Classroom obvservation: Escuela Las Joyas

I always have so many ideas to regulate after two days of classes – it’s almost hard to hold onto them.  So this is why our professors stress reflection.  Instead of trying to force reflection on ideas that are too new or scattered, I’m going to relax with vacation.  I was talking to my mom today about her birthday trip to our favorite island and about what we would bring for the local schools - Dennis and Georges, Isla Mujeres residents, help us with ideas - and about setting up a classroom obvservation in Isla Mujeres.  Which reminded me about last year, in Zihuantenejo, when I got to visit Escuela Las Joyas, an Indian school in the mountains.

The school receives no government funding since it is on an Indian reservation and all of the teachers (all licensed) are volunteers.  That is passion! The principal/6^th grade /5^th grade/4^th grade teacher is one of those people who you meet and instantly you feel like you’re in the presence of someone who is great – someone honorable, intelligent, and passionate.  This man works 40 hours a week in a bar in Ixtapa in order to run Las Joyas.  I can't help but marvel at his dedication.

The school reminds me of John A. Johnson in that it attracts volunteer organizations.  While we were there, there were volunteers giving haircuts, and doctors checking up on the kids.  It certainly wasn’t quiet or controlled.    

Here are some pictures for your own observation.

Upon arrival we distracted the second grade class -

I would have been annoyed with my presence if I was their teacher too

The two pictures below are kind of a panoramic.  On the left is 4th grade, on the right, the back columns are 6th grade and the front columns are 5th grade.  The principal/teacher teaches to each class in turn and monitors study by walking back and forth around the center wall.

Here he is with the 4th graders:

The lunch ladies preparing tortillas with some sort of paste for the kids who can afford it:

Though Las Joyas owns the property it's school is on, there are squatters that have houses built on the property as well.  Though they have received funding to build a school, it's problematic because it would mean ousting the squatters who have lived on the property for generations.

This is one of the houses:

The pre-primary school is much nicer:

It really looks like a 3-5 year old classroom!

I was impressed to see that even though these children had so fewer resources than the kindergartners I was working with at the time, they were still learning the same basic things - numbers, letters, reading, writing, math.  They also acted so much like my kindergartners that it was easy to relate with them even though I don't know Spanish or their culture - they were interested in the same things my kids were (Spiderman, digital cameras, and funny faces)

Farewell Michelle Rhee

I'm sure you've heard already, but with Mayor Adrian Fenty's loss, the school chancellor Michelle Rhee will also be out of office.  I've read some pretty spirited good riddens articles, but I enjoyed this article by the Atlantic the most (maybe just because I'm a PR major and it talks about Rhee as a brand).

http://www.theatlantic.com/Michelle_Rhee/

Teacher Town Hall MSNBC event

I previously posted an announcement of MSNBC's Teacher Town Hall that was hosted yesterday.  Here is the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39154226/#39384061 A lot of teachers expressed that you need a lot more than passion to be a teacher - you need a lot of skills in communication, classroom management, content knowledge, etc.  Also, many teachers expressed feeling like the scapegoat for everything wrong with our society. 

Because it's long to watch, I summarized the first half in segments (with minute times) and the second half as a whole:

5:00: A short 5 min. documentary following a beginning teacher and her struggles in the first year.  I thought it was really ... moving?  The discussion that followed this segment included the ideas that teaching is a calling, and that many teachers want to be better teachers but there is very little support and feedback provided for teachers in their first few years. 

17:00: Comments; Teachers are saying stress and burn out are two top factors leading to retention problems, we need to better prepare entry level teachers - first year teachers need mentoring.  Lack of resources and support, smaller class sizes.

