IMAGINE: my philosophy of education

This is why we have to believe in HOPE!

Expose the Truth’s and Imagine the Possibilities

 

Throughout this entire class I have been asking myself what practices can apply to my classroom?

What promises am I going to make to students?

What are my goals? And most importantly the theme of our class

How can I turn promise into practice?

Building a Framework for Success:

I too will continue with a framework of hope despite all that is weighing upon us, because if we (as educators) don’t have hope than all is lost to the system and the neoliberal agenda. And I refuse to let go of the theme of this blog, which is too, EXPOSE the truth (Delpit) and IMAGINE the possibilities (Gatto): the possibilities of both my students and a better more just future. I will use this blog as a tool to do so; I will post ideas, articles and inspiration, as well as keep up to date info on exciting new student work (both things that work-things that didn’t work). It is a commitment to pushing my students and myself to greatness through self-reflection, artistic expression (imagine) and the use of critical literacy (expose).

Often as both teachers and humans we are creators of habit and change is a challenge, so here I am committing my CHANGES for 2011/12 school year to cyber space, beyond paper, beyond my exhausted memory, here on my blog I am making it official. I hope to continue to add to the blog as ideas continue to build. These are my new inspirations as a result of a summer of reflection.

Ideas for Fashion Design and Merchandising Class

 2011/12 School Year:

Fashion Article Blog Group’s -

I will lead kids to generate their own list via a singles mixer to help come up with 5 essential questions to explore for the year dealing with social justice and the fashion industry. Students pick a social justice theme (inquiry question) and create a blog, post articles, questions, add images and share out responses!! No more Socratic seminars- My goal is to create a more student inspired authentic learning environment where students explore ideas that matter to them and their futures.

Ms. Sheehy, the Technical Trade Communication Instructor, will sketch while we write everyday. The students will see writing is like drawing, it takes practice everyday to improve. We will commit to writing daily as a class, myself included.

Use different technique’s to help organize writing assignments – specifically focusing on Thinking Maps (Jackson and Cooper, 2007).

Using Circle Maps for my do now writing pieces. Building a framework for successful writing for ALL students.

Make sure students write a justification/ artist statement for all design work in fashion class. I will be prudent about this and it will become routine.

Senior Project – online presence- Still thinking on this one? How can I add multi-media more – digital story maybe? I am not sure what it is but there is a way to make the Senior Project stronger and guarantee that all students do all writing components.

General food for thought: USE Multiple text and Give choices, lay out the framework to be successful, use appropriate tools, and discussion based learning (Allington). Making it matter through the power of inquiry (Wilhelm and Smith, 2007). Explore trilingualism, and respect the home language.

Use Lisa Astarita Gatto’s model of teaching as an inspiration for my classroom. Give control to the students, total control, let it be completely there event. I will lead and provide structure but they will be the driving force to determine directions of the show (this will be by far the biggest challenge for change that I committed to this blog). Gatto is a true inspiration and strives towards creating the classroom learning environment she advocates for.

The list continues………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..more .............................................................................................more to come.

Closing The Gap

 Why is something like this considered normal(opposed to disturbing, concerning, problematic, etc. anything but NORMAL)?

It is more than just the Economy; it is Critical Literacy( "a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy"(Tuck, 20011) as the answer to closing the gap:   The framework of critical literacy is to provide the door used to close The Gap. The ever-looming gap between the middle class Whites population and the Black, Latina/o and poor White population. A gap in everything from median net worth, academic achievement, incarceration rate (a Caucasian male born today has a one and twenty chance of spending time in jail while a black male born today has a one in four chance of spending time in jail (Moses, 2001) unemployment rate, teen pregnancy, to the drop out rate. The list goes on and on, and MUST be closed (but currently is widening). Many of today’s school practices, “Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as process of inquiry. The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence”(Freire, 1997), mirror the oppressive and institutional racist practices of society as a whole. Civil rights advocate, Robert Moses raises many questions about today’s educational system and advocates for, “the students at the bottom”. Asking, “How do young people at the bottom get into the mix” and, “Are we going to have a society where only a small group of people are prepared for the future, where there’s a huge knowledge gap” (Moses)? So how is critical literacy an answer to this question, and how is it a means to not only bridging the gap, but also closing the gap?

First we have to look at what is literacy and how we, as educators, view it? According to Gatto (2007),“Literacy is a practice, something that gets DONE, not skills to be learned for use at a later date…. literacy is “shorthand for social practices of reading and writing”(Street, 1995). My approach is to provide experiences and problems that engage students in expanding their existing literacy practices in order to construct and use new ones”(Gatto). It acts as a means for, “Targeted young people finding their voice” Moses suggest opposed to telling them what their voice is, how it should be, and what it sounds like. When we look at literacy critically it is much more than just reading and writing skills, it begins to be an agent for social change.

So, how do we use critical literacy to create change? First, we must change, “the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students”(Freire). Education has the potential to be the great equalizer used to, “Foster students’ identities as learners and their sense of agency as participants which, position the teacher as a co-collaborator in an inquiry classroom” (Allington, 2007). Helping the marginalized students work towards achieving, “Authentic liberation-the process of humanization”(Freire) in which,  “Liberation is a praxis; the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it”(Freire). This role reversal of teacher as student and student as teacher in combination with their reflection of themselves on the world is a fundamental principal in effective critical literacy.

We have to challenge the authority that exist within a system built on power over instead of power with, “Authority must be on the side of freedom, not against it”(Freire). We have to assess the, “dichotomy between human beings and the world” (Freire), and inspire a shift in thinking and actions of students and teachers from the roles that exist today, towards the new ones listed below:

(1)-Being for oneself not others (Freire). (2) Being with the world versus merely in the world (Freire).

