Learning

The self-education projects are going extremely well. My drawing is struggling. I am not very good, but I keep trying. I recognize my (and my students) blogging has ceased to exist, however, the other elements of this experience are thriving.




Anyone know the Williamsburg bridge? I ride my bike across this bridge to and from work (recently) and also do runs over the bridge for exercise. You can't cross this bridge without seeing a hip biker with one of those funny little hats, I always wonder about these- are they simply fashion? They don't keep the sun out of your eyes with those bills flipped up like that, so what is the purpose? On May 15th, ride your bike to work day, I encountered many bridge partiers at 8:30 am drinking coffee, giving out bananas, pumping air into people's tires. They were all wearing the hats. I wanted to ask, but was embarrassed.


Yesterday, I was riding home contemplating the hats, as always, when the large-billed, slightly baggy, traditional baseball cap flew off of the man's head riding in front of me. Eureka!

Learning.

(And it is always good to remind myself that I get embarrassed asking questions that I think might sound stupid)

Self-Education Projects

"This is Paulo Freire.  He was a philosopher.  One of his theories was the Banking Theory.  This is the concept of Education in which the student was viewed as an empty account to be filled by the teacher. He thought transference of facts was wrong and you should teach yourself sometimes. In other words, he thinks you should self-explore. And self-educate."  - E.C. 2008

This was written by one of my student's last year.  Attached to this blurb was a drawing of Mr. Freire (a sketch of this picture) along with the heartwarming caption "you don't have to look like this to be a philosopher."  E taught himself about Freire by not only reading parts of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, but by reading about Freire's life and travels and political struggles.  E was a junior reading at an elementary school level at the time, but allowed his passion for Freire to guide his struggle through reading. I just watched. 

It's self-education time of the year. The self-education project was designed and piloted by a co-worker and myself during my first spring at Auto, and I have revised, improved upon, and tweaked it over the past 4 years.  I always like to do my own self-education project with the students, and this year I want to learn how to draw.  Part of my project will be blogging about my learning journey because a) its my way of holding myself accountable, b) I am interested in learning about self expression through art vs. self-expression through writing (can I become good at art?), and c) I want my students to blog.  

Tonight is my first drawing class (perhaps not self-ed, per se, but definitely something like it) Some other self-ed topics this year are: gender identity, diamonds, reading facial expressions, muscle cars, war, and music.  It's going to be a very fun and enlightening spring.  Feel free to take this opportunity to teach yourself something you have always wanted to learn about. I can send some guidelines if you are interested.

dreams of my mother

I recognize that i haven't posted in a while. Here are a few words from the other miss best.

This is my mom's response to this article published today in Newsday. Generally I find it difficult to get too angry at the writers at Newsday - they are blatantly biased and generally ridiculous. But, this seems worth sharing.


After reading today's letters to the editor, I didn't know where to begin. But the last paragraph of the editorial now seems like the perfect place. "Nowhere in the phrase 'fair share' is there room for a special class to remain untouched by this economic turmoil, simply because of its political power." You are absolutely right! So while we Long Islanders, including teachers who live and work and yes, pay taxes, here, are bailing out companies who turn around and use our money for bonuses and other perks, Newsday feels teachers should also give up their negotiated pay increases and benefits.

I have had this argument for years - the teachers union is a negotiating body . They are only one side of the negotiation - the school district also has to agree with the final outcome. If the districts agree to pay increases, why do you bash the teachers? As we have learned through the greed shown by the bankers on Wall Street, no one is going to turn down a pay increase. Especially not when your real estate taxes are sky-high, health insurance is out of reach and there are threats of lay-offs.

One reader wants teachers to "prove" that they're worth their salary. How can this be done? Seriously, No Child Left Behind is not the answer - test scores are not the answer because a child can be taught to pass the test, but is that education? What about the good teacher who does not get along with administration (usually because the teacher is more concerned about the students than about covering his butt). Wouldn't it be an easy way for the administration to get rid of the pain in the neck teacher? And mostly, what about the parents? When teachers were hard on my children, I was upset. Often, I learned, it was because the child needed to be pushed to achieve his potential.