18:30: Question: Are teachers under attack right now?  Many people wanted to give comments.  Teachers who weighed in were very passionate about their job and did feel under attack.  One comment said, yes teachers are under attack and they should be, they should be held accountable.  Another comment talked about not being under attack, but thinking about everything we're up against and not being able to make others outside of the profession understand what we go through and need to be supported.  Another talked about teachers being under attack because teachers are a very public face; she sited a nytimes article that suggested improving children's nutrition by teaching them to grow gardens at school, she said try as we might, even though we feel responsible, we can't fix every one of our nation's problems.  There were a lot of people who wanted to comment on this statement.

26:00 Brings "Waiting for Superman" into the discussion - specifically these statistics displayed in the movie: "1 in 57 doctors lose their medical license, 1 in 97 attorneys lose their law license, 1 in 2500 teachers lose their credentials."  One criticism is that in Waiting for Superman we keep hearing good teachers make a difference, good teachers make a difference, but there's no conversation about what it means to be a good teacher.  A lot of teachers who spoke, spoke about the many factors affecting teaching and with little support from parents and administration. 

35:00 Low income schools - 41.5% of students in the nation are considered low-income. A lot of applause to the statement: "The income level doesn't affect the intelligence level."  Just because a student is behind on an academic level does not mean he/she is behind on an intellectual or emotional level.  Teachers seemed pretty passionate in believing that

39:00 A teacher breaks away from the low-income discussion to defend tenure.  He says tenure is what allows teachers to stand up to administrators who provide too-simple solutions for complex problems, and to speak back to parents who don't want to do the right thing.  Tenure protects teachers from having to volunteer every time the principal says jump (This I know about from my experience as a para, the para's in the school were the primary "volunteer" force for every school event because teachers didn't feel compelled to - there was a lot of grumbling about that).  He says it's a due process system, if it's flawed, let's fix it, but teachers shouldn't be treated like other professionals because they are not working for the business, they're working for the kids.  Other comments agreed with the statement and the need for accountability.

I was really involved in watching the entire discussion.  The second half I watched at a different time with Justin, so I didn't want to bother him with the minute tracking.  Some hot topics for the second half of the meeting were tenure - while there was a pretty balanced representation of pro and anit tenure teachers, it was interesting to hear why the pro teachers were pro tenure.  All the anti-tenure teachers said was that bad teachers shouldn't have jobs for life (I agree) but I did learn a lot about how tenure supports teachers.  I think maybe the answer is reworking the tenure program.  Linked with tenure was a discussion about teacher evaluation.  Everyone who spoke was against test scores driving teacher evaluation, but as Justin pointed out, there were few alternative proposals.  I think that was just because speakers were short on time - there were a few who stood out who seemed to have a good plan in mind.

The Common School: 1770 - 1890

I just finished watching a documentary on the early years of our nation’s education history for my Schools and Society class.  Mostly what struck me about the film was how relevant the issues our education system faced early on are to the issues it faces now.  The underlying themes of what needs to be addressed seem to be eternal, though the surface specifics change.  I read a little bit about that when studying John Goodlad, who ran the biggest educational study of our time in the early 80’s.  There are two main texts that resulted from the study.  The first was “A Nation at Risk,” which was published by the National Commission for Excellence in Education, and treated the surface specifics.  A Place Called School was the book Goodlad published, which is said to be a book that is in it for the “long haul.” (I’m waiting for it to come in the mail).

On a light note, here is a segment from a McGuffey Reader (a book to teach Western kids reading and morals) the movie highlighted:

Charlie and Rob

“Don’t you hate splitting wood?” asked Charlie.

“No I rather like it,” said Rob, “it’s a tough job and it’s nice to conquer it.”

Now which of these boys do you think will grow up to be a rich and useful man?  And which of them joined a party of tramps before he was 30 years old?

Contents page from the McGuffey 2nd Reader:



Contents from the McGuffey 3rd Reader:

Panel of Urban Educators

I'm slowly moving my way down the Chautauqua education week video list and just finished with the Panel of Urban Educators (http://fora.tv/2010/08/06/Panel_of_Urban_Educators) The first two speakers spoke about how the International Baccalaureate program has revolutionized their schools (both placed in high violence crime areas.  Both speakers emphasized the importance of having a strong curriculum and teaching every kid.

