Self Reflection

I really had no expectations for this class other than I knew we were going to be working out in the field with urban schools. I really wanted to see exactly what this urban myth of inner city schools was all about because I never got to see the one in person. Now that I have been able to see what the some urban schools are like in person I have wiped most of my assumptions of urban schools out.

My biggest personal challenge of this term was to try and erase all my preconceived notions about what urban education is all about. To be honest my biggest accomplishment was that I think that I have taken great strides to be able to say I will be able to teach in an urban setting with a blank slate and not bring any of my incorrect ideas into my classroom environment.

Well like I have noted above I believe that in order to be a successful in urban schools is to have open mind, a lot of creativity and to be fair and honest with your students. I also believe from what I have learned in the class discussions mainly is to be able to work the system, find ways to get your students and you as a teacher what you and them both need in order to be successful. Since if have just found out that I will most likely be doing my student teaching in University High in Newark I will have a much better look into what it really takes to become a good urban educator. However, the things that I will bring on my journey as a teacher hopefully all those previously mentioned successful traits of an urban teacher and really an educator in general.

The most helpful thing that learning about urban schools and working in urban communities were probably the discussions about how the system works and to realize that you will need to know this in order to get certain things accomplished. I think that the class could have been a little more spread out over time. I feel that the trip to Newark was so time constrained and there may not have been enough preparation time to go into Newark schools ask questions that would have been a little more useful to me and my future experiences. I just feel that the course flew by and since urban schools is so unfamiliar to me it was a lot to take in over really less than four week course, but that just might be talking. I think the most helpful reading was “The Pedagogy of Poverty versus good teaching” it was a good reinforcement of what good teaching is and also an insight to what some urban education is may be like I might have liked to read something more about history of urban schools at the beginning of the semester. I think everything we did in class was pretty good maybe we could have had less discussion and some more informative instructive learning about urban since it seemed with the exception of a few of the students in the class there was very little first hand urban education experience. I would have liked to know more about the techniques of what works in an urban classroom and what doesn’t. It just seems that there could and should be a couple other courses on Urban Education in the MAT program other than just this one. That is if you ask me for someone who is going to student teaching in an urban setting and hopefully teaching in one afterwards in Monmouth County.

NCTM (National Council Of Teachers Of Mathematics

I was browsing around on the internet to find some stuff about math and some suggestions about good strategies and methods for becoming a good math teachers and stumbled upon what looks like a great website for not only mathematics but teaching in general. There is a bunch of information on this it talks about everything from how much how work to give to whole lesson plans.

I particularly fell in love with this one page where it addresses what most of us in class thought was a major part of becoming a successful teacher in any school set not to mention urban, which is getting the parents involved. The web address to this page alone is: http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=6340 It mentions stuff like creating an email address account just for the parents, create post cards to send to the parents and stuff like have a family day for math etc. One of my favorite things it mentioned was to try and recruit parents as tutors or helpers in the classroom once in a while if possible to serve as support for their child and other students.

It is just the tip of the iceburg as far as parent involvement goes but it does start the ball rolling. Remember the first step is breaking the ice and just making contact with an open hand is crucial. If anyone else has some good ideas please feel free to leave any suggestions.

Web address to MCTM: http://www.nctm.org/

Education Equality Project

I read an article called Achievement Gap "Shocking" from Teacher Magazine it was published June 11, 2008. It is about the forming of a group which meaning is to shake up things in the public education system, particular in poorer Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. It is being started up by the top administrators from Washington D.C. and New York City schools systems along with Al Sharpton. There main goal is to raise overall achievement of Black and Hispanic students to the level of there
counterpart White students.

“Nationally, 55 percent of black males graduate high school on time, compared to about 78 percent for whites, according to recent data released by Education Week with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”

Though they have nice goals and are after the right things they have not yet described how they plan on doing so or even say where they would like to start. However, I feel just to say something about this topic and to have it be brought to the national media level is a good thing even though there is no real plan set forth to achieve these things they are talking about.

“The group has yet to advocate any specific policies it wants to see enacted, but in general its leading members said they want to see greater accountability from teachers, more incentives to reward success, and greater parental responsibility for educating children.”

The below quote brings to mind something that we talked about in class the other day how the better funded schools districts are better off than the poorer ones. It made me think of the Abbott school districts that we have in New Jersey. I was wondering if there are any other plans out there to help the less wealthy school districts in other states. This may be something that the group should look at first.

