In the News
Help for Haiti
Many have seen images and read news reports of the devastation caused in Haiti by last week’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake. You may have also read the warnings of earthquake fraud, of people trying to make a buck off of the catastrophe. More recently, you may have read the sad news of looting and aid being slow in coming to those who need it most.
If you’re like me (wanting to help more than my wallet will ever allow), there are ways – some are even local – to reach out to Haiti during this time:
OutWest Marketing
Wild about the West? So Are We!
Owned by a sweet couple, this “new charm” of Old Town Newhall is a “Western Boutique and Cultural Center”. I have met one of the owners, and she is a sweet lady.
This Thursday, January 21st, they are hosting Fine Art Photographer Frank Lozano and his work. Frank has connections to Haiti and has announced that he will be donating 100% of the proceeds of any of his work sold that evening to Haiti. OutWest will donate 10% of all their online and retail sales to Three Angels Children’s Relief.
For more info, check out OutWest’s website at: www.scvoutwest.com
Sport Chalet & Soles 4 Souls
Lend a hand by donating shoes today.
I heard about this opportunity at church today. Sport Chalet has teamed up with Soles 4 Soles and is currently accepting gently used shoes for Haiti. The drive is only until January 31st, so if you’d like to participate, now is the time!
For more info, check out this page: http://www.sportchalet.com/category/soles+4+souls+and+sport+chalet.do
We can definitely be praying for the Haitian people, and we should be. Reaching out in tangible ways is good, too. Both are needed.
Corinne’s Book Bag
Inspired by the article Barack’s Book Bag published on Slate.
The president of the United States is on vacation. Apparently, like most people on vacation, most of the U.S. presidents bring a stack (or mini-stack) of books with them for personal edification and enjoyment. According to the article above, ever since John F. Kennedy confessed to reading the 007 series, the media has speculated on what exactly a president’s reading list says about him. I wasn’t quite sure what was meant by that – says about him as a what? A person? A leader? A curious mind who happens to like reading?
The article got me thinking about what I have been reading (or attempting to read) or have read this past summer. It also reminded me of the stack of textbooks waiting for my attention next week when I return to grad school.
Should we judge a person by what they read? Or, for that matter, should we judge a person by what they haven’t read? I know if I were to plop myself down on a lawn at my place of employment with certain books in hand, I would definitely receive some curious stares, miniscule applause, or maybe even some chastisement. Were I to do the same at my local Starbucks, I may get a few stares and nothing more (maybe a few free samples?). I sometimes feel embarrassed checking out books from my local library (especially the day I checked out She’s Not the Man I Married, which I found quite by accident and discovered to be truly fascinating. Unfortunately, I did not finish…I shall return to it next summer), where some of the teenage clerks give me odd looks as I smile at them in an effort to hurry my checkout process.
Either way, here are the books I am currently reading/will be reading in the months to come. Judge me as you will.
For Grad School:
- Ethernet: The Definitive Guide – Charles E. Spurgeon (O’Reily)
- Beginning Web Programming with HTML, XHTML, and CSS – Jon Duckett
- PC Hardware in a Nutshell – Robert B. Thompson & Barbara F. Thompson (O’Reily)
- Managing and Troubleshooting Networks – Mike Meyers (no, not the comedian nor the murderer – different spelling, too)
For Teaching:
- Principles of Public Speaking – Monroe, Gronbeck, Ehninger, German
- A Rulebook for Arguments – A. Weston
- Intercultural Competence – Lustig & Koester
- Intercultural Communication in Contexts – Martin & Nakayama
- Teaching Culture – H. N. Seelye
- American Cultural Patterns – Stewart & Bennett
And a few other books I can’t remember or don’t have nearby at the moment.
For Personal Interests:
- The Holy Bible – You know, this is the book I should be reading the most of. I am praying that will be the case this coming semester.
- The New Kings of Nonfiction – Ira Glass (amazing, so far)
- In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto – Michael Pollan
- Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife – Mary Roach
- How to Break a Terrorist: the U.S interrogators who used brains, not brutality, to take down the deadliest man in Iraq – Matthew Alexander (looking forward to this one)
I guess my lists are slightly ambitious (*laugh to self*), but I’m hoping to get through all the books. I really am.
What do my lists say about me? I’m not sure, actually. The only thing it shows for sure is that I will be mind-blowingly busy next semester.
Good luck on your reading list, President Obama. Wish me luck on mine. Let me know how the judging goes!
Related Articles on Obama’s Vacation Reading:
- Obama’s vacation reading picks: How do they stack up? (EW.com)
- Obama’s Vacation Reading List (Newsweek)
- Just In: Obama’s Vacation Reading List (ABC News)
- Scandal over Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard Reading List (Baltimore Sun) – Scandal? Really?! Just because he’s potentially reading a book he’s already read?
Farewell, Encarta | Hello, Critical Thinking
The Interwebz have been buzzing with the news for a month now – Microsoft is going to discontinue their Encarta Encyclopedia. I, personally, do not use the software/web interface, but I did way back in the olden days of 2000. While living in Eastern Europe, some kind person from the United States donated a laptop to my mother for my education, and along with that laptop came 6 beautiful, colorful discs with Encarta scrolled across them. I spent many hours hunched over the small screen, scrolling through articles, reading about different countries I had lived in (just so I could see the pictures and not feel homesick), and absorbing information in general. My favorite feature was their 360 degree “virtual tours” of various places. Alcatraz became my favorite; I would spent hours freaking myself out by making up different stories to go with my “wanderings” around Alcatraz. Ah, to be a kid again.
