Charlottesville High School’s class of 2008 has experienced many guest speakers over our past three years behind bars. One woman impersonated Zelda Fitzgerald (wife of the later author) for 90 minutes; another impersonated sperm that had been exposed to marijuana. Today, for the first time ever, we had someone talk to us as himself. Shawn Decker, author of the recent book My Pet Virus - about his experiences in living with HIV since he was a toddler.

Shawn was a wonderful speaker, and we were lucky to have him at our school. The passages he read from his book were some of the most humorous anecdotes I’ve heard in a long time, and as soon as I can drag myself to Barnes & Noble, I’ll definitely be picking up a copy.

He also said the most peculiar thing to me. As things were wrapping up, Shawn asked us if anyone was doing something interesting over the summer. I raised my hand and said I’d be attending Governor’s School (knowing that one of his first girlfriends had dumped him while at Governor’s School). I assured him, however, that I wouldn’t dump anyone while I was there. His response? That he was sure I wouldn’t do that to my girlfriend or boyfriend. Then he went on to talk about how interacting so much with the gay and lesbian community had taught him never to assume someone’s sexuality, and then some more about acceptance of homosexuals.

I thought to myself, “Is it that obvious that I’m gay…?” I mean, I had been thinking about where he bought his shirt (I’d kind of like one myself…), but it’s not like he could read my mind.

Coolest part about Shawn - he blogged about our class. Sweet.

A group of Buford 8th graders walked the halls of CHS yesterday, trying to get a feel for how their next four years of education are going to be like. Poor souls. And they visited just in time to learn of the new bell schedule for next year, which I’ve reprinted here:

So there you have it. We’re still at two lunches, we still get out at 3:30… Very anticlimactic. I’ve spoken to a few teachers recently, and they’ve already started to put in “requests” for their classes to be either block or “singleton.” Just like I’ve said before, teachers that liked block scheduling are pissed, and half of those who like meeting every day are going to be pissed as well anyway.

Every year at CHS, there’s a Senior Skip Day, typically the last official day of school for Seniors (this year, it was today). At the end of this “Senior Reflection Day,” as it is known as in front of teachers and administrators, there’s a water fight held in the senior parking lot, where a primary goal is to drench underclassmen with as much water as possible. But not this year. The administration walked out to the parking lot before school let out and effectively shut down anyone with a water balloon - thus, the day that many seniors had been waiting for all year went unfulfilled.

Now, I’m not by an means a fan of the administrative team at CHS, but you have to put what they did in perspective. Just earlier this week, I was sitting in a circle with some friends during lunch outside in the courtyard. Out of nowhere, a full Gatorade bottle flies through the air and hits a boy sitting across from me in the head. Next thing you know, there’s a steady stream of blood dripping off his scalp. It’s incidents like those that sometimes force the administration to put stringent policies in place. So in regards to the water fight at least, it’s not the administration we should be mad at - it’s the brainless idiots who think that pelting projectiles into groups of unaware bystanders is funny that we should make us pissed off.

Either way, the Seniors got jipped, and it’s not fair to the majority of them. But then again, when has education been about treating people individually without prejudice based on the actions of others their age?

Browsing around some TechEd sites, I came across this piece by a grad student at UC: Berkley about the relationship between students and teachers as it relates to social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Yes, it’s seven pages, but worth a read. I admit I was skeptical about Ms. Boyd’s viewpoints, especially after reading Andy Carvin’s blog post about a teacher who was fired for encouraging students to visit her MySpace profile:

I still see a role for educators to use MySpace and other sites, even if it’s just to have a presence there. That way, students realize that they don’t have the run of the place, and that their teachers aren’t as technologically clueless as they might otherwise think.
- Andy Carvin

In my opinion, a great deal of the appeal social networking sites offer to students is the distance it places between them and the adult-centric world in which teenagers live. Educators who proactively attempt to “have a presence” on sites like Facebook, according to Carvin, should do so as an intimidation tactic, the equivalent of a parent putting a GPS locater in your car. It simply plays into the [what I thought was a] delusion most teenagers have of adults always interfering in their private lives. This is irresponsible.

But after reading Ms. Boyd’s essay, I saw how educators could potentially use these sites as a tool to help students. According to Boyd, teachers should make sure they:

Do not go surfing for your students, but if they invite you to be Friends, say yes. This is a sign that they respect you. Write a kind comment back to them if appropriate and make certain to respond to comments that you receive. If something concerns you, privately ask why they chose to put a particular item up on their page, rather than criticise their profiles. Ask about their lives; don’t demand that they behave as you’d wish. Show that you care, not that you dictate.
- Danah Boyd

Teachers acting in such a manner could conceivably serve as a vital support network for certain students. Unfortunately, this rule seems to be the one few if any adults operate under when interacting on social networking sites “for the benefit of the children.” From the stories we all hear of educators researching job candidates on Facebook, to parents punishing their children for pictures they find on MySpace, the main reason adults will use these sites is exactly what Boyd says not to do - they go searching for their students/applicants/kids. In other words, what began as a method of escaping the control of adults becomes another way for parents to track their kids. Though, admittedly, it is a small, small fraction of parents who actively use MySpace to keep an eye on their kids.

But when you get to the bottom line, teenagers are always going to be a step ahead technology-wise. If adults “infiltrate” the social networking sites, kids will find a new place to escape to from the rules and regulations of normal life. But if you’re an adult who, for whatever reason, wants to get involved in Facebook or MySpace (my mom actually has a Facebook account - but neither me nor my sister accepted her friend request), try to stick more to Boyd’s philosophy than Carvin’s (no disrespect intended).

#m

I finally met Sean McCord last week at the Blogger Meetup, and just found out a few days ago that he is thinking about running for the Charlottesville School Board. Major kudos to him. If I were of voting age, slash actually lived in Charlottesville, I’d vote for him. Just wanted to show him some support in the early stages, and say that I for one hopes he goes through with it. Good luck, Sean!