Thursday, March 29, 2007
Field Trip/Chris Sperry Presentation
Yesterday's field trip was amazing, and one I think every student in 307 should get the opportunity to participate in. Let me start with the all school meeting that was wonderful to watch. It was great watching a young student take control of a meeting - reminding everyone of the rules of order and reminding them to sit quietly while others had the floor, etc. - and watching all the students getting up to make their announcements (from the youngest to the oldest). I was also amazed that one of the things they were discussing was having a hand in deciding the curriculum for their school (and to think this is a public school!). It was just a great experience, and I wish everyone had been able to arrive for the meeting.
The tour of the school was wonderful as well - I looked at all of the paintings, etc. and was amazed it takes a vote of the entire school to put up anything or change anything already there. I was so intrigued by their project about the Middle East scheduled to be televised in the next week or two. What these students learn in this school puts some of our other "public" schools to shame.
The presentation by Chris was a real learning experience for me. I must say I had never thought of using other forms of literacy - such as the movies - as a way of teaching students about such basics as plot, characterization, setting, etc. I must say he gave me a chance to revisit my ideas on how a school classroom is conducted and what things can be used to teach students. Even more, I am calling into question everything I have thought was necessary in a classroom. If regents exams are not necessary for graduation - imagine a school in which you don't have to teach to the test - then the possibilities for our students learning are limitless.
I have always envisioned my classroom as being one of "organized chaos" and I think I feel so strongly along that line because none of my own classrooms were like it when I was going to school. Maybe because I grew up in a different generation from most of the kids here at Cortland - I'm not really sure - but I just know I wanted my classroom to be something other than the status quo. This school made me realize it's possible to teach in such a classroom - and even more importantly, there are entire schools that teach in the same manner.
When you challenged us at the end of our day, Dr. Stearns, to seek out the kind of schools and classrooms which will help us grow and develop I knew I must do just that when I graduate. Like you, I have lived in the same town since the day I was born, and I probably would have taken a job here as well after graduation. However, after our tour today, I saw firsthand the kinds of schools and the kinds of classrooms possible and I want to be part of it. THANK YOU for making this tour possible, and thank you for giving us an opportunity to explore all of our future possibilities. I no longer am willing to just settle for a job teaching school - I am ready for an adventure!!!
The tour of the school was wonderful as well - I looked at all of the paintings, etc. and was amazed it takes a vote of the entire school to put up anything or change anything already there. I was so intrigued by their project about the Middle East scheduled to be televised in the next week or two. What these students learn in this school puts some of our other "public" schools to shame.
The presentation by Chris was a real learning experience for me. I must say I had never thought of using other forms of literacy - such as the movies - as a way of teaching students about such basics as plot, characterization, setting, etc. I must say he gave me a chance to revisit my ideas on how a school classroom is conducted and what things can be used to teach students. Even more, I am calling into question everything I have thought was necessary in a classroom. If regents exams are not necessary for graduation - imagine a school in which you don't have to teach to the test - then the possibilities for our students learning are limitless.
I have always envisioned my classroom as being one of "organized chaos" and I think I feel so strongly along that line because none of my own classrooms were like it when I was going to school. Maybe because I grew up in a different generation from most of the kids here at Cortland - I'm not really sure - but I just know I wanted my classroom to be something other than the status quo. This school made me realize it's possible to teach in such a classroom - and even more importantly, there are entire schools that teach in the same manner.
When you challenged us at the end of our day, Dr. Stearns, to seek out the kind of schools and classrooms which will help us grow and develop I knew I must do just that when I graduate. Like you, I have lived in the same town since the day I was born, and I probably would have taken a job here as well after graduation. However, after our tour today, I saw firsthand the kinds of schools and the kinds of classrooms possible and I want to be part of it. THANK YOU for making this tour possible, and thank you for giving us an opportunity to explore all of our future possibilities. I no longer am willing to just settle for a job teaching school - I am ready for an adventure!!!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
March 25th Blog Quiz
As I read BRINGING THE OUTSIDE IN and Friedman's Chpts. 5 and 6, I wondered why teachers and administrators cannot see the connection between the new literacies and our futures in a flat world. Friedman points out that "a focused domestic strategy aimed at upgrading the education of every American, so that he or she will be able to compete for the new jobs in a flat world" is so important. Put this together with what he says about how if you are the one unemployed, unemployment is not 5% but 100% and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how important it is to prepare our students for the new flat world in which they will be dealing with information rather than raw materials (or should I say information will be their raw material).
