Connected: An Autobiography

Response to "Connected: An Autobiography"

The film was about being interconnected to the world and people around us, and this is something that could be employed into every content area, I feel. It is important in this day and age that we begin to utilize technology in the classroom, and I feel there are a variety of practical applications in the English classroom. Having the ability to give the students a piece of literature, or a poem, and have them read it; then, give the students time to explore the Internet and find pieces of literature or poems that stemmed from the original, or that were inspired by the original, and study those in class. What the students would see is the way in which literature is a growing, living thing, and how it has an affect on the world around it. Students could study the growth of a piece of lit, see how it influenced authors, societies, and eras. All the while the students are doing the ground work, they are the ones hunting for the information, rather than just being told about it. It is a way for them to interact with the world of literature, to dive into it and find their own interest.  

The film did not raise too many questions for me, however, one question I did have was what does the prediction for technology and the classroom for the next ten years look like. What is the end goal of this technological collaboration? If it is to have 100% tech classes, what are we going to be losing or sacrificing in order to have this? Is it the best solution to have students 100%'committed and reliant on tech?

For English, it is heavily connected to the history and social science courses, as well as philosophy courses. These classes go hand in hand, because it is vital for students to understand the cultural influences and the societal influences the authors were facing, and how the time period could have affected the way the author wrote. Additionally, how the pieces of literature the author wrote, had a hand in changing the world around them. As for the other subjects and content areas, I have struggled to find a connection without stretching things in order to make a weak, far fetched connection, but would love to know how to connect English to the other subjects, especially mathematics. 

It is important for students, as well as teachers, to be well rounded, and have an understanding about the various content areas being taught. Each subject is a vital component to being not only a well-educated person, but also being an individual who can interact with the world and have a beneficial role in his or her community. 

Disciplinary Lenses

1. Disciplinary lenses:

My research has been centered around finding a way to better implement existential philosophy into the high school classroom; moreover, how to incorporate a level of philosophy often found in the collegiate or post graduate level, and make it accessible to younger students. The literature studied in high school is riddled with deep, philosophical themes, and makes itself readily available to study, if gone about the right way. Prior to teaching, I assumed that I would be able to go into the high school classroom and be able to deliver the lectures my professors did and receive the same level of enthusiasm and interest as the students and I had; however, what I found was that it was either going way over the students' heads, or they were simply not interested. I had to quickly change my game plan, and deliver the material in a way that would first pique their interest, and then encourage them to discuss, and dive further into the material. 

Through my research, my reading, and my teaching, I have found better ways to engage the students into these philosophies, and that is to first interest them in the novels and literature. Through use of literature, you can engage the students' imaginations, make them want to find out more about these novels. If the novels are taught the right way, and the teacher is able to engage the students into the story, then you can begin to peel back the layers, and show the students how the author has written this text to not only entertain but be a social commentary about race, identity, gender roles, et cetera. Now the students are able to see the process of removing the layers, and digging deeper, and they want to do it themselves, they want to read more and find these themes. What is great about this is you can show the connection not only in books, but in movies, or television shows, or comics, students can use most any medium to discuss this philosophy. Now, the students are wanting to discuss literary criticism and existentialism, because they find it in things they love, and also know ow to find it, know how to talk about it, and most importantly, it relates to them. These issues of identity are so permanent to a high schooler because so many of them a questioning who they are, or what they want to be, and these texts allow an escape, and way to better understand the thoughts they are having, and show them that they are not alone in these thoughts. I hope to create a curriculum which focuses on this principle, and have it be readily usable by teachers across the board. 

2. The Death and Life of the Great American School System

How do you think the Common Core standards might fit in this narrative of school reform?

In Chapter 9, Ravitch says critics argue that schools would improve if unions ceased to exist. [...] What argument does she present based on available research? What do you think?

I feel that the common core standards, on paper, have some validity and could be a good thing. I do feel that schools need some way of measuring progress, and that, for the most part, the information being delivered to students across the US should be uniform; however, the current system is clearly flawed because of the level of importance placed on testing. Common Core presents the essentials that students need to learn. Thinking of the English standards, these are things such as literary analysis, writing ability, speaking ability, et cetera. I am not sure anyone can argue these are not skills we should be teaching to stundents, but where the breakdown occurs is when lessons and materials begin to be prescribed. If a teacher is given material they do not care about, the students are more than likely also not going to care about it. But if schools, and teachers are able to develop their own curriculum utilizing these standards, but in their own way, I believe schools will flourish. Furthermore, testing should be used within the school to determine how successful they are being, and give them feedback about areas to improve. Testing should be created by teachers, with students in mind. Right now, the tests are considered to be far too important, and they become the focus. So rather than teaching material and knowledge, teachers are forced to teach test taking strategies, ultimately hurting our youth. Of course this is also something that sounds good on paper, but in implication would probably fail, but it takes time to create a perfect situation, and it takes collaboration across the board, and I think bringing in teachers to create the tests would be a better start, similar to the AP exams. 

