Special Education Today

Taken directly from Wikipedia.

A Wrinkle in Time (1962) is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L’Engle. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. It is the first in L’Engle’s series of books about the Murry and O’Keefe families.

Meg Murry is a teenage girl, regarded by her classmates and teachers as a bad-tempered adolescent. Her family recognizes her problem as a lack of emotional maturity but also regards her as being capable of great things. The family includes her pretty scientist mother, her mysteriously missing scientist father, her five year-old brother Charles Wallace Murry — a nascent super-genius — and her 10-year-old twin brothers, the athletic Sandy and Dennys.

The book begins with the line, “It was a dark and stormy night,” an allusion to the opening words in Edward George Bulwer-Lytton’s 1830 novel Paul Clifford. During that stormy night the Murrys are visited by an eccentric old woman named Mrs. Whatsit, who has previously made the acquaintance of Charles Wallace. After drying her feet and having a snack with Charles, Meg and their mother, Mrs. Whatsit tells an already perplexed Dr. Murry that “there is such a thing as a tesseract,” which causes her to almost faint. It was a joke that Mr. and Mrs. Murry shared.

The next morning, Meg discovers the term refers to a scientific concept her father was working on before his mysterious disappearance. The following afternoon, Meg and Charles Wallace encounter Meg’s schoolmate, Calvin O’Keefe, a high-school junior who, although he is a “big man on campus”, considers himself a misfit as well. They go to visit an old haunted house near town which Charles Wallace already knows as the home of Mrs. Whatsit. There they encounter an eccentric companion of Mrs. Whatsit, a Mrs. Who. She promises that she and her friends will help Meg find and rescue her father. Meg tells Calvin a great deal about herself, including the disappearance of her father, and they become close. In the evening, Charles Wallace declares it is time for them to go on their mission to save their father. This is accompanied by the appearance of the third member of the “Mrs. Ws”, Mrs. Which.

Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which turn out to be angelic beings who transport Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin through the universe by means of tesseract, a fifth-dimensional phenomenon explained as being similar to folding the fabric of space and time. Their first stop is the planet Uriel, a Utopian planet filled with joyous beings who live always in a state of light and love. There the “Mrs W’s” reveal to the children that the universe is under attack from an evil being who appears as a large dark cloud called The Black Thing. Seeing the Black Thing even from a distance is disturbing to Meg. While working on a secret government project to achieve faster-than-light travel by tesseract, Meg’s father was accidentally trapped on Camazotz, an alien planet dominated by the “Black Thing”. The children are then taken elsewhere to visit a woman who is a kind of medium with a crystal ball. In it, they see that Earth is partially covered by the darkness, although great religious figures, philosophers, and artists have been fighting against it. Mrs Whatsit is revealed to be a former star who exploded in an act of self-sacrifice to fight the darkness.

The children travel to Camazotz to rescue Meg’s father. They find that all the inhabitants behave in a mechanistic way and seem to be all under the control of a single mind. They look for the central headquarters on the planet (described as CENTRAL Central Intelligence) and they discover a man with red eyes with telepathic abilities who can cast a hypnotic spell over their minds. He claims to know the whereabouts of their father. Charles Wallace looks into his eyes and becomes taken over by the mind controlling the planet. Under its influence, he takes Meg and Calvin to the place where Dr. Murry is being held prisoner because he would not succumb to the group mind. The planet turns out to be controlled by an evil disembodied brain with powerful telepathic abilities, which the inhabitants of Camazotz call “IT”. Charles Wallace takes them to the place where IT is held. In close proximity to IT, all of them are threatened by a possible telepathic takeover of their minds. Dr. Murray “tessers” in order to escape, but Charles Wallace is left behind, still mentally dominated by IT. The rest arrive on a dimly lit planet inhabited by sightless but wise creatures. Meg is almost paralyzed by an encounter with The Black Thing that occurred during the “tesser”. She feels frozen as if all energy and heat has been drained from her. Meg recovers over a period through the helpful care of Aunt Beast, and is tessered to Camazotz with Mrs. Whatsit, as she is the only one who can rescue Charles Wallace from IT. Confronting IT, Meg realizes that she can free her brother by loving him intensely, because love is an emotion that the evil IT cannot stand. Meg’s realization comes through her recalling a Biblical verse that “God has chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise and the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” Charles Wallace is freed, and the three Murrys and Calvin return home.

