Daina’s Wonderful World of Teaching

I really enjoyed dinner, I think I ate way too much.  I also really enjoyed our conversation about where we take the state of education.  We talked about merit pay and that being the thing that may band us together.  Money may be the thing that motivates us to really put up a fight.    Kim it may band us together, but it hasn’t thus far.  We barely get paid much now and we are not putting up much of a fight for better wages, better resources and equal playing field with the CEO of companies.  What will make you fight for education?  I know we have all said that good teachers close their door and teaches.  What if we let more people in the door, let preservice teachers in, let veteran teachers in, let administration in on one of our real lessons, let politicians in the classroom, bring the community in the room.  If we opened our self up we would be giving power to the cause.  The educational system has problems that won’t be cured with a new textbook system, won’t be fixed with a raise here or there, it won’t be fixed by closing our doors.  There is no band aid for this, there is no one solution.  Schools are ,if I may quote my fallen solider Barrion Fannin, “Big Business.”  It is a machine that produces little robots instead of soldiers ready to stand up for social justice.  I look at this year and realized I read a lot about social justice but did little for the cause.  I was quite busy writing papers.  So my charge for myself and you is to question what will be your social justice project?  This project you will not be graded on by a professor, but by your profession, your students, your community and yourself.  Friere says to know is the grow and to grow is to know.  Now that we have all this information from all the articles we read we have to grow.  We have to use our knowledge, in order to use it we have to be willing to grow out of the shell we have been in.  I am dedicated to teaching, I think I lost some of it this year, but I’ve got my Mojo back baby and I’m ready to make the difference.  I’m ready to stop talking the game and really get in the game.  Writing this blog, my last words, reminds me that I’ve fallen short, but I will rise again.

Let me know if you are ready to join my militant party of teachers.  No machine guns allowed, unless you are talking about your quick fire of words or letters that you plan on firing on society.  We have lost community, we have lost our connections.  I am guilty of being a TV watching, FB/myspace updating, texting, email writing, procrastinating member of society.  I’ve let pieces of society become my community a “pseudo community” as Gatto would call it.  I’ve lost my connection by being so overly connected.  I’ve lost my sense of community, I charge that we rebuild teacher communities, we rebuild school communities we rebuild the educational system.  Anyone with me?

These are my last words, but please believe that you will be hearing from me.

Who would have ever thought I would be a teacher, a life changer a community builder?  Heck not I.  Of course I played school as a child and I was the teacher never the student.  How could I have been a teacher without being a student first?  Here I am exploring the gaps between achievement among students from different SES backgrounds, how race and ethnicity shape learning, white privilege and how the system doesn’t provide the adequate support or training.  My bright side is that after i realized teaching was the thing I was born to do, I got into a great certification program at GSU.  What made it great?  I always felt supported in this program but my fellow cohort members and my professors.  They encouraged me and supported me and provided me opportunities to accomplish all my goals.  They uplifted my spirits.  They become my family, my community.  By student teaching for a year I was able to experience I needed.  I shared the classroom responsibilities with my mentor teacher and grow as an educator.  If GSU is nothing else it is a place of reflecting thinking.  Reflect on this, reflect on that, I examined myself inside and out.  How many educators can say those things abut their program?  More educators should be able to say that and feel that.  They should have the feeling of belonging to a community of teachers who are prepared to teach.  Dare I say army if teachers.  Why don’t more programs provide feelings of belonging?

I want to discuss a couple of different pieces about the Obama Education reform plan.

A pre-school Agenda That begins At Birth-Of course the PreK teacher is going to talk about this part of the reform.  I liked the idea of giving funding to create or expand high-quality care and education programs for pregnant women.  I believe that education starts with the education of the parents.  There are alot of parents that don’t know where to start when it comes to parenting.  Providing more funding would give the parents a more even playing field when they start the education of their children.  I am not sure I believe that we should keep lower the age students go to school.  I know it isn’t required for students to go to prek, it’s a parents choice and sometimes a parent’s need.  I don’t have any research to back up what I am about to say, but just experience.  Many students under the age of four just are not ready for “school” not in the way we think of them.  I am against young children being in an official school setting.  I am totally for programs that are very student centered, voluntary and universal.  We should not force students who are not ready into a building and force them to learn.

Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and Reward America’s Teachers

I only wish we had these teaching scholarships when I went through my program.  Since I went through the GTAAP program, we were required to basically take a year off work to student teach and take classes.  I lived off of my savings and finical aid.  I owe so much in loans…I can’t even to begin to think about it.  I think offering recruits with more funding is a great way to go.  It will encourage teachers to come into the profession.  I always felt I was a teacher inside, but I got an undergrad degree in business because I knew teachers didn’t make that much.  The program I was in at GSU totally prepared me for teaching at an urban school, they gave me first hand experience, I had other people to talk to, and the course work was related to what was currently happening in education.  It also encouraged to make a change in myself and my way of thinking.  To open my mind to new ideas.  I feel like there defiantly needs to be more programs that provide high quality preparation for high need districts.  You have to be prepared properly if you plan on staying in the teaching field for an extended amount of time.  I like this whole “Career Ladder Initiative” that Obama proposes.  It provides support for beginning teachers, which is needed for retention, opportunities for advancement, and professional compensation.  The I am concerned about is how we determine rewards given to teachers.  Although this may cause us to run in circles, What is the best way to reward teachers?  What do we base these rewards on?  Please don’t say test scores, because that is not right at all.

I totally loved our discussion in class about Ebonics or Black American English.  Brian thank you so much for breaking it down.  I’m going to use the word again, you really dropped knowledge and it was dope.  I didn’t always believe in this whole Ebonics as a language, then I got in the master’s program and Dr. Flo broke it down for me.  I knew I spoke one way at home and then when I was at school I spoke differently.  I thought the way I spoke at home was less intelligible than what I was required to speak at school.  How was I going to get a job if I didn’t speak “correct” English.  Then Dr. Flo let me know I was really bilingual.  Yes finally I spoke two languages. I believe that BE has a grammatical system that is as systematic as that of Mainstream (Standard) American English. It is not a substandard, uneducated, or lazy way of speaking.  I let my students use it, but I teach SE.  When we are talking at lunch I don’t worry about “correcting” their SE, I let it flow.  The conversation flows easier and I get more out of it.  These are my thoughts, my very strong thoughts but you are welcome to put your input all up on my blog boo.

Parents just don’t care-Oakes & Lipton Chapter 10

I’m just going to chunk it.

Recognizing individuals’ and communities’ assets, strengths, and beauty does not mean that one is blind to their needs.  Likewise, recognizing that parents have enormous competence does not mean that they have the resources or power to act on behalf of their children when faced with complicated school structures and bureaucracies in addition to their everyday challenges.  The ideal solution is to construct parent involvement that builds on the cultural strengths and educational resources.” pg. 398

This  quote refers to educators bridging the the cultures of school and family.  I often feel like the bridge. The parents of my students really want the best for their children, but sometimes it is hard for them to maneuver through the educational system.  I am the go to person, or at least I feel like that person.  I have a pretty good relationship with the parents in my classroom, most of them have my cell number and can and do contact me anytime.  I talk to them when they pick up their students, I talk to older siblings so my messages are translated to the parents.  I invite them to come and explore my classroom.  I discuss kindergarten with them and what teacher may fit their students the best.  I try my best to help them navigate the educational system.  As much as I give to my parents they give to me and that’s so important for the growth of their children.  What are you doing to bridge school and family?

More Info about Ebonics, great site check it out.  I also am posting site to the rethinking schools article/

http://www.pbs.org/speak/education/curriculum/high/aae/

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/12_01/ebdelpit.shtml

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/12_01/eboneil.shtml

Chapter 6:  Assessment Measuring What Matters

What matters?  What matters to us as teachers is not always what matters to our students, our administration the county or the state.  I have been disturbed this week in about 100 ways.  I want to get into that for a moment, then bring it back to the readings.  I was observed twice in the last two days.  I was observed during center time.  For those who don’t know about prek center time, it’s a full hour of uninterrupted student center activities that are initiated by the students.  We have 10 different centers that students can pick.  We can go into the centers and observe assist.  there can be teachable moments, but I don’t pull out a lesson plan and try to teach.  Well when I was first observed I was told, “You need to teach something pull a group.”  I just looked at my admin and said this is center time and role reversal for my student teacher I’m not “teaching” during this time.  My admin told me I had to be observed now so I needed to do something.  I was observed interacting with my students but not “teaching.”  This bothered me for many reasons, i was asked to just form a small group and teach, that’s not how my classroom runs, nor how prek is run.  Small group period ended 5 minutes before admin walked in the room.  They were in four small groups for about 30 minutes and you missed it.  My schedule is posted outside my door, we pretty much have small group at the same time every day.  I am disturb that I wasn’t observed teaching and therefore you really don’t know what I am teaching my students or for that matter what they are learning.  What are yo assessing?  Then today same thing I am observed during center time by another admin, ummm didn’t you just observe me at the same exact time.  Nothing has changed I am still not “teaching.”  The frustration began to build because, if I’m not being assessed on my teaching then there are plenty of people in that building who are not being assessed on teaching.  So what am I getting at?  If you are being assessed on snack then how does the admin know what we are feeding to our student’s brain?  Frustration.  If you are not really doing your job how to you expect teachers to really do their jobs.  Are we failing our students by not assessing their teachers?

