Monday, December 20, 2010

portfolios redux

Hey folks.

so sorry I forgot to send you the links with regard to the portfolios so here goes

my home page: http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/schager/


portfolios can be found here:

last year (honors and collab) - http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/schager/Hon%20US/portfolios/portfolios.htm


no portfolios yet, obv, but websites to date:

this year honors

http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/schager/Hon%20US/2010-2011/general%20stuff/student%20webs.htm


this year collab

http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/schager/collab/2010/general%20stuff/websites2010.htm


hit me with any questions and lmk what else I need to post that I've forgotten!

peace


Tuesday, September 28, 2010

short and scattered but positive

- fascinating article forwarded to me by my dad about improving education through writing in ginormous school in Mass.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Just emailed it to collab students who will begin researching for their education editorials tomorrow.

- loving where we are in collab education unit. Just finished a kickin' education deliberation (fishbowl/roundtable/talking heads) between historic innovators (accdg to pbs), after looking at Jefferson, Dewey, & Mann; kids are now starting their individual education editorials (we've also looked at Doing School, Savage Inequalities, "Dark Days", "The Creativity Crisis," "Drop Out Nation," "Poem Against the First Grade," "Run, Ricky, Run," & "Afterlife.")

- we're in a good place in Honors. I'm weaving a bunch more this year. Finished our introduction/education unit and started the American Revolution, but still have to finish Savage Inequalities chapters and "The Creativity Crisis." We had a really cool day when we split class between condition of colonists prior to the Stamp Act and then switched right into Kozol's chapter on Camden, NJ. They didn't miss a beat and it was invigorating. What I have to do is start weaving in the blogging as part of their reflections (which are already happening on their websites).

- Mideast is also in a good place. Their google maps are up and running. Need to make them more significant than just a place to post. Also, pretty sure I want to start "tweeting" (so to speak) and have them read and react to the articles that I simply don't have time to cover as we go in class re: current events. This group could definitely handle it.

sorry so scattered. hoping that this weekend I can look at Veenema's rubric and everyone else's recent posts. At least I blogged. The thought of labeling this is too much right now. Sry.


Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Too much: Is it me or is being a working mom with professional goals impossible

So I was in Honors U.S. today, playfully called HUSH, and we were discussing a Time Magazine Article called "Drop-out Nation" (please note, this is an article that I began using several years ago before the most recent cover story about Israel was irresponsibly published - read: my relationship with Time is tenuous at best). We read and discussed this after reading excerpts from Denise Clark Pope's Doing School in an attempt to better understand public education in America. Students will also read "The Creativity Crisis" and chapters of Jonothan Kozel's Savage Inequalities; then we will call upon the spirits of Washington, Jefferson, Mann, Dewey and others to determine what we think the goals SHOULD be for our public education system, but I digress.

So this student was saying that she thinks that from an early age we (in Westport/affluent suburbia) are programmed to get into a good college and to never consider jobs like toll collectors. At this point I interjected to say that I view the job of a toll collector to be successful in a way that I never will be - that at the end of the day the toll collector has fulfilled a critical role in our society AND when they leave their post their professional responsibilities are over. I have NEVER experienced this.

So I am a horrible horrible blogger. I haven't updated my blog in almost a month, despite our weekly deadlines. I am thrilled to be a part of a group of professionals that aim for great heights; I've attempted to be actively involved in our meetings, I've read, researched and toyed with several ideas, and I've had the amazing opportunity for really the first time to reflect on my craft, but I'm drowning -- utterly struggling to stay well-behind the proverbial 8-ball.

I just put my kids to bed. It took just under an hour. My husband is a film critic and with the New York Film Festival in full effect, he's quite busy. His job has always meant that a few nights a week I'm on my own with the kids/household. That means I wake up before 6am, get home between 4 & 5pm and manage the home front until after "bedtime." Tonight that meant - reading "Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet" to my oldest - a 5 year old girl - and then leaving her in her room with the lights on to "read until she gets tired b/c she's not a "quick fall-asleeper.'"