When you read Friedman and his free market ideas, you cannot help but agree with him about the necessity of free trade, and how it will bring more jobs to this country instead of less. We truly are competing with people in every single country when we compete for jobs - there truly is no American job any longer. The sooner we bring this fact home to our students the better their chances of being prepared in this new world of information.
I do not see much of this sort of thinking in classrooms today, however, and given our knowledge of the kinds of jobs available to those in school today, that frightens me. We can no longer settle for preparing our students in the old "tried and true" methods and assume they will be okay when they enter the work force. I can see how my own education from years past has woefully prepared me for the job market as it is today, and I can truly understand the need to update and make myself competitive with an ever growing global community of laborers.
At the same time, all of this is so exciting - to think about being prepared for a job not yet invented; and it is also staggering when you think about how the information and knowledge you have today is going to be outdated by time you get your degree.
However, when you look at all of the possible careers (and careers yet to be invented) from which today's students have to choose, it is a wonderful and scary world they are about to become part of. And, as teachers, we need to be aware of "the kinds of good middle-class jobs which successful companies and entrepreneurs are creating today" ... and we need to understand "how workers need to prepare themselves for those jobs, and how educators help them to do just that". If we cannot do these things as future educators then we will send our students out into the world of labor woefully inadequate in their skills and enormously hampered in their ability to obtain a job. It is time for all of us who are going to be teachers to examine our ideas of literacy and become more in tune with the kinds of things our students are reading (what makes them skilled in literacy). We need to be willing to look at all aspects - whether it is the comic book they are making of their time in school, or the picture someone like Gus takes of a bulldozer when asked to bring in a picture of "what he knew and believed about reading". If a picture can cause a student to enter into a 45-minute discourse on how reading is about tearing things apart and rebuilding them once he has enough information from the teacher and other students to do so, how can we not consider photography or comic strips as forms of literacy.
I thought the chapters were wonderful and the BRINGING THE OUTSIDE IN article was insightful and made me more aware of the kinds of things which can be considered when trying to assess whether or not our students are successful readers/writers.
When you read Friedman and his free market ideas, you cannot help but agree with him about the necessity of free trade, and how it will bring more jobs to this country instead of less. We truly are competing with people in every single country when we compete for jobs - there truly is no American job any longer. The sooner we bring this fact home to our students the better their chances of being prepared in this new world of information.
I do not see much of this sort of thinking in classrooms today, however, and given our knowledge of the kinds of jobs available to those in school today, that frightens me. We can no longer settle for preparing our students in the old "tried and true" methods and assume they will be okay when they enter the work force. I can see how my own education from years past has woefully prepared me for the job market as it is today, and I can truly understand the need to update and make myself competitive with an ever growing global community of laborers.
At the same time, all of this is so exciting - to think about being prepared for a job not yet invented; and it is also staggering when you think about how the information and knowledge you have today is going to be outdated by time you get your degree.
However, when you look at all of the possible careers (and careers yet to be invented) from which today's students have to choose, it is a wonderful and scary world they are about to become part of. And, as teachers, we need to be aware of "the kinds of good middle-class jobs which successful companies and entrepreneurs are creating today" ... and we need to understand "how workers need to prepare themselves for those jobs, and how educators help them to do just that". If we cannot do these things as future educators then we will send our students out into the world of labor woefully inadequate in their skills and enormously hampered in their ability to obtain a job. It is time for all of us who are going to be teachers to examine our ideas of literacy and become more in tune with the kinds of things our students are reading (what makes them skilled in literacy). We need to be willing to look at all aspects - whether it is the comic book they are making of their time in school, or the picture someone like Gus takes of a bulldozer when asked to bring in a picture of "what he knew and believed about reading". If a picture can cause a student to enter into a 45-minute discourse on how reading is about tearing things apart and rebuilding them once he has enough information from the teacher and other students to do so, how can we not consider photography or comic strips as forms of literacy.
I thought the chapters were wonderful and the BRINGING THE OUTSIDE IN article was insightful and made me more aware of the kinds of things which can be considered when trying to assess whether or not our students are successful readers/writers.
