As for diversification, the district i am currently employed by is both economically and ethnically diverse. It is actually easier for me to address diversity because my students can look around them and see that they all do not come from the same backgrounds yet they all have something to contribute to class. My subject area also makes is easy to address this aspect of education because I can incorporate literature from authors of various cultures and backgrounds to further explore these issues.

On another note, the great blog experiment is extremely successful. I am most impressed with how my students are commenting on each others’ responses and are offering each other support and constructive criticism. This is something that cannot be achieved in the classroom on a regular basis because there simply isn’t time for it. And the blog discussions invariably flow over into the classroom, generating even more interesting interaction among the students and putting the class into their hands. I am very happy with this idea and would be inerested in hearing from others who are using blogs in the classroom. I even suggested to a colleague who teaches creative writing and journalism that she consider using blogs in those classes because it’s an excellent platform for getting students to share writing.

So I took a trip around the web and visited most of the state education websites to see what’s going on outside of my corner of the world. I wasn’t too surprised by what I saw; most states are focusing on making themselves look good for NCLB. However, my other goal was to find out what the state of technology in education is in other states and that is where I was most surprised.

First off, I wasn’t aware that the United States Education Department has implemented a National Education Technology Plan. What was most enlightening about this site was the success stories that describe what is being done in districts around the country to integrate technology into the curriculum. The reason this section surprised me so much was because I had visited many of the state education department websites for districts that were highlighted here and for the most part I did not see any reference to these programs on the main pages of the sites. Some of these programs are incredibly innovative and inspiring and should be publicized much more. Here’s a brief overview:

Eugene, OR districts are implementing handheld computer technology into K-12 classrooms. This program is being funded through the NCLB Title IID and allows students and teachers to have access to handheld computers, laptops, and curriculum enhancing software, as well as the training needed to allow teachers to make the program successful.

A San Antonio, TX district has distributed 1,400 handheld computers to teachers and administrators to assess student and teacher data. They have found that this program cuts down on paper documentation while increasing productivity because of easier access and organization of pertinent information.

A Eureka, CA district has implemented a program that makes technology an integral part of each students day, just as pen and paper has been to the traditional instruction methods. Technology tools are used to access and analyze student assessments, assist in student productivity, create curriculum and allow students to engage in activities that would be difficult to replicate without technology.

It was refreshing to see that so much can be done with technology, and that NCLB provides funding to promote this. What is disheartening, however, it that it is not more widespread in districts across the country. Most districts will complaing that funding does not allow for them to increase the use of technology in their schools; while this leads to an entirely different topic, I wonder how many schools are taking advantage of Title IID funds?

Technology integration is not something that can be achieved overnight, but schools do need to make it a priority and take advantage of existing programs that will allow them to do so. Many computer companies offer education incentive programs that are not being taken advantage of by the schools that need them most.

Where does your district stand with technology integration?

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Views on NCLB legislation…

A coworker sent me this link to an animated movie created by the American Federation of Teachers. They have a blog that reviews NCLB in action and allows teachers to express their views on the legislation. Basically, teachers seem to understand this legislation is more about numbers than education.

What this legislation has accomplished is to label thousands of schools across the country as substandard under NCLB. This has led many states to petition the federal Education Department to review the way they measure student progress. While the feds are considering the changes suggested by schools, they are not willing to compromise on “certain core principals,” including breaking down student performance by race, ethnicity, income, disability, and gender. All this does is force schools to focus on statistics, and education becomes subverted by the stress districts face to meet standards that may not be realistic in all cases. Districts that are in high poverty communities are feeling the effects more than most because it is impossible for them to make a significant turn-around in one year. What I want to know is what is the government doing with all of these numbers? It seems that it’s a case of rich get richer…

And when we consider what our students need to succeed in the world beyond high school, how effective is NCLB going to be in actually not leaving them behind? Is it helping students like Gabriela who decided to drop out of high school in the twelfth grade because she couldn’t pass the new state requirements even after seven tries? What will become of her? When schools focus so much on making sure the students pass these exams they necessarily ignore the needs of the students. I have personally seen numbers “fudged” in order to make the requirements of NCLB. How much is that helping the students?

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Virginia claims to be at the forefront of technology intergration and I am glad for that. It is the future and the more positive experiences our children have with it the better prepared they will be for interacting in the digital world. I’m surprised whenever I attempt to use a webquest in class and my students seem stumped as to how to go about it. For the amount of time they spend on the internet, they seem to have gotten very little in the way of valuable tools out of it.
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It seems like a viable position. If you can’t beat them, join them. This district is using the iPods and other mp3 players to deliver vocabulary homework, ESL and foreign language assignments, and other language based activities. While they admit it’s too early in the program to determine if it is successful or not, they give the impression that the students are reacting positively to this new approach.