The International Baccalaureate program is a Swiss program that is used by schools around the world.  The program website is here: http://www.ibo.org/

The third speaker was a superintendant who highlighted the importance of onsite learning - their leadership program for principals includes a lot of classroom observation and group reflection.

The questions at the end of the program were also really interesting.  There was some discussion about expecting our teachers to work overtime without pay.  One of the speakers answered the question by bringing in Korea.  She said that she's heard a lot of talk about how good Korean schools and teachers are and why aren't our schools and teachers as good?  Her response to that is in Korea they honor teachers - doctors, teachers, lawyers, she said, in that order.  In the US many people think it's "cute" or "nice" that someone is a teacher, they aren't honored as a teacher.  This is exactly what I heard from a Chinese teacher I met at my M.A.T. orientation - she was a high school teacher in China before moving to Minnesota to teach kindergarten in a Chinese immersion school.  She told me multiple times throughout the morning that in China teachers were honored.  On Friday night I was eating dinner with a Chinese couple who told the group that in China the public school education is the same if not better than the private school education.  Both of them had experienced both public and private schools.  The speaker concluded her answer by stating that we do need to expect more out of our teachers, but we also need to honor them more.

Goals of education

I'm watching Randi Weingarten give her Chautauqua speech (access from "Chautauqua" post) and she's made some really interesting points about how our goals for education have changed a lot more than our structure has.  She relates the 45 minute class, 3 minute turnover, and bubble filling tests to a time when we were training our students for factories.  Now, our job is to prepare all kids for a knowledge economy. 

This part of the speech relates to the guy I studied for my Education Hall of Fame project - John Goodlad.  John Goodlad is behind the biggest educational study we've ever had.  With the help of over 27,000 people he observed classrooms across the United States and found some similarities across the board.  One of his observations was that our education system had no formal or united goals for our students.  He outlined four goals for American students.  1. Academic, they should be knowledgeable and intellectual.  2. Vocation, they should be prepared to work and contribute to economy.  3. Social/Civic, they should be prepared to be a part of a democratic society.  4. Personal, they should develop individuality and creativity.  John Goodlad published A Place Called School about his observations throughout the study in 1983. I've ordered it because, after researching him, I believe that a lot of what he writes about is especially relevant to today's educational system.

Google Books, A Place Called School: http://books.google.com-a_place/

Allowed to fidget

So we were talking about ways to help children focus in Educational Psychology on Tuesday and there was a snippet about an elementary school from my district with stand up desks in the Schools and Society text.  I thought I would take some classroom observation pics to illustrate some of the things we were talking about.

Mrs. Cossalter's kindergarten classroom - notice the water bottles.  Mrs. Cossalter actually thinks that the water bottles are very distracting.  She allows them because the drinking fountain is broken and the kids need to stay hydrated.  They have rules about only drinking during work times and play times - otherwise they will leave the group time to go get water and distract the class.  The water bottles probably work differently in a classroom that has more lecture time.

This is Sammy's "wiggle seat."  Apparently he wiggled all of the air out of it.  By all accounts, this seat REALLY helps him focus.

This is Ms. Miller's 3rd grade classroom.  Last year Ms. Miller had an especially wiggly class - there were feet in the air, they were moving around, they could not sit still.  She got the balls from another teacher at the school who purchased them through a grant she was awarded.  Ms. Miller says there is a parent this year who thinks the balls distract her child, but Ms. Miller believes that the balls are incredibly effective.

