Blog 6

1.      1)  If the President called me and wanted to know the first five things that I think need to be done about education, I’m not sure I would be able to speak. After I collected myself I would respond as follows:

·         Motivation. Students are coming to class with a varied amount of motivation. This desire to learn comes primarily from their home life. This is one of the biggest problems that we face as educators.

·         Testing. In my district, student testing is a main focus. If your students test well, you are a good teacher. We are focusing on how to get our students to test well rather than how to make them a valuable part of the community.

·         College. It is becoming harder to gain acceptance into top colleges. Students feel overwhelmed in high school trying to maintain a 4.0 GPA and are losing the experience of being a teenager. In addition to acceptance, the cost of tuition is forcing students to get the high GPA’s and SAT scores. Many students feel pushed out of the college path because they can’t afford it.

·          Teachers. This will upset my union reps but there are some inadequate teachers in classrooms. We need a better way of evaluating teachers so we (as professionals) can see what we need to work on and actually improve our craft.

·         Administration. Currently all the power is in the district office. People that are not with students on a daily bases are making all the decisions. 

2    2)  The most meaningful concept that I got from Ravitch is that students should be more than a test score. I left Saint Mary’s with the idea that my job, as an educator, is to teach students to be a valuable part of society. When I was hired at DHS my administration made it clear that we must get our students to test well. Ravitch reveals that even the hard data that politicians point to is inevitably flawed. Data can be twisted, scores can be inflated, but real learning cannot be lost.

3.    3)   Given the current state of American education it is hard to determine what I, as a teacher and a citizen, can actually do to make a difference. The best answer I currently have is to focus on my classes and my own children.  I can’t control what happens in every classroom in American but I can control what takes place in my room. I can passionately teach my students about great novels and how they can relate to them. I can try to instill a passion for reading and learning in my students and my children. My next step is to finish and eventually show my Prezi to my colleagues. 

4.       4) California Association of Teachers of English. http://www.cateweb.org/

·         Different conferences (CATE and Asilomar)

·         Creative Writing Contests for students and teachers

·         Membershi

California Common Core State Standards Workshop

National Council of Teachers of English http://www.ncte.org/

·         Break down of elementary, middle, secondary, and college focus

·         Current Educational books

·         Career Opportunities

·         Grants

·         Hot Topics

·         Lesson Plans

·         Conventions and conferences

·         Information on Common Core

·         Huge selection of articles on teaching English

5.      5) Over the next three years, if I could, I would…

a)      ACT A Streetcar Named Desire  January 17–February 10, 2013

Orpheum Theatre Lion King November 1, 2013

Orpheum Theatre Les Miserables now showing

Eugene O’Neill Historical National Historic Site

Story Hour in the UC Berkeley Library.( A monthly prose reading series hosted by English  

                department faculty Vikram Chandra and Melanie Abrams, and featuring

                distinguished prose writers from the Bay Area and beyond)  April 12, 2012

I would also love to drop into an English class at UC Berkeley, Saint Mary’s, USF, or any other  local college. 

b)      Learning Through Drama in the Primary Years by David Farmer

Imagination Station: 99 Games to Spark Your Imagination by Douglas Love

Theatre Games for the Classroom: A Teacher’s Handbook by Viola Spolin

Development Through Drama by Brian Way

c)       Linguistic Audacity: Shakespeare’s Language and Student Writing by Barbara Goodman

Dramatization and Educational Objectives by Stephen Koziol

d)      CATE 2013 Santa Clara “Keep Calm and Read On” Feb. 8-10, 2013

Asilomar 61 “WHY LITERATURE? WHAT LITERATURE? HOW?” Sept 28-30, 2013

NCTE 2013 Las Vegas “Connect Ignite” March 13-15, 2013

e)      Globe Theater, London England

Shakespeare’s birthplace Stratford-upon-Avon, England

South Africa, Birthplace of Mark Mathabane (Kaffir Boy)

Scottsboro Alabama (To Kill a Mockingbird)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Ann Frank, Amsterdam  

6) I would love to hear more about Megan’s findings in the alienated character. This applies to the novels that I teach. I love the break down about the 6 different reasons that character become outcasts.

Many people suggested that I video tape the strategies in my room this year. I absolutely will. In fact, I just spoke to a former student that will help with the taping and editing. Thank you everyone for your input. This was been a great experience.

