Building on Lydia’s post yesterday, I (Clare) want to highlight the site Goodreads. I check it regularly to read their suggestions and/or book reviews. It also allows groups to have a shared space. This would be a great place for student teachers in literacy courses to share books they have read with pupils. (They now include children’s literature in their genre list.)
If you do not know the Goodreads site, check it out at: http://www.goodreads.com/
I came across the graphic below on Twitter entitled Helping Students Find the Right Book. It reminded me of our pre-service P/J and J/I literacy courses yesterday in which we discussed the place of the novel study in the classroom and the importance of engaging students in the reading of a variety of genres.
I (Pooja) have just returned from an extraordinary two days at the Rishi Valley School in India.There is simply too much for one blog post, so I will share my experiences over a few blog posts. In this blog, I will focus on the principles which guide the school along with a photos of the campus.
The alternative school is guided by principles of holistic education which aim for the growth of student’s intellectual, emotional, physical, artistic, creative, and spiritual potential. The educational philosophies of the Rishi Valley School include:
The philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti established the Rishi Valley School in 1962. There are now Krishnamuti schools across India and the world, but this was the first educational site. The school is located “in a sheltered valley in the interior of rural Andhra Pradesh…about 140 km north-east of Bangalore.” (http://www.rishivalley.org/school/aims.htm) When we first arrived we met with the school principal. He listened to us attentively, and when he spoke it was softly and always with purpose. He said something in that meeting that has stuck with me. He said that although the teachers differed in teaching approach, the important quality was that they approached their teaching from a place of care and love. By walking around the campus, speaking with teachers and students, and observing classes I witnessed this in so many ways. For example, each morning the students gather in an open-air auditorium for an assembly. My experiences with assemblies have usually included announcements, performances, or guest speakers. At the Rishi Valley school, the assembly is dedicated to singing. The students and faculty gather in a circle and sing for half an hour. At the end of the school day, after dinner, we gathered in the auditorium again to watch an absorbing documentary on particle physics called Particle Fever.
The following are a few photos of the campus and school activities. I believe they speak volumes about the principles from which the Rishi Valley School runs.
The Rishi Valley School is a boarding school serving student from grade 4-12. There are approximately 325 students and 60 faculty members who live on campus.
The morning all-school assembly. Students and faculty are seated on the ground.
One of the many outdoor classrooms. My friend, a spoken-word artist, had the opportunity to facilitate a class here (More about that in the next blog!).
The student art gallery. It was common to see students around the campus working on their art; fine art, poetry, and music permeated the student culture.
Walking to class is a meditative experience. The campus is spacious, situated on approximately 360 acres of land. There have been over 200 species of birds identified, with the Indian Government officially declaring the school a bird sanctuary.
To read more about the Rishi Valley School: http://www.rishivalley.org/default.html
In the past year, on a regular basis, an email would pop up in my (Clare) inbox about a new journal and invite submissions. I would scan the email and wonder – is this legit or is it a boondoggle? I usually deleted the email because I was not sure if it was spam but I have often thought that I might be missing a great publishing opportunity. Am I being old-fashioned and not using social media? Mark Kingwell, Professor at the University of Toronto, wrote a GREAT column about “predatory journals” which answered my question. So new scholars, do not get fooled. Press the delete button! And all academics will find his stats about acceptance rates at top journals a bit disheartening. Here is an excerpt from his column and at this bottom of this blog is a link to the entire article.
Predatory journals take a bite out of scholarship by Mark Kingwell
The academic imperative “publish or perish” is so well known that people with no intention of entering scholarly life are familiar with it – no tenure for you, my friend, without at least a handful of citations. The journals should be reputable and selective, as all the best ones are, but in the crunch quantity might just trump quality. Alas, now comes this new storm on the horizon of university careerists: predatory journals.
Nobody inside academic life will consider it news that the number of journals, in almost every field, has risen in the post-print era. The good ones remain, and sometimes even retain a print version, but they are now flanked by opportunistic newcomers who prey on the desires of tenure-seeking scholars.
That, in itself, is no big deal. A new journal can publish work as accomplished as an established one, assuming the usual practices of double-blind peer review: The reviewers, assumed to be experts in the field, don’t know the identity of the author, and the author doesn’t know who the reviewers are. In my field, philosophy, acceptance rates at good journals run to about 5 per cent, or one in 20 of submitted pieces, and rare is the article that goes into print without extensive revisions suggested by the reviewers.
Predatory journals are a whole different beast. Instead of you seeking their grudging approval, they come after you. And then they demand money.
Literacy Teaching and Teacher Education 