In the reading for Schools and Society there's a little box on page 117 that says this:
"Unlike children at schools almost anywhere, students at Marine Elementary School in Minnesota do not have to sit still while learning.  Quite the contrary, they may stand and fidget all day long if they want.  And they do.  Students learn at stand-up desks that come with swinging footrests and adjustable stools, allowing them to switch between sitting and standing as their moods dictate.  The desks help give students the flexibility they need to expand energy and focus on their work rather than worrying about how to keep still.  Noted one student: 'Understanding poetry is easier when I can wiggle when I want to.'" (Sadker, Chapter 4)

Marine is a very small town about 15 minutes north of Stillwater - there are about 700 people living in Marine.  I think there are a lot of artists living in Marine.  I never heard about the stand up desks and when I talked to a close friend who went to Marine, she didn't remember being able to walk around freely or having standing desks.  On a side note, this year's homecoming queen is a graduate of Marine elementary - I'll have to ask her if she remembers the stand-up desks.

The Marine Elementary school webpage is: http://marine.stillwater.k12.mn.us/

The Marine school report card is here: http://education.state.mn.us/ReportCard/2010/RCF083401789.pdf

Some interesting facts from the Marine report card:

15.62 total staff members in the school, 8.41 are teachers, 6 of those teachers have their Masters (about half the teachers in Minnesota have their Master's - this small school has a higher percentage of that share)

French schools

As long as I mentioned my good friend Lindsey teaching English in France, I might as well mention that I have two more really close friends teaching English in France and a bunch of normal friends (in French the distinction would be Lindsey and Ariana are my amies, most friends fall into the copains category).  Anyway here are some pictures of Ariana's classroom while I was visiting in Cahors, a small quirky town just an hour north of Toulouse.

Here is Ariana telling a student that he will have stories, and not the good kind, if he doesn't shape up.

Apparently that's what French teachers tell the kids.  (Vous aurez des histoires, et non pas les bons!)

She had three different classrooms, I only saw two. 

This was her favorite class because they were so well-behaved
and wanted to learn English.

The teacher in the classroom thought this child was too energetic

and a bit of a nuissance,

but Ariana loved him.

Ariana in action, regulating a game she'd made up
to teach her students English.

The most challenging piece of the program, I think, is that they don't prepare you for the classrooms at all.  There are no curricula and very little guidance about how to work with the children.  Maintaining classroom discipline is difficult, especially, I think, because French teachers seem to have a looser attitude towards maintaining a class than Americans.  I really only caught a glimpse of other elementary school classrooms with French teachers in them, but at the University level the students talk through the entire class - at least at Montpelier III: Paul Valery - it's very distracting! 

When I was studying abroad in 11th grade I was in Premier L, which is the language track.  My closest friend was the best student, she was incredibly attentive and studious in class and I don't remember there being too much classroom disruption in our French classes there.  (Also, additional note, being on the Language track, the students had extra French classes mixed in with Science and Math, extra English classes, and Spanish, German, Russian, and Chinese - I only ever learned how to write "She ate the pears I bought this morning" in Chinese).

Chautauqua

One of my closest friends, Lindsey, who is leaving for 8 months as an English teacher in France tomorrow morning, spends her summers at a Chautauqua community in NY. (Or THE Chautaqua community, more info here/ ).  Anyway, one week last summer was devoted to education and the links to the videos are still active and she's shared them with me.  I haven't watched any of them yet, I'm actually looking forward to watching last night's Glee instead, but I plan to, and thought I could at least share.  Here they are:

http://fora.tv/2010/08/05/Randi_Weingarten_Excellence_in_Education
http://fora.tv/2010/08/06/Panel_of_Urban_Educators
http://fora.tv/2010/08/06/Mark_Roosevelt_Our_Education_Woes
http://fora.tv/2010/08/04/Rajiv_Vinnakota_Why_I_Do_What_I_Do
http://fora.tv/2010/08/04/Jonathan_Schnur_Pursuit_of_Educational_Excellence
http://fora.tv/2010/08/03/E_Gordon_Gee_Public_Education_-_A_Moral_Imperative
http://fora.tv/2010/08/03/Barbara_Bowman_Excellence_in_Early_Education
http://fora.tv/2010/08/02/Ronald_Richard_Innovating_Schools_-_Why_We_Cant_Wait
http://fora.tv/2010/08/02/Linda_Darling-Hammond_The_Flat_World_and_Education





