The video we watched in class last Monday was very disturbing to me. First the story of Appalachia was astounding. I had no idea that people in our country lived like that. It really makes me think about all the things that I take for granted. Just waking up and being able to make myself breakfast and take a shower never really seems like a big deal. But I can imagine that people in those rural areas have never really experienced that on a daily basis. It was very sad to see the football player do so well not only to drop out of college and go back to where he grew up. He actually was able to escape but even after that he was drawn back in. It is just a horrible that pattern that is going on.
The other video we watched was equally as disturbing. I knew that Camden was bad but the little boy Ivan is what hit me. He is a wonderful kid and never asked for any of this but the reality is that everyday is a struggle for him. I can remember being young and not truly appreciating school. I did well but I was basically just doing what I was told. It was amazing to just how much Ivan appreciated his first day of school. It is very sad to think that this thirst for learning could easily diminish by high school. He has a one in three chance of being incarcerated by the age of 18. It just makes me think of all the kids that have died, are in jail, in gangs, or selling drugs, could have all been like Ivan when they were little. The influences in these inner cities are destroying our eager youth.
Seeing these videos is very depressing but there is some optimism in my eyes. The story of these two kids makes me understand that the kids in these areas are not bad kids at all. They all have the eagerness to learn and succeed somewhere in them. It will be our job as future educators to find that in however many students we possibly can.
Monday, February 23, 2009
What are the major influences that shape urban schools?
After reading both of these books I can see many different factors that influence schools in the inner city. A few of them really stick out at me. The first one that is very obvious is history. When the decision was made on Brown v Board of Education, it was made official that we would no longer segregate schools. But this clearly was not completely carried out. An example of this is Camden. My parents grew up in Camden in the fifties and sixties, but it was very different that it is now. They tell me how it was a city in the fact that there was a lot of people living close together but it was not what an inner city is thought of today. They did not feel as they were in any danger on a daily basis and they felt they had many different opportunities. But as the sixties hit minority families began to move in and white families were scared. They spoke of property values going down and were just plain scared of change. Slowly but surely white families relocated to the suburbs and the city became very segregated. This continued and we can see what Camden is like today. It is a place that lacks opportunity and is very dangerous. This has happened in many American cities and contributes to the problems in the schools.
This leads to how the outside environment that has been created by history can affect the schools. Many factors such as gangs, violence, drugs, and overall poverty can hinder ones effort to obtain a good education. Education is supposed to be something that can help you in life for the long term. But many of the students in the inner city do not see themselves living very long and this does make getting an education seem very important. These environmental factors are what we are fighting as educators to make a difference. This helps shape the very schools that we will enter into shortly.
These problems that exist have become very apparent and the government is involved. There are efforts to raise test scores and acts such as No Child Left Behind. This is forcing the administration to have a big role in curriculum and lesson plans. The teachers do not have the freedom to teach how they want to teach. Instead it seems as though everything we do is teaching towards some test. We are focusing on large groups of students test scores and not looking at how each student is different from the one next to them. I feel as though the each student’s individuality is much more important than how a test represents the progress of a whole community.
This leads to how the outside environment that has been created by history can affect the schools. Many factors such as gangs, violence, drugs, and overall poverty can hinder ones effort to obtain a good education. Education is supposed to be something that can help you in life for the long term. But many of the students in the inner city do not see themselves living very long and this does make getting an education seem very important. These environmental factors are what we are fighting as educators to make a difference. This helps shape the very schools that we will enter into shortly.
These problems that exist have become very apparent and the government is involved. There are efforts to raise test scores and acts such as No Child Left Behind. This is forcing the administration to have a big role in curriculum and lesson plans. The teachers do not have the freedom to teach how they want to teach. Instead it seems as though everything we do is teaching towards some test. We are focusing on large groups of students test scores and not looking at how each student is different from the one next to them. I feel as though the each student’s individuality is much more important than how a test represents the progress of a whole community.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Monday, February 2 Assignment
Movies
Suburban: American Beauty
This is a movie that depicts suburbia in a very different way. It shows that the all American family has very serious problems. The daughter in the movie is jealous of her popular cheerleader friend. It is typical to see a cheerleader as the most popular girl in school. The girl who is very well read and unique is not very popular. She becomes friends with a boy who uses drugs to escape from the pressures of his father. It shows that high school students from a suburban area face serious issues also.
