1. Public Transportation is cheap. For a couple of dollars you can ride a bus across the nation.
2. The Pitahaya fruit is amazingly delicious in fruit and ice cream form.
3. Nothing like showering with cold water in a bucket to make you appreciate the joys of running hot water.
4. Your Spanish will improve. Even if you currently don't speak any Spanish.
5. Did you play Amazon Trail as a kid? How much cooler is to actually be in a rainforest.
6. They grow Coffee, Sugar and Cacao. Now I don't like Coffee but those other two make up for it.
7. The way they grow corn will blow your mind.
8. There aren't many countries you can go to that had a major revolution just 30 years ago and are currently very safe to visit.
9.When you try to come up with questions for Lindsay, you can ask the ones relevant to her life rather than "um tell me anything at all?"
10. Lindsay's pretty great to hang out with.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
TV shows I wish I could be a part of
There are some tv shows I love to watch and others I really with I could live in. Here is a list of ones I wish I was a part of.
1. Sports Night (by far the one I wish to live in most)
2. The West Wing
3. Pushing Daisies
hmmm... I think that may be it. (Clearly dialogue is a major part of my desire... funny since I don't talk very quickly myself.)
1. Sports Night (by far the one I wish to live in most)
2. The West Wing
3. Pushing Daisies
hmmm... I think that may be it. (Clearly dialogue is a major part of my desire... funny since I don't talk very quickly myself.)
Friday, July 24, 2009
Taking on TFA
One of the causes I had no idea I would get so passionate about is teacher preparation. I do believe that if you want to draw the best and the brightest, the education it takes to become a teacher should reflect a challenging curriculum. Nobody thinks oh I could probably walk into surgery and do just fine but there are many people who hold teaching as something they could just do. I do acknowledge that there are many classrooms that people could walk into and just teach and be just fine, but doing just fine isn't really working for the state of education. If instead we required the level of education it took to be in the medical field or even to be certified to practice law, we could raise the level of discourse and achievement in education.
In order to move towards this I want to do some research about Teach for America, an organization whose hearts I believe are in the right place but whose practice seems out of line with my beliefs. Before I begin my research I thought I'd make a list of flaws/improvements I would make to the Teach for America program based just on my experience and the experience of my friends.
1. Teaching is temporary: I know there is a large amount of TFA grads who continue to stay in the profession, but I also have heard in recruiting material "Hey come be a teacher for a while!" Teaching is a profession and while I'm all for methods to recruit people who would normally go into higher paying jobs, I want to recruit them to chose this as an employment path not view it as something they can just pick up for a while. Plus, acknowledging that even people in the teaching profession cannot handle staying in low performing schools, our lowest performing schools need the stability of good leadership rather than a revolving door of teachers.
2. Smartest minds in their field into the worst performing schools: Our worst performing schools need our best education professionals. In my first year of teaching I rarely tapped the knowledge I picked up from 19th century British fiction BUT I constantly thought about the discussions we had in our education courses and the numerous articles I've read about democratic classrooms, ELL language acquisition etc. In fact I was much more likely to draw from my subject matter courses that were geared towards english ed majors (writing theory, history of language, descriptive grammar) than I was to draw on regular English classes. Put the brightest minds in the field in that field and bring them in as mentors for students who want to go into that field or guest speakers on those subjects.
3.Your teacher education comes with your real experience. Yes I learned infinite amounts of knowledge by being in the classroom. My first year of teaching I had so much to reflect on. Coming from a failing, high-need school I feel I can speak about this- these schools often do not have a solid support for teachers. Sometimes they're working on it, but regularly part of the failing high need part is that they lack the educational support for their teachers. When I go into a classroom I have a lot scaffolded (to use and education term) about educational practices etc. so even if I don't get the support standing right next to me, I've got my professors' voices ringing in my ear. I can't imagine trying to learn the research and be in front of a classroom. It sets people up for failure, burn-out etc. People who could be REALLY good at teaching may not be able to handle this sort of information overload. I would much rather opt for TFA being a nationwide teaching college than the sink or swim in the ocean that it's currently set up as.