(Lindsey and me, unfortunately we are such good friends I couldn't find any socially acceptable pictures of the two of us, so I settled with this one)

Public schools are not so bad

While babysitting Monday night I read an article in the New Yorker about a quirky 8^th grader whose fashion blog (started at age 11) is now so popular that she has her own international set of paparazzi.  I looked at the blog ( http://www.thestylerookie.com/ ) and I think it’s entertaining – in one moment she’ll be writing something incredibly mature and in the next she’s a complete eighth grader.  It might be interesting for some of you who are aiming for that middle school age.

More educationally, when I was trying to find an online version of the Tavi article, I found an editorial about how the recent media (“Waiting for Superman” – again – and a couple other books) are over reacting and the journalist, Nicholas Lemann, thinks our system, if not perfect, is doing quite well.  You can read or listen to his thoughts on the New Yorker webpage here

Sept 26 Teacher Town Hall meeting hosted by MSNBC

Just in case you're interested, it will be Sunday at 11 a.m.

From NEA website:

"The Teacher Town Hall will air LIVE on MSNBC and stream at EducationNation.com, Scholastic.com, iVillage.com, and msnbc.com at 12pm EDT on Sunday, September 26th. A live chat, hosted exclusively for teachers, will be available at EducationNation.com. During the Teacher Town Hall, teachers who are present at the event and logged in from across the country will be asked to weigh in on the big issues regarding education in America."

( http://www.nea.org/home/19449.htm )

Last post today - "Promise Neighborhoods"

I'm not really in the mood to keep up on news today so I didn't really do too much searching.  There is one more article I'll post only because it reminded me of one of the schools we visited on Friday.  The article is on WCCO, you don't need to bother reading it because it doesn't say much more than many communities want funding to become Promise Neighborhoods and that it was based on the Harlem Children's Zone, but works with a much smaller budget.  It doesn't articulate what a Promise Neighborhood* is or what the Harlem Children's Zone** is.  (Article here/ )

The school that came to mind while reading the article was John A. Johnson elementary school, which is an "Achievement Plus" school - a school that integrates the families, the community, and public and private resources.  It seemed like a pretty noble organization.  98% of the school students are on free and reduced lunch; with such a high percentage, we can assume that the families are in need.  The school is home to the traditional elementary education program, but also houses East Side Family Center, East Side Learning Center, East Side YMCA, Goodwill Easter Seals, Children's Dental Clinic, Wilder Therapist, and St. Mary's Medical Clinic.  While we were there we saw fliers for a community baby shower and brochures on how to find work.  The school provides opportunities for families to get their needs met, and if the families needs are met, the children are better able to focus on school.  To add a less important note - I couldn't believe how quiet the school was!  I think it is more quiet than a normal school because of the space, but after spending a year working in big room housing 3 teachers, 5 paras and 90 kindergartners, the silence was almost eerie.

While we were there Principal Melissa Lehmann told us about an AFT article that praised John A. Johnson.  In it AFT president Randi Weingarten is quoted saying: “Johnson Elementary gets it—schools must be the centers of our communities, a safe haven where children can receive the services they need to mitigate the adverse effects of poverty on academic achievement. The Achievement Plus model is an example of how effective schools can be when these services are provided in conjunction with efforts to improve teaching and learning.”

The article can be found here: http://www.aft.org/newspubs/press/2010/051910.cfm  - it's about the Pink Hearts not Pink Slips campaign.


