully. I have to remind that I am still getting the system clear and am still a bit hazy on the details of sending my work to the blog group and having them respond. This ( I guess) will come with further practice. So for now this is as far as I go tonight but more to come Sat. after the 49ers crush the Saints 13-10!   tb

   Well this is a new experience, being a child of the 60's, you would think the world of technology and the wonders of computocyberspace would capture and amaze me. Sadly ( for me) the signs and wonders of the the binary code vessels are tedious detail to my life both in the professional the day to day. I know, I know, I shouldm love to Email and Gmail and FaceBook and any other electronic firehoses of current passion. But as I said the whole deal escapes me. I view (read Scrooge) the whole e-cybersphere as a tool intended for speedy communication and it serves a purpose.Nothing more.To me any second spent infront of a computer is a second wasted, when I am blogging, e-mailing, or tapping away my life(like right now...) I have more in common with an oarsman on a bench in the boring part of a coal galley.
  Just outside the door is all of the world, cold maybe, wet to be sure but it is a real construct. This endeavour, is without depth and lacks soul in that, though you all are all out there somewhere, I can't see your faces, hear your voices nor get your unvarnished reaction to what is said. The key board and monitor dicipline us and demand, in their primitive application, a a one dimentional communication. True, a good writer, can through his or her talent can mainpulate words and build meaning through language but much of what humans communicate comes across through the subtle interaction of expression, tonality, smiles frowns, fleeting looks, that speaks each to each, in a depth that a computer based dodge at communication cannot scratch.
  I know that the above words paint me as a stone throwing villager, in some ways I guess I am.I know I am that throw back, and I am sorry. I know technology put us on the moon and allows us to figure out many deep and difficult things.The technology that enabled us to do such great things exist as tools, but communication, real communication cannot be done through anything other than voices,faces and smiles.I will never love technology in any sense other than how it frees me from the gravity of ignorance and archaic thought, but I will never envy anyones operating systen nor stand inline overnight for more bits/bytes and least of all ...apps.  Peace