I do love technology, but not as much as you, you see… Wednesday, April 18, 2007

I realize I should have written about this much earlier, but with the end of the year coming upon us faster than we can expect, this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and spend some time with this blog in quite awhile.  During the second week of April, Matt and I attended a technology fair in downtown Grand Rapids.  Professors from Grand Valley had many different booths, so much so that we actually missed the keynote speaker.

To get down to business, I actually found this fair to be quite interesting. I say “actually” because I came into the fair with negative expectations; I’m not a huge fan of tech-y kind of conferences. Not that there is anything wrong with technology or the people that thoroughly enjoy it- I’m just not one of those people.  However, I really enjoyed myself at this technology fair.  All of the information we received was very helpful and could prove useful as as begin my teacher assisting at Grandville Middle school this fall and eventually in my student teaching as well. Much of the technology will be very helpful to me as a volleyball coach as well.

On to the specifics. Matt and I visited quite a few booths, but one of the most memorable tables to me was the booth with the clicker.  This booth was run by one of the professors in the Geology department (Peter Wampler) where I have been able (or forced) to spend much of my time here at Grand Valley. Matt and I took a quiz on plate tectonics using the clickers, which allowed the professor to give quizzes on a big screen in class.  This tool would be excellent for reviewing for tests, as each student can see what answers they submitted and whether those answers were right or wrong.  I’m happy to say I did fairly well on the quiz…you can ask Matt how he did yourselves.

Next, we visited a booth presented by the people of Physical Education.  This booth was chiefly interesting to me in terms of coaching. The woman we spoke with had great ideas about utilizing heartrate monitors in practices to increase athlete productivity.  She gave great examples about increasing meet times for cross country and gave us ideas as to how to use those monitors and different drills to use for our volleyball teams when we become coaches.  In addition, she also stressed the importance of using PDA’s in a classroom or a coaching setting. 

Yet another booth we visited was the one involving Interactive Whiteboard/Powerpoint technology.  This booth was my favorite (no offense, Prof. Rozema). This station showed Matt and I the ins and outs of using a whiteboard in combination with powerpoint instead of taking typical classroom notes.  This program allows the teacher to write notes on a powerpoint and save them for later, as well as make new notes and share them with students. I thought this was a FANTASTIC idea! I really want one for my classroom in the future.  I called my Mom after talking with the representative from this booth, and she said that the high school she teaches at is purchasing two of these whiteboards, so maybe I’ll get lucky enough to have one of my own when I am hired for a teaching job somewhere in the United States in the next year or so!

The last booth we visited was the Second Life booth set up by our own Professor Rozema.  I have to admit, I’m not much of a “Sims’ type person, but the information and the idea of having another whole world for your students to enter into and learn about their texts in sort of an escaping manner is a wonderful idea.  I can see how students that are really into video games would absolutely love this software. I’d like to see a Second Life World done on the Great Gatsby.

Jake Reinvented Thursday, April 5, 2007

Matt and I created a podcast for our ENG 311 class. Listen to it here.

“Rock Yo Hips” Thursday, April 5, 2007

With all the negative response that I’ve been receiving lately, I had expected to find that the articles sorted out by my Google Reader would indicate the same thing- no one wants hip-hop to be integrated into our educational classrooms because of its negative aspects. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the articles turned up. The exact opposite of my expectations, as a matter of fact, was what I found when I began reading. Even more pleasing to my stance on this issue, many of the articles found by Google have been local (well, from Michigan or the Tri-State area) and many are in favor of this idea. This is very encouraging to me because I have felt slightly attacked lately for my position.

However, today I chose to read a different type of article, one I believe brings to light a completely different opinion of the hip-hop music industry. The author of this article takes a blunt stance on hip-hop, suggesting that historically black colleges and universities need to “go to college.” He attacks these universities because of the portrayal of their universities that they allowed to take place in the video for Crime Mob’s song, “Rock Yo Hips.” The author, Anthony B. Bradley, states, “Black colleges are being portrayed as nothing more than strip clubs and brothels.” He slams these universities, claiming that they are perpetuating the very images that hip-hop needs to rid itself of. He also questions why Warner Brothers chose to film the video for this song on a black college campus, suggesting that it is the people higher up in management that are enforcing this stereotype. What saddens and infuriates Anthony B. Bradley the most is that a black college, South Carolina State University (also a historically black university) is thrilled about its booking of Crime Mob for a concert in April. He calls this video “deplorable” and says, “Black college women dehumanize themselves while black men gawk and thrust at them. Black college cheerleaders dance like strippers, with lyrics linking them with “the pole,” and the black men with metal-plated teeth in this video appear to be in need of something called ‘books.’”

After viewing the video myself, I have to agree with Bradley’s assessment. Groups like Crime Mob are the reason why so many people are skeptical toward the integration of hip-hop into the classroom, as well they should be. However, drawing the distinction between what is appropriate and not appropriate in terms of hip-hop (as well as general classroom behavior of students toward one another) could prove to be a great lesson for students to hear.

Read the Bradley Article Here.

“Tell ‘Em What They Want to Hear” Thursday, April 5, 2007

While I appreciate all the interest (from both inside our ENG 311 class and from outside visitors), I feel like a clarification to my blog is necessary because there seems to be some confusion. I DO NOT advocate the use of ALL hip-hop in classrooms. The majority of hip-hop is not appropriate! I agree wholeheartedly! The whole point of this blog is to acknowledge the good and bad aspects of this genre, not solely rag on the negative portions of hip-hop. Think of it as “the glass is half full” type of philosophy. Certain artists and aspects of hip-hop (specifically the rap portion of the industry) are known to be vulgar and degrading, which I thought I had clearly mentioned in my past posts, but apparently I needed to be slightly more specific.
In the article I read for today’s post, I was please to discover that Michigan State University has already implemented some of the ideas (that is, integrating hip-hop to some degree in the classroom) that I have expressed here in my blog. To help students like Christina McGuffie, professors at Michigan State brought hip-hop in to aid her in the transition from high school to college education. McGuffie, a senior at MSU, says, “The teachers and the environment made it really hard for us to learn and get anything accomplished,” the said the criminal justice major. “Teachers spent most of their time throwing (students) out of the classroom, writing them up.” The type of classroom she describes is typical of many inner-city classrooms (as well as many rural ones) because students just do not pay attention to the teacher, or respect the teacher. Whether the student can actually pay attention, or whether they simply choose not to is another matter altogether. McGuffie and her collaborators have been working (using a hip-hop influence) with a group of artists known as Detroit Summer to increase the link between inner city classrooms in Detroit and Lansing. She and the artists hope that this will encourage a greater number of inner city students to consider a college education and not drop out before finishing high school. The high school students are offered help in writing resumes and filling out college applications, and shown that college IS AN OPTION that they can choose. This is key.

This directly relates to our class because we are constantly learning about finding ways to create excitement in our students’ learning while in high school. In addition, we also hope that if they can be motivated and excited about their work in high school that they will take that excitement to the next level and attend a college or university. So, I say that if hip-hop excites kids and gets them into what they’re reading or writing, USE IT- in moderation and in an appropriate manner, of course.

The State News Article is located here.