Schools That Learn

Over the course of the past two years I have, off and on, read the book Schools That Learn by Peter Senge. Initially I found the book extremely difficult to get through, and I really could not stand having to read it. It was only once I got past the initial chapter and primer and began to read the vignettes, when I began to see the value that this book held for me as an educator; especially as an educator that was currently in a situation where I was beginning to doubt my future in the field of education.

Last year I chose to focus more on the community aspect of the book, as it tied in very well with my EEVC; while this year my focus was spread between the Classroom and School sections. The topics that I have read recently were in the following subsections: Productive Classroom, School Vision and Current Reality. The following three paragraphs are my responses to three of the vignettes that I read. I found this vignettes to be the most meaningful to me at this time in my career.

“Educating All the City’s Children”

I teach in the inner city. The vignette, “Educating All the City’s Children” caught my attention for that very reason. The New York City school system is quite interesting, and in theory gives the students more opportunities than they would have in almost any other school district. While I was reading this vignette, I couldn’t help but think that the school system that they were designing was very similar to what we have here in NYC. The students and parents are given choices as to what type of curriculum they want their child to study, and what type of school they want their child to go to. Based on that information they have the opportunity to choose a school to fit their needs. I hope the goals laid out by the Memphis School District of having “high standards” for all students are upheld and do now end up falling by the wayside as they did in NYC.

“Triangle of Design, Circle of Culture”

I teach in New York City. My school is not the greatest. In fact it is far from it! To remedy this situation the NYC DOE has created a system of Checks and Balances (if you will) to identify what schools (we are not just talking about my school we are talking about the 1,499 schools citywide) that are in need of added assistance. This vignette explains that “a school’s culture is not static” and gives examples of what a healthy school community looks like. As I read these examples, I could not help but feel more frustrated in my current position. For almost each and every item, my school does the opposite.

“Shifting the Burden”

“Teaching to the test,” is a term that is heard in many schools. The writers of this section addressed the way that many schools view standardized tests, and how they tackle this preparation through their curriculum. The fact of the matter is that because of the way that the tests are put forth, often schools feel that their only course of action is the “quick fix”. In this scenario (which should seem all too familiar to many) once testing nears, schools turn their classes into test-prep factories. The writers show that while this solution does work to a certain extent, it is not wholly effective. In the end, everyone ends up getting hurt. In my school, come the middle of November they decide that it is time to begin prepping for the NYS ELA exam. At that point the regular curriculum gets put away and all that is done is straight test-prep. A new prototype is given out to all teachers (even those that do not teach ELA). This prototype tells us what must be done at all times. For example, on Monday we focus on multiple choice strategies, on Tuesday we focus on short answer questions . . . even non-ELA teachers are required to follow this rigid test-prep schedule. Any deviation from the schedule you risk being written up. Finally the writers present a less forceful approach, which they call the fundamental solution loop. While the long-term effects of this model are better, the fact that it takes a while to reach these effects, many schools, like mine, opt for the “quick fix.” In the fundamental solution loop the schools aren’t necessarily “teaching to the test,” but paving “the way for longer-term investments in student learning.”

Flash

Up to now the extent of my Flash usage has been pretty minimal. It has been primarily contained to computer games (yes I’m a gamer) and the occasional website that has a flashy header (pun intended) or annoying advertisements. Even though I knew I’d learn tons more about computers, I don’t think I ever thought I’d learn how to make Flash animation. My first attempt at it was extremely poor, and has absolutely no place in the classroom. It literally shows a ball bouncing around the screen, and a blue hand (if you can call it that) chasing it.

As an educator, I know the value of Flash in the classroom. The textbook that I use for ELA, WriteSource contains a CD that has a number of Flash animation exercises that my students do enjoy playing. We run it as a game, and give the students turns up at the SMARTBoard. I love giving my students the opportunity to play with educational games, and explore in ways that I did not have.

I hope that soon my skills with Flash improve somewhat so that what I create is a little bit better than my first attempt; however, I do not think that anything I make will ever compare to Carnegie Hall Listening Adventures, which I think would be an absolutely amazing resource for a music teacher. It broke the piece down, and assigned visuals to each individual selection.

Project-Based Learning: Module 1 Assignment

There are times over the past year and a half that I have been forced to look at myself through a different lens than the rest of the TEAM I am younger than most of you. For many of you, this is your second Masters; this is my first. I remember using technology when I was in middle school, and I remember the birth (per say) of Project-Based Learning. As a middle school student, in one of the best districts on Long Island, I thought it was terrible. I remember them giving us all of these assignments with little guidance, and expecting us to do mountains of work. That was back before things were really fully thought out.

Now, as a teacher in a school where nothing is ideal, I still am not a fan, but for very different reasons. I watched the three videos from Edutopia, and the second one actually made me quite angry. In that video I saw something that I never see in my classroom; I saw students who cared about their work, students who cared about the world around them, cared about how others viewed them. Last week, I gave my students an assignment that I thought they would enjoy and have very little trouble with, since they were all extremely excited about the inauguration of President Obama, I decided that we would write business letters to the President explaining why his presidency is important to us. Few of my students, could even give one reason why it was important…I had to prompt them that it was important that he was the first African American President. In this type of environment, it is very difficult for me to be excited about anything, especially something that requires the students to generate the learning. Maybe next year, Project-Based Learning will sit better with me…