Tech Tools for the Classroom

I tried out a few tech tools listed on this New York Times website.

I particularly liked the tools meant to help you visualize text, like Wordle and Tagxedo. Although Wordle seems to be the famous one, I actually liked Tagxedo more because it has a few options that Wordle does not. For example Tagxedo allows you to choose the shape that you want your words to be arranged into. It is a great tool to use if you write poems with your students. Not only will it display the most used words in the poem, but it will display them in the shape of your choice, something relating to the subject of your poem. You can create posters that send a certain message - they will be twice as powerful if the image and the words match. I created my own Tagxedo visualizations, which you can see below.

 The first one is the representation of one of my lesson plans in a unit about maps, and the second one is the representation of one of my favorite poems, The Cinnamon Peeler's Wife, by Michael Ondaatje.
Besides poems, students and teachers can use these tools to visualize the main ideas in any text: a lesson, a unit of study, a chapter in a novel or a non-fiction book, a newspaper article, an internet page etc. It is the ideal tool for students that have a hard time summarizing and synthesizing, or for English Language Learners. It can work as a great introduction to a new text: it allows students to see the most used words and they can start researching the ones that are unfamiliar.

The second tool that I tried out was the timeline on the website Timetoast. I actually created a timeline for my dyad placement a few weeks ago, but I used Word. When I used Timetoast I had the chance to see its advantages over Word (you can see my new timeline here). First of all it does a great job of respecting the proportion between dates, it automatically sets each date at the right distance from the previous one and from the next one. This is one thing I could not do in Word, so my Timeline was not very useful as a visual tool. With Timetoast the students will be able to see how close or how far apart in time the dates they are working with really are. Many times we are talking about time periods that are very difficult to wrap our minds around: the history of the Universe, the history of our planet, human evolution etc. A timeline can help our students understand things like this because they are able to see the physical distance between the dates. Of course, it is a great help with smaller time periods too. When our students have difficulty understanding a history text why not ask them to create a timeline instead? We all know how dry and meaningless dates can be - a timeline has the power of making them much more accessible and easy to understand. 
It is not only a history tool, it can be used very well in Language Arts classes e.g. creating the timeline of a novel or even the timeline of a favorite author's life.For young children it can be used as an organizer, a visual display of important events or of the the daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly schedule.

High Expectations

This week the Routman reading gave me new things to think about, namely: having high expectations for all our students. The part that interested me most was the one talking about the fact that we need to make a habit of expecting our students to turn in perfect work, without errors of spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization. I have to admit that this is another idea that I thought it is held only by a minority (among which I include myself). More than that, during the last months I started thinking that maybe it is not a good idea to have such a high expectation for the students. When I was in school it was unthinkable to turn in a paper that was not error free. Naturally, I used to have the same expectations for other people, including my future students. Since I started this teaching program I have come to realize that not all teachers think the same. Many of them accept less than perfect work and they argue that this is the only way they can encourage students' writing. I can see how this might be a valid point. I understand that students might be overwhelmed and discouraged by too many requirements and expectations. At the same time, I cannot help wondering: when do we start expecting more from our students? When and how do we transition them from the phase in which it is all right to turn in work with grammar and spelling errors to a phase in which it is no longer acceptable? The 8th grade students in my dyad placement can still turn in writing that is not correctly spelled or checked for grammar. When does it end? How do you remedy a situation like this? It seems to me that if by 8th grade you do not expect your students to write correctly they will never write that way. Or is it really not important? Is writing a dying "art" in the age of technology?

Teaching Writing, Part 2

I was writing last time about the teaching of writing and how I experienced it in my 8th grade dyad placement. I'm coming back to the same subject this week because I had the chance to read my 8th graders' latest essays. Most of the essays did a good job of following the formula that the teacher had presented, but otherwise I had a very hard time identifying good work. The students' voice and opinion was not coming across, the essays did not have a flow, and all in all they did not reach their target. It was supposed to be a persuasive essay, but after reading all of them I realized that the students had no idea what the purpose, look or feel of a persuasive essay is. All they had understood was that they had to fill in the missing parts of the persuasive essay template. So I guess the ideas that I have expressed last week still stand: writing is much more than standardized forms and templates. Teaching it this way does not work. The conclusion would be that new methods have to be adopted, but I am afraid that this was not the conclusion that my cooperative teacher reached... If these methods do not work, what other methods would work? How can you make a better job at teaching writing to 8th graders? How can you engage and motivate students? And how can you change these techniques that do not work if the whole school uses them and has probably been using them for some time?