Microsoft had this to say about Encarta’s demise:
Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past. As part of Microsoft’s goal to deliver the most effective and engaging resources for today’s consumer, it has made the decision to exit the Encarta business.
Indeed, we do “seek and consume information in considerably different ways”. Take Wikipedia, for example. Even The Wall Street Journal announced Encarta’s demise with the headline, “Microsoft to Shut Encarta as Free Sites Alter Market”. That’s one of the draws of Wikipedia – it is free, and it has tons of articles on topics ranging from extremely academic to mind-blowingly unimportant (but are important to some, of course). Encarta, as far as I could tell, was like the traditional encyclopedia. I would not be able to find higher math help in it, nor…on a completely different plane, the latest news on Flight of the Conchords.
But, is access to so much information really that great? I think so, but I also think that critical thinking and discernment are needed when filtering through the oodles of information presented. Christopher Dawson of ZDNet apparently agrees, as seen from this quote from The Wired Campus:
The demise of the encyclopedia, he argues, should simply galvanize educators into teaching the research skills students need to wade through “brutally powerful knowledge sources” like Wikipedia and Google. “The encyclopedia is dead,” Mr. Dawson writes. “Long live critical thinking.”
Long live critical thinking, indeed. If any of my students read this, now you know why I assign you those research projects and try to get you to articulate your thoughts in class.
Articles of Interest on this topic and/or critical thinking:
Good Morning, Mrs. President
I used to have aspirations of becoming a president of the United States. I was crushed in 8th grade when I found out that foreign-born American citizens need not apply. Then my hopes were raised when I was told that foreign-born American citizens could become president…as long as both parents were citizens of the US at time of birth. Awww, drat!
Congrats to Barack Obama and all, but I think I have finally reached the end of my presidential aspirations (or delusions, at least). After reading this article in the New York Times, I will never again want to become president…ever. I cringe when I think of what Obama is going to have to go through once he’s sworn in.
I know you’re all about change, Mr. President-to-Be. But I think this is definitely one rule you should get changed ASAP, for your sake and for those of us techies who dream (or used to dream) of holding the highest office in the nation.
Maybe I should txt him…
Child Violence
There is a great streak of violence in every human being. If it is not channeled and understood, it will break out in war or in madness. ~Sam Peckinpah
He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. ~Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Have you read the headlines lately? Did you see the story about the nine-year-olds in Georgia who plotted to “tie up their teacher, put tape over her mouth, hit her over the head with a paperweight, and then possibly cut her”? According to the news report, they were caught on the day they were to implement their plans. The surprising thing (or maybe not that surprising?) is that a lot of the students were in on the plans, as evidenced by the fact that some tried to explain that the broken steak knife was for cutting the tape, not to hurt the teacher.
I can remember a lot from my days as a nine-year-old (it was an awkward time for me), but taking a steak knife to school to hurt my teacher never crossed my mind. I’m sure I had some grievances with a few of my teachers (most likely with my math teacher – I still dislike math to this day), but to purposely plan to tie her up and harm her? Wow. What in the world?
A lot of people may read the article and think, “What’s happening to society?” Others may think, “Where were the parents in all of this? Why were they not teaching morals to these kids?” Still others may ask, “How could the school’s security be so lax to allow the knife on to the grounds?” I secretly ask, “What in the world did that teacher do to incite several nine-year-olds to plot her harm?” But, whatever questions are asked, as Home Economists/Family & Consumer Scientists, where do we fall in all of this? Were these children to cross our paths, what would we do? What would we teach them? What would we say?
Did you read the other article in the news about the twelve-year-old boy who killed a man who was attacking his mother? According to the news article, he was playing a video game in the adjacent room when he heard his mother scream. Running into the kitchen, he found his mother on the floor, “straddled by a fellow resident who was choking her.” After yelling at the man to stop, the boy then took a knife and swung at the man.
Stamp [the mother] said she didn’t fully realize at first what her son had done. “He didn’t say anything,” she said. “But I knew when I looked in his eyes. I said, ‘Oh, Lord.’ ” – L.A. Times
Authorities are still trying to figure out whether the boy will be charged with anything.
Both stories involve children and violence. One story may seem stupid, while the other may seem justified. What if…you claimed the nine-year-olds were justified and the twelve-year-old was stupid? Feels wrong, doesn’t it? But no one is applauding the twelve-year-old as a hero to save his mother. I even get the feeling that the mother isn’t too sure her son is a hero who saved her life.
Personally, between the two stories, I appreciate the twelve-year-old, not because of what may be labeled a heroic act but because of his attitude:
The boy said he was not happy with what happened but felt he had no choice.
“I told God that I had stabbed him because he was killing my mother. I know he understands, and I think he will keep us safe now.” – L.A. Times
As teachers (and other professionals), what will we teach our students? Can we impact them in such a way that they will save our lives and the lives of others instead of plot our destruction? I guess that’s a choice we make everyday…
