A Word on Your Blogs

Just a word for everyone. I enjoyed the pop culture artifacts on your blogs. Please bring your artifacts to class next week-- we'll most likely be using them to begin brainstorming potential lesson plans in the next class. Also... I will be checking the blogs weekly, so anyone who has not posted (and particularly anyone who has not set up a blog) please begin doing so (i.e. points/grades/final scores) and if your blog address is not posted below, send it to me as soon as possible. Happy Reading

Quotes for Today

"The teacher does not always have to be more knowledgeable than the pupil; and the pupil is not necessarily always less learned than the teacher."

"Among any three persons, there must be one who can be my teacher."

-- Confucius

Student Blog Addresses

Here is a list of all the class blogs that I was able to access

Sophia: http://eunjupark.blogspot.com/

Chris: http://goatinabeanpatch.blogspot.com/

Matthew: http://tesolworkshopthingy.blogspot.com/

Martin: http://thecriticalbeatdown.blogspot.com/

Miran: http://neomyst.blogspot.com/

Major Jee: http://militarymj.blogspot.com/

Christy: http://christykimck.blogspot.com/

Michelle: http://michelle-criticalpedagogies.blogspot.com/

Su-ah: http://sueglish.blogspot.com/

Catherine: http://nothappyblogging.blogspot.com/

Andy: http://andycritpedblog.blogspot.com/

Joseph: http://oznogcriticalpedagogies.blogspot.com/

Can popular culture subvert anything?

This is a tough question... and it's one that we'll begin to address in class next week. I think it's worth asking if this sort of expression can be or is subversive or oppositional(via the perspectives of the Frankfurt School). As English teachers, I think this is worth thinking about for a lot of reasons. Not least of all because our students' contact with English and with English speaking worlds occurs via the channels of popular culture- and many of the attitudes and beliefs that sit just beneath the surface in our classroom interactions- are intertwined with representations found in pop culture. Anyway, here's a video I've enjoyed/thought about quite a bit.

Great Sandwich

Thanks Chris, that was a fantastic sandwich....

I enjoyed class last night. I think that I could have been clearer about what I was looking for in the first task- but I think that good conversation was happening and so I saw no need to interrupt to ensure small group discussions conformed to my 'plan'. That said, in my experience discussion based classes need a bit of variety in order to 1) stay fresh, and 2) ensure that we don't limit ourselves to one or two ways of expressing ourselves. In fact, my goal for the class is to conduct a large group discussion where I (as the instructor) am not positioned at the center of the conversation (in other words, where I would not call on people to contribute and where members would speak to one another rather than to me). This is something that I have found to be quite difficult in any teaching context- and it probably carries its own set of pitfalls.... but I'm definitely interested in the possibility of class conversations where I could be just another participant.
Small group work has been effective at instigating discussion between class members (where I am not playing a mediating role). But again... I think I'll have to keep considering alternatives.

My question of the week:
In what ways do particular classroom formats favor certain kinds of participation and certain voices? To what degree is the form of the conversation as important as or more important than the content of the conversation?

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful comments and questions....

Documentary

This is part one of the documentary I was talking about in class. Though there is always room for critique... for analyzing subject positions, etc, this made me feel warm and fuzzy....

Another free online journal, a free documentary site, and "do-nothing teaching"

First, I happened upon another free online journal that focuses on progressive English education. It's called English Teaching: Practice and Critique
You can download free pdf files on a ton of different topics.
The May 2009 issue addresses the divide between English teaching and communities. You can find a list of the individual articles here.

I also found a site which gathers all the best sites full of free documentaries. This could be useful for teaching or just for personal interest.

Finally, I met someone this weekend who is keeping a blog and developing an idea he calls do-nothing teaching. Interesting stuff. He's currently engaged in teaching and teacher training in Korea. So have a look! We may look at some of this when we discuss Dogme teaching practices later in the semester.