Teaching Writing

I have started reading Writing Essentials, by Regie Routman. After the first pages I was ready to shout out loud: "Finnally! Someone who thinks exactly like me!" I am comparing this author's ideas about writing with what I am observing every week at my dyad placement, in several junior high English classes. I was surprised to see how heavily teachers rely on rubrics and on standardized formats for every piece of writing that the students are required to do. How are students supposed to enjoy writing in conditions like this? Writing is supposed to be about creativity, freedom and choice. The students that I observe have none of these things and it is no surprise that they see writing as a very unpleasant and time consuming chore. I have always loved writing and I would like my students to feel the same and to see writing as a wonderful and creative escape into a world in which everything they imagine is possible. I realize that writing might be one of the most difficult subjects to teach because it is such a complex and personal task. Writing does not come easily to everybody. There are people for whom writing is a natural way of expression. For others it can be a daunting task. I do not know yet the best ways and techniques to reach these latter learners but I am sure it is not the strict rubrics and directions saying how long the paragraph has to be or how many concrete details it has to include. I am looking forward to reading more about this. I'll keep you posted.

Formative Assessments

While reading the article Up Close and Personal, by Lynn Olson, I realized that today's teaching can and should be very different from the teaching that I received only a few years ago. Why wouldn't it be when it seems so simple and natural to be the way it is described in the article? I am referring to the use of formative assessments to see where the students are and what needs to be worked on. When I was a student the sole purpose of assessment was grading. Students were being assessed in order to get a grade and not because the teacher wanted to find out how much they had learned and understood. This aspect of formative assessment goes hand in hand with the "no secrets" policy by which teachers announce the learning goal to their students and conduct open discussions about the students' needs. I ask myself now: Why not? I have never thought about this before as something important, that the students had to know. I used to think that the objectives represent teacher tools meant to help them plan good lessons. I never considered the fact that the students could benefit from knowing what they are actually learning. This idea of transparency and open communication between teacher and student about learning goals, needs and reasons makes complete sense and it is like waking up in a different world from the one you went to sleep in. In this new world that I envision the teacher is no longer the holder of sacred secrets that she has to hide away from her students. In this world the teacher and the students are partners in the learning process and they work together as a team in order to achieve learning and growth.

Making Meaning through the Use of Visual Tools

This TED discussion made me think about several things that relate to teaching.
First of all it was the idea of how useful visual materials are in order for us to make sense of the world around us and to create new meaning - basically to learn. I have always considered myself a visual learner so it is easy for me to relate to the speaker's ideas. We have been talking about Gardner's multiple intelligences and I know that different people learn in different ways and what works for some does not work for everybody. Still...using visual aids seems like such a common sense tool that can enhance everybody's learning that I find it hard to imagine that there are any people (besides the visually impaired) that would not benefit from its use. Am I mistaken? Are there instances in which visual aids are not welcomed? I do not want to say that it is the only way that we can teach but it should certainly be something that we include as much as we can into our teaching.

This video resonated very well with me because today my group had the presentation on photographs as resources in social studies classes. We mentioned how important photographs are in the study of history: to build context, to put things into perspective and to help children relate to the historical events and to the people that lived in the past.

Finally, I can also link this video to the use of technology in the classroom. He was talking about a new software that makes it very easy to use visual aids and more than that, to make them interactive. I think this is an important idea: it is not just about the materials that we use, but also about the ways in which we use those materials and how appealing we make them for our students.

Planning

Although I know I still have a long way to go and a lot of things to learn I feel I'm growing and I understand a little bit more every day. I find extremely useful my readings from Tomlinson and Wiggins & McTighe, they reveal so much useful information about how good planning should look and feel like. I have to admit that many times (maybe every time) I have planned lessons and activities with children I thought like the teacher in Tomlinson's 5th chapter: "I thought all they were supposed to do was read the story and do something with it". Or, better still, I thought that the list of criteria I use to select my activities has to have "being fun for kids" at the top of the list. It's not that I was not aware of the existence and importance of objectives and assessment strategies, but they were always in the background, eclipsed by other things that I considered to be more important. I am starting to view planning, objective writing and assessment in a new light. It is an important change of perspective. I feel I am much more critical with myself, with the lessons and units that I am trying to plan and with the teachers that I observe.

New Insights

We keep talking about the way learning happens and ways of knowing when someone has learned/understood something. Well for my part one of the ways I know that I have learned or understood something is when a sudden "click" happens. In a single instant something that I've heard, read or touched triggers a rearrangement of the information that I previously held.
This week it happened twice.

