The Three Doctors and Their Pact

Tuesday was a professional development day at Forsythe Middle School, where I am placed as a student teacher. The professional development was centered around equity in the classroom and stressed the importance of clearly making sure to include minority students in the classroom without making it known to the students what we as educators are doing. Within this development day there was a movie presentation which introduced me to "The Three Docrtors." These men have been added to my list of heroes. They are brilliant amazing success stories from Newark. They also emphasize the theory that people from these areas should not strive to "get out" but should become educated and stay "within" their communitites to make better the society there. I encourage all educators to watch their documentary and read their books and I encourage all educators to share their story with their students.

http://www.threedoctors.com/

I do not understand people

If this does not anger you as a human being then I am sorry for you; if this does not inspire you to change the system as future educators then perhaps you should think of a different path. This is the stuff "they" do not teach you in class. This is the real world, a reality many of us will have to and will chose to face when we are done with our program. I do not understand how the government and the education system can sit and watch as the good children in America are thrown away. In no way is this fair and in no way are the people who can do something to change it doing anything. Why isn't there more of an outcry after this? And why aren't we, as future educators, discussing these issues. Just because we chose to not recognize reality does not mean reality is not there. These instances disgust me, but what disgusts me more is that in America an honor roll student can be beaten to death on his way home from school and no one is doing anything to change it. It is our turn to change things and I only hope half of us have the conviction to do so.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7032313
http://news.google.com/news?q=Derrion%20Albert&hl=en&ned=us&sa=N&tab=vn
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/29/crimesider/entry5349007.shtml

A Realization

Incorporating technology into my classroom is something I find seriously important and integral to my ability to successfully and competently teach my students; however, I have come to realize incorporating technology will be more difficult than I originally assessed.

Computers break and technology fails more times than I thought it would. Sometimes hooking up the power point for a class can take more time than planned and other times the computer projector just doesn't work.

Videos are also difficult to incorporate into that classroom. I often wonder how much time I should devote to showing clips and videos in my classroom and how much is too much. Also, deciding what is really appropriate as far as rating if you get a video off youtube may be difficult to assess as well.

I am learning more and more why incorporating technology can be an arduous task, but it is one I am willing to take on. I am going to try and figure out how to incorporate technology when the technology is not necessarily available, and I am understanding more and more if I incorporate technology I must always have a back up plan.

I am extremely interested in using cell phones in my class lessons. Unfortunately I do not think I am going to try this year. I feel middle school may be too young to incorporate cell phones into instruction.

Just a Thought

A correspondence with Liz has made me think about teaching in a way I had not before. All of us are either career changers or have decided we would like teaching to be our career. None of us took the traditional route to teaching so we have all had lives before this and we all have different work and educational experiences to bring to the table.

Before I began this program my ambition was becoming a journalist. My focus was on doing sports journalism via the Internet. The Internet has so many fascists of alternative and traditional media. It is an interesting place to be.

So, I have decided instead of leaving my experiences in the past I want to bring what I learned from journalism into my social studies classrooms. What better way to learn about current events than to search the Internet for different types of news and leaving comments or editorials directly on the website?

I am also throwing around the idea in my head of setting up a class Internet media outlet where the students are the reporters, editors, designer etc. Anyone else, especially you journalists out there, have any ideas about how to incorporate journalism into the classroom? Does anyone else plan on incorporating past career skill in the classroom? How are you going to do it? I would love some more ideas!

The End Of Summer

I am becoming more apprehensive about student teaching. The time is getting closer. I hope I can take all of the stuff I have managed to absorb and somehow apply it to the teacher I visualize myself being.

I am really glad I decided to do this program and become a teacher. I have been extremely indecisive about my career path since I started college. I believe this is the right way for me to go.

I have learned much from each and every person in this program. Our different backgrounds have opened my eyes even more to seeing things differently. I believe this will help me in understanding who my students are and where they come from.

