It's College Tour Season Part 2

So, our second college tour happened to be the Historically Black College, Bowie State. Before we toured their campus, we went to the National Mall. Now, we didn't have a lot of time to go each of the museums and tour all of the monuments so I created a scavenger hunt for my students, so they could take in as much as possible.

Unfortunately it rained, so it dampened my students' spirits a bit, but we still had tons of fun. One of the rules of the scavenger hunt was to post their pictures on Instagram they could not however, post their answers on there because all the other teams would see it.  (yes, we use this a lot because the kids use it a lot why not incorporate it into my lesson?)

the hunt begins

one of the clues

of course I had to make the Capitol one of the clues

After our scavenger hunt, we trekked on to our tour of Bowie State. It's a little off the beaten path, so we couldn't tour the neighborhood like we did at Georgetown. Our tour guide were very helpful here. Usually, tour guides have trouble with middle school students...they aska ton of questions and a little on the immature side. They usually prefer high school students, but our tour guide joked around with our students and made them feel right at home. They were also very thorough and we were able to go inside some of the buildings. My students really appreciated the welcome mate being rolled out for them.  

and the tour begins

Our tour guide, joking around with the students and showing them the Performing Arts building.

My students loved this tour!

Happy Teachers' Appreciation Day!

Happy Teachers' Appreciation Day!

Here are some goodies for you if you haven't heard....

Okay, so maybe I was a little hungry when I wrote this blog lol, but enjoy!

School Closings a Civil Rights Issue

I'm glad somebody said it....

It's Not Always the Right Choice to Close a Failing School

Haiku for the Blue Planet Student Mosaic Part 1

So, in the previous blog post I shared a mosaic that my students put together for Earth 2010. This year, we were already working on haikus which are traditionally written about nature to for our unit of poetry. (Happy Poetry Month!) I had my students decide what they wanted the picture to be, draw it, cut it up and each student wrote his/her haiku on a piece of the planet.

We started first by drafting our poems:

Then we checked over them to make sure they followed the correct format:

Then we wrote our haikus on our little pieces of the planet:

Next we put them all together to create our mosaic:

I added a little extra credit assignment that my students were really excited about. We went outside and took pictures of nature with our camera phones and then I had the students post their pictures to Instagram and put their haiku as the caption. We used a hashtag them so I could find them and give them credit. They liked that they could share their assignment on a social media site they often use:

Ode to Earth Student Mosaic Part 1

Back in 2010, I had my students create a mosaic to honor Earth on Earth Day. Each picture has a poem, in the form of an ode, celebrating nature. We pieced them together to create this beautiful mosaic in the hall which we dubbed, "Ode to Earth". This year I plan to do the same thing with my Creative Writing class only this time we'll be focusing on haikus since we're deep into our poetry unit and are focusing on poetic form. (Happy Poetry Month! btw) That mosaic will probably be much more detailed. I will be posting the results. Stay tuned!

Land of the Free?

Student Punished for not Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in Maryland

We Need to Talk About Injustice

Economic status determines a lot for our children especially with the public school to prison pipeline being a very prevalent problem here in America. On the video above, Bryan Stevenson has a frank discussion about injustice in America.

How does our justice system reflect the inequalities of the public education system?

How can a true investment in a child's education change the likelihood of them being found on the wrong side of justice?

Are Our Students Allowed to Flex Their Decision Making Muscles?

"Simply put, we have fallen in love with the illusory certainty of making a choice, and abandoned any shared commitment to investing in the long and careful deliberative process that is necessary to ensure that the decisions we do make are both well informed and thoughtfully constructed."

These sentiments came from: the Education Week article In Modern School Reform is it We the People or Me the Individual?

I agree whole-heartedly, I just haven't articulated it the way they have. As a middle school teacher, this is what you lose when you create "zero-tolerance" policies. This is what you lose when you evaluate instruction with selected response assessments. There's no wiggle room, no second chances, no mercy and no grace. We are teaching our children that making "good" decisions is a natural innate ability. We give little room for growth to reflect that one's ability to make the right decision comes more easily over time and maturity, or that decision making is more like a muscle and only gets better with exercising. When an adolescent makes a mistake now-a-days, they are severely punished ...imagine how this discourages their faith in their ability to make good choices throughout life? 

I know that is not the central thesis of this of this article, but I couldn't help but pull it out. It is definitely a problem in our schools. 

Time is a major factor. So much as to get done in a certain amount of time, and we simply ignore the differences in time it takes different individuals to process information. 

How can teachers and parents help students flex their decision making muscles?

How do you feel about "zero-tolerance"? 

In what ways can we teach children to enjoy the process instead of focusing solely on the product?