The first time, we were discussing (or trying to discuss) the role of the teacher. This question has always seemed so vast to me. How do you answer such a question? Where do you start? How do you grapple the magnitude of this subject? Well something, a single question, helped me reposition myself and start looking for answers. The question was something of the type: what is the role of teachers in this age of technology? It suddenly became easier for me to see where the question and its answer might lead me. There are still a lot of things to think about when answering the question but I feel my job is a little easier because technology enters the equation.
Our job as teachers should be made easier because we have the luxury of modern technology. However, I realize that there are traps in the use of technology too, and we need to educate ourselves in order to spot them. What technology do we use? How and when do we use it? With what purpose do we use it? At every moment we need to ask ourselves if the tools that we use work for our classroom and for our students. Do we use technology just for the sake of using it or do we see and exploit a real advantage? How much trust should we put in the technologies that we use? How reliable and real is the learning that takes place through the use of technology? I guess reflecting on these questions is one more duty on the long list of "teacher duties".

The second thing that sparked a new view about the teacher's role is the idea of never answering students' questions. This quarter I am growing more and more aware of how important it is to know how to ask questions, rather than to give answers. It is a change of perspective for me, because I have always thought about teachers as the holders of answers. Well I realize now how much more valuable is a teacher that knows how to ask questions. It is indeed much more difficult to ask questions than to give answers. I need to train this skill and eventually reach that desired situation in which I never answer questions, but instead I follow up with another question.

Child Driven Education

This is the second time I've watched Sugata Mitra's TED talk, The Child Driven Education.

My first reaction was of shock and almost fear: is this the future? Will there be a time when teachers will no longer be needed? Are they already no longer needed?

Then, thinking more about the video I found more questions that answers. Admitting that we found the perfect "teaching strategy", the use of technology and internet: who and how decides what the children will learn? Will we let the children have complete freedom in this area too? How will that work? Will the children be able to learn all that they need to learn, by themselves? Or have we reached a point where we no longer have to learn anything because everything is online, available to everyone? That will be indeed a sad time when all our knowledge will be at the mercy of machines and technology; when we will no longer be able to function without access to technology, without being wired. We could argue that we are already very dependent on technology but do we want the internet to become the sole keeper of the hard won knowledge of our human civilization? It is never a good idea to put all your eggs in only one basket. So why would it be a good idea in this case?

Will the children make their own learning schedule?

If YES: how much time will they need to master all the knowledge and skills that they need? Will they be efficient, will they dedicate daily time to this endeavor? Will not that be too much computer time? How about socializing and interacting with people face to face? Will their interactions be restricted to the four people in their group and people that they talk to on Skype?

If NO: will they be willing to continue learning this way day after day? Will learning stay as interesting and exciting every day? Will they not get bored and uninterested to use the same technique, the same technology and methodology every day?

The Differentiated Classroom

I have started reading about differentiated classrooms this week and it struck me how very few examples of this type of instruction I have seen.

In my main placement I noticed big differences between students. There are students at both ends of the spectrum: on one hand very advanced, that write, read and do math at a higher level than their grade level and on the other hand there are students that need a lot of support, that cannot complete assignments without constant guidance and supervision. And then there is the middle group, for which the classroom work seems to be just right.

The only differentiated teaching that I have seen taking place is reading groups. All the children in the classroom have been separated into groups according to their reading skills and they spend 20 minutes a day with an instructional assistant. While this is better than nothing I cannot help feeling that it is too little. How about math, how about everything else? How can we do a better job at helping learners that need more support and how can we challenge the students that can do more?

The Tomlinson text offered one idea: personalized assignments, that are addressed to the needs and skills of every student. I can see how this would work for individual or small group assignments or for homework.It is a huge work, however, for the teacher. Moreover, when I try to picture a classroom applying this technique I imagine a class in which every child works individually or in very small groups (the same group, most of the time).

How do we include whole class instruction in this landscape? Do we include it? It seems to me that without whole class instruction or some type of activities that involve everybody in the classroom you cannot build a community.How do you balance classroom community building and differentiated instruction? I am sure there are ways but at present I find it difficult to picture a classroom in which the two coexist peacefully.

Reflecting on my Food Journal

Keeping a food and exercise journal did not necessarily give me any new information about my habits. I am always very conscious about what I eat, how much and when. The same thing holds true for the physical activity, which is part of my everyday life. On the other hand I realize that many people and especially children are not as preoccupied about this issue as I am. Or, if they are, they might lack the means and methods to keep track of their eating and exercising habits. The food journal could prove to be the easiest and the best method to do just that and then to decide on the appropriate changes that need to me made.

Looking over my food journal I am pleased with what I see. My menu includes many vegetables and fruits every day, healthy and nutritious, home cooked food and no sugary snacks or drinks. I also exercise regularly, 3 or 4 times a week, at the gym or outside: hikes, walks, bike rides. As long as I keep the same routine I would say that I am on the right track and I am in a good spot to talk to my students about health and fitness and to give them good information and advice.

