At the Movies

If it’s March, it must be time for March Madness, Shamrock Shakes, and the Cleveland International Film Festival. I’m headed up to the Festival today to see a film called Ingredients. But the film one sees is almost irrelevant to the pleasures of the festival, I’ve found. Of course, I’ve seen great films over the years—ones that stick with me that happen to be so obscure I’ve never heard of them again (Lamb) and ones that prove to be enduring experiences that shape my work and my art (the Up series of documentaries that have followed the same protagonists since 1964). But I think what keeps many of the 60,000 people who attend this festival coming back is the “social network” that develops around it. I know I’ve been seeing some of the same people in attendance at this for the 20 years I’ve been going—people I only see once a year. I don’t even know their names, but I recognize them as we reconnect standing in line or fighting over the last t-shirt. Of course, you can now follow CIFF on Facebook and Twitter. And there is a CIFF blog. But I’m hoping to see you there, at the movies.

Cleveland Film Festival

If it's March, it must be time for March Madness, Shamrock Shakes, and the Cleveland International Film Festival. I am headed there today to see a film called Ingredients, a documentary about the food industry. But really, ironically, the film that one sees doesn't seem to be the main draw anymore at the festival--it's the film festival experience that I think keeps bringing me back (and about 60,000 others each year.) I first started going to the CIFF way back in the late 1980s when it was still held at the Cedar Lee Theatre. I can still remember some of the films I saw in those early days--some so obscure that I've never heard of them again (Lamb) and others that have gone on to be very well known (The Up series of documentaries that have followed the same protagonists since they were seven years old in 1964). Even while the films have always been great, I think what I've most remembered are the people who attend. Some of these people I have seen once a year for 20 years at this event. I always see the same people there. I have no idea what their names are, even though we chat about the movies we've seen and the increasing lines at the event. What we have in common is the love of film and this "social network" that brings us together after a long winter at this event every year. And, of course, the CIFF has gone way beyond just publishing the old newsprint festival booklet from the old days. Of course, now you can now follow CIFF on Facebook and Twitter. See you there or, better yet, at the movies!

Committee of 10 Strikes Again!

Someone in the webinar I was doing today asked me to elaborate on the Committee of 10 that I mentioned in my presentation. Actually, she asked what we could do to influence the Committee of 10. When I made sure that she understood that the members of the Committee of 10 are all dead, I realized that she was asking a really important not-so-rhetorical question. When you stop and think about the fact that so much of the structure of the American high school is still in place from their work, it does make one stop to think: how can we influence the impact that the Committee of 10 still has?

Invitation to Book Club

As I write this invitation, it is the last day of 2009 and we are overlooking the start of not only a new year but a new decade! In a more literal sense, I am overlooking the little lake that is outside our home on this snowy morning here in Ohio. My wife, Stephanie, and I are enjoying our first months in our new home, and we’ve been told that some of the neighborhood kids go ice skating here once the ice gets sturdy enough. It makes me wonder if there will be a kind of Currier and Ives scene outside our window, or a replication of Mr. Pickwick’s Christmas morning comedic spectacle with him and his friends tumbling around on the frozen water.

Yet, as I look over this frosty winter scene, I’m sitting inside typing this on my laptop computer, writing this invitation to you that will be read on my blog as well as via a social networking platform called English Companion Ning, originally created by one person—Jim Burke-- only one year ago with now over 10,000 participants. I must confess that, as I write this, I’ve also got one of my iTunes playlists going and am checking my Twitter feed and chatting with two friends on Facebook, one of whom is in Europe. And don’t even get me started on email. What a juxtaposition between the old and new, the classic (now called “retro”) and the yet-to-be-imagined!

Yes, this is the world we English teachers live in, isn’t it? I hope we can talk about the challenges and opportunities of this new world in the next few weeks as the EC Ning book club will focus on my new book, The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age. We are caught in the marvelous tension that exists within this profession that owes its very existence to page-based print texts. What are we to be about in this world of new literacies?

This is the core question I’ve been asking teachers around the country and around the world for the last 15 years. The result is a real-world chronicle, I think, complete with lesson plans, sample assignments and assessments that teachers are using as they attempt to navigate this slippery, rapidly changing surface. This is not a cheerleading book. The teachers I interviewed are struggling with the barriers that we all encounter—lack of technology, lack of support, lack of time, and, of course, a continuing societal obsession with standardized curriculum and testing. But these teachers are also persevering as you must be, or else you wouldn’t be reading this. I hope you will take a few moments and jump into my book and then jump into the conversation we will be holding here.

I look forward to talking with you here and on the EC Ning in the coming weeks and to writing some new “chapters.”