MAIT 402 Response #5

President Obama has called my house -- and after yanking my dad off the phone and apologizing to the President for my dad's bad manners and foul language -- I enthusiastically accept the post of Secretary of Education (It's an election year and my family is politically at odds so I had to make the reference). When asked what my platform is I quickly state, "A 21st Century version of   Republican Motherhood".  America must be reminded that our public education system dates back to our Founding Fathers and their theory of Republican Motherhood. www.ushistory.org/us/12d.asp summarizes this theory best as an idea supported by enlightened thinkers who believed that "...a republic could only succeed if its citizens were virtuous and educated. Who were the primary caretakers of American children? American women. If the republic were to succeed, women must be schooled in virtue so they could teach their children. The first American female academies were founded in the 1790s. This idea of an educated woman became known as 'republican motherhood'." Now, before you go all Women's Lib on me (I am one of you after all) I did say 21st Century version, which shall now be called "Republican Parenthood". In order for education to succeed in America the education process must begin at home and continue in the classroom. And before people get up in arms about the word virtue I would say that in today's world that means "common courtesy". In an effort to make this happen I would make the following five changes:

1) I would provide families who are actively involved in their children's education and school a stipend. Why? Many parents/guardians would like to be more involved with their children's education or even spend more time with their children to help them develop those common courtesies, yet because of financial reasons cannot do so. This would allow parents/guardians to fulfill one of their duties without compromising another -- putting food on the table.
2) Provide translators at all school functions to facilitate communication between parents and teachers. Why? I can't tell you how many times my mother said she wouldn't go to a function because she wouldn't be able to talk to the teacher or understand what was being said at the town hall meeting. Being a "good" student I made her go, but how many students/parents can't, don't, won't attend school functions such as Open House or conferences because of this reason? And, before you ask, yes, students can and often do translate for their parents, but trust me this makes all adults involved uncomfortable especially the parent.
3) Overturn NCLB (Do I really have to explain this one?)
4) Make it illegal to overtly profit from providing schools' supplies and services and cap salaries (Before people get upset the salary cap would be mostly for people making over $200,00 for my reason please read http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/CSU-presidents-get-pay-raises-3714432.php).
5) Pray people don't expect the four things above to be the silver bullets education in America need and to start producing results immediately so I can implement number six accepted curriculum (at least at a state or district level) and number seven informational meetings for parents at every level so that parents who are unfamiliar with the educational system know how to work with and around the system (many parents don't even know what classes count towards college and what classes don't i.e. A-G requirements).

If I have learned anything from Ravitch it is that as an educator I have limitations. This field is a marathon with hurdles not a clear sprint. The best thing I can do for myself and my students is to remember my ideals ( the reasons I chose this career), be willing to change, remember my students come first and to take a summer off every once in a while. Reading her work made me reflect on why I am a teacher, what I can and cannot do and acknowledge that while today I say that I believe in "Republican Parenthood" because I believe an educated and well informed society creates the best citizens that could change and I have to be brave enough to admit it when the time comes.

Given the current state of American education the best I can do is be an informed and involved citizen and create the same in my students. I can also walk into my classroom and give my best everyday.

In order to give my best everyday I need to continue to learn, in other words professional development. I could do this by joining the following or attending events:
http://www.ncte.org/ http://www.cateweb.org/
http://www.cateweb.org/

This has been an intense experience and I can't think about tomorrow let alone the next three years, but here are some of my wishes and wants: I hope that in the next three years more minority authors emerge. I hope people acknowledge that socio-economic factors are a part of the hows and whys of our education system. I want more strong popular fiction, which can be taught in the classroom. I want someone to conduct a study concerning critical literacy so I can have a primary resource for my Lit review. I want to begin and pass BTSA and attend some of conferences to see what else is going through teachers' brains (I will miss sharing ideas and lessons with my KSOE peers -- seriously useful stuff). And I hope that America learns what Europe already knows: the more languages you know, the more fluent you are in many languages the richer, fuller and easier your life can be.

MAIT Response #4

At Dr. Robert's Tuesday (July 24, 2012) lecture what most interested me besides his great research was how divided the room seemed to be concerning technology and the classroom. There were some people that seemed reluctant to see a positive in including technology in the classroom. There were also some people that seemed all too eager to include technology in their classroom. I understand both sides. As someone who has had to figure out high-tech classroom equipment on her own, I know how intimidating  new things can be. I also understand the paranoia of being responsible for what students are looking at on-line when you are supposed to be doing something educational. Yet, I find myself willing to learn and try out new things, which is why my students do oral/visual presentations with Prezi instead of MS Powerpoint. In an age when 18 month old children are being entertained by ipads and not physical books teachers need to find a balance between keeping up with the times and exposing children to even more screen time.