I found it hard to decide on a goal, something to change about my eating habits. Finally I decided to try an experiment and see if I can completely eliminate desserts and sugary products from my menu. My experiment worked pretty well but I did trespass the sugar interdiction a few times. The first time I ate a slice of pecan cake because I was visiting friends and that’s what I was offered, it would have been rude to refuse it. I regard the other two instances when I ate sugary products as much less important because they involved only two teaspoons of strawberry jam. I have to admit that there were a few moments when I craved something sweet. I satisfied the craving with toasted bread, one teaspoon unsweetened and unsalted peanut butter and one teaspoon jam. It was enough sweetness for me for a whole day. So although I did not accomplish my goal of completely eliminating sweets from my diet I am satisfied with my overall “performance” and I would advise my students to act in a similar way when confronted with a situation like this: if you really cannot avoid breaking your goal consume very small quantities of the product in question.

As a conclusion I think that the food journal is a very useful tool while working with children because it can help them become aware of the things they eat. Having this “database” will allow them to analyze their eating habits and to make informed decisions about changes that they want to enforce. Moreover, the journal can be used outside a health and fitness class because it has applications in many other domains:

- Writing - it is first and foremost a daily writing activity.
- Math – it can be used to discuss about quantities, proportions, or simply to add up the calories provided by the food.
- Science – to talk about hypothesis, predictions, conclusions. It can be regarded as a scientific experiment. It can also be used to talk about the sources of food, how different food products are processed, packaged, transported etc.
- Social studies – it can be a starting point for discussions about different cultures and their food or problems related to food availability around the world.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 8

I enjoyed tricking my brain during today's class. Most of the experiments that we did were familiar too me, but nonetheless fascinating.I am sure it would be an equally surprising and fun experience for children but I am not sure how in depth I could go with the explanations and how easy it would be for students to understand what and why it is happening. Another thing that I was thinking about is the children that will not manage to see what other children see during the experiment. During the dragon experiment for example I did not manage to see what I was "supposed" to see and it was a little frustrating even for me. For children it would be much more difficult to accept that they cannot see what some of their peers see, especially while the others have so much fun with the dragon. The video that we saw afterward helped, but I do not think it will be enough to alleviate the children's sadness.

Going further,I liked a lot the Brain Rules reading. It made me want to read the whole book. I liked it because it has very accessible information and practical advice. Although I am familiar with most of the things that I have read and I am already very conscious about the way I include exercise and sleep in my life and the way I treat stress, it is always good to be reminded about these things and to see them written down. If reading about these things has this effect on me I can see the use of talking and reading about similar things with my students.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 7

I loved the activities that we did today in class and the resources that we were introduced to. I think they will be very useful for teaching sexual health.

First of all the icebreaker activity is great for starting a discussion about sex and its anatomy and physiology. It gives students the opportunity to say out loud words that they might be afraid to pronounce and to laugh about them with the teacher and the rest of the class. It's like saying: OK, let's get it over with this and then get to the more serious discussion.

Secondly, I really loved the idea of the survey and the way we implemented it, it can be used in so many situations in which people would not feel comfortable expressing out loud their opinions.

Lastly, I like the "It's amazing" book and it is refreshing to know that such resources exist and are there to help us talk to children about these subjects: as parents and as teachers.

After today's class I think I feel much more confident that I can talk comfortably about sex health and related issues. Great class!

Health and Fitness Education, Day 6

Yesterday's microteaching activities offered great opportunities for learning, as usual. I have to remember how and what to ask students while they work in small groups and I circulate between them. It is really important and I had the chance to see how useful good questions can be: they can serve both the student and the teacher. It helps the student because it invites him/her to think critically and to go deeper in the subject and it helps the teacher with assessment.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 5

CPS training today, for the second time for me in the last six months. Last time I took it for my work place and it was not nearly as long as today. I really don't think three hours were necessary for this presentation. I get it, there are many gray areas and we could spend a whole week talking about the many variables that we should keep in mind while deciding on what is the best way to act. But ultimately it all comes down to one simple idea: if you are in doubt to whether it is a case of abuse or neglect or not, call CPS. It is as simple as that and I do not understand why we had to spend so much time talking about a hundred possible scenarios. I do not think we will ever be alone in making a difficult decision, we will always have the help of our colleagues: fellow teachers and administrative employees.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 4

I find it very useful and interesting to observe my classmates` micro-teaching and I feel I will be learning a lot every day through the reflection that we do afterwards. The two lessons that we had today have been both great. I consider them much better executed than my lesson, two days ago. Important things that I have learned from the micro-teaching activities so far:

- always tell children what to watch/observe before you play them a video.
- give handouts that makes it easier for students to go back to the new information that you have just introduced and that you want them to use during a class activity
- make very sure that you use age appropriate language.
- do not take it for granted that your students know the terms that you are using. Even the simple ones (for you) might be unknown to your students.
- always give directions before you ask students to stand up and reorganize.

