Dream School

If I had to build a school from scratch, I would first of all be very intimidated, as it would be an enormous task. It's clear that there is no one magic bullet for "good teaching" or a "good school", but that it is always necessary to build the best school and provide the best teaching for the unique community you are presented with. Therefore, my dream school would depend very heavily on the student population it would serve. However, some things remain constant. I would look for teachers who believe in a constructivist teaching philosophy, but who understand that students must have basic skills and knowledge in order to provide them with the context they will need to construct their own learning. I would be less concerned with age and years of experience than with whether or not my teachers believe that all students can learn and that all are capable of higher-level thinking. I would encourage classroom discussion and be less concerned with quiet classroons. I would use a curriculum similar to what the common core aspires to be- I like the idea of spiraling knowledge. I think it would be important for students to learn a skill set early on and build on it year after year. In the social studies classroom, for example, I would place an emphasis on interpretation of primary sources, looking for deeper meaning as they progress through the ages, and finally looking for subtext, not only in primary sources, but also textbooks and articles. This kind of critical thinking would be paramount to me. Finally, I would promote the use of technology, using online learning platforms such as Moodle or Haiku, garage band for podcasts, excel sheets for graphing, google form for quizzes, and class blogs to help build community. Ultimately though,I would want to get back in the classroom!

Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson's provocative video on educational paradigms resonates with me greatly. I first viewed it in a class when I was in the credential program, and at the time, I was reviewing the Industrial Revolution with my World History students. I took the opportunity to show them the video (skipping the part about ADHD), and asked them for their reactions. Aside from enjoying the animation, my students reacted very positively. One student was pragmatic, saying that he made good points but it's not like you're going to change the whole education system. I agreed with him, but I told him it's always possible to make small changes. I then used the opportunity to explain again to my students my reasoning behind my teaching methods. At the beginning of every lesson, we started class with a warm up question, which students wrote about in the journals, and then we discussed as a class. The questions were related to what we were studying that day, but were always open-ended questions, with no one right answer. We had many wonderful discussions, but there were always students or moments when they resisted it, and complained that they just wanted to know what the "right answer" was. Additionally, I often organized lessons around classroom discussion, and had them do quick writes formulatd in the same way. So in discussing the video, I told them that I was trying to encourage them to be divergent thinkers, and I used it as chance to remind them that I wanted them to study histories, not history, and that as they continue on, they needed to keep two questions always in mind: why? and, in whose interests? Robinson's video gave me an excellent way to frame the discussion.

Educating the 99%

In an article from February 9th, 2012, the New York Times reports on the widening education gap between the rich and the poor. While the achievement gap is certainly still an issue for minorities today, the article refers to "a study that found that the gap in standardized test scores between affluent and low-income students had grown by about 40 percent since the 1960s, and is now double the testing gap between blacks and whites." As the article states, it has long been a well-known fact that wealthy children do better in schools, and it appears to be getting worse. The research is troubling in that "while the achievement gap between white and black students has narrowed significantly over the past few decades, the gap between rich and poor students has grown substantially during the same period." Later in his career, Dr. King focused more and more on poverty, and it seems that this remains one of this country's greatest sources of inequality. Poverty, I believe, is therefore a civil rights issue, and one that must be fought on the battlegrounds of our schools. Perhaps most disturbing in the article is that the data collected stems from studies that ended in 2007 and 2008, and therefore before the current recession (depression). Considering how great the disparity was before, “with income declines more severe in the lower brackets, there’s a good chance the recession may have widened the gap.” Researchers suggest that one reason for this gap could be that wealthy parents are investing in their children more than ever before, both in terms of time and money, and the article quotes an economist who argues that parenting matters as much if not more than income. This should not be an excuse to ignore the implications for the classroom. While I agree that "there are no easy answers, in part because the problem is so complex,", it is also true, as the article states, that "education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults." The myth of social mobility in America has always been inflated, and while as teachers we cannot make up for the vast disparities in our students' experiences outside of school, we must do all that we can to ensure that education becomes a greater equalizer.

My food quiz

Presentation

Hi!

Hi and welcome to my blog for Ed 240 with Dr. Jorge. Summer school for the Master of Arts in Teaching started today at UCI as well as Laguna Beach High, where I'm teaching a World/US history class for students to make up credit. I wasn't planning on being here this summer as I was supposed to teach a wine course in Rome in July, but I didn't want to pass up summer school at Laguna.So, I decided to do the classes for the MAT program as well. This is actually my second blog, I had one in my former life as a wine educator. I hosted bimonthly thematic tastings at my home in Rome (Rome sweet Home) and I used the blog to keep a log of our tasting notes. I lived in Italy for eleven years, after a three-month program through the University of California brought me there in the first place. I studied in Siena and Padova, before settling in Rome to teach English as a second language, and then wine at Lorenzo De Medici University, and finally English and Drama at the American Overseas School of Rome. My parents are both teachers and I had always resisted it, but working full time at AOSR showed me how much I love it, so I moved home last August to get my teaching credential. I student taught at Laguna Beach High and I am overjoyed (and humbled) to be teaching AP Euro and US History next fall.It was hard to leave Rome after making a second life there, but I feel now that I made the right decision (though I really miss three hour dinners and cozy wine bars).