The Phantom Tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth

Juster, N. (1961). The phantom tollbooth. New York: Yearling.

            Like our previous weeks reading with Alice’s adventures and A Tangled Tale, The Phantom Tollbooth was another fantasy tale with a child using his imagination to form something fun out of his “boring” life. Unlike the previous week’s reading, The Phantom Tollbooth was much more interesting and engaging from a reader’s point of view. It was less difficult to follow the plot and the constant change of scenery and locations kept me interested into what place Milo and his companions would be at next.

            The obstacles that Milo faced while trying to reach his goal of freeing the princesses represented in my mind, obstacles that any child or person would face when trying to make a dream into a reality. The idea of overcoming those obstacles and persevering to your goal is something that students can take from this book. Each time Milo was faced with a new obstacle such as the senses taker or the valley of sound, it seems hopeless that he could overcome this and continue down the path to the release of the princesses. However, with each obstacle presented to Milo, he finds a way around it and eventually is able to reach the princesses.

           

            I think this book provides an important lesson to any students who read it about making your goals come true. It shows that with any worthwhile goal, there are going to be very difficult obstacles that lay in your path. No difficult goal is going to just be given to you because you want it but with determination and the will to make it happen, you can make any dream or goal into a reality. This reminded me of one of my favorite quotes that was said by a coach that I once had:

“In order to achieve your goal, you can’t want it to happen, you can’t wish it to happen, you have to MAKE IT HAPPEN!”

            I think this book would be a better choice to use in a classroom than either of the two previous books we read. I thought it was easier to follow along with the plot and would be easier for the students to relate to and make connections with than the other two books. I think it teaches a good lesson with dreaming and overcoming whatever is put in your path for your goal. 

Alice's Adventures and A Tangled Tale

Alice’s Adventures and A Tangled Tale

A Tangled Tale:

Just to be honest, I didn’t like this series of stories at all. I had a hard time understanding the information because it was written in such a strange way. I felt like I was constantly re-reading paragraphs because I wasn’t comprehending what I was reading and was forced to re-read sometimes full stories. While some of the stories were easier to comprehend than others such as Knot 2 “Eligible Apartments,” I don’t think the message portrays much to a middle school student. I know I didn’t get much out of it and except for some of the more highly advanced students in middle school, they wont either. I don’t think I could use this in a classroom because my belief is that part of getting students interested in reading is showing them books that they can not only relate to but enjoy. Having stories that students have to struggle to understand what is going on and the point of the story is not doing the teachers any favors in accomplishing their goal. I think students who don’t really like to read would be turned away and discouraged even more if given something like this that takes a lot of effort to understand.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:

Like most people I would guess, I have seen the movie when I was little but not since then. I couldn’t really remember the story prior to reading this. Overall, I liked this book a lot better than the stories from “A Tangled Tale.” I thought that it was more interesting from a readers point of view because while Carroll did skip around a lot in his writing of the story, there was a connection that could be made from scene to scene. I still didn’t love this book because the writing was sometimes hard to understand but I think even a middle school student would be able to make sense of the story. It had some very similar themes as last weeks reading with “Rocket Boys.” For example, Alice’s determination to find the necessary items towards the beginning that would allow her to enter through the small door and into the garden. She was turned away several times for different reasons such as not having a key, then being to big to fit, then being too small to reach the key on the table. However, through all her struggles and disappointment, she never gave up hope of getting into the garden that she believed might help lead her back to her home. While I’m sure there was one, I never quite picked up on the connection you could make to a math classroom with the book but nevertheless, I thought this book could be used in a classroom. As I mentioned before with a Tangled Tale, books need to be interesting to students in order to capture their attention and get them hooked on reading. I thought this book was one that accomplished that goal because it used a story they would be familiar with, since most would have seen the movie growing up, and would allow them to read the text with an interest. At least that is how I was when reading it. I thought once you realize that the story is a dream, which for me was about half way through the book, the skipping around and changing scenes quickly made more sense and I was able to make more sense of the book.

References:

Carroll, L. The best of lewis carrol. New York, NY: Castle Books.

Rocket Boys

Rocket Boys

When I started to read this book, I didn’t really know anything about it and wondered what to expect. As I have stated previously, I have never really enjoyed reading as a hobby and have found most books that have been assigned in schools to be rather dry and boring. This book started out the same way for me. It was very difficult because it seemed to take a while to really get into the story.

However, once the book really got going, it was very interesting and inspiring how Homer, who was never really into school prior to building the rockets, found a subject that interested him and really put his mind to it. By working hard and not letting anyone tell him he couldn’t succeed at building a successful rocket, and with the help of his friends and the community of Coalwood, he was able to use this passion he had for rockets to get him into a better situation than mining.

I thought the fact that he stood up to everyone who didn’t believe in him, including his parents, principal, and classmates and kept his ambition to eventually create something as successful as he did and win the science fair proves a valuable lesson to both students in school who might read this but also teachers in the classroom as well. Homer’s story of success proves that just because you are dealt one hand in life, doesn’t require you to go down that road. With the ambition to succeed and do something else with your life, you can become anything you want in life through hard work. For many students in schools today, this is a very important lesson for them to learn. Many students come from poverty or bad situations at home. The idea that they can escape these conditions and make a better life for themselves if they really want it is a far greater lesson than anything from a textbook.

I thought Rocket Boys provided a great lesson for teachers in schools as well. Without the encouragement and dedication that Homer’s teacher had for him and her students, Homer may have never felt it possible for him to earn a scholarship to college and might have settled for working in the coalmines his whole life. She encouraged him to find something of interest to him. While he wasn’t a great student before he got interested in rockets, understanding the math that went along with building and launching the rockets encouraged him to learn and he became able to understand the formulas even more complex than what they were studying in school. This shows teachers that using example problems and real world applications that students are interested in is truly important for the students abilities to learn information and even be willing to learn.

Rocket Boys inspired me as a teacher to really understand my students and their interests and try to make learning as fun for them as possible. You never know whose life path you may change with kind words and encouragement that they have a shot to succeed and change the life path they were dealt.

Hickam Jr., H. (1998). Rocket boys. New York, NY: Dell Publishing.

"Growing Up Online"

The video we watched in class, "Growing up online" was very troublesome for me for one specific reason. This video simply portrayed technology and the internet in particular as being nothing but a negative thing that kids have in their life. It brought up cases in which students were being bullied on the internet once they got home which eventually led the the kid unfortunately committing suicide. While that was an awful story about what happened to the student from being bullied, the video portrayed that the internet was to blame for this happening. It failed to place an emphasis on the fact that the boy was being bullied at school as well which is actually where it started. The internet just didnt make it any better. The video portrayed this story in a way that causes people to negatively associate the internet with suicidal activities. This could cause some viewers to say, "Wow. Look what the internet is doing to people's lives."
What the video did not do was the problem I had with it. It failed to recognize the importance that technology and the internet have in students lives. The internet has provided students with a way for them to communicate with each other and do many other things that would be impossible without it. As it did say, the majority of students know how to use the internet safely and only talk to people who they know well. A possibly better way to present this video, I believe would have been to present some positive attributes of the internet for students in schools while recognizing that it can be dangerous if used too much or in the wrong way.