"How camest thou in this pickle?"

But when you draw a picture, everybody can understand it. If I draw a cartoon of a flower, then every man, woman, and child in the world can look at it and say, “That’s a flower.” I love this quote so much, because we often find ourselves feeling restricted to our language and yet we all see the world, it's something we all have the ability to understand. I think that is amazing. I loved this book. I found the character very lovable and I think a lot of it had to do with his outlook on life. I wouldn't say it was very positive but it also wasn't negative either. It was complicated and that made it real. I feel like I connected to this kid on a lot of issues, how I felt as his age, and I think that has to do with my attachment to this book. Plus I love the drawings, I think they are sweet and true to the character. Even though this book was so easy to read it touched on a lot of deep and important themes. I would probably recommend this to a younger age group just becaus...

The Education of Margot Sanchez - By Lilliam Rivera We read the first chapter of this book in class and my first thoughts were... I would not read this book out loud in class. That being said, I would still like to use this book and I think it has a lot of great themes young adults and teens could relate to, especially in the modern world dealing with status and ways to fit in. I remember feeling that if I wasn't on the top of my game all the time I would be excluded as a kid, and being excluded felt like a death sentence. There is a song from the musical Heathers (based off the pop-culture classic movie Heathers) where one of the Heathers sings about suicide and relates high school to a life boat. It is a beautiful analogy and I think I would consider playing that song in class if I were to do a unit on this book. I think the book is interesting because it is easy to relate to even for those who don't have to deal with the factor of race. For example, we all have parts of ou...

Reading this book reminded my a lot of "An Actor's Work: A Student's Diary" by Konstantin Stanislavski. What I mean by this, for those who haven't read either book, is that you become immersed in the book. Almost as if you are one of the characters, learning along with them. This style of writing made the book very relatable even if the anecdotes introduced weren't true to your own experience. I love to read, and even then I do too also fake-read. Especially if it is for something I am not very interested in. ""Some kids are born good readers and some kids aren't. I've always been a bad reader and I always will be. It's too late for me." I have heard this quote being said a million times throughout my education, even teachers have told classes this, (pause for emphasis) teachers.  I know it is silly to go on and on about the very first chapter but it really stuck with me. I just kept thinking about my process and how I am still l...

http://plpnetwork.com/2011/05/23/the-power-of-the-connected-classroom-why-and-how-im-teaching-social-justice/ " I think empathy is one of the most important attributes for young people to develop. We need to cultivate in our students from a young age the gift of empathy; the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person’s feelings. And we need to act. In some way, every one of us on the globe does." Growing up I never really thought I had a voice, social injustice issues felt too far out of reach. I also thought it was someone  else's problem and when I actually wanted to do something I thought it was pointless to do because it was coming from me. Yet I have a voice, a quiet voice, but a voice and I should use it. I read an article about how so many people who are attacked end up dying, not because the emergency team responded too slow, but because the public always expected someone else to act. There is a mentality in ...

I came across an interesting quote the other day. I can't phrase it verbatim but it went along these lines.... White Privilege is your history being a part of the core curriculum while mine is being taught as an elective. Even at the college level, ethnic authors aren't introduced into the curriculum like white authors are. We talked in our discussion last week about the freedom of education and how education gives the student the ability to defend themselves, gives them the power to not depend on others to express their ideas, wants, and/or desires. We do not want to limit, constrain, or control actions or thoughts. I loved the idea of coupling the study of film, newspapers, magazines and music with the study of novels, poems, and plays. They all influence each other and it is great to see what one artist takes and adapts from the other. I also enjoyed the thoughts on discussion and how it is needed now more than ever. We are often prepared in the classroom to takes test...