I will add more to this list every day, as we go along.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 3

Today it was quite a day. That's because besides the class discussions we also had the first micro-teaching experience and me and my partner presented our lesson about sugar.

Firstly, it was interesting to discuss with my small group partners about our grocery store observations. I was surprised to see how similar our observations were. We have all concentrated on pretty much the same thing and it was helpful to be able to exchange ideas. I think my ideas about the refelction paper that I am going to write are much clearer now.

The discussion about food labels was also interesting and everybody had good ideas and arguments. But on the other hand I don't feel that it has helped me a lot to navigate the complexity of this issue. I will be as lost as ever while shopping because I find it so hard to make sense of all the nutrition information that we are being bombarded with. I don't know who or what to trust. This was an issue while preparing for the sugar lesson too. I used the internet extensively and I found very contradictory opinions and information.

Lastly...our lesson about sugar...I have mixed feelings about it. I know it was far from perfect but I'm not completely ashamed of it either. All the reactions that we got from our classmates and instructor are very helpful and they will be useful for my future lessons. I'm looking forward to seeing the video. It will be a first: I've never seen myself in front of a classroom!

Health and Fitness Education, Day 2

Today we talked for the very first time about a central issue in teaching: lesson planning. Some of the things were familiar to me, as I have written lesson plans before, in Romania. Still, there are obviously differences between what I learned and did in Romania and what is required here. As in most of the things that we have done so far there is a much higher degree of flexibility in the rules that we have to follow while writing a lesson plan. For example I was expecting to have to be much more concerned about the way I phrase the lesson objectives. In the lesson plans that I created before the wording was very important, the type of verbs that I was supposed to use etc. It might be that the expectations are not as high yet because we are just getting started with writing lesson plans. We might get there later. But then we might not.

It is a wonderful journey for me, learning about teaching in the US and approaching everything in ways that are very different from the way they are approached in my home country. I am looking forward to getting more practice in writing lesson plans and I'm going to get started pretty soon, as I have my microteaching assignment on Tuesday.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 1

Today I learned and played with a pre-assessment method that I was not familiar with: the concept map. I think I could use it my classroom in many situations, it is a fun and challenging way to organize information. I liked the fact that it got us all very involved in what we were doing, it captured all our attention and required a lot of energy, communication and concession from all the group members. I am confident it would have the same effect on a group of young students.

Going further, I am looking forward to our next classes, I find the subjects that we are going to discuss very interesting. Having a healthy lifestyle is very important for me and I spend quite a lot of time thinking about it: while I'm shopping for groceries, while I cook for me and my husband, when I go to the gym or when I decide how I want to spend my free time. I've always considered that it is very important to educate our students about health and fitness and I am anxious to discover ways of doing that.

Activism Beyond the Classroom

Karp's article about activism outside the classroom is one of those readings that I should get back to a few years after I start teaching. I agree with everything that the author says but I'm not at that point in my career yet.

I am just starting on this long road of becoming a teacher and for now all my energy is concentrated on what is going to happen in the classroom. This quarter's discussions got me very preoccupied with justice in the classroom and this purpose alone, of treating everybody fairly and creating a true community of learners will require a lot of energy.
Going into activism right now would be the wrong thing to do for many reasons. The most important of all is the fact that I do not have my own school or classroom yet, where I can see the everyday problems that need fixing. I can only give opinions based on what I have read and what I have been told by others. How can I start becoming active outside the classroom even during my first year of teaching? As even Karp acknowledges, there are many that have tried (and still do), to change education. Still, nobody has found a solution that works for all schools and that can really change things. That is because a solution is not easy to find and I think we need time, patience and experience even for the simple step of getting to know all the ideas abot reform that are out there, the organisations that work on the change, their reasons, their approach and so on and so forth.

I liked the article because it gave a few guidelines that are easy to follow while choosing who you want to support or how you want to use your energy.I have so much more to learn and understand about these issues and I'm just getting started. I'll get back to you, Karp, in a few years..hopefully.

Working in the Gap

Ayers' 7th chapter does a great job of summarizing our first quarter discussions. It is also a fitting end for his book, which completes a full circle with this chapter. I remember how in his first chapter he was talking about teachers having to be idealists anchored in reality. He repeats the same idea in this 7th chapter by stating that teachers need to learn to work the gap between the hard reality of education and the ideals that we start with as teachers.

He touches on so many subjects that we talked and read about this quarter:

- teaching as a dynamic process that is never finished, it is always changing. This idea is the same that I expressed in my teaching metaphor. For me teaching is a never ending journey precisely because you can never say that you have completed your learning and your becoming as a teacher. As Ayers' says, teaching is not a "set of techniques or disconnected methods" that you can master and then you can safely say that you are an outstanding teacher.Teaching requires continuous growth and discovery.

