One Week Later

Whew! Thanks everyone for your great ideas regarding reading programs for my students in the middle school. Please keep them coming as you get them, as I am sure that I will be in need of lots of creative strategies this year in the classroom.

I had a pretty good week this last week, as the school year has gotten going and the students have settled into something resembling a schedule. There are still a lot of challenges, however - for example, explaining to one student I don't think that he'll be able to get his own security camera in his locker but that, yes, I will be sure to bring that up at our next super secret teachers' meeting - and I have yet to get used to the whole "working every day, all day" concept. It leaves so little time for all of the important things in my life, like blogging!

R.A.'s classes are going quite well, also, and they're even teaching her some practical and marketable skills like troubleshooting for PC's. But there's also a lot of critical theory* at work in the Library Sciences. In one of her classes, they're discussing what qualifies something as a "document," and about whether or not stuff like animals in zoos or patients in hospitals can be seen as "documents." This thought is related to the Institutional Theory of Art that's associated with the philosopher Arthur Danto, someone who was quite big at Bard and who R.A. in particular knows very well. So, in other words, I think that this program at UIllinois is going to be right up her alley.

And, as an added bonus, maybe if I butcher the theories of Danto enough here, it will make R.A. have to blog more, if just to correct me.

*Critical theory, of course, being the antonym for "practical and marketable skill."