Ok onto the chapter……It starts with a brief history about standardize testing.  How do we determine who is intelligent and what exactly is intelligence. How do we assess what our students know and do we lean toward traditional assessments or alternative assessments.  Prek leans all the way toward alternative assessment.  We assess by talking to students, taking pictures and collecting work samples.  As the books says on page 211, this form of assessment matches sociocultural perspectives on learning and it accommodate student’s diversity. I work of a cultural diverse school so It’s important that I know about how my students learn, what they bring to the classroom and what they are getting out of my teaching.  How do you feel about my assessment style and what is your assessment style?  I would love to know about assessment outside of my little world and classroom.

Just another question, how do you determine intelligence?  I am not good a memorizing facts but I can discuss and build on my ideas, how do you measure that?  How would I measure that in my students?  How do you include assessment for students from diverse backgrounds?

After reading the two articles about Ruby Payne, I was shocked that people really pay for her mess.  Wait, I can believe it.  We are moving toward more conservative views in education.  A more structured environment for learning.  She doesn’t seem to consider the “Funds of Knowledge” students posses.   Funds of knowledge is defined by researchers Luis Moll, Cathy Amanti, Deborah Neff, and Norma Gonzalez (2001) “to refer to the historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being” (p. 133). She looks at poverty, race and class from deficit models.  She groups people and generalizes. Payne believes that poor people are always looking for a fight or a good time when they not trying to get over on the system.  What about all the people who are getting bonuses over at AIG, who is milking the system.  What about all the banks that received bail-out money from the  Bush administration but still aren’t helping correct the economy.  It’s not a bunch of poor African American or Latinos trying to milk the system.  Clearly I found that whole statement funny, but really sad.  She is sending the wrong message.

Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

This is an ethnographic study which is basically a method of observing human interactions in social settings and activities.  The study looked at five different schools and grouped the schools by income, class, occupations of parents.  I found it interesting on how structured the working class schools taught their students.  Students were taught like they worked in a factory.  They had little freedom to control how they received knowledge.  It was almost like the jobs their parents did lead to the way students were taught.  If their parents worked at a unskilled job then the students would be taught to be followers.  Basically training students to go into the same field as their parents never really encouraging upward mobility.

References:

Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D. and Gonzalez, N. (2001). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, XXXI, 2, 132-141.

What disturbs me or is a challenge?  I can disturb myself, I do it quite often.  I don’t listen.  I tell my students all the time that when a classmate is talking listen instead of thinking of what you want to say next.  I have a very hard time with this especially in the Ed. S program.  I feel like since I’ve started this program I’ve had to be very defensive and therefore I’m always thinking of my comeback.  I know, I know no one is truly against me, but it disturbs me, when I don’t feel like my opinion or thoughts are valued.  Do I think everyone should agree with me….No that would be totally unreasonable.  I feel challenged because I have the least amount of teaching experience in the program.  I also came in the program with a crew, which dwindled down to a couple.  It’s been a hard road and I can only speak from the “I.”  I truly believe we should challenge each other to think out of our comfort area but i also feel like sometimes when I do I am looked at as that “Militant Sankofa Chick.”  There has been comments made in class that have truly disturbed me and I’m not sure if it’s because it goes against what I consider is “right” or if I’m just too close minded to let in information.  I am willing to admit where i fall short, I am also determined to better myself at every point possible.  This is a growing experience, it is about what I have inherited versus what I have learned and fitting it all into my life.

I want to first give a shout out to Rhina, I really enjoyed reading the articles.  They are useful in helping to pick out literature.  I think it is very important for teachers to really evaluate the books they are reading to their class.  I know that i briefly talked about it at a staff meeting, that we really need to be more culturally responsive when picking out literature to read to our students. we are not promoting stereotypes and making our student’s have negative views about reading because they are not represented in the books we read.  I wish I had these articles when I was doing my 5 minute redelivery on “Culture.”  Yes I said it culture talk takes 5 minutes at my school.  Evaluating Children’s Books for Bias, really broke down some key things to look for when examining books.  Omission-leaving out a whole group, Illustrations that promote stereotypes or use tokenism to represent people of color.  Checking the story line, what are the standards they use to measure success.  How are problems resolved and what are the roles of female characters.  Check In the book for inaccuracy and inappropriateness.  If you are unsure if this story really could have happened during a certain time period, stop being lazy and look it up.  Google it.  I never really thought about looking at the author’s background to see from what perspective he is coming from.  I totally agree that you need to really take a look into these things.  Are we creating people who think about injustices or except what is given.

