Keeping up with Xanga....

For the first time, the faces of students at the Turner County High School prom were both white and black. Each year, in spite of integration, the school's white students had raised money for their own unofficial prom and black students did the same to throw their own separate party, an annual ritual that divided the southern Georgia peanut-farming county anew each spring.

Ga. School Throws First Integrated Prom - washingtonpost.com

Thinking about marginalized groups

• the traditional & more contemporary definitions of marginalization
• various examples of marginalized groups, in the US as well as in Bulgaria
• the "melting pot" vs. "tossed salad" metaphors

1. looking around on the web for information about various groups
2. adding a link to that information on your page
3. explaining your ideas about that information

Amy Oliver and marginality

Here's the link for the article that we read in class last week:

You can read a description of her background and courses that she teaches. Please scroll to he middle of the page to read her essay on "Marginality." 

Don't you feel special...?

But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

Time's Person of the Year: You -- TIME

Getting started on XANGA

Welcome to Xanga, everyone! Here are the steps to start your own XANGA page:

1. Log onto www.xanga.com

2. Look for the box that says GET STARTED and click on the link that says GET CLASSIC.

3. Complete the boxes asking for a username (think carefully--this canNOT be changed later), password, email, and your birthday.

4. On the next page, you will be asked to input optional information about yourself. You can take some time to do it now, or skip it for later if you're anxious to start your blog!

4. On the 3rd page, you'll be asked basic things to set up the design of your Xanga page. a) Your site name is what appears on the upper left corner in large letters. b) Your tagline appears on the upper right corner and gives a brief description of your Xanga page. c) Your site font determines how all your text will appear on your Xanga blogs. d) Your quick template determines the colors and style of your Xanga site. All a) - d) above, you can choose now or delay the decision-making for later.

5.  The next page asks you to invite friends --skip this for now by clicking CANCEL and...VOILA! Your account is ready. You will now to asked to write your first entry...here, type something brief (titled "On Becoming a Xangan") about how you felt as you were setting up your Xanga account and then click SAVE CHANGES at the bottom.

6. One last thing, join our class BLOGRING (a community of bloggers). Down the left hand side of your Xanga page, you'll find a box called Blogrings which gives you options to join blogrings. Find SCHOOLS & EDUCATION, then COURSES, and if you click the tab labelled RECENTLY CREATED, you should be able to find & join the blogring for "American Other @ PU."

7. Next, write a new entry (titled "First Impressions") in which you summarize your understanding of the American mainstream and "other" based on our first class. 

Have fun!