March 18th Blog Quiz
Task A:
As I read chapters 3 and 7 from the handouts, I couldn't help but see myself. I desire to be a non-traditional teacher and yet I too find myself privileging print, and I can see how this might cause me to let go unnoticed the abilities my students will have in multi- and digital literacies. For me this is so easy to do because of my age and the fact school for me has always been traditional. I guess sometimes we think "don't mess with success", and yet I can truly see how this mode of education is not necessarily one mired in success.
I did an observation class last year and during the time I was there, I can recount many, many occasions when students asked if they could "play" on the computer. In fact, "playing on the computer" was one of the rewards the teacher offered for those who had finished all of their "regular" school work. No one acknowledged a student's abilities in this media form might, in fact, be a successful literacy all on its own.
The thing in the chapters which caused me the most self-examination was when it talked about academic versus vocational track curricula and how some students are "routed on a path leading to blue-collar trade jobs" versus those who are being prepared for college. How sad we need to make a choice when it comes to our students. We don't take the time to assess their knowledge and their skills in other areas of literacy, and we simply assume they do not have the necessary skills to become part of the information age.
I saw myself in the statement that "in fact, engaging in new literacies makes adolescents all the more dangerous ... because their knowledge and skills threaten adults who lack them, leading to the current panice for the good old days of print literacies". When I look at this statement, I see the importance of classes like our 307 class - bringing us from the past into the present and the future.
We need to know who our students are, and we need to know the kinds of things that interest them and the kinds of things they read if we are to help them become information brokers in our new world.
Task B:
I loved the articles on the middle schools. I guess probably if I were to choose where I would like most to begin my teaching career, middle school would be my choice. I laughed and I even cried when I read these articles. I have raised four children of my own so I can sympathasize when they talk about how every one middle school student is like teaching three high school students. So I can only imagine what a class of 15/20 middle school students (or the equivalent of 45/60 high school students) must be like.
My very favorite was the "overweight" math teacher who turned the comment about her being a "fat lady" into a teachable moment. I'm going to remember this one for my own classroom should the need ever arise.
The part I was most concerned over was when it talked about how we prepare teachers for teaching elementary school and high school and not middle school. This was especially of concern when I looked at how woefully behind in reading skills these students are when they enter the high school arena. It says that NY state offers a middle school certification, and I was wondering if Cortland offers a major leading to this certification, or if we simply contain it in the 7/12 adolescent education curriculum. I can certainly see (especially when it comes to 6th graders) how we are in need of a "different" kind of teaching for these middle schoolers if we are to keep them from becoming the later high school dropouts.
How very say "reading scores plunged from fifth to sixth grade, when most students move to middle school, and continued to slide through eighth grade". This happens at the same time we have a "breathtaking range of student ability" within our middle schools. Why are teachers not tapping into this ability?
These articles just make me more anxious to finish my education and start my own teaching career before some more of these students talents and abilities are ignored and they become statistics.
As I read chapters 3 and 7 from the handouts, I couldn't help but see myself. I desire to be a non-traditional teacher and yet I too find myself privileging print, and I can see how this might cause me to let go unnoticed the abilities my students will have in multi- and digital literacies. For me this is so easy to do because of my age and the fact school for me has always been traditional. I guess sometimes we think "don't mess with success", and yet I can truly see how this mode of education is not necessarily one mired in success.
I did an observation class last year and during the time I was there, I can recount many, many occasions when students asked if they could "play" on the computer. In fact, "playing on the computer" was one of the rewards the teacher offered for those who had finished all of their "regular" school work. No one acknowledged a student's abilities in this media form might, in fact, be a successful literacy all on its own.
The thing in the chapters which caused me the most self-examination was when it talked about academic versus vocational track curricula and how some students are "routed on a path leading to blue-collar trade jobs" versus those who are being prepared for college. How sad we need to make a choice when it comes to our students. We don't take the time to assess their knowledge and their skills in other areas of literacy, and we simply assume they do not have the necessary skills to become part of the information age.
I saw myself in the statement that "in fact, engaging in new literacies makes adolescents all the more dangerous ... because their knowledge and skills threaten adults who lack them, leading to the current panice for the good old days of print literacies". When I look at this statement, I see the importance of classes like our 307 class - bringing us from the past into the present and the future.
We need to know who our students are, and we need to know the kinds of things that interest them and the kinds of things they read if we are to help them become information brokers in our new world.
