Today was my sad, last day tutoring at the Met until the next opportunity arises from General Education courses. I took a photo of the students that were not absent from school or off doing something to do with their New Trimester Project Planning. So I only got to take the photo of about one half of the sixteen students, in Tim Shannon's Room 109, on the first floor of the Equality Building. It is a Great name for the building, and the concept of their educational system. While I am going to enjoy the time off between semesters at RIC, I will miss the students in Room 109.
Today, they continued working on their New Projects and asked a million questions about different career choices. It was fun explaining what was involved in getting to their career choices. Liz said that she wanted to be an astronaut, and then asked Tim, how do you spell astronaut. It is funny because she was already sitting at her computer. Tim told her to look it up. She is pretty smart in all of her classes that I have seen her in so far Gino was asking a few questions about getting a Grand National, so I think it strayed a little from working on his next project.
From 10 am to 11 am they went to Math Class, where Matt is the third year Teacher and pretty smart at that. His assistants are Liz and Kyle, whom I have already mentioned earlier in this series. From 11 am until Noon was more time spent on which Internