What matters the most is our students - What they can handle, take on, and even challenge.

This weeks readings were really valuable to us because I do not think we realize how often censorship occurs in our classrooms. We think since we are the sole commander of the classroom, we should be able to put anything we want into our classroom, yet this is not true. It is important to remember your values and what you believe in when deciding which books to use just as much as it is important to understand your students/parents/adminstrative board. I think it is a really scetchy subject and quite frank I am a little scared to have an encounter. Yet, knowing myself I always stand up for what I believe in, so if I ever encountered a situation like this, I know I would do and fight for what I believed in, especially if it deals with my students whom I will value very much. Its a hard topic to discuss because during adolescent times, students want to read things that relate to them, and this just so happens to be topics that do talk about reality whether that be- race, drugs, sex, divorce, highschool gangs and drop outs, violence and sexuality. They are trying to find themselves and by reading things that deal with how others handle situations are important for them. So why can't we talk about stuff that include race and vulgar vocabulary!? I will be a part of their coming to age, so why can't my literature that I choose reflect this?
- I liked NCTEs The Student's Right to Read because it had a lot of good information in it. It is important to have the community involved whether to back you up and to talk offence (even though we don't want this) we want involvement! They need to support us and defend us like the article talks about. This article talks about how censorship poses a threat to education. - "Censorship leaves students with an inadequate and distored picture of the ideals, values, and problems of their culture" . Here even what we as teacher look up to are stating this loud and clear. So how is it that we still have problems with literature that just try to keep students in touch with their realities? Students miss out. They are "denied the freedom to explore ideas and pursue truth wherever and however they wish" IF you didn't get a chance to read this, I really recommend reading it and having it on file in your binders for later date because it really defends us and our choices of books in the classroom. As it talks about establishing committees, getting others involved and even putting together a portfolio of which books are chosen and why they are in order to have documentation for those who disagree which I think is fantastic.
- It was hard to identify completely with Ch.6 of Web because I haven't had the pleasure of reading Huck Finn but I did enjoy the article and learning of its controversy.

- I think Feed was an interesting book to read and it would work well to find out how students would react to it. I think there would be cool connections of eras and to see where our reality is at and how close it is to the book, and what it could become due to technology and the people's increase of wanting and feeling that they need the latest technology out. Will this take over our children? (hence picture)
 Although I really liked the chatting in the head, because communication matters to us so much, yet as a Teacher I fear it. I wouldn't want my students talking in their minds and me not being aware of it. This would be the biggest distraction I could think of for my students. We think that small talk amongst each other near by is a problem we have to deal with, imagine the secretive talk! What could this lead to?! Even the bad things like where would bullying play in? Isn't this what our kids face today, imagine if it went straight to their minds. AH! (shaking my head to get that terrible thought out) But anyway, this book is a good book to view culture and how it influences us so much in our daily lives. I would introduce to this book in a fun way in order to get my students involved despite the language and the ideas of 'going to the moon'. Otherwise, I see teachers having fun with this book, and that's what our kids can appreciate the most!