General BlogRoll and Update

UPDATE: Happy Daylight Spending Time Day! I am sorry I haven't been updating as often. Work and studying for these damn LSATs are the culprits, so please forgive me for being so busy. School has been exhausting - the teaching has gotten easier, but the work that my school has put on top of that has only increased. On top of all that, I am trying to study for this blasted exam. The big day is 12/6 - same day I have to submit a job application for next year. Yes...it's been awesome.

Here are some articles I've read that I think were thought-provoking:

1. The Carnivore's Dilemma
2. The Obama's Marraige
3. Ayn Rand's Revenge!
4. At Public Universities: Less for More

And something that I always enjoy reading, because I love the show:

Slate's TV Club Analysis of Mad Men, Season 3.

Let me know what you think!

Climate Change Education

After my long day, I got an email (as well as a post it note to myself) that today is Blog Action Day 2009. The chosen topic this year is climate change. As a teacher, I am constantly thinking about the future of my students and how I help them understand how their actions impact the world around them. For those of you reading my blog who have forgotten what it was like to be a 10 year old - let me remind you that children at that age are extremely selfish, because they do not cognitively understand a world bigger than the immediate one that they see. It's one thing to imagine it, but it's a whole other thing to actually understand your place in it.

I try my best to integrate social justice issues into all areas of curriculum that I teach - climate change is just one of those issues that I cover with my students. Not only is it crucial that students understand the scientific principles behind climate change, it's important for students to understand its implications in a scientific way. Children should comprehend how the world will change because of the simple act of driving a gas guzzling car or running the lights in the house. Particularly for my kids, who are growing up in the inner-city, they need to see that even though they are disadvantaged in comparison to their suburban peers, they are for more advantaged than the children in other parts of the world. They should understand that their carbon footprint (after they understand the concept of carbon footprint!) is many times larger than a child in a developing country. As you can see, the topic lends itself so well to science and math curriculum.

However, we can't forget to teach our students about their ability to take action for an issue like climate change. In social studies, students can pick issues to lobby their representatives about - those students who fully grasp the scientific concept of climate change see how it will affect their future and realize the importance of working on this issue now as opposed to later. The work that they do on lobbying their representatives about an actual issue that's important to them leads to an incredible learning experience as well as socially aware children, which is the ultimate goal of a great education.

Climate Change and Action

I've just signed up for this, and if you blog, you should too:

Mad Men and Sesame Street Collaborate?

This video was brought to my attention by a number of my friends - enjoy!

Kandi

Beautiful song and animated video!

A Must See Documentary

Just finished watching The Principal Story, which aired on PBS - Point of View (POV). It follows two principals, one of them in Chicago, IL. It's an excellent look at the achievement gap from the administrative perspective.

Second Generation Experience

I just finished this amazing book, Snow Falling on Cedars, which is about a number of things (I don't want to give away too much), not least of which is the experience of Japanese-Americans during WWII.

There was a passage in the book, told from Hatsue Miyamoto's perspective, which touched me. She is a second generation American like myself, and she expresses thoughts that I felt are relevant to many who are of that generation, particularly American Muslims in this post 9/11 world.

She was of this place and she was not of this place, and though she might desire to be an American, it was clear, as her mother said, that she had the face of America's enemy and would always have such a face. She would never feel at home here among the hakujin, and at the same time she loved the woods and fields of home as dearly as anyone could. She had one foot in her parents' home, and from there it was not far at all to the Japan they had left behind years before. She could feel how this country far across the ocean pulled on her and lived inside her despite her wishes to the contrary; it was something she could not deny. And at the same time her feet were planted on San Piedro Island, and she wanted only her strawberry farm, the fragrance of the fields and the cedar trees, and live simply in this place forever.

How many times I have felt torn between the "pull" of Bangladesh and my parents' understanding of Islam (motivated by my parents' repeated statements that I am a Bengali/Muslim girl) and the American-ness I feel from growing up here. This complex emotion is expressed perfectly in this excellent book.