(3) Being a spectator, versus a re-creator (Freire).

(4) Turning passive learners into active learners (Moses)

Critical literacy inspires students to change the world not adapt to it. The distinction is essential to forward progress. As Freire states,” Any situation in which some individuals prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence. The means used are not important; to alienate human beings from their own decision-making is to change then into objects”(Freire). And I believe that no teacher should have the power to commit such acts of violence.

We have to confront these practices, and bring new breath into the system. We have to show administrators and educators alike that, “We believe our students to be literate before they enter classrooms. We have to use their experiences, interest, history, culture, language and literacy practices to develop to the literacy ”(Gatto). Instill, faith in our students, faith that they can feel, and know, “If you say you love your students, then you can be sure that they will test that protestation of affection”(Kohl, 2007). Let them test and prove that we are right, we care, and we care immensely. Show the power in creating, “Real conversation requiring that participants have ideas, that they articulate those ideas, and that they bring them to the group, decide how to address them, and then engage with one another”(Probst, 2007). Lets bring value to our students through respect in the classroom. Lets support Freire’s problem-posing education, “affirming men and women as being in the process of becoming- as unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise unfinished reality”. Our mission as educators is to bread change and, “Scripted lessons mandating Tuesday’s writing be the same for each student in every school are guaranteeing mediocrity”(Rief, 2007). The world deserves more!

IMAGINE: A classroom where ALL students write everyday with meaning!

This is what Lynn Astarita Gatto has accomplished and is a model for authentic learning that engages all students.

In Gatto’s depiction of her elementary class 12 week vivarium project she took her students through the whole process of creating, designing, building, researching and completing a butterfly vivarium. Through this process she encompassed multiple content areas and covered all of her curriculum standards. The classes experience was truly inspiring, and what I always imagined school should be like. She created a classroom with real world application and meaning, which lead to a challenging and engaging environment.

Although I consider my classroom to be a lively and enriching environment I also felt a desire to reevaluating some of my teaching practices after reading, Gatto's article. I began asking questions like, "What control can I give over to the students"? "What can I let go of"? “What outcomes have I been forcing”? And yes, I do have an engaging vocational curriculum with  “integrated academics”, and we put on a huge fashion show which serves as a motivator with real life application- but something was missing. Something was different about Gatto’s classroom than mine, and I want to figure out exactly what it is – what I am missing? What the key is? So I tried to break down her steps and see where I could apply her process to mine: (I marked in red the lessons I learned from Gatto’s work, and her words and experiences in black).

Believe that all students are literate and valuable to the classroom experience

Gatto constantly demonstrated her belief in her students, “I believe my students to be literate before they enter my classroom. I use their experiences, interest, history, culture, language and literacy practices to develop to the literacy ”(Gatto, p.88). She respects every child and involves everyone in the classroom,” Every child knew they had something important to contribute to the unit right from the start”(Gatto,p.79). There ideas were recorded and posted and then most importantly acted upon.

Consider every learning environment to be unique and always changing

“Considering the individual students, planning carefully, selecting appropriate materials and activities, and adjusting activities are all important aspects of what I do to establish a successful literacy program”(Gatto, p.77). Gatto explains how her word wall and vocabulary change year-to-year depending on her students needs. She never takes one-size fits all approach to education.

True integration- not add-ons,

Gatto explains, everything that she did in her class had meaning and was for demonstrating the practical social use of literacy, which entailed mixing literacy’s to work towards a common goal (just as we do in real life).“Literacy is a practice, something that gets done, not skills to be learned for use at a later date”(Gatto, p.78).

Leave the unknown-unknown-Let the students decide the outcome

Gatto only put the idea out there to the class. She never told them how they were going to do it. She made them responsible from kids generate questions, acting to answer them, designing and building a vision, and sharing it with the community. They class decided what they wanted and worked as a class to make that happen. Kids decide everything; “Every child had a part in the construction of the vivarium”(Gatto, p.81). It was a real community effort with incredible outcomes.

Students have to make the connection NOT be told by the teacher-very very important!!
Gatto always allowed the students to generate their own inquiry question, “Why are we reading a book that has nothing to do with butterflies if were going to study butterflies? She never answered the question; instead she posted it on the board and allowed each student to discover the answer on their own. This is when true learning happens.

Create rituals and routines

As much as Gatto allowed for freedom and gave much of the control of the classroom to the students, she also created simple rituals and routines in which the students knew what to expect everyday and how the classroom operated. There were many practices Gatto used to engage with the students daily: keeping a journal, post it note selections in readings, silent reading, word walls, personal student spelling book, use of multiple text, research to answer students own questions, (I can not get high school students to do this), etc., which intern all lead to KIDS WRITING DAILY.
 
Make real life connections

Gatto constantly was making the real life connections. She was always taking the students on trips to enrich their learning experience and to make the personal connection, which drives motivation to learn. She, Constantly, “contextualized the topic of the unit within our community and world events”(Gatto, p.83). She created lots of dialogue and have to come up with consensus (extremely important real life skill). She remained open and flexible- a true authentic learning environment- not scripted and never the same- always bringing real life examples into the class- Wonderfully done!

Multi-cultural/Humanistic Perspective

Gatto’s involved and valued all students and didn’t only use middle class white values (she even used books written in Spanish first) to drive her curriculum. She looked at her student’s differences as assets to the classroom experience and used her Spanish-speaking students experiences and language to enrich the learning environment. She was then able to make emotional connections, which lead to empowering change, (letters to Mexican government, questioning life, questioning media). Inspirational!

