New Dove Commercial

I absolutely love the new Dove commercial. Lots of media literacy learning here...



Also a great clip - an oldie but a goodie!

Haiti Quake Another Reason Why Critical Literacy is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Important...

Father Mario showed this video during his homily at mass on Sunday:



I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. An alleged man of God, a Christian, BLAMING the people of Haiti for the earthquake that devastated the tiny nation. This is yet another reason why critical literacy needs to become the "new basic" in education. There is too much for our kids to process on their own. Ridiculous propaganda such as this could and probably will reek some havoc in a world that is constantly seeking out scapegoats and looking for yet another reason to justify racist, biggotted viewpoints. It's shocking, but it isn't...

2000-2009: The FAKE Decade?

I always find it interesting how the media, in particular, reflects on the previous year or decade in this case after another new year comes and goes. At church for the last couple of weeks, this very topic has been the focus of Father Mario's homily. He spoke about how people are struggling to label the decade that has past. We easily identify with 60s or the 80s, but somehow the 2000s or the 00s doesn't seem to pack the same kind of punch. Apparently, the hot buzzword on Twitter is the 2KOs. Catchy. Father Mario encouraged us to go home and Google (yes, my PRIEST told the whole congregation to do this)"the fake decade" to see how the 2KOs have been summed up. It made for some pretty interesting and compelling reading. It also confirmed for me more and more the need for critical literacy and media literacy to be at the forefront of everything we do in the classroom.



So Father Mario was right. Some of what I found through Google made for some very interesting reading. Here are some of the highlights of the "fake decade":

Fake Celebrities
Two words on this subject: Paris Hilton.

Fake Religion
Ah... Scientology. The religion of the Hollywood stars! Its dogma reads like the script of a really bad Sci-Fi movie. It is fuelled by celebrity membership, such as the likes of Tom Cruise, the Travoltas and Will Smith. To profess that psychology and psychiatry are "evil" is ludacris. This whole cult, and it can be reduced to nothing more than that, is simply ludacris.

Fake Prosperity
I have to say that I am so relieved that the Ontario Ministry of Education is doing a lot work to include Financial Literacy as part of the work that we do in our classroom. I can't ever remember in all my studies in History, ever coming across a decade where the stock market crashed three times. It's unheard of! The reality of the free market is that we are trusting that those who run companies and corporations are being truthful and upfront about the financial health of the enterprise. We have to trust that they are not keeping two sets of books - one for the profits and one for the lossess, but only reporting on the profits so as to generate excitement for the purposes of selling shares and stock. Can everybody say ENRON? I can't even wrap my head around how many people fell victim to Ponzi schemes. We need to teach our kids how the market works and how banking systems work. It can't be reserved for senior-level business and economic courses anymore. Kids need to know this stuff to simply BE in the world and save themselves from being victimized by people who know perhaps a little too much and would exploit those less astute than themselves.

Fake Jobs
Many of my friends loved this book, but The Secret gave people licence to think and believe that they have complete control of their lives and that we can do it on our own. This kind of attitude gave rise to the Life Coach. I still can't believe that this is an actual job that people make a living at! What education would you need? What makes someone qualified? Why do people take the word of Tony Robbins over the word of their own priest? There is something seriously wrong here.

Fake Faces
Plastic surgery has been around for a long time, but it seems that the last decade allowed more people to access it. You can get Botox injections right at your family physician's office these days! It's all about looking as young as possible. Have you SEEN Wayne Newton? Joan Rivers? Can you pull a face much tighter than that? I fear for the irreparable damage done to the self-esteem of our kids, especially our girls. So much pressure to be beautiful in an age when most beauty is created with an airbrush.

Fake Athletes
I think it is safe to say that our kids would be hard-pressed to find any heroes in the world of sports who AREN'T abusing performance-enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids. The baseball world was especially hit hard when it came to light that the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez weren't what they appeared to be. At the very end of the decade, even a Toronto-born doctor who is said to have treated Donovon Bailey and Tiger Woods was arrested for distributing performance enhancing substances.

