SENIORS' LAST DAY!

Here are...Friday, May 15, 2015.  The last day for Uni High's Class of 2015.  I know I've only known most of them for nine months, but my life is better because of them.  Being a teacher and working with kids, teens, young adults, or whatever you call them, is a life affirming and life changing career choice.  I have been blessed knowing some of these students for nine months, and I'm even more blessed because I've known some of them since they were 11. 

One of my former students, who I taught in 6th grade, came up to me yesterday and asked, "Is it weird?  You know, seeing us again and watching us go off into the world?

I replied, after composing myself for a moment so I wouldn't start bawling, "No.  It has been WONDERFUL and the greatest honor to see you again and watch you go off into the world."

I never thought I'd see my 6th grade students who got into Uni again, but this assistantship has offered me the unique opportunity to see them again, as they ready themselves to transition into adulthood and attend college.  This has been the greatest and most humbling part of this job for the past year.

Here is my last bulletin board as a grad assistant at Uni, and it's one I made with the Seniors' help.  I got A LOT of responses, and I think it looks great.  I hope some of the underclassmen check out some of their recommendations.

First Lines

A couple of weeks ago I created my best bulletin board/display combo to date.  It was so much fun, and everything came together in a totally pleasing way. 

I love first lines of books.  When I was a freshman in college, looking forward to my first semester as an undergraduate at the great University of Illinois, one of my friends came over and looked at all of the literature I had to read for that semester.  I was taking a British Literature class, so there was lots of Austens, Brontes, and Kiplings in the mix.  She said she always loved to read the first paragraphs of books to imagine and predict what might happen.  This has stuck with me for almost two decades (!), and I employed this strategy for my newest board/display combo.

I combed through books in our fiction collection and pulled titles at random.  I read the FIRST LINE only.  Was it interesting, intriguing, gross, outlandish???  Would it get the attention of students?  Most importantly...would it fit on a single piece of paper for the bulletin board?  ;)  I found many titles, but I knew the board wouldn't be able to hold very many, so I narrowed my selection down to a dozen.  As always, I tried to get different genres, time periods, and authors represented.  Then came the fun part.

I recently created an account at Canva.  This is an amazing place to create posters, signage, and any other type of advertisement you could want.  And, it's free.  (I mentioned Canva a few weeks ago in a post.  For more info, see that post.)  I found a simple, yet bold, option to put the first line of the book, along with the author, title, and publication year.  I printed these and put them on the bulletin board.

 The small "bubble burst" sign at top center directs the students to come inside and find the book that matches their 

favorite First Line.

Next, I displayed all of the books on one of our display areas inside the library.  If a line on the bulletin board outside catches a student's attention, they can come inside, find the book on the display, and check it out.

So far I've seen several students looking at the bulletin board and reading the lines aloud, but so far none of checked out any books.  This is an extremely busy time of the year for these Uni students, so I'm not offended.  This was a great board/display combo to put together, and one I will try to replicate in my future place of employment.   

Bulletin Board Fun

It's March.  I've been at the Uni High Library since August.  I just found a third bulletin board to play with.  It only took me seven months, I only pass it as I walk into the library everyday, but I mustn't fret.  No, that wouldn't do.  I just need to be thankful I've found it now and have fun coming up with themes for it until I leave in late May. 

The first totally fun theme for this third mini board (cause it is wee) is Library Memes!  Everybody's favorite, right???  RIGHT!  There are way too many fun Library Memes out there, and I fell down the rabbit hole while looking at them, so I just had to choose a few to go up on the board.

I picked some basic black construction paper, so the memes would stand out more, a fun boarder, and then started stapling like mad.  It was a quick board, a FUN board, and I think it makes the entryway to the library look even better.  I just wish I would have realized that was a board seven months ago!  Wait...I said I wouldn't dwell on that.

I think the next thing I'll post on that board will be Celebrities Reading.  Oh, yeah...that will be AWESOME, too! 

Ask the Dragon: Question 2

QUESTION 

Dear Dragon,

Why does sex have such an emotional connotation in society?