* The Promise Neighborhood grant awards non-profits funding to create a cradle-to-career education system in "distressed" neighborhoods. More information here.html

** Harlem Children's Zone is similar in it's approach to education, the website for the Harlem Children's Zone is http://www.hcz.org/

Dream Act Blocked Today

Okay, I've been fussing around with the MPR post because I had found a Minnesota article on the DREAM Act, which I thought was good to read and then I found some more information about the DREAM Act and thought that it shouldn't be tacked on to my MPR post, just like it shouldn't be tacked onto the "Don't ask don't tell" bill.

While doing a quick search for the MPR audio clip on Waiting for Superman, I came across this interesting article on the issues illegal immigrant children in Minnesota (or, undocumented) face in getting education.  The first part of the article focuses on a boy who was an active participant in his high school but didn't know how to filter into a university system with his friends.  Here's the link: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/20/dream-act/

There's also a national article on the DREAM Act in the New York Times here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/us/politics/21immig.html?_r=1&ref=education

And an article by Education Weekly outlining how the DREAM Act died today with the defense bill here:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/09/21/377133bcusimmigrationdremct_ap.html

What this last article failed to describe to me is why the DREAM Act was tacked onto "don't ask don't tell" - what do undocumented students seeking education and bisexual militia have in common?  Can anyone enlighten me?

MPR on Waiting for Superman

If you haven't noticed already, I get a lot of information from MPR.  It's because I'm in the car a lot.  Today I heard a really interesting snippet on All Things Considered, I heard a short interview with the Waiting for Superman director Davis Guggenheim and after that a short interview with the Chief Knowledge Officer of Teach for America Steven Farr.  The fact that the director of Waiting for Superman hopes to send his child to a public school next year stood out of the first interview and the short explanation that energy does not necessarily mean better teaching on the part of the director of Teach for America stood out in the second interview.  I'm on one of those Hamline stand-up computer terminals now and haven't found the audio clip yet, but I will add it to this post when I find it.

Here it is -  a nice 13 min segment - http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=130020147
In re-listening, more intently, I love Steven Farr's segment which starts at 7:40 into the podcast.  He says that great teachers tend to set ambitious goals for their students.  Setting the goal helps make it happen.

UofM gubernatorial candidate forum: Tom Horner

Last night Tom Horner was the last candidate in a University of Minnesota gubernatorial candidate forum and the program aired on MPR today.  Tom Horner discussed his “cradle-to-grave” approach to education, emphasizing the importance of pre-school education and the financial support of MnSCU and the U.  He wants to ensure that every student is at grade reading level by third grade.  Though he wants to hold teachers accountable for meeting statewide standards, he wants to give teachers more freedom to design learning programs that fit their classroom needs.  Finally, he encourages the teachers union to start working with the government instead of against it; if he becomes governor and Education Minnesota does not work with him, he will start working around Education Minnesota.

MPR audio broadcast of Tom Horner can be found here/

I haven't listened to the other candidates yet, but you can -

Tom Emmer (aired 9/17/2010): here/ 

Mark Dayton (aired 9/14/2010): here/

What do you think about school's using advertising to generate income?

In my first class the professor brought us outside and had us move up and down an imaginary line showing whether we agree or disagree with his statements.  One of the statements was "Schools should use advertising to generate money."  Some felt very strongly that it was wrong to expose kids to ads, and some felt it was a good way to get money if the ads were conservative.

The school featured in this WCCO segment seems to be on the "strongly agree" end of the spectrum.  The ads seem a little bit overwhelming to me, but I don't think they are necessarily wrong.  Schools do need more money and today high exposure to advertisements is a part of a child's reality.  Though I'm not sure I would like a Cub ad plastered across my locker and on the floor (to me it would feel claustrophobic) I think that the more important lesson is that advertisers are continuing to find new ways to reach audiences.  Whether or not it's right to put advertisements in a school, we should be teaching children how to understand the media they consume.   

