Tuesday is voting day. I was one of 11,000 King County residents informed that my ballot was inadvertently not mailed on October 19th. As I was reading the assigned chapter in Walter C. Parker’s, Social Studies in Elementary Education this week, entitled “Democratic Citizenship Education,” my missing ballot came to mind. I began to see the connection. Children must be taught about civic responsibility, or they won’t know what they are missing. This includes teaching students about deliberation, what it means to vote responsibly, but another factor that Parker introduced was getting students to care.
I liked the way one teacher took care of this. Tarry Lindquist started her school year off by having her students brainstorm all the ways they could make their classroom a “terrible place, a place where no one would want to come, a place where we could guarantee no learning would occur,” (p. 85). Following their description, she then asked them how they would feel having to be in that kind of classroom all year. Her students couldn’t wait to reverse their list to create the opposite of that classroom.
Parker addressed voting, stating that elementary teachers should take every opportunity to involve their students in the voting process, including deliberation (p. 95). It continues to boggle my mind when I think that women, like myself, only received the right to vote less than one hundred years ago. I remember as an 18-year-old being so excited that I was part of the first group of 18-year-olds that were eligible to vote for the U.S. presidency. It made me feel so grown-up and excited to be given the privilege to vote.
Unfortunately, today I often see more apathy than enthusiasm, regarding the right to vote, than I did back in 1972 when I first voted. Parker brings out that a crisis often is the catalyst that diffuses apathy. In 1972, it was the Vietnam War. This last week my mini-crisis was realizing that if I did not receive my ballot, I was not sure if I would be able to vote. Needless to say, my family received our ballots a few days ago, but what if the error hadn’t been found, or what if it was intentional and never corrected? We teachers have the great opportunity to encourage democracy when we continue to make civic responsibility one subject we will always include.
There were six of us, and we signed up to research and present how teachers would use a resource guide to teach a third grade Social Studies lesson. Each group chose a different ethnic group to research. My group chose Hispanic Americans, but where would we start? Isn’t that often the hardest task, just beginning? One of our group members suggested opening up a Google Plus Circle so we could communicate with each other during the week, so we did. We did something! Now we could bounce our ideas off of each other in an open forum from anywhere at any time. We next checked out the third grade standards and found that in third grade, students learn that a community is made up of people from different cultures. That would be our focus – Hispanic American culture.
Our next task was to understand what a resource guide was. As we began, we realized that this was harder than we first thought. Does calling a resource guide make it one? What about sites that resemble a resource guide but are not called resource guides? We decided that calling a site a resource guide does not make it one. Our professor suggested a definition that made the most sense to me. It is a one-stop shop. A resource guide might contain primary documents that have been scanned, as well as secondary documents trying to explain those primary documents. There would definitely be links to other websites, and you might also find pdfs, pictures, graphs, maps, speeches, lesson plans, films, music, or even virtual field trips. The Internet has once again made an impact as it offers almost instant information at the touch of one's fingertips.
When we chose group roles, I volunteered to focus on finding appropriate EALRS and ideas for lesson plans. It turned out finding enough information was not a problem. Resource guides are filled with them. The problem seemed to be to limit the information and filter out the wealth of information one finds. I chose to focus on Jose Alamillo’s resource guide. Alamillo was born in Mexico but is currently the Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Chicano/a Studies Program at California State University Channel Islands. He’s also an author and researcher of Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans.
With Halloween approaching, I thought a focus on holidays might be appropriate and looked for two in particular, Cinco de Mayo and El Día de los Muertos. I was not disappointed. Not only did I find examples of celebrations, I also found commentaries on the commercialization of the holidays and an interdisciplinary lesson plan about El Día de los Muertos, including studying the bones of the human skeleton to go along with the art of skull etchings made famous by Jose Guadalupe Posada.
My research helped me to see more clearly how one culture can influence other cultures. Civics EALR 1.1.1 informs us that students need to learn how communities benefit when including people from diverse cultures. How do they learn? It might begin with talk. When teachers talk about what we value, students notice. As students see teachers valuing students’ different skills and strengths, students begin to appreciate them as well. Our little group demonstrated this as we chose different roles to do our research. One person explained who Hispanic Americans were and where they came from. Another explained different things that resource guides offer. Another showed examples of different kinds of resource guides, and yet another talked about the pros and cons. Our group worked together using our different strengths and skills, and it became a better presentation.
Utilizing each others’ strengths not only lightens the load, but the whole group benefits. The Bible compares this arrangement to being members of a body and asks us to consider what would happen if we all wanted to do the same thing. What if everyone wanted to be an ear or an eye, for example? We wouldn’t accomplish much; would we? We need all the parts working together to be a whole body (I Corinthians 12:14-20). Communities work the same way. We are a stronger community if we accept what we have to offer each other and work together. That became the focus of our presentation on Hispanic American culture.
I did it! I taught my first lesson in a junior high school. I admit I was quite nervous planning it, but ironically I kept hearing the song “Courageous” on the radio leading up to the experience, and the lyrics were becoming a mantra of sorts for me. Pastor John Hall and Matthew West wrote, “We were made to be courageous. We were made to lead the way. We could be the generation that finally breaks the chains.” Music has always been the modem that inspires me, and it was working.
