How can high school teachers use popular culture effectively in a high school classroom? As educators, we often realize that Homer Simpson, Britney Spears, NSYNC and the latest movies often influence our students tremendously, that MTV News is more watched by our students than any of the national anchors, and our students are keenly aware of the latest advertising and marketing trends. More and more teachers, especially those teaching English, Social Studies, or Journalism, are beginning to realize that an effective way for teens to critique society is by having them study popular culture and the media. There are some great teachable moments when we have our students analyze the media and popular culture and use these for powerful instructional units or lessons in our classrooms. Papers are needed that address some of the following:

• What messages from popular culture and the media are being sent to our students?
• What lessons can we learn from this? How do you use popular culture to help critique or discuss current events, cultural stereotypes, or important issues facing teens and society today?
• How do you teach students to analyze or think about popular cutlure?
• What do we learn as educators?
• What do the students learn?
• How can students better critique the world, themselves, advertisers, or "teen culture?"

Please send a 300-500 word abstract/proposal or the entire paper to Erik Walker at the address below.

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Tony Hillerman, author of the famous "Navajo Detective" mysteries will be the luncheon speaker this year