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.