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.