I read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Dora and Boots Bouncy Ball Adventure" to my 3-year-old daughter despite the fact that I said I'd only read one book. I braided and bunned hair, supervised toothbrushing and potty-going and helped to clean up the "fancy party" that was created in our kitchen/family room after making and eating dinner (multiple varieties of pasta for myself and them).

Before dinner we did my oldest's homework (lest you forget she's in 1st grade); she has math and writing homework AND we had to read for 15 minutes - she read The 12 Dogs of Christmas. Prior to THAT I washed the coffee maker and my containers that I brought home from meals at school. I received my lacrosse schedule for this Spring and pondered who I could convince to play us now that we're "for real" (I need to add 6 games). I also recalled about 6 emails that I have to send captains, their moms, the booster club, donors, and those in charge of the youth program; Saw a note from my oldest's school that she needs to see an eye exam after performing questionably on an in-school eye exam. Saw another note about a copay for my youngest's dermatologist's appointment and got a confirmation email about Dentist appointments on Saturday morning (that I made 6 mos ago?).

Prior to that I was at school, meeting with students who missed school the day we set up their websites and others who were preparing for geography presentations tomorrow. I taught 4 classes today, had one duty period in the learning center where I met with kids who want college recs (I'm up to 9) and ate lunch. I spent my first period - my only true free - creating gmail groups and website links for all my classes (something I should have done a week ago).

Yesterday I taught 5 classes and had a meeting after school (which was partially about the curriculum that we are FINALLY rewriting - yahooo - but means more meetings, reading, research, etc.), only to rush to the grocery store and then home to make dinner....(you get the idea).

Things I feel overwhelming responsibility toward accomplishing: I have a pile of assignments from Mideast that need to be graded from a week ago (24 kids), piles of mini-essays from 2 honors classes (50 kids) from Friday that need to be graded as well as 2 piles of reflections on public education, and a pile, collected today, of personal essays from collab (36 kids) that need to be graded. I still need to reread pp 1-42 of Edmund Morgan's The Birth of the Republic, and finish reading Zeitoun and Nickle and Dimed. I still don't have a parking sticker, I have financial lax business from last year that hasn't been finished, I still have to write to Cameron's family, and deal with my own family concerns in the next two weeks that have far-reaching implications.

So, if anyone is still with me I have a few questions that I would LOVE some help with:

a. when and how can I reasonably make and create professional goals?
b. ditto personal/family goals?
c. ditto Kokie (anyone?)
d. why do I listen to news radio in the am when I know its just going to add to my list of things with which to deal?

on a positive note, I'm really loving what's going on in my classes, despite having to break in the students to stop being grade-earning machines and, instead, mindful, lifelong learners developing 21st century skills. The students' google maps are posted for mideast and they are tight (this is the first time for posting the maps)! I'm thinking that they'll blog their current events which will be hella cool (to borrow a phrase from Cali circa 1996). The honors and collab sites are up and running and I will be rocking blogs with them soon, but not yet....as it is we rewrote the collab curriculum over the last few weeks and it is very exciting but there are only so many eggs I can hatch.

ps I still have to meet with Trudy about Nola......my daily affirmation is basically - "you are not a failure."

pps I'm sorry for letting down my peeps. I am so, so tired. Also, I have no intention of posting like this again, but I had to get it out there so interested parties knew why I was remiss in posting. I will try to do better. i will also try to do yoga, eat right, exercise, parent mindfully, keep a daily journal, put all my photos into photo albums, ....

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

It only took all summer

I don’t know why I have so much trouble getting down to business. I love to think about my job – teaching – both with regard to pedagogy and content, and throughout the school year I yearn for the summer, when I will read, research and plan to better understand my subjects and my craft. HA! Hilarious. Not because it isn’t true but b/c that summer has NEVER happened after 8 years of teaching.