“Rhee noted that in her city, children who go to public schools in an affluent neighborhood get a "wildly different" education than students in the same school system who live in a poorer neighborhood.”

All quotes are from the following article located at link below. Please read on if interested. http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2008/06/11/08achievementgap_ap.h19.html

Relating Math to Everyday Life Challenges

The title of this article I read is “Neb. Math Teacher Honored for Method” from The Associated Press. It talks about how this teacher named, Missy Mahoney, was awarded Nebraska Association of Middle Level Education Award of Excellence. I can with some sort of confidence assume that this teacher is not from an urban school due to the school being out in Nebraska. However, I don’t want to talk about where the school is located I would like to talk about how she has come to be on this level of teaching in her subject which happens to be the same as my subject area, Math.

Mahoney has been awarded this because of her methods of teaching which I hope can as be translated to urban schools as well. Her methods are to relate all her teachings to everyday life situations that she knows that her students face.

“She said part of that includes helping students see how the math concepts they learn in the classroom will apply to everything they do in life, such as talking about sales tax with shopping, interest rates on a car loan or leaving a tip when they go out to eat.”

I feel my challenge as an urban teacher would be to try and find those relationships to what an everyday urban student goes through since I have no experience in an urban environment myself. I am not sure if she would be as successful in a school where she does not know her student population as well. I assume that is the job of the teacher to learn their students and what type of things they like to do. I do on the other hand think that this is the best way to teach the subject of math. In order to be successful in the field of mathematics you have to have the students be able to recognize where they can use this in their current or future lives.

Article located at: http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2008/05/28/08mathmethods_ap.h19.html?qs=math

Only the Strong

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4221174041/

One of my favorite movies of all time is “Only the Strong” it is about a former graduate of the Lincoln High School who comes back from the marines to try and give back what he has learned, as far as discipline and respect. He chooses to help the 12 worst students at his old high school with the help from a few teachers and the disdain from the administration. He teaches them that there is more to life than gangs and drugs. In the end all the students gain the respect from each other and to my surprise the administration comes around and sees the good in what this teacher has done for those students who they have deemed to be unreachable by “standard teaching” methods.

As you can see just from the above trailer alone it depicts the students at the school as trash talking, weapon slinging students who don’t want to learn and who could not care a bit about the teachers trying to teach them. It depicts the students all in gangs and drugs. I know that the media, especially movies such as: Only the Strong, Dangerous Minds, Sunset Park and all of the Substitute movies have definitely had a major impact on my assumptions of what not only the urban school and the classroom itself but of students as well. After taking this class, I feel, to assume that every kid in an urban school is in a gang or on drugs is not fair or true.

Bon Jovi Gives Back to Newark

Newark School Visits Tues. June 3

During my visits today one thing jumped out at me right away. It was how quiet the school actually was both in the halls and in the individual classrooms, well at least the classrooms I visited. It was shocking to me at least because from what I remember from school is kids talking really loud and teachers yelling to get control of the students. In these schools today the students seemed very well behaved and under control, meaning they are attentive and not being rude to one another when speaking and listening.

Moving on, another thing that I noticed was the commitment and enjoyment that I heard and saw with all the teachers we met today. I was not surprised to see and hear this from the teachers but happy and excited to think that yes there are teachers who enjoy teaching and thrive doing so. It in some way gives me confidence to be able to go and teach and be happy. I also believe if I go into teaching for the same reasons why the teachers that we talked with today did, which is for the kids, then I will have the same emotional fulfillment and excitement in my career.

I was overall very happy that I was able to visit these schools today. Everyone was very nice and generous to us. The kids seemed very excited to see us as well. I can’t wait for tomorrow to see some more dedicated teachers and inspiring students at work.

Assumptions Paper

I try to dive into my thoughts of what I consider an urban school setting to be, I think back upon any personal interaction I may have had with a school that is in fact considered urban. I then think about any relations I might have had with a teacher, student or even peer who has had any first hand experience within an urban school. I next think if and how any media sources may have shaped my views about urban schools. Finally, turn towards my own feelings and any influence my family and or immediate friends may have had on my views.

