Tiny Ziggy

2006-09-28T16:56:00.000-07:00

Exhale

It's been one month and twenty days since my last blog...feels good to blog again. I have picked up The Gospel According to Larry...can't belive my school library actually had it. Though we had it the librarian had never heard of it. So I will start reading it tonight I am really excited. Haven't read since Cut...

2006-08-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

HELLO EVERYONE! I MISS YOU GUYS!

Back from a well needed break...and still home hunting. Everything is just so DARN expensive. Why weren't I born wealthy? At this point I would love to find a nice apartment. Wish me luck.

2006-08-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

Dr. Cammack

As we were leaving tonight we weren't sure if we had told you how wonderful of a teacher you really are. So I felt compelled to tell you. You are a wonderful teacher. Your teaching style is leaps and above anything I have ever experienced at Montclair State University as a graduate and undergad student. You are one of the smartest women I have ever met and most of all you make me proud to be a women.

Peace

2006-07-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

Cut

I found Callie’s reaction to Amanda very interesting. Even though Callie herself was a Cutter she didn’t like Amanda for admitting it. I think the Patricia McCormick did a nice job of on characters like Ruby, who seemed to know just what to say and do around Callie. Ruby was like the mother of Sea Pines. Debbie reminded me of Teri Litch, they were both character whom on the surface appeared to be weak but were actually strong.
Callie in story Cut reminds me of Kate of the story Catalyst. Both Callie and Kate are runners. Both girls were responsible for their younger male sibling. Both Callie and Kate are good students. I like both stories were written, I guess I am still a sucker for happy endings. I have to admit, I had a hard time relating to Callie. Callie frustrated, the whole not talking thing. Maybe this is not necessarily the characters fault but the fault of the author. To me it wasn’t really explained why Callie stopped talking. It was a relief once she finally started talking. I like watching the progression of the relationships between the other girls at Sick Pines.

2006-07-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

Teenagers and Movies Bug Me!

Teen movies have become all the rage. If you are a teenager and you haven’t see the latest new flick, you are more or less not cool. It seems as if Hollywood knows exactly what the are doing, the movies feature teenage stars and focus on teenage issues. Starlets like the Mandy Moores, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Scarlett Johanseen became famous because they either starred in or played a part in a teen movie. The domination of teen movies in the cinema led to another teen hit, “Not Another Teen Movie.” This movie featured the typical high school characters the jock, virgins, sluts, geeks, ugly, and pretty people. Though it was a spoof about teen movies, it was still another teen movie.

Every weekend across America teens flock to the local theatre to see the latest teen movie or one marketed to teens. The movie theatre has become not just a place to see a movie but a place to be seen in. My students admit that they never actually see the movie the spend most of the time talking to each other. Nevertheless, the number of box of sales continue to increase. The latest teen movie “Little Man” a comedy featuring Marlon and Shawn Wayans, was the second favorite movie in the country last week. “Little Man” was second to “Pirates of the Caribbean”, though Pirates isn't necessarily a teen movie the main characters with the exception of Johnny Depp (WHO I LOOOOVE!) were people who could pass for teenagers and who appeals to this age group.

I think the 30 and above crowd aren’t being marketed to as much. In recent times I have all but lost patients with movie going all together. Last week my family and I went to see “Pirates of the Caribbean”, I was surprised that I hadn’t fallen asleep, but not surprised that the four teenagers that was seating behinds us couldn’t help but kick our chairs through out the movie as they played footsie with each other. Needless to say I was very perturbed and think teens should be supervised by a parent and not dropped off or just stay home and wait for the DVD. It is becoming more difficult for us 30 and over to enjoy the experience of going to see a movie, it seems as we just opt for waiting for the movies to come out on DVD, by then we or I forget that I wanted to see the movie in the first place.

2006-07-21T02:59:00.000-07:00

Mean Girls

Recently I have lost patience for movies and am not quite sure why. I find myself falling asleep when my family and I go to see one. It is now a running joke at home. My son and husband only bring me alone as an extra lap to hold the vat of popcorn we order, and then they sit me in the middle of them so they both have easy access to it. When Dr. Cammack told us we were going to be watching Mean Girls, my first taught was oh boy! I hope I don't fall asleep. I didn't, I was tickled all the way through the movie. At certain instances I wanted to rewind certain parts because I knew it would result in that the side splitting, belly aching laughter that makes you feel so good afterwards. Also I held back from cracking up too much because I didn't want to anyone my classmates. In the past I haven't been into buying movies once they've been released. However, Mean Girls is a must have!

