mcclishs’ Neighborhood

This reminds me of the "We are the Fighting Irish" ads they play during ND football games.  Danielle Hall, Notre Dame and MTC alum, is featured in this recruitment/information video about the Mississippi Teacher Corps:

Even in my second year, 'successful' is not an adjective that I would use to describe my teaching practice. 'Effective' is the more contextually appropriate word, but neither can this be absolutely claimed. Teaching continues to be trying, strengthening, humbling, often rewarding, but 'successful' is something that it is not.   For this reason, I look for the measurable gains in my individual students reading and writing ability in order to glimpse even the smallest semblance of success.  

In the interest of privacy, I'll call my student Mariah.  I received Mariah as a 15 year old 7th grade student who been absent for over a month of school the previous year during which time she was reported as a 'missing child'  for having allegedly ran off with an older man.  While, I am always of the belief that it is best to dismiss a student's past behavior history and receive them with new hope and new expectations it is more often than not that the student isn't far removed from their past which moreover informs the present, the student standing right there in front of you today.  When Mariah would verbally and  physically ( attempt to grab my hair) without any reservation or thought as to what might be the consequences, I realized that she had been shoved face to face with the crudeness of life and in comparsion, I was of no consequence whatsoever.

Although I consistently documented her behavior, administered her consequences, contacted her mother, and followed every other established protocol for following this behavior- I will not pretend to be at all responsible for her eventual turn-around.  Rarely, does a student wake up one day, have an epiphany, and commit to changing their ways. This , however, is exactly how it seemed to happen to Mariah.  It was the week of her birthday that I remember this sudden change in disposition, work habits, social interaction, ect.  Perhaps, the sobering anticipation of her turning 16 inspired this change, but whatever it was, the moment that I noticed even her most subtle effort to comply and respect, I acknowledged it, thank her, and indirectly prompted her to reflect on the difference between her current and former behavior.  The day of Mariah's birthday, I handed her a birthday/ thank you card that specifically acknowledged what I had noticed, what I had always believed she was capable of, and my conviction of how she would continue to succeed in the future.  Mariah received this not with the timid embarrassment of most students who are  acknowledged for doing the 'right thing', but with glowing pride.   From that day forward, she continued to be a model student and channel her aggression, defensiveness, and hurt into the stimulus for emotion-filled, poignant free-writing. It gets even better...

Mariah loves to write, and she loves being complimented on her writing even more. This was not mere flattery, however, as I reserved my praise for those pieces that were truly exemplary.  There was one poem, in particular, that was truly captivating and I truly believed that if entered in a contest or literary magazine, would be published. Jade was ecstatic at even the possibility of entering the contest and agreed to continue working with me to get it ready for publishing.  The next few afternoons that we spent together, exchanging both verbal and written words, serve as one of the highlights of this past year, and moreover my lifetime.  This in and of itself would have been a success, but it gets better... I mailed in her poem that Friday and three weeks later we were informed that Mariah received an honorble mention and a spot in the next issue!  It didn't matter that she didn't 'win,'  receive any monetary award, or even place.  The mere mention of her name and presentation of her poem in a magazine was enought to leave Mariah with an unabated glow that painted her face for the next three weeks.  This in and of itself was infinitely rewarding so that when Mariah's guardian-(aunt) came to personally thank me- it was no longer conceivable as to how I should be thanked, becuase truly, this was my privilege for which I have the utmost gratitude.

  Sir Ken Robinson defines creativity as “the process of having original ideas that create value”. He reiterates that it is a process and not a random act of inspiration, and that it needs to prove its worth. He points out that creativity is not the opposite to formality – instead a mixture of discipline and space to innovate are required. Robinson contends that “creativity is as important as literacy and should be treated as such.” Our schools are currently designed, like he said, in a hierarchy, in which specific skills, namely math and languages, are valued over others.
 Sir Robinson mentioned a couple reasons why having this hierarchy is ridiculous:

• The purpose of education shouldn't be to get into college.

• Believe in high standards does not mean education has to be standardized.

• We don't need to reform education -- we need to transform it.

• Creativity is a part of not apart from intelligence.

• We don't grow in to creativity, we get educated out of it.                                                                                                                                                                                                         One of the reasons why an academic hierarchy is ultimately futile is because people cannot accurately assign value to skills that may or may not be valuable in 30, 20, or even 10 years. If we cannot accurately assess what skills children will need for the future- how can we place a value or emphasis on any particular skill now?                                         Sir Robinson further ridiculed the stress we place on children to be right and not make mistakes. Children, and people in general, need to be willing to make mistakes in order to create an innovation. In fact, some of the most well-known products (penicillin, coca-cola, etc) are the results of what was initially a 'mistake.' This all-out rejection of mistakes stifles creativity, perhaps, more than any one factor in our schools and in society.                                                                                                                                                                          
  

By finding new ways to praise children’s efforts and ideas, and less ways to assess them on their mistakes, we will embrace the initiative to rethink the fundamental ways we educate children in the context of their endlessly, vast capabilities.