After thinking about all those influences, I have come to one clear conclusion about urban schools I am confused of what my opinions are about them. I have acquired various assumptions over the years my first thoughts were from my first hand personal interactions. From these interactions I assume all urban schools are highly crowded, little diversity among the students and very poorly funded, I believe this because of my few experiences in them they were in shambles and literally falling apart. There is another major influence on my views of urban schools which are my relationships I have with people that are actually in or were in an urban setting for some time. These people I feel are the major contributors to my assumptions and beliefs about urban schools. Due to their ideas of what the schools are about I feel that urban schools are not that much different from the suburban schools I have grown up in all my life. I feel that the students at urban schools want to learn as much as possible and they are motivated in and out of the classroom. From what I understand it is up to the teacher to foster these feelings the students have and to build upon them with the aim of getting the most out of the students. This brings me to my next concept of urban schools, the teachers, most of my relationships with people involved in urban schools were at one point or are still teachers, so my views may be a little bias. I assume that all teachers in urban schools want to get the most out of the students and try very hard to do so, but the administration makes it very hard with little or no support neither in funding or discipline. As supported below from our reading, The Promise of Urban Schools by Senior Fellows.

“Effective classroom teaching practices are directly influenced by the degree to which the adults in schools are encouraged and supported to develop professional resource and learning communities. This is an issue of educators’ agency and of equitable allocation of resources to urban schools to support sustained, high-quality professional development and professional working conditions.”(pg 8)

I now turn my attention to the any media sources that may have played a factor in some more assumptions of urban schools I may have. Some things that I feel are probably very prevalent in urban schools because of what I hear on the news and see in movies are gangs, weapons and a lot of drugs. I know that this sounds crazy but every time you see anything about an urban school on the news they are talking about a student stabbing someone else or a gun is found in a student’s locker. Things like this are hard for someone like myself who has never really had any sufficient amount of time in an urban school setting to turn away from and not think that stuff like this happens in every urban school district.

I know that close friends and family have also played a role in my assumptions of urban schools but I see it as a small role I feel, because not one of my friends and family come from or have had any real experience in an urban school. These types of assumptions are more about the people that are in the schools like the students and teachers, for example we see that many of the urban schools, we assume, are populated with majority of African Americans and Latinos. This is what we mainly talk about among each other how these students are all deprived and poorly educated not because they choose to be but because of the school systems they are in.

One of the major things I can see my interactions being in an urban school is how I deal with administration. I think because of what I feel and assume about them I would probably be more proactive in trying to get support for the teachers. I would definitely not take no for answer when proposing things such as better discipline policies and training programs for teachers. Another thing that I think would be a major role I see myself taking on would be as a teacher leader, hopefully motivating and providing other teachers strategies and techniques for improving their student’s performance in and out of the classroom. Lastly, and most importantly I hope to leave all my assumptions aside when I deal with the students in an urban setting. I definitely feel that there is no way students will want to learn if they already know that you have all these preconceived notions about them. They will not be able to trust you and therefore and believe that you have their best interests in mind. “Our only recourse is to change ourselves: our preconceived (conscious and unconscious) derogatory perceptions about our students and, most important, our will to effectively educate our students.” (Preparing Teachers for "Monday Morning" in the Urban School Classroom: Reflecting on Our Pedagogies and Practices as Effective Teacher Educators pg 251)

I will take all these ideas into consideration when I am conducting my classroom. I will have my students become more aware of what is available to them, in regards to educational resources; how they can attain them and hopefully show them that they will become more prepared for life in doing so. “The teacher’s role is to identify and direct students to resources, to provide shared opportunities to build background knowledge and skills, and to assist children to learn from one another and to remain focused on the questions they generate individually and as a group.”( The Promise of Urban Schools by Senior Fellows pg 7) I will not let my attitudes and beliefs towards urban schools in any way hinder the educational progress of my students. I feel that my classrooms will foster intellectual growth that will eventually coincide with student success. I hope to do this by creating a relaxed and informal atmosphere, which I assume is not like the one they live in outside of the school setting. My intention in establishing this environment is to allow the students to let their guard down and accept and contribute to the topics of discussion.

“The few urban schools that serve as models of student learning have teachers who maintain control by establishing trust and involving their students in meaningful activities rather than by imposing some neat system of classroom discipline. For genuinely effective urban teachers, discipline and control are primarily a consequence of their teaching and not a prerequisite condition of learning.”( The Pedagogy of Poverty Versus Good Teaching by Martin Haberman pg 5)

In conclusion I feel that it is ultimately up to the teacher to obtain the most from their students. I feel that this is done by not depending on what you think the students might do or how they might act, but by realizing that just because they are in an urban school setting does not mean they are not willing and capable of performing same or even better than any other students in the country. Is it possible to leave all your assumptions at the door when you walk into an urban, or for that matter any school setting to teach? I have yet to truly tell myself yes, however I know that I will have to do so in order to become a good educator anywhere.