My assignment was to choose an appropriate book to read as an interactive read-aloud to the eighth grade English class that I am currently working in as an intern. After talking with the teacher, I learned that they were going to be entering a unit on ethics, and he suggested I pick a short story that would be about a contemporary issue involving an ethical choice teens sometimes have to make. It wasn’t easy to find a short story like that, I found out. I checked the libraries and the Internet, but it began to look as if I would not be able to find an appropriate short story in time. I finally found it, though, and the way I found it seemed as providential to me as the song “Courageous” was.
I was driving home and saw a sign advertising a garage sale that was giving all of its profits toward pancreatic cancer research. Having lost my mother to pancreatic cancer, I couldn’t resist stopping. Sure enough, while there I found a large collection of books, one of which was Taste Berries for Teens. Somehow, I knew that this was the book I was looking for and bought it. Inside I found the story “Party On!” by 15-year-old Susan Hinkle, and it was just what I had been looking for.
Meanwhile, I knew that this was the last week my local movie theater was showing the movie the song “Courageous” was based on, so I decided to further prepare myself and went to see the movie. Sure enough, I found it even more inspiring than the song alone and knew I was ready. I wrote my lesson plan, organized some questions, and waited.
The class seemed to listen and respond well to both the story and my discussion questions, but I still had some doubts until I saw their papers. I had decided to give them a post-writing exercise as an informal assessment, asking them to respond to the question if they would be able to be like Susan, the main character in the story, and stand up to their friends if their friends were trying to get them to do something that they knew was wrong. To more accurately gauge them as a class, I asked them to not put their names on their papers, telling them it would not be graded. I just wanted to know what their responses were. I am a firm believer that it helps a person’s resolve to follow through with an action if they take the time to determine what that action will be ahead of time, like the “stop, drop, and roll” fire-safety technique. I hoped this would lead to similar positive results.
I knew I had accomplished my purpose when I read their papers. They showed that not only did they seem to grasp what it means to be an ethical person, but their comments made me feel like I had made a difference in their lives as well. The majority read something like these two: “Yes, because friends are people that stand up for you and that means you have to stand up for them and help them if they make the wrong choices,” and “I would be able to. My friends would listen to my ideas, and they wouldn’t be my friends if they didn’t.” Yes, there were a couple who said they would still go to the party, even when knowing their parents would not approve, but by far the majority felt they would make the ethical choice to do the right thing. Regardless of their choice, I knew the class had listened to my lesson about ethics, and I believe that is all a teacher can do, to be courageous, to lead the way.
Google wanted to know. Can learning how to blog change 12-year-old Makeal’s life, or anyone’s life for that matter? I wonder the same question for myself. Why do I blog? Will blogging have lasting ramifications for me or those who read my blogs?
Makeal, a 12-year-old boy living in E. Oakland, was part of a study to determine if learning how to blog can have an impact on low-income kids. He and his class were given the opportunity to be bussed weekly to the Google office in San Francisco to be taught how to blog. Did it make a difference in his life? Makeal says it did. For one, he got to pick his own topics, which excited him from the start. He chose his favorite past-time, skateboarding, but it was just one of the subjects he actually blogged about. It turned out blogging made Makeal realize he had thoughts about other things he’d like to share as well. Gaining confidence as he went, he began to share those other thoughts too.
Blogging did seem to have lasting ramifications for Makeal. He comes to school more regularly now and is recognizing he is learning useful skills, like the blogging, to open up new possibilities for his future. Currently, he can see himself as an architect, a skateboarder, video-game designer, or a firefighter. I love the way he doesn’t limit himself. He knows he could be any of those, because Google has already begun to teach him about succeeding in life.
Blogging may not be the cure-all, but it can open our lives to new possibilities, as Makeal is demonstrating. I will continue my blogging but can’t help but wonder, after seeing what Google did for Makeal, can Google help me too?
Autumn quarter has arrived and with it more opportunities for me to blog. In my tech class, we were asked to respond to a couple of videos showing the effect of technology on learning. The first one, The Machine is Us/ing Us showed a recent evolution of written communication. Beginning with stationary written text, it went on to become digital text with the invention of the computer, text able to be moved around within a document. The Internet then brought more changes, such as additional opportunities for movement with the invention of hyperlinks, interactive web sites, and blogs such as this one.
This progression reminds me of how excited I was years ago when I first noticed a shift in technology that affected me. I went from having a manual typewriter where I had to physically push the arm back to the left side when I reached the right margin of the page, to being able to push a button and see it done automatically. It was a huge advancement at the time. When the computer came, and all I had to do was continue typing for it to begin the next line, it was revolutionary. Technology has advanced quite a bit since then, and I feel that one advantage to becoming a teacher is the opportunity to continue to learn about new technology and move on with the times. I liked the video’s conclusion that technology now links people, not just information, but what about the people who are not computer savvy?
