My Community Service Experience

I put my 10 hours of community service in at Passaic. My mother is a 2nd grade teacher in the Passaic Public school district. I decided to spend my 10 hours helping out her students. My mother teaches in one of the worst areas of Passaic. Her students are the children from the projects and other low-income housing developments. Her students are at a real disadvantage. I thought that this was a place I could do a lot of good. My mom has been very sick and I have been going to her school twice a week for the past few months to help her out. When I could not find community service at Arts to do she said she could really use my help. I already knew some of her students.

She told me to come to her classroom twice a week after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She wanted me to help her students who were low achieving and at risk of failing. She introduced me to her students as a "reading buddy". Each day I would meet with at least two children and spend twenty minutes with each child. While this was going on my mother would be holding extra help or detention. My mother's classroom is really rather large. All of the desks are in the front of the room. To the back of the room is a reading center. There is a large carpet were kids can sit and read or little tables along the edges. That is usually were I would spend my sessions with her students.

I would sit with the children and have them pick out a book. I would try to get them to read to me. It was usually very hard for them. I would make them read along with me and sound out the words. Sometimes it was hard to get them to keep their attention on the books we were reading. Since my mother always had a lot of other children in the classroom there was always something else going on.

I really enjoyed helping out at my mothers school. I went twice a week for about two months. I grew attached to some of these kids, especially the ones who I seemed to help. I really didn't want to stop going. I am probably going to go back very soon.

My Day At Arts High School

I spent my day at Arts High School on Wednesday, November 28, 2007. When I first talked to my teacher she seemed really nice and I was excited to meet her. I arrived at Arts at about 8:00 am. I met with my teacher and introduced myself. She told me that she only had class for two blocks of the day. She had the first block of the day free. This was her prep period. As she up for the day I decided to observe the physical layout of the classroom.

In her classroom the desks were arranged in groups of four of five. The blackboard was in the front of the room. The teacher's desk was in front corner of the room. The the left wall had three large windows but they were only facing another wall. The student's work was hung up all over the walls. She had a few poster's with inspirational sayings. All of the work on the walls were from current students. The teacher, Ms. Leon, put one folder at each group of desks. Evey group had a different color folder. Ms. Leon told me that each group of desks were a team. There were six teams; yellow, blue, red, green, purple, and orange. The work of the day for each student were in the folders.

The first class Ms. Leon had was block 2. It was her United States History I class. It was composed of juniors and seniors. The students came in talking , laughing, joking, and smiling. When the bell rang students were still walking around talking. Ms Leon said, "The bell rang have a seat". Some students were still up and talking. It took about five minutes to get all of the students in there seats and quiet. They were then instructed to take out there homework from the night before. Ms. Leon went around the room and checked each student's work. About 30-40% of the students did not have their homework completed. While she was doing that the students were told to do the "DO NOW" on the board.

Do Now: What did the found fathers mean when they said "all men are created equal"


Ms. Leon then went over the do now with the class. The students had responses like "all people black or white or man or women" and they were racist they didn't consider black men, men". After that she put a movie on. She was trying to explain the difference between and patriot and a loyalist to the students. The movie was about William Franklin, a loyalist, and Benjamin Franklin, a patriot. Some students stared intently at the television and other were looking away or talking. A couple of students even fell asleep. She only left the movie on for about fifteen minutes. When she turned it off she discussed it with the class. She then told them to go in the folder and take out the question sheet. She gave them time to answer the questions in groups. She gave them about ten minutes to do this. She then tried to get the groups to share their answers with the class. She had a pretty hard time initially getting them to open up but once then did they all had a lot to say.

The next activity Ms. Leon did with the class required the students to decide weather they would have been a patriot, loyalist, or torn. They were told to stand at the the corner of the room which corresponded with their stance. Ms. Leon then went to different students and asked them why they had decided that way. The students went on for a long time and a lot of participation was going on. The bell rang and Ms. Leon gave the assignment and the class rushed out.

Ms. Leon then had her homeroom class come in. They all sat talking with Ms. Leon until the bell rang.

The last class Ms. Leon had of the day was her World History class. This class was composed of freshmen. This class walked in quietly and sat down. The "do now" was on the board and they were instructed to sit down and start on it. She went around the room and checked their homework. The rest of the class time was spent going over the questions and the article they read for homework. They talked about the effects of Indian colonialism. The class was ready to go and done before the bell even rang.

When the day was over I thanked my teacher for having me. She was very helpful to me. She told me I could come back any time I wanted and if I ever needed help she was there. I really did enjoy my day at Arts High School.