          There are several points in Arne's Duncan's speech of which I dissent, however the overarching purpose: a plead to realize the urgency through which educational reformation must take place, is immediately and timelessly relevant.

“By almost any standard,” Duncan told a Columbia University audience of students, teachers, and faculty, “many if not most of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom.” While this statement is unequivocally true, Duncan's failure to state what specific component is 'mediocre' renders the potential effectiveness of the statement itself-at best mediocre.  The abstractness of this earlier, 'mediocrity' claim is indicative of the circumlocutory speech that merely calls for, rather than offers a solution. Duncan does, however, reference what he considers 'pristine' models of schools of education. The shared characteristic that contributes to each of these programs' effectiveness is the central emphasis of a practicum or field experience.

To this end, I consider myself blessed to be a part of an equally propitious program- Mississippi Teacher Corps. Being able to immediately introduce the practical components of 'Advanced Methods in English' to my seventh grade class only two days after receiving instruction, both actualizes coursework and prevents instruction from becoming at all theoretical. Taking this course in preparation, rather than in conjunction with teaching would not have rendered the same lucrative advantage.

In especially the 21^st century, teacher roles and responsibilities are ever-more demanding. At a time when teachers are required to not only instruct, but moreover be TST coordinators, committee coordinators, parent-teacher coordinators, behavior incentive activity coordinators, academic and behavior interventionists, as well as psychologists and/or (at times) social workers, not to mention literacy and exceptional education specialists - preparation today needs to require students to teach while receiving training. Preparation should include training in how to differentiate instruction and how to provide advisory services to students. The best training in this type of individualized education is not conceptual, but rather requires the teacher to regularly implement and actualize differentiated instructional practices with each of their students.

Critics of teacher preparation programs say that current teacher-training programs are too heavily steeped in theory and not useful in the classroom. They say that those who teach in schools of education are clueless about how to reach children with dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, Asperger’s syndrome or other learning challenges. To this end, Duncan understands that the only way to evaluate a teacher-training program is to look at how the teachers perform once in the classroom; the only way to do that is to measure how the students are doing.

With so much scrutiny aimed at measuring student performance from kindergarten to high school, many education schools never get around to asking the high-stakes questions about how well teachers are doing in their profession, where they received their training, how much they learned, and what can be improved. Until we start scrutinizing this part of the process, and look at who is teaching the teachers, we’ll never empower students to reach their academic potential and create a workforce that is globally competitive.

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

TypePad Micro

8 comments

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy

"The idea is that students will rise to whatever your expectations are, no matter how high they are."

 This sentiment, ruminated by TFA alumni, Gary Rubinstein and endlessly quoted as an 'one-size fits all'  amelioration of student failure- is just that- an 'idea.'  This in itself, speaks to its overt fallibility.
Gary Rubinstein argues  “....when you make things too complicated, students don't rise to your 'high expectations,' they lose confidence in themselves and, more importantly, they lose confidence in the ability of their teacher.  Once they decide that their teacher is not competent enough to make 'appropriate level' lessons, they stop listening, start talking, and make it impossible to teach."

The preceding statement simultaneously identifies the cause  as being a teacher 's poor pedagogical awareness and the effect as being poor student performance. Here, the cliché, “it takes one to no one,” shamefully holds true for me.  I have been that teacher.
 As such, however, I have come to distinguish between “mak[ing] things too complicated”  and raising your expectations - they are not one in the same. Neither are 'expectations' synonymous with 'standards.'  The incisive directive with which Ben Guest so purposefully equipped us, “Release yourself of all expectations,” is timeless and true.
While expectations are tailored to the individual and often perpetuated into lofty ideals, standards should have uniformity and are (intended to be) aligned with a state, national, or otherwise accountability factor.
To this end, 'Freedom Writers,' the very movie that Rubinstein (incorrectly) cites as promoting an 'unrealistic expectations sentiment,'  actually evidences the case for realistic standards, not high expectations. 
Although unrealistic in the movie's  'feel good' ending, the teacher, Ms. Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) in no way, blithely upholds expectations (that are invalidated even as she attempts to teach internal rhyme using Tupak Shakur.)  Rather, she actively reflects and re-evaluates until she achieves a psycho-social, pedagogical, and otherwise awareness of her students.
It is only now, in the context of an acquired awareness of our  students' reality, may we, like Ms. Gruwell, allow this awareness to inform what must be consistently realistic expectations and relevant standards.