Blog 5

1.  The concept of “Multitasking Media” in Dr. Robert’s presentation was fascinating. I have never really thought about the environment my students work in while completing their homework. I  know that they (as do I) love their iPods, cell phones, and Facebook accounts but I didn’t think about all of those working at the same time my students are “working” on assignments. I wonder if students know how distracting these outside forces are and if they even think about “un-plugging” for the time it takes to complete their work?
2.   The NY Times article “More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality” address the new trend of online courses for credit recovery and even AP classes. My question is always: does this help students learn? Liz Pape, president of the Virtual High School Global Consortium states, “If credit recovery were working, the need for remedial classes in college would be declining — but the opposite is true.” This shows that learning is not really taking place. Online classes seem like “chair time” so that students can get (not really earn) a diploma.
3.   Dublin High School is starting to add these unit recovery classes for students that failed one or more of their classes. We tell the students every year that we don’t know if there will be summer school. Funding for summer school is getting harder to find and yet graduation requirements have intensified. Administration at my school seems to believe these online classes are a magical answer for students that failed multiple classes. I am not convinced that these online classes are actually teaching the students the material that they previously couldn’t grasp. Are these classes just an easy fix to keep parents quiet and students graduating?
4.  

•   http://download.cnet.com/Cool-Timer/3000-2350_4-10062255.html I love it. I’m always telling my students “Watch the clock.” “Make sure you are using your time wisely.” This will be a great visual for my students and me as I am walking around the room. This will also be great for timed tests. 
• http://www.openoffice.org/ This is great for students that do not have the Microsoft and can’t afford to get it. I am curious to see if the computers at my school will be able to read this program. We have trouble when students send documents to school using technology that is more advanced than what we currently have at the high school.
• http://www.glogster.com/ I often have my students create a “one-pager” for the poem, play or novel we are reading. The “one-pager” has students present what they feel about the reading rather than just give a summary of the text. This is a great way to expand that assignment and give students another way to present their ideas. I love the idea of using pictures, quotes, and even video clips to create this animated page.
• http://www.tubechop.com/ I am going to use this every time I create a new Prezi. I love being able to show clips to illustrate my points when presenting a Prezi to my class. Currently, I have to fast forward a couple of clips because I couldn’t find the exact part I wanted but now I can go back and edit those clips. This is really going to improve my presentations.  

Using History and Economics to Teach English

     I started teaching the autobiography Kaffir Boy a few years ago. It is a powerful book about a black boy who was born in South Africa during the Apartheid. The book is filled with heartbreaking stories and powerful triumphs that I love discussing with my students. In the past I have provided my students with a brief historical background and jumped right in to the book. I am going to add the following resources to my unit this coming year.

http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html

Using a historical approach: This site comes from Stanford and focuses on the history of Apartheid in South Africa. It includes charts, pictures, and details about how computers and other forms of technology influenced this horrible part in history. This will give my students a stronger understanding of the time that the book was written.

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/protest-divestment-south-africa.asp#axzz218QzasgU

Using an economic approach: This site explains the movement to pull U.S. and international investments out of South Africa in an effort to end Apartheid. It shows how the global economy can shape the political will of an entire nation, in this case for positive change. This will help students understand the role the United States had in ending the Apartheid.  

     Interdisciplinary teaching can solidify a student’s education. It takes away the “sit there and learn” mentality and replaces it with real knowledge that can be used in different settings. When students get to see what they were taught in one class come up again in another, they are empowered. This form of learning stays with students because they can see that they are learning skills that will aid them in the real world. The difficulty in interdisciplinary teaching is trusting other teachers to accurately teach the subject you are educated in. I have had students say “Why do we have to read The Great Gatsby? Mr. Smith says it’s boring.”  This negative influence that most likely comes from ignorance rather than personal preference becomes yet another obstacle that I must overcome. 


I reviewed: Eghosa Obaiza and Karen Vigna
I responded to: Nastasha Staking

"Mind the Gap" Session 2

“Mind the Gap”