So, I’ve started reading 3 books in the last two weeks for two of the courses I teach (Down to Earth: Natures Role in American History, A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East, and Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women) while wishing that I could read the other 27 or so that are piled on and around my desk, perused the blogs of my fellow “action team” members, reviewed the notes from our meetings as well as websites and articles we’ve discussed, scratched out numerous ideas in numerous places about what, how, when and why I want to teach certain things, and I’m finally sitting down to put it all together.

Here is our school goal:

Develop and integrate real world applications and assessments of contemporary literacy skills:

- within disciplines

- across disciplines

- school-wide

- district-wide

- within the community

That allow students to:

- know where to find information

- synthesize and evaluate the information

- use appropriate information across disciplines to solve real-world problems

- work collaboratively

- use effective communication skills to present findings and persuade others

We, as a group, aim to implement this goal in our classrooms using a variety of tools and techniques, as well as each other. Clearly we can’t speak to the school and district-wide elements of the goal, but we hope to accomplish as much as possible with regard to creative problem solving, communication and purposeful metacognition in our respective realms.

The pitfalls.

- I think I have the desire and ability to accomplish quite a bit, but I have a terrible tendency to neglect things that are not “on fire” (fires = planning class, teaching, meeting with students about papers, writing college recommendations, grading, answering parent and guidance counselor phone calls and emails, going to the bathroom, eating). Ensuring that I make the time to reflect on my own goals and practices is critical to facilitating the same behaviors in my students. (Also, putting out fires is really tiring as is raising a family, which is why every time I open a book I read a page and fall asleep, which does not facilitate progress.)

- I am so scattered. I do not have a focused mind. I am constantly thinking of 6 things at once. This probably comes in handy with regard to certain issues, but overall it is a drawback in that I have a hard time completing a task. I don’t recall if I was like this before I had children. Their existence has erased/misplaced critical data from my database.

- perfectionism – I always want things to be awesome. I have grand designs for what I’d like to accomplish and they REALLY hold me back because if I fear that I can’t put everything into a task, I tend to avoid it (this is an enormous problem and has been for a long time).

The promise.

- I literally love this stuff. I love teaching both because of the practice and all that it requires, and I LOVE social studies and the academic environment. I want to constantly be improving my practice and intellectual life for my students and this “project” will enable me to reflect on many of the things that I already do, and improve upon and supplement them.

- A lot of the work that I already do in my classroom will be useful. I was lucky to walk into a job where a coworker and I were able to design our curricula entirely and she had a great deal of experience and a similar philosophy to me. It was tough at first, as its quite different from the traditional classroom, but much of it has to do with active learning, investment, creativity, accountability and technology.

- there will be time allotted to this work because it is near impossible to make the time. For years I have wanted to teach a multidisciplinary project with regard to Hurricane Katrina and its impact on the gulf coast and this country.....alas, no time.

Now, there are a variety of things that I’d like to address in future blogs:

- the usefulness of the sources and tools we’ve examined (e.g. The Ross school sr. projects, Richer Picture, Todaysmeet, EduBlog, etc.)

- creativity – the article in Newsweek, the urgency and timeliness of this issue; national implications on the failures of our education system to every layer of society

- the experiences that I could draw from to help accomplish our goal (from working at a charter school with portfolios and based on social justice to my attempts at blogging in honors, portfolios in honors and collab, our round tables and finals in Mideast)

- specific plans for my classes, starting with Honors, then ME, then Collab

- obviously, as the school year and our efforts march forward, the concrete goals, plans, and their executions (pun intended)

I’ve never blogged like this before. I don’t allow for disclaimers in my classroom when students share written work, so I will resist the temptation myself….but I do allow students to identify specific areas of weakness/that they’d like to work on. Mine are:

- being scattered; cohesion

- developing a tone

So, I’m going to resist the temptation to save this, tell myself I’ll come back to revise it and never post it. Perfectionism be damned!