I am at a different point in my career than most of the people in this class. I am planning for retirement. The date has has been set - June 2010 and the cruise has been planned. And then what?
Perhaps this will sound like someone who watches too much Oprah, but I believe that each of us has the obligation to leave the world a better place than we found it. We need to leave our footprint. It shouldn't be a footprint in the sand which will wash away with the first tide but one that is lasting. The difference we make in the lives of the children we meet is paying it forward. I believe in paying it forward.
I don't think teachers in the suburbs or outstate truly understand Detroit teachers. Whenever I go to workshops I feel a disconnect. They don't get it. They don't know how much we grieve for our students. They don't see our tears. They don't see how fast and hard we pedal with the environmental winds blowing us backwards. I have worked for principals that I am sure studied under Adoph Hitler and learned economics from Enron. Then I have worked for some (like the one I have now) who bear the attributes of Mother Theresa, the fortitude of Nelson Mandela, and the audacity to hope of Barack Obama. There is always hope.
I know retired people who spend their days going to Meijers and "doing" lunch. That's it.
Retirement truly scares the crap out of me. It will be the first time in my life since I started kindergarten in the Fall of 1954 that I haven't either been in school, been working, or raising children. Sometimes all three at once. It will be a clean slate. A clean slate requires some fresh chalk and a good eraser.
Virtual schooling is something I can do. It is something that I can use to help "our broken-winged" children find a place they can soar. I won't need a room key. I will just need my laptop and that can follow me anywhere.
Thank you, Michael, for inviting me into that virtual "live" classroom. Neither of my millenium daughters, both in college, had ever been in one. I one-upped them. That felt kinda good.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Don't wanna be a pooper scooper.
Meet Jack. He attends Mackinac Island High School on Mackinac Island in northern Michigan. This island has a year around population of 600 people. The ferry stops running right after Christmas and doesn't start again until April. Those winter months are spent in total isolation. Sometimes in February the ice between St. Ignace and the island freezes over. Then it is possible to get off the island on a risky, Christmas tree marked, ice bridge.
Jack is a senior in a school of about 100 students. That includes K-12. He goal is to attend Lake Superior State College in Sault St. Marie, Michigan when he graduates. Unfortunately his school is too small to include a teacher for the AP Chemistry class he would like to take. He wonders what to do. He knows what he doesn't want to do. That is to follow his father's footsteps into the family business - tending to horses and driving carriages for tourists.
Jack decides to talk to his guidance counselor who also teaches math and coaches the basketball team. His counselor remembers that Northern Michigan University in Marquette has a professor who teaches an online APChemistry class to students all over the Upper Pennisula. Most of these students attend small town schools or some one room schools. Some are isolated by geography or weather.
The island school has a modern technology lab thanks to many wealthy summer people who donate to the school. Jack finds that the school computers will connect him to his class. He enrolls.
The Professor at NMU uses a program similar to ICN - a two way interactive audio-video system using studio classrooms. The Professor had once taught in Iowa and was introduced to the program there. The Professor tells Jack to find a coach at Mackinac Island High School. He doesn't have to be a Chemistry teacher - just someone who can proctor tests and monitor Jack's progress.
Jack is also required to find someone to provide computer tech support. He talks to the computer instructor at his school and she agrees to help. She also teaches morning kindergarten. There aren't enough students to require a p.m. class.
The Professors job is to send materials to student coaches , send a calendar, evaluate work, and provide feedback. He communicates with parents and sends grades to the guidance counselor.
Jack's parents are curious about this process and wonder how he will learn without other students around him. They learn that Jack will have face to face interaction with his teacher and other students. He actually will have more classmates than he could ever have at the island school. He will be using chat rooms to plan projects, an electronic discussion board, and the Professor will even have office hours online. Jack is all set.
Mackinac Island is advertised as the "Somewhere in Time" place to be for summer tourists. No cars. No carbon monxide. Just peace.
But for a boy like Jack, life in the slow lane was holding him back. Virtual Schooling gave him what he needed. And he didn't have to wait for the lake to freeze to leave the island.
Jack is a senior in a school of about 100 students. That includes K-12. He goal is to attend Lake Superior State College in Sault St. Marie, Michigan when he graduates. Unfortunately his school is too small to include a teacher for the AP Chemistry class he would like to take. He wonders what to do. He knows what he doesn't want to do. That is to follow his father's footsteps into the family business - tending to horses and driving carriages for tourists.
Jack decides to talk to his guidance counselor who also teaches math and coaches the basketball team. His counselor remembers that Northern Michigan University in Marquette has a professor who teaches an online APChemistry class to students all over the Upper Pennisula. Most of these students attend small town schools or some one room schools. Some are isolated by geography or weather.
The island school has a modern technology lab thanks to many wealthy summer people who donate to the school. Jack finds that the school computers will connect him to his class. He enrolls.
