February has been the Month of Conferences

The past couple of weekends have entailed participating in conferences. Two weekends ago, I went to New Haven to attend the Black Solidarity Conference. Taking place over the span of three days, the Black Solidarity Conference provides undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to fellowship and discuss important issues within the Black community. The theme of this year's BSC was "From the Pulpits to the Polls: Ushering in a New Era of Activism." As you can infer, the focus for the conference this year was education and religion as mechanisms to bring about advancement for African Americans. The event was incredibly positive and I learned a lot. The first event that I attended was a panel on education. The panel session featured educators that represented different elements of educators. I thought the panelists themselves had very thoughtful things to say on their own, but I was particularly struck by their responses to the very thoughtful, but challenging questions, launched at them by some students. One student asked the TFA panelist about his experience as a person of color, working within the overwhelmingly white context of TFA that reflects a particular brand of college grad (for those of you who may not know, TFA employs many ivy-league/ liberal arts graduates). I felt like his response to the question reflected a necessary nuance; he was honest yet appropriately political.

I also attended some sessions at the Ethnography Forum hosted by the University of Pennsylvania. I thought that the sessions were fairly delightful. I'll share some of my notes to give you a flavor of what the panel discussions and workshops featured. Check out the notes from an inquiry session that I attended.

-Structure is key to collabortive work

- It is imperative that teachers examine their own baises about students. Teachers must evaluate themselves- see what they do and do not like about students (more importantly why). Teachers must learn to like all students. 

-Teachers must find community- join forces with likeminded practitioners.

- Descriptive reviews of students can be monumental to teacher research- students can help teachers see the bigger picture. 

-You can not take the behavior of a student for face value. Sometimes there is a story behind their actions. Some students are not the same in every class. Descriptive reviews and continual observation help teachers better understand their students. 

-- You have to discover what matters to the student and why

- Be conscious of differentiated expectations that we (teachers) develop for students. Sometimes we expect more from students

- A panalist told a really great story about working for 440. He was sent to work on a project with the Philadelphia Writing Project. The findings of this project showed a correlation between teacher satisfaction and student performance. He showed his findings to 440. They were like, eh, we don't care- we need hard data about students (not teachers). He pushed for his research and within the confines of the Philadelphia school district, he was able to affect some change in favor of Philly teachers.

School Closings- School Openings- School Closings

The state of public schools in Philly is in limbo. When I heard that so many schools were closing in Philly, I felt like public schools were being done a disservice. While there are serious issues plaguing our schools, I do not think giving up on them is the way to go. Some of the arguments in favor of closing schools (i.e. many of these schools are underpopulated and underperforming) seem quite valid. Considering that the consequence of closing public schools is opening charter schools, one is inclined to raise an eyebrow.

I recall all of the anger and disgust held by many teachers and members of the community when school closings were announced about a month ago. Being that this is my first time formally living in Philadelphia, it was interesting to see (and feel) the emotions that I had read about in The Notebook or that I saw in protests on new programs. I found myself in solidarity with the students and teachers who challenged the decision to close schools. I also found myself upset with the mergers. I just thought it was interesting which closed schools and open schools are going to be merged... I will leave it at that.

The recent decision to keep some schools open made me slightly happy, but when I didn't see University City High School on the list, I still held mixed feelings. To an extent, my attachment with Philadelphia Schools (outside of SLA) is UC High School. I know that a lot of UC students are upset with the recent announcement because their school is not on the list. I really feel for these students, many of whom are losing the community that they had grew to love over the years.

Promoting Writing in a Social Studies Class

I am wondering how I, as a social studies teacher, can promote writing in a way that is both technically sound and clear in expressing content. One thing that I do (an idea I “stole” from my classroom mentor) is to use journals as the “hook.” For many classes, students will spend 10-15 minutes journaling in a free-write manner. They are then expected to go home and expound upon their entry based on the lesson that followed the journal entry. The question students address is often either a contemporary question, a point that is very theoretical and requires no background content knowledge, or something that the student brought up. There is a standard rubric which has presentation(i.e. writing skills) as one of the five categories, but it also includes process, application, knowledge, and design (expression of thought) (the standard rubric, which depending on the unit/lesson, has different categorical assessments. I think 

I think that journals are a great way to get students to write, but I'm wondering if I can and should be doing more. I've included writing elements for every project. I'm also trying to make myself assessable to students to review writing assignments. These things are a start; I am wondering how I can continue to push writing among my students. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

It's that time again- Bodybuilding Competition

I'm going to give it yet another try. Hopefully things will work out this time. 

I am planning to compete in a bodybuilding competition in May. Things did not work out so well last time, where I simply did not see results/ cheated when I went to Hotlanta in November. Hopefully I can keep it together for the next three months and get some solid results. 

I am taking this pretty seriously, believe it or not. I am working out with a trainer, I have a solid diet plan worked out, and I am making a serious effort to train 5-6 days a week. Its really hard to make it out to the gym given the lack of time I have outside of teaching and classes. I am confident that with the right mindset and perseverance, that I can do this. 

The dieting thing is going to be rough. As someone who loves to eat in times of business and stress,  am going to have toe execute serious will power. I think that this competition and the training process is going to be a great way to test myself and to really claim victory over a challenge.