April 8, 2013

As I was researching current opportunities in urban education, I came across the Urban League of Greater Hartford (Connecticut, which is where I live).  According to the League, 94% of seniors in the Hartford Public Schools graduated from high school.  Ninety percent of graduates enrolled in post secondary education.  In fact, the league offers college counseling, assistance in completing financial aid, and assistance with college applications.  They offer workshops and tours of colleges and universities.  As I looked into this organization further, I learned that they encourage self-sufficiency and family economic success.  For 10-17 year olds, they offer a substance abuse program.  Some may believe that 10 years old is too young, but substance abuse is a sad reality for some children this age.
For students, they provide after school tutoring and enrichment.  For parents, they offer literacy training, GED preparation, and career/college transition services. I do wonder how many of these students actually graduate from college, but the number of students who graduate from high school seems like a great success.

April 1st

Today, I read about the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) project.  Congress provided $70 million to 4600 low-income U.S. families with children living in public housing within some of the worst disadvantaged urban neighborhoods.  These families were assigned to one of three groups: a group that was offered a housing voucher to be used in a low-poverty neighborhood, a group that offered a voucher to live in a Section 8 area, and a control group.  In terms of education, the thought was that the neighborhood conditions would have a positive impact on students' education.  The 10-15 year follow up showed that physical and mental health improved in adults.  However, for youth, the program had no effect on physical health, improved mental health for females only, had little impact on arrests, and had no effects  on math or reading achievement.  From what I've read, parents were spending more time commuting to work and were more focused on the fact that these neighborhoods were safe, rather than the benefits of the school system.  What do you think?

March blog

This week, I went back over the questionnaire that we took during the first week of class and considered if I would change any of my initial answers based on what I've learned in this course so far.  For example, in response to the statement "It is not fair to ask those who are struggling with English to take on challenging assignments," I replied "Agree."  I think I would like to change my answer to "somewhat agree."  I believe that ESL students should be presented with comprehensible input that is somewhat challenging so that they may progress to the next level.  Also, to this statement, "Students of different races and ethnicity often have different learning styles and good teachers will match their instruction to these learning styles," I replied "disagree."  I'm not sure if I meant to write agree, but I definitely do agree with the statement.  The content delivered should reflect standards.  However, the method of the delivery should address individual learning styles.  Finally, I agreed with the statement that "With all the pressures to raise student achievement, finding and using examples for the cultural, historic and everyday lived experiences of my students takes away valuable time from teaching and learning."  That is the statement that I'm most disappointed about agreeing with.  I now know that not incorporating culture into the curriculum does a major disservice to those students of other cultures, which could make them feel undervalued and unmotivated.

2/25/13

It has been a long while since I've taught in an urban setting, but today's readings brought back a lot of the joys, successes, and failures I've had in that environment.  I set out as a naive 24 year old with no teaching experience, and over the course of a year was able to become extremely successful in classroom management.  The article put it perfectly when referring to it as "tough love."  Students need direct commands and clear expectations, but they also need to know that they are cared for.  When my long-term substitute teaching assignment was over, I took my class out for dinner.  They had selected a buffet.  I don't know if I was supposed to do that or not, but I was no longer affiliated with the school and I had all of their parent's permission.  We laughed and had a great time.  I would like to be influential like this again.  I am pursuing a teaching position with NYC schools and would love to implement what I've learned and what I've become good at, while learning much more.

2/18/13

I sort of hit a road block while completing Module 6.  While reading the section on the relevance of diversity, I found myself really questioning if I even find the relevance in it.  To a certain extent, of course I do!  I believe that when working in an Urban environment, it is essential to include diversity in the curriculum, especially if textbooks are focused on White achievements and ways of life.  However, when placed in a school setting where most of the students are White, and the diverse students are happy being segregated into their own cliques, then how would I break down barriers between these students to see past their differences in race and culture and to see similarities in struggles, in what they enjoy, and in their life experiences?  Most of the students that I have worked with have moaned and groaned about being placed in groups with students that they would not normally associate with.  Even if I do make progress in the classroom, does this extend outside of the classroom?  I once opened up the classroom to comments and thoughts about President Obama's re-election.  It turned into a Black vs. White battle and students were making discriminatory comments like "I'm not prejudice but, ..."  I guess furthering my experiences will help me to find the answers to my questions. 

02/04/13

Over the last three years, I've taken many courses in my teacher training program.  One thing I've noticed is that I've learned many strategies for working with ESL, gifted, urban, low SES, culturally diverse students, and so on.  However, these strategies have been very general and somewhat superficial.  For example, I've been given suggestions such as "create respect, let the students see you as a real person, and create empathy among students."  I agree that these all seem to be effective and beneficial, but I would like to learn specific ways that teachers have been able to accomplish these goals.  I am also curious as to how teachers effectively recognize a student's culture in lessons.  During my student teaching internship (World History), I did not find an opportunity to incorporate any of these strategies.  I'm open to suggestions!