Preparing Teachers for "Monday Morning" in the Urban School Classroom: Reflecting on Our Pedagogies and Practices as Effective Teacher Educators

From what I got out of this reading is that in order to succeed as an urban educator you have to go into the classroom with an open mind. It would be unjust to the students if you brought your assumptions of the economically deprived with you into the classroom. When you don’t bring those ideas with you into the classroom there is a much better chance of success and acceptance with the students. There is a good summation of my previously noted ideas that is stated in the reading as follows, “Our only recourse is to change ourselves: our preconceived (conscious and unconscious) derogatory perceptions about our students and, most important, our will to effectively educate our students.” You will be need to realize that you will be entering an unconformable territory especially for some who did not grow up into this particular environment but one can not let that affect your teaching. You will be doing a disservice to the kids if you are afraid to be your true self.

In conclusion I believe to truly be a good teacher in an urban city environment you would need to ultimately be fully committed to the kids and not allow any of your assumptions to get in the way of what is really at the center of what is important, which are the students. To teach in an inner city classroom would be challenging but it is much more rewarding because you help kids discover things about themselves that were previously hidden away by the depravation of the correct education.

Annotated Bibliography

Cordisco, Jane Hunt. “Community Based Learning in the Secondary School” Educational Leadership, Apr79, Vol. 36 Issue 7, p493, 4p, 2bw

It takes place in a community located in Pittsburg Pennsylvania. The article illustrates the whole process from the beginning to the intended outcome about the benefits and downfalls of Community Based Learning. However, it mainly focuses on the students aspects involved for CBL. It talks about where students should be placed within the community, what the students should be getting out of the program and the reasons why this type of learning would be so vital to the development of young adults. As the author refers to Transition to Adulthood, by James S. Coleman, “Coleman noted that the age segregation of youth in the schools deprives young people of an important dimension of the socialization process: learning through direct association with adults not only skills and information, but values, responsibility, and a sense of belonging in the adult world.” I think that this statement depicts exactly the reason why we need programs like this in our schools. Not only to bring the students into the real world so to speak but to have the experience life outside of school where there is no pressure on them to make money or pay bills why they are in these programs. So essentially all they are doing is just gaining real world experience which in my opinion can only lead to future success. As the article states, “The findings showed that the students(after participating in the program) felt and demonstrated increased value for education, greater desire and capacity to accept responsibility, and higher regard for the demands of adult life.” This again speaks to what we as educators I feel we are preparing our students for, which is to be a successful citizens in the harsh world that it is we live in. In conclusion I feel that this article is the most relevant source I have came across so far in describing a successful Community Based Learning program.

Giri, Bishnu; Shankar, P. Ravi. "Community-Based Learning in a time of Conflict" PLoS Medicine, Feb2006, Vol. 3 Issue 2, p0272-0273

It describes the trials and tribulations of the urban kids learning in the field at Nepal. This source gives a detailed description of the actual process of CBL in the field of medical education. That is the interesting part about this actual source it is a practical application of what exactly Community Based Learning is all about.

Hogan, Kathleen. “Pitfalls of Community-Based Learning: How Power Dynamics Limit Adolescents’ Trajectories of Growth and Participation” Teachers College Record, Apr2002, Vol. 104 Issue 3, p586, 39p

This a fascinating article because it actually breaks down the roles of students, teachers, and activity coordinators for a project involving an environmental group, which is referred to as COE. It also highlights the interaction between the students and the instructors/teachers when they are both in and out of a classroom setting. It is quite different from what one might expect. However this CBL is located in a rural community so I am not sure how much relevance it will have for our project.

Tice, Terrence N. “Community-Based Learning” Education Digest, 0013127X, Sep90, Vol. 56, Issue 1 p28-28, 2/3p

This is an article describing the reasoning behind the start up of Community Based Learning. One interesting fact about this article it names a bunch of organizations that advocate and provide needed funding for such type programs. It would be a great reference for providing schools to go in order to find out how to acquire more information and funding. However it is a short article and I am not sure how creditable of a reference it is.