On Thursday I asked my students if they had seen Mean Girls. Even though the question was addressed to the class. I was really more concerned with the female response to the movie. Two out of my six girls had seen it. I didn't expect anyone to have seen the movie especially the boys. I tend to still view my fourteen to sixteen year olds students as babies. I still see their innocence. And I am always shocked at the responses I get from them when we have conversations, not specific to Biology. The two young ladies had both agreed with me that it was a very funny movie. They took turns describing their favorite scenes in the movie especially the sex education scene, the Regina's mother offering her condoms. I was shocked...Again In my mind I thought they would be more likely to appreciating the less sexual stuff like the foot cream, Katy throwing up or falling into the garbage can, or Regina getting hit by the school bus. At that point I moved the conversation along because I didn't want the other students in the class most of whom were male and Muslim to get the wrong idea about me or the two females who were being very candid.

I liked the movie not only for the comedic value but for its message. There is an undeniable message about teenage relationships be it family, social, or romantic. As an adult it shows us how disconnected we are or can be to the teenage world. They deal with real issues. I think the only difference is that adults have had more experience dealing with issues of relationships. Not to so say adults are better at these functioning in these relationships but they have had more exposure to and experiences with them. If used correctly, this movie can be used to encourage dialogue about relationships.

Mean girls also offers an opportunity to have a discussion similar to that on the one we had in class about sex, sex categories, and gender. We or at least I have come to just accept many social contracts without having questioned them especially that of sex and gender. Probably, because the opportunity hadn’t existed before now. This was a profound experience; I can’t help but think how useful this information maybe to a teen who is struggling with issues of sexual identity. When society says your are, either male or female, and that’s it. Or males and females looks this way and act this way. I can’t help thinking about how sad and lonely this world can be especially for someone who doesn’t fit these definitions.

In the movie Regina’s mother fit or played up the role of being female. She and Regina and her friends “did gender”, with the hair, body image, and the clothes. Regina and the plastics were obsessed with their social and body image, they felt the need to look and act a certain way. They even made their own social contracts with their rules for dressing. Where did they learn this behavior? The males in this movie “did gender as well” the principal was your average breast loving male, to macho to talk about tampons, and needed a weapon (this case the baseball bat) to be tough. The jocks were jocks. The word jock in of itself has become a social icon; the coach was just an older version of a jock. Katy’s teacher “did gender” she served as a maternal figure and helped the girls to work out their differences. Society has agreed that females are maternal. I wonder if teenage girls especially those like the “Plastics” would behave differently if they knew that they didn’t have to play the socially acceptable roles of being females. Instead challenge them; I wonder what the movie would look like. I still think it would be just as funny.

Oh! I almost forgot something about the movie this upset me. The use to the N-word. I will never find it acceptable even it is spelled differently. I don't understand why it had to be used. Why couldn't the girls have said "Bitch Please!" May be I won't buy the movie...I mean if I do then I will be condoning the use of the N-word. I had the same feeling in my stomach I had during Bowling for Columbine, I just didn't expect to hear it. I don't know I have to think about this one.

2006-07-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

Social Construction of Gender and Sex

Although our discussion and activity was based the Social Construction Feminism, I haven't gotten past the social construction idea. What I mean is...and is almost ashame to admit it, as I science teacher I never questioned why males are males and females are females. I took these terms at face value and never questioned why males are males and females are females. I am okay with the obvious sexual characteristics, males have more body hair, deep voice, penis, and sperm. Girls more body fat, breasts, vagina, and uterus. What I gave gathered from the reading is that at some point our society and I guess the whole world decided that those characteristics or biological criterias served as the basis for classification of an individual as a male or female. This is deep! Why only two? Male or Female! That's it! This pisses me off! Because now our society and the whole world demonizes those who don't fit into either of those 2 sex categories. They didn't sign of for this! It's not fair!

I guess what I am saying is that I am more comfortable with the concept of gender more so than the concept of sex and sex categories. The latter marginalizes and excludes people. Just like "Race" WoW! my stomach just flipped. Just as Sex, Sex Categories, and Gender are social constructions so is Race. And we have seen how well that has worked out for people of color.

Just as an aside this class is heavy...

Okay, back to sex, sex categories, and gender...as I was saying I am more comfortable with the concept of gender than sex and sex categories. I think gender can be negotiated because it is more or less conduct, but sex and sex categories are assigned and definite.

Now this has given me a different way of looking a struggle Feminism and equal rights for women. This is analgous to Racism and the fight for civil rights. May be we should create a new struggle peopleism, the idea is that we should stop labeling and marginalizing people, instead recognize, embrace, and utilize their differences for the good of this society and the whole world. Maybe I am too liberal or too much of an idealist.