Let go of control- (biggest lesson for me)
“Letting go, getting out of the way, leaving them on their own so that they may assume the responsibility”(Probst, p.55). Gatto had such faith in letting the story unfold for itself. She had a vision of the project and was a guide for the students but by letting go of control she was able to let the lesson take on a journey of it’s own which lead to incredible valuable teachable moments (letters to the Mexican government, not trusting the media, morning the death of a local artist). As well as a successful vivarium being built and shared with the community.

Gatto’s classroom experience was incredibly inspirational. It is the way education/literacy should be; there was nothing stopping Gatto from creating social justice practices, engaging all of her students and pushing them to the highest limits. She demonstrated a real life example of Freire’s problem-posing model of education. Gatto was able to touch on everything that Freire prescribes to, “For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other”(Freire, p.52). This is the process I believe Gatto to have given to her students – a real gift, and what I will strive to continue to work

CREATING VOICE:

 

“You who are poor and oppressed; you need, you must, make change. You must fashion a struggle.Young people finding a voice instead of being spoken for are a crucial part of the process. Then and now those designated as serfs are expected to remain paralyzed, unable to take an action and unable to voice a demand- their lives depend on the good work and good will of others”(Moses, p 19).

So the question remains: How do we create VOICE in school, through literacy?

Some may answer with standardization and others may answer with variation. I am going to argue on the side of variation, as does one of my personal heroes, Malcolm Gladwell.

We need critical literacy, meaningful, rigorous, curriculum for ALL, not for the privileged, not for the selected few, not in the AP class, but in every aspect of the day for every student. Simply stated through findings in Allington’s research, “kids differ. All students, not just the academically talented, need high-quality instruction all day, every school day”(287). I mean this doesn’t sound ground breaking, you would think it was a fundamental aspect of teacher education, so why is it so hard to understand and implement?

ABC’s- Actions, Beliefs, and Conditions: The problem is that it is much easier said than done, and like the title of the book, putting Promise into Practice is not always as easy as one may hope for it to be. Sometimes, the best intended teachers just miss the ball, others miss the whole court, and others spend countless hours always reevaluating how to catch the ball better, but with little success. And often, it is because they are looking for the WRONG ball. It is about the context, and turning promise into practice is a challenge. There is no “one size fits all” answer, but there are conditions, actions, and beliefs, to finding meaning and creating meaningful critical literacy for all students.

1. CREATE FLOW – “Csikszentmihalyi argues that we are most fully engaged and happy when we are in the flow, in other words, when we are experiencing something so intensely that nothing else seems to matter”(Wilhelm and Smith, p.231).

2. BREAK THE MYTH –No one is born naturally gifted at writing, math, science or art. Just like sports everyone has to practice. “We learn to write by writing…We do not learning anything without practice”(Rief, p. 191). Practice, practice, practice!

3. INFRINGE FEAR- Allow for some freedom (evaluation change) – We can’t always be judged on what we do wrong (Rief). Evaluations should highlight strengths (NOT JUST WEEKNESS’), “To develop a new identity, you must not only believe that you can be successful at exercising the competence required but also experience initial success”(Wilhelm and Smith, p.241).

4. FIND VALUE – You have to create a real audience, “We won’t work hard unless we know are practice is going to be used in a real game… We want to know our words made someone feel, think, or learn. This is writing with Voice”(Rief, p.191, 201).

5. INSPIRE - Use inquiry questions, questions that all students can grapple and bring to their interest field, “Situational interest will work to promote the engagement of all students, regardless of the multifarious individual interest”(Wilhelm and Smith, p.233).

 “When writers are engaged in the process of writing something that matters to them, for which they have their own purposes, that writing often surprises, delights, and empowers them, encouraging a stronger commitment to the crafting of their writing”(Rief, p.192) Not Visa-Versa!!!

Practice Hurdles: All of these things require commitment; it’s not easy to make changes, and there are always hurtles along the way, but with enough ingenuity I know we can all get over all the hurdles with enough practice (as Rief suggest).

1. MAKE REAL LIFE CONNECTIONS – Missing your audience- Context is everything! Don’t forget that our students are not in High School when we were – there is a generation gap. Our audience is not there audience.

2. CHALLENGE STAGNATION- Take a look in the mirror. It is hard to move sometimes, it take’s a commitment, self -evaluation, honesty and often support from others. Challenge yourself to change.

3. PUT YOURSELF IN YOUR STUDENTS SHOES-For example-I had a revolution this summer by looking at myself as a writer: I was forgetting the visual- “I never thought about drawing as thinking, where drawing didn’t count, and spelling didn’t count”(Rief, p. 202). I am a visual learner and love thinking through images so why am I not doing this for my students?

4. REMOVE SCRIPTED LESSONS – Don’t forget about the teachable moments and to challenge your old lessons. Yes you have the tried and true, but remember, “Scripted lessons mandating Tuesday’s writing be the same for each student in every school are guaranteeing mediocrity”(Rief, p. 204). We don’t want to make students into robots.

We want to create a shift from passive learners to active learners (Moses).

Make the Shift: There are subtle changes we can make in our pedagogical beliefs that can lead to great changes in student achievement and output.

APPLY THE 5 M’s -promoting competence: “Model, Mentor, Monitor, and provide Multiple Modalities and Measures. It is a simple shift, like Wilhelm and Smith suggest, “develop the skills a historian needs rather than providing her with historical information”(Wilhelm, Smith p.239)?