St. Francis school placing billboard-style ads over lockers and on floors

WCCO coverage: http://wcco.com/education/school.billboard.advertisement.2.1922862.html

Oprah Winfrey interviews creators of "Waiting for Superman" today

Whatever you think about Oprah or the movie, it is interesting to see their discussion on the film and also to read the online discussion of the film and episode.  In the show Oprah is very impressed with film and encourages every audience memeber to see it.  On the show's webpage there are a lot of disgruntled viewers who very passionately object to the movie and the show.

Here's the link: http://www.oprah.com/showinfo/Waiting-for-Superman-the-Movie-That-Can-Transform-Americas-Schools

More resources:

Film website: http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/?gclid=COb7iIH7lqQCFcHY5wodHCs_Gw 

Time article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2016978,00.html

Minor Party gubernatorial candidates discuss getting back to the “Minnesota Miracle”* and fixing the achievement gap.

Today I listened to the minor party gubernatorial debate and listened more intently to the discussion of educations. I’ve tried to extract what I think the candidates were trying to get across in their responses – they were certainly less polished than the major party candidates and it was sometimes hard to figure out exactly what they planned to do for Minnesota education.

MPR audio: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/20/midday1/

Linda Eno (Resource Party): Linda agrees with Ken, it’s a social issue. The first step to take is address what we’re doing in the communities for the kids. The second step is to run the school like a business – Linda believes that the union is too strong and without holding staff accountable, there’s too much “fluff” in the system. Linda believes that there are plenty of resources available for the under-achieving kid, but the kids who are capable of excelling are being held back because there’s no resources to push their development – “We breed mediocrity,” she says. She says to teachers, “I don’t care if you’ve been there five years, ten years, or twenty years, it’s that kid's only year in your classroom and I would hope you were teaching with the same enthusiasm.” Eno also believes that the proportion of education dollars throughout the state is inequitable – rural students getting about $7,000 a piece, urban students receiving about $14,000 a piece.

Farheen Hakeem (Green Party): Farheen Hakeem is a teacher, but never clearly expressed what it is she was specifically going to do. She talked about offering the “nuts and bolts” behind education as a governor, but didn’t actually describe what those were. Her primary response to the question was using Title 1 money for tutoring, though she doesn’t support the No Child Left Behind Act nor the Race to the Top. She says we need to stop cutting money from education.

Ken Pentel (Ecology Democracy Party): In order to fix the achievement gap we should stop looking at schools in isolation and work on building up the communities. Pentel said, “We can’t continue to pick on the teacher to resolve health problems, housing problems, diet problems, and things like that.” Pentel said the schools needed more revenue (but didn’t offer any plan for generating revenue), and smaller class sizes. He also emphasized the importance of creativity in the classroom. He said we need to “allow for more creative time in school, physical fitness, a chance for young people to become more whole rather than just memorizing and regurgitating.” He believes creativity promotes gains in reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Chris Wright (Grassroots Party): The achievement gap should be closed by creating a constitutional right to free post-secondary education. High college tuitions only allow for financially capable students -
“We burden our families and students with debt in search of the American Dream.” Wright also said that the state should concentrate on early childhood education and provide before and after school daycare for kids up to ten years old – he believes this will really help out the families. And we need to address special needs of students from various backgrounds.


*The Minnesota Miracle refers to the time when Minnesota students had a lot more resources than other students in the country, and now Minnesota students have fewer resources than the national average. Some historical information is provided here by the Minnesota Historical Society.

A few stand-out articles from last week

Here are some of the news media pieces I've collected in the last week an a half:

PRINT:

A good summary of the L.A. Times value-added analysis (NY Times)
When_does_holding_teachers_accountable_go_too_far?

• The L.A. Times requested 7 years of elementary school test scores and then hired a man to use a value-added analysis to link test scores to individual teachers. The paper then printed a list of the best and worst teachers in the district.  It's a really interesting topic to discuss with classmates because on one side there is a need for teacher evaluation, on the other, there are many reasons why teachers shouldn't be judged by test scores.    