The second video, Sugatamitra: The Child Driven Education was fascinating to see in that it brought the focus back from the machine to the people, when it showed the power of children’s minds to learn how to operate a computer without having a teacher to teach them. This seemed to me to be an example of critical thinking in action. The children took creative risks and were able to master how to do things I have never even attempted to do. It made me realize a disadvantage I continue to live under. I wait for people to teach me technology. Why do I do that? I remember a teacher telling me in one of my first computer classes not to be afraid of the computer, that I wouldn’t break it. That is the way many of us digital immigrants (those who have not grown up using computers from childhood) have acted, and some of us continue to do so. I am working to overcome that fear, but it remains a struggle.
William Ayers brings up a related problem in his book, To Teach: the journey of a teacher. He calls it “working the gap” and describes it as a more difficult but necessary way. I have begun working as an intern in a public school and I am beginning to see the gap he describes. There are “too many kids, not enough time, too few resources,” etc. (pp. 137-138). But, we teachers can’t give up and take the easy path. If the children in the Sugatamitra video had ignored the computers that were left with them, and never put forth the energy and initiative required to learn about them, they would have remained ignorant and missed out on the joy of learning new things. I want to be the kind of teacher who doesn’t settle for passivity. I want to challenge my kids as Sugata Mitra did when he enticed the children by placing a computer in their midst. Whether there are English language learners, children having special needs, or even just those wanting to learn, I want to create an environment in my class that will nurture all their needs. Can it be done? Just as the written text has evolved, I hope my teaching will do the same.
In our health and fitness class, we kept a food journal for two weeks and wrote down everything we ate, as well as our physical activity. Because I have been part of Weight Watchers since August, I already had experience doing this and knew its value. I knew that writing down what is eaten also makes one more aware of the quantity eaten, especially regarding snacking. A taste here or handful there adds up. Because I had reached my weight goal before this activity, I continued maintaining my weight loss and succeeded. My written goal was to exercise for three to four times a week for at least 30 minutes at a time. The irony of this is that I have been a regular jogger for the last thirty years, but the schoolwork this quarter has kept me busier than normal and reduced my jogging time. Because of this, I have tried new methods to keep active, believing that any action is better than no action. One way I changed was to do some of my required readings while walking my dog. I found securing them to a clipboard helps, especially when windy. I glance up frequently to avoid accidents and have found that this also helps my comprehension, as I am less likely to get sleepy while reading when walking. I usually read for about an hour at home, head out to walk and read for the next hour, and then read the rest when I return or save it for a later time. It has helped me to stay active and achieve my goal.
I can see myself in the future assigning my students to keep a similar food/fitness journal and encouraging them to think about what they are able to do and do it. If I do not have dedicated time to teach health, I could use this as an interdisciplinary activity. For science, I would suggest they take hikes or walks with their parents so they can draw pictures of wildlife and nature and write about their observations or learn the names of local flowers and trees. For creative writing, they could write imaginary stories of the wildlife they observe, such as a day in the life of a squirrel or bird. Even math can include a neighborhood walk to find different geometric shapes, such as people’s houses and yards, or estimate the percentage of a house in relation to its yard. If journals are kept for a month or longer, one can concentrate on long-term goals and their progress. For instance, if one could do five push-ups, that child might work up to doing twenty after a month. The teacher should help the child determine reasonable goals and approve them before the child begins. These should also be pre-approved by the parents. Whether they walk their dogs, ride bikes, play sports, or take walks with their family or friends, I’d teach them what I have observed, that physical activity increases cognitive performance.
This was the last day of my health class, and I was part of a group that led a micro-teaching on the short-term effects of alcohol geared toward an eighth grade class. Four of us presented the lesson. We all had strong opinions of what should be taught, which became challenging at times, but it managed to come together as a presentation representative of each of our teaching styles. I think this made for a good variety of information, and the class seemed to enjoy it. My responsibility was to lead a discussion to pre-assess the class and help them to think about what it means to be drunk. I asked them to think about someone they may have observed in person, on TV, or in a movie and describe what they noticed about that person. They came up with descriptive words like “silly,” “vomiting,” “erratic behavior,” and “loud.” We mentioned that being drunk often looks different in real life than it does on TV and defined drunk as being affected by alcohol to the extent of losing control over one’s body and behavior. Our group followed this up by having everyone wear special goggles that simulated being drunk. All had difficulty walking a straight line, and some were noticeably wobbling as well. This helped them to see what being out of control was like and helped the issue to be more real to them.
I enjoyed leading the discussion and felt very comfortable in that role but wondered how much freedom I should allow the students in their discussion. When one student began sharing that she had observed her dad being drunk, I felt that that shouldn’t have been shared with the class but didn’t want to embarrass the student by admonishing her. I felt instead that that was my fault for not having warned the class to not share personal details. Later, when the class gave their feedback on my presentation to this make-believe eighth grade class, one of my classmates brought that up and clarified for me that I should have told them at the beginning to not share personal details with the class. This was very helpful to me, and I will try to remember to do that in the future when we will be discussing issues where students might be tempted to share personal stories. I might also add that if they do want to share a private story that they would need to use pseudonyms when discussing events that others might prefer to keep private.
