Blog 6

Five Changes to Education

1. Move away from high stakes testing promoted by No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. As they are currently being implemented, the tests do very little to assess or improve learning in schools. We need a more well rounded way to assess the performance of schools, teachers, and students. 
2. Every school should have two principals – one that serves as a CEO and focuses on the financial aspect of the schools and one that focuses on the academics of the schools. The academic principal should have at least 7 years of teaching experience, and at least 5 years at the level that they will serve as an administrator.
3. Get rid of charter schools, and give public schools more autonomy. If charter school achieve success because they are more independent and can operate under their own direction, why not allow all public schools to operate in the same way? (Note: (I don’t believe charter schools are more successful, but the president does)
4. Invest more money into low performing schools, rather than taking their money away. Added funds should be used to reduce classroom sizes, add well-trained teachers assistants to the classroom, make schools a place students are excited to go to by physically renovating the campus or building a new one altogether, provide school breakfast and lunch for low income students, provide a quiet place for them to do homework on campus for 2 or 3 hours after school.
5. Continue to develop a national content and skill based curriculum. Develop some idea of what a high school graduate in the United States should know and should know how to do. Academic Principals (see #2 above) should review all teacher syllabi and department to curricula to see where these content and skill based standards are being taught. Syllabi and curricula should be posted on the school website and clearly show the areas that focus on content and skill standards for the public to see.

Most Meaningful About Ravitch

The part of Ravitch’s book that stood out to me was the way in which “reformers” always implemented their reforms in an authoritarian manner. Whether it was in District 2, or San Diego, or back in New York, or nation-wide, the approach to creating reform was generally antagonistic and demeaning to teachers, and sometimes parents. No reform will ever be successful if teachers do not believe in it. When administrators and elected officials create an environment that bullies and ignores teachers, they will never achieve successful reform no matter how good their ideas are. In the end, teachers are the ones who are in the classroom, they are the ones responsible for educating the students and carrying out educational policy. If they don’t believe in it, they will not do it. And if they are coerced into doing it, they will not do it well. Any reform to education must include teachers by gathering feedback and including them on early decisions. I personally think most of the reform ideas discussed in the book are not good for education, but they had no chance for success because of the manner in which they were introduced and implemented.

What Can You Do as a Teacher and a Citizen

Generally, the reforms discussed in Ravitch’s book limit teacher’s freedom in the classroom. Placing immense focus on the statewide standardized tests forces the teacher’s attention in one specific direction, narrowing our ability to develop creative lessons that encourage higher level thinking skills in the students. In the classroom, the best a teacher can do is try to balance the kind of pedagogy that we know enhances student engagement and learning with the memorization and test-taking skills emphasized by the state tests.

Outside of the classroom, it is incumbent upon all teachers to talk about the negative impacts of federal policies with our friends, family, and anyone else who will listen. We have to acknowledge that we are experts in education policy because we are the primary actors in its implementation. We have to assert ourselves as experts when we talk with people about education policy in our country. We must be vocal about the state of education in our country and about what we think needs to be different to make it better.

National and State Associations

California Council for the Social Studies – The CCSS is a non-profit organization for social studies educators that advocates for the importance of social studies in schools and provides resources to make teachers more effective. The two services provided by the CCSS that would be most useful to me are their annual conferences and their new publication that is about to be launched, The Occasional Paper, which includes the latest research on social studies education.

National Council for History Education – The NCHE is meant to be a gathering place for everyone who teaches history, from K-12 teachers to university professors, to museum curators. The Council hosts an annual conference, provides free publications, and connects to a wide range of other historical organizations. They offer professional development programs that team teachers up with an academic historian, a master teacher, and a learning specialist for a seminar that is individualized for the teachers needs.

Resources

Bay Area Experiential Resources

-       Rosie the Riveter Monument in Richmond – This National Historic Park showcases the efforts and sacrifices many American civilians made during World War II.

-       Mission San Jose – Build in 1797, Mission San Jose was the fourteenth Spanish mission built in California for the purposes of allowing Spain to colonize the west coast of North America and convert native Americans to Catholicism.

-       USS Hornet – An aircraft carrier that was used in battle during World War II is now moored at Alameda point and serves as a museum of American military history.

-       California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento – The museum features various exhibits that showcase the history of railroads and the impact that the railroads have had on California and the rest of the west.

-       Port Chicago Naval Magazine – This is the site of an accidental explosion at a naval ammunition storage area in Pittsburg, CA. In all, 320 American were killed, many of whom were African American.