Fake Politics
Where to start... The Florida election? The entire Bush administration? Weapons of mass destruction? Need I say more?

Fake Nobel Prize
I almost gagged when I heard that this prize, which I once held in such high regard, was given to the leader of a nation with troops engaged in active warfare. I make no apologies when I say that appointing the Nobel PEACE Prize to Barrack Obama, after having bestowed it upon the likes of Mother Teresa, Kofi Ananan, Martin Luther King Jr., Yitzhak Rabin, Nelson Mandela, Elie Weisel, the Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Canada's own Lester B. Pearson, that this prestige of this prize has been officially tarnished. Obama has no business be heralded in the presence of such company and quite frankly, the integrity of this honour has been officially ruined.

What this all comes down to is a single question: what is truth? As Catholics, we know that there is but one Truth and that's Christ, who said himself that "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life". It's so important that in all that we teach we keep this message at the forefront. I'm disaapointed to say that it doesn't happen too regularly which is why Catholic education is in a bit of trouble. We don't seem to be brave enough to teach our kids to speak the Truth. We're too busy teaching them about political correctness, which isn't synonomous with Truth. This is where critical literacy comes in. This view of the world, this way of thinking and being is complementary with Catholicism and yet so few teachers are fluent in it. Very few can tell you what it actually means. Most think it's the same thing as critical thinking, which is going to get them into a bit of trouble. Our kids need to be able to render their view and reading of the world in an intelligent and Truthful manner. We simply have to facilitate this educational experience by being careful of the primary and supplementary material that we choose to teach with. Catholic educators need to be more than fluent in the social teachings of the Church so that they can make connections as often as possible, and no, this isn't the job solely of the Religion teachers just like OSSLT preparations isn't solely the job of English teachers.

We have an opportunity to shape the next 10 years in Catholic education around this notion of Truth. Our kids need to be proud of their faith and come to a full understanding of what we are called to believe about the world, our neighbours and ourselves.

The 21st Century Learning Part 2

I'm a bit behind in my blogging - can ya tell?

On December 3rd, we had the greatest time with teachers in part two of our series on The 21st Century Learner. Teachers got right into looking at the kinds of questions we as teachers ask of our students and how we can challenge our students more with deeper questioning. Next, we moved onto a really rich discussion in critical literacy. We examined what it is and what it isn't. We looked at some media texts and asked some really tough questions. Generally, I've found that critical literacy makes people really itchy but this group was really receptive to this world view. What made me a bit sad was that a teacher indicated that there is a negative stigma attached to embracing this kind of teaching. Teachers are really feeling pressured to conform to the ways things have always been done. My response was that teachers who believe in critical literacy often find themselves alone at first, but it catches on really quickly. Once colleagues see how engaged students are, they'll want to try it too.

In the lab, we "mucked around" with Delicious and I think teachers were excited about the "green potential" this application has.

All in all, a fantabulous day!

The 21st Century Learning Part 2

View more presentations from guest7a7987.

Girls' Access to Ice Time: One Critical Literacy Issue After Another...

When I first started hearing about the Leaside Girls' Hockey Association's concerns with equal access to ice time, I immediately sympathasized. I assumed that they weren't getting the same amount of ice time as their male counterparts. Turns out, that's not the case. It just so happens that the girls have some not-so-great times, like 5:30 am practices. Why is this time more acceptable for boys, who have been doing it since (what seems like) the beginning of time? Anyway, in reading a bit more about this rather interesting case that is set to go before City Council, I found out a few things that now have me singing a different tune. This is no longer an issue of equal access for girls. This is actually a case of power and class. It so happens that Nick Lewis, a senior economic development advisor to Mayor David Miller, is one of three coaches of a Leaside hockey team this year. What's more, Lewis' team is part of the competitive branch of the organization. Kinda adds a different dimension to this whole issue, doesn't it? In an editorial on November 16, 2009 for the Toronto Star, Christie Blatchford questions why the mayor's office is even taking an interest in this case as it seems far-removed from day-to-day responsibilities.

