I have always kept at least a small bookshelf in my classroom. I hope to inspire students to read and discover new things, even though in my various teaching experiences I have never taught an English class. Besides the obvious benefits of encouraging independent reading, all of the content area standardized tests are, by my estimation, one billion times easier if students have excellent reading skills.

I learned from my time teaching at an alternative school that it is possible to inspire even the most reluctant student to read, provided that you offered a wide enough range of topics and formats. So what was in my first years of teaching just a modest collection of books expanded to include more books, sponsored newspapers, and the most criminally underused resource of all: magazines. I started with the titles I already subscribed to, and then laid out a plan to amass as many as possible:

1. Bring in magazines you subscribe to (or buy) as soon as you’re done with them. I started by bringing in my favorite magazine, Wired, a very intelligent and accessible title that covers technology and its interaction with everything else. It’s been a huge hit with my 9th graders. Like most people, once I’m done reading the magazine, I have no more use for it. This also goes for any single issues you pick up along the way. Even if they don’t find the magazine of interest for reading, they can be used for projects (in your class or others).
2. Request free trial issues. I used to treat these solicitations as junk mail, but I realized that this is an easy opportunity to get more free reading material for my students. These often come bundled with your current subscriptions. For example, I got two free issues of Dwell, a beautifully illustrated architecture and design magazine, by just sending in a postcard that came with Wired.
3. Ask your local public library. Most public libraries sell older magazines for ridiculous prices like ten issues for a $1. When I reached out for donations for my classroom library earlier this year, I was invited to visit one local library and take what I wanted for free. These magazines were old and had already been discounted greatly, but since it was for a school all I had to do was ask. It helps to know people who work at or volunteer for the library, but again don’t be shy about asking for donations.
4. Search the classifieds. Especially for those of you in or near big cities, newspapers and Craigslist will often have listings for boxes full of free magazines. Most people are willing to give things away that they’d otherwise discard as long as you’re willing to go pick it up. You might even find a windfall of books if you’re lucky.
5. Ask for donations from friends, family and your community. My classroom received subscriptions to Discover and Mental Floss thanks to the generosity of several people. I was genuinely surprised at how much my students love Discover, which inspires me to keep this project going.
6. Grab a stack of free local magazines. Where I live, there’s at least five free papers covering the arts, music, things to do, and a whole list of local interest stories that students always love.

Take advantage of legitimately FREE magazine subscriptions

This is the greatest coup of all. Shortly after starting my plan, I remembered that DVD enthusiast website DVD Talk had a constantly updated list of free magazine subscriptions (click here and go to the first thread). More recently I found an entire forum devoted to free magazines on SlickDeals.net, an online community that aggressively seeks out the best deals on everything. Through these two lists I got free subscriptions for my classroom to Hispanic, Batanga Latin Music, Siempre Mujer, Spin, EGM, and Latina. There is enough variety on the two lists to ensure you’ll find something that will pique the interest of your students. Did I mention they are updated daily? They also offer leads on cheap subscriptions and can hook you up with somebody who wants to “trade” a subscription they have for one they want, if you’re willing to spend a little money.

Things to Avoid:

To avoid spam and additional solicitations, you should not use your primary email address to sign up for anything online. In other words, set up an email address to use just for signing up for things. If you want to avoid junk mail in your real mailbox, have the magazines shipped directly to school. This also eliminates the need to remove your home address before bringing it to school.

Obviously you have be careful with which magazines you choose to bring in. Even Wired, which I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend for most classrooms, sometimes has questionable content for students. For example, every issue of Men’s Health is full of information I wish all of my male students would read, but there’s a whole lot of sex in there too. It’s not worth the time it would take to rip out the stuff that might get you in trouble just to have one more title. The same goes for a lot of otherwise quality publications.

Asian women are also getting into the interracial dating scene. The magnetic feminine charm and warmth of the exotic and mysterious east has been such an attraction for the west. It’s no wonder Asian women always catch the eyes of western men. So if you are looking to date or are in an interracial relationship with an Asian woman, this article peaks into the world of Asian women dating and interracial dating. Asian women dating is becoming very popular and you can find Asian single women almost everywhere, as Asian community is widespread worldwide. And to top it up is the attraction of the exotic. Western single men, especially Caucasian men, have always been in search of the EXOTIC!!!! Exotic food, exotic travel, exotic dance to name a few – sorry I almost forgot … EXOTIC WOMEN. Well, the desire for white women or black women or Latina women for romance, love and sex, is again nothing but a desire for the exotic. However, today, let’s talk about East meeting West.