Books

1.     Habits of Empire: A Story of American Expansion by Walter Nugent

2.     Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West by Hampton Sides

3.     No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin

4.     A History of the American People by Paul Johnson

5.     Democracy in America by Alexis de Toqueville

Journals

1. Journal of American History
2. American Quarterly

Conferences

1. The California Council for the Social Studies 52^nd Annual Conference
1. March 8-10, 2013 in Burlingame, CA
2. The California Council for History Education 7^th Annual Conference
1. October 19-20, 2012 at San Jose State University

World Experiential Resources

1. Sojourn to the South – students and teachers travel to the south to immerse themselves into a journey along the path of the Civil Rights Movement through five states.
2. Mesa Verde National Park – the cliff dwellings of the Native American Pueblo tribe have been preserved for visitation.
3. Ellis Island Immigration Museum – twelve million immigrants to the United Stated passed through the Ellis Island immigration station. The museum showcases various exhibits that include artifacts, photographs, videos, interactive displays, and oral histories that tell the story of the millions of immigrants.
4. The Alamo – the site of a significant battle in the running conflict between American settlers in Texas and the Mexican government that led to the Mexican-American War. This is a significant historical site in the American story of Manifest Destiny.
5. Lyndon Baines Johnson Museum and Library – the library houses forty-five million pages of historical documents about Lyndon Johnson’s entire career. This would provide an immense amount of information about the Vietnam War and Cold War – important parts of the story of America as a World Power. 

Education and Technology 402: Session 5

Dr. Roberts
I thought Dr. Roberts presentation was fascinating. The idea that kids spend increasing amounts of time with media is not earth shattering, but to see studies with statistics and charts really highlights the issue. My reaction to the presentation was varied. I think the natural reaction is to recognize that technology is becoming ever more present in the lives of teenagers and we, as teachers, need to figure out ways to use it in the classroom to keep them engaged. However, I also found myself having doubts about the idea of using more technology in the classroom. If students are spending SO MUCH time with technology, maybe school needs to be a break from it. The newsweek article talked about the negative impacts that overuse of technology can have on the brain. According to Dr. Roberts, our students are exposed to about 16 hours of media every day. It might be our responsibility to force them to step away from it while they are at school. I don't think we should reject technology altogether, clearly we need to teach tech skills. But maybe we don't need to rush to figure out how to allow even more technology use in the classroom when students are being inundated every other waking hour of the day.


Online Classes
I think the increase in online classes is bad for education in general. However, I think online learning can be an excellent resource is used in a specific and limited way.

Generally speaking, school is about a lot more than the content of the textbook. Even bright students who can learn content on their own gain from the socialization aspect of school. In a classroom students learn how to work with others, how to moderate behavior, how to express themselves in a variety of ways, how to meet deadlines, and various other non-content skills. The more online courses students take, the more they lose out on learning these skills.

Furthermore, I do not think that it is a good option for remediation. If a student did not do well in a course and needs to re-take it, I don't think taking the online course would increase the opportunity for student understanding. I have subbed for an online summer school course and observed students doing the minimum requirements to pass the class and move on. It does not appear that the classes encourage higher level thinking or complex understanding of the topic.

However, I think online courses could be a good option for higher level senior classes. High performing seniors can be more self directed and, therefore, more successful with these types of classes. These seniors have already had the socialization aspect of high school. Classes could be designed to be rigorous and encourage higher level thinking for student that don't need a teacher scaffolding and pushing them. In the words of Vygotsky, I think online learning could be a good educational opportunity for students who are able to manage their own zone of proximal development.

Technology Resources for the Teacher
1. http://www.dropbox.com/

Drop box seems like a great resource for students to use when working on a group project that is electronically based. If the project is housed in one place on drop box, then all of the students can access the project from different computers at different times to work on it.

2. http://www.techsmith.com/download/jing/

This allows you to record your self narrate a slidehow or powerpoint presentation. I think it would be cool to have a powerpoint recorded with my narration and then assign that for homework, rather than do the powerpoint in class. By having the students listen to and watch the powerpoint at home, we can use classtime for more hands on activities

3. http://prezi.com

I have seen people use prezi and it is a lot more engaging than powerpoint. I would like to spend time learning how to use it in my classroom.

4. http://docs.google.com/

Last year I had students keep notebooks that they used to do classwork and homework assignment. I think google docs could be used to serve this same purpose, but online instead of a physical version. Students would create a google doc, share it with me, and the continually add to it with each assignment throughout the school year. This would be beneficial because (a) students can't lose their notebooks, (b) students can't forget their notebooks at home, and (c) I don't have to haul a stack of notebooks around when I am grading them Of course, this is only an option is all students have laptops or tablets in the classroom.