QUESTION COMPETANCE & ENGAGEMENT- “The correlation between competence and engagement… are so close that it is unclear in which direction the casual error goes”(Wilhelm, Smith, p. 242). Shift your thinking from competence first to engagement first and see where that can lead you – unknown territory is always fun!!

DENIE MEDIOCRATY-We see study after study that advocating for changes and proving what works in school, but resistance to change feels overwhelming. Just as permission to fail(Ladson-Billings) is a problem, I see a number of students suffering from Acceptance of Mediocrity- often leading to girls who “do” school with no emotional connection, and boys who are “bored” beyond belief. It is not just poor and minority youth at risk (although the consequence is much greater), it is the whole country at risk now. We have to challenge the status quo, “You cannot move this country unless you have consensus. The country is to big, too huge, too diverse, too confused”(Moses, p. 21). We must send the message and find consensus, and students must demand more. It is not about improved test scores, it is a clear message of inclusion- it is for everyone. As I started with Robert Moses’ words I will also end with them, “To make my self very, very, very clear, even the development of some sterling new curriculum---a real breakthrough – would not make us happy if it did not deeply and seriously empower the target population to demand access to literacy for everyone”(19).

Numbers That Say Something

With Numbers like these Paulo Freire may just be right that literacy is the road to change.

“As Paulo Freire knew so well – the creation, in and out of schools, of social languages (literacies) through which all of us can read and write more equitable selves and worlds”(Gee, 419).

STEP OUTSIDE THE BOX: Issues of multiple literacies and gender norms

          “Step outside the Box” This seems to be the sentiment of all the readings this week from multiplicity of literacy, to the ‘New Economy’, to gender equality. As educators we have to be able to step outside of the rigid box that has defined, what, how and who gets educated. We are doing injustice by staying in the old box and not allowing for the new transformations; from fighting technology to reinforcing pedagogies that enforce the ‘culture of power’. Throughout the wide range of topics we read you hear over and over the same message for the need to CHANGE. The OLD system is not working for the NEW world. In the worlds of the great Yvon Chouinard ,“We cannot keep trying to fix a broken system, sometimes all you really need to do is turn around 180 degrees and take one step forward” (Yvon Chouinard, 180 Degrees South).

Over and over we see the need to fight back on the demands of the educational system and say this is enough. We have to see teachers as, “Transformative intellectuals”(Maher, 273), who are respected and given freedom to do their individual work within the classroom. With a pedagogy that matches their students’ values, and lives and does not create continuous miss-matches that time and time again excludes the same students. Stereotypes are created by unfair “Opportunities to Learn” states Gee, “If two children are being assessed on something that they have not had equivalent opportunities to learn, the assessment is unjust…. If one cannot prove that the children being tested have had equal opportunity to learn than the assessment is, “invalid and unethical”(28). And when we see the failure of the same stereotyped students are being enforced and perpetuated in the school system we have to begin to ask questions.

It (good or bad) happen in the classroom,” In spite of today’s barriers and obstacles, of racism and elitism as well as sexism, it is in the classrooms of individual teachers, helped by allies in their schools and communities, that our best hopes lie for resolving “gender turf battles” and building democracy”(Maher, 274). You have to ask yourself are you creating a match or a miss-match? Weather we are talking about school literature choice that are embedded with message of inequality or the fight against technology or the acceptance of multiple literacies; what we are really talking about is inclusion or exclusion, and unfortunately the system with this narrow box only allows for a small amount to be included, but for most to be left looking in trying to learn (assimilate to the culture of power) how to be included. Williams make this argument concerning literature for young readers (both action and violence novels and young romance literature), remove the hysteria of concern around these issues most boys aren’t killers and most girls aren’t sexual victims; although the odds of sexual abuse are higher for girls than violence for men- either way no one wins. “ When such rigid expectations result in institutionally unimaginative or personally inflexible responses, no student benefits”(Williams 302).

What we must do is use these reading as a teachable moment to reflect on the complexities and the culturally constructed expectations that limit us all. There has to be VALUE and VISION, we have to push and stretch our student’s minds. Whether we are challenging technology tolerance or the modern identity paradigm we have to push boundaries. “To transgress the boundaries, valued so strongly by society, is to begin to undo violence and oppression and the regulation and control of these identities. These transgressions are a “step out side the box,” and therefore an attack on the power held by those who conform and police identity boundaries”(Hill, 31). A student sums it up so well, “In school, writing is about handing something in. Here (on-line) it is about having something to say”(Kajder, p.215). We have to ask ourselves what are students are writing for? Which result are we striving for accountability or value?

The world is changing and a new economy is evolving and you have to wonder if by staying in the old box are we preparing students for a world that does not thrive on ‘basic skills’, As Gee discusses,“ the old industrial capitalism was about mass producing standardized products for heavily controlled mass markets. In the new global, hypercompetitive, science-and-technology-driven capitalism, products and services are created, perfected, and changed at ever faster rates”(Gee, 414). You are your project. You are your own portfolio (Gee). The new world is flat world and these are the new skills needed: (Burke, 153).

-Collaborators and orchestrators

-synthesizers

-explainers

-adapters

-green people

-personalizers

-localizers

How do we produce learners for this new world? “We create an “active learning” environment, “experiencing the world in NEW ways, forming NEW affiliations in preparation for NEW future learning “(Gee, 32).  WE STEP OUTSIDE THE BOX!

