A whole new world

What can our education system offer to a wounded child?

2007-10-12T17:58:00.001-07:00

Today, two of my students, both 15 years old came to me to explain why they've been absent for a week. It seems that last week, they were both thrown out of their respective homes. One was trying to break up a fight between her drunken father and her mother, while the other ended up in a physical altercation with her step father. They are now both living with another student and her father. They have both gotten "jobs" (working 7 pm to 11 pm at a burger joint), and are presently looking for an apartment.

Another one of my students had disappeared last month. It was feared that her abusive step father had kidnapped her. This is the stepfather who had been raping her since she was three years old. Well, she calmly walked into school this morning to say that she's dropping out of school to "learn a trade".

All of these children are in the same form class.

Of what relevance are figures of speech and verbs to these young women? What can our education system offer them? What do I need to teach them that will help them live a successful life.

This week was just exhausting.

Just poking my head in....

2007-10-04T18:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've written an entry. Thinking of starting this blogging thing again...We'll see...

An epiphany of sorts

2006-08-16T04:42:00.000-07:00

I've just finished 3 exhausting and exhilarating weeks as one of the facilitators of a workshop for teachers on the use of technology in the classroom. I had a blast along with my fellow presenters sharing my experiences. I also learnt so much from my fellow facilitators. I really hope the Ministry of Education and SEMP continue to organize these kinds of workshops.

However, even as I am excited by the possibility of what we can do as teachers in the classroom with our digital cameras, our powerpoint presentations and our blogs, the thought that keeps coming to my head is that teacher attitude is perhaps even more important than all the fancy gadgets we have (or don't have) at our disposal. On Sunday night I watched "The Ron Clark Story", an inspirational movie about a dynamic teacher who inspired his students to excellence, even when no one else in their lives saw the possibility of excellence in them. As I watched the movie, one of the things that struck me was the apparent simplicity of his approach. I didn't see any computers in the classroom, I think once there was a CD player, but the children were excited to learn because of Mr. Clark himself. Before the beginning of the school term, he visited all of his students and introduced himself to their parents. He got to know his students, jumped rope with them, made himself available for study sessions at diners on the weekend, he made transformed boring topics into raps. Through it all, he emphasized a series of rules (which he turned into a best selling book by the way)...I mean the man is just very creative.

I'm glad I watched that movie. I'm reminded that my students' classroom experience is shaped not just by technology, but by philosophy and pedagogy. I don't have to dazzle my students with technological flash and whistles (although they certainly help). Before I put on a computer or generate a puzzle, I must genuinely care for my students and expect great things from them, even when it seems as if they don't expect great things from themselves. Before I power up my Power Point, I must really think about what I want my students to know and be able to do and plan, plan, plan. My students must know that they can be anything they want to be if they are willing to work hard, and I have to remember that all this won't happen if I am not prepared to work hard myself.

Will it be easy? Of course not. But too many of our students are leaving school illiterate and disgusted with school. The Ministry of Education is promising all kinds of technology, but really and truly it starts with us the teachers...

Taking a deep breath and stepping off the soap box now...

To find out more about Ron Clark, check out his website here.

Where are we going?

2006-06-24T18:25:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago, I attended a 2 day workshop and learned to use a wonderful piece of software called Textease. Yesterday I went to another workshop and learnt about Ebeam, which makes smart boards even smarter! As I happily "calibrated" the ebeam, and wrote on the wall using my stylus (I'm not even sure if I'm using the jargon properly so bear with me), I couldn't help but think about my poor students who still have to contend with the blackboard and the desks neatly arranged in boxes...and I felt sad... I'm learning so much about the power of technology, and I wish I had the freedom to use it on a regular basis in my classrooms. I hope the day comes when smart boards and multi-media projectors become as normal in our classrooms as blackboard and chalk. We really need to leap into the twenty first century...

Could this happen in T and T?

2006-01-14T10:48:00.000-08:00

I came across this article this morning...Sigh...if only...