Carter, Marion; Rivero, Estela; Cadge, Wendy; Curran, Sara. "Designing Your Community-Based Learning Project: Five Questions to Ask About Your Pedagogical and Participatory Goals" Teaching Sociology, Vol. 30, No. 2 Apr., 2002, pp. 158-173

This article was based upon what are the major questions about how to setup a proper Community-Based Learning program. It talks about what is involved in doing so. They ask questions and then address them on various topics. Some that I thought were interesting and maybe useful for our project are about which students should be included what type of community lends itself to become a good basis for CBLs. I think that this is a great source to keep in mind when starting our project on Community Based Learning.

My Culture Project

As I think about culture I tend to think the most influential thing that shapes one’s culture are their religious beliefs. If we look at Christianity for example, only because I am most familiar with it, there are all these traditions and values built in already. For one, going to church weekly, at least that is what I was taught as a youngster, is a major life style dependence. The second most important is to live your life by the Ten Commandments which also tell you how to live your life and what you can’t do and what you are allowed to do. These two facts alone about Christianity provide someone a pretty good base as a culture. It provides one with an attitude about their life, a meaning in their life and also a way in which to congregate as peers and not strangers. The tradition of religion in my life was the basis for holidays where my entire family would gather together on Christmas and Easter, just to name the big ones.

I was brought up in and open and loving culture where I was taught that you should treat others how you would like to be treated. This type of belief system brought me up particularly open minded to every race, class, gender, sexuality, language, and religion. So this tends to make me believe if your culture is narrow minded as a whole then one with in that culture maybe narrow minded as well.

Because of the way I was brought up, in the culture that I am a part of, I feel that some of the things I learned in my life experiences that I will definitely be bringing it to the forefront in my professional teaching career. An example of this is that I had many family and friends to lean on when times were rough or when I needed to talk with someone whomever I asked to listen they would give their undivided attention to me. We always had an open door policy if anything was bothering me I would be able to speak my mind and not worry about getting punished or screamed at or even laughed at by the other person listening. The way that I may bring this idea into my classroom setting as a teacher would probably have be to by setting up the classroom more or less as an open forum where kids would be able to make comments and ask questions without having to worry about whether or not someone else may say something derogatory.

Another thing that I have experienced in my life that I intend to bring with me in the classroom is the notion of trust and being fair to everyone. To be known as trust worthy, you need to be a person who is fair and honest with people, this is done by not being a person who cuts corners and tells lies. This brings me back to my upbringing where my mother would tell me not to do something unless you did it correctly. This idea of doing something until it was done correctly really drove me to be the best at whatever I was doing, whether it be playing sports or doing my homework. This attitude would be a great thing to instill in my students to hopefully create the same work ethic for whatever they may undertake not only in school but in their everyday lives.

One main difference I can see between the ways I might bring my culture into the classroom from someone else is if they come from a conservative background they might not implement my open forum classroom policy where anyone can talk at anytime. This would be true I can assume from the students point of view as well. So if the culture of the school and community was not to express themselves outwardly in public they would not be comfortable in a classroom which I intend to put this forum idea into practice.

In conclusion I feel that culture is the most dynamic and influential part of education. I feel that the most we can ever learn is from each other. I feel that if we are able to establish an open line of communication between one’s cultures to another, then we will be able to learn much more about ourselves aside from the other person or persons. There is a great quote in the, The Promise of Urban Schools, “The rich mix of races and ethnicities, languages and cultures, makes cities also centers of intellectual and artistic energy and creativity as well as catalysts of social change.” This quote pretty much sums up how I feel about cultures and diversity in schools. It touches upon the need for diversity in schools and it also brings forward the notion with diversity there is more opportunity for change and growth.

College Reflection

I think that this project was great. I learned so much about my peers who in turn actually made me reflect about myself and realize that I could learn about myself through others opinions and experiences. The main thing that I learned about during this activity was that everyone in my entire group came from completely different backgrounds, but somehow we were able to find way more things in common than not. When others were telling there life story and their beliefs I was amazed not only because of how different their story was than mine but how I was catching myself nodding in agreement about how they viewed certain topics. It was fascinating.

