How Writing and Reading Processes' are Subject Specific and Demand Unique Teaching Methods

How Can a College Dropout Prevent Dropouts?

Former Microsoft Chairman and now Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Billy dropped out his second year at Harvard University to pursue his dream and completely revolutionalize the word by creating software that runs on virtually every single computer in the world. He dropped out. He stopped going to college. Why is he so intent on promoting a formalized, standards-driven, merit-pay, school system that forces marginalized youth into the same system that he rejected? Bill, you rose to prominesce because you were allowed to be creative, to dream, to invent, to work with others who shared in your dream and made you one of the most powerful and richest persons in the so-called free world. So, Bill the next time you start talking about what you know about education be sure to mention that you know that school ain't for everybody, especially those who wanna' make a bunch a money and live a life of power.

Common Core Standards Leaves Us Without a Core

All of this push lately towards what has been coined "Common Core Standards" is an attempt to organize the total variation in how states decide what and how each student learns in our public school system. A noble act, yet somehow one may wonder how does this really improve education at all as this process is for sure to take years if not an entire decade to complete. One has to question perhaps, just perhaps, there is a possibility that there is some advantage to having a variation in state standards. Creating one system does not allow for what many teachers call for in their classrooms: flexibility, autonomy and the creativity to meet various standards. Just because we have made the attempt to align every single states standards there will still be teachers who need help in creating innovative and engaging ways to present materials to students who are often several grade levels behind. We often spend our time working in circles and we must take greater call to address urgent, pressing issues, particularly those issues where student engagement, relevancy, and personal qualities and character development are shouting for our attention and resources. All of this push towards a common core is simply a poor use of resources and time.

Students Who Fall in Between the Cracks, Friday, Jan 28

For many youth, particularly those young men of color, their fate in America is almost destined to be confined behind the black steel in our nations prisons. An overwhelmingly percentage of young Black men are incarcarated in a criminal justice system that often presumes that you are guilty until proven innocent. The amount of money that is poured into this system and into the prison system to house, feed and cloth these young men is not only big business its big and ugly. But what happens to these young men and women when they are release to a society that created those conditions in the first place. This is not a release of responsibility for many youth who need to be responsible for the decisions that they make and learn from them, but it is also taking a close examination of the historical and social racism that lives strong in an era of our first Black president.

Key Reflections on My Last Year of Teaching

As an educator who is continuously trying to improve, this question about how I could have improved is one that quite often rises to the surface. The advisory that I took over was undoubtedly the most challenging group of students that I have ever had the pleasure of teaching and I learned so much through this experience. I believe that I could have been more organized that year and really demand more excellence from my students. Other teachers who saw this advisory operate last year would consistently note, that "Wow, your students are really improving since last year." I believe that while they did improve both academically and socially, I could have demanded even greater work from them and learned different ways to motivate each and every student. But looking back this was a tall order as many of my students were both lacking in self-confidence and the skills necessary to achieve personally and academically let alone function as a group. In some ways, I think I began the year placing too much emphasis on developing positive relationships rather than strict academics. It’s a very thin line and I think I felt I had to be careful in my approach. But looking back I think this group would have responded well to not backing down on assignments but I think I could have done a much better job of breaking down larger tasks into smaller more manageable parts, such as the autobiography. I think I could have been more creative with consequences in dealing with this group. There were other resources in the building and in the community that could have reached my students. Although I did have a local advocate come into the classroom to speak with the kids about the importance of school, I think I just barely scratched the surface. I think I could have had more parents come in and speak to the advisory about their performance and what kind of steps they could take to take school more seriously.

Reaching Goals and Student Results

Because of our student-centered approach, students learning plans and ACT scores were based on the goals that they self-selected and varied according to student and skill level. Many of the goals set out in the student learning plans were met and in other instances they simply were not. One requirement that many students were able to complete as part of their learning plans was to complete the first ten (10) pages of their autobiographies. Another requirement of that semester was that students would obtain an internship in their chosen field of interest. Some students acquired internships at local community centers, law offices, and with graphic designers and began to build value-added project proposals and timelines. Eleven (11) out of Seventeen (17) of my students were able to obtain internships and begin their proposals and timelines. Students ACT scores went up an average of 1.5 points over a quarter and the advisory generally learned how to improve their self-confidence and worth through the use of the bi-weekly, coffeehouse opportunities. We built hoop houses in a local garden, participated in a ropes course and attended a Detroit Pistons basketball game all experiences, which built a strong learning community.

Tracking Progress Towards Goals and Using the Information

I tracked progress towards many goals but the one that we would consistently track students learning plans and practice ACT exams. For the ACT, we would conduct error analysis sessions with all of our advisors in the school to measure whether our students were learning certain skills. By sifting through pages of test results, we would begin to identify where our students needed help both collectively and as individual classrooms. Based on those results, we created lessons and unit plans specifically created to improve those areas students consistently scored below the national standard. We administered practice tests to re-evaluate our approach often with mixed results. We often found that students also needed support around test taking skills and learning more about how to answer questions on the exam.

For student learning plans, I would conduct weekly and sometimes bi-weekly "check-ins" with each and every one of my students. We would identify particular skills in each content area in which they would master by a specific date and what evidence they would use to support their claim at their exhibition. So the information that we would collect would become part of the students portfolio and I would keep individual files with each one of my students names on to make photocopies of their work. This information would be shared with parents in the forms of progress reports and narratives. Narratives were written descriptions of the student’s personal and academic growth during the quarter. We would take the narratives and also issue grades that were used for college transcripts.