PLC Meeting at Arts

On November 27, 2007 I attended a Professional Learning Communities Meeting at Arts High School. The meeting lasted for about an hour. The facilitator of the meeting new I was a students from MSU and allowed me to sit in with the teachers and be a full and active participant. There were ten teachers present and one was designated as the facilitator.
As the teachers arrived they had to sign in. The meeting took place in a small room, about 15' x 15', around a long oval shaped table. Once everyone was present a meeting agenda was passed out. On the meeting Agenda was the meeting objective and guiding questions.

Meeting objective: To continue to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to develop open-ended questions that will develop higher level critical thinking.

Guiding Question(s): How do we develop open-ended questions so that they: 1) help students acquire critical thinking skills gained from higher order questions; 2)prepare students to successfully answer open-ended questions on standardized tests; and 3)inform instruction?


The facilitator opened the meeting by going through the agenda and explaining what he would go over in the meeting. The agenda item was to review objective and guiding questions. The spent about five minutes doing this. The facilitator read them aloud. The teachers made a few comments. The teachers then when on to task two, Bloom's Taxonomy. A chart including Bloom's Taxonomy was handed out. At this point a little bit of debate broke out over weather or not it was important to give students questions that only cover the first level of Bloom's Taxonomy, knowledge, or if they should try to give questions that cover all the levels. One teacher said, "We need to give them questions that only cover the first level because they need to have something to work up to. You need to be able to answer questions on the first level to be able to move up to any other level." Another teacher said, "Questions that only cover the first level don't show that they understand concepts. They are just spitting facts back," .

After some debate they moved on to the next agenda item, guided reading. A packet of reading was passed out. The packet included several articles. The facilitator went around the table assigning different pages to each teacher. On teacher said, "My pages are the end on an article". The facilitator decided to just have everyone skim all of the articles. The artciles were discussed and then they moved on to what it meas for a question to be open and what makes a question open. They were given questions and had to decide if they were open or not. They then created their own open-ended questions and shared them with each other. The meeting then came to a close and teachers said their goodbyes and went on with their days.

I really enjoyed this experience. I think the PLC meetings are great. It keeps older teachers up to date and gives teachers a chance to learn from one another. I hope the school I end up teacher for does something like this.

Thanksgiving Football Game

Today I went to a football game at Brick Memorial high school. This is a huge game in the town of Brick. The Brick Memorial Mustangs were playing the Old Brick Dragons. This game is played between the two high schools of Brick every year on thanksgiving. It is a huge tradition. When I arrived at the game the stadium was packed. It was not only high school students, but people of all ages. A lot of people I met were Alumni of either school. There were also a lot of families present. I was sitting on the Brick Memorial side. All of the students I talked to said they thought they were going to lose. After a long and stressful game Brick Memorial ended up surprising everyone and won 17, 7.

NCLB

I have been hearing about NCLB since it started. My mother is a teacher and she has been complaining about it for years now. I don't understand how it could stay in place if so many years if teachers are against it. I think NCLB puts the focus of education in the wrong places. Standardized tests have been given way too much importance. I think maybe it may push some schools to want to fall bellow standards to get help. It just upsets me that schools have to be so political. It makes people forget why were really all there, why there is a school. I think things have to improve with the next presidential administration. They can't possibly get much worse.

The History Teacher

Through my research for my inquiry project I have come across a very interesting journal. I am a future history teacher and I find this journal extremely useful. I think it would be beneficial for any current of future history teacher. Almost all of the articles I used in my Inquiry project paper came from The History Teacher. I found their articles so interesting I couldn't stop reading. I even paid for a years subscription.

You can find this journal at:
http://www.thehistoryteacher.org/


You can find old issues at:
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/40.2/


I advise anyone who is planning on being a history teacher to at least take a look.

Orientation at Arts High School

I am still in awe of everything I have seen today. I still can not stop talking about Arts and everything I have seen there. My boyfriend could no longer sit and listen to me talk. I have to say Art completely changed any preconceived notions I had of Newark and their public school system.

My Expectations

I have to admit I was not expecting much from Arts. I have spent some time in Newark and the surrounding towns because my boyfriend went to Seton Hall University. I never thought it was the nicest neighborhood. I didn't think Arts would be anything special. However, I was sadly mistaken. Arts High School and its student blew me away. It just shows you that making assumptions is not alway the best thing to do.