I would like to switch gears for a bit and talk about how I would love to implement something like this into my classroom as a Mathematics teacher. One idea that I had aside from have the kids map out their life story and beliefs, was to incorporate aspects of mathematics into the project. I thought of many different strategies but the one that I kept coming back to was this idea of having the students find something in their life that they have a passion for and relate it someway to mathematics. An example of this would be, for someone who likes painting, right of the bat you can not necessarily see any connection but for someone who knows about painting there are many ways in which proportions play a role in sketching out the picture on the sheet of paper. Making sure the head to someone is in the right relation to their body and it isn’t too big. So this is one example of what I would like for the students to do as a content driven alternative. If there are any other suggestions out there I would be glad to here them?

I would like to talk about the discussion we had the other day about race and racism in our schools and country. I feel that the discussion we had the other day was quite enlightening for me. However, feel that I have a unique take on in from playing sports, both at the high school level and in college that I would like to share with you.

Race in Society

I would like to talk about the discussion we had the other day about race and racism in our schools and country. I feel that the discussion we had the other day was quite enlightening for me. However, feel that I have a unique take on in from playing sports, both at the high school level and in college that I would like to share with you.

At the high school level I played on a couple different sports teams but there was very little diversity in regards to race. I had a completely different experience with all the players one the teams in high school than I did in college where we had a very diverse group of players. In high school very surprising the n word was thrown around a lot, not to my liking, but most of the time it was really used in reciting lyrics to songs that the players listened to in the locker room before and after games. They would recite the words with no regard for anyone’s feelings whatsoever. I think because they saw that the people using the n word in the music they were listening to led them to believe it was okay for them to say it. On the contrary in college none of the Caucasian players on the team were singing the same songs I heard them singing in high school. On the other hand the African American players were singing the same songs and reciting the lyrics. I am not sure exactly why the extreme change in behavior because in high school there were a couple of African American kids on the team and maybe because they so close with the other players it was not that big of a deal to them for some reason or another. In college it seamed since not everyone was so close to each other the word was not thrown around as much.

My feelings on this are that is not the actual word that offends people it is the meaning behind the word. On the high school teams it seemed as though the few African American kids, because they were so close to the Caucasian kids, knew that when they said the n word they did not have that derogatory meaning behind it, I am assuming, and therefore it was okay for them to say. However, it was a different story in college because everyone was not familiar to one another and hence the n word was not accepted to be used by a Caucasian player, assuming, because the African American players did not really know the intentions of the meaning behind them saying it.

The Pedagogy of Poverty Versus Good Teaching

Why is it that all of urban kids need to have special labels and can not be taught in the same way as other kids from suburban and rural areas. Do they not think the same? Are these kids not as bright as children from different environments? I tend to think not. I think that children all no matter where they are from are just as capable to succeed in the classroom as the next.

As the article describes in most cases it is the way children are taught that determines how they learn and whether or not they are motivated to do so. From what I understand, in this reading the author describes the Poverty Pedagogy as being almost like an training camp with all this drill and skill involved, where the students are told what to do, how to do and when to do their work. Their class work is all done with the teacher walking around hovering over them making sure they are doing it all the correct and expected way.

Later on in this article it talks about how good teaching uses not one of these previously mentioned techniques. The author talks about how good teaching is related to teachers taking a step back and letting the children have some choice in the classroom. However, not a choice on what will be taught to them, but for example, how they will present what they have learned. Another one of the most important ways in which children learn is through experience and the author mentions something about this as well. Haberman says, "Firsthand experience is potentially more educational than vicarious activity, provided it is combined with reflection." The second part of this statement is probably more important then the experience itself because it actually gets the students think about why they had this experience and what are some of the reasons that it was important for them to observe it.

These are the types of practices that I feel we should be using for teaching not only in the urban school setting but everywhere where there is a student who is willing and able to learn.

Annenberg Promise Reaction

"Agency is the power to understand, act on,
and effect positive change in one’s personal and
social contexts. Agency also embodies a sense of
hope and possibility (grounded in an understanding
of social reality) that one can make a difference in
one’s own life, family, school, and local community
and in the broader national and global community."

I believe that Agency is the real reason for education. It gives children a sense of meaning in their life. If we can transfer this concept of Agency into the students it will hopefully transform the students to become more motivated and want to come to school to be educated on the next thing in their life that they can change for the positive.

There is a great example of this in the reading when the author talks about how an urban mathematics educator allows the students to view the city zoning patterns and then he proposes that they come up with some modifications to the plans in regards to where the liquor stores are located. This is a great example of how we can bring a sense of agency into the classroom especially in a mathematics class. This example really jumped out at me since I am going to be a mathematics teacher one day.

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