Basement New Literacies: Dialogue with a First-Year Teacher

W ith the proliferation of forms of representation-from podcasts to RSS feeds, from wikis to manga and beyond-there is so much to be excited about literacy education. Seeing preservice teachers anticipating their classrooms and realizing the implications for education well into the twenty-first century is part of what's most rewarding for those of us who work teacher education. Then, suddenly, it's time to see our students leave and, perhaps, secure teaching positions. For them and for us, reality sets in-our graduates must make their way into the real world. There is no challenge education comparable to the first year of teaching. Cut loose from the umbilical cord of teacher education programs, teachers must face not only all the challenges one would face on any job, but they must also face the curricular tug-of-war occurring our schools. Almost every decision and action teachers make is under the microscope. At the most precarious point one's career, when a teacher may be struggling to fit in among a veteran staff or to fill out the confusing paperwork correctly or to master the intricacies of the copy-machine code system, including potentially transformative new literacies may be more than a first-year teacher can handle.