VideoJug: My New Favorite Website

VideoJug's tagline is "Get Good at Life" and it certainly helps you do that. The website is dedicated to how-to videos on everything and anything. I particularly like it for the cooking/recipe videos. For all of you who want to get better at cooking Indian food but are kind of clueless in the kitchen, VideoJug has a ton of awesome videos that break it down, so you can cook excellent Indian recipes and not mess up! To get you started, here's their video for one of my favorite recipes, Chicken Makhani or Butter Chicken.


Indian:
How To Make Butter Chicken

Reflections on the First Week of My Second Year

I finished my first week of school on Friday, and I am about to start the second week tomorrow. So far, I haven't had any ridiculous outbursts in my class, unlike last year, but this class a little more chatty and less mature. I already have favorites - though that might change over the course of the year. I already have a student who is beginning to push my buttons, to see how far I will go. There are a lot of quirky students in my class, and they have been cracking me up - here's just a few things I have heard in my class:

Ms. G: You don't like pizza, S?
S: No...yeah, I do, but I am on a (as he points to his figure) low-fat diet.

C: On Sunday, after we go see God, we play hide-and-go-seek. But it's different for us - we call it immigrants.
Ms. G: How is that played?
C: Well, 3 of us are cops, and then the rest of us are Mexicans trying not to get caught.

A: I need to go to the bathroom.
Ms. G: Is it an emergency?
A: No, I have my problem.
Ms. G: Your problem?...OH...Did you just get it?
A: No, I've had my problem for 3 months now.

Ms. G: What are going to do this weekend?
S: Well, after I eat my low-fat bread, I will go camping in my backyard.
Ms. G: That's awesome!
S: My mom and me - we go walking to - it helps us with our diets.

Ms. G: Write about one memory you have of something that happened to you.
G: (raises his hand) I haven't had anything happen to me.
Ms. G: Oh geez....

I think I am going to have a lot of classroom stories from this class!

Is This Happening In Your Classroom?

I sure hope it isn't happening in mine: Lesson Plans, 2009. [Hyperlink]

Tocqueville on American Politics: Still True Today

Having unpacked most of my old college textbooks, I've been looking through a few of the more influential books on my thinking to look at the passages I marked back in the day. It's interesting to see whether what I thought was profound at the time is still so today. I was particularly struck by a note I left next to this passage in Tocqueville:

Scarcely have you descended on the soil of America, when you find yourself in the midst of a sort of tumult; a confused clamor is raised on all sides; a thousand voices come to your ear at the same time, each of them expressing some social needs. Around you everything moves: here, the people of one neighborhood have gathered to learn if a church ought to be built; there, they are working on the choice of a representative; farther on, the deputies of a district are going to town in all haste in order to decide about some local improvements; in another place, the farmers of a village abandon their furrows to go discuss the plan of a road or a school.

Citizens assemble with the sole goal of declaring that they disapprove of the course of government. To meddle in the government of society and to speak about it is the greatest business and so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows...An American does not know how to convers, but he discusses; he does not discourse, but he holds forth. He always speaks to you as an assembly.

I wrote right next to this "Nothing has changed in 150 years!" I don't remember what might have been happening at the time for me to write this, but with all the tension surrounding health care legislation, town hall meetings, and education speeches currently, this passage is particularly poignant. Despite the craziness of it all, I hope this scene always stays true of the U.S. - it is the foundation of our democracy, as this prescient Frenchman discovered.

PLC: What I Need At My School

I have been reading a lot about PLCs, or professional learning communities, which is a way of reshaping the role and type of professional development provided to teachers. You can find a great introduction to it on SEDL website. AllThingsPLC is a website that shows the results of schools who have adopted PLC as a model and provides resources for other schools to implement it.

All I have to say is...when will my school do this!?!?!