As far as unions go, these are also something that is great on paper, but in application tend to fail, the reason being because of human nature. Unions were originally set in place to protect women and other minorities from being fired unjustly, today, they are set in place to protect anyone and everyone from being fired, so long as they pay their, often ridiculous, dues. What this creates is a system where people are almost impossible to fire, and know it. When you know that you are not at risk of losing your job, you will slowly begin to slack off. It might be going from being early for every staff meeting, well prepared for every class, and staying late to finish as much as possible, and then moving towards missing a meeting here or there, taking a few extra days off, being slightly less prepared, and leaving right when the contracted hours end. Incentive is removed, and when there is no incentive what is the point of trying? Human nature will eventually kick in. 

Also, this creates a system where tenured teachers are secure, and new incoming teachers can barely get a job, let alone hold one without the label of "temporary" employee, and the fear of being let go at anytime. Though the flip side is not great either, merit pay, because the focus becomes doing all you can to be paid the most as opposed to teaching because you want to teach, and you want to educate children. I feel that there must be a happy medium, level of pay based on quality of work, and work ethic, as well as protection. I feel like there should be a checks and balance system, where teachers are reviewed, and called to own up to their work. Also, giving incentive to wanting to try your hardest, and be present for staff meetings, having availability before, and after school. Why this may seem like a lot of work to some people, there are plenty of people willing to offer all of this, and why not give the job to them? I have a love/hate relationship with unions, mainly because I feel they tend to have misguided focus, their focus rarely falls on the students, and that is why we are in the schools in the first place, isn't it? 

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

by Robert Herrick

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

   Old Time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles today

   Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, 

   The higher he's a-getting,

The sooner will his race be run,

   And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,

   When youth and blood are warmer;

But being spent, the worse, and worst

   Times still succeed the former. 

Then be not coy, but use your time,

   And while ye may, go marry;

For having lost but once your prime,

   You may forever tarry.

The Raising of America

              I found most everything about the video to be both interesting and rather important, however, I do feel the statistics provided about children who had the early development opportunities, and how they were not only achieving more, but increasing the amount of money put back into our economy, whether it be because of a higher paying job, or having a job and not needing well fare or going into prison, to be the most intriguing. When I watched the video, I kept being reminded of a parable about two missionaries who visit a village in Africa. They come into the village and go to the river and see a man drowning in the river, they quickly do what they can to rescue him, and then see another individual drowning. This goes on for several days before they decide to try and find out why people are continually drowning in the river. They go to the source of the issue and deal with that problem, so that less people or no people will drown, as opposed to continually pulling people out of the water. I feel like sometimes this is this focus of those in charge of reforming education. They look at the drowning students and try pulling them out of the water, and then wonder why there are still people drowning. What needs to happen is what this video clearly demonstrates, we need to go to the beginning and implement strategies to prevent students from being put into those drowning situations. If this were to happen, and the money that the Senator from Utah was talking about was actually saved, it would be vital to reinvest those funds back into education.

        This video definitely raises many questions, the biggest being why haven't we done this yet? I understand that upfront there is a large cost, but is the risk not worth it? Because, it seems fairly clear that this system will, for the most part, work; thus, saving millions of dollars which can be transferred back into low income school districts to offer better opportunities to the schools where they see the achievement gaps widening, allowing better opportunities for all students. My hope is that our educational reforms will begin to head in this direction.

The Chimney Sweeper: When my mother died I was very young

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue

Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"

So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head

That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved, so I said,

"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,

You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet, & that very night,

As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight!

That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,

Were all of them locked up in coffins of black;

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,

And he opened the coffins & set them all free;

Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,

And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,

They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.

And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,

He'd have God for his father & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark

And got with our bags & our brushes to work.

Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;

So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

Mind the Gap

1. Chapter one: In recounting her journey through many educational reforms, Diane Ravitch makes a number of provocative statements. Choose two, quote them, and personally respond.

"When should we think of someone who never admits error, never entertains doubt, but adheres unflinchingly to the same ideas all his life, regardless of new evidence? Doubt and skepticism are signs of rationality. When we are too certain of our opinions, we run the risk of ignoring any evidence that conflicts with our views. It is doubt that shows we are still thinking, still willing to reexamine hardened beliefs when confronted with new facts and new evidence" (Ravitch 2).

I believe that for any individual to grow, her or she must question, must reexamine his or her own thoughts and beliefs. It is vital to human nature not to become stagnant, and when one stops questioning, stops being skeptical about the things around him or her is when he or she is willing to take anything as truth, willing to start weakening his or her own beliefs or forgoing them entirely. As a teacher, one must demonstrate the ability to say, "I was wrong," or "I am not sure, let me check". In doing this, one is teaching students that it is okay not to know, not to be sure, and that the best thing to do is to research, to find the answer. This is how individuals grow, and ultimately how communities grow. 