Reinventing High School
Education infused with technology
Forget tests and papers. These students are doing documentaries and books.
By Dale Mezzacappa
Inquirer Staff Writer
SAN DIEGO - Chandler Garbell got straight A's but was still restless at suburban Rancho Bernardo High School. She was tired of textbook exercises, even in Advanced Placement courses.
"I realized there was something missing in my education," she said. So, in her junior year, she transferred to High Tech High.
Brandan Johnson had a different kind of restlessness. A black male living in a rough section of town, he knew too many kids who wound up in prison or working at McDonald's. With a push from his parents, he, too, signed up for High Tech High.
In this innovative charter school, in a converted warehouse, students don't take tests or write papers. Instead, they use the latest technology to produce documentaries, books and presentations.
The brainchild of lawyer-turned-educator Larry Rosenstock, High Tech High is one of many attempts nationally to reinvent high schools. The burgeoning movement is fueled by growing alarm over dropout rates - especially among blacks and Hispanics - disengaged students, and a decline in American competitiveness in science and math.
The quest is attracting millions of dollars from entrepreneurs and philanthropists, led by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who earlier this year told the nation's governors that the traditional large urban high school is obsolete.
High Tech High is one of the models attracting the most attention and support. Gates' foundation has given Rosenstock more than $10 million to expand, and San Diego real estate magnate Gary Jacobs gave $6 million for startup.
"This is a very impressive school," said Betsy Brand, director of the American Youth Policy Forum, which promotes initiatives that benefit adolescents. Brand is taking state legislators from around the country on a tour of the school in February. "It's very youth-oriented, and students who have a lot of interest in an area can pursue it."
High Tech's model is to locate small schools with no more than 450 students each on the same campus.
In San Diego are High Tech High, two other specialty high schools, two middle schools, and an elementary school.
The schools are more like college than high school, with students taking responsibility for their own learning through interdisciplinary projects and internships.
Unlike many charter schools that target low-income students or minorities, High Tech High seeks students of all backgrounds on the conviction that they learn best together.
Its student body is about 55 percent white, 15 percent each black and Hispanic, the rest Asian and Filipino. About 15 percent are poor enough under federal guidelines to qualify for free and reduced-price lunches.
And while it's nontraditional, it delivers on traditional measures. There's no test prep, but it scored in the top 10 percent among high schools in the California academic improvement index, which includes test scores. That's among all high schools, not just those with similar demographics.
Higher percentages of students of all ethnic groups at the school passed the state's graduation tests in English and math than in the state as a whole.
What impresses philanthropists and educators most is that all of its graduates in three classes have gone to college - more than half were the first in their families to do so - and 80 percent to four-year schools.
•
High Tech High, with its high ceilings, exposed ductwork, and glass-walled offices, doesn't look like a school.
Student work clogs the classrooms and hallways, everything from computer-altered photographs to a human-powered submarine, the work of a physics class. While every moment is abuzz with activity, there is very little disruption. The curtained, gray-carpeted oval in the center of the one-story building, called the common space, sometimes is used as a classroom, sometimes as a meeting place, sometimes for quiet study.
It is "high tech" not because it trains students to fix computers and write software, although some do, but because technology is infused throughout the curriculum. Students work on networked laptops and maintain digital portfolios.
Some travel; this year, 12 seniors went to Baja California for eight weeks to study marine life, including plankton, whale sharks and sea turtles, as well as the area's history and culture. They not only collected specimens but also created poetry, a documentary, a mural, and a novel.
In the last two years, Jay Vavra's junior biotechnology classes designed, wrote and photographed a field guide to wildlife in San Diego Bay, with a foreword by anthropologist Jane Goodall.