Interdisciplinary Teaching - 402: Session 4

History is a subject that lends itself to interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Utilizing literature, visual arts, music, and various other subjects come so naturally to teaching history that it almost seems impossible to avoid using resources from other subjects. One area of United States History that particularly lends itself to interdisciplinary learning is the Harlem Renaissance. A time in history when American experienced an explosion of art, literature, poetry, philosophy, and all other forms of culture from an African American community that was re-defining itself as it cast off the previous identity of slave and victim of Jim Crow. To teach the Harlem Renaissance without including other subjects is not teaching the Harlem Renaissance at all. However, to make it truly interdisciplinary, I could move beyond reading a Langston Hughes poem and showing a Palmer Hayden painting in my own classroom. I could sit and plan with the English and Art teachers to see if we can’t align our curriculum so that the students are seeing various aspects of the Harlem Renaissance in three of their classes at the same time.

Given the logistical challenges of organizing the schedule and curriculum multiple teachers, it is much more realistic for me to think about how to pull other disciplines into my class to enhance student understanding of the Harlem Renaissance. As I said above, having the students read a poem such as The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes (link below), incorporates english/literature into a history classroom to enrich student understanding. Additionally, giving students an opportunity to view the painting The Janitor Who Paints by Palmer Hayden (link below), uses visual art to deepen student understanding of the Harlem Renaissance movement. Students could read this poem and look at this painting and interpret the meaning behind each piece of art as it relates to the African American experience in the Harlem Renaissance. Students would be encouraged to think why these artists created these specific pieces of art at this particular time. Students would use what they know about the Harlem Renaissance to gain a deeper understanding of the art, and in turn use the art to gain a deeper understanding of the Harlem Renaissance. 

I think it is a powerful tool any time you can use other disciplines to support your own content. Bringing in resources that traditionally belong in other classes gives the students an opportunity to approach your content from various angles and dig into the multiple layers of the subject area. Again, history is a perfect subject to utilize resources from various disciplines and the Harlem Renaissance, in particular, is ripe for such opportunities. 

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173693

The Janitor Who Paints

http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=10126


I commented on Eirik Kingston's blog post - eirik234smc.blogspot.com

Mind the Gap - 402: Session Two

1. Quote 1: “I argued that the public schools had not been devised by scheming capitalists to impose ‘social control’ on an unwilling proletariat or to reproduce social inequality.” (page 6)

In this quote Ravitch is responding to a group of leftist historians in the 1970s who claim that the public education system is organized to intentionally maintain a socio-economic caste system and oppress the poor. I agree with Ravitch that public education is a system that has the ability to liberate the poor and the disenfranchised.  However, it is clear that the education system is not succeeding at these goals. Schools in low-income areas are usually the lowest performing schools, making the quality of education worse in the schools where education can make the biggest difference. I do not believe the system is meant to intentionally keep poor people down, but we have allowed a system to exist that is failing to lift these people up.

Quote 2: “Testing had become a central preoccupation in the schools and was not just a measure but an end in itself.” (page 12) This statement gets to the heart of the problem with high stakes testing in our education system today. Most people would agree that it is important to assess student and teacher performance, but the focus on testing has overwhelmed so many other important aspects of education. We have lost sight of cultivating student learners, especially whole learners, by replacing them with student performers. If we educate our citizens that the end goal is more important than the process, we are eroding a society of critical thinkers.

2. I think Ravitch hits the nail on the head in her description of a well-educated person. To expand on her description, I think a well-educated person who has the ability to think critically about any given problem using both skills and knowledge accumulated throughout life. A well-educated person has the ability to see multiple perspectives and does not accept the status quo without due consideration of all perspectives. A well-educated person is someone who is continually striving to grow their knowledge and understanding.

3. I enjoyed our class discussion of the first two chapters of Ravitch. The part of the discussion that stands out to me was when we talked about teacher assessment. There seemed to be consensus that there needs to be some way to measure teacher performance. However, I think there was also agreement that exclusively using the high stakes testing method is not the best way to assess. Many people in class suggested different methods of assessment, but I was most intrigued by what Matt and Greg shared about the evaluation process at De La Salle. A regular evaluation by a committee made up of people representing different parts of the school seems like a fair and reasonable method. Such a committee could be informed by student evaluations, peer evaluations, principal evaluations, and the teacher's own self evaluation, in addition to test scores. This method allows for various types of information and gives the teacher more substantive feedback for improvement in the future.

4. Gap: CA SS 11.7.2 Explain U.S. and Allied wartime strategy, including the major battles of Midway, Normandy, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Battle of the Bulge.