And, sometimes we can’t always so boldly take the 180 degree turn that we will like to be able to do, but hopefully what we can do as Williams suggest,“ teach our students how to recognize the challenges of the river; how to navigate it to get to where they want to go; and, when necessary, how to turn the boat around and –slowly with great effort-move upstream against the current”(Williams,302).

Romance Novels to Advertisments

Sexist language and images are everywhere you look from reading choices, clothes shopping, television adds and more... YOU CAN'T ESCAPE IT!!

From such a young age,  we (women and girls) are inundated with how women should be, act, behave, LOOK, and most important how the prince charming is coming to rescue us.

Time for concern?

If your not familiar with Jean Kilbourne's Killing Us Softley video's, they are wonderfully insightful. Everyone should have a chance to watch them.
Please share with as many people as you can.

Gil Scott-Heron: We Beg Your Pardon

This video says it all!

Samness as Fairness?

The media and the perception of the Poor

Here is a look at the media's role in perpetuating the "blame the victim" mentality the reinforces societies stereotypes.

- It is quick and to the point

Invisable and Disposable

The “Sameness as fairness” mentality is only a mask worn to justify policies and decisions being made that undermine humankinds potential and make people comfortable blaming the victim. It is a mask used to cover-up the truths (the neoliberal, neoconservative agenda’s) that perpetuate institutional racism and sexism and limit us from living as a free and prosperous society.

“The “sameness as fairness” principle-the mandate for common curriculum and common culture-is taken up as a response to any form of difference that offends the growing monolingual and monocultural sensibility of the conservative right and its public”(Gutierrez, 120). The “Standard English only (one size fits all curricula), where” differences is seen as deviance has given rise to new discourse of surveillance and intolerance.”(117). Creating a backlash against difference, which only helps support the neoliberal, neoconservative agenda to privatize the public sphere. Creating what Gutierrez describes as,” market place reform” – “reform that brings business principals of efficiency, accountability, quality, and choice to establish the educational agenda”(109); which in turn objectifies us, turning humankind into a commodity. And once we are seen as a commodity, we then become disposable (Van Jones, 2010).

Once we see people as disposable and ultimately objects they can become invisible, removed from our consciousness, no longer beings with human emotions and feelings. And this is how we begin to understand the double standard of ones choices and the lack of responsibility taken for their actions.

When fairness becomes defined as invisibility we begin to understand what makes people say one thing and then act another way with no regard to the hypocrisy of their actions?

Fairness is the comfortable jacket we wear when we support anti-immigration reform and turn around higher illegal immigrants to mow our lawns.

Fairness is our ability to purchase drugs from young black men and then turn around and lock them up for selling them.

Fairness allows us to condemn abortion, but use birth control.

Fairness blames the war on drugs on Mexican drug lords instead of acknowledging the rampant drug use in America.

Fairness justifies our actions, which is ultimately is why the world does not change.

And in order to change, we have to acknowledge that sameness is NOT fairness. And as, Purcell-Gates perfectly states, “The “sameness as fairness” framework must be replaced with a race-, class-, and gender-conscious equity framework that will make such inequalities visible and a humanistic vision a reality”(121).

 

Van Jones: The economic injustice of plastic | Video on TED.com

I thought this was an interesting connection between the invisible student and the disposable society!

I would love to hear other people's thoughts.

Enjoy

Angela

LEARNING – for Business or Pleasure?

 

             I have the rare opportunity of encountering a wide variety of teenage students from around the entire county with different backgrounds, abilities, values and school cultures all in one classroom. If I were to categorize them I could say that I have every student from the Cheerleader, the Goth, the Gay Dram Queen to the Urban Princess, but what’s interesting is those labels no longer define them once they enter our school and my class. They get a free pass to start over and realize they are all at BOCES with a common interest, fashion design (the freedom to express your true self). That is what we do, what we talk about, what we create, and what we are. And what I have learned from this (past 4 years) is removing the label, looking past stereotypes, and seeing the individual student for whom they uniquely and complexly are allows them to succeed. You might be thinking, EXPLAIN. Well, this allows me to be flexible, give room to breath, allow extra time, accept different outcomes, etc, allowing students to be creative. I can give options and alternatives, As Luna suggest, “sketch pictures, build sculptures, create videos, write songs and musical scores, and make quilts and wall hangings… Stretch the seams of our disciplines to include different types of learners” (603). This allows students to be successful. This begins the question of, what is success? What is learning? What is understanding?

After reflecting on Carini and Luna’s readings I thought about what constitutes as learning in MY classroom? How do I define it? And, How do I assess it? And, what I realized is what I define as success is when EVERY, I mean EVERY student participates and completes an assignment. When do I see that? I see that when AUTHENTIC learning is taking place and the students are motivated beyond just a letter grade, because the assignment has VALUE to them. Then, how do I give a grade to something that has more value to them then the grade? I grade on standards, our classes personal standards that we have created in the classroom. I grade on self-reflection in which students share their learning process with me. I grade on reflection of student and personal growth over long periods of time (I have students for two-years). Doing as Carini suggest, focusing on progression not snap shots. As I reflect, I realize that the times I don’t have success in the classroom are the times in which narrow standards are put in place that restrict students true learning potential. This is when you see the greatest gap in class between the students with cultural capital that know how to, “do school”, and the students who don’t fit into the culture of power usually just don’t finish, partially complete, don’t turn in, or even participate because the flexibility is not in place for them to succeed. Either side that you look; the students is being limited. They are not learning – they are either disengaging from the process, or they are just going through the motions. As, Ken Robinson suggest in Killing Creativity, we have compartmentalized schooling down to one side of the brain and de-valued all other aspects of the human body to be able to contribute or have value in education. We are limiting students potential to learn? “There is that in learning and educating which is immeasurable,” Carini persists, “When you or I or anyone else applies rulers, or their equivalent, to the immeasurable, we have to change what is immeasurable to fit the measuring stick”. Which makes the issue of schooling confusing because I grew up thinking that school was a place for learning, but what we are really seeing is it is a place for accountability. Carini views assessment in two ways, “the first purposes has to do with evaluation, which has the ostensible aim of benefiting the learner. The second has to do with accountability and the regulation of schools and public education”. How can we steer evaluation in a direction to benefit the learner and away from educational accountability?