Urban: Stand and Deliver
This is a movie where Jaime Escalante takes a group of inner city students and teaches them Calculus. It depicts the stereotypical view of an inner city student, very uneducated and disrespectful. After turning the students around Jaime has all of them do very well on the AP exam. This is countered by accusations of cheating. It shows that people could not fathom the idea that inner city kids could make a turnaround like this. It showed what these students had to go through on a daily basis. When they did achieve something special it was not believed to be real.
Rural: Friday Night Lights
In rural Texas the only thing that matters is high school football. The town is very far from everything else and high school football players are treated like gods. They are lawless and their education is not very important. This would just get in the way off football. The tragedy is that when they graduate they have passed the high point of their lives and end up living in that same town forever. It is very similar to urban areas. The students just do not see a way out of a cycle that has continued for years.
Television
Suburban: Full House
This a television show from my youth that is a about a family just outside of San Francisco. It actually shows that not all families are the typical mother, father and children. They have a father, brother-in-law and a best friend all helping to raise three children. Family support is very important in education and these three girls had great family support. The biggest problem about the show was the oversimplification of serious teenage problems such as sex and alcohol. They attacked these problems but it was usually a very easy solution and a happy ending every time. If only it were that easy.
Urban: Boston Public
This was one of my favorite shows. It was about teachers at a high school in Boston. Many of these teachers were very dedicated and worked long hours. It depicted students that got themselves into a lot of trouble with alcohol, sex, drugs and the law. This would drastically affect the teachers. I really like the principal and seeing how he dealt with running a school that his daughter went to. It showed two very important things about principals. One is that principals are very important in having a successful school. The second is that besides being principals, most are parents also. These are two very important roles in the education system.
Rural: Little House on the Prairie
This show depicted the Ingalls family growing up on a prairie. They attended a one room schoolhouse and school seemed to come second to chores on the farm. Also it shows how woman back then really were not expected to become educated in things like math and English. They needed to learn to be homemakers. Although the show took place back in the 1800’s, there are still rural one room schoolhouses that exist today.
Music
Suburban: Mr. Jones
This is a song by Counting Crows. This song really does not have anything to do with suburban education but it is a song that means something to me. When I was in high school I had a substitute teacher named Mr. Jones. He was amazing. He subbed a lot and I really got to know him the four years I was at high school. He knew my older brothers also and always asked about them. I still do not know why he never became a teacher because everybody loved him and he actually taught when he was substituting. I never realized how much you could impact lives even as a substitute teacher until I met him. So every time I here the song Mr. Jones I think of him.
Urban: Gangstas Paradise
This is a song by Coolio that was the theme song of the movie Dangerous Minds. The song opens up:
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life
And realize there's nothing left.
This is the view of some high school students in the inner city. They have been through so much by the time they reach high school. They feel like they have survived a gauntlet and they are still so young. It is very hard to educate students when they feel they are at the end and don’t have much left to give.
Rural: Glory Days
This is a song by Bruce Springsteen. The idea of the song is guys looking back to their high school days as nothing but fun. They were their glory days. This is very common to rural areas. High school can be the highlight of their lives. This song makes me think of high school football players from Texas. It makes me think of them sitting at a bar when they are in their 40’s and still only talking about their good old days of high school.
News
Suburban: Columbine
April 20, 1999 Columbine shook the whole country. In a suburb of Denver two students went into their school and killed 12 students and a teacher. These were two students that were bullied in school and decided to fight back. It is very disturbing to think that teenage students would be capable of such awful acts. But it shows that teenagers can be very fragile and we cannot take anything too lightly. Most thought that guns were only a problem in our urban schools but this showed that it can happen anywhere.
Urban: To Close a School: A Decision Rooted in Data, but Colored by Nuance – February 1, 2009- New York Times
This past week in the Bronx, PS 90 found out that it was going to be shut down. This is the fourteenth school this year that has been told they were shutting down. One problem this creates is overcrowding neighboring schools next year. Also many people are questioning why certain schools are being shut down. Some of the schools failed to raise poor standardized scores on math and English tests. Also the amount of school violence was a factor. I believe this really does not solve much and just pushes the same problems to different schools.