OMG-that Nannie Little Rose was just off the chain.  It saddened me and just made me shake my head.

Down But Not Out-This really made me think about how we tackle anti-racist, multicultural education in my school.  Like I mentioned before I spoke about culture for 5 minutes during a staff meeting enough said.

I am a little late with this post, but my computer has been moving at a snails pace.  I am not sure what is up with it.  Oh well.  This week we read and discussed classroom management.  This is very important, not only for new teachers but all teachers.  If you have a class that is not a community or one working to build a community, your class will become a power struggle.  When it becomes a struggle for “control” everyone loses.  There is very little teaching and learning taking place.

Paulo Freire-I found this very interesting, but what I enjoyed even more was the online discussion.  I think because we all didn’t agree, sometimes it’s great to hear other point of views.  I have a lot of times we say during the discussion “I totally agree with you.”  Although it’s great we have similar ideas about education, I kind of like hearing something different then just the way I think about things.  In this letter Freire speaks of having high standards for our students and I think to a certain point ourselves.  There will always be people who are the “Haves” and the “have nots” but we don’t lower our standards because of the material items they lack.  Students need to come to school prepared and If they are not teachers need to feel confidant enough to talk to parents.  A Lot of people in the cohort said they keep extra supplies in the classroom to help students out.  This is very important, if a students doesn’t have to worry so much about appearance they can focus on the learning.

Of course my favorite part of the discussion was the comments about the following quote:

“We are political militants because we are teachers.  Our job is not exhausted in the teaching math, geography, syntax, history.  Our job implies that we teach these subjects with sobriety and competence, but it also requires our involvement in and dedication to overcoming social injustice.

We defiantly had a split on the word “Militant.”  Some said it was just negative wording, or maybe it was the language he used because he was from Brazil and had been exiled.  Some of us agreed in the use of the word, understood that we are in a fight for our students.  Everyday we struggle to teach lessons, provide our students with a fair and just community and expose our students to things they may have not thought possible.  I am very militant, I believe in my teaching and I stand up and by my students.  I do feel like if we really acted like an army of teachers we would be looked at in a different light.  a Light that suggests we are truly serious about the future of those we teach.  We as teachers need to band together and fight.  So militant for me isn’t really a bad or negative word, but one that describes me and many of my fellow teachers.  We are at war.

Oakes & Lipton- I’m not going to blog to much about this reading.  It was informative, talking about the different types of disciplines.  When we split up into the different rooms and discussed classroom management a lot of people used an assertive form mixed with some community building ideas.  This seemed to be because a lot of the school required some sort of behavior management char or something to be in place.  a way of “controlling” the students and getting them ready for learning.  I discussed that in prek we are not allowed any kind of chart to be displayed in front of the classroom.  We use a for of conscious discipline.  It is based on the principal that the student is responsible for his actions and that the student is able to think about his actions.  It is a lot about talking, students talking to each other.  Students are not taught to tattle, but to talk it over with their friends, tell their friends how certain actions made them feel and what action may work better.

To learn more about this form of discipline please visit the following site:

www.consciousdiscipline.com

O.K.  I don’t want to start this blog off with a lie, this was a hard read.  I often had to reread pieces of it trying to figure out what was he saying.  I appreciate that he made me think and made me question my reading skills.  So what I decided to do is chunk it.  Chunking means I take a quote and I give the gist of it and what I took from it.

“The importance of the identity of each one of us as an agent, educator or learner, of the educational practice is clear, as is the importance of our identity as a product of a tension-filled relationship between what we inherit and what we acquire.” (pg.125)

This quote is about the struggle between what we grow up around, what is formed by our education, interest, friends and all other life experiences.  A great example of this complex struggle is me.  I have struggled with reconciling my home life, my religion, my education and my interest.  I defiantly can not be put in a box of any sort.  My identity has changed as I acquired more knowledge and lived through many of my experiences.  I am a daughter, sister, aunt and friend.  I am African-America and Puerto Rican (African. Spanish, Tiano and Irish decent).  I am a change agent, an educator and a student.  I am also Catholic, pro-choice, independent, yet very dependent, quiet, outgoing, a party girl, and a reader.  I could go on and on but I think you get the point.  Our identities are important, they are forever evolving and changing and growing into new ideas.  As educators we need to understand ourselves.  We need to educate ourselves on our student’ identity.  We need to understand, identity differs among students from the same ethnic group and not generalize because of what we think they have inherited from their culture, religion, ethnic group etc.  Educators should also remember that we help our students acquire new information and add on to their identities.  Please feel free to tell me how you felt about this quote.  Remember the point of this blog is to think outside the box, challenge ourselves to view things in a different light.  Please share.