- the need to know who we are, the "encounter with autobiography". We did this several times this quarter: whether it was our educational autobiography, our poems, image stories or even our metaphors, journals and blogs we spent a lot of time discovering who we are and what ideas about education we will be bringing to the classroom. I found it very helpful, especially my educational autobiography, which revealed many important things about me and the way I envision myself as a teacher. Some of them are valuable and others have been challenged during these last weeks and I had to reevaluate some of the things that I used to take for granted.

- teaching in the spirit of justice and democracy. This is by far the most important idea that I take from this quarter. The idea that "each human being is of infinite and incalculable value" and that I need to strive to find ways to teach to every child, to help every student grow and reach his/her full potential.

- teaching as much more than clerking or training. Teaching has to be empowering, has to put the child at its center and it needs to prepare the students as "citizens capable of taking their rightful place in society and caring on their democratic responsibilities".

- the need to take a stand against a system of education that puts too much emphasis on things that can no longer be characterized as education or learning.

Love-Hate Tragedy

I find it interesting how things that you love can be at the same time things that you hate or fear. Things that you regard as strengths in yourself can also be seen as weaknesses. Things that you used to view as qualities in your friends or loved ones can become nuisances and bad habits over time. And all that is needed for this is a different way of looking at things, a different perspective or sometimes a lot of time.

So when I read Raywid's "A Teacher's Awesome Power" I was not surprised to realize that some of the reasons why I want to become a teacher can also be seen as a huge, fearsome and unwanted responsibility. Many of us probably tell ourselves that we want to be teachers because we want to make a difference. Few of us probably realize at first how much of a difference we can make. After reading this article I think there is no doubt in anybody's mind about this. The problem is that this "difference" can go both ways, it can be a positive or a negative difference. And what concerns me most is that it looks like it is easier to make a difference in a negative way than in a positive one.

I was really humbled and scared by the article and I ask myself if I will ever be able to control every aspect of my life as a teacher so well as not to make mistakes.Will I use my power as a teacher in the wrong ways? I think I am bound to make mistakes. I am not a perfect person and will never be one. So I guess the ultimate objective is to always be aware of what I am doing, why I am doing it and whether it is sending the wrong messages or not to my students. That is tough work, consuming and continuous self reflection, discussions with fellow teachers and a lot of reading.

Will there ever come a time when I regard this precious opportunity to make a difference as a curse? I definitely hope not.

Why it will be difficult to extinguish poverty

Thinking back on all the discussions that we had about poverty I cannot help feeling that education alone will never be enough to enact real changes for the millions of people that live in poverty. There are economic reasons and interests at play that determine why certain people are poor and will not get out of poverty anytime soon.

Walmart and McDonalds came up in our classroom discussions and our readings as employers that pay very small wages. As it happens both these employers are very strong franchises that have the power to influence wages and the price of goods and food. Their success is partly based on the fact that they pay very small hourly rates to their employees. Will Walmart and McDonalds ever raise wages without being forced to? No! They will always need unskilled workers and it is in their interest not to raise those workers' wage. And there are many other employers who make a profit because they pay meager wages. It is in their interest that those people stay poor and accept their condition.

US is a capitalist country. If the federal government tries to intervene, to regulate the economy and make changes(see the health care reform) people start protesting and accusing the president of being a socialist or a communist. You can talk about poverty and bring tears to your listener's eyes but as soon as they are in the situation of accepting higher taxes that would help people in need they do not want to hear about it. So I think that capitalism and the individualism that has always characterized the American people are not helping the situation of millions of people living in poverty. It is a little ironic but not accidental that the same things that make US a great country allow for the existence of so many poor people that are given no chance to get out of poverty.

Let's suppose that we created a perfect educational system in which every child is encouraged to discover his/her potential and to work towards the realisation of their dreams and talents. How will that world look like? Will everybody be working in services? Who is going to do the low status jobs: agriculture, garbage collection, Walmart clerk, McDonalds server etc? Are we going to create a new society of robots to do all this work for us? I do not think we are at that stage yet and I do not know if we will ever be able to replace all the people in these low status jobs with robots.

These are the reasons why I think that education cannot single-handedly do all the work. There need to be changes in how the economy works and in how society responds to the problem of poverty. Sure, we can be part of this change, we can help raise awareness and educate the children and their families; but it will never be enough.

Changing Paradigms

It was enlightening watching Sir Ken Robinson's conference about changing paradigms. It made me feel that many of my questions are meaningless or at best insignificant because they refer to the past and present system of education and not the future one, which we should be building right now. His ideas are truly revolutionary (or they appear this way to me because I did not encounter them before)!