"It is time, I think, for those who want to improve our schools to focus on the essentials of education. We must make sure that our schools have a strong, coherent, explicit curriculum that is grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, with plenty of opportunity for children to engage in activities and projects that make learning lively. We must ensure that students gain the knowledge they need to understand political debates, scientific phenomena, and the world they live in" (Ravitch 13).

There is not much that needs to be said about this quote, I feel. I agree wholeheartedly with what Ravitch is saying. I feel that so much of education should be to build students into individuals who can interact with the world around them, to become critical thinking beings who use their intelligence and studies to make educated decisions in any capacity, whether it is the workforce, family, community, or globally. When we teach to a test, we are setting the students up to fail; for they will constant hunt for an answer and not a solution, a prescribed, preconstructed thought, not a creative, original idea, and when this happens, we as educators have failed.

2. Chapter two: On page 16, Ravitch gives a brief definition of a well-educated person. How would you characterize a well educated person? What should any well-educated person know in today's world?

Similar to what I wrote in my response to Ravitch's quote on page 13, I believe a well-educated person is one who is able to think critically, to draw upon a wealth of knowledge they have built. And by knowledge I do not mean a database of facts, dates, algorithms, formula, et cetera, but strategies like examination, analysis, hypothesizing, research. As teachers, we teach these methods, we demonstrate how to learn and how to interact with the subject matter we are teaching, in order to not only give the students access to the fundamentals they need to know, but set them up for the future in which they will need to use these critical thinking skills to interact with the world around them.

I would say that what any well-educated person needs to know it that he or she will never know everything; and that it is his or her job to continue to learn, to continue to question, and seek knowledge. To listen to others in hopes to learn, but in doing so be able to examine what is being said, and be able to spot logical fallacies and not fall prey to misinformation.

4. Choose one gap you listed from you subject area and identify three resources: a web site, an article, and a book that can help you fill that gap. List these and discuss what you learned from one of these.

One gap that I have found in my subject area is how to best make texts in Old English and Middle English accessible to students without jeopardizing the beauty of the language. Of course there is not enough time, or interest on the students' part to teach them how to read Old English, but I feel that there are ways for them to still interact with the language, and the texts written during these time periods so that they can appreciate the language, and they way the author wrote the piece, as this is a major part of reading literature.

http://www.teamsmedieval.org/

I was able to find this website, which in and of itself is not all that useful in filling the gap that I was talking about, however, it has links to various websites which deal almost directly with how to best integrate Old English into the classroom. Thus, this site it beneficial because it groups many unseful sites into one location, allowing easy access to each one of them. 

Effectively Teaching Old English to High School English Students, by Chelsae Maria Coverly

This was a fantastic doctoral thesis, which was written about how to best integrate Old English into a high school classroom. This is exactly what I was looking for, as it had various methodologies, lessons, and ways for the students to practice the language, all the while not having teaching a new language be the center of the class.

A History of the Modern English Language, Albert C. Baugh

This is a text that I have, and have read through several times. It is a rather in depth look at the history of the English language, and what is nice about it is you can utilize this information and deliver it to the students and demonstrate how the English language came to be, how many changes have occured. Demonstrate the changes in vowel sounds, in verb structures, or grammatical changes. Also, show where the English language came from, what influences from the Nordic cultures, or the Germanic, or the Romantic. All types of cultures have influenced the English language, and by showing students this, they will, hopefully, take more interest in knowing about their language, and how it came to be, and ultimately, reading in the original forms of the language.

5. Your annotation of resources are meant to be both scholarly and brief. In the blog, discuss in detail why/how any two of these articles were useful to your topic/question. Consider such things as listing specific information you learned that you didn't know before; how this new learning leads to other questions or sources; why this writer was convincing; whether you would seek this writer out for other articles he/she has written, and anything else you;d like to state in a blog that others can learn form and read.

Here are two sources that I recently found, which deal with a certain aspect of my question. Both articles deal with racial injustices and their correlation with existentialism; Moreover, both deal with how to handle these issues within a classroom setting. There are two texts that I am going to be using in my capstone project, Heart of Darkness and Invisible Man, which both deal with racial issues and existentialism. These articles gave me great insight into how to best deliver the messages these authors are trying to convey, both from a philosophical standpoint, as well as a culturally sensitive one. Both articles use various pieces of literature to demonstrate the philosophies and strategies that they are referring to, however, the two pieces I previously mentioned, Heart of Darkness, and Invisible Man, are not among the texts that they use.

Fanon, F. (2008). Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove Press .

Gordon, L. R. (2000). Existentia Africana understanding Africana
             existential thought. New York: Routledge.




'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd and join th'angelic train.

Phillis Wheatley, “On Being Brought from Africa to America”