4. What's wrong with being a classroom aide? or a co-teacher? Here is my dream for TFA- it's an nationwide accrediation process that teaches you the educational research while lining you up for one year of being a teacher's aide (and getting some GOOD teachers to be aides to... come on they should be able to do that.) and maybe then one year of being a co-teacher or student teacher before you ever walk into your own classroom. I hated having to observe a classroom once a week so my partners and I would very quickly take over the classroom for our one hour twice a week or whatever it was WHICH IS FINE because not only by then did I have some educational research, a professor to help walk us through our practices, and a cohort of people going through the same thing BUT there was also an experienced teacher there to help along the way, watch what we were doing and discuss it afterwards. My best observation times came at my very first observation where we taught one class period, watched our teacher for a class period and were able to discuss with a regular class teacher and a special education teacher what we should be doing to alter our practice. I still obsessively write things on the board because of that experience.
I'm going to start with that, see where the research takes me, and I'll get back to you.
In order to move towards this I want to do some research about Teach for America, an organization whose hearts I believe are in the right place but whose practice seems out of line with my beliefs. Before I begin my research I thought I'd make a list of flaws/improvements I would make to the Teach for America program based just on my experience and the experience of my friends.
1. Teaching is temporary: I know there is a large amount of TFA grads who continue to stay in the profession, but I also have heard in recruiting material "Hey come be a teacher for a while!" Teaching is a profession and while I'm all for methods to recruit people who would normally go into higher paying jobs, I want to recruit them to chose this as an employment path not view it as something they can just pick up for a while. Plus, acknowledging that even people in the teaching profession cannot handle staying in low performing schools, our lowest performing schools need the stability of good leadership rather than a revolving door of teachers.
2. Smartest minds in their field into the worst performing schools: Our worst performing schools need our best education professionals. In my first year of teaching I rarely tapped the knowledge I picked up from 19th century British fiction BUT I constantly thought about the discussions we had in our education courses and the numerous articles I've read about democratic classrooms, ELL language acquisition etc. In fact I was much more likely to draw from my subject matter courses that were geared towards english ed majors (writing theory, history of language, descriptive grammar) than I was to draw on regular English classes. Put the brightest minds in the field in that field and bring them in as mentors for students who want to go into that field or guest speakers on those subjects.
3.Your teacher education comes with your real experience. Yes I learned infinite amounts of knowledge by being in the classroom. My first year of teaching I had so much to reflect on. Coming from a failing, high-need school I feel I can speak about this- these schools often do not have a solid support for teachers. Sometimes they're working on it, but regularly part of the failing high need part is that they lack the educational support for their teachers. When I go into a classroom I have a lot scaffolded (to use and education term) about educational practices etc. so even if I don't get the support standing right next to me, I've got my professors' voices ringing in my ear. I can't imagine trying to learn the research and be in front of a classroom. It sets people up for failure, burn-out etc. People who could be REALLY good at teaching may not be able to handle this sort of information overload. I would much rather opt for TFA being a nationwide teaching college than the sink or swim in the ocean that it's currently set up as.
4. What's wrong with being a classroom aide? or a co-teacher? Here is my dream for TFA- it's an nationwide accrediation process that teaches you the educational research while lining you up for one year of being a teacher's aide (and getting some GOOD teachers to be aides to... come on they should be able to do that.) and maybe then one year of being a co-teacher or student teacher before you ever walk into your own classroom. I hated having to observe a classroom once a week so my partners and I would very quickly take over the classroom for our one hour twice a week or whatever it was WHICH IS FINE because not only by then did I have some educational research, a professor to help walk us through our practices, and a cohort of people going through the same thing BUT there was also an experienced teacher there to help along the way, watch what we were doing and discuss it afterwards. My best observation times came at my very first observation where we taught one class period, watched our teacher for a class period and were able to discuss with a regular class teacher and a special education teacher what we should be doing to alter our practice. I still obsessively write things on the board because of that experience.
I'm going to start with that, see where the research takes me, and I'll get back to you.