Strib article on Mpls school district effort to get dropouts back in school
Opportunity_Knocks.html

• Minneapolis school district has a team of volunteers knocking on the doors of the dropouts, trying to get students back in schools.  While their message may not be getting through to recent dropouts (which are the students they need back in the schools), their message is getting through to older siblings and parents who want to finish high school.

AUDIO:

MN Gubernatorial debate on education:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/13/midday2/

• Title indicates content
• Strib article summary of debate: http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/102670929.html
• Emmer's reference to Iowa's special education formula is creating different "weights" for different levels of need in the special education program
• A dramatic editorial about what our future governer needs to accomplish: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/103172599.html?elr=KArksc8P:Pc:Ug8P:Pc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

How to turn schools around:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/14/midmorning1/

• An interesting discussion on turnaround schools in MN. 

INTERACTIVE

A map of the Race to the Top winners with summaries/full proposals of the entries
http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/infographics/racetotop_winners.html

• I thought it was interesting that at least three of the winning states based proposals on teacher evaluation - See? It's a hot topic!

Entrance Essay

Since I am already a week and a half into my program I am really behind on updating the blog.  I want to skip the beginning of the blog and go straight into the media posts.  However, I feel like there should be some sort of official start.  So, here it is, a copy and paste of my application essay:


I was blessed to have a phenomenal high school French teacher. When I arrived at the University I was able to skip 2.5 years of college-level French. I entered classes on Magrhebin and Quebecois cultures with a vocabulary repertoire my classmates were lacking. In my phonetics class I had already memorized most of the poems. Experiencing great teaching has made me want to be a great teacher, but I believe that my desire to teach is motivated by my natural tendency to teach.

My first teaching experience started when I was leading a Bible study in 11th grade. I was an active high school student, but I was looking for something more fulfilling than the normal high school experience. I talked to a few of my mom’s friends and recruited a small group of 6th grade girls. I would gather them once a week with a prepared Bible study and corresponding art project. When the girls entered 7th grade I made the transition with them into Confirmation. When my confirmation group was confirmed 3 years later, it was double the size of any other confirmation group and I was at least 10 years younger than the other leaders. I have spent over 240 hours leading Bible study with the same group of girls. My former sixth-graders are now seniors in high school who excel in academics and extra curricular activities; we still meet for Bible study once a week before school.

This last year has been absolutely delightful because I spend my days in a kindergarten classroom with special education children. My primary role is to assist a non-verbal student with cerebral palsy. I work with the child on basic kindergarten subjects, such as reading and counting, as well as speech, physical ability, social interaction, and bathroom training. His progress in the last few months has been astounding. The child didn’t know shapes or letters when he entered kindergarten; today he read a book to me and counted to 5 orally!

Teaching ballet has reinforced my decision to become a French teacher because I love ballet about as much as I love French and francophone cultures. I am by far the least experienced ballet teacher at the studio, but I have a passion for teaching ballet that fuels my lessons. I find dense books on Vaganova theory intriguing and I share what I’ve read with my students. I take ballet classes from a variety of studios and bring the diverse teaching methods into my classroom. I watch hours of ballet films for new combinations my students might like to learn.

Part of the compensation for my work at the elementary school and in the ballet studio is the overwhelming support I’ve received from both communities. Staff and parents at Lily Lake have trusted me and valued my opinions. Ballet parents have expressed gratitude and I’ve received a lot of support and encouragement from the directors and board members of the studio. My biggest supporter has been my dad, who has been encouraging me to become a teacher since I was young.

Since I made the decision to become a French teacher I have felt confident and excited about the future. I know that teaching is what I was made for. I know this because I naturally find myself in teaching positions; I know this because my students are successful; I know this because my community supports my decision. I know I’m made to be a teacher because I love to learn. I will always be seeking out new experiences in francophone cultures and my students will be able to share in those experiences vicariously through me.