Captivating...

I've noticed that many of my fellow bloggers have discussed their "pleasure reading" or what they've been reading besides the required school texts. I have been hesitant to do so myself, simply because lately I have been reading some theologically driven/based texts. Since this is an educational blog, and there is the separation of church and state, I have just avoided this topic. But this summer I came across a book called Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. For all of those who are letting out a disgruntled groan and getting ready to click to the next blog, let me just say that any "Christian book" willing to quote Van Morrison and the Last of the Mohicans, really cannot be that bad. (Plus, it is possible to read this book and "skip all the God parts"... I have a friend that did that very thing.)
I bring this book up, not to 'spread the word' some much as to just discuss a concept. You see the book discusses "unveiling a woman's soul" and by doing so many topics, such as eating disorders, unsafe sexual practices, self-mutilation, family relationships, and struggle with self-identity are discussed. Hopefully, by now you can see the importance of bringing this up. As future educators, we will most likely know a female student who is going through some of these issues. While I am in no way suggesting that this book is a cure-all or that it even holds all the answers, it does have some major insight as to what could possibly be motivating factors of the above mentioned behaviors. I think one of the most important questions that a teacher can ask is why? Why is the student doing this or behaving this way? This book could possibly be a tool to help people understand or even perhaps begin to question student's motives and actions.
As an additional note, these authors also came out with a book entitled Wild at Heart, which focuses on men.

The Professor and The Madman

While reading The Professor and The Madman, I got a sense of deja vu. There was something about this story that I was familiar with. It took me a while to figure it out, but then I finally understood. This is yet another example of how utter brilliancy and utter craziness go hand in hand. The character of Minor is obviously complex in that he single-handedly contributed more than 1,000 words to the Oxford English Dictionary, but his brilliancy, much like a double-edged sword, equated his craziness as a murderer in an insane asylum.
I think people are genuinely fascinated by characters such as Minor. There are countless books and films with astounded popularity that will back up my claim. Think of characters such as Hannibal Lector, John Nash from A Beautiful Mind, or even the real life Howard Hughes. They are all brilliant men, and they end up being twelve kinds of crazy.
I just can't help but wonder what do characters like these suggest? That there is such a thing as being too smart or too brilliant? That being brilliant must come with a price? Its just an interesting concept that seems to have been proven true numerous times... and makes me somewhat glad that I am not a genius.

Imagine my Surprise... with Image Grammar

Okay, so I don't know about the rest of you, but one of the first things that I did when I reached my cooperating classroom was check out my teacher's bookshelf. I wanted to know what literature Mrs. Postiy used to teach in her classroom, and I want you to imagine my surprise when on her shelf is a copy of Image Grammar. I don't know about the rest of you, but I had never heard of Image Grammar before last year.
As a person who has always been able to fumble my way through grammar during school simply because "it sounded right," I initially took this book as yet another attempt to explain the unexplainable. I feel like grammar, especially in the English language, is so fluid and so changing that it is difficult to always no the rights and wrongs of it all. As Dr. Kist said the other day, people are still debating whether or not to put a comma before the word "and" when you are listing something in a sentence.
In addition, when thinking about the type of grammar instruction that I got in school, my mind goes back to those horrifying grammar worksheets where you have to identify all the parts of the sentence: The dog in the window is barking at the cat by the tree. As a person who has always had my own style of writing these sentences really did not apply to my writing, and therefore, did not apply to my understanding of English grammar.
I think that Professor Noden's book gets around that boundary. By using actual writing pieces (especially those of the student), Professor Noden has found a way to make identifying grammatical elements and using them correctly in one's own writing a much easier task.