Rural: Amid withering economy, Nevada considers eliminating rural schools-January 25- Los Angeles Times
In Nevada there is a one room school called Lundy Elementary School. This school is in danger of being shut down. This is happening in a lot of places and one room schoolhouse will soon be a thing of the past. (I thought they already were.) The schools offer much more one on one attention and have worked very well for many years. But due to lack of political pull in these small communities and a higher cost per student, these schools are being sacrificed in this economic crisis. This has a potentially huge impact on the small number of students that attend these schools. The most immediate impact will be their 75 minute commute to the nearest school next year. This is two and a half hours a day on a bus. This is a huge obstacle in a student’s quest for a good education.
Suburban: American Beauty
This is a movie that depicts suburbia in a very different way. It shows that the all American family has very serious problems. The daughter in the movie is jealous of her popular cheerleader friend. It is typical to see a cheerleader as the most popular girl in school. The girl who is very well read and unique is not very popular. She becomes friends with a boy who uses drugs to escape from the pressures of his father. It shows that high school students from a suburban area face serious issues also.
Urban: Stand and Deliver
This is a movie where Jaime Escalante takes a group of inner city students and teaches them Calculus. It depicts the stereotypical view of an inner city student, very uneducated and disrespectful. After turning the students around Jaime has all of them do very well on the AP exam. This is countered by accusations of cheating. It shows that people could not fathom the idea that inner city kids could make a turnaround like this. It showed what these students had to go through on a daily basis. When they did achieve something special it was not believed to be real.
Rural: Friday Night Lights
In rural Texas the only thing that matters is high school football. The town is very far from everything else and high school football players are treated like gods. They are lawless and their education is not very important. This would just get in the way off football. The tragedy is that when they graduate they have passed the high point of their lives and end up living in that same town forever. It is very similar to urban areas. The students just do not see a way out of a cycle that has continued for years.
Television
Suburban: Full House
This a television show from my youth that is a about a family just outside of San Francisco. It actually shows that not all families are the typical mother, father and children. They have a father, brother-in-law and a best friend all helping to raise three children. Family support is very important in education and these three girls had great family support. The biggest problem about the show was the oversimplification of serious teenage problems such as sex and alcohol. They attacked these problems but it was usually a very easy solution and a happy ending every time. If only it were that easy.
Urban: Boston Public
This was one of my favorite shows. It was about teachers at a high school in Boston. Many of these teachers were very dedicated and worked long hours. It depicted students that got themselves into a lot of trouble with alcohol, sex, drugs and the law. This would drastically affect the teachers. I really like the principal and seeing how he dealt with running a school that his daughter went to. It showed two very important things about principals. One is that principals are very important in having a successful school. The second is that besides being principals, most are parents also. These are two very important roles in the education system.
Rural: Little House on the Prairie
This show depicted the Ingalls family growing up on a prairie. They attended a one room schoolhouse and school seemed to come second to chores on the farm. Also it shows how woman back then really were not expected to become educated in things like math and English. They needed to learn to be homemakers. Although the show took place back in the 1800’s, there are still rural one room schoolhouses that exist today.
Music
Suburban: Mr. Jones
This is a song by Counting Crows. This song really does not have anything to do with suburban education but it is a song that means something to me. When I was in high school I had a substitute teacher named Mr. Jones. He was amazing. He subbed a lot and I really got to know him the four years I was at high school. He knew my older brothers also and always asked about them. I still do not know why he never became a teacher because everybody loved him and he actually taught when he was substituting. I never realized how much you could impact lives even as a substitute teacher until I met him. So every time I here the song Mr. Jones I think of him.
Urban: Gangstas Paradise
This is a song by Coolio that was the theme song of the movie Dangerous Minds. The song opens up:
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life
And realize there's nothing left.
This is the view of some high school students in the inner city. They have been through so much by the time they reach high school. They feel like they have survived a gauntlet and they are still so young. It is very hard to educate students when they feel they are at the end and don’t have much left to give.
Rural: Glory Days
This is a song by Bruce Springsteen. The idea of the song is guys looking back to their high school days as nothing but fun. They were their glory days. This is very common to rural areas. High school can be the highlight of their lives. This song makes me think of high school football players from Texas. It makes me think of them sitting at a bar when they are in their 40’s and still only talking about their good old days of high school.