Obama's Education Speech: I'm A Supporter

I am really disappointed by the hullabaloo surrounding Obama's speech, which he is slated to give this coming Tuesday. He hasn't even given it yet, but people think its going to be some propaganda event. Really, people? Could we stop for just a few seconds so our kids could have their President speak directly to them?

It will be the first day of school for many public schools around the country, including my own. However, my time will be spent on managing students' fears and excitement as well as regulate a hot mess of a day (I still don't have a schedule...though I have stopped stressing for my heart's sake). I'll let you all know how it goes...if I am not completely wiped out.

Make Me Smile

When I trudge back home on public transportation, I am usually in a state of dazed exhaustion, caused by the inanity of my workplace. Rarely do I even look up to see what's going on around me, I just follow the beaten path and suddenly end up home, without any thought. Fasting makes this worse.

However, today, something happened that left me smiling for the rest of the night. As I am mindlessly about to board the Blue line, and I am waiting for people in front of me to go in, this guy stops and motions for me to go in first. I don't know why, but I was extremely grateful. It's not that I am excited everytime a man is chivalrous - in fact, I really don't care about those things. But this act was done with the sincerest of smiles and was done because I clearly looked like I could use a lift in the spirits department. I said, "Thanks," and he said, "No problem, my pleasure," and in that moment, I felt like I had traveled back to a time when people weren't scared to be nice to strangers, and it felt good.

Now, I am not advocating for us to be overly friendly with complete strangers (that might ilicit some weird reactions), but I think it would be great if we could all take time to be kind to strangers. That man probably didn't realize that he had made my day, but I sure wish I could do that for someone. I suppose there's always tomorrow...

What do students need to be taught to succeed in the 21st century?

Today, I was reading an article by Willingham and Rotherham, which was published in the ASCD Educational Leadership, and I came across this section that I think needs to quoted:

Greater emphasis on skills also has important implications for teacher training. Our resolve to teach these skills to all students will not be enough. We must have a plan by which teachers can succeed where previous generations have failed.

Advocates of 21st century skills favor student-centered methods—for example, problem-based learning and project-based learning—that allow students to collaborate, work on authentic problems, and engage with the community. These approaches are widely acclaimed and can be found in any pedagogical methods textbook; teachers know about them and believe they're effective. And yet, teachers don't use them. Recent data show that most instructional time is composed of seatwork and whole-class instruction led by the teacher (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, 2005). Even when class sizes are reduced, teachers do not change their teaching strategies or use these student-centered methods (Shapson, Wright, Eason, & Fitzgerald, 1980). Again, these are not new issues. John Goodlad (1984) reported the same finding in his landmark study published more than 20 years ago.

Why don't teachers use the methods that they believe are most effective? Even advocates of student-centered methods acknowledge that these methods pose classroom management problems for teachers. When students collaborate, one expects a certain amount of hubbub in the room, which could devolve into chaos in less-than-expert hands. These methods also demand that teachers be knowledgeable about a broad range of topics and are prepared to make in-the-moment decisions as the lesson plan progresses. Anyone who has watched a highly effective teacher lead a class by simultaneously engaging with content, classroom management, and the ongoing monitoring of student progress knows how intense and demanding this work is. It's a constant juggling act that involves keeping many balls in the air.

Part of the 21st century skills movement's plan is the call for greater collaboration among teachers. Indeed, this is one of the plan's greatest strengths; we waste a valuable resource when we don't give teachers time to share their expertise. But where will schools find the release time for such collaboration? Will they hire more teachers or increase class size? How will they provide the technology infrastructure that will enable teachers to collaborate with more than just the teacher down the hall? Who will build and maintain and edit the Web sites, wikis, and so forth? These challenges raise thorny questions about whether the design of today's schools is compatible with the goals of the 21st century skills movement.

For change to move beyond administrators' offices and penetrate classrooms, we must understand that professional development is a massive undertaking. Most teachers don't need to be persuaded that project-based learning is a good idea—they already believe that. What teachers need is much more robust training and support than they receive today, including specific lesson plans that deal with the high cognitive demands and potential classroom management problems of using student-centered methods.