*** Reasons given include the book’s references to witches and crystal balls (although the characters are not in fact witches, and the crystal ball is a science fictional one), the claim that it “challenges religious beliefs”, and the listing of Jesus “with the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists, and religious leaders”. ***

Taken directly from echeat.com

I did read this book. I just didn’t take the time to write a review. I can remember when I read it, way back in 1985. I was in 10th grade. It wasn’t for a class. I was just pleasure reading. I don’t remember who recommended it to me, but do remember someone recommending it to me, but cautioning me about the language and the situations in the book. I can see why it was initially banned. I’m glad it’s not now, though. It’s quite an intense read. On that note, I will let you read the review just in case you haven’t read it or seen the movie.

The Color Purple (1982), by Alice Walker, is a very intense book to read. By intense, I mean it is a book touching very difficult and hard aspects of life of a poor, black oppressed woman in the early twentieth century. Walker does social criticism in her novel, mostly criticizing the way black women were treated in the early twentieth century. Walker uses the life experiences of Celie to illustrate her social criticism.

The Color Purple is not written in the style of most novels. The author does not tell us everything about the characters, the setting, and why the characters behave the way they do. The novel is written in a series of letters, not dated. There are large gaps between some letters, but this is not revealed by the author; we have to figure it out ourselves. The letters are written in what Walker calls black folk language, which also reduces the easiness of the reading.

When the novel opens, Celie is a young black girl living in Georgia in the early years of the twentieth century. She in an uneducated girl, and writes her letters in common language. Celie is entering her adolescence believing she was raped by her father and that he killed both of their children. She writes to God, because she has no one else to write to. She feels that what happened to her is so terrible that she can only talk about it to someone she feels loves her. She knows her sister Nettie loves her, but she is too young to understand. Celie believe only to God may she talk honestly and openly about her suffering. Celie is not, however, at this point, complaining to God, she is simply confiding in him.

Celie was born into a poor family; her mother was sick most of the time, mentally and physically; there were too many children in the family; and Celie was abused by the man she believed was her father. Celie feels used and abused, but does not understand why. So many bad things have happened to Celie that she lacks self esteem and confidence. Celie does not even feel she is worth enough to sign her name at the end of the letters.

Slowly, Celie evolves into a mature woman with great confidence, but not before her sister Nettie is taken away from her, and she marries a cruel man who really wanted to marry Nettie. For a long time, Celie is almost a slave to her husband, until her husband’s mistress comes to live with them to recuperate from a sickness, and Celie becomes her nurse. Shug is a strong woman, and encourages Celie to grow stronger. At the same time, Sofia, Celie’s daughter in law, shows Celie to stand up for herself and fight prejudice and injustice, and fight.

By the end of the novel, Celie’s new strength pays off, because she is able to live happily with the people she loves. She reunites with Nettie and her two children, who have been raised by Nettie. Celie learned to fight, to stand up for herself, and she was rewarded. Celie was able to survive physically and spiritually, and is able to mature into a full, modern twentieth century woman.

In The Color Purple, Alice Walker is able to illustrate the abuse, neglect, and oppression a black woman had to go through in the early twentieth century, but she also illustrate how a woman must fight back to regain the self esteem and confidence lost way back in the early adolescent years. The Color Purple is a story about growth, endurance, and fight, all nurtured by love.

Okay, this is for all the people I promised an OCR lesson plan template for. I found it. I finally found it- my lesson plan template. It was on my school laptop which I had to return. I had a backup on my personal laptop. However, my laptop crashed a couple of weeks ago. As a result, I lost the template. Well, I found a hardcopy cover of it and am in the process of typing it up again. So, everyone I promised a copy, I will actually have it to you by Friday.

Again, sorry for the delay!

Fahrenheit 451 (1953), written by Ray Bradbury, is an engrossing futuristic tale of a society where all printed material is banned. In this country of the future, officials believe that people who read and are able to think for themselves are a threat to the nation where individualism is strongly discouraged. The inhabitants of this society all seem to be suffering from sensory deprivation and their only link to news and entertainment is a large television screen on the wall where broadcasts are continually transmitted to the “family.” All the people are members of the Family. Even though they aren’t forced to watch the telecasts, they all do.

