Sunday, August 7, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Excited about my new beginning at the Ninth Grade Center!
I am excited to be taking the position as the new Science Teacher in the GPS Academy at the NGC (Ben Davis)! I look forward to meeting my new students and getting a chance to challenge the students of MSD Wayne Township!
My students should come prepared for a challenging and rewarding experience. We will be studying Biology, the study of life, and we will be surveying many concepts in the field: cells, genetics, development, the environment, evolution, and ecology. My class incorporates Project Based Learning, which asks you to take the information you learn in my class and apply it to overcoming a challenge or making a product. The process asks you to use team work, critical thinking, and creativity to complete your assignments.
As well as the supply list that is provided by the NGC, you should have a dedicated notebook for my class, such as the composition notebook below (see picture), and it can be left in my classroom in your dedicated crate.
How do cells travel through their environment?: tips from amoeba
My students should come prepared for a challenging and rewarding experience. We will be studying Biology, the study of life, and we will be surveying many concepts in the field: cells, genetics, development, the environment, evolution, and ecology. My class incorporates Project Based Learning, which asks you to take the information you learn in my class and apply it to overcoming a challenge or making a product. The process asks you to use team work, critical thinking, and creativity to complete your assignments.
As well as the supply list that is provided by the NGC, you should have a dedicated notebook for my class, such as the composition notebook below (see picture), and it can be left in my classroom in your dedicated crate.
How do cells travel through their environment?: tips from amoeba
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Reflections on a Third Year of Teaching
Last night, my school hosted its Student Project Exposition. This was an event designed to be an open house/ chance for students to show off its work. Show off, my students did. We put up some of student work, showed their presentations, slideshows of pictures from their activities and performances. Despite the limitation of our "best work only" clause, we were limited on space for the diplays. In a lot of ways, this year has been a success.
The evening highlight was a slam poetry reading by some of our students in another teacher's creative writing class. I must admit that I never thought that I would be moved by the words of a teenager, but I was moved by a couple of poems.
"Would you love me if I weren't gay?" This was the first line of a poem, written by an African American student named Kayla, that pulled me into a reflective mood.It reminded me of how lucky I am in so many ways - I am rarely hated by anyone for who I am. It reminded me of how much I love my own children. It shocked me that a parent could look at her child and forget the baby they raised and cared for. It reminded me of how much I care about my own students. It reminded me how hard it is to teach children with so much emotional baggage. It reminded me of Nancy, our High School team member/ English Teacher, who is fighting for survival because her liver has decided to stop working. It reminded me of the student we all lost to suicide. It reminded me of why teaching is so important.
However, I could only be reflective for a moment before the next poem was being recited to the audience gathered in the science lab - turned recital hall. "I am chicken and hot sauce..." was a line from her poem about her memories growing up in Flint, Michigan. You would never know this young lady, Na'pheesa, was raised in the hood. This brave, outgoing, modest, intelligent, young lady who so gracefully recounted the trials and tribulations of growing up in her surroundings. Sometimes, it helps to remember what some students have had to overcome and what some are still dealing with when we greet our students in the morning and wish them well at the end of the day. Like the student whose father was taken away by armed men in bullet-proof vests in an early morning INS raid. Or the students who have to work to support their dead-beat mother and earn enough money to make it to school - the same girls who lost their cousin to a road with no sidewalks. The student named James, whom I had physically restrain on the floor of a hallway after he attacked a fellow student and pushed teachers out of the way - so full of rage two years after he lost both of his parents in a car accident. Or the many who wonder where they are going to live and the many more who wonder what they will eat.
It is easy to get lost in their stories. It is easy to feel sorry for them. But I shouldn't...I can't. To be their teacher is to expect them to be success stories, not stereotypes. I have to demand that my students learn, not despite their circumstances, but because of them - it is a matter of life and death. Don't think I am exagerating this to make a point. This is the hard reality of povety. The only way out is to break the cycle, to get an education.
And for every heart-wrenching sad story, there is a success story.
I have a student named Blake who will be getting paid to do research at the School of Medicine over the summer as part of Project SEED (he's only a sophomore, by-the-way). One of my students, Brittany, won a $5,000 scholoarship to the Chef's Academy to pursue her life-long passion for cooking and food. Yet another student, Charmine, is graduating early and going to Indiana State. I have started a Robotics Club, who built and programmed a robot from scratch...something I never knew I could do either!I have classes full of hard-working, friendly, creative, energetic students who just want a place to be safe and learn, and this is what brings me to work everyday.
The evening highlight was a slam poetry reading by some of our students in another teacher's creative writing class. I must admit that I never thought that I would be moved by the words of a teenager, but I was moved by a couple of poems.