The Professor at NMU uses a program similar to ICN - a two way interactive audio-video system using studio classrooms. The Professor had once taught in Iowa and was introduced to the program there. The Professor tells Jack to find a coach at Mackinac Island High School. He doesn't have to be a Chemistry teacher - just someone who can proctor tests and monitor Jack's progress.
Jack is also required to find someone to provide computer tech support. He talks to the computer instructor at his school and she agrees to help. She also teaches morning kindergarten. There aren't enough students to require a p.m. class.
The Professors job is to send materials to student coaches , send a calendar, evaluate work, and provide feedback. He communicates with parents and sends grades to the guidance counselor.
Jack's parents are curious about this process and wonder how he will learn without other students around him. They learn that Jack will have face to face interaction with his teacher and other students. He actually will have more classmates than he could ever have at the island school. He will be using chat rooms to plan projects, an electronic discussion board, and the Professor will even have office hours online. Jack is all set.
Mackinac Island is advertised as the "Somewhere in Time" place to be for summer tourists. No cars. No carbon monxide. Just peace.
But for a boy like Jack, life in the slow lane was holding him back. Virtual Schooling gave him what he needed. And he didn't have to wait for the lake to freeze to leave the island.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
The Big Sleep
Yesterday I did something I said I would never do. I went to a Toyota dealership and seriously checked out a foreign car - the Prius. Consumer Reports recently gave it red stars in every category. Plus it gets nearly 50 miles to the gallon. That sure beats my PT Cruiser.
Why does it? The Big Three provides excuse after excuse about why the Asian companies outperform American companies.
Somehow I think we are doing the same thing in education. We make excuses.
The Converge article talked about Global competiveness. Asian students are "on fire" to learn. Much of their learning requires learning English first. Both India and China are using eLearning to reach students in areas that don't have the best schools and teachers.
Why aren't we?
DPS has nearly a 50% high school drop out rate. That figure depends on who is doing the calculating. I teach a 7th grade Reading class and in my class I have a young man, Marcus, who just turned 16. Marcus comes to school every day, is polite, and hard working. He works with me every Tuesday and Thursday after school. His reasons for being behind in school are the usual ones - changing schools, family upheavel, transience. I checked with my principal about moving Marcus into high school and she said he had to be in 8th grade to be moved. When he does move it will be to one of Detroit's alternative schools. These are frequently a challenge to get to and educationally not very challenging. I am sure Marcus will some day soon get discouraged and drop out. I probably would.
Yet this week when I was in E. Tawas, I met a young man who was getting his diploma on-line. His mother didn't want him in the local school system so she enrolled him in a virtual high school. He graduates in June and has already been accepted into Alpena Community College.
I teach in a new Detroit school that has three computer labs (35 computers in each) but no computer teacher. Each classroom has five computers for student use. They are rarely used.
We are getting ready in a few weeks to have another workshop day for teachers. The agenda includes nothing about technology. We will be reviewing MEAP scores. Same old.
Marcus deserves a future. It shouldn't involve being 6 feet tall in the 7th grade and eyeing my parking spot. There are thousands of students just like him. We need to wake up from our deep educational slumber.
Why does it? The Big Three provides excuse after excuse about why the Asian companies outperform American companies.
Somehow I think we are doing the same thing in education. We make excuses.
The Converge article talked about Global competiveness. Asian students are "on fire" to learn. Much of their learning requires learning English first. Both India and China are using eLearning to reach students in areas that don't have the best schools and teachers.
Why aren't we?
DPS has nearly a 50% high school drop out rate. That figure depends on who is doing the calculating. I teach a 7th grade Reading class and in my class I have a young man, Marcus, who just turned 16. Marcus comes to school every day, is polite, and hard working. He works with me every Tuesday and Thursday after school. His reasons for being behind in school are the usual ones - changing schools, family upheavel, transience. I checked with my principal about moving Marcus into high school and she said he had to be in 8th grade to be moved. When he does move it will be to one of Detroit's alternative schools. These are frequently a challenge to get to and educationally not very challenging. I am sure Marcus will some day soon get discouraged and drop out. I probably would.
Yet this week when I was in E. Tawas, I met a young man who was getting his diploma on-line. His mother didn't want him in the local school system so she enrolled him in a virtual high school. He graduates in June and has already been accepted into Alpena Community College.
I teach in a new Detroit school that has three computer labs (35 computers in each) but no computer teacher. Each classroom has five computers for student use. They are rarely used.
We are getting ready in a few weeks to have another workshop day for teachers. The agenda includes nothing about technology. We will be reviewing MEAP scores. Same old.
Marcus deserves a future. It shouldn't involve being 6 feet tall in the 7th grade and eyeing my parking spot. There are thousands of students just like him. We need to wake up from our deep educational slumber.
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