Resources

website - http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/turning-tide-europe-1942-1944

book - Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War by John Ellis

article - Allied Strategy in World War II: The Churchill Era, 1942-1943 by De Lamar Jensen

EDSITEment is a website hosted by We the People which is a program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The website contains a plethora of lesson plans related to various periods of time in US History for teachers to use in their classroom. One EDSITEment lesson plan focuses specifically on the Allied strategies during World War Two. The lesson plan focuses on the agreement between the Allies to settle Europe by toppling Italy and Germany before they confront Japan. In their advancement on Europe, the Allies first decided to first attack Italy from north Africa, thinking that it would be the easiest of the Axis countries to defeat. From Italy, the Allies would move into the rest of Europe, overtaking Germany. Eventually, after Italy proved more difficult than originally thought, the Allies agreed to attack Germany from the west in France.

5. My Inquiry Question is: Would creating a thematic curriculum that replaces the traditional US History textbook with alternative resources create increased student engagement and learning?

One resource I found useful was a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen. I read this book a few years ago and re-read portions of it as I began to consider my Inquiry Question. The book concludes that the traditional US History textbooks we use make the content boring and unappealing to students, and explores various reasons to explain why the textbooks are unsuccessful. This was an incredibly useful resource because it gave me a foundation for my research by providing a number of different avenues to pursue. Even more useful was that the book is very well sited and many of the references in the book are potential resources for my further exploration into the topic.

Another resource I found useful was an article from Educational Leadership called Out with Textbooks, In with Learning. This article focuses on the way that textbooks organize and provide information. The authors argue that textbooks are basically reference books that lack focus on big ideas and central concepts. This related to my interest in developing a theme based history class that I think will help students better engage with the content. Using themes or central concepts allows a student see progression and make connections, rather than have to decipher which facts from an avalanche of  facts are important.

Comments
Yadira Zapata - http://unahistoriadeunamaestra.blogspot.com/
Mike Rose - http://Mikejas.blogspot.com/
Andrew Eckloff - http://aeckloff.blogspot.com/

402: Session One

1. As a U.S. History teacher, most of my outside-school experience with my subject matter has come from books. However, I have also attained further knowledge from reading articles, watching movies, visiting monuments, and traveling.

For example, I recently visited the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. At the museum there is an exhibit called We The People that is an animated visual history wall that tells the history of the United States through specific themes, including diversity, intolerance, and rights.

2. I don't feel like my initial thoughts on the Ball article were changes, as much as they were expanded. I think everyone agrees that a teacher can becomes more effective as they gain a greater amount of content knowledge. One of the things that the article did not focus on was how we should go about accomplishing this goal. Much of the latter part of our in-class discussion focused on the question of how to achieve the goal.

In a perfect world where schools have more money than they need, I think it is something that can be financially incentivized. Taking actions to expand your content knowledge, whether that is reading a book, going to a conference, taking courses at a community college, etc., would be rewarded with a stipend on top of the teacher's salary. Of course, given the current funding situation, this is not likely. It could also just be something that is emphasized in departments. I could see a Social Studies Department some form of book club where the teachers read various book related to the different subjects and then get together to discuss the book and how knowledge gained from the book could be implemented into a curriculum.

3. My Inquiry Question is: Would creating a thematic curriculum that replaces the traditional US History textbook with alternative resources create increased student engagement and learning in the content?

There seems to be a good amount of information available that will help me further develop my ideas related creating a curriculum that throws out the textbook. The book Lies My Teacher Told Me is more specifically about the shortcomings of US History textbooks, but the book references a number of studies that discuss textbooks in general. Furthermore, I have found a number of studies that discuss the problems with textbooks through google searches and searches on the SMC library resources database.

My experiential learning resources will be focused on the themes that I am developing for the US History curriculum. For example, if one of my themes is Immigration and Migration in the United States, Angel Island would be a great experiential resource to support knowledge related to that pecific theme.

Comments
I posted a comment on the following blogs
 - Julia Wegher - masterbloggersmc.blogspot.com
 - Yadira Zapata - unahistoriadeunamaestra.blogspot.com
 - Mike Rose - Mikejas.blogspot.com

Capstone Project: Five Guiding Questions

Guiding Question Will developing a curriculum for United States History that does not use a traditional textbook and organizes an American history course into themes, as well as chronological sequence, enhance student engagement in the subject? (Pedagogical) The following are the questions that will guide the themes that I use to organize my curriculum.   - Expansion and World Power: How has the status of the United States as a world power evolved from the Revolutionary Era to the end of the Cold War? (Content)  - Rights and Discrimination: How have different groups of americans struggled to attain the equal rights alluded to in the Declaration of Independence? (Content)  - Immigration and Migration: How have immigration and migration impacted the history of the United States and contributed to the continual transformation of our national identity? (Content)  - Role of the Federal Government: How has the role of the federal government in American society changed throughout the country's history? (Content)  - Tension Within the United States: What have been the most significant issues to cause tension and conflict within the United States throughout our nation's history? (Content)