Having way too much fun

I forgot say how much fun I was having exploring the various places I suggested to my students! I set up a Facebook page and even got some friends. I'm not sure why that surprised me so much, but it did. I asked my daughter to join and, at first, she said no. Having your mother on a friends list wasn't cool. But, in the end, she did and it made me feel great. Folks who complain that we are losing value in interaction and social relations with all this technology "stuff" must not be spending too much time in cyberspace. Seems like the more time I spend, the more connected I feel to the people in my life and to people in general. Sure feels good whatever it is.

I started using Google docs and can't believe how well it works. Nancy, Kevin, and I were sitting together writing on the same document and watching the changes pop us as we sat there. It was way too fun. Since Google docs isn't supported by Safari I started using Firefox and like it much better. I even figured out how to embed hyperlinks in the blog on this browser and I couldn't get it done on Safari.

Gotta love this Web 2 stuff!

Changing mindsets

I'm so impressed with how my students have taken up the virtual assignment I tried in my summer literacy class, and now I'm learning a ton from them. It's like what Colin was saying about Ranciere's book 'The Ignorant Schoolmaster"; I don't have to know everything to teach it. We are all learning together about the nature and implications of a web 2 mindset and having a blast doing it. I am at least. I know it's an assignment for them, but it sure feels like they are enjoying unpacking the literacies involved.

Amazed

My friends Colin and Michele amaze me. We had a video conference on Skype with them in my class tonight and they made our heads spin. They are always one step ahead in their thinking and I leave conversations with them rethinking everything. At AERA Colin caught me off guard with a comment about critical literacy as a played out modernist discourse. I thought about it for weeks afterward. Tonight I got more insight into what he meant when he talked about the difference between "languages of power" and "practices of power". I got this.

But I still left wanting to rethink everything and feeling self-doubt. It feels like Colin and Michele breezed past talking about critical literacy as a kind of instructable idea to doing critical practices in everyday life while I was taking a nap or something.

I'm desperate to see things change and am tired of people talking about injustice and social reproduction as they drive their SUVs around "those" areas of town. It is simply no longer tolerable that urban schools, neighborhoods, communities, and families are ignored or pathologized as some problem to be solved. So I have to do something and critical literacy seemed like a way to get there. Yet it is still rooted in autonomous literacy and an outsider mindset. Maybe I've been closer to what they are talking about than I think and just need my mind blown more often so I can see better.

Still got lots of thinking to do but I remain amazed by my brilliant friends.