In Support of Reading (and Competent Teachers) June 3, 2008
Posted by Will in random thoughts.Tags: life, reading, teaching
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In my current state of unemployment I am working for the non-profit group Waypoint Services as a before- and after-school daycare substitute. This program consists of a head “teacher” and assistant watching over kids, kindergarten through fifth grade, for a couple hours on each side of the school day. When one is unavailable they call a sub with the hours available. That’s where I come in, and until the end of the school year I’ll be at the same elementary school every morning and afternoon.
Last week was my first time at this particular school, and the first week of my fortnight there. On my second day I overheard the “teacher” reprimanding a seven-year-old girl for reading too much in front of half the class. That’s right, got in trouble for showing interest and reading longer than expected. I didn’t jump in, guns a blazin’, trying to rashly figure out why this was happening. Instead, after the seven-year-old was finished being embarrassed by the adult, I attempted to ask if there was a reading program that Waypoint was encouraging that I was unaware of, or whatever reason might make up for what just happened – and I asked as we are both surrounded by the entire class. What did happen, though, made it worse. The sorry excuse for a teacher told me little Elizabeth was a part of a reading program hosted by the Cedar Rapids Kernals, which is dependant on minutes read, and that there was no way she (the enthusiastic seven-year-old Elizabeth) could have read 90 minutes because she “is a really bad reader.” Saying this for the entire class to hear. (I soon found out that this “teacher” has had a nasty habit of making fun of this little girl already)
I looked over and Elizabeth is sitting at her table, Harry Potter and the Sourcerer’s Stone in hand bookmarked at page 90, with her head down in embarrassment.
How unacceptable can you get? We need to be encouraging reading. Be it poetry, novels, comics, manga, or pop-up books, parents and teachers have a responsibility to encourage reading. If your child, or a child you are taking care of, likes to read, and is found reading, SUPPORT THEM. Don’t you dare sarcastically tell them they’re bad at it, fueling other kids to make fun of her too. Help them embrace it and let them make the decision of whether they’re going to be a lifelong reader. Find ways to support literature and language development, like the popular vocabulary quizzing Free Rice.
When I went over to her and praised her for reading what she had, she shyly looked up at me and smiled, and I saw her swell with pride just a little bit.
Time Travel with Christopher Lloyd May 7, 2008
Posted by Will in random thoughts.Tags: life, thoughts
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The last two nights I watched Back to the Future parts II and III with some friends. This sparked some good debate and discussion on the theory of time travel, pioneering filmmaking techniques and, of course, how badass the Delorean is.
I never knew before this week, but the technique of an actor performing two different characters in the same scene was pioneered in the Back to the Future trilogy. Having a majority of the times I’ve seen these films be while I was growing up, I didn’t know that. It was really cool to watch the films again having a bit more knowledge about filmmaking. Looking more closely now, I can see when a blue screen is used to get Michael J. Fox in the scene multiple times – slight differences in lighting.
By the way, I had no idea that Michael J. Fox played his future daughter in Back to the Future II. Growing up I never once questioned the character’s masculinity, but watching the film again I can totally see that it’s Fox trying to act feminine. It’s pretty funny.
The topic of how awesome Christopher Lloyd is came up, and that we wish we had the chance to see him on screen more often. I don’t think I’ve seen him in a role I didn’t enjoy watching – to a certain extent, his role in Who Framed Roger Rabbit scared the shit out of me as a kid. So not even two hours after talking about this with my friends I watch episode 14 of the West Wing’s sixth season and the guest star is Christopher Lloyd. His role is great too! He plays a very eloquent, intelligent professor and constitutional writer. It was great to see him throughout the episode, and made me wish even more that we had the chance to see him on the big screen more often. He’s obviously keeping busy with productions (as you can see on his IMDB profile) but I’d love to see him in some more mainstream projects.
We discussed the theory of time travel and where we would want to go too. It’s hard for me to decide where I would want to go; there are so many time periods that would be awesome to see. The Renaissance, Medieval and the Industrial Revolution eras are the first to come to mind. I can’t help but think about all the preparations that would have to be done in order to go though. You can’t risk catching a disease from those times, so do you take a bunch of antibiotics beforehand or bring a bunch with? Then there’s protecting yourself if people are hostile to you, and the dressing to fit. On top of all that there’s making sure you don’t screw up the whole space-time continuum thing – kind of a big deal.
If you could go anywhere in time where would you go?
Working from my bathroom April 17, 2008
Posted by Will in Uncategorized.Tags: life
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So I spent today working out of my bathroom. That’s right, my bathroom. I’ve been unemployed for nearly two months so, financially, things are bit tight. I have cancelled my cable, my Internet and the only things that are consistently plugged into an electrical socket are my computer and refrigerator.
Fortunately for me I have a friend that lives next door and across the hall from me who puts out a public wifi signal – it’s even called “The People’s Router.” He spent so long tapping into someone’s wireless signal he feels it’s his duty to return the favor to the public. A pretty nice gesture to those of us who don’t have the finances to pay for digital fixation. So as I sit here, in my desk chair in the bathroom drinking a St. Pauli Girl, I think of how grateful I am to John and toast to him.
Oh, so why exactly am I working out of the bathroom? I’m working on a 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 Apple PowerBook I got in September 2004 and the 405.1 wireless card isn’t that great, and the only place in my “quaint” apartment that I get a consistent and reliable signal is right next to the porcelain throne itself.
High class living, let me tell you.
My first blog April 17, 2008
Posted by Will in Uncategorized.Tags: life
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Having been a participating member of the social community for years now this is my first foray into being a contributing member of the blogosphere as an author. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
WideAngleLenz will evolve into much more than it is now. Things that you can expect to see in the future are movie reviews, design features, ramblings and rantings on life, pictures of my crazy cat Esperanza, and a lot more. You can also expect WideAngleLenz to leave WordPress.com and move to a site built via WordPress.org. Please feel free to leave constructive comments if you ever have ideas or feedback on anything posted – I want this to be fun for everyone!
So I’m going to stop writing my obligatory intro and start writing some content for everyone to enjoy. Thanks again!