It is the job of firemen (this movie was made long before they were referred to as firefighters) to hunt down subversives and burn the caches of books they’ve secreted away. The title, Fahrenheit 451, is the temperature at which book paper catches fire and starts to burn.

Can I just tell you that this book used to scare me? I was so scared of this book actually coming true. This kinda’ reminded of that Twilight Zone episode with the man who goes into a bank vault to read when a bomb goes off. I guess it serves him right, that he’s so happy that everyone is dead and he can read all he wants without human interference, that his glasses fall off and break. How heartless. Now he can’t read. He’s left alone with all the books in the world, without any glasses to read them.

How horrible! But, which one is worse? Having all the books in the world and not being to read it or not having books to read at all???? Either way, it sucks! I hope we will never have to deal with this, ever!!!

In light of Banned Books week, here’s a list of books that have been banned at one time or another in the United States:

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It’s Okay if You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil’s Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth

Taken directly from Wikipedia page.

Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign that celebrates the freedom to read and draws attention to banned and challenged books. The campaign “stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them” and the requirement to keep material publicly available so that people can develop their own conclusions and opinions. Its goal is “to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.”

Held during the last week of September since 1982, Banned Books Week not only encourages readers to examine banned and challenged literary works, but also promotes intellectual freedom in libraries, schools, and bookstores. Offering Banned Books Week kits, the American Library Association (ALA) sells posters, buttons, and bookmarks to celebrate the event. Many educational facilities also celebrate banned and challenged books during this week, often creating displays and programs around the awareness campaign. Additionally, various booksellers sponsor activities and events in support of Banned Books Week. Some retailers create window displays, while others go further, inviting authors of banned and challenged materials to come speak at their stores, as well as funding annual essay contests about freedom of expression.

The campaign was founded in 1982 by prominent First Amendment and library activist Judith Krug. It is sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA), the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, National Association of College Stores, and endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

Maxi’s Bed Magicians (1990), written & illustrated by Werner Blaebst, was too cute. It reminds me of another book I reviewed, Snuggle Mountain, by Lindsey Lane. It celebrates one of my favorite subjects, imagination. This book can be used during the 3rd grade Imagination unit in OCR. I don’t know why I didn’t read this book during the Imagination unit, but if I have a chance, I will next time. I’ve had this book for a couple of years now. It’s actually falling apart. I’ve been trying to find another copy, but this book is pretty hard to find. N-e way, on to the review.

When Maxi’s parents get out of bed in the morning, he gets in and haves himself a ball.

He closed the door and said softly, “Hi, magicians.”

They also respond (in his imagination), “Hi, Maxi.”

Mondays meant fun-time. Maxi asks them if they’re ready. As anyone knows, you don’t have to ask bed magicians twice. So, he climbs on top of the t.v. and… Geronimo… he shots, he scores. He lands right smack dab in the middle of the bed, with the big fluffy pillows & the oh, so soft down comforter. From there he has a grand ole’ adventure. If you’d like to know what happens, I guess you’re just going to have to read it for yourself.

*** P.S.- The above picture has the German title, but it’s the same book.***

In the above picture, the white thing is the pillow. The orange polka-dotted thing is the comforter.

I’m not sure if I wrote on this blog before about my dreams. If I did, this is a continuation of that. If not, I got a little story to tell you, like to hear it, here it goes. We, as human beings, are so preoccupied with our daily lives that we don’t pay attention to small things that God is trying to tell us. Our minds are not open to answers because they are not quiet; there’s too much noise. However, when we are sleep, we are more open to answers we couldn’t hear during our waking life. So, what I’m saying is that answers are easier to hear in our dreams, when we are not so preoccupied.

That being said, I’ve had quite a dilemma that I needed to get an answer to. However, as with many people, I was having a little trouble getting my mind quiet. So, I thought I’d pray about it and listen for the answer in my sleep.