Learning is the process of investigation and exploration that pushes a student past their comfort zone and their personal realm of understanding of a subject. Learning questions one’s current perceptions and broadens their horizons. It challenges, frustrates and rewards them. Learning is hard work that engages the learner to keep going forward despite challenges, and when the end goal is accomplished the learner feels proud, and has grown on multiple levels. This is learning, not regurgitating what a teacher reads to you and you memorize over and over to pass a test. Learning engages and excites the soul of a being.

I did a fashion closet makeover of assessment- out with old in with the new:

-Enjoy

THROW AWAY:

Stop categorizing students,  “I use the term learning disabilities to refer to the socially constructed category indicating mismatches between diverse learners’ abilities and specific academic demands” (Luna,597).

Let go of the miss-match and as Luna suggest, “shift the blame of failure off of the students’ bodies, and their families, and onto the miss-match itself”.

Dispose of the current hierarchy values pyramid of school: English and Math, Science and humanity, art and music (Ken Robinson, “Killing Creativity”).

Destroy assessment for accountability, Rockefeller foundation findings (Regents review panel report, 2001) stop lowering standards and playing with numbers in order to meet AYP. Fordham Foundation found, only five states have test that are in “solid” alignment with the state standards.

Eliminate test bias

Replace rigidity and the standardization of schooling.

Stop educating students out of creativity (Ken Robinson, “Killing Creativity”).

Discontinue scaring students out of being wrong (Ken Robinson, “Killing Creativity”).

NEW ADDITIONS:

Consider Individuality: We cannot assume or interpret ourselves onto a student.

Value reflection: create student constructed rubrics, student reflections, and student goals

Stretch the boundaries…. Grading with flexibility towards students weakness’ and highlight students strengths.

Create a two-way conversation- listen to your students especially LD learners.

Be accommodating

Embrace creativity to be as important as literacy, (Ken Robinson, “Killing Creativity”).

Value the class as a whole: Learning in a group – we all perceive things different- expand horizons through group discussion. Student and teacher are equal as educator and learner.

Remember to observe the process and progress not just the outcome.

Try harder to understand than to explain (Carini, 169).

Embrace the idea of ‘Manyness’, (Carini).

Aligning class curriculum with student interest.

There is no one size fits all (as we know not to be true with t-shirts too!)

Why Seeing (the Unexpected) Is Often Not Believing: NPR

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=137086464&m=137292304

Jun 20, 2011 ... Boston police officer Kenneth Conley was convicted of perjury and ... claimed not to have seen a brutal police beating as he chased a murder suspect. The conviction was later overturned, but a new study re-examines his claim. .... Their results were published this month in the journal i-Perception. ...

This is an interesting story about the idea of perception and I thought it crossed over nicely with some of Carini's concepts.

Some of you may have heard it on NPR the other morning.

Enjoy-

Angela

Student Writing Sample

This year's theme for our annual fashion show was "My Voice". Students were asked to write a piece about how fashion represents their voice in the world (a theme we came up together as a class). This happens to be by a GED student who was aligned and under-appreciated in her home high school, but when given a chance in the alternative setting has been nothing short of impressive.

 My Exaggerated Life

My voice—loud, important, and exaggerated—captures the attention of all. My voice is the “pop” of a gun, the “flash” of the paparazzi, and the “spark” of a firework. My vision starts with a beat and ends with an anthem. My voice speaks fashion. We are conducted through fashion. Fashion is full of life and life is full of fashion. Fashion is every nation, every nationality, and every person. Fashion is not ignored. Fashion is alive.

President Obama's Weekly Address: Partnering with the Private Sector

Kind of Ironic?

Re-Envision and Imagine: A classroom with no Boundaries

 

OBSERVE and INFORM

          We (teachers', students', families', and communities') are constantly subjected to “the voices” (news, media and politicians) undermining the value of the classroom teacher and the belief that education is a “black hole” of wasted taxpayer money. Sending the neoliberal message that, “ what is private is necessarily good and what is public is necessarily bad… and any money spent on schools that is not directly related to economic goals is suspect”(Apple, 2001). Education is being marketed to the public to be for simply making our economy more productive- “education for employment”. Education is presented to be in a “crisis” and the NCLB act is here to save it by creating a high stakes testing environment which demands unrealistic goals be placed on schools - setting the perfect stage for schools to fail. Leaving “no other choice” than for private corporations to step in and “Save Us” – the perfect neoliberal storm. Taking advantage of “people’s common sense can be shifted in conservative directions during a time of economic and ideological crisis”(Apple, 2001). Theses neoliberal policies in practice, “reproduce traditional hierarchies of class, race, and gender; these proposals should give us serious pause”(Apple, 2001). Yes, serious pause…….

