Theresa-+Bang!

The book is about a boy named Mann Adler. Mann two years previously saw his younger brother, an innocent bystandard, Jason get shot on their front porch. Since his brother died things haven't been going well for his family. His father has become a harsh and mean man hoping to toughen up his remaining son. His mother has essentially gone insane with greif, still hoping that her youngest will be home for his birthday. As a means of escape Mann paints and works with the horses at the stable twenty eight blocks from his house. He has his best friend Kee-Lee most of the time attached at his hip. Kee-Lee smokes weed like no tomorrow and paints as well. When things start getting real bad at his house Mann picks up his best friends bad habit and needless to say when his father finds out he isn't happy with him. In order to teach the boy a lesson he makes him go down to the empty lot where people dump all of their junk and completely clean it up. He hopes that will teach his son not to smoke weed because he states he can't lose another son. Unfortunately it doesn't work. Mann is caught smoking weed in his parents house and that's when his dad loses it and throws him out on the front porch. The porch that he can't stand to even go near because all he ever sees is his little brothers blood. Mann has a panic attack and thats when you realize as a reader that he really isn't all that alright. That he blames himself for his brothers death. Because he brought the horse from the stable home and she was thristy so he left to get her a drink and thats when his brother got shot. After that he didn't go to Kee-Lee's house for two weeks because he was grounded but when he got off he went down the stable. There he finds all of the horses abandon. He went home and told his father about it and he called the appropriate authorities. A few weeks later Mann is in school and a boy starts talking about the reason that everyone is getting shot in their neighborhood. He says the reason is is they had done something, even the little kids. He wouldn't drop the subject and Mann told him that it was a lie. The kid basically states that it was probably his fault that his little brother was shot because he wouldn't shut up. Mann turns and pummels the kid, even biting part of his finger off for saying that. He turned from the room after he drew blood and ran all the way home. When he got there and explained what happened, his mother was horrified but his dad was proud. He ended up in juvie for four weeks and then was not only kicked out of the school but also forced into weekly therapy. After that you think everything is going back to normal for the family. The fathter is no longer angry, the mother is paying more attention to her living son but still living in the past. His father at one point makes his mother take a trip to Kentucky to visit her family. When this happens he packs up his son and Kee-Lee and takes them camping. One night about a week in there's a storm. His father tells the boys that he's going to get the truck and when he honks they should come out. Instead he leaves them stranded with a gun a cellphone and no money but a little food. The boys start walking back. When they call him to tell him to come and get them he states that they are employing an ancient african tribal right to try and get the boys to turn into men. On their way back they encounter many obstacles fighting amongest themselves and even being forced to eat garbage at a southern white rest-stop.When they do get home they are forced to leave their homes permanantly. They go to live at one of Kee-Lee's aunts places which is an illegal number house. There they work for her shaking people up, drinking, smoking weed, and painting houses. It was painting someones house where they couldn't finish the work because the paint won't stick that Kee-Lee shoots and kills a persona and gets shot himself and dies. From then on Mann is on his own. he hustles people for money and steals often. At one point he almost gets shot saving a little boy from being shot like his brother was. His family is looking for him he finds out. He lets them know he's alright and then begins living at the old stable. THere he makes a life for himself making things and repairing his home. Then on christmas eve he discoveres two of the horses are there agian. He beigins taking care of them. He steals as many veggies as he can and mixes them with canned dog food. THats where his dad finds him. One night when the horses are sick. It turns out their bowels were compacted. That night he let his dad back into his life a little and they begin taking care of the horses together. At then end of the book his father explains the ritual fully and apologises, but not before he paints tribal markings on his son and they dance around a fire together.

The groups being depicted are the veiw of the southern white man and the black african americans.

I really didn't like the book. The description given online were a lot different than the actual book hence the reason I picked it. It was really not that all different than some areas in milwaukee where I have friends living and I have no clue if they'll be there tomorrow.

Personally I wouldn't show this to my class its much too graphic and in some areas very traumatic.

Trammell, J, Bruce, J. (2009). Utilizing multiple interloking learning communities to form a center for teaching and learning. //Education Research Complete, Vol. 13 Issue I,// p 47-57

This article is all about Centers for Teaching and Learning within a higher education setting. Trammell and Bruce explain that Colleges and Universities contain overlapping and unique learning communities that are built out of the fact that they are complex organizations. The more structured a larger organization is the better communities can overlap and support one another. This includes multiple learning interactions outside of a students degree track. Trammell and Bruce support their theories with evidence from a case study that occurred at the Randolph-Macon College. At this college, which is mostly liberal arts, their student learning center, The Higgins Academic Center or HAC had recently gone under a complete curriculum change to bring teaching and learning into a co-habitable feidl. They go on to give a little background information about why the HAC was formed and how its chairmanship changed hands. This included a complete revamp of the entire staff and curriculum. They go on to explain how Randolph Macon now requires every freshman to take an FYE and how faculty are now available in the HAC. They also explain how the Office of Disability Support Services or DSS now works more closely with the HAC. In addition they have updated their Writing Center and added a full-time tenured director of the writing center. They have also added a speaking center to the HAC and an Instructional Technology Center as well. Trammell and Bruce state that while there were challenges mostly in the forms of the budget the quantifiable factors were to great for them to turn down the project and okayed it. Since then there has been a 9% decrease in the amount of freshmen entering a probation program due to grades. They also state that there is another section to this decrease and that is summer school programs. Though they do not go into as much detail.

This article connects to this course because of the diversity aspect of the article. They cater to students coming from all different walks of life and try to assist them in order to bring them all to the same level of academic achievement. It also speaks of linking numerous communities together to promote higher learning. All of these are part of our main course objectives and give us as students a greater idea of what we may eventually encounter. Especially for those of us that wish to eventually teach at a collegial level.

By knowing the different background information on how a CTL is formed it may make me a great canidate for assisting within a CTL eventually. This may not help in my own classroom much because it is mostly about a students fredhman year in college. Though the information about adding different experiences from different majors can be used in a high school setting. For example using a musical activity in a biology class to learn the process of mitosis. Or using different biological materials such as reeds bamboo rocks and sticks to make your own instruments to gain information on tonal quality. It would also give students an idea of where the materials come from. This could be linked back to cultural aspects as well.