Blog for Session Two

1. “Free of direct government control, the schools would be innovative, hire only the best teachers, get rid of incompetent teachers, set their own pay scale, compete for students (customers), and be judged solely by their results (test scores and graduation rates)”(Ravitch, 2010, pp. 9-10). I am fascinated by this quote because it angers, confuses, and in some ways agrees with me. Teaching is not for everyone. Over the last 8 years I have seen amazing teachers that captivate their students and impart knowledge on a daily basis. I have also seen teachers that hide behind their desks and write lengthy assignments on the whiteboard so that students will not bother them. We need to help or fire the second type of teacher. This is not a part time job that you do because you want to leave at 2:45 each day. We need to get incompetent teachers out of the classroom. My confusion comes in to play when Ravitch writes “set their own pay scale.” I am not sure exactly what that would look like. I am angered by the concept that teacher success can only be seen in test scores. My honors students will do well on almost any standards based test they take. At this point in their education they know how to take a test like that. What I am truly proud of is when a student walks into my room at a 4^th grade reading level and leaves my class having read, and to some degree, understood Steinbeck and Shakespeare.                                                                                                                                                                                        “As I watched both movements gain momentum across the nation, I concluded that curriculum and instruction were far more important than choice and accountability” (Ravitch, 2010, p.12). I could not agree more. Nothing matters more to me as an educator than what I am teaching and what my students are learning. There will always be politics involved in education. There will always be new movements, philosophies, and ways of thinking but at the end of the day; nothing matters more than what the students are learning in each room.                                                                                           
2.      A well educated person has knowledge about the past, an active role in the present, and the ability to plan for the future. In today’s society a well-educated person must have a strong foundation in history and literature and the imagination to use that foundation to create a new path.                            
3.      I enjoyed our class discussion about the first few chapters of the book.  I love to talk in seminars so I don’t think there was anything that I personally didn’t get to say. I would have enjoyed looking closely at the radical school reforms that were taking place when A Nation at Risk was published. I laughed out loud when I read “Let the English teachers teach math” (Ravitch, 2010, p.23).  If our goal is student learning, no one wants me teaching Calculus. The idea of liberating students to learn only what they want is another frightening idea. School is not supposed to be free time. School should be where a child goes to get the educational foundation he/she will need to start adulthood. I have never loved the subject of math but I look back at the hours I spent pushing myself to understand and I am proud of my accomplishment. Although I do not use the math problems I struggled with back then, I do face difficult situations that I have to figure out on my own.
4.    Literary Response and Analysis 3.12. Analyze the way in which a work of literature is related to the themes and issues of its historical period. (Historical approach)

·         World War II History.com (for Lord of the Flies)

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii

·         The Great Depression (for Of Mice and Men)

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/depression.htm

·         The Trial of the Scottsboro Boys (for To Kill a Mockingbird)

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm

I have always done an introduction unit with To Kill a Mockingbird that focuses on the Jim Crow Laws. That serves as my introduction to the time period that the novel was written about.  After finding this website, I am going to add another historical unit about the Scottsboro Boys trial. This website offers an introduction, photos, quotes from the trial, and additional links to other educational websites. This Scottsboro trial has a lot of similarities to the trail that takes place in the novel. I found an addition site for my students that will help them make the connections between the novel and some original sources from the Scottsboro trail. The National Endowment for the Humanities http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/kill-mockingbird-and-scottsboro-boys-trial-profiles-courage#sect-introduction.
 

 5. Anderson, Christopher. (2004, Autumn). Learning in “As-If” Worlds: Cognition in Drama in Education. Theory into Practice, 43, Number 4, 281-286).

                This article taught me about a theory that might work with my topic. The article looked at how powerful drama in education can be for students that take roles in a simulated experience. The article points out how drama techniques foster metacognition in the classroom learning. Although the article is not addressing teaching plays specifically, it is looking at bringing in drama techniques to all subjects and I feel like I can apply some of Anderson’s finding to my overall focus. The most useful parts in this article are the references. I now have over ten new sources that I can examine in regards to the connection between drama techniques and classroom learning. Here is an example that Anderson used: “The starting point for examining the link between psychology and drama in education is the work of Courtney” (p.282). Anderson also discusses the research of Brown, Collins, and Dugiud where they conducted “cognitive psychology studies of the nature of learning in authentic contexts under the umbrella of situated learning” (p.283).  His list of references has now become a part of my own.

Ackroyd-Pilkington, Judith. (2001). Acting, Representation and Role. Research in Drama Education, 6,1, 9-22.

     This article focuses on the teacher in the drama classroom. Ackroyd-Pilkington suggests that teachers should embrace the role of actor in the plays that are covered in class. She explains that the role of teacher and the role of actor have many similarities. She writes that both:

·         Have the job of creating a fiction; function in the ‘as if’;

·         Interact with those with whom they share the space; function as communicators employing external features in order to hint at internal concerns;

·         Function with consideration of the voice in delivering lines;

·         Must be in the moment, responding to whatever comes from those deemed audience of fellow actors.

 I agree with her reasons. I play a role every time I ask my students a question about the play or novel we are covering. I am not asking a question because I am confused. My questions are used to guide my student’s understanding of the text. I am asking them about the parts I want them to understand and focus on. In essence, I am not asking a question; I am giving directions. Although I try to avoid telling my students what to think about the story, I do want them to understand what is happening so that they can make their own educated decisions. Ackroyd-Pilkington rebuts a part in Morgan and Saxton’s Teaching Drama that states,“ The teacher must remember that the class is not her audience. It is not you as a performer or entertainer that is important (Morgan & Saxton, 1987, p.49). Ackroyd-Pilkington responds with “While the teacher may not be focusing on being an entertainer, it may be that she or he is performing a certain sequence of gestures and nuances in order to ensure maximized learning opportunities” (2001,p.15). I never really thought about myself as an actor in my classroom until I read this article.

