Hey everyone, this is my first time blogging. I guess I have been "tooning" out this whole blogging phenomenon. I was never a huge AIM'er and do not frequently use my Facebook account. Twitter is odd to me...why is it that we must let everyone and their mother know what we are doing and how we are feeling at every waking moment. It is hard to believe that we have the capability to follow the lives of complete strangers. I probably sound bitter about technology...I am not I just do not use it as a forum to express who I am and what I am thinking. That is why this class appealed to me, not because I love blogging but because I want to understand this phenomenon and how it can be useful for me and why youth connect to it so well. Just recently have I really realized and accepted that the means of communication and connecting for teens as have changed. As I mentioned in my intro I coach dance team at a suburban high school. This is my second year coaching and I realized quick that text messaging is the primary form of communication between the athletes and myself. I have told the girls numerous times that a phone call or email are the only acceptable means of contacting me. This was like speaking a different language to them! The glazed over confused expressions should have been my first clue that this just did not make sense to these youngsters! Never-the-less I receive text message after text message, "Coach I am going to be late," "Coach how much do the T-shirts cost again?" It is not like I am defying society and text messaging but I do think teens still need to know how to make a phone call or compose an email. Text messaging is the easy way out. This is where I finally (sorry I tend to be long-winded) get to my point: are we giving children so many easy options that they do not know what hard work is? For example: it takes 10 seconds to send a text message and a whole 2 minutes to make a phone call. Are kids becoming so used to this fast paced culture we live in that they are missing the big picture of so many things? I have asked the girls I coach why they text me even though I ask them not to, I get 2 answers: 1) It takes too long to call or email 2) Texting is the only way I communicate. So how are our children going to do when they sit down for a live, face to face interview? Or will it be the norm to have "text" lingo in high school papers in the future? Have our kids "tooned" out or must we "toon" in to try and connect and save ideas of the past in order to preserve present and future ideas....Periodic table of texting
I think that the fist few chapters of Tooning In do a nice job of encouraging us to explore the pop culture phenomeonon and look at how we can relate to young adults through pop culture. At the same time the book does suggests that if we are going to implement pop culture in our classrooms we must do it deliberately and make sure that learning objectives are still met. I always love the " can't we just watch the movie, why do we have to take notes?" Students think it's "cool" to watch the movie that they saw in the theater but "OMG" ;) how on earth could it possibly relate to social studies? I recently showed parts of the updated film, Marie Antoinette and my students were a little leary at first. It was amazing to see how they eventually compared the culture then to today. Without even knowing they started to fuse components of pop culture with education. This can be exhausting for the teacher though, constantly finding ways to incorporate pop culture into your lessons. It is important to find ways to be inspired yet maintain the pedagogy you stand by. I look forward to examining different strategies that White and Walker suggest, in order to open that door in welcoming pop culture to becoming successful in connecting with youth.
I think that the fist few chapters of Tooning In do a nice job of encouraging us to explore the pop culture phenomeonon and look at how we can relate to young adults through pop culture. At the same time the book does suggests that if we are going to implement pop culture in our classrooms we must do it deliberately and make sure that learning objectives are still met. I always love the " can't we just watch the movie, why do we have to take notes?" Students think it's "cool" to watch the movie that they saw in the theater but "OMG" ;) how on earth could it possibly relate to social studies? I recently showed parts of the updated film, Marie Antoinette and my students were a little leary at first. It was amazing to see how they eventually compared the culture then to today. Without even knowing they started to fuse components of pop culture with education. This can be exhausting for the teacher though, constantly finding ways to incorporate pop culture into your lessons. It is important to find ways to be inspired yet maintain the pedagogy you stand by. I look forward to examining different strategies that White and Walker suggest, in order to open that door in welcoming pop culture to becoming successful in connecting with youth.
Hey everyone, this is my first time blogging. I guess I have been "tooning" out this whole blogging phenomenon. I was never a huge AIM'er and do not frequently use my Facebook account. Twitter is odd to me...why is it that we must let everyone and their mother know what we are doing and how we are feeling at every waking moment. It is hard to believe that we have the capability to follow the lives of complete strangers. I probably sound bitter about technology...I am not I just do not use it as a forum to express who I am and what I am thinking. That is why this class appealed to me, not because I love blogging but because I want to understand this phenomenon and how it can be useful for me and why youth connect to it so well. Just recently have I really realized and accepted that the means of communication and connecting for teens as have changed. As I mentioned in my intro I coach dance team at a suburban high school. This is my second year coaching and I realized quick that text messaging is the primary form of communication between the athletes and myself. I have told the girls numerous times that a phone call or email are the only acceptable means of contacting me. This was like speaking a different language to them! The glazed over confused expressions should have been my first clue that this just did not make sense to these youngsters! Never-the-less I receive text message after text message, "Coach I am going to be late," "Coach how much do the T-shirts cost again?" It is not like I am defying society and text messaging but I do think teens still need to know how to make a phone call or compose an email. Text messaging is the easy way out. This is where I finally (sorry I tend to be long-winded) get to my point: are we giving children so many easy options that they do not know what hard work is? For example: it takes 10 seconds to send a text message and a whole 2 minutes to make a phone call. Are kids becoming so used to this fast paced culture we live in that they are missing the big picture of so many things? I have asked the girls I coach why they text me even though I ask them not to, I get 2 answers: 1) It takes too long to call or email 2) Texting is the only way I communicate. So how are our children going to do when they sit down for a live, face to face interview? Or will it be the norm to have "text" lingo in high school papers in the future? Have our kids "tooned" out or must we "toon" in to try and connect and save ideas of the past in order to preserve present and future ideas....Periodic table of texting
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