If You Can’t Beat Cellphones, Join Them!

Last Friday I ventured onto a public high school campus and spent the day with a junior student named Monique. If my experience had been video recorded, you could assume it was the 90’s or 80’s because the day completely lacked in technology.

Throughout the entire day, technology was only used once: a “video projector” during Pre-Calc. For those of you who have not been in a classroom in the past decade, this is an updated version of the old style overhead which used photocopied “transparencies” you could write on with special markers. The video overheads are literally a video camera which projects the image onto the wall. In the Pre-Calc class, the teacher was able to place the math textbook directly under the camera to project the page onto the wall. He also demonstrated how to plug mathematical equations into a calculator by placing it directly under the camera.

Technology & the 21st Century Classroom

Part 1

It’s a typical day at an American high school campus. Groups of students walk around wearing earbuds, or sneaking looks at their personal digital assistant (PDA), formally known as the cell phone. They check their Facebook and Twitter pages, they send off a dozen text messages, they blog, and they read updates on their favorite musical group, all in less than a few minutes. However, it is inaccurate to say that all students are “plugged in.” A typical day in an impoverished high school would not the same level of technology use. The digital divide is real and it is an issue educators must mindfully consider. By prohibiting technology educators miss opportunities to model their practices and teach context-specific skills. Furthermore, the students who do not have access to technology at home are completely cut off from learning these necessary skills needed to operate in the 21^st century global marketplace. It is because of this digital divide that educators must accept students’ use of technology. Educators should also work for funding to make technology available to all students, and find ways to implement all forms of technology into the classroom.

We are teachers, and mere human at that.

We are teachers, and mere human at that. We do not have all the answers, and no matter how much theory we undertake and no matter how many books we read about the impoverished kids living in depilated neighborhoods in the ghettos, or the over-parented children of American Beauty-esque families, we will never really know what it’s like. The best we can do is notice, be aware, and give each student the most encouragement and attention we possibly can.

Bell Hooks & Teaching to Trangress

The following are my favorite passages from bell hooks’ “Teaching to Trangress: Education as the Practice of Freedom:” (emphasis mine)

To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn. That learning process comes easiest to those of us who also believe that our work is not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students. To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin. (13)

What’s Your Education Story?

We all have an education story. These stories tell much than details of the drone inside the four walls of a classroom. These stories paint pictures of different phases in our lives. These stories explain who we are today.

Some stumble upon an educational path ridden with thorn bushes and thunderstorms. Some fly into their educational path in an all-expense paid for fighter jet with gilded wings. Some are encouraged, and led onto their educational path being told that their future will be grand and full of success. And unfortunately, some are discouraged from the moment they step into the light of their path. Some are told they are not capable, that theirs is a lost cause.

Hobart Shakespearens

Rafe Esquith’s teaching methods for his 5th grade classroom are smart, effective, but intensely time consuming.  He is an inspiration and a good example of what true commitment in the classroom can achieve. He places emphasis on morals and hard work, which are two things important for students’ growth both as young adults and learners.

Esquith is one in a million. 99.9% of the teachers will never be able to reach to his heights, unless they wish to sacrifice their personal lives. I have been warned by many professors about overcommitment as a teacher–it is important to be balanced and to have a life outside the classroom. Esquith really makes me question this–he is changing these children’s lives for the better–but he has sacrificed a lot. What about his wife and kids? How can one sustain a family while working 12 hours a day? Either way, Esquith has great ideas and a firey passion.

Hobart Shakespearen’s Website

His book, which I highly reccomend: Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire

The Future of Education in the Flat World

I have been reading Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century and it has got me thinking a lot about the future of education.

The main thesis of Friedman’s book is that times have changed, are changing, and will continue to change drastically. We are living in a “flat” world where technology and communication has dramatically changed the way we live our lives. We live in a world where we can outsource work to India to save our company money, which consequences in a percentage of lower-end jobs being cut from the work field. Friedman argues that in this flat world, to be employable we must become “untouchables.” He explains:

“The way I like to think about this for our society as a whole is that every person should figure out how to make himself or herself into an untouchable. That’s right. When the world goes flat, the caste system gets turned upside down. In India untouchables may be the lowest social class, but in a flat world everyone should want to be an untouchable. Untouchables, in my lexicon, are people whose jobs cannot be outsourced.“

Friedman places these “untouchables” into four categories: special (Such as famous Hollywood stars or big namers like Bill Gates); specialized (This includes knowledge workers-lawyers, brain-surgeons, software engineers); anchored (Jobs which must be done in a specific place-waitresses, nurses, electricians); and lastly, really adaptable (Employees who constantly are learning and improving upon their skills to become more of an expert and less mediocre). In this new flat world, mediocrity is the kiss of death.

Now that so many of the lower paid and low-skilled jobs have vanished in America due to outsourcing, the bar has been significantly raised for Americans seeking work. Friedman argues that in this new flat world, higher education is not an option anymore. A college degree is needed now because jobs require a much higher level of skill than they did before we entered the twenty-first century. He suggests that all citizens should be offered at least two years of a college education in order to level the playing field. If we do not make college available to all (like we once did with mandating the high school years of education), then only the privileged and wealthy will get the education needed for the well-paying jobs of the future. If the level of education needed to become employed has been upped, so must the mandatory schooling of the American people.

Friedman has made me think about education in a very different light. I once thought that not all people were “college people,” and not all people should go to college. This was based on my experience with many college freshmen who seemed to be at university because it delayed their adulthood for another four years, or because their parents made them, or because it was expected of them. Now I see that college must be the end goal for all high school students. If these students want to compete in the global economy and someday land a good job and live a comfortable life, they have no choice but to go to college. But this leads us to a terrible conundrum-how do the underprivileged and poor make it to this step? And how do we make those who do make it to college see how important their higher education is for their future?

Getting a college degree is already becoming a norm in our society, and maybe this is not such a bad thing. We are living longer, and our careers are lasting longer than ever before. Higher education leads to longer and happier lives, and is a direct deterrent to crime (and in a country where 1 in 10 US citizens are imprisoned, perhaps more education is really what we need). But we need support-from our government-to make it possible for all to attend college. And professors and teachers need to work to illuminate the importance of their subject matter. Why is what you are teaching important in the 21^st century? Are you teaching your students the skills they will need to survive in the global economy and in the flat world?

And this leads me to the subject of technology and the use of it. Technology must not be the enemy inside the classroom. Technology is the future, it is the now, and it will make today’s students able to compete for jobs and survive in the uncertain job field of the future.

Jenifer Fox: Our Education System Needs Transcendence, Not Fixing

“The secondary school environment in the United States and throughout the world is flawed because it is focused on achievement over relevant and meaningful learning. Having a 4.0 grade point average or perfect scores on standardized tests doesn’t define who a child is or who he is able to become. Children yearn to be more than a list of achievements and scores; they desire relevance. Unfortunately, our schools do not provide them with the things they truly need to discover success in their lives.”

More…..

Did You Know? (v. 3.0)

The English Language is Dum