My Visit

I was not to sure of how to get to Arts so I decided to follow Dr. Goldstein. When I arrived at Arts I did not think it was anything special. The neighborhood looked nice but the building didn't look like anything special. However, as soon as I walked into Arts, I knew Arts was a special place. We were greeted by students and with friendly and inviting faces and escorted by other students to the auditorium. Waiting in the auditorium had to be the worst part of the trip. It was very cold in there.

After a few minutes of waiting Dr. Brown greeted us introduced the vice principle. We then here from a few teachers and Dr. Brown addressed us again. She truly seemed to love what she does. She took much pride in her school and her students. She also seemed to truly want to help us, as future teachers. I am very impressed from what I seem from Arts. The students who talked to us were also very enthusiastic about Arts. They both stated that they loved coming to school. That says a lot about a school.

I was also impressed with what I saw on the student given tour. We walked through the school and stepped in on a few classes. It was a unique atmosphere, unlike anything I have ever seen in a high school. The students honestly seemed to be engaged, enthusiastic, and motivated. There was full participation going on in all the classrooms I walked into. We walked into a dance class of students practicing a routine, a drama class running through lines, and a history class engaged in a debate. The students were willing to talk to us and answer any questions we had. They were all very helpful.

Reaction

I have to say this is probably the best experience I have had so far on my path to becoming an educator. Arts changed all the assumptions about Newark and urban schools all together. I am very excited to get back there for my first observation. I think it will teach me a lot. I am in love with Arts. I am not even in any field involving fine arts but I would love to teach at Arts or a school like it one day.

My Inquiry Project

I am very excited to be starting this project. It seems like a good opportunity and learning experience. When we first were assigned this project I had so many ideas running through my head. It was even hard to sort through them and work them all out. It took me a long time, and much editing, but I finally came to the question.

I am a history major and I am very passionate about one day becoming a high school history teacher. I wanted to pose a question that would be meaningful to me, but also supply me with useful concepts and knowledge. I wanted it to provide me with practices I COULD ACTUALLY USE in the classroom. I think that my inquiry question will do that.

Inquiry Question:
What factors contribute to and enhance a student's historical understanding, thinking, and engagement.

I think that my inquiry project will have a profound impact on the future of my teaching career. The knowledge I gain through this inquiry could be the difference between me being a marginal teacher and being a great educator. If I can discover methods and guild lines for getting students engaged, and I am successful at doing it in my teaching, it would be striking gold. I really think this is the best inquiry question for my needs and field. I know it is going to be an amazing experience.

Subjectivity Activity and How it Will Help Me

Assignment:
Conduct an ethnographic study of a location

Location:
Quad between University Hall and Dickson Hall

This activity taught me a useful lesson in subjectivity. I went to my location and tried to record everything I saw but only what I actually saw. I did not write about anything that might be objective. This helped me to avoid making assumptions. This activity will really help me when I am doing my observations at Art. I can avoid making assumptions and skewing my data if i keep this activity and the concept of subjectivity in mind. If I am not subjective while collecting data it will not be very actuate. If I fail to remain subjective all of my work could be compromised.

Parker Piece

Parker Response

“An idiot is suicidal in a certain way, definitely self-defeating; for the idiot does not know that privacy and individual autonomy are entirely dependant on the community.”

In American society people have become extremely self absorbed. Over consumption and greed are moving our citizens towards idiocy. Many Americans have lost their sense of community. A large percentage of Americans don’t even vote. In order to strengthen the democracy in which we live, we need to change our concept of community. As future teachers, this is something we can start to do in our classrooms, with our own students.

According to Parker, “puberty is the transition to public life”. Puberty is seen as a time for individuals to grown and shift from idiocy into the public sphere. As a future high school teacher I will be surrounded by adolescence going through this change in life. This is a crucial time in the development of teens. They discover their responsibilities and their role in society and democratic life. It will be one of my responsibilities to ensure that they develop into involved citizens. In order to maintain the freedom and liberty in which they live they must be active citizens. “idiots are idiotic precisely because they are indifferent to the conditions and contexts of their own freedom”.

According to Parker, schools are on the right path to educating for citizenship but they are not entirely there yet. As a future teacher I will have the ability to educate for citizenship. In my opinion, this can be done by instilling the values of democracy in your students with the activities and lessons you do in class. You can plan lessons to include the values of democratic life. Getting your students to participate in an activity that could impact the entire community is a perfect way to do this. If you can get a student to cause real change in the community you may be able to teach them the importance of democracy, community, and citizenship. You can fight idiocy in America by simply starting in your own classroom. This is after all the best place to start and will most likely bring about the most change in our society.

