Weird Harry Potter Post

Have you ever had a day or week that just seemed to be dominated by Harry Potter?

I feel like this situation has happened to me at least a few times a month for the past 10 years or so. I, like many, read the book series as a child and was enthralled by the story it told while being equally (if not more) impressed by the quality of J.K. Rowling’s writing and ability to plan and weave everything together. I have to admit that when I read it, I knew that it would stick with me but I had no idea that it would consume such a large part of my surroundings.

Since reading the books, I have gone to midnight book releases and movie premieres and even saw some of the locations that inspired aspects of the film or places that were actually used in England. Both of my parents love Harry Potter as well and we are all very familiar with the story… but shouldn’t references have calmed down after the end of the last film?

Harry Potter dominated this past weekend.

When I went home to visit my parents, some random conversation came around to the fact that my father could not remember whom Professor Quirrell was. That one comment triggered all of the events that followed in less than 48 hours:

-We watched the first Harry Potter film to show him who Quirrell was

(Insert lengthy conversation about Sorcerer’s Stone vs. Philosopher’s Stone)

-We watched the last Harry Potter film

-Decide Dad does not remember anything and proceed to explain the plot

(Insert Dad’s questioning about who every character is and his confusion about the epilogue)

-Late-night boredom strikes and I play Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 on Wii

-Finally beat the Lego Basalisk and text unassuming friends who don’t care

-Watch the Oscars without knowing any nominees or categories

-Feel angry and cheated when Harry Potter loses categories

(Insert Mom’s justification of why they should have won)

I think it is a true testament that these books and films have impacted so many people and media realms. This may all stem from the fact that that my parent’s enjoy Harry Potter, I am nerdy, or simply that it is just a mass phenomenon that will probably never lose momentum, but I can’t think of any other franchise that comes close to equaling it.

I’m not complaining about this in the least. I think that any recognition this amazing series receives is well worth it. I’ll continue my fandom forever and pass it along to my children I’m sure, but I guess I just find it interesting to think about how something outside of yourself can consume so much of you. I thought that attention to it would die down after a while, but it seems to keep growing even though the books and films are finished.

Sorry for this weird rant, but it has been on my mind and it is now taking over my blog. Are there any specific things that keep popping up unexpectedly in your life? 

How Can You Judge?

Much of the reading and pedagogical conversations I have had about teaching composition have included the element of having students keep some sort of a journal. There are countless incarnations of this idea, but most come back to the ideology that it should be a place for students to express their opinions and thoughts freely. As long as they are writing and personally getting something out of it, the content is secondary. With this in mind, I have to say that an article I read recently about a college student who is currently suspended for writing a sexually charged entry about his professor took me aback. The student took his prompt from a Van Halen lyric about being “hot for teacher.” According to the article and video (which I will link below), the man had previously written sexual pieces and was given reinforcement for them with good grades from the same teacher. Teachers constantly ask their students to write anything they want in their notebooks without fear of judgment… but is that sentiment true?

Now, I’m not saying that I expect any of my future students to think that I am attractive in any way- but it still makes me wonder how the situation should be handled.

Here are my questions: Should there be parameters on what a student is allowed to write? If you tell the student to be open in their assignments, are they allowed to use curse words and images that speak truthfully to them? Do you discipline or question a student’s writing when it is not apparently harming himself or herself or anyone else?

I think that this situation would be a little less threatening with children rather than the older man the article focuses on, but I think it is still a tricky one to tackle. My thought would be to write a note in the student’s journal that I appreciate their writing efforts but do not find the subject matter appropriate (I would also make photocopies of all this to protect myself if any outside readers got the wrong impression). From there, I feel the solution could be as simple as researching other Van Halen songs and giving the student prompts that are in-line with their interests and do not have such an uncomfortable outcome. Obviously I do not have access to the entirety of the selection written by the student in the article but suspension seems a little extreme. It seems like there may be more to the story to make the professor so offended that she could not tolerate having the student in class.

How would you deal with a situation like this? 

Changes

There has been a lot going on in my life over the past week with both school and life.

