Behind the Headlines

A state of Michigan proposal to buy iPods and MP3 players for students in K-12 is a good idea and here’s why:

I attended the “We’ve Gotta Reach ‘Em to Teach ‘Em” seminar at the Whitman Center on Tuesday. Elizabeth Johnson, associate professor of teacher education at Eastern Michigan University and Mary Kathleen Walsh, a recent graduate of the EMU education program, were the presenters.

The whole talk was about incorporating different teaching methods into schools from small things such as changing the type of pointer a teacher uses during lectures to using costumes to act out stories and history lessons and even teaching lessons through music.

Teaching today is very challenging because students are easily distracted with their personal lives, pop culture and just about anything else.

Why not offer a way for every student to participate and get excited about learning. Not every student learns the same way and I think this can help break the monotony of lectures.
Now should the state run out and buy a ton of these things when the budget is in the position it is now- probably not- but it is definitely something to consider for the future. I think it can bring back excitement to teaching and to learning

“Deb wasn’t in her office… but her candy was.”

“With concerns about the world getting warmer, the people thought they were just being rewarded – now we can swim any day in November…”
Ahh, global warming. It’s slightly difficult to blog about, because separate from the political firestorm, it’s snowing outside right now.

Sunday, I was asked this question: “Hey Steph, when you become a reporter do they make you take the oath or is it voluntary?”

My dad was doing the asking. When I inquired what oath that is, he retorted, “the one apparently all members of the media make to protect and serve the agenda of the liberals…” so on and so forth.

Yep. My dad is a conservative. He loves watching The Factor, but would never wear a fleece advertising that fact (you know who you are). Something else about my dad is that he’s fairly quiet and reserved, though cobra-like in debate, with pointed questions.

Sigh. Since it was Easter, since there was a room full of people and since I was hungry, I sarcastically conceded. Oh, yeah, they make us sign it and then we get sworn in. It’s like the Hippocratic oath Doctors take, but with a clear agenda and political bias. Then I asked him if global warming was still fake. This is a particular sticking point for my dad when it comes to liberals and doesn’t necessarily indicate my views on the subject. It was just a way of capturing one’s goat.

On Monday, I covered the green building and environmental town hall at the IHM, featuring Dingell. The talk inevitably turned to Al Gore and global warming. Representatives from LaRouche’s camp (Political Action Committee that states warming is a fraud) were there, asking long-winded questions about third-world economic genocides and those who stand to gain from such a hoax. They presented interesting views, some I had never heard before, eventually flat out asking Dingell how he could believe in global warming.

I’m able to keep an open mind, in fact, my livelihood depends on it, so when others were dismissing the LaRouche peoples’ questions, I tried to listen more. Instead of discounting them because it went against popular opinion in the room (and those nuns have some sway!) I wanted to make sure I was accurately hearing what they were talking about.

After the presentation, they asked me what I thought about global warming – where I stood on the issue. An impossible question! I told them I didn’t have enough information either way to make any decisions. I live in a natural state of skepticism. They seemed slightly taken aback when I told them they had some interesting ideas.

Why would this surprise them? They must have found out about the oath.

Sometimes I wish I could just sleep in, like the Postal Service song suggests, not having to hear the constant hum of these things, but then what fun would that be?

The Michigan Veterinary Medical Association has posted a newly updated list of the recalled pet food. It is super detailed, listing brand, dates produced and specific name of the food.

Everything you wanted to know or not know about the recall, you can find here.

The Michigan Department of Education created a Power Point presentation about changes in technology, the economy and teaching children. The presentation is very informative.

For example, did you know that teachers are preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist?

Or it’s estimated that a weeks worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century. Yet printed newspapers will be extinct by the first quarter of 2043 (and that’s in my lifetime)
How about this one- the amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. For students starting a four-year degree, about half of what they learn in their first year of college will be outdated by their third year. (So does that mean my degree is outdated?)

More information can be found in presentation posted on the Michigan Department of Education’s Web site, www.michigan.gov/mde and selecting the Did You Know (Shift Happens) Power Point link. Read it and tell me what you think

I had to make an emergency trip to the library yesterday after an alarming conversation with a co-worker.

Talking about all the literacy-related events with the Big Read this month, she mentioned that it was funny how some libraries have trimmed stacks of the classics to make room for more popular titles.

Cut out Hemingway, Twain and Dickens? For what, dating guides and comic books?

To each his own, I understand. But this is true to a point.

There are more copies floating around of the book on the newest diet craze than there are with Voltaire’s “Candide.” At least people are reading something, I guess.
In our own library I am comforted to find more than a dozen copies of many of what I would consider “the essentials.”

Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” can be found at 12 different branches and in four different formats. The words of Albert Camus can be found in better than half of those locations.