Yes, there are some bad teachers, there is no denying it. But I refuse to agree that teachers on the whole are overpaid, or that they should give up a hard won raise because the politically powerful in Washington gave away the country over the past eight years.
Eileen Best



Reading my mom's words compels me to ask:
education: nature or nurture?

The EduCondition

Wrote this Sunday (posted today)

EduCondition: The compulsion to talk to talk to talk about education; normally found in teachers, administrators, students, and laymen.

Chris Lehmann just said "I'm tired of hearing my own voice." I feel the same. I am tired of talking, listening, having the same conversation over and over again.  I am having a serious epiphany about my saying/not doing habits.  What I will take with me from this weekend is action. 

Things that I want to do: 

1. More project based learning

2. Get and use available technology

3. Resisting the tendency to be bullied into mediocrity

4. Have a meaningful parent conference at Auto to discuss literacy, establish parent-teacher-student book clubs, and inquire about what parents want their students to learn. 

5. Post humanities curriculum maps on a wiki so that we know what other teachers are doing. 

Today:

1. On Monday I requested a promethean board (we will see!)

2. Yesterday I started two wikis- one for literacy handouts that all teachers can access/add to/delete from if they are working on particular strategies. Another for humanities curriculum maps so we can see what each other are up to, make suggestions, praise, question, learn. Very exciting!

I also spent all day grading New York State Regents exams.  It's very frustrating that in my (and my colleagues) inspired attempts to be better/more transparent/accessible and relevant teachers at Auto, we are road-blocked by the state, who fails to realize that it is not OK to have our students write essays on straw bale house construction and why people should eat whole foods.

obamatop

topdog/underdog
My brother is a teacher. One could argue that his school is progressive. His school is also holding a conference this weekend. A bunch of educational greats are flocking to his city, school, and currently, his dinner table. Although I am usually pretty envious and slightly intimidated by the circle of educational elite that he tends to rub elbows with, when he texted me tonight that he was dining with people who could bring justice to the educational system in America, my reaction surprised me.

While reading his text I was "dining" at the same time with my colleagues. I looked around at the motley cru that are the teachers of Automotive - that are brilliant and capable and active and interested and passionate, respectful, hopeful, realistic, tough, tough, rough, sensitive- with no desire for policy, politics, popularity. I am not establishing a dichotomy, mind you, but as a borderline megalomaniac it felt good to be humbled by the efforts of some awesome teachers who strive to be awesome teachers. {NOTE: my brother falls into this category.}

At the table were the two music teachers- we were celebrating the 4th annual winter concert. I can remember the 1st because I was also a first year teacher when Ms. Weinert wowed everyone by not only writing grants to obtain instruments to START a music program but taught 5 classloads of kids to play instruments well enough to have a concert in about 5 months. Tonight, the 4th annual, was the best ever, with tight, concise, quality numbers.

Also at the table were the two football coaches, a teacher who started a garden on the front lawn of our brooklyn high school to teach about local produce and eating healthy, the man who single-handedly is responsible for making sure every senior graduates and goes to college, as well as another man who is the bowling coach amongst 87 other things. Mostly, we sit around and talk about how to teach.

If there is a way for my brother's colleagues to devise a plan to make things easier for us, I support them. And I regret saying, in that single moment of fleeting jealousy, that we would kick their asses. which we would.

Films
The films that I mentioned a while ago were completed today. When I find the words to describe the pride of the students I will write about it.

Obama
The pride of the films is actually comparable to inauguration day. J walked into the class and said "Miss Best, can you believe I have a Black President?" with a dignity uncommon in 16 year old boys. O, summarized the day's activities (all dedicated to the inauguration) brilliantly:

"Miss, everyone says we are giving this so much attention because he is the first Black President and he is breaking barriers and opening opportunities, blah, blah"

I replied, "do you believe that? Or are you just saying what people have been feeding you all day?"

O says "people have fed me that, and I spit it back out for you. But mostly, I swallowed it."

And he has the most genuine, innocent, contagious smile of all the lovely boys.

conveyor belts and bike lanes (ED.)