  

6.       Question for Joan. Can I start looking at websites and books that get into actual drama techniques?  At this point I am reading about what people think about different techniques (articles) but I want to start looking at some for myself. Would the websites and books be considered primary sources being that my topic is about teaching drama in an English classroom? 

I responded to: Jocelyn Brodear, Sarah Uhler, and Karen Vigna. 

Content Knowledge (Course II)

Content Knowledge (Course II)

Session One Blog

  1. Saint Augustine once said, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” Growing up in a small town in California, I always knew I loved to read, but it wasn’t until I got to travel that I understood why. Books have always been my salvation. As a child I read about a lanky animal that convinced me green eggs might not be that bad. As a young adult, whose parents were separating, I became fascinated with the different family structures each novel presented. In college, I immersed myself in the knowledge and insight my professors had on the novels we covered. But it wasn’t until I got to travel to Spain that the reason for my love of literature became clear. The first few nights in Spain were exhilarating and petrifying. I didn’t know the culture or the layout of the city. In addition, the language that I thought I knew from my small classroom at SMC didn’t resemble the mash of words and thick accent the locals were throwing at me. I felt alone. I felt like I didn’t belong. That feeling of dread quickly took a back seat to the feeling of excitement. Those feeling of isolation were because no one I had ever known got to be where I was. I was no longer reading about characters from a far off land; I was living the story. I was somewhere different. After that realization I focused on filling every minute of my trip with getting to know this different way of life. I talked to locals (with a lot of basic words and hand gestures) and I began to see a whole new existence. This excitement for meeting new people and seeing new places has always been the reason I love literature. The world is too vast to simply sit back and read my one page over and over again.  

  2.  Being a good teacher is difficult. According to Ball’s “The Subject Matter Preparation of Teachers” most teachers leave the role of student to become the teacher with inadequate subject matter knowledge. Ball states “teachers are themselves products of elementary and secondary schools in which, research has shown, pupils rarely develop deep understanding of the subject matter they encounter, we should not be surprised by teachers’ inadequate subject matter preparation” (20). Overall, our class discussion seemed to agree with Ball’s claims. We need to teach our students (not only with passion and a vast knowledge of pedagogy) correct information. We need to be or become experts in our fields. I feel that most of us agree with this concept because we have all elected to further our own education. We are all enrolled in a program that challenges us to study subject matter not just pedagogy. I want to show this paper to my administration. I wish that we could spend our staff development days expanding our subject matter knowledge. That would be a good use of time.  

3. I am truly excited about my question. I want to explore how to teach plays in an English classroom. I want to understand how to take a performing art and translate it into the English curriculum. There is a vast amount of information regarding Drama teachers teaching plays in high school. What I am currently looking for is research that shows the benefits of combining some of these techniques in the English classroom. Like I wrote before, I look forward to interviewing local actors. I want to ask them about their craft and get some ideas and techniques I can share with my students.  My focus for this program is going to be how I can successfully bring plays to life in my classroom.

Research:

• Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance (Routledge 2012)

• Miracles are Happening: Beyond the Rhetoric of Transformation in the Western Traditions of Drama Education (University of Warwick 2004)

• Berkeley Repertory
• Aurora Theater
• Cal Shakes
• Lesher Center for the Arts
• Eugene O’Neill House

     4. “Acted drama requires surrender of one's self, sympathetic absorption in the play as it develops” George P. Baker

Reflection on Course I

                I want to read something other than Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Animal Farm. I want to read like I did when I was in college. I want to read something to increase my own personal knowledge. As an English major I got to read all the time. Michael Cunningham, Nikki Giovanni, and David Sedaris were a part of my daily life. Now, as a mom of two and a teacher with 150 students, the time to read for pleasure has been taken away and I am left wishing that I had time to read that one book that everyone is talking about. I enter this program looking to become a student again. I want to seek answers not just to give them to my students, but to better myself as an educator and a person. I want to have time to be an intellectual again.

                My focus is going to be about teaching plays in an English classroom. I am thinking that I will create a unit that can be used before my honors students start Macbeth. Basically, I want to understand how to take a performing art and translate it into the English curriculum. I look forward to interviewing local actors and reading materials about drama and acting. The current push to make students “test ready” is taking away the beauty and power that can be found in a classroom that honors the arts. I still remember how I felt when I read A Long Day’s Journey into Night as a junior in high school. I remember thinking about the characters as if they were real people that I might run into on my way to my next class. The play came to life for me and 15 years later I still remember that experience. My focus for this program is going to be how I can successfully bring plays to life in my classroom. I want to ask actors for tips and research different methods that are currently used in Drama and English classrooms. I look forward to contacting local theaters such as Berkeley Repertory and the Lesher Center for the Arts and seeing what resources they offer. At this point, I am excited to really start my research. I have no doubt that allowing myself to become a student again will make me a better teacher, mom and person.