This year, Vavra's class is compiling a book and DVD on the history and changing ecology of the bay, covering such subjects as abalone and kelp farming, the salt industry, and the role of Native American and Chinese fishermen. They tracked down original sources - former saltworks managers, fishermen, and scholars.
Each group of six students divides the duties: interviewing, research, computer design, video, and devising a timeline. Teachers make sure each group has students with different skill levels.
Chandler Garbell helped edit the field guide. "We delve into it, we learn all the facts of a particular project. That's where true learning comes from," she said.
Brandan Johnson isn't sure he'd be applying to college if it weren't for High Tech High. "The transition was difficult," he said. "I didn't do that well in ninth grade. I was used to just 'study this, do this.' " Now he wants to be a psychologist.
Most of the teachers come from nontraditional backgrounds. Erika Page, a lawyer who spent a year with Teach for America, will be a founding faculty member at High Tech High-Austin, Texas, when it opens in September.
"This is a teacher's dream," she said. "The students are much more invested. I won't say there are no behavior problems, but that tends to go down because every type of learning modality is used. I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to teach like this unless they were invested in the traditional classroom."
•
Rosenstock, the former principal of Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School in Cambridge, Mass., plans to open more school campuses in California as well as Texas. He formed a charter-management organization to control the design of future schools.
Mastery Charter in Philadelphia was affiliated with Rosenstock's original network but broke away so it could group students by skill level.
That concept is verboten to Rosenstock, who doesn't want to duplicate the tracking that he said consigns many students in urban high schools to low standards and expectations.
"We felt so strongly that was the way to go, especially for students who were significantly behind, that it didn't make sense to affiliate," said Scott Gordon, CEO of Mastery.
Mastery, which is seeking to open another school in Philadelphia and one in Chester, has shown success in its own right. It serves a much poorer population than High Tech High - 75 percent qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch vs. High Tech's 15 percent - yet has graduated more than 90 percent of its students and sent three-quarters to college.
In California, High Tech High has won the state's backing. It now has the right to train its own teachers and open charter schools anywhere in the state without local approval.
Rosenstock first opposed charter schools, but came to see them as the only way to force change.
"If something is not working, we have to be intellectually honest and change it," he said. "Here, teachers meet one hour every morning, 180 days a year. In a typical school, they may meet a few afternoons a year. They have no capacity to work for change."
It's not easy to break the mold in creating a school, with parents are wary of a school different from what they remember.
"When I first opened up, people said I was crazy," Rosenstock said. "Usually parents will tell me that their high school experience is alienating, but still they want the same for their kids. But now that we're getting all our kids into college, they feel more comfortable."
Contact Dale Mezzacappa at dmezzacappa@phillynews.com or 215-854-5112.
How is High Tech High Different?
Design principles: "Personalization, adult-world connection, common intellectual mission."
Technology is not a subject, it is the primary mode of learning.
All students have access to a laptop computer for at least half a day.
No more than 450 students in any school.
Assessment is through presentation and performance, not tests.
Final senior projects are graded by committees of adults from the school and community.
No formal sports, arts or music, although there are student-run activities in these areas.
There is no tracking. Students of all abilities learn together and are often on the same project teams.
Admission is by lottery.
Student-teacher ratio is 20:1. Each student has the same adviser for all four years.
Less than 1 percent of students are suspended. While some students transfer to different schools, the dropout rate is negligible.
All graduates have been admitted to college; 58 percent of those are the first in their families to go.
It is a charter school. In addition to taxpayer dollars, it is supported by grants from corporations and foundations.