I loved the way he compared the production line mentality of today with the organic view of education that we should start promoting. It makes so much sense when you listen to him: the world has changed and is continuously changing but we fail to change education in a profound way, that will allow our students to adapt to this new world. It is very sad to hear somebody say that we are actually destroying the extraordinary human power and ingenuity through education.We need to wrap our minds around this idea and constantly ask ourselves how we can do things better.

Eventually the real question arises: how can we change all this? Where should this change start from? Should it be a top to bottom change or the other way around? Who is going to make the first step? Or more importantly: how long are we going to wait for somebody to make the first step? If we do not make some steps towards that change ourselves...it will never happen.

I can understand the reticence, the difficulty in changing things that we have taken for granted for so much time. Still, change needs to happen. In certain ways I think it has started already. The developments in technology and communication allow information to move much faster and people are able to find out about changes and trends in a blink of an eye. I recently read a blog post about twenty things in education that will become obsolete in the next 20 years. It was impressive and similar to what Ken Robinson envisions. He's not alone, there are other people who see the right direction and others more will follow. I think that if we want to work as teachers we need to keep track of all these new ideas in the air and we have to be willing to include them in our schools.

Reading and Thinking about Poverty

Reading Donna Beegle's article on poverty was a depressive experience. Not because the article was poorly written or uninteresting but because it made me realize the gravity of a situation that I had not spent time analyzing. I was not aware that there were so many poor people, and especially children; and I never knew anything about their lives. They really are another country, an invisible one, which we all do our best to ignore.

The saddest thing for me was to find out how the persons living in poverty internalize their situation. The fact that they come to regard poverty as a personal problem, a lack of skills and aptitudes, something that happens to you and that you have no power to change is really sad.I can only imagine how it must feel like to have nowhere to go and nobody to help you out of your situation.

We discussed a lot about what poverty means, how it manifests and what it does to people. We spent very little time discussing about how we can help. I'm asking myself: how can I, as a teacher, help homeless or very poor children in my classroom? How can I make them feel that they belong, how can I involve them in what is happening in school? How can I draw their attention to learning when they have so many things going on in their lives that are much more serious?
Donna Beegle's recommendations should be of some help: getting to know them, gaining their trust, making the curriculum relevant to them. Still, I am sure there will be many obstacles to conquer and the way to these children's hearts and minds will not be always easy to find.

I think that after reading this text about poverty everyone of us desires to create a classroom environment in which poor children can feel safe and valued. If their life outside school is so difficult school should be an oasis of peace and comfort, a place that they love coming to everyday.

Teaching to Every Child

Thinking back on my educational autobiography I started to reflect on teaching techniques that worked for me but did not work for other children.

I was among the fortunate ones that never had any real problems in school, that loved learning and going to school.I grew up in an educational system in which grades were a very important part of school and they were very public. This led to a system in which all the children in a classroom were very aware of their place in the class hierarchy based on their grades. I have always been one of the top students and I felt appreciated in the classroom. Looking back I cannot ignore the existence of my classmates that were not as fortunate, that were considered low achievers and lost causes. It is obvious that this system that I thrived in did not work for everybody, more than that, it was very unfair for many children.

Starting from this idea I begun wondering if we can actually find a system, a teaching technique that works for everybody. Can we satisfy the needs of all the children in the classroom without neglecting any of them? Can we help everybody become a successful learner? I am worried that when we concentrate so much on helping the low achieving children in the classroom we are lowering the standard for the kids that can do more. How can we make sure that we are not creating a classroom environment in which some children will feel unchallenged or bored?

Gender Issues

This week’s readings about gender issues in the classroom made me realize a lot of things about me and my experience with these types of problems. Both readings were extremely good and they complete each other very nicely.

Ann Pelo’s questions and insights made me appreciate how important my life experience can be in choosing the type of teacher that I want to be and the type of curriculum that I want to use. I discovered myself in the conversations between the teachers and in Claudia’s refusal to play the role of a princess. I remember that I used to be like that and actually still am, in many ways. I have problems identifying with certain things that people generally think that identify us as women. I have always felt the need to revolt against the accepted norms and that ideal image of a woman. There were several occasions in my life when I expressed my regret at not being a boy. I have hobbies, goals and desires that have always made me feel at the border of womanhood: clearly a woman from the physical point of view and certain characteristics, but definitely not the standard, typical woman. I hate circumstances in which it is expected that I dress, look or behave in a certain way because I am a woman.
These are probably things that many girls and women are confronted with, because that idealized image of what a girl/woman is like is just that: an ideal, a highly superficial construct of a very complex state of things.

Being aware of these issues should help me spot this kind of struggle in my own students. When there is no struggle it should help me pose some meaningful questions that will allow my students to judge for themselves and think critically about things that we discuss and question very little in our society.