My dilemma-I wanted to go back to my old job. I thought there was a slim chance of that, but I was willing to jump at it nonetheless. I felt like I was abandoning my students when I knew perfectly well that that was not the case. Although it was not my choice to move on, I knew that it was time to do so, but would have stayed for the children. However, I also wanted this new job that I am in the running for. I had been praying for an answer beyond a shadow of a doubt that moving on was the correct move. Well, I prayed before I went to sleep last night and got my answer. Without a doubt, it is time to move on. In my heart of hearts, I knew it, but wasn’t ready to accept it. Now, I know what must be done.

Okay, dear readers, this is my rant. I got a lil’ something to say it, here it goes. My daughter, Phillise, has had great teachers during her short time in school. I’ve had great relationships with them all. They’ve all been really nice with sparkling personalities. That is…up until now. Her current teacher is not mean, she’s just not as personable as the others. She’s kinda’ dry with little personality. The first day I met her on the first day of school, she was very dry. I didn’t really care for her then, but decided to hold off on forming an opinion. Well, last night, @ back to school night, I made up my mind about her. I really don’t like her. She made a comment about Phillise’s writing; that she thought it was really good and that my baby is very creative.

I know you’re probably thinking, Well, what made you mad? She’s complimenting your child. Okay, I’ll get to it.

I told her that Phillise was no stranger to books, as we have a small library in our house. I also told her that she knows how to do book reports and how to make and bind her own books. I also told her that we were colleagues, since I’m a teacher.

“Yes, Phillise told me that you’re a special ed. teacher,” she said with a sneer.

Did I miss something? The last time I looked, a special ed. teacher is a teacher is a teacher. I work so hard. It’s unfortunate that some people still think that special ed. teachers are babysitters.

Once I realized she was sneering. I told her that I was no babysitter and that I teach my students OCR. I was so mad at myself for explaining anything to her. If she believes that I’m a babysitter, so be it. I don’t owe anything to her. I could gone on, but I won’t. That’s all I have to say.

That, my dear sir or madam, is my rant for the day!

Well, what is it? Your stress (relief) plan, that is. How do you plan to release the excess stress built up during the day. You know there’s going to be some in any job. There’s especially going to be a whoooooole lot in a high stress job like teaching. That’s what a good friend of mine, Danika, and I were just talking about. I told her how she needs to have a plan to relieve her stress just as she needs a lesson plan. Both are equally important to your job. If you are underprepared & overly stressed, you are no good to anyone.

I had to learn this the hard way. My first year of teaching was unusually hard. I literally felt as if I was unraveling at the seams. Nothing I did seemed to work. Everything I did seem to unravel just as quickly as I seemed to be doing.

This is why it was so stressful. Initially, I didn’t know the programs, I had no administrative support, and to top it all off, I had the classroom from hell. It’s a long story, but on my first day, my very first day of teaching, I was called a garden tool (hoe), a female dog, and had to break up three fights, all before Recess. I won’t go into it, but here’s a link to my first couple of weeks of teaching if you would like to read about it. (Click here, here, here, & here). So, I am no stranger to stress. I don’t know what others do, I can only tell you what I do to relieve my stress. If I would not have had a stress relief plan, I would not have made it through my first year of teaching.

Here’s what I do.

1. I do absolutely nothing. Although I appear to some to be an extrovert, I am not. I am an introvert. I can be extroverted when the situation calls for it, but, on the whole, I thoroughly enjoy being by myself & reflecting. I like to sit on my extra-large, overstuffed sectional sofa and just relax.
2. I read. As reading is one of my favorite past times, this really relaxes me so much. There are a couple of blogs I like to read.
3. I spend time with my children. That’s when I realize what (or who) is really important. I don’t know how many times I’ve felt like I simply could not return to that awful job site, only to look @ one of my sons or my daughter and know that I had to do it for them.
4. Sometimes I take a 20-30 minute nap. When I wake up, I am so refreshed. I can’t say enough about a power nap. I highly recommend them.
5. I play a game or two, or three, or four…. I love Farkle! and all those other games that are so addictive.
6. I go shopping. I know this can get expensive, so sometimes, especially the last couple of years, it’s only window shopping.

Do what you need to do, so you won’t unravel under all the stress. Keep it together, because a nervous breakdown is a horse of a different color. (Okay, I know it’s a zebra. Just work with me anyway. It’s related to a horse.)