While School Doors Close, Prison Cells Open

Four major cities are closing several schools next year: Philadelphia (23), New York City (23), The District of Columbia (15) and Chicago (54). I've often wondered what the ramifications might be for so many school closings aside from larger class sizes and already overwhelmed resources such as wrap around services (social workers, resource teachers, etc) being abused, and I found an article that outlined many more problems for districts in the future. Here, Education Week argues why closing so many schools only temporarily saves district budgets.  

Closing Schools and the Consequences: Ed Weekly

I also watched, "The House I Live In: Takes a Hard Look at the War on Drugs" yesterday on PBS and found that so much money goes into the war on drugs. With the privatization of the prison system, prisons in this country are looked at as more of an asset while our schools are considered liabilities. Convicting felons is a business that turns a profit. Hence why while the U.S. contains only 5% of the global population we have more 25% of the world's prisoners.  More money is invested in convicting non-violent offenders than educating our children. The lack of investment in education causes the overpopulation of our prisons. When are our priorities going to change?

The House I Live In Preview

It is important to put a proper workforce engaged in keeping our streets safe, but do you think there is a disproportionate amount of money and human captial invested in the war on drugs versus what is spent on schools? Why or why not?

In what ways can law enforcement work with and within schools to decrease the number of convicted felons in the future?

According to the documentary, the drug problem in America is only a symptom of larger problems related to social structure, public health, and economic issues. In your opinion, what are these problems and how can community organizations (schools, law enforcement, religious organizations, social workers, etc) ban together to find a resolution? 

180 Days: American High School

PBS follows one struggling District of Columbia school's journey to redemption. This is probably one of the more realistic depictions of what really goes on in urban schools across the nation. Here, you get to hear from the CHILDREN, teachers, parents, and community leaders who all come together to support the school. There aren't any assessment companies, sponsors, or politicos recording this to insert propaganda or political agendas. They instead delve into the lives of the people interact with the children the most. I've seen this story play out in so many places. Parents, teachers, and communities do in fact care for their youth...I'm just glad someone caught this on camera for a more accurate picture. 

180 Days: American High School Part 1

and

180 Days: American High School Part 2

Kill Em' Kindness: How Teaching Empathy Curves the Bullying Epidemic

I've been watching quite a few videos on empathy. America seems to be dealing with a huge bullying problem. From our classrooms all the way to Wall Street, people are being pushed around. I've been "researching" if you will, ways to address this bully phenomenon, from attending the National Conference on School Safety and Discipline which might I add, had an abundance of policy makers in attendance and very few teachers...the people closest to the children. They were actually shocked that I (a teacher) had been invited..that's a problem, but I digress. Anyway, it seems that when we focus on attacking this issue, we are being more reactive than proactive. We teach students in school how to react to bullying: tell a teacher, do not fight or argue, tell a parent, etc...There are very few schools who approach this problem by addressing the lack of empathy in the first place. I mean, peer mediation helps with problem solving and addresses empathy to some extent, but only after someone has already been offended. Below is a video about how a school used a baby to "teach" 5 year olds empathy. 

http://video.pbs.org/

Ever notice how bigger kids interact with younger kids? I've seen my 4 year old niece protect, support, and even teach my 2 year old nephew. Her empathy barometer is on level 10 with him. Even I tend to be more empathetic when I'm dealing with my students or other children. Having to help someone who is more vulnerable or dependent on you increases your ability to empathize.  

Now the next video addresses extending this empathic spirit throughout your life. Understanding how empathy and sympathy differs. To truly empathize, you must feel the pain and the woes of the person you are helping NOT pity them. By pitying them, you have disassociated yourself from their experience. A lot of us do it, thinking, that could never happen to me. Here this video shows us how introspection can be significant to our personal growth, but outrospection is key to building our ability to empathize. It's not very hard. As humans, we're hardwired to want to "belong," already, but in these great civilizations, we've taught ourselves to separate and form "cliques." Don't get me wrong, these small communities do create quite tight unified bonds; however, it also creates outcasts and ostracizes. You can see it in religious affiliations, political parties, ethic groups, gender, and even age groups. Sure, people like you can understand you better, but we often cut off, those who are not "like" us. At the end of the day, we're all human. There has to be a balance.   

Poor Students Go Unnoticed by Some Elite Universities

As an AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) coordinator and teacher it is my job to prepare my students to be "college bound" Well, while I was trying to put together several college tours for my students I ran into a bunch of issues that don't align with American's vision of this college readiness...

-Several of the universities refused to give a tour to middle school students

-Several would only take a group of 15 or less

I'm sorry are they not in the business of recruiting? What happened to the earlier the better?

Anyway, there's that, and then I came across this video:

Poor Students Go Unnoticed by Some Elite Universities

I wonder if there are many more reasons why poor students don't attend elite universities.

Are they exposed to these options early on? I tried sending my students to a diverse array of universities and was either turned down by these universities because of the age group or have been told by other faculty members that "our kids probably won't go to a school like that."I have a teacher friend who showed her 1st grade EIP class colleges online and her colleagues laughed at her saying, "Not this group." Expectations play a key role.

