Boyz in Compton

CBS News and Sports Illustrated combined forces to highlight the plight of high school football players in Compton, CA, a city is notorious for its gang presence. At one time, there was an unwritten rule that gangs would leave high school athletes alone. The football and basketball players were on their way to something good, so the gangs wouldn't bother with them. 

Now, however, gangs do not appear to care whether a high-schooler is a baller or not--they're going to recruit them to the dark side. This story is sad on so many levels. I showed the above video to my class last week; I may have them read the article later. The article highlights how many precautions one star student-athlete has to take in order to not get caught up in the gang violence. Sad, sad, sad.

Really, Glee, You're Going There?

I was grading papers while my wife was watching "Glee" on the DVR on Sunday night.  I was only half paying attention to the show, but I stopped when I saw the scenes between the student and the teacher he had an affair with.

It's bad enough to depict that situation on TV, but it was even worse when two students discussed whether to tell administrators about this affair.  Um, let me think--yes!  Sadly, at the end of the show, there was some kind of justification to not tell administrators/law enforcement.  Something about letting the opposing glee clubs compete each other.

In the age of Sandusky and Fine is the message we want to send to high school students one of continuing cover-ups of illegal activity.

Note to Self: Use Video

Every year I've taught Sports & Entertainment Marketing, I've had my students vote for who they think will win  college football's most prestigious individual honor, the Heisman Trophy.  Until this year, I had always put together a PowerPoint that contained the stats of each player.  After we went through the nominees, students would turn in a ballot with their answer.  The students that were interested in college football were sorta excited, but no one else was.

This year, I decided to try the above SlideRocket.  Fortunately, my district has allowed the use of YouTube on a very restricted (and temporary) basis.  Since four of the five nominees' schools created a video of highlights for each player, it was easy to create a SlideRocket that was interesting to watch.

The neatest thing about using this SlideRocket was the students' reactions.  I had to calm down my normally staid first period because they were so excited about what they saw.  Now if I can just find the time to create these type of presentations more often...

Jumping Into Tumblr

From: techleash.com

Not quite sure how I did this, but I ended up on Tumblr last night.  I had heard of it before, but thought I didn't need the hassle of setting up yet another account.

Fortunately, my Sports & Entertainment Marketing II class produces a ton of photos and videos, so I'm hoping that I'll have enough content to at least make it interesting.  Maybe I'll even have students do some work on it. 

Any ideas are always welcome, of course.

Newt to Kids: Get a Job!

From: hillmanfoundation.org


Saw that GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich raised some eyebrows with his comments on the work habits of children living in poverty. Gingrich, never one to shy away from an opinion, said:

"Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works," the former House speaker said at a campaign event at the Nationwide Insurance offices. "So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of 'I do this and you give me cash,' unless it's illegal."

Predictably, ole Newt ruffled some feathers.  But, does he have a point?  I think he does, and anyone that has taught in a high-poverty school must have some experience with what he's talking about.  Teachers have been getting a lot of flack about the performance of their students recently, yet we're not supposed to acknowledge the impact of poverty in the classroom.  Well, how does poverty affect student performance then?  I can't look at my students and tell which ones are poor by looking at them.

I hope that the issue doesn't disappear in the 24 hour news cycle.  It'd be nice to see more people discuss this.