Literacy Expertise?

Four years as a history teacher, listening to other educators speak about their practice, and living with Li this summer has really made me think more about the process of reading.

Reading is something that I have always loved doing. Like so many things I like to do, it is difficult to break down the process of doing something that I consider to be natural and simply enjoyable. This isn't the case for so many of my students, though, and while I completely acknowledge and love the talents my babies have, I would just love to share that love of reading and imagination with them in a more effective manner. There were so many times when I would look at a student's writing and think, "Ugh, you can do so much more than this!! What am I teaching you?! How can I help you become a better writer!?" The answer is in helping my students be better readers.

I'm seriously considering doing some formal or informal study in literacy in order to move towards being that teacher that I want to be. Professor Marcelle Haddix's program in Syracuse really made me think of this practice in my own life. I had the pleasure of taking Professor Haddix's class at BC as a grad student and learned so much. Now I'm ready to do even more work with literacy and assessment. I'm grateful to people like Professor Haddix and Li for planting those seeds and am excited by the prospect of learning how to teach reading and writing in a better way!

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Finally got finished with Oscar and enjoyed my time with him thoroughly. if you haven't read the book, i highly recommend it -what a read. Diaz's tone throughout the story is just golden. Very funny with some real great stuff underneath and within the humor.

There are two really dope parts of the book that I wanted to highlight. The first is the quotation that Diaz uses in the beginning from a poem by Derek Walcott called, "The Schooner Flight." I had never heard of Derek Walcott before and thought that the lines Diaz picked for the introduction of the book were genius:

"Christ have mercy on all sleeping things!

From that dog rotting down Wrightson Road

to when I was a dog on these streets;

if loving these islands must be my load,

out of corruption my soul takes wings,

But they had started to poison my soul

with their big house, big car, big-time bohbohl,

coolie, nigger, Syrian, and French Creole,

so I leave it for them and their carnival-

I taking a sea bath, I gone down the road.

I know these islands from Monos to Nassau,

a rusty head sailor with sea-green eyes

that they nickname Shabine, the patois for

any red nigger, and I, Shabine, saw

when these slums of empire was paradise.

I'm just a red nigger who love the sea,

I had a sound colonial eduation,

I have Dutch, nigger, and English in me,

and either I'm nobody, or I'm a nation."

The second part comes from the the last few lines of the story:

"Maybe, she said, you could call it life.) He wrote: So this is what everybody's always talking about! Diablo! if only i'd known. The beauty! The beauty!"

While the whole book was wonderful, those last lines really represent how i feel about life right now. i'm blessed beyond imagination, and it's the most beautiful thing i could ask for.