Frustration

I know everyone is posting about the readings, but honestly, i have yet to even get to them because i was home at a wedding this weekend.  Anyway, my post is more about my experience in school last thursday...

Two things that majorly irritated me.  Number one: Reynolds had school on Thursday during the flooding.  Now yes, it does stink that we had to go in when everyone else had off, but that's not what bothered me.  What bothered me was that the superintendent didn't close school and think of the safety of not only his students, but more so his teaching staff.  Half of the teaching staff was not able to come to school on Thursday or show up on time because they had commutes.  Many of them had to put up with closed routes, multiple different detours, and harrowing trips.  What's the point of having a school day when you don't have ample teaching staff?  Secondly, we had students slipping and falling all over the halls and outside in the puddles.  I and my co-op were just very irritated.

Secondly: My students were supposed to work on laptops on Thursday because my co-op didnt have time in the morning to make her copies for the day (because she was late to school).  We have a cart of thirty laptops in our classroom.  Only about half of them would turn on...and then only about half of those actually connected to the internet or didn't shut down as soon as they started up.  Our honors section is supposed to start research papers this week.  How can they work on them if they don't even have proper equipment? Not to mention that these laptops seem older than my kids, and have numerous buttons missing on each one.  My co-op also informed me that there's only ONE tech support person...for the entire district.  That absolutely blew my mind that there was no one there who we could call to help us and get our class back on track. 

I understand that urban schools are generally more poor and don't have as many resources as other schools...but it just really annoys me that these kids can't even have general access to technology that is now a standard part of every day life and should be standard in the classroom.

Crap-detecting and entropy

As a disclaimer, I have not gotten to page 60 yet, but want to address the ideas of crap-detecting and entropy as related to my experience thus far in public school teaching. First of all, the crap methods that are being driven by standardized teaching when it comes to reading skills. We know that most children, who are good readers, were read to as babies and toddlers. They experienced reading as pleasurable and as a natural part of everyday life. They had the opportunity to organically grow through the various stages of reading, beginning with the mimicry of pretend reading. I recall my own children pretending to read, as they spoke a memorized story, with the open book upside down! Most children develop reading stamina by being pulled into a good story and wanting to know what happens next. Instead of conducting independent reading workshops, which would allow below grade readers to practice getting lost in a story and, thereby, build stamina, we put textbooks with "pieces" of stories in front of the students and stop their reading every other sentence to ask a scripted question that lets the teacher know if they are paying attention to the text. This is absurd, but it is the method that is dictated to and embraced by the teachers who adhere to a curriculum director's mandate. Some brave souls admit to secretly conducting real reading classrooms, but they say so in whispers.
This is a very good example of entropy: not much creative energy left in a declining system.

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 of Class Matters (I cannot get the italics to work here) has implications for my students at junior high and for me as a teacher at that particular school. First of all, I immediately thought of a boy in class who told me that he was being raised by his grandparents because both his mother and father are in jail. This was my very first day in the classroom and I was working with the students to make Life Maps. It was remarkable to me that he shared this news with no hint of embarrassment and in a loud enough voice for anyone near to hear. My prior experience in suburban schools would have suggested that this bit of information about a student's family life would be whispered in shame. It was refreshing to see that this young man was full of confidence in his bearing and it was simply a matter of fact on his list of life experience. I have continued to observe that his academic work and social interactions are neither inhibited nor shaped by this fact. He is a leader in the classroom, smart as a whip and, despite a playfully mischievous streak, he has become my "protector" when the class gets rowdy. He is quick to shout out, "Be respectful to Mrs. S!". My point in sharing this story is that the student is an example of how important it is for teachers and community leaders to remain vigilant in keeping this bright, engaging child on track with his limitless potential. It would be easy for him to fall on his parent's path when he enters the high school years and has more freedom for temptations on the street. How many stories, such as Angela Whitiker's could have been prevented with guiding hands and hearts?

Secondly, the chapter has implications for me as a pre-teacher learning the skills of directing lesson plans. The limited resources of the urban school I am in, means I work without the technology that my suburban counterparts have readily available. Should I get a job in the suburbs, I fear that my teaching skills will not be practiced sufficiently in areas of putting technology to use in the classroom. Something to consider!

Chapter 4

It took me a bit to figure out whether or not I was reading the correct article. After it began to make sense to me, I thought that there was a ton of connections that my urban students could make in regards to fitting into society's "norms". I won't list the connections so that I don't blow my wad before class. "Blow my wad".... is that the correct expression? I think my wife is rubbing off on me. She butchers every expression known to man.

Some of her finest musings have been:

"I'm running around like a chicken without any heads"
"It's like killing two stones with a bird."

Ugh. Anyway, see ya Tuesday!

Question for classmates

English Curriculum Tools for the 21st Century Student

Here are some tools I think would be good for an English Curriculum for the 21^st century student. I wanted to post it here on the blog for everyone to read and comment on.

What can I add to the list (because I know there is more)?

1. Podcasts: Sometimes just listening to teachers isn’t enough! For example, rather than you, the teacher, control a read a loud session, have students record a podcast and act out character voices. My thought with this is it gets students engaged and provides them a better understanding of the material.
2. Media: Rather than looking at these as a separate entity to the curriculum, blend it into the curriculum. Don’t look at movies or websites as a fun break from the textbook -- use them as a means of understanding the material, especially for those who are visual learners.
3. Build Relationships: The article discussed the idea that our EQ is just as important as IQ in today’s workplace and I definitely agree. Instead of having students work alone in silence, pair them up for class projects. This will help them work with one another to solve problems and even learn from one another. This works virtually as well with something like Edmodo or Ning.
4. Thinking Across Disciplines: I love the concept in the article about depth over breadth and leaping across disciplines. The example in the article was combining earth science, chemistry, business and design for develop a shoe for Nike. My idea, as an English teacher, would be to have students write a letter to the Pa. Department of Education (for example) outlining what they would like to see change in their school. At a middle school and high school level, this covers the writing portion, as well as a piece of social studies.

Here is an interesting site I found while looking around to see how school districts are implementing a 21^st century curriculum: http://www.p21.org/documents/p21-stateimp_curriculuminstruction.pdf

Weekly Class Readings

Can we use this blog to discuss class readings? I miss the old D2L avenue for conversation threads, as it sharpened my focus on issues to hear other perspectives.