Speaking of screen time, the NY Times article really worried me. I have to say that I do not believe in on-line classes at any level (I know, I know I'm fulfilling an on-line lass requirement as I type). The concept of "click-click credits" is worrisome.To have struggling and unmotivated students involved in on-line classes seems, in my opinion, especially irresponsible. The fact that the conclusion of the article reveals that a on-line course company provided money for an election campaign makes me doubly skeptical as to the benefits of on-line courses. However, as I mentioned above I am all for technology in the classroom as long as it is applicable.

Here are four tech resources I can comment on:

http://www.donorschoose.org was first brought to my attention by my cousin an elementary teacher in East L.A. In a era when teachers must supplement classroom necessities due to budget cuts every little bit counts and with this website it does not all have to come from a caring teacher's pocket.

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/  is a great way to make rubrics. I personally like to edit the rubrics to meet my needs. I find the format and the categories useful.

http://docs.google.com/ is not exactly my cup of tea, because I am not completely comfortable with using it. However, having this "cloud" and making students use it cuts down on accessibility issues before essay turn in or presentations.

http://www.easybib.com  can and does make as many mistakes as a human being can. It may make students feel better about a citations page or it maybe faster for them if they waited until the last minute, but it could hurt their grade and it doesn't teach them to do the work correctly.

In the future (as in next week) I fully plan to use donorschoose to round out my classroom supplies. I also plan to use rubistar with oral presentations and other projects in my classes. Furthermore, I will continue to ask students to use Prezi instead of Powerpoint.

MAIT 402 Response #3

When I was a freshman in college I was required to read The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal. The Sunflower is a short ninety-nine page non-fiction story dealing with an incident in which Wiesenthal, an inmate at a concentration camp, was asked for forgiveness from a dying Nazi soldier. This work stuck with me because 1) I have always been fascinated with the Holocaust (Go figure! I'm a Catholic, Mexican-American) and 2) the book and assignment required a lot in introspection. When it was my turn to teach college freshman I knew I had to teach The Sunflower. I wanted my students to have the ability to really question themselves, their values and express them concisely and eloquently. I also wanted them to be able discuss the topic with others and persuade others if necessary.

My first task was to impress on students the magnitude and severity of the Holocaust. To that end I visited the United States National Holocaust Memorial Museum website http://www.ushmm.org/, where they have an entire section titled Education which has amazing resources including a short overall history (10 pages) and a chronology (16 pages). Images and short summaries beginning in 1933 and ending in 1948 are scattered throughout both documents.

My second task was to engage them in a seminar style discussion. Luckily for me, this required little to no scaffolding because of SMC seminar program. Also provided for me was the question to begin discussion as Wiesenthal's final line in the story asks readers, "What would you do?", after Wiesenthal explains that the meeting left him speechless and when asked for forgiveness he just walks away from the dying SS soldier.

My third task was to arrange for the class debate after our discussion. I separated the class into 2 groups, asked them to choose a group leader and then presented the debate format we would be using which was the same format used by the SMC Debate Team. The closest web link I could find to explain the format was http://www.csun.edu/~dgw61315/debformats.html#policy. Using the book, their own views and outside resources such as laws, psychology articles, quotes from authors/speakers from other genocides and religion my students were able to conduct (in my opinion) an amazing debate which encompassed not only critical thinking about the writing, but of human nature, personal motives and materials which color our perspective. After the debate, each student wrote a persuasive essay ( 1,000 words minimum). It was wonderful to read about how the debate and their research influenced their initial answer to Wiesenthal's question.