And a new term looms ahead...

2005-12-27T05:07:00.000-08:00

Well, the flurry of cleaning and shopping is over, and it's time to focus my mind again on the upcoming term: a short term that will be further broken up by sports, Carnival, and whatever other holidays that fall between January and March. I'm trying not to panic because I have sooooooooooooooo much work to do with Form 5 and Form 6. I was glad for this Christmas break. It has been a time of reflection and recharging. I actually am looking forward to the new term. Hmmmmm must be the rum in the fruit cake talking...

Short reflection as the term winds down...

2005-11-28T15:22:00.000-08:00

I'm amazed that Term 1 is almost over. The time just flew by! Hmmmm, I must have been having fun. (Right!) Tomorrow, my Form 4 and Form 5 students will write their end of term English exam, and frankly I'm a little nervous about how the Form 4 class will handle the paper. They really stretched me this term (and that's such an understatement!)

Of course, I'm probably more nervous than they are. They seem to be blissfully unconcerned about trite things like exams.

I saw the most progress with the Form six class this term. I really enjoyed teaching Communication Studies. I was able to incorporate more technology into my lessons with them, and I actually look forward to next term with these students. They really are an encouraging bunch.

The journey continues...

Go Soca Warriors!

2005-11-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

I've never been crazy about football. But I must admit that my heart has been doing all manner of flip flops when the Soca Warriors were playing their last two matches. Yesterday in particular, the whole school was buzzing. Neither teachers nor students could fully concentrate on school work. Unfortunately, none of the televisions in school were showing properly so people depended on radios and suddenly in the middle of my class, jubilant screams rang throughout the school. I don 't know how the children found out, but somehow they had heard that a goal had been scored. It turned out to be a false alarm. I tried to continue teaching my class (valiant soldier I was), but then another round of shouts erupted. This time it was true. We had scored a goal! By this time, nobody could concentrate. Eventually the principal dismissed school early. We were supposed to have had a department meeting at this time. HAAAA! Couldn't happen. Our wise principal understood this. When the final whistle blew, those who were still on the school compound shouted in relief and absolute joy. I felt dazed.
"So this means we going to Germany?" I asked a student who was nearby.
"It seems so, Miss," he replied with a wide smile.
Wow...
As I made my way home, I could feel the jubilation in the air. Motorists had their lights on high beam, even though it was two in the afternoon. Trinidad flags were fluttering from cars. Everyone was smiling. Some were shouting. That kind of togetherness warmed my heart. I wish it could last forever.

Today, I saw people of all races and backgrounds united in the joy of the Soca Warriors' victory. I saw political opponents share a platform and salute each other as they paid tribute to the team. I have to admit that I'm still not a huge fan of football, but there's something to be said about the power of that one moment when Dennis Lawrence butted that ball into that net. It gave a tiny nation a feeling of hope. It made us forget the escalating crime for a while. It reminded me of the beauty of the Trinbagonian spirit.

Well done Soca Warriors!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhh!

2005-11-15T14:54:00.000-08:00

Okay it's been a long, muggy, cold day and I struggled with my photography assignment for Ed Tech class. I've felt comfortable with all of the other components so far, but for some reason I've been feeling a little out of my depth with the photography. Although I like seeing "nice" pictures, I've never really had any interest in all the mechanics of producing one. I've never even used a digital camera before (bowing my head in shame) and for the past few days I've been trying to familiarize myself with it. Today I finally have my ten pictures. I'm not sure if I've "tested the limits" of the camera as the lecturer wanted me to. I'm just relieved to have the pictures. Then, when it was time to download the pictures to the hard drive I had all kinds of stress trying to figure out how to do it, and nobody I asked seemed to have any idea. When I got home and tried to install the camera software, I kept getting error messages and then I got fed up and opened it with the Canon software that was already on my hard drive. It was then that I discovered that I apparently had neglected to set the date on the camera and some of the pictures are stamped with the year 2003, even though I took the pictures over the course of the past few days!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Argggggggggggggggggggggggggh! I know for sure that I will not be choosing Digital Photography as my Practicum option. A person can only handle so much frustration!

Reflections on Ed Tech

2005-11-13T23:20:00.000-08:00

As this term winds down, I can’t help but reflect on the highs and lows I’ve experienced thus far both as a teacher and as a student.

My experiences on this Ed Tech course have been very enriching for the most part. Certainly there were hiccups, and certainly there were times when the constant assignment demands literally made me ill, but despite it all, I do not regret signing up for it at all.

First of all, I’ve met some fantastic colleagues in education and our diversity as a group has made the Thursday classes a constant source of amusement and excitement.

In addition to meeting new colleagues, I have also been exposed to a whole new world of gadgetry. Terms like “visual presenter” and “pen drive” “pod casts” are not alien to me any more. But even more important than being exposed to technology, I’m seeing ways to move from the vague area of theory into the more practical world. I’m putting my newly learnt Power point skills into practice especially in my Communication Studies classes. My students have even begun to create their own presentations, which has made me feel like a proud mom. Thanks to Miss Popplewell (you really need to check out her website here!) I can now script and produce a pod cast and next term I will be putting this new found knowledge into practice. I finally have some idea on how to create my own website (thanks to Michelle!) and I think I’m going to incorporate it into my teaching next year and I’m excited about that. If I wanted to, I can now create a newsletter using Word, and Excel is not as intimidating as it used to be. Still can’t get the hang of databases though!