Sincerely yours,

Why-Curious

DRAGON’S RESPONSE

Dear Why-Curious,

I got news for you: sex doesn’t just have an emotional connotation in your society.  It has an emotional connotation in all of human society.  This is because sex is emotional.  There are basic ties between sex and emotion that cannot be denied.  Nobre and Pinto-Gouveia have published two articles (2006, 2008) that describe the negative emotions people with sexual dysfunctions experience during sex, while Janice Hiller published work (2004) on the positive emotions men and women experience during sex and sexual arousal, and the hormones triggered during these positive emotions.  Whether good or bad, people are feeling the feelings during sex.

From my perch on high, I see all kinds of examples of people using the positive connotations of sex to their benefit.  This year alone I’ve witnessed half a dozen young guys plotting the best way to ask a young lady to a dance.  Doesn’t this involve emotion?  Aren’t those fellas trying to hit just the perfect emotional note to get those young gals to say yes?  If there’s this much emotion going into one date, you better believe there’d be even more emotion going into the act of sex.  I’ve also seen sex and emotions in our magazines.  There have been articles in Redbook, Men’s Health, and Newsweek, that flaunt the fact that having a stable, emotional connection with your partner will make one’s sex life better.  And, speaking of magazines…Wherever there are ad campaigns, there will also be sex, because sex sells.  It can sell anything from underwear, movie tickets, books, or burgers.  As I already said, Hiller found that sexual arousal can trigger happy emotions in your head, which will make you want to buy a product.  

There are people out there, though, that can separate sex from emotion…for scientific purposes that is.  Some researchers have made a career studying sex without looking at the emotion behind it, and this has been described as sexology.  According to Wikipedia, sexology is “the interdisciplinary study of human sexuality including human sexual interests,  behaviors and function” (with no regards to the emotion that goes along with sex).  Alfred Kinsey started researching sex habits of men and women in the 1930s and 1940s, and Williams Masters and Virginia Johnson followed suit in the 1960s.  Kinsey’s research was later plagued with controversy, since he didn’t have a wide variety of subjects (lots of white guys, several with sexually deviant behavior, like pedophilia), but Masters and Johnson’s work has withstood the test of time and is still revered as some of the most scientific and trustworthy in the field.  They also worked on helping people overcome sexual dysfunctions.

I could spend many more hours trying to formulate a perfect answer for your question, but the truth is, I don’t know that there is a definite answer.  I hope as you read my response you kept in mind that I’m just a humble dragon, doing my best to help out the students here at Uni.  Possible answers to your question can spark controversies hotter than the flames I can spew, so know that the research I’ve done, though substantial, is not the end all and be all of this topic.  Check out the sources I have at the bottom of my board if you want to do even more personal study on this topic.

Alfred Kinsey

Margaret Johnson & William Masters

 Heidi Klum not using sex to sell Thick Burgers...oh, wait...

 Magic Mike (2012) poster employing anything it can to sell tickets to a movie with no plot whatsoever.

References

"Alfred Charles Kinsey". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.  Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015

Begley, Sharon. "Are The Kids Alright?." Newsweek 150.22 (2007): 52. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

Beland, Nicole. "Speak Her Sex Language." Men's Health 24.1 (2009): 112. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

"human sexual behaviour". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.  Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015

"Masters and Johnson". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.  Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015

Miller, Jennifer. "The Best Sex She's Ever Had." Men's Health 29.9 (2014): 126. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

Nobre, Pedro J., and José Pinto-Gouveia. "Cognitions, Emotions, And Sexual Response: Analysis Of The Relationship Among Automatic Thoughts, Emotional Responses, And Sexual Arousal." Archives Of Sexual Behavior 37.4 (2008): 652-661. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

Nobre, Pedro, and José Pinto-Gouveia. "Emotions During Sexual Activity: Differences Between Sexually Functional And Dysfunctional Men And Women." Archives Of Sexual Behavior 35.4 (2006): 491-499. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

Sexology. (2015, February 10). Retrieved March 11, 2015, from Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexology#Sexology_as_an_academic_discipline