Week #2

Week 10/10 through 10/16/11

Wednesday (10/12)        8:15 – 8:40pm – The Education of Little Tree

Thursday (10/13)           7:50 – 8:00pm – School Law

Friday (10/14)                7:45 – 8:00am – S.J. Gould

Saturday (10/15)            10:05 – 10:20pm – The Education of Little Tree

Sunday (10/16)              9:05 – 9:38am – Scholastic Magazine

Total minutes=98 min.

My readings again this week were limited to few sources, but I paid closer attention so that I can provide a simple reflection.  I recognize that I do a lot of reading for information.  This reduces my pace as I’m mostly reading at an instructional level.  Reading the Forrest Carter novel is much more in line with an independent level of reading.  I find it enjoyable, but I can tell it is a much more passive process.  I intended to read longer on Saturday night, but couldn’t stay alert enough.  Ready was like sweet lullaby that had be fumbling for the light switch.

In the School Law book, I covered Search & Seizure.  Again, this reading was for information only.  The 4^th Amendment protects all citizens from illegal searches and property seizures.  There seems to be an emphasis on the semantics of the word “reasonable”.  A reasonable search cannot be done without reasonable suspicion.  A student has property rights in terms of their desks, lockers, book bags, automobiles, and person.  I also read a short section on pagers and cell phones.  Although my book is slightly dated, at the time of publishing 2006, no lawsuits have had any legal challenges or rulings.  Schools can set guidelines based on ‘disruption of a learning environment’.  The suggested guidelines are for schools to consider equal treatment on the issue.

I broke out some of my many unread books by Stephen Jay Gould.  He has produced several texts which are compilations of essays written as reflections in natural history.  He is an insightful writer and will surely increase the vocabulary of many a reader. From The Panda’s Thumb, I read a “Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse.”  In this essay, Gould uses the evolution of the famous cartoon character as an analogy to progressive juvenilization as an evolutionary phenomenon called neotony.  From the small eyes and narrow build of Steamboat Willy to his present form with large eyes and over-sized ears (to name a few of the features discussed), Mickey mouse has evolved in form and character.  Early Mickeys were much more violent tendencies than later versions.  Gould also reflects on Lorenz’s major thesis that we don’t perceive the Gestalt, or whole person, but develop our perceptions based on few characteristics, whether cartoon or real people.  In the cartoon analogy, protagonist Disney characters always possess juvenile features while villains appear more adult.  If you think about it, I think you’ll find it to be true.

Of the several articles read in the recent edition of Scholastic’s Instructor magazine, Creative ways to Use Whiteboards and Ten Reasons Nonreaders Don’t Read were interesting.  The latter article was focused mainly on beginning readers who are still learning to read and not reading to learn.  The first reason was that reading makes the eyes or head hurt.  Of course this is related to discovering vision problems in the early grades.  The rest of the reasons (2-10) were all related to fears and insecurities.  Practical solutions were offered for teachers to try.  At first I thought maybe this was one of my wife’s magazines, but sure enough it was addressed to me.  There wasn’t much in the way of secondary school information.