I was watching the Vikings-Patriots game Sunday, and the announcers were talking (I mean, they’re always talking) about Viking Sheldon Richardson. Unlike most announcer blather, this ended up being an interesting story about a player who had gone through some self-imposed rough times to be where he is today. In a Minneapolis Star Tribune piece, Richardson discussed what he would say to his younger self: [Read more →]
Each day that I head over to my job at Drexel, I think about how I get to be around amazing, motivated students. That’s one of the main benefits of the career I chose. [Read more →]
PALMYRA, NJ – Science programming at Palmyra High School (PHS) will receive a $15,500 donation as a result of a Casino Night fundraiser conducted by the Palmyra High School Foundation for Educational Excellence (PHSFEE). [Read more →]
Well, it’s about time. We’re playing some D&D. In school. For the good of all. [Read more →]
Summer’s getting darn near over for many (as I’ve said before, though, not for me, so direct your sad thoughts elsewhere). Children will be taking to the fields again. Parents will be preparing for time on the sidelines and bleachers. For an unfortunately sizable portion of the latter group, their time will be spent… yelling at the officials! [Read more →]
I stuck up for the kids. And I stuck up for their devices. I did it right here. I wrote, “This summer, our kids will be a writing a ton.” I said, “We might if not encourage then at least recognize what they are doing.”
Then along came Apple “Tapback.” You may have encountered this app. You sent someone a text message, labored through the effort of writing. Then back at you came your exact message, in quotes, with a few tiny introductory, qualifying words in the beginning, such as “Liked,” Disliked,” “Laughed at.”
I was at the fine Council of Writing Program Administrators conference in Sacramento last week. It’s attended by people like me who have dedicated their lives to teaching writing, reading, literacy. One morning, I was talking with a friend, and, while kvetching about this Tapback function, I mentioned that post I had written.
Let’s cut over to a travel practice of mine. For years, for every work trip, I would create a little travelogue of the experience to share with my kids. First, I used PowerPoint, creating one slide per day describing my trip while adding facts about the place. I’d include pictures, sometimes a little quiz.
They seemed to enjoy it, often asking me on the phone when I was going to email the “slideshow.”
But time passed. It got to the point that no one read my PowerPoints, certainly not in a timely fashion. I was annoyed, because it wasn’t an easy thing to create them. I’m busy at these conferences. Sometimes, I would end up composing them on the plane, all bleary-eyed.
So, I switched technologies, going for the easier-to-access Google slides. This worked for a while, but even then I could see their readerly interest diminishing. After all, the kids can drive now! What do they want with slide show about Dad’s journeys?
So, I changed technologies again. I came to them. In a family group text, I’d pepper them with info and the occasional picture. They’re always interested in seeing my hotel room and the view, and they seem perpetually fascinated by the various sandwiches and people I encounter. I also still tell them about the place I’m visiting, at times dropping a little reality on them.
So there’s your context.
At CWPA, I had been sending these texts, but now I was getting stupid “Tapbacks.” It was this I was lamenting to my friend.
In the midst of my barrage of sandwich- and view-related texts, I also sent them a more somber note about Sacramento’s large homeless population. “On the downside, there are millions of homeless people here.” I want them to think about these things, these tough social justice issues!
I had sent that text the night before, and just as I was talking to my friend about digital literacy, I got a Tapback from my lovely daughter. She quoted the above and began it with “Laughed at…”! Mind you, my daughter may be many things, but she’s not insensitive to the plight of others. In fact, sticking up for the downtrodden has long been one of her best traits. My friend, who knows some of the exciting stories about my daughter, and I looked at this Tapback and, considering our conversation about digital literacy, just had to laugh.
Later, when I asked my daughter about this choice of Tapback, she simply said, “I didn’t know what you were going for.” To her, I was the problem!
Okay, digital literacy, you’re making it tough for me to have your back.
I am proud of my youngest, Zachary, for concluding his elementary school years (that’s it for us!) by achieving Honor Roll for the year and High Honor Roll for the last marking period. He did well and worked hard. But this is a total team win. [Read more →]
As I trailed the ambulance that transported Nate, my 16-year-old middle child, to the hospital last weekend, it struck me: In all their years playing sports, none of my kids had ever been seriously hurt. [Read more →]
Summer’s here, and the battle against literacy apathy and attrition can be renewed. Now the enemy forces of Screen have added Fortnite to their mix. Also, it’s a World Cup year. [Read more →]
Sometimes, you can find warning signs about that thing you’re about to acquire/do — maybe not-so-little indicators that what you want may not be all that great or healthy. [Read more →]
I’ve marveled at the war that’s been waged on youth sports through our hypercompetitive culture. Everyone wants their kid to play up. As someone who has become increasingly involved with soccer, I was particularly flummoxed when I heard that the club soccer system was discouraging kids from playing high school ball. [Read more →]
My last kid, the erstwhile little guy, my 8th-grader, finished up his youth wrestling career this winter. Spring soccer will be done in a month. After about 20 years of coaching youth sports, I now look ahead into the great unknown. [Read more →]
Gore Vidal once said, “Heroes must see to their own fame. No one else will.” So, with all due respect to the Aeneas’s and Odysseus’s of the world, I’ll use this opportunity to tell you about the release of my new book, Writing Together: Ten Weeks Teaching and Studenting in an Online Writing Course, which I co-authored with former Drexel student Diana Gasiewski. [Read more →]
A snow day. Ah, the glory. We’d be out all day, frozen, free. A lot of the stuff was dangerous, some was illegal, but (mostly) no one got hurt. [Read more →]
My daughter has hit us with some doozies through the years, so when, recently, during her so-far bumpy first year of college, she told me with great gravity, “Dad, I want to talk to you about something,” I was expecting a confession about, say, her leadership of an international bank heist ring. [Read more →]
The Eagles beat the Patriots to win the Super Bowl! I was, like many area folks, standing stunned at the end, but my plans were in place: I had already decided we were driving immediately into downtown Philly. I knew it was going to be a celebration like no other at City Hall. And my boys, football fans though they ain’t, were going with me! [Read more →]
We all have our defining aspects, and my birthday is near the tops for me. Everybody might say their birthday defines them in some way, but, for me, it’s not the birthday itself — it’s when it falls. I don’t mean in terms of astrological destiny, as I don’t believe in a lick of that. December 21st. Right before Christmas. Shortest day of the year. When winter break normally starts. The advent of flu season. Yes, my birthday has made me critic, cynic, aw, who are we fooling?: It’s enabled me to be a big, giant complainer. [Read more →]
I have been coaching Palmyra Junior Wrestling for 13 years, ten of those as head coach. I do it because I love it, but make no mistake, volunteer or not, it’s a part-time job. Some weeks I put in about 25 hours, and my total time commitment must be over 3,000 hours. [Read more →]
We all have our guilty pleasures. Mine remains the NFL. Although I’ve painfully extricated myself from fantasy; am annoyed for various reasons by the kneeling debate; think the sport is destructive to the minds and bodies of human beings; loathe the league’s “farm system,” big-time college football; and cannot generate a whit of interest among my kids, there I am on a Thursday night, all alone, watching the Ravens and Texans game. [Read more →]