"Would you love me if I weren't gay?" This was the first line of a poem, written by an African American student named Kayla, that pulled me into a reflective mood.It reminded me of how lucky I am in so many ways - I am rarely hated by anyone for who I am. It reminded me of how much I love my own children. It shocked me that a parent could look at her child and forget the baby they raised and cared for. It reminded me of how much I care about my own students. It reminded me how hard it is to teach children with so much emotional baggage. It reminded me of Nancy, our High School team member/ English Teacher, who is fighting for survival because her liver has decided to stop working. It reminded me of the student we all lost to suicide. It reminded me of why teaching is so important.
However, I could only be reflective for a moment before the next poem was being recited to the audience gathered in the science lab - turned recital hall. "I am chicken and hot sauce..." was a line from her poem about her memories growing up in Flint, Michigan. You would never know this young lady, Na'pheesa, was raised in the hood. This brave, outgoing, modest, intelligent, young lady who so gracefully recounted the trials and tribulations of growing up in her surroundings. Sometimes, it helps to remember what some students have had to overcome and what some are still dealing with when we greet our students in the morning and wish them well at the end of the day. Like the student whose father was taken away by armed men in bullet-proof vests in an early morning INS raid. Or the students who have to work to support their dead-beat mother and earn enough money to make it to school - the same girls who lost their cousin to a road with no sidewalks. The student named James, whom I had physically restrain on the floor of a hallway after he attacked a fellow student and pushed teachers out of the way - so full of rage two years after he lost both of his parents in a car accident. Or the many who wonder where they are going to live and the many more who wonder what they will eat.
It is easy to get lost in their stories. It is easy to feel sorry for them. But I shouldn't...I can't. To be their teacher is to expect them to be success stories, not stereotypes. I have to demand that my students learn, not despite their circumstances, but because of them - it is a matter of life and death. Don't think I am exagerating this to make a point. This is the hard reality of povety. The only way out is to break the cycle, to get an education.
And for every heart-wrenching sad story, there is a success story.
I have a student named Blake who will be getting paid to do research at the School of Medicine over the summer as part of Project SEED (he's only a sophomore, by-the-way). One of my students, Brittany, won a $5,000 scholoarship to the Chef's Academy to pursue her life-long passion for cooking and food. Yet another student, Charmine, is graduating early and going to Indiana State. I have started a Robotics Club, who built and programmed a robot from scratch...something I never knew I could do either!I have classes full of hard-working, friendly, creative, energetic students who just want a place to be safe and learn, and this is what brings me to work everyday.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Promoting Achievement in Science to "At-Risk" Students: Part I
First of all, let me say that I don't like the term "at risk", but that is a different post. In education, the term at-risk is prevalent and the criteria ( poverty, family role confusion, transient attendance, etc...) does fit the group of students I teach as a whole. So, how do we promote acheivement in a group that has been shown to undersucceed? I won't restate the dogma of "high expectations", "high rigor", discipline. What I want to state, that may be understated if it is not novel, is the state of mind of the educator. What often gets missed in the discussion of high expectations and discipline is that those things can take on a hostile or (at least) punitive tone. This fits in with a state of mind that can play out as "These kids need some discipline" or "No one must have expected much from these kids before me!" Of course these statements are ridiculous, if only because EVERY kid needs discipline and OF COURSE, there have been high expectations on our students since they entered their schooling careers.
Now, I don't want to over simplify the problem with what I am going to say next. Of course student acheivement and student success is complicated and involves many things out of the control of teachers and administrators. This part is not in debate. However, teachers and administrators should not underestimate the power that they can have, for good or bad, in the success of a child. If a school is to be successful, it is in the hands (Or, I should say, the attitudes) of the teachers. The missing part of high expectations is that the teacher should actually believe as well as expect that the student can do the work. This belief is readily apparaent either way to the students. Unfortunately, the pervading belief is that "Our kids can't do this type of work".
My challenge to teachers is to reassess their reason for teaching. Do you do it because you enjoy it and enjoy the challenge? Or do you do it because you need the money or benefits? If you are in teaching, you should do it with the core belief that each child will rise to your challenge - not that they would never be able to understand what you are asking of them!
Once you believe, this permeates your teaching - your approach, your relationships, your lessons will be at a higher level...student acheivement will be not far behind.
Now, I don't want to over simplify the problem with what I am going to say next. Of course student acheivement and student success is complicated and involves many things out of the control of teachers and administrators. This part is not in debate. However, teachers and administrators should not underestimate the power that they can have, for good or bad, in the success of a child. If a school is to be successful, it is in the hands (Or, I should say, the attitudes) of the teachers. The missing part of high expectations is that the teacher should actually believe as well as expect that the student can do the work. This belief is readily apparaent either way to the students. Unfortunately, the pervading belief is that "Our kids can't do this type of work".
My challenge to teachers is to reassess their reason for teaching. Do you do it because you enjoy it and enjoy the challenge? Or do you do it because you need the money or benefits? If you are in teaching, you should do it with the core belief that each child will rise to your challenge - not that they would never be able to understand what you are asking of them!
Once you believe, this permeates your teaching - your approach, your relationships, your lessons will be at a higher level...student acheivement will be not far behind.
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