After listening to the former MACers yesterday I believe one of the most important parts of the jobs is getting to know our students as well as possible, especially during our observation hours. And I think the technology survey is a great idea. I am going to administer a technological survey during my observation period.

I also want to, pending my mentors approval, hand out a brief questionnaire. The questionnaire will have a spot for students to place a small photo of themselves, their names and a few questions that will help me to get to know them. This will be a good way for me to attatch a face with a name before I start student teaching. I am awful with names so I am going to have to think of creative ways to memeorize the names of my students.

New Take on Technology

I thought Friday was excellent. I am so happy we were able to speak with those children. I am amazed by how much children inherently seem to know about technology today. I am also from Brooklyn, NY and know what struggles many kids face in the NYC educational system. I am really proud of Lauren and her students.

After today's technology leadership presentation I began to think about ways to incorporate technology into classrooms when the situation may not be ideal. I was also thinking outside of the box about technology. Technology does not necessarily mean computers. Technology could encompass a plethora of things.

I plan on, at some point in time, incorporating Lauren's myspace project into my classroom. (So, thank you for that brilliant take on technology in the curriculum.) I began to think about other ways to incorporate technology without having the ability to use the technology. One assignment I am going to attempt to implement when I begin to student teach is an Ipod playlist. I am teaching history and world geography, so I am planning on giving the kids a time frame and asking them to pick a historical figure from that time frame. I will have them research the historical figure and find five songs from that era to add to their playlist. They will write a miny biography on their figure and give reasons as to why they picked those five songs for their playlist. They will be practicing research while focusing on incorporating technology without being required to access that technology.

I am racking my brain for more ways to do this. Anyone have any suggestions? We should absolutely colaborate on these things to enhance our ability to teach and incrporate all learning styles into our classroom.

I also believe it is time that we stop looking at technology as just the internet and Microsoft Word proficiancy. What about the children who society expects are going to be laborers and blue collar workers after high school. Why aren't we teaching them how to use percision lasers and computer operated tools? They too need to be marketable. Why are we so centered on sending everyone to college? College is still a privelage in this country yet society forces it on everyone in order to succeed. That is an unfair sitgma and as future teachers we need to reinvent these ideals. No child should be left behind.

Harlem Children's Zone

Professor Stanzler asked me to introduce the cohort to the Harlem Children's Zone. I whole-heartedly believe in the system Geoffrey Canada has created in Harlem to combat the societal view that poor children cannot accomplish what wealthy suburban children accomplish on a daily basis.

Canada himself was from a poor neighborhood and became a young father and college dropout. Later in life, as remarried middle-aged father to a second son, he realized that children in urban areas lack one large aspect that children in suburban rich areas often have access to, mental stimulation from an early age.

Canada began his work to combat truancy issues in urban areas in the 1970’s. Today the Zone has grown to covering 100 NYC blocks and helps nearly 7,400 children. See the Zone website for a full breakdown of the history. http://www.hcz.org/what-is-hcz/history

Canada has found the proper mix between giving children access to quality education, healthcare and after school programs while also forcing parents who might otherwise ignore their child’s education to be involved in the process from infancy to high school grauduation. See the websites for details on progress. I promise you will be amazed by how well these children test and how successful they are in life given their socioeconomic status.

Listen to the This Life Story here: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1262

Geoffrey Canada’s This I Believe:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96667434

Listen to NPR stories here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94977387
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94576366
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102246990

Post #1 SMAC 09

I survived my first two weeks in the SMAC program @ UofM. Hoooorrraaayyy!

I hope I will have the opportunity to incorporate many different types of technology in the classroom. I am weary of this. I believe technology puts the world into the hands of students, but there is not enough money in many of the school systems to figuratively "put the world into their hands." Google Earth, for example, is a perfect tool to use in social studies classrooms.

I am hoping to learn through this class how to teach in a technologically sufficient society without having the necessary tools to do so. I just know I want to be the best teacher I can be and I believe technology is a necessary and integral part of my ability to do so.