News
Suburban: Columbine
April 20, 1999 Columbine shook the whole country. In a suburb of Denver two students went into their school and killed 12 students and a teacher. These were two students that were bullied in school and decided to fight back. It is very disturbing to think that teenage students would be capable of such awful acts. But it shows that teenagers can be very fragile and we cannot take anything too lightly. Most thought that guns were only a problem in our urban schools but this showed that it can happen anywhere.
Urban: To Close a School: A Decision Rooted in Data, but Colored by Nuance – February 1, 2009- New York Times
This past week in the Bronx, PS 90 found out that it was going to be shut down. This is the fourteenth school this year that has been told they were shutting down. One problem this creates is overcrowding neighboring schools next year. Also many people are questioning why certain schools are being shut down. Some of the schools failed to raise poor standardized scores on math and English tests. Also the amount of school violence was a factor. I believe this really does not solve much and just pushes the same problems to different schools.
Rural: Amid withering economy, Nevada considers eliminating rural schools-January 25- Los Angeles Times
In Nevada there is a one room school called Lundy Elementary School. This school is in danger of being shut down. This is happening in a lot of places and one room schoolhouse will soon be a thing of the past. (I thought they already were.) The schools offer much more one on one attention and have worked very well for many years. But due to lack of political pull in these small communities and a higher cost per student, these schools are being sacrificed in this economic crisis. This has a potentially huge impact on the small number of students that attend these schools. The most immediate impact will be their 75 minute commute to the nearest school next year. This is two and a half hours a day on a bus. This is a huge obstacle in a student’s quest for a good education.
Frames of Reference
On a typical Saturday morning you will find me in a classroom at Rutgers University teaching a classroom full of New Brunswick High School students. I am helping them get ready for their upcoming Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT’s). One Saturday in particular will always stick in my mind. A female student came up to me and complained of headaches and a feeling of faintness. I immediately contacted the program director and we were urging the student to seek medical attention. Sounds easy, right? The student refused and said that she would be fine. But we insisted. There was a reason she was refusing to be taken to a hospital. Her family did not have health insurance. One of the other female teachers ended up taking her to a free clinic on campus and everything turned out fine. But this really hit me hard. What if she was not at our program when this happened? I could not imagine being a teenager and having to deal with issues such as these.
I grew up in a small town called West Deptford, which is located in South Jersey. My family did not have much money but by no means were we poor. I went to a typical suburban high school that was fairly uneventful. My biggest problem always seemed to be what I was doing the next weekend. We were offered many AP courses and after putting in some effort and getting good grades it was very easy for me to get into college. If I got sick I would go to the doctor and not even think twice about it. I knew it was not like this everywhere but had no idea as to what scale things were different.
West Deptford is a suburb of Philadelphia and Camden. I watched the news and knew that things were very different in these two places. It seemed like every night there was a murder or a fire that took lives. Now that I am older I am starting to put everything together and can see many issues that our urban students must face. I think about going to a high school where in the course of four years you have many classmates that either drop out or die. In many cases both happen. This leads to pressures to join gangs in order to stay alive. It must be very hard to teach students fundamentals that can help them for life when they don’t see their life going past high school.
My brother worked at a learning center in Philadelphia for a couple of years. He would tell me how students would come in for tutoring and they would not have their textbook. My initial thought was that they were typical teenagers and forgot to bring their textbook. This sadly was not the case as they did not even have a textbook. In a class of thirty there were only 10 textbooks. It was not the students turn to take the book home that night. This sounded awful to me. Underfunding is a big deal in urban schools. It could be a lack of money or as I have heard recently, spending the money on the wrong things. Having the right materials and enough of them is very important in teaching. This is another example of something that hinders their ability to get a good education.
Another major issue is overcrowding. There are not enough teachers that want to teach in urban schools. This is very obvious to me because of the program I am currently in. I am a Prudential Scholar and after I finish graduate school I will teach in Newark for three years. This program is allowing me to go to graduate school for free. I want to teach in the inner city for many more reasons than this but it is a nice perk. The fact that many urban areas have programs like these just goes to show that there are not enough teachers in these schools.