Stories like these provide us with the resources we need to infuse critical literacy into our classrooms. We can get a wealth of materials just from cracking open a newspaper, so why are there so many piles of neglected papers sitting in our staffrooms?

When Faith Meets Pedagogy 2009

This was the power point presenation that accompanied the workshop I gave at When Faith Meets Pedagogy.

When Faith Meets Pedagogy 2009

View more presentations from ChrissyYCDSB.

Something to chew on...

Thanks to my colleague, Leslie Burchat (whose blog you all have to check out!), I learned about a new website today called World Mapper (www.worldmapper.org). It's an online collection of maps that can be reshaped and distorted depending on which factors or variables are being researched.

For example...


This map reflects global youth literacy. According to the website:

Most of the young people living in most territories can read and write. Only five territories have lower than 50% youth literacy rates. Four of these five are in Northern Africa. Japan recorded the highest rate of youth literacy for a single territory.The highest number of literate youth live in Eastern Asia, where the youth literacy rate is 98.9%. Of the 12 regions, 8 have youth literacy rates of over 95%.

This map shows global adult literacy. World Mapper reports:

The percentage of literate adults is lower than that of literate youth in every region of the world. The biggest differences are 17% in Northern Africa, 13% in Central Africa, and 11% in Southeastern Africa. The smallest difference between youth and adult literacy rates is 1% in Japan.The largest populations of literate adults live in China, India and the United States. India has a literacy rate of 61%, the other two territories have rates of 91%.

These maps just scratch the surface. There are so many other variables that you have students investigate and the map will stretch and distort accordingly. The obvious benefactors are students in taking geography - especially World Issues. This is quite a nifty tool to get some really interesting critical literacy discussions happening. These maps are great visuals that can be used to talk about the influence of power relations, gender, race, class and identity in relation to any number of the factors that can be mapped on this website. I love this!

Critical Literacy and Religion: An Androgynous Jesus?

How's this for an interesting lesson in critical literacy for religion teachers! I have never seen Christ rendered in any art form quite like this. The following excerpt comes from a website that deals with Christ iconography:

This image "Jesus of the People" by Janet McKenzie portrays Jesus as relatively androgynous and as black. Edwina Sandys' Christa portrays Jesus as a woman hanging on the cross, and was extremely controversial. Reinterpretations like these make the symbol of Jesus Christ accesible to people who do not wish to accept the traditional white European male image. Many feminists have chosen to reinterpret Christ, not visually but theoretically, and this is often labeled feminist christology.<(http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Projects/Reln91/Gender/qchristology.htm)

This exercise is a great opportunity to look at conventional portrayals of Jesus and discuss why they were chosen or deemed acceptable? By whom? For what purpose? Are there any underlying issues of power that are implicated in certain portrayals of Christ? Why are most renderings of Christ reflect a man of northern European descent as opposed to Middle Eastern ancestry?

I would LOVE to hear what students have to say on this. I think this sort of activity is guaranteed to promote high levels of engagement because:
1.) it's inquiry based learning
2.)it involves a great deal of inductive reasoning (your boys will thank you)
3.)it's highly controversial - what teenager doesn't like to challenge the status
quo?
4.)students are doing all the meaning-making, while participating in highly academic
processes(research, synthesis, evaluation, etc.)

In the past, I have challenged my students to create their own artistic renderings of Jesus and the diversity is astounding. Their creations often reflect their own personal relationship with Jesus. I have often taught this sort of lesson in the context of discussing how the four gospels provide very distinct representations of who Jesus is (supported by an article called "The Four Faces of Jesus"). I have done this lesson with grade 10 students taking the Christ in Culture course. A sure winner!