Education for Democracy

"The free common school system is the most American thing about America." -Adlai Stevenson

Before the time of Horace Mann there was no real system of public education. Our country could not go on without finding a way to educate the citizens of America. Great Americans, like Horace Mann and Thomas Jefferson, knew that in order to maintain a democracy we would have to have well educated citizens. Mann once said that schools had the ability to be great equalizers. Mann made huge contributions to public education in America. He believed every child should have equal access to education and materials. He also wanted conformity in schools. He wanted all schools to have the same things.

As time went on the focus of schools changed. As more and more immigrants came in our population was becoming more diverse. Our schools leaders thought that it was now important to Americanize our students. They now believed that the focus of schools was to assimilate these immigrant children into American society. Schools were where these children learned the customs, practices, and ideals of American life.

Between schools being seen as a way to educate youths for a democracy and for assimilations, they really are the most American thing about America. They are the places children learned about democracy and how to be an American. You can’t get more American than that.

Schools for Cittizens: Preserving the Republic ...Really?

After the American Revolution our country had many challenges to face. They had to make sure they could preserve the republic in which they fought so hard to establish. Jefferson recognized that in order for a republic to survive it needed to be made up of educated and moral citizens. There also needed to be a level of unity and civic conformity. But in a country with such diversity how can you expect all students to adhere to the same morals and values? Were they educating students so that they could participate and contribute to the republic or brainwashing them to accept their morals, values, and beliefs? They established schools to reflect their values, the values of the white male prosperous Protestant US born citizen. This created a lot of problem. However, I do think they made one critically important decision in the formation of our public schools systems. The decision to make our schools nonpartisan was probably one of the best decisions they made.

Political differences can tear a nation apart. Just look at what happened during the Civil War. Political differences in the classroom can seriously impede the educational process. I have experienced this first hand as a student. In high school I had a history teacher that flagrantly expressed his political views in the classroom. His political affiliation and views greatly contradicted my own. His teaching was extremely bias towards his own beliefs. This also aggravated me. I was so distracted by these differences that I ended up not learning anything from the class.

I think what I learned most here is that politics can create controversy in school. There was a reason schools were supposed to be nonpartisan. Teaching history includes politically controversial issues. The most important thing I need to remember is to not inflict my own political views on my students. I need to remain non bias. I would never even tell my students which political party i affiliate myself with.

How I Got Here

Recently I came to a sudden realization. I am really doing this…I am really going to become a teacher. It’s really overwhelming. I just look back and realize how far I have come in such a short amount of time. A year ago at this time I would have never thought I would even be in school at all much less doing as well as I am.

A year ago I had not interest in going back to school. I was supposed to go to Penn. State but by the end of my senior year of high school I was barley graduating. I had missed three times the amount of allotted absences. My vice principle had to fight for me to be able to graduate. After I graduated I informed Penn. State that I changed my mind and wouldn’t be coming. I was living with my boyfriend and I really did not want to leave him, which is probably the biggest mistake I ever made in my life. Left with nothing else to do all day, I had to get a job. I started working at Hooters full time (and no I did not wear a hoochy mama outfit to my interview). This was probably the huge turning point in my life. I had always been an extremely shy person and this completely changed that. It gave me confidence. I always had costumers who would come in, sit, and talk to me for hours. They would always tell me I was too smart and should be in school. One day it just hit me, that’s not the career path I wanted to take. I finally wanted so badly to be in school.

I decided to apply to Montclair and got in. I started in the spring of 2007. I kind of stumbled across what I was really passionate about. I have always been fascinated with history and there’s just something I find romantic about the past. I thought about what I really wanted to do with my life, where I could make a difference. I had a really hard adolescence and like that it hit me. I wanted to be in a high school teaching history and helping children get through some of the roughest times of their lives.

And now seven months later I finally see myself making my way towards this goal. I find myself incredibly motivated. I am doing very well. However, fear has now set it. I know I can get through school and become a teacher, but what’s going to happen after that. This class is scaring me more and more.

We’ve been learning a lot about demographics. Schools are so diverse. What if I am teaching in a school where non of my students are like me. How will I relate to them then? What if my students are poverty stricken and they can do their homework at night because they have no electricity in the house? How am I going to make them feel like I understand them? All of these thing are just scaring me to death. I am trying to figure out if I am going to be able to do this. I am so passionate about becoming a teacher. I already have so many ideas for the classroom. I have a little book I put all my ideas for lesson plans, activate, and game in the classroom. I feel like I should be able to do it but I still can’t shake the fear. What if I just can’t do it?