Unfortunately, there is a widespread belief that teachers already know how to do this if only we could unleash them from today's stifling standards and accountability metrics. This notion romanticizes student-centered methods, underestimates the challenge of implementing such methods, and ignores the lack of capacity in the field today.

Instead, staff development planners would do well to engage the best teachers available in an iterative process of planning, execution, feedback, and continued planning. This process, along with additional teacher training, will require significant time. And of course none of this will be successful without broader reforms in how teachers are recruited, selected, and deselected in an effort to address the whole picture of education's human capital challenge. [Emphasis added.]

I spent today in a useless PD that was supposed to challenge the way I think about reading instruction, but instead I walked away with nothing new and no significant training that would better my instructional practices. However, these authors tell the truth about what teachers need for their professional development.

Homework over the Summer?

I say yes - here's what several people said on the NYTimes. If you look at student test scores from spring to fall, you'd be shocked at how much they lose, because they aren't in school.

The Power of Human Emotion

I have always wondered to myself why God would create humans, when we cause so much trouble. However, in my daily reading of the Qur'an (one of my goals for the month of Ramadan), I came across these verses that never thought about until now.

Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a viceregent on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? Whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy name?" He said: "I know what ye know not."

And He taught Adam the names of all things; then he placed them before the angels and said: "Tell Me the names of these if ye are right."

They said: "Glory to Thee: of knowledge; we have none, save what Though hast taught us. In truth it is Though who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom."

Now, I've never been a fan of Yusuf Ali's translation of the Qur'an - it's what I grew up with, so that's what I keep reading. However, his notes are incredible, and if you haven't read them for this particular verse, they are pretty awesome. He refers to Shakespeare's Sonnet 94 (how can you not love that?), where he writes, "They are the lords and owners of their faces. Others but stewards of their excellence," to clarify this verse.

What Yusuf Ali is trying to get at (I think) is that even though the angels are perfect in their service and devotion to God, they are devoid of the passion and emotion (of which love is the highest) that defines humanity. Our service and devotion comes from our own will, and that makes it all the more valuable.

I think this is true of all the actions in our life - when we do things for good, the passion that comes with these deeds makes them all the more powerful and amazing.

Education BlogRoll – 9/29/2009

I've read a lot of articles these past few days, despite the fact that I am working hard to set up my room and have my lessons ready for the new school year. There were two interesting ones targeting teachers unions – one in The New Yorker about the infamous "rubber rooms" and the other, an editorial in the NY Times on accountability with Race to the Top funding. Also, EdReformer reflects on the challenges of preparing students for college. And apparently, teachers teach better when they have skilled colleagues around them!

In my effort to supplement my social studies materials, I ran across this in my Google Reader (shared by a fellow TFA teacher) – free history and social studies resources! At the beginning of the year, the first unit in writing for most teachers is a personal narrative or memoir – here are some ideas for that unit.

I am going to leave this post with a link to Room for Debate on the NYTimes website, where they debate whether teachers need education degrees to be effective. What do you think?

Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan has officialy started, and to mark this highly religious month, I wanted to share a favorite passage from the Qur'an:

O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor; Allah can best protect both. Follow not the desires (of your hearts), lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do. - 4:135

This verse always inspires me to do my best to help justice in this world, in all its forms, whether it be in the courtroom or in my classroom.

Michelle Rhee and TFA (Education Video BlogRoll!)

So I recently came across a great website - Learning Matters. It is a website that focuses on the education reports of John Merrow, who reports on The NewsHour with Jim Leher. Anyways, there's a great focus piece on Michelle Rhee, a former TFA alum and current D.C. public school chancellor. Several videos, but definitely worth checking out!

Also, there was an excellent video where Merrow follows three TFA teachers in their first year of teaching in New Orleans, where Superintendent Paul Vallas (formerly of CPS) has been an fierce advocate of TFA. It's an interesting and honest look at the TFA experience, but also the TFA effect on a school district that has been failing.