In response the characters in CATALYST

I feel though the author was female, she emasculated Teri. Teri was more masculine than Mitch. Though Teri was described as female, she wasn't described as being femine, in fact the only evidence of her "doing gender" was the fact that she took care of Mikey. This only thing that gave me a femine or female image of Teri in my mind. This is why even though I had read the words "he was my son, my baby"...it hadn't registered that Mikey was her biological child. Because in my mind she had been so emasculated that Teri being a mother wasn't possible. This idea didn't occur to me until last nights discussion about feminism.

2006-07-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

I'm Back

It's been a while since I posted a blog...I feel weird like I have some how neglected to feed one of my animals. But I was away for good reason. I spent the entire weekend working on my case study. I'am a slow writter, I envy those who can write a paper the day before it is due. To me this blog has begun to take on a live of its own, it has become like one of my pets, I am fond of it, I think it's cute... and I feel horrible for having neglected it. My words have become is nourishment. So I'm back and hopefully forgiven.

Thursday my family and saw Wicked, it was a great play. It was filled with humor, I didn't expect that. It was very different from the Wizard of Oz, which I have never been a fan and have never been able to sit through the entire movie. I find it sort of creepy. Anyway the play was great and it had a good message. My son and agreed that the message implies that people sometimes want to be misled and that we need to have a villian or bad guy. Thus, the was the job of the "good witch" to keep them scared and happy at the same time. this reminded me of the militia people in Bowling for Columbine, who justified there need to have a gun by stressing that more or less they needed to protect their families from a perceived "bad guy." More over, the television and media in this case is analgous to the "good witch" who keeps reminding us that there are "bad guys" and "villians" who are out to hurt us. Then keeps us happy by selling us stuff we are happy to buy but don't need.

2006-07-12T08:38:00.000-07:00

Moral Story-Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau
Civil Disobedience is more of an essay than a story...
Wow! This is a hard one…morality is a hard concept for me. I am still working at. However, when I think about a book that tuaght me a lesson about morals, I find it hard to narrow it down to one book., Thoreaus’ Civil Disobedience. I am struggling to find the words to express what I have learned about morals or morality. I have learned that there is a gray area between ethics and morality…In my view ethics has to do with the idea of right and wrong. When I think about the idea of right and wrong I think about ethics. However, morality takes ethics one step further and involves action. For example the following passage from Civil Disobedience-”There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free-trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both.”
Another passages that made me think of morality is the following:
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus,etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones;
I learned that the individual should be the engineers of his/her moral conduct in which he or she will operates.

2006-07-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you Barbara! Thank you Dr. Coles. Thank yor Dr. C.

There was a poetry and a beauty in the way she explained the concept of DEATH in regards to the way it was handled by the patients and the doctors. I hate to sound corny but…you touched me…something in me was listening and got it. Your voice…the calmness in it. I realized that while we have life (meaning are medically healthy) we should concentrate on thinking about life and living it, because that’s what we know we are professionals at living (or at least should try to be) I guess that’s what living your life to the fullest is all about…and that we shouldn’t worry about death until we have to deal it…leave it to the dying…and let them teach us what they know. I don’t know if that makes sense to any one but me. Thanks Barbara for the moment of clarity, I hope it stays with me forever.

2006-07-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

Greetings Dr. Coles

At present, I am attending one of New Jersey’s universities, as a graduate student. As a class requirement, I have read your book Call of Stories Teaching and the Moral Imagination. By standards not set by myself, I wouldn’t be described as “well read”. In fact some may describe me as literary illiterate; I haven’t read the majority of the classics “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, “Moby Dick, “The Scarlet Letter”, and the like. I am not quite sure how those novels past me by, but it may have more to do with the curriculum of the elementary and secondary schools I have attended. Again I can’t account for how the classics past me by during my post-secondary experience as well, I satisfied my academic requirements for literature classes, but none of those books were assigned. It appears to me that there is a dimension of the literary world that I have yet to experience. I must admit I am envious of the experience of those who have read “the classics.”

Not sure what to expect. I read the text with open mind. And I was surprised at my reaction to the stories. The Call of Stories has forced me to take a different look at fictional stories. I hadn’t really realized that fiction could have such a profound affect on people. I attribute this ignorance to my lack experience of lack with fiction. The reaction of the students and patients to various fictional stories revealed that fiction is embraced by real people. And these real people make connections to characters on a very personal level. It seems to me that connections are made because these characters as you put “ They can offer us kinsmen, kinswomen, comrades, adviser—offer us other eyes through which we might see, other ears with which we might make sounding.” page 159 The irony is here is that there is truth in fiction.