My personal favorite “Slaughterhouse-Five” is at six branches. And Nietzche’s Zarathustra still speaks from the shelves of four library branches.

But scary indeed if we would enter a library and not find Atlas shrugging.

I got a call right after the new year began from a reader who was reluctant to call because she thought her story idea may be “stupid.” But at the urging of friends, she called.

“Just let me know if it’s not worth a story,” she said. The caller was Carmen Langton-Anson. The story idea was this: Her sister Hollins had died in a plane crash 20 years ago, this year. She died two months to the day before she was to get married; everything was set – including the wedding dress. Now, at the tender age of 20, Carmen’s daughter and Hollins’ niece/godchild McKenzie was getting married. She was going to wear the dress her aunt never had a chance to.

They hadn’t seen the dress for almost 20 years – and McKenzie had never seen the actual garment, but had committed to wearing it. When they took it out, puff sleeves aside, it fit beautifully. It didn’t have to be taken in or hemmed. Carmen reworked the bodice to make it a little more modern, but otherwise it was the dress Hollins had picked.

Carmen said her sister was the life of the party and would have been excited that they had chosen her dress, modified or otherwise, to use for the occasion. She said she would have been the first one out there on the floor, doing the worm. The story ran in February, was rewritten by the AP (though, I believe my version was superior!) and sent out through the wire.

It has since run in papers throughout Michigan, throughout the country and even appeared in a London (not Township – but Great Britain) publication. Now, I’m told that People Magazine has contacted Carmen and McKenzie and is working on the story for its special wedding edition.

Silly story idea, indeed. The lesson here is this: even if you’re doubting your idea, call anyway. Our best stories often come from readers, whether they think they have something or not.

I consider myself a fair, law-abiding citizen and have accordingly never been on any more than a walk-through tour of a jail. But I got a chance this weekend to see what I have been missing.

I went to the Monroe County Jail with an Evening News photographer to document a baptism ceremony for 18 female inmates. I’ve been to baptisms before, but not quite like this.
Corralled into a hot, stuffy classroom near the prisoners’ bunk, we watched as each of the women were dipped into the water of a horse trough by jail ministry volunteers. They prayed and they sang for the hour that I sat in.

Some of them talked to me about their experiences behind bars. Few talked about the circumstances that led them to the jail.

After the water had dried from the floor, the women were led out of the classroom and back to their bunks. The photographer and I left the jail through the front door.

Despite any reservations or stigmas that may arise from the jailhouse ceremony, it was an interesting insight into day-to-day that these people face.

This week is the first Skywarn session. Come one, come all to learn about spotting trends in weather.

Laugh in the face of your local weather person! Pretend to be a siren and alert your neighbors to impending storms! Stun and amaze crowds at parties with your new-found weather knowledge!

Plus I’ll be there, so you can come say hi, or sit there and silently judge me as I learn about clouds and wind patterns.

Vitals: 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Intermediate School District at 1101 S. Raisinville Rd. in Monroe. The next class is at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 23 at the ISD. You have to register. Call EMD at 240-3135 or even better, go here.

Last week I met with one of the more interesting people I’ve gotten to interview. Rebecca Sacks, an 87 year old woman, was more on top of it than most people are at half her age. To call her a tough old bird – in the best possible way of course – or other cliches attempting to bespeak her charm and intelligence would turn a dynamic individual into a one-dimensional depiction.

The profile on her runs today in the paper in the “Your Neighbor” section. What, you ask, was so outstanding about this person? Aside from the obvious age often equals wisdom – our older generations have quite a bit to offer and shouldn’t necessarily be relegated to homes to slowly wither and dribble – she spoke intelligently, humbly, humorously and honestly about her life. She didn’t talk as though it was over. She talked about reading to stay informed and to continue to be an interesting person.

She told me about first coming to Monroe (”oh, don’t put this in your story,” she said.) She was terribly lonely. Her husband had gone off to war, so she worried about him. His family had left the area right around the time they moved here. She didn’t know anyone and had come from bustling Chicago, where all of her friends and family were. She was also, and still is, a religious minority. Her Jewish faith is strong; she is literally about 1 of 25 practicing Jewish people in the City of Monroe. She pushed on. She joined. She mingled. She lived, contributing to Monroe since 1940 and still doing just that.

I guess as I write about this, it’s more difficult than I thought – pinning down what it is about certain people. Maybe I was in the right mood. Maybe this came at a time in my life that was receptive to this. Mrs. Sacks did mention the Jewish concept of “bashert” or destiny, finding where one is supposed to be in life. But overall I got the impression, this was just a scratch, like I was looking through a little portal rather than entering the room.

I should mention that this is one of the great parts of the job. It’s the nicer, opposite side of having to go into a tragedy and ask probing questions. As reporters we get a kind of license to ask things that others are reluctant to ask but want to know the answers.