Friday, July 3, 2009
On this day
A list of events that happened on this, the day before the day we celebrate our independence:
1. Jim Morrison died.
2. Idaho became a state (Happy Birthday!)
3. George M Cohen (who wrote "You're a Grand Ole Flag" and "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy") was born.
4. Quebec was founded (Bon Anniversaire!)
5. AND the Battle of Gettysburg ended today, considered by many a turning point in the war.
Happy 3rd of July
1. Jim Morrison died.
2. Idaho became a state (Happy Birthday!)
3. George M Cohen (who wrote "You're a Grand Ole Flag" and "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy") was born.
4. Quebec was founded (Bon Anniversaire!)
5. AND the Battle of Gettysburg ended today, considered by many a turning point in the war.
Happy 3rd of July
Monday, June 22, 2009
School's out for summer
And now a list of the trips I'll be taking:
1. Rantoul to see my mom and dad. (and my dad's new job)
2. Springfield to celebrate engagements in my close group of friends
3. SanFran to see a couple of my closest MechE friends
4. Nicaragua to see Lindsay!!!!!!
1. Rantoul to see my mom and dad. (and my dad's new job)
2. Springfield to celebrate engagements in my close group of friends
3. SanFran to see a couple of my closest MechE friends
4. Nicaragua to see Lindsay!!!!!!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Don't go into teaching if...
1. You are anti-intellectual. You can't expect your students to do more (like go to college) if you can't even cut it.
2. You are willing to wait for the worst kids to drop out. There are some kids that are difficult to get motivated etc. but they have their reasons and you waiting for them to just drop out is a disservice to the time they do spend in school.
3. You think that age is equal to experience. Students have experience, many of them very different than the experience you probably have but a lot of experience none the less and every experience (or even apparent lack thereof) is an experience.
2. You are willing to wait for the worst kids to drop out. There are some kids that are difficult to get motivated etc. but they have their reasons and you waiting for them to just drop out is a disservice to the time they do spend in school.
3. You think that age is equal to experience. Students have experience, many of them very different than the experience you probably have but a lot of experience none the less and every experience (or even apparent lack thereof) is an experience.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Ups and Downs
Teaching has a lot of ups and downs. Today:
1. I had to deal with a teacher I had a confrontation with yesterday.
2. I had classrooms full of kids working on these awesome projects for the end of the year.
3. I thought I was going to miss tomorrow, our last day before finals, which rushed many things and created a sense of panic in me.
4. My students pulled through and I'm going to have some amazing skits on tape of some very powerful subject matter.
5. I got a letter in response to my complaint of having to miss school saying I didn't have to go AND that I was single handedly bringing down productive collaboration and teacher progress.
6. I had a student who has complained non-stop about his project that I've been bending over backwards to make sure it was complete and today he didn't complain once!
7. I found out that the letter saying I was a terrible asset to the teaching was also sent to one of my colleagues (who does understand my e-mail and not the response that came with it)
8. At the film festival, when they showed my drama students' trailer for the play their doing caused the people nearby to say "Now I want to see the whole thing"
AND
9. My SLC surprised me by giving me an award at the end of the evening. I was a blubbering mess at this point embarrassingly enough but it was very touching.
1. I had to deal with a teacher I had a confrontation with yesterday.
2. I had classrooms full of kids working on these awesome projects for the end of the year.
3. I thought I was going to miss tomorrow, our last day before finals, which rushed many things and created a sense of panic in me.
4. My students pulled through and I'm going to have some amazing skits on tape of some very powerful subject matter.
5. I got a letter in response to my complaint of having to miss school saying I didn't have to go AND that I was single handedly bringing down productive collaboration and teacher progress.
6. I had a student who has complained non-stop about his project that I've been bending over backwards to make sure it was complete and today he didn't complain once!
7. I found out that the letter saying I was a terrible asset to the teaching was also sent to one of my colleagues (who does understand my e-mail and not the response that came with it)
8. At the film festival, when they showed my drama students' trailer for the play their doing caused the people nearby to say "Now I want to see the whole thing"
AND
9. My SLC surprised me by giving me an award at the end of the evening. I was a blubbering mess at this point embarrassingly enough but it was very touching.
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