REFLECT

A pause to reflect on what is it that as an educator I strive to accomplish? I want to close the social gap? Teaching for social justice, teaching compassion and empathy, find students passion and use emotion and creativity to inspire them. I want to create an environment in which students want to learn and do for themselves, creating intrinsic motivation in which grades are unattached to the drive for the outcome of a project. I want to teach project-based learning that has real life implication, group projects with community connections. Projects that inspire students to live their dreams and which guide them in the realistic steps that it takes to live those dreams. Experiential learning that changes who students are and how they see themselves in the world. I want to open the window for all students and show those that the poor and racially disempowered are capable of more than the expectations of service work that has been placed on them. I want to teach students who and what they can become, I want to teach humanity for all, and I want to show the world that students, when given the chance want more than points to win a pizza party. I want to show students a different way, a different world, one in which breaks the mold. 

ENVISION

            So How….How do we break the mold? What can we as educators envision? I envision a busy classroom with lots of noise, busy students, using multimedia and multitasking, highly energized and productive. I want a classroom that reflects a 21^st century innovative business model. A classroom connected to real life learning. A classroom that allows and utilizes technology! Students listening to music, searching YouTube video’s, blogging about experiences, students with individual laptops in which students can instant message each other and send email links etc. A classroom that respects students whose Native language is digital (Alvermann, 2007), as well as supports trilingual, bilingual and home languages within the classroom walls. A classroom that is not responsible for teaching just one content area, an intergraded classroom that is based on multiple disciples with intergraded academics in which students strive for larger goals than passing regents test. Goals such as creating roof top gardens and solving hunger within their community. I want education that allows for ‘choices’ that help students to find their passion and direction to make real life connections, and to experience their future. I want to teach students, 21^st century skills: digital age literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication, and high productivity, (Beers, 2007) which is “preparing students to live productively”. I want Keene’s dimensions of understanding to become my classroom ethos, “ develop areas of passionate interest, dwell on ideas, struggle for insight, explore complex ideas, discuss ideas in different aspects, create models, and feel…” (2007).  I want to tap into the potential of every student, and foster there growth until it is bigger and brighter than anyone ever thought possible.

INSPIRE

As educators lets begin to challenge deep social injustice, discrimination and inequality that exist inside and outside our classroom walls. We can’t give up on public education, and support the massive trend of the “white-flight” (Apple, 2001) away from our public schools. We must ask the question are we acting in our own best interest or everyone’s best interest? There is an advertisement on the local radio station for the private Mountain Laurel school that states, ”where teachers care”, – implying that public school teachers don’t care? We (as educators) know this not to be true. Lets put practice into motion and fight back this constant rhetoric.  In Kylene Beers (2001) words, “… believe that in teaching all students, we must first teach each student, and that each student is a promise of a better tomorrow…. what you do and what you say to the students in your classroom make an incredible difference…. believe in a promise for a better tomorrow begins, in part, with the practices you offer them today”. We need teachers more than anything right now, we need them to fight back, educate the populous and show big business that were not failing and that we will not stand for the privatization of the education system. Public education is created for ALL and must remain for ALL. The education system cannot become like the health care industry, “the best insurance money can buy.”  Enough of the haves and have-nots, as the Beatles once said, “lets start a revolution,” demanding that we ALL have; whereas, no one has to be a spectator watching from the sideline – left to only “consume the image”(Apple, 2001)!! Lets make America what it should be- free and fair for EVERYONE.

Lost In Translation

This is a story from The Moth Radio by Alan Rabinowitz titled “Man & Beast”.

It speaks miles to the notion of language and the misconception that ones language is a direct reflection of ones knowledge and understanding. Enjoy the story and I would love to hear some other people’s reactions.

Language Diversity

           The power of language, and the power of the teacher; Are they mutually exclusive? Who has more power the language that one holds or the teacher that shows us how to use it, silence it, control it or change it. We all have language as pointed out in Baggs’ video so clearly regardless of the sound that it makes, the way that it gets communicated or the way it looks and feels. We investigated the myth of the primitive language and discovered there is no primitive language, “and that all languages and dialects are vastly complex structural systems” (Stubbs, 71). We all obtain an equal and fair voice, but what happens to that voice is a different story depending on the socioeconomic and cultural context in which you are born into and brought up around. Do you hide your true voice, did someone squash it, is it unacceptable by societies standards, which taught you your voice, and does it reflect you or has it been manipulated to suit other interest? It all depends on the life you have walked and the people that have helped and hurt along the way.

         In Chapter five, The Skin that We Speak, Chael Stubbs brings to light the devastating effects of deeming a students language as “wrong”. As I read through this entire chapter I was rushed back in time and remembered the pain of being a student who was deemed a bad writer, and often criticized for improper word usage by many teachers and adults in my life. I was constantly corrected by everyone- at least it felt like it. To the point that I withdrew from reading and writing and stopped believing in my dream of writing and illustrating my own children’s book one day.  I still have small scars from those days that are often re-opened when my co-worker (an English teacher) comes in my room and often corrects something on my white board in away that belittles me and makes me feel as though I have no knowledge or right to be a teacher. With that being said I can only imagine the devastating effects and the magnitude in which these attitudes hurt the self-esteem of a minority student or ELL learner going through the same educational system. I have been scared, and I am a middle class white American student- so imagine the consequences on or ethnically and economically “disadvantaged” student (I use this term with frustration of referring to students of color disadvantaged as if something is wrong with them). Hence, the cartoon Stubbs reference’s by the famous cartoonist Jules Feiffer (79) Stubbs speaks about that what is often deemed as, “educational failure is actually linguistically failure”, and asks the question can one be “linguistically inadequate” Does that make sense”(65)? When we use the word deficient shouldn’t we be just referring to different? It is amazing what a subtle sounding difference between two words can have such profound effects. Stubbs leaves us with a powerful statement, “is the disadvantage in the child’s language or is it from people’s attitudes to language differences” (79)?