Martians

Dear Martians:

Us teachers have put together a document trying to explain to you what our schools are like and how they got that way, who are our students, and who are our teachers.
WHAT ARE OUR SCHOOLD LIKE AD HOW DID THEY GOT THAT WAY?
Today, schools can be seen as stepping-stones for the American Dream. Everyone’s goal in school is supposed to be to do their absolute best and succeed when they get out and enter the working world. Our schools are like mini-societies for students. Now most schools are integrated but back then they were segregated and you could only go to school with your own color. The way our schools get funded is by the taxpayers and the government. One reason schools came about was so that we had well educated people in our Democracy so that our country would run as smoothly as it does. If you’re wondering where students who are special go, we have special schools for them. We have schools that cater to every child’s needs, whether it is for special needs, or just because the student is gifted. The students get to school by a bus. It picks them and other children up at a specified time in the morning and then drops them off in the afternoon at a designated time. Schools offer
many wonderful programs such as sports, intramurals, enrichment programs, clubs, and some younger schools have before and after care.
WHO ARE OUR STUDENTS?
Our students all come from different cultures, beliefs, religions, and social and economic status, etc. Each student is different from the next student, they all learn differently and all have different capabilities. Each student has different intellects as well. All of the students come from different backgrounds at home and that’s what causes their behavior to all be so different at school as well. The students go to school five days a week and if they participate in sports, or clubs, they usually meet before school.
WHO ARE OUR TEACHERS?
Our teachers shape the students. The teachers teach the students to follow the government and their laws. They provide students with knowledge that they need to know in the future to succeed. The teachers want to see their students achieve because then they know that they did a good job, Teachers educate the students, but they are also like role models or mentors. They help students when they have problems or need extra help. Teachers want their students to know how to think in abstract ways, outside the box, and to know how to think analytically, critically, etc. Some teachers specialize in specific subjects so they have better knowledge in it so they can teach better than the next teacher who is specialized in something else. We also have teachers who specialize in areas such as special education or speech. The majority of the teachers are white females but we hope to soon see an increase in males.


Hopefully now you have a better understanding of what our schools are and what makes them up.

Sincerely,
Teachers of America

A Public Education Primer

Almost all the women in my family are teachers. My grandmother, mother, and cousins all do or did work for the Passaic public school district. I have just grown up around it. I always helped my mom put things together for school and set up her classroom when I was younger. At the dinner table every night my mother would always talk about teaching and all the obstacles that come along with it. So a lot of the information in this article was not new to me.
The things that stood out to me the most were the aspects of the public school system that make it difficult for a teacher to do her job. Teachers are faced with a lot of diversity in their classrooms. Between ethnic, racial, class, economic status, and cultural differences, it must be hard to meet the needs of all your students. For example almost one in every five students are the child of immigrants. These students would have grown up with a different culture. They may have very different moral, values, and goals. This is something I think is important to consider in your students. I personally think diversity is a good thing. Your students can learn more from other who are different from them. It is just a matter of celebrating their differences and not putting them at a disadvantage because of it.


-Just a few of my thoughts on the readings

First Day of Class

This is only my third semester at Montclair but I haven't even been here for a year yet. I started school late, in the spring, but made up for it in the summer. This is all still pretty new to me and I have to say I feel a bit overwhelmed. This class definitely seems like a challenge but I am excited for that challenge to begin.
I have recently discovered what I want to do with my life. I am very passionate about history. I always have been. I constantly have the history channel on in my house and I enjoy reading historical documents. However, I never really thought I would consider a career involving history. Until, one day, I discovered my passion for teaching. Being so passionate about both aspects of teaching really motivates me to do best. I hope to make great change in the American public school system one day but I am a very far away from doing that. I have much to learn. I think this class with proved me with great opportunities. This class does seem like a lot of work but I think it will also teach me very useful concepts that I will later be able to use in my teaching.
Dr. Goldstein really seems to know what she's talking about and seems to have a great deal of experience. She also seems like a person with some very strong convictions. However, I think it will be interesting to see what she has to say and how she feels about the American public school system. I think I could really learn a lot for her.
The best thing about this class, in my opinion, is the field experience opportunity. I am extremely excited for my first experience in a high school classroom. Arts seems to also be a very unique school. I have to say this class does seem like quite of bit of work but I think it will be well worth it when it is all said and done and I look back on it. I am excited to continue on my path to becoming an educator.