Then there is the opposite approach. A school district in Sydney, Australia has banned the use of iPods and mp3 players in school because they feel it leads to social isolation. By tuning into their music, kids are tuning out everything around them, including teachers, classmates, and announcements. Students claim it helps them to focus, but the district felt that the safety and communication concerns were more pressing issues.

I can appreciate both sides of this issue. Too often, I see students walking through school, or even in class, listening to iPods and not paying attention to anything around them. In my own classroom I am continually telling students to take out their ear buds when they are supposed to be participating in a discussion. I don’t know that I support a ban per se, but the students have to know when and where it is appropriate to use this technology. That is where I think using the technology as a learning tool may help. Apple has introduced a program called iPod in the Classroom that offers lesson plans, resources and ideas for integrating iPods into education.

Allowing the iPods in the classroom could be a compromise that actually favors teachers. The students have them anyway, now they will be responsible for using them to learn instead of simply listening to music.

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While Mr. Epstein is addressing these issues as they relate to university level education, some of the same arguments can be made for secondary education as well. He refers to education as a “truly existential experiment and revelation about self and other.” Nothing could be more true, especially when dealing with teenagers whose entire existence revolves around these revelations about self and other. While it helps to engage and motivate students by using technology, there can be no replacement for the so-called “teachable moments” that occur only through the interactions of educators and students. Only there can we help the student to navigate through the confusion and vulnerability of a period in their lives when they are learning so much about themselves and the world around them. Education is not simply bringing them to the knowledge, but teaching them how to incorporate it into what they already know and where it can lead them. Epstein argues that “genuine education requires three in’s that cannot be copied for mass output and consumption: intuition, inspiration, and invention.” Technology may make sharing knowledge easier, but it will never replace the personal interaction that is essential to a true understanding of any subject.

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I am still waiting for the No Child Left Behind legislation to catch up with the grade level I teach. So far, the only changes I have encountered have been a greater focus on the numbers our school generates on standardized tests and an increase in the amount of professional development required. What is needed is for the changes to take root in the lower grades so that the students reach high school with a solid base of knowledge that we can then build upon. Too often, in my district at least, we find that we must waste valuable classroom time covering things that should have been mastered at the elementary or middle school level. I have had to go over simple grammar elements such as parts of speech because I find that my students can not even use nouns or adjectives correctly in their writing. Until a change occurs at the lower level I will not be able to uphold my end of the bargain at the high school level.

Right now we spend too much time teaching to the test because the district is so concerned about the numbers they produce and how they will then be affected by NCLB. Although it is not explicitly stated, we are encouraged to focus on doing what it takes to get more students to pass the Regents exams through a biannual review of how our school matches up against other local school in passing and graduation rates. It doesn’t feel as if this legislation is helping students in our school, which happens to be in a community of mixed ethnicity and economic backgrounds. I would like to see this work to help the students who need it instead of pushing them through the system, or worse, pushing them aside in the interest of attaing “the numbers.” While I agree with the ideals behind the No Child Left Behind legislation, I have not seen it implemented in away that will allow it to succeed. It is commendable to want to hold educators and students to a higher standard, but then the system itself has to be held to an equally high standard so that change can be accomplished.

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There is a link in my blogroll to a site called L0calGh0st. This is a blog maintained by a colleague of mine who is dedicated to education. Thomas Gabriel-Ventimiglia was my cooperating teacher during my student teaching and has since become a good friend. I was working with him on this blog when he first created it but had to stop due to events in my life that did not allow me to give it the attention it deserved. Tom is still maintaining it with other members of the education community and it has a wealth of information and a great format.

You may be interested in looking at this blog for ideas on education reform and the benefits of arming students with ‘intellectual self-defense’. Plus I enjoy giving Tom a shameless plug – he deserves it!

While Virginia does not have the Regents exams as we know them in New York, they do have what they call Standard of Learning (SOL) exams. I am interested in learning more about these exams and how they affect the curriculum. For the English component, students must pass two End of Course exams, one in writing and one in Reading/Literature and Research. I’ve viewed samples of these and they seem to focus more on comprehension, grammar and elements of literature. It seems like it would be easier to integrate into daily lessons than New York’s Regents exams, which require an enormous amount of class time dedicated to “teaching the test.”

The structure of school districts came up not only in my job search but also in seeing how low the property taxes are in Virginia. Coming from Long Island where property taxes are outrageous I was shocked to find that we would be paying less than $1000 a year in taxes. Part of that is because of the way school districts are zoned in Virginia. Unlike Long Island where practically every town has its own district, in Virginia the districts are county-wide. This allows them to cut down on administrative costs and other costs associated with running the schools. I am still amazed by this and can’t wait to go to some of these job fairs to learn more about the school system in Virginia.