The second reading, from Boaler, was nothing short from revolutionary. I have gotten so used to hearing that boys/men are better at math than girls/women that I was sure that it was already a scientifically proven fact. This notion is so deeply ingrained in my mind (and unfortunately not only mine) that it will require a lot of training and self check to make sure that I do not continue holding these assumptions.
The worst thing about these ever present “facts” is that they influence so much the way students approach a certain subject and how they learn it. I was a victim myself. I never believed that I could be good at math, that math was an option for me. I used to look in awe at girls that were good at math. It was difficult to understand that a girl could like math. Looking back, I am aware of how different my life could have been if I had not dreaded math as I did for most of my life, if I had not been influenced by this idea that I cannot be good at math BECAUSE I am a girl.

From all this it is easy to see how deep these gender issues run and how difficult it is to uproot them when our society has been steeped in this type of beliefs for centuries. Being aware of their existence is just the first step in the arduous process of battling and defeating them for the sake of our children.

First discussions, first questions

After Wednesday's discussions about Ayers's first chapter I was surprised to notice how similar and at the same time different were my classmates' impressions about the reading. The discussion was too short for how much conversation that first chapter can elicit.

Many of my classmates have expressed relief after reading that you do not necessarily need perfect classroom management skills in order to be a good teacher. I subscribe to this feeling. Many of the other "myths" that Ayers mentions have had the same effect on me. I have to admit that I felt relieved to find that teachers do not have to be always fun, or good performers.

Going further, what impressed me more about this first chapter (and what we did not have time to discuss in class) was the deeper and larger purpose of a teacher as described by the author. It was inspiring to have teaching described as a profession exercised in the hope of making the world a better place. It is definitely a very difficult and intimidating task. It made me wonder if I will ever get to be that teacher that I want to be, if I will manage to prevail against the many difficulties that a teacher faces. This goal will require a lifetime of work and self reflection.

Self reflection was actually one of the strong ideas in this chapter and an idea that grew even stronger in my mind this week while reading about racial awareness. Obviously this quarter we are going to talk a lot about reflection and we are going to reflect about our teaching ideals. I already feel that this reflection is helping me  to see better that image of the teacher that I want to be. The practical side of me is at the same time yearning to acquire the right tools that will allow me to be that ideal teacher. While this questioning and reflection is a necessary part of my becoming a teacher, I will not be complete until I find the answer to all my HOW questions. And they are growing in number day by day:

How do I become that ideal teacher?
How do I escape routine? How do I continually reinvent myself?
How do I teach ABOUT race and culture TO racially and culturally diverse students?
How do I get to know all my students, with their passions, aptitudes, skills and needs?
How do I teach to all these different sets of background, passion, skills and needs at the same time?
How do I do all these things at the same time while still following the rules imposed by the school district and the government? Etc etc

Racial Awareness for Teachers

    During my readings about racial and cultural awareness I encountered a new and interesting idea:   
"we teach who we are". I had not thought about teaching this way but it does make a lot of sense and it increases the responsibility of teachers while at the same time underlining the importance and necessity of self reflection. I have always felt that as a teacher you need to be able to go back over your actions and words and "dissect" them in a critical way. This reading made it that more obvious.

   The author himself (Howard-chapter 6) points out the difficulty of constantly reflecting upon our preconceptions about the world. First of all it is difficult to pinpoint them, then to avoid what he calls our "psychological immune system" and ultimately to change how we think and act.
   So who am I? What will the mirror of my soul reveal to the children that I will teach? How does the fact that I was born in East-Europe and lived there for the first 24 years of my life play into this? It is very difficult to find in me my opinions and preconceptions about race. My native country is surprisingly homogeneous: 97% of the population have the same race, ethnicity, language and religion. I moved to the US two years ago and found myself in schools and other educational settings in which the children come from such diverse backgrounds. There is great richness associated with this and a lot of potential problems too. So where do I stand on the subject of race? At the conscious level I do not feel myself holding any preconceptions but how do I find out if there is anything that I should face within me before going in front of a classroom? I do not know where to start my analysis and how to track my own racial identity.

   I was also thinking about the ways that I have been dealing with race at my workplace and in the schools where I volunteered. Unawares I did the mistake that Howard calls colorblindness: I treated everybody the same, I ignored the existence of racially different children in the groups I worked with. There were no hidden purposes to this but I just did not know how to approach the diversity in the classrooms. I did not know basic things like: is it polite to talk about somebody's race? It was refreshing to find out that YES, it is polite to talk about race, and more than that: we HAVE to talk about race, we have to acknowledge it because it is such a big part of our students' life. But now an even more difficult task looms before us: how do we talk about it, how do we approach it and how do I avoid being colorblind again?