Stubbs sets the stage for how critical our awareness of the power structures that exist within our classroom are, and that implementing many of the other concepts covered this week, such as trilingualism, bi-culturalism, and multiple literacies practices within in your classroom is crucial to the success of all students. We can choose to empower or silence our students.

Baker’s concept of trilingualism about investigating the different languages that we use in our lives, and using this concept to empower students to further there understanding of language is modern and can easily be implemented into any classroom setting. Haneda’s speaks of multiple literacy’s and connecting community and school literacy practices. She stresses the importance for ELL’s to have a, “wide range of literacy practices- across context, in different languages, and for various purpose”(338) as an essential understanding for the success of ELL’s. She asks educators to change their views of literacy and to question their classroom practices that are often misevaluate students lack of decoding skills or poor vocabulary and grammar skills with their ability to be critical thinkers. And, in Lomawaima and McCarty’s research they discover how important it is to have a bilingual/bicultural education in a classroom with native speakers in which both English and the Native language is used to educate the Native speaker. As well as respect and preserve there culture and use it as an educational tool that all students can learn from, versus creating immersion programs that often alginate students and leave them in the dust to “sink or swim”. They researched numerous accounts showing the use of the Native language along with English to help students make leaps and bounds in both languages. Lomawaima and McCarty speak of changing school and community that, “ historically are agents of Anglo American oppression, to become and instrument of community empowerment”(128) through bi-cultural education.

All three of these literacy concepts, trilingualism, bi-culturalism, and multiple literacies, are different from one another and should be used in different learning environments and circumstances. Although, what is the same is that they all fight to change the notion of a right and wrong way of communicating. And to fight to change the notion that there is only room for “formal” English in today’s educational system. Our current educational system is set up to blame the victims! The silencing of a certain cultures brings tears to my eyes. We still continue to do this in our classroom but we justify it through institutional practices and standards that have been implemented that help us justify our practices because we believe them to be in the best interest of the students.

Again, I find myself asking whose interest is it really in?

“….if you believe that linguistic disadvantages arise largely from people intolerance and prejudice towards language differences, then you will probably try to change people’s attitude to language”(Stubbs,79).

Take the challenge, change perceptions!!

The Power of Home Language

This is a powerful piece from a student run poetry group, Read Nex Poetry Club, Kingston High School. Two of my students participated in the video and I believe it shows the power of the home language. These students have so much to say yet I know first hand that one of my students in the group is failing her English 12 class at home school. It makes you think about what Micheal Stubb's has to say about the hierarchy of language that many of my students have unfortunately become victims of.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I do.

What is Worth Knowing?

The task on hand is to think critically about, the idea of “What is worth knowing”? This is a task that has kept my mind busy over the last couple of days. After reading through Chapter One of E.D. Hirsch Jr Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, and perusing some of his idea’s in his list of "What Literate Americans Know", and then dissecting this list based on my knowledge of the concepts on the list I discovered that I would have most definitely fell under the Hirsch’s definition of illiterate. Which does not sound good being that I am a high school educator. But I know that I am not illiterate. I also know that I have always struggled with remembering facts and history lessons, dates and times, building a strong vocabulary, misuse and misspelling of words often, and I almost always have the wrong punctuation. I mean how many times have I asked my husband which War came first the Vietnam or WWII. This is basic information the any “literate” person in the United States and Europe for that matter should know. Well I can tell you that most of the knowledge on the list was fuzzy or obsolete for me. So what is that I do know. I am 33 years old, I graduated with honors from my High School, I have a BFA in Fashion Design and graduated Cum Lade, and have been getting my Master in Professional Studies in Multicultural/Humanistic Education and at this point carry a 4.0. So I have been left to think about how is it possible that someone who is “illiterate” can have been successful through all of this education?

After much reflecting in my life I deicide that the most powerful thing that I have learned in my life is an understanding about the powers that dictate our society and consequently then dictate our function within society. Which only goes to prove Delpit’s point and my belief to be true that cultural capital is more important than factual knowledge. I respect Hirsch notion that there is a base understanding that one must have in order to communicate effectively in society, but I also believe that what is more important is what, who and where you come from and the access one possess because of these truth’s. I think understanding the “Truth’s of the World” are “what is worth knowing.”

Know the truth about the food we eat?
Know the truth about the energy we use?
Know the truth about the education we receive?
Know the truth about the health care we receive?
Know the truth about the war on drugs?
Know the truth about “Outlier’s”?
Know the truth about yourself?
Know the truth about the cultural capital you have?
Know the truth about the cultural capital others have?
Understand the POWER STRUCTURE that exist and are used to govern the decisions that control the outcomes to the questions posed above.
Understand that People ARE created equal-, but The Pledge of Allegiance is a LIE – liberty and justice for all is NOT true, but an ideal worth working towards.
Understand that YES knowledge is power.

I leave you with this thought- Does effective change happens from the Top Down or the bottom UP?

My thought- an educated populous is a powerful nation and with power comes change. I believe the higher ups enjoy their power and don’t want it to change so one should question whose interest is it in to have an educated populace? Yes, we would prosper as a nation but at whose expense. The rich are still getting richer so doesn’t it help that the poor continue to get poorer and the middle class continues to scrape by participating in the game for no other reason than to keep their families safe, fed and educated. With all of that being said I still believe in the POWER of the PEOPLE and know that change can happen. I leave you with my favorite John Lennon quote “ You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one.”