Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Education Reform by Jean Anyon (via cherikkou)

I set up an appointment to see the assistant principal on Monday morning at River City High School. I turned in a form to set up an appointment to see the principal of Bridgeway Island Elementary School.

And I called Solano Middle School because I was getting desperate and no one picked up and the voicemail was full.

Seriously, the only good administration is ACHS.

I have dealt with other administrations at different schools. And by far, American Canyon High School is my favorite. They’re nice, helpful, reply in a timely fashion. 

They’re just great, great people over there! For example, I left a message at ACHS yesterday, asking if I could do some observation of students with disabilities and then  today, the head of the special education department called me back and said I can come in whenever I want!

“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”

This is why I don’t want to teach college. Once you’re there, you’ve made it. You may not have it made, but you know what you’re doing, you know how to get places even if it may not be that easy.

At the high school level, there are students who simply don’t get it. It’s a game to them. They can just cruise through and it will be fine. And the horrible thing is that their teachers aren’t correcting that thinking. Sure they’ll encourage AP and honors students to do their best, but what about the ones that are failing? The ones that are truly struggling? You can’t just focus on the best students and ignore the weakest ones.

“Two groups of teachers are given separate groups of students. Group A is told that their students are low performers, disruptive and have little chance of success. Group B is told that their students are well behaved, work very hard, even if they are at times below grade level. In the end, Group A students performed very poorly while Group B did very well. In reality, Group A was full of top students. Group B has a history of failing grades and bad behavior.”

And student, with the right motivation can succeed. If you believe that your student will do poorly before you even begin teaching, then that student will do poorly. 

I know I can make a difference. And I will.

I’m taking two education classes this semester (possibly three) and I’m really excited about it! I’ve been taking math classes all of my academic career, but I’ve never taken a class that teaches me how to teach.

The first is Health Education. Although the course seems really relaxed and easy, I think it could be really interesting. I’ll have to get CPR certified to pass, so that will be good. Some of the topics we’ll be covering are basic enough, stuff you’d expect, like nutrition and the like. But then there’s safe sex, alcohol, STDs. As a teacher, you don’t really like to think of your high school students doing that sort of thing, but the truth is they most likely are doing it. So it’s good to be able to educate them about the safe way to do so. And then there’s stuff like bereavement (dealing with death) and suicide. As a math teacher, that’s not exactly the stuff that I thought I’d be dealing with, but this is the real world. I most likely will encounter students who have to deal with things like that, and it’d be good for me to be able to know how to handle it.

The second class is Educating Students with Disabilities (note that it is not Disabled Students). Now this is something that’s never even crossed my mind. In my head, there’s “regular” classes and then there’s “special ed” classes. But things have progressed passed that. Sometimes there will be a student with a disability in my class, and I’ll have to learn how to properly teach and TREAT that student. Within just the first class session, we learned about the mind set we should have and the language we should use (person first). And it’s not going to be just the knowledge. I actually need to complete 30 hours of fieldwork working with students with disabilities. This could be absolutely fascinating, but it’s also a bit intimidating. 

Either way, this semester seems like it’s going to be a very interesting one. 

Tenure is great for teachers that are actually good and deserve it.

Tenure is not great for bad teachers. Because once bad teachers get tenure, they’re getting amazing benefits and retirement packages just for being around for a long time, and not actually performing well.

And that’s not even the worst of it. Once you get tenure, it’s practically impossible to get fired. So a teacher could potentially sit in a class room and not teach, and still keep their job and get paid.

A teacher could even abuse the students or sexually harass them, and still get paid! The really bad teachers just get sent away to sit in a room all day and just get paid.

GOD I AM SO UPSET.

I mean I’ve thought about “oh man how will I know what to teach and when to teach it” but not actually sitting down and writing it.

I personally like shorter syllabuses. None of that “I went to college here and received a degree in this” type thing. Pretty short on the rules, because there are some really general ones that are already assumed, like raise your hand if you want to say something. (If you have to tell that to high schoolers, there’s a problem). Briefly explain how grading works because it shouldn’t be that complicated. And not toooo specific on the topics to allow for flexibility. 

Sexism

I never really considered this since I’ve never encountered it, but maybe it does have a significant role. Women and girls aren’t supposed to like math (and science, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now). And I don’t exactly know why. But now that I think back, most of my math teachers have been men. Perhaps girls are (still) being discouraged from math. Sort of getting a double bitch slap from society on the whole math thing.

Internet

This is a very powerful influence. Before, it was mostly T.V. and movies that influenced us, but now our peers have a large hand in it as well. And they’re pretty much saying the same thing. “Math sux lol txt it!!” Okay, so it’s not that bad, but people say that they don’t like math and it’s generally accepted. And when someone does say that they like math, they’re ridiculed for it. Like it’s a BAD THING to enjoy math, which is incredibly discouraging!