Where are these schools often located? Princeton, NJ; Cambridge, MA; New Haven, CT...if you already come from an urban area how boring do these places sound? (j/k) But think about it, you're already being moved out of your comfort zone and far away from anything familiar, not to mention the fact that most college graduates end up staying in the city where their undergraduate school is located in, why would you go? What recruitment efforts are being put in place to make these places more attractive beyond the academic status quo?

Also, when it comes to coming from a poor family, what can be done to help the student AND the family. I had many a friend in college, working to pay their tuition and supporting family back home at the same time. This is easier to do in large urban areas, and of course near their previous residence, hence why kids usually attend college in their home states.

Lastly, influence is the greatest factor in the selection a student makes in the college they choose. It's not that poor people don't attend these elite institutions, it's that they don't come back. Perhaps if students knew individuals living in their community who may attended these schools they might be more likely to apply.

Facebook Profile Character Development Lesson

Standard:

CCSS RL 9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Objective:

Students will analyze the characters’ multiple and conflicting motivations in “Hamlet” in order to determine how these interactions drive the plot. Students must have an understanding of internal/external conflict, plot and character traits.

Essential Question: 

How do the internal conflicts of certain characters affect the external conflict between other characters in the play and how does this advance the plot?

Fates Shackled to a Scantron

A hush comes over the entire building as the students sit in their janitorial rows. Harsh fluorescent lights cast an ominous glow of fear and nervousness over their quiet, innocent faces. The room looks like a prison cell since the brightly colored posters that once made the room look more cozy, were snatched down and now the children are bound to their desks. No there are no smiles, no happy sounds of children’s laugher—only solemn faces fixed with anxiety as if they have met their fates. And all I can do is look on. I have the urge to reach out and comfort them, but I’m not permitted to. Our fates are actually tied together on this day—a year’s work thrust upon them in one hour as they take the state standardized test.

The Battle at Kruger: Community Comes to the Rescue

While reading, the founder of the Children's Defense Fund Marian Wright Edelman's,  The Sea is So Wide and My Boat is So Small, she wrote about this Ytube video. She used this video to illustrate just how important the entire community is to a child's life. Had only the mother attempted to protect her calf, it wouldn't have survived. It took the entire community of water buffalo to save this calf. In a world where there are plenty of the lions and the alligators in the world preying on our children, what role do you play in protecting them? If we all surrounded our children with love and protection, how many children can we save?  

It takes the ENTIRE community. We are ALL responsible for the children in our community--not just the parents and the teachers. What role are you playing in the children in your community's lives?

Teach a (wo)man to fish...

Oftentimes we assume that people without resources can't learn or have too many obstacles standing in their way to find success and happiness. Below is truly a story of teaching "a man how to fish." How often do we as teachers and parents control the learning environment instead of facilitating it? This really is a matter of trust. Do you trust your children/students to accomplish the task you set forth without your constant help? They will have to eventually.  we perhaps too impatient when it comes to our expectations of not what they learn but when? Ask yourselves this as teachers and parents. I certainly have and sometimes I didn't like my answer. Sometimes you feel pressured by administrators, pacing guides, other parents, heck even society to get your child/student "there" where ever there is in a short amount of time. Everyone learns at his/her own pace. Instead of pressuring them to retain the lesson, instill the value of it. Why should they learn this? Of what significance to their lives is this lesson? If you teach that, the learner will be more motivated to step up to the challenge. Watch the video below and see how a group of impoverished mothers went from not knowing how to read or write to becoming solar engineers in 6 months! The work that they trained for, helped them sustain their villages and empower other women. We are always trying to swoop in and save people when they are very well capable of saving themselves. If we don't TEACH people and we do the learning for them, what will they do when we leave?

Solar Mamas

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing the Education Paradigms

In English

In Spanish

Teaching Makes Me Smile

This is for anyone out there who is fed up. Maybe an observation didn't go so well, or maybe your planning was taken up today with an unscheduled meeting. I've had those days. Days that made me feel completely frustrated...made me even question my career choice to become a public school teacher, but then my students come into class and I'm quickly reminded why I'm there. Despite all the craziness outside of my classroom, my room is my sanctuary when my students get there. I just close the door, shut out the world and enter the new world of learning with my students.  Little gifts, notes and pictures from my students sits behind my desk, from all the years I've been teaching..."Even when I'm having a bad day, this makes me smile."

What are somethings you do to refocus throughout the day? 

What Does School Really Teach Children?

What can we do to change this senario? At home, at school and in the community? What is your role in educating the children in your community? What are some more unintended lessons children are learning in school?

Maker's Educators' Award

Maker's is offering $10,000 to one trailblazing teacher. Entries must be in by 8:00pm EST March 22nd. Click to link to enter/nominate someone!

Maker's Educator's Award