I am very excited to announce my new internship with the Wake County Public School System in the Leaders4Wake program! For the next few months, I will be working with the Office of School Innovation to research new kinds of schools that could be implemented into WCPSS. Innovation is one of my main goals within my future classroom, so I know that this will be a very productive way to learn new systems and ways to go about teaching in a way that will be exciting for myself and for my students. The office is fairly new to Wake County and this internship program is being done for the first time, so I am able to have some flexibility to focus on my passions while still helping out the office. My final project is not finalized yet, but I am considering making some components of a proposal for a new kind of school. The internship also offers me the opportunity to talk to many leaders of the school system and learn about how it runs from the inside out. Look out for my experiences in future blog posts!

As for my personal life, having this internship on top of full-time graduate school has finally convinced me to rent an apartment closer to my school in order to cut off my commute time and save gas. I looked up places on Craigslist to sublet just throughout my internship duration. There were only two places in my price range around the area near my school. The first one I e-mailed did not respond, so I was left with only one selection. I went to the apartment, decided it was a good fit, and went home to tell my parents all the details. At this point, my mother started talking about where she used to live in Raleigh. As it turned out… I was moving into the SAME apartment she occupied in 1972! I am so excited to re-live my mom’s college days and make good memories of my own in a place she loved so much.

Now I have to get back to the schoolwork that I have gotten a little behind on with all of these great changes. See you all in my next post!

Be Kind: A Rant.

Today I am taking a break from education to give a bit of a rant. This past Sunday, I was sitting in the Target parking lot at 7:55 a.m. on a gray and rainy morning. I felt really ridiculous waiting for the chain store to open their doors at 8, but I was on an unfortunate mission imposed by a small group of people that have ruined the common sense once held by many.

Let me explain:

About six years ago, Target began creating collaborations with well-known designers. These clothes and accessories keep the designer’s aesthetic but are made from different materials to make them affordable for the mass consumer market (…think polyester instead of silk) and they are only available for a limited time. As a high schooler, these collections could not have been any more exciting for me. I felt like I could be the fashionista I dreamed of being on my part-time job salary. It was a tradition for me to get up really early and be ready for the store to open so that I could have the first pick of what I wanted. I would say that 98% of the time I was the only person there and the cashiers looked at me like I was crazy, but I had so much fun feeling like I was ahead of some trend. 

Then came Missoni. 

To any person who reads a lot of news or shops at Target, the name may sound familiar to you. Missoni was released in the fall of 2011 and was promoted as Target’s largest collaboration to date. I had stopped bothering to go early to Target when I got into college because I felt I had to grow up and I didn’t have time to do silly things. After I got out of class in the early afternoon of the launch date, I decided to go to my local store and just see what they had from the ads that were in all of my magazines. When I got to the store, the racks were empty. The only trace of merchandise was in the children’s section. Confused, I went home and looked online only to find that Target’s website had been crashed. Stories began to come onto the Internet of people buying THOUSANDS of dollars worth of merchandise and having to use multiple cards as soon as the store opened. Over the next few weeks, these items began to surface on eBay for nine and ten times the retail price… and people were actually buying them. It was incredibly confused and disheartened that someone would pay ridiculous prices for Target quality items.

Back to present day.

Sunday was the launch of the Jason Wu for Target collection. There were a couple of tops that I thought would be perfect for school and so I decided to try and get them. When the lights cut on at 8, I got out of my car and walked into the building. There were already people who had run from the other door snatching up everything they could. One woman took everything in my size and I was left to grab only one thing I was even remotely interested in because it would fit. Women were on the phone with their friends at other stores coordinating who had what and looking at lists of clothes and sizes they needed to grab. It was insane and I honestly felt sick about what was happening. This is what eBay has done. It has taken away the joy of the people who want to enjoy the clothes and given it to the scalpers who are making a profit by preying on the fact that the items are limited edition.

The situation made me stand back and think about how sad it is that we are being oppressed not only by corporations, but also by our peers. I would never ever buy a Target item off of eBay and I just want others to feel the same way. I am tired of being taken advantage of by vultures that care nothing about me as a person. I think the world needs a large dose of kindness and hospitality. If we don't look out for each other, who will? 

In conclusion, I’ll leave this post with a video of the Jason Wu launch in Miami where two people ran in and cleared every single rack before any of the people who waited in line could make purchases:

Moral is: If we were all considerate, we would have a much kinder and happier place to live.