I appreciated the way in which you showed how the writers moral imagination forced your students, patients, and even yourself to look a your own moral cores. When the students and patients examined their notions of morality, conflict ensued when they compared the moral conduct of themselves or people in their lives to the moral imagination of the writers. Janice (Harvard Business School student) "I read Walker Percy's novels, and I get impatient with him...Because the people in them remind me of people I know." "We put on a show-we think a show for others, but really a show of ourselves." Page 140

I never thought much about morality, mine or any one else’s for that matter. I had consciously decided that morality was almost non-existence in the human consciousness. I had decided that people aren’t necessarily moral or immoral they simply act in their best interest. My reaction to call of stories forced me to rethink they way I have framed this idea of morality. What I have garnered is that all people have a moral core... just becuase I don't see it at work dosen't mean that it isn't there.

2006-07-04T15:20:00.000-07:00

Reader Response-I can't say that I remember how literature was taught. I remember being assigned a book to read, being told to expect quizzes based on the reading from the night before. I can't say we for sure we didn't have class discussions, but I don't remember them. Although, undergrad wasn't so long ago I can't say that I remember how the literature course was taught either. I can say that these feels like a different experience, maybe becuase I am a different learner today than I was during high school and undergrad. As I understand it, the Reader Response Theory, is more or less a tool readers can use to create the meaning of a text. In doing so the reader has more of a personal experience with the text. The reader is allowed to immerse his or herself into the text, therby concluding, connecting, and utimately attaching some sense and meaning to what her or she has experienced. I am not sure if am on the right track here, I hope at least I am close. Proceeding from my intepretation of the Reader Response Theory...assuming that I am correct in my analysis. I can see it being used as a way to make students a part of the text. Allowing them to make the text their own through their experience as they read it. I see the end result as a positive experience for the students as it will allow them to have a sense of success with the text, especially since their interpretations and and opinions are viewed as valid (within reason). I see dialogue and discussions as we have had in class. In the Transactional approach of The Reader Response-"The reader is stimulated by the text reacts and responds to the text. Those reactions and responses shape how the rest of the text is read." Most of all I see this as an opportunity for students to become active participants in their learning.

Bowling for Columbine

2006-06-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

This is the third time I have seen this movie and it hasn't lost it's sting. Michael Moore dosen't hold back and makes certain to show America the hypocrisy in what adults expect from their children, as the adults themselves do otherwise. This reminds of the old saying "Do as I say not as I do"...From a teenager point of view I believe they would perfer"Actions speaks louder than words". Infact it does most of the adult in this town are in one way or another connected to a weapons making facility. As Moore interviewed the public relations person from the company and tried to allude to the fact that there might be a connection between Columbine and this facility. The spoke person rebutted by saying "what happened at Columbine is a microcosm of what is happening all over the world". He wasn't kidding. I can't recall the last time a heard of teenagers in another country carrying out a murderous attack on their own their classmates...moreover with guns and bullets purchased locally. The Nile is not just a river in Egypt. He went on to say that the missels are being made to "defend us". Good point. The militia people of Michigan said the guns are supposed to protect them as well. One of the young men in the movie has stolen a gun from his friend, who's father had "plenty" of guns. To add insult to he then went into the a "Black neighborhood" to sell it to gang members. Soo who's going to protect me and my family once this gun enters my neighborhood?

Two reoccuring issues stood out the most for me and was brilliantly pointed out in the cartoon scence ...Guns and White male power...the obivious marriage between the two. We can't have it both ways. In this American society we accept the right to own guns without a honest attempt of controlling them. And "white" males with guns are just as dangerous as "black" males with guns. But you would never know that. In addition this society cannot continue to subject and marginalize a group of people and not expect anger, violence, and crime. Though I am not condoning violence and crime against any human being. As previously stated I have seen this movie three times and the one scene that still stops my heart is with the young lady who was being interviewed after the shooting "He came into the library and shoot everybody around me...I screamed and cried and told him not to shoot me.... he shot the girl next to me in the head and then he shot the black kid, becuase he was black." How did she know that did he make a comment before he shot the "black" kid? Maybe what upsets me most is because I know at some point in history and even now there are people who will shot me cause I am "black" The bottom line is gun violence is not a "white/black" issue it's a human issue.

This movie is sending a clear message we don't really know our children and though are a part of us they are not us and we must work a lot harder at trying to reach understand them. Although many of them are reacting to biochemical changes in the brains I also believe that they are reacting to the actions of adults...parents and teachers alike. We are teaching them everything they know.