My favourite course so far was the Media Literacy course. I thoroughly enjoyed all the presentations we had to do and those skills have come in handy as I work with my Communication Studies students!

Of course, I do not want to sound as if the use of technology has magically erased the challenges of my profession. In order to use the technology, I have to be prepared to do all the running up and down that is necessary to ensure that the class runs smoothly, and despite my best efforts, I still face some of my students’ apathy, insolence and illiteracy. Of course I get discouraged sometimes, and I hold elaborate self-pity parties, but this course helped me to see some possibilities that I hadn’t seen before, and I’m excited…The journey continues...

Testing, testing, my website is (tentatively) up

2005-11-04T17:48:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my fellow student M., I was able to overcome my Mambo fears and create my own website. I still have a lot of work to do on it still, but I'm so excited that after dreaming about it for so long it's finally a reality. Check it out here.

Just call me broadcasting student

2005-10-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

I just finished creating my first broadcast using Audacity! I'm soooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!! I see soooooooooo many possibilities for this in the classroom...

Okay, I sound like a geek.

I'm off to go listen to it again!

Early morning thoughts

2005-10-27T02:31:00.000-07:00

My previous blog entry was written a couple days ago, but I was hesitant to post it because I didn't want my blog to be a place of complaints and malaise, but I suppose my blog can be anything I want it to, and so I decided to post it today.

On that day I really felt frustrated with a particular class. They are challenging on so many levels! Many of them have literacy problems and quite a few of them appear to be the men and women of their households. I also sense that some of them have been severely hurt in their young lives, and the hurt is manifesting itself in gross disrespect and anger that is very close to their skins. Somehow I have to reach past that and find the talent and possibility that I know is there. Sometimes I feel like I'm reaching them. Sometimes I see something that looks like a spark of interest in their eyes, but I have to work like a beast to sustain it and then "poof" it vanishes.

I'm really hoping that something I do in Ed Tech class today will give me some ideas to reach this class. In the meantime I should be getting ready to make the trek to UWI.

Peace

An off day

2005-10-27T02:28:00.000-07:00

I was once a very idealistic teacher. When I started ten years ago, I was bursting with youthful enthusiasm and was determined to make all my students love English. I specifically wanted to teach in a senior comprehensive school. At the time, I felt I had the knowledge and the ability to “make a difference” in the children’s lives.

My teaching career has been a meandering roller coaster ride thus far. There were times when I felt that what I was realizing my dream of “making a difference”, then there were times when I felt like I was repeatedly banging my head against a huge, unyielding wall. To be absolutely honest, today I feel like I have done many hours of penance at that wall. I feel as if I’ve been biting air. I feel like I have been spinning a collection of new tops in old mud. Hmmm…I’m also running out of melodramatic figures of speech.

I know I shouldn’t be feeling like this. I feel like I am betraying ideals of the younger, more enthusiastic me. I am supposed to be older, wiser and more equipped to face the challenges of the teaching profession. I’m supposed to be enthusiastically interacting with my students, appealing to their multiple intelligences and using constructivist methods to make learning more relevant to them. I’m supposed to be doing a lot of things. However, even though I would like to think that I have grown older and maybe even wiser, I face a whole new generation of students: a generation that apparently requires a great deal more of my blood, sweat and tears.

Trying to wade through the turbulent seas

2005-10-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm new to blogger.com, and I thought I would give it a go. I'm also here because of an an Ed. Tech course I'm doing. It's been interesting learning about all the possibilities of technology in education. It's also been challenging trying to adapt the principles to my classroom, given the normal constraints.

We're presently learning how to create web pages. I'm excited about that because I've wanted to create my own web pages for a few years now. We'll see how it goes.

That's it, short and dryly sweet for now.

Laters.