Task B:
I loved the articles on the middle schools. I guess probably if I were to choose where I would like most to begin my teaching career, middle school would be my choice. I laughed and I even cried when I read these articles. I have raised four children of my own so I can sympathasize when they talk about how every one middle school student is like teaching three high school students. So I can only imagine what a class of 15/20 middle school students (or the equivalent of 45/60 high school students) must be like.
My very favorite was the "overweight" math teacher who turned the comment about her being a "fat lady" into a teachable moment. I'm going to remember this one for my own classroom should the need ever arise.
The part I was most concerned over was when it talked about how we prepare teachers for teaching elementary school and high school and not middle school. This was especially of concern when I looked at how woefully behind in reading skills these students are when they enter the high school arena. It says that NY state offers a middle school certification, and I was wondering if Cortland offers a major leading to this certification, or if we simply contain it in the 7/12 adolescent education curriculum. I can certainly see (especially when it comes to 6th graders) how we are in need of a "different" kind of teaching for these middle schoolers if we are to keep them from becoming the later high school dropouts.
How very say "reading scores plunged from fifth to sixth grade, when most students move to middle school, and continued to slide through eighth grade". This happens at the same time we have a "breathtaking range of student ability" within our middle schools. Why are teachers not tapping into this ability?
These articles just make me more anxious to finish my education and start my own teaching career before some more of these students talents and abilities are ignored and they become statistics.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
NAEP Scores In Reading Just Released!
From the graphs that accompany this article, it would appear things have been on the "downhill slide" since 1998. So, my question is how can things continue to decline over the course of 8 years and no one is doing anything to correct the problem? Don't these statistics make ELA teachers cringe; and if they do, why isn't anyone doing something about it?
This just brings me back to what I said once before - I personally know of someone who graduated from the same high school I did one year ahead of me who - to this very day - cannot read or write. How can we possibly let such a thing occur? It's time teachers take a long look at their classrooms and their students to see if they could change some things to make their students proficient readers!! And, if they can't, then I say they should not have their jobs.
I wonder if anyone knows how much of an affect tenure has on these steadily declining reading levels. Do teachers who no longer have to worry about losing their jobs simply sit back and let children go through their classrooms without ever caring whether or not they have the basic skills to help them succeed in the world?
Or, how much of this is a result of the fact children no longer need to read books. The things they are required to do in class makes it unnecessary for them to have to read the book in order to answer the questions asked of them. I cannot imagine anyone being less than proficient in reading.
Reading this article and looking at the accompanying graphs makes me very sad - and it also makes me very angry. I want to inspire kids to be avid readers, and from the things I hear in our class I am not entirely certain I know how to go about accomplishing that. I am, however, anxious to give it a try.
From the graphs that accompany this article, it would appear things have been on the "downhill slide" since 1998. So, my question is how can things continue to decline over the course of 8 years and no one is doing anything to correct the problem? Don't these statistics make ELA teachers cringe; and if they do, why isn't anyone doing something about it?
This just brings me back to what I said once before - I personally know of someone who graduated from the same high school I did one year ahead of me who - to this very day - cannot read or write. How can we possibly let such a thing occur? It's time teachers take a long look at their classrooms and their students to see if they could change some things to make their students proficient readers!! And, if they can't, then I say they should not have their jobs.
I wonder if anyone knows how much of an affect tenure has on these steadily declining reading levels. Do teachers who no longer have to worry about losing their jobs simply sit back and let children go through their classrooms without ever caring whether or not they have the basic skills to help them succeed in the world?
Or, how much of this is a result of the fact children no longer need to read books. The things they are required to do in class makes it unnecessary for them to have to read the book in order to answer the questions asked of them. I cannot imagine anyone being less than proficient in reading.
Reading this article and looking at the accompanying graphs makes me very sad - and it also makes me very angry. I want to inspire kids to be avid readers, and from the things I hear in our class I am not entirely certain I know how to go about accomplishing that. I am, however, anxious to give it a try.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
My son and I were looking for recipes so that he could make something for us for dinner tonight (he's home on leave from the Navy this week and loves to cook and mom thought it would be nice if he made dinner for me). We were looking for a recipe for calde verde on foodnetwork.com and I thought I would try to add it to my RSS feeds - copied the HTML and went into my bloglines and added it to my feeds - bingo, there it was!!! I'm so excited because this means I can add anything to my blog as long as that site has an RSS. I think I'm really getting into this technology "stuff" in spite of all my misgivings!
Just thought I would share.
Just thought I would share.
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