My favorite teaching cartoon

MAIT 402 Response #2

     It’s been a week of questioning and from the reading of Ravitch I’ve learned that it’s okay to question, reevaluate and retract your stance. Ravitch writes on page two of The Death and Life of the Great American School System, “I have a right to change my mind.” As a teacher I take this to mean that I have the right to try new methods, explore alternatives to the conventional and shift my stance on views or practices. If a supporter of NCLB can come to the conclusion that she was wrong surely I can change my mind about almost anything. The thing that stood out the most to me was Ravitch's emphatic words regarding a "quick solution" to the problems of the American Educational system. "...I have consitantly warned that, in education, there are no shortcuts, no utopias and no silver bullets," writes Ravitch. I think this is the most refreshing and realistic statement that she can make. In a profession where many burn out in less than five years it may help many idealistic new teachers (of which I am one) to understand that only in movies are problems solved in under two hours or the equivalent of an academic year. Ravitch also states that “Doubt and skepticism are signs of rationality.” I just love the implication of continuous thought being a sign of evolution and life-long education.

      A well educated person to me is a person who can think for themselves. ANAR states that, “A high level of shared education is essential to a free, democratic society and to fostering of a common culture, especially in a country that prides itself on pluralism and individual freedom.” The high level of education mentioned in ANAR cannot be achieved by individuals who cannot think for themselves. What is an independent thinker you may ask? An independent thinker to me is a person who can sift through information, analyze how that information jibes with their own knowledge and values and produce a stance/belief that is their own. I believe that any well-educated person today should know how to think for themselves and does think for themselves.

       The best part about the MAIT program and our class discussions is that we are all independent thinkers. We have taken the same information fed to us by the KSOE in the credential program and used our personal experiences and ideals to interpret Ravitch’s work. From our discussion I can say that we have different schools of thought in our MAIT classroom, but while we approach teaching differently the discussion revealed we all share a desire to help our students reach their full potential.

       Speaking of full potential there is one thing stopping me from reaching my full potential as a teacher: grammar. I hate grammar. I FEAR teaching it, because I never blatantly learned it. My friend (Heather R.) suggested grammaruntied.com for some basic pointers; I have used the Little Brown Handbook as an instructor to help my students and myself in a past course. In my efforts to overcome this obstacle I found an article titled, “Effective Grammar Teaching: Lessons from Confident Grammar Teachers”, which I hope will further guide me in openly teaching my students grammar.

      This is what it’s all about right? The journey from student to teacher and you can’t be the latter without being the former.

This week I responded to : Sasha, Ranell and Tanya

MAIT 402: Response #1

            When I student taught at Mount (MDHS) the best moments were when students trusted me enough to share their life experiences i.e. their immigration stories, their worries about finding employment after school or getting into college. These moments were as rewarding as the moments when I got one of my troubled students to write a complete five paragraph essay. Most of those life story moments came from my ESL students.

On a Sunday morning last fall, almost a year and a half after I left Mount, when I was moonlighting as an assistant to the Game Day Director for the Raiders (a former life), I heard someone call, “Miz Garcia”. It was one of my former students from the transitional main stream class I student taught. In fact, it was one of my favorite students. She was one of my favorites because unlike me she knew, understood and was brilliant at math and science. I had seen the grades and test scores to prove it and she wanted to be a nurse. I fully supported that decision, so when she asked if she could ask me some questions that day on the field I handed over a card with my email address and told her to send me a message. For several weeks we emailed back and forth about the community colleges, her options and the Dream Act and then I stopped hearing from her. I don’t know if she is enrolled somewhere for the fall. I only know I’m crossing my fingers that she is. It would be a shame for a brilliant girl like that to be held back by her immigration status, yet I know that it is an all too likely possibility.

Having been an ESL student myself, for however brief a time, I feel connected to these students; having parents who are immigrants turned citizens I know most of them face a long and tough road. I’m not a counselor nor do I have the ability to grant these students a green card. The best I can do for them is give advice and teach them how to read, write and speak so that at least language is not a barrier. In a nutshell, what Ball’s “The Subject Matter Preparation of Teachers”, says to me is that having acquired competency in my subject it is now my job to teach students how I got there. It is my responsibility to teach them how to think and give them the necessary tools to think for themselves at the end of the process. Nothing can really change my belief that this is my main objective as a teacher: teach students how to think for themselves, express themselves and respect and understand what others are saying when they are doing the same.

That being said, I’m still floundering in regards to my line of inquiry. I’m thinking of a unit plan, but due to some articles I have read regarding creative writing and ESL students I’m flip-flopping as to the content of that unit plan. I’m a little lost and I feel comfortable being that way for at least another week.

On a bright note, I was contacted today about being a CELDT tester in the fall. Its five to six weeks of employment so at least it’s an option and a start.

This week I responded to: Heather, Jose K. and Debamitra.