East meets west mainly on interracial dating sites. Interracial dating is very much part of the whole world now. Most men however make errors in judgment when making conversation on first dates. Well here is some piece of advice when looking to have an interracial relationship with Asian women:

Asian women are no different from any other women, contrary to popular belief that it is difficult dating them because of their culture. In reality, they are just every woman. They want someone to treat them with respect, want to be listened to, and they want to be cared about – but most of all, they want to be treated as an individual.Asian women still are unique in some ways. They tend to be quieter, be a little more caring and a little less wild. And whenever they laugh, they will hide their teeth to avoid coming off as rude. Well this is quite different from American behavior where an open mouthed laugh is all over the place. Just because an Asian woman covers her mouth don’t necessarily mean she needs to be treated as shy. She is still an individual that has her own behaviors. Treat her according to her own personality, not according to their perceived personality that you assume they have based on cultural behaviors that you may not understand.

There is nothing wrong with being attracted to or being in interracial relationships with Asian women. And there is nothing wrong with being attracted to some common cultural mannerisms. One thing that is wrong is generalizing a woman and not treating her as her own person or assuming that some cultural mannerisms have more meaning that they actually do. If you are planning to date interracially, keep in mind that these women are no different than other women. Asian women are every woman, They want to be treated with respect.

In the mid 1800′s, California saw an influx of people migrating from the east. Many of these were either families, with young children, or single men trying to take advantage of the gold rush. California had a large discrepancy between the number of women and the number of me. One example, that of Sergeant Ygnacio Vicente Ferrer Vallejo, shows just how dire the situation was. Sergeant Vallejo, who had helped friends deliver their baby daughter asked for the infant’s hand in marriage as his payment. Because of the low ratio of women to men the standards of marriage, sexuality, and family were greatly varied from that of the rest of the united states.

In Hispanic California marriage rules were similar to the rules governing the Anglos. Each forbade premarital sex, and sex outside the marriage was also outlawed. Also, in each divorces were nearly impossible to attain, only given under extreme circumstances, and even then the husband usually was given custody of any children. Women were legally “appendages” of their husbands. The California marriages were different in one respect, which is that Californian women kept their property after divorce while easterners did not. At the same time, California’s populations determined the standards of marriage, sexuality, and family. The gold-rush brought an influx of single young men to California. With three men to every one woman, it was difficult for a male to find a mate. He would have to either compete for women, turn to prostitutes, or go back home to find a mate. While the market was very competitive for men, women had their choice of nearly any man she wanted to choose. This is perfectly shown in the example of the Bullard family. The son moved to California with three sons and five daughters. Before any of the sons were married, all but one of the daughters were married. Each of the daughters regularly received gifts from suitors as well. The eldest Bullard brother eventually had to marry a woman who didn’t meet the ethnicity he had hopped saying ” If a man wished to marry a woman of a particular ethnic, religious, or racial background, his chances for success were measurable reduced.

Because of this lower ratio of men to woman, men had more options in addition to competing for a mate. They could also court a wife from back east, or seek prostitution. With a shortage of women and a surplus of men and gold, prostitutes came from all over. Most of the prostitutes in the American West were young, poor women, who were usually Indians, Asians, or Latinas. In Sacramento, nearly 60 percent of the prostitutes were minors. Prostitution was not the only alternative as seen in the case of reverend Sheldon. He had found it difficult to find a spouse in California, which gave him time to contemplate the women he had left behind in Ohio. Sheldon ended up marrying Priscilla Welsh, a woman whom he had a relationship before, which his parents had disapproved of.

These strange population demographics also effected the divorce rate as well. A Resident of Sonora claimed that eight out of ten women left their husbands. This number is staggering, and a bit overblown, but the shortage of women did affect women’s fidelity. Hurtado writes “Women were so scarce at the Buckeye Hill diggings that the appearance of one caused a near riot.” In some instances, the miners, who had acquired money because of discovered gold, bought new clothes and courted other men’s wives. Because California had such liberal divorce laws, they divorced at a much higher rate than other Americans. Also, the cruelty provisions act allowed women to seek divorce on grounds of cruelty. Not only did abused women benefit, but so did the single men of California.