Conveyor Belts

In college I took Sociology 101. At Hunter College this means a packed 200 person lecture led by a very captivating, tall, bald, gay, dark-skinned Puerto Rican man. I think he was a pretty good teacher, or at least I remember he was interesting to listen to, but alas! after about five years (really? 5?!) I only remember one story he told. In in an attempt to explain the exasperating mountain that is American race-relations, this professor boiled it down to an epiphany he once had at an airport. Here is the short version:

He was sitting in a waiting area for a flight while watching people race down the conveyor belt towards their gates. From the waiting area he focused on an elderly Black woman walking along on the side of the conveyor belt, as some people often choose to do. As more and more people flew past her on the belt, he realized that they conveyor belt is actually a symbol for whiteness, and that Black people in America can't progress as quickly as the White population do because they are lacking the "privilege" of the belt.

Bike Lanes

I get irrationally angry while riding in bike lanes. It's kind of like eating too much. The option of the bike lane seems so sweet, but it always ends up leaving my physically pained. I think the reason I get so mad is because no one cares about it. Everybody treats it like a double parking lane. That is not an exaggeration. On 5th Avenue in Park Slope, as well as 9th St., I have been honked at my cars trying to drive in the bike lane. What is the point of having a bike lane, a false sense of hope and acceptance for non-standard transportation users, if it is going to be used purely to prove that there really is no safe or supportive space for us?

EDIT (1/22/09)

both of these can and can't be applied to education. I have received interesting feedback about the illusion of educational progress, the inherent racism of both education and my interpretation, about the issues surrounding the attempts to compare education with such trite and inconsequential things as conveyor belts and bike lanes. I say. cool, i'm glad we are thinking about things.

hey, you never know

win
We have chosen two scripts in my elective class and one script in my literacy block that will be produced and filmed. My elective class decided on "Godfather Part 4" and a lovely underdog script with the working title "Weez." I gave the students a checklist of what decisions they needed to make and other preproduction planning points, allowed them to group around what film they feel most passionate about (about 60% opted for "Godfather Part 4"- by far the most demanding of the scripts), and watched them choose leaders, map out responsibilities and creatively brainstorm their vision. They didn't need me for one thing. Pretty Sweet. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

lose
I know better. I know that even though they read at a 7th grade level and will have to pass the English Regents (not just a 55 anymore folks!) in order to graduate, if I have a lesson that is straight up Regents prep, there will be mutiny. I tried anyway. Bad for many reasons: yesterday we announced the winner of their script contest (Shout out to one of the only female students in the building for taking this grand prize) so kids were curious about this, and also because its Wednesday and raining and hot, and the Regents is brutally boring and biased and difficult to justify.

So, when you mix together this temultuous combination of poor planning, poor weather, poor morale, and poor readers, terrible things happen.

I'm not sure why he ever decided to announce that his sister was a porn star. He did it months ago. I didn't know whether to believe him or not, but that wasn't even the issue: at a school with a 98% male population, you dont even mentioning having a sister if you hope to avoid the constant barrage of not so coy hints about what other boys are doing with her. Why he said she was a porn star, I will never know, but it pretty much blew over and I hadn't heard of it again until today.

I'm not sure if the class actually researched and found her or just said they did to strike a nerve, but it worked, and after ten minutes of laughing and secretly whispered jokes, he broke down. And cried. I'm not sure if you have ever seen a 16 year old boy cry, I have only seen it a few times, but it is desperately the saddest vision imaginable. And he couldn't stop. And the class started to feel bad, and blame each other in their sorry attempts at washing blood off their hands.

This isn't just any kid. This is a self-proclaimed class-clown who isn't funny- but is brilliant, who unsupported, and confused. He is without any role-model or any real connections. To watch him cry was to experience a serious failure. He needs help more than most students I meet and he should not be made to cry, not by bullies, or friends even. Most importantly, not in my class, in my presence, where it is my responsibility for a safe and productive learning environment. Teenagers are tricky, but still, this was a disaster.

A big time loss today.