I worked in high school as I can guess that most others did also. But I worked to have some spending money and to help pay for college. In my Saturday program I see many of my students working for a very different reason. They are helping to support their family. If my grades slipped while in high school my parents would have either made me quit my job or cut back my hours in order to get my studying done. This is not an option if your paycheck helps put food on the table for your family. So the grades will continue to suffer. This could lead to dropping out altogether.
It seems as though students in urban areas deal with very different issues than most understand and this can hinder their ability to achieve well in the classroom. I think that I need to really understand these obstacles in greater depth. When coming up with lesson plans I will need to understand each of my students and the issues they deal with on a daily basis outside of my classroom. Collectively the teachers in the school all need to work together to make an environment where the students feel comfortable and can voice their opinions. I want to become a teacher that can have an impact on the students. I know I cannot change these issues but I can help the students deal with them. I want to create a classroom that has a positive environment. No matter how stressed they are with their lives they can always feel comfortable in my classroom. I look forward to actually being in an urban classroom on a daily basis.
Looking back at my experiences in suburban schools as a student and my limited experience with urban students has led to many questions. I want to know what other issues these students have to deal with. What are different ways to deal with these concerns? What can be done to fix these problems? How do I push the students to learn all that they can without pushing away?
I grew up in a small town called West Deptford, which is located in South Jersey. My family did not have much money but by no means were we poor. I went to a typical suburban high school that was fairly uneventful. My biggest problem always seemed to be what I was doing the next weekend. We were offered many AP courses and after putting in some effort and getting good grades it was very easy for me to get into college. If I got sick I would go to the doctor and not even think twice about it. I knew it was not like this everywhere but had no idea as to what scale things were different.
West Deptford is a suburb of Philadelphia and Camden. I watched the news and knew that things were very different in these two places. It seemed like every night there was a murder or a fire that took lives. Now that I am older I am starting to put everything together and can see many issues that our urban students must face. I think about going to a high school where in the course of four years you have many classmates that either drop out or die. In many cases both happen. This leads to pressures to join gangs in order to stay alive. It must be very hard to teach students fundamentals that can help them for life when they don’t see their life going past high school.
My brother worked at a learning center in Philadelphia for a couple of years. He would tell me how students would come in for tutoring and they would not have their textbook. My initial thought was that they were typical teenagers and forgot to bring their textbook. This sadly was not the case as they did not even have a textbook. In a class of thirty there were only 10 textbooks. It was not the students turn to take the book home that night. This sounded awful to me. Underfunding is a big deal in urban schools. It could be a lack of money or as I have heard recently, spending the money on the wrong things. Having the right materials and enough of them is very important in teaching. This is another example of something that hinders their ability to get a good education.
Another major issue is overcrowding. There are not enough teachers that want to teach in urban schools. This is very obvious to me because of the program I am currently in. I am a Prudential Scholar and after I finish graduate school I will teach in Newark for three years. This program is allowing me to go to graduate school for free. I want to teach in the inner city for many more reasons than this but it is a nice perk. The fact that many urban areas have programs like these just goes to show that there are not enough teachers in these schools.
I worked in high school as I can guess that most others did also. But I worked to have some spending money and to help pay for college. In my Saturday program I see many of my students working for a very different reason. They are helping to support their family. If my grades slipped while in high school my parents would have either made me quit my job or cut back my hours in order to get my studying done. This is not an option if your paycheck helps put food on the table for your family. So the grades will continue to suffer. This could lead to dropping out altogether.
It seems as though students in urban areas deal with very different issues than most understand and this can hinder their ability to achieve well in the classroom. I think that I need to really understand these obstacles in greater depth. When coming up with lesson plans I will need to understand each of my students and the issues they deal with on a daily basis outside of my classroom. Collectively the teachers in the school all need to work together to make an environment where the students feel comfortable and can voice their opinions. I want to become a teacher that can have an impact on the students. I know I cannot change these issues but I can help the students deal with them. I want to create a classroom that has a positive environment. No matter how stressed they are with their lives they can always feel comfortable in my classroom. I look forward to actually being in an urban classroom on a daily basis.
Looking back at my experiences in suburban schools as a student and my limited experience with urban students has led to many questions. I want to know what other issues these students have to deal with. What are different ways to deal with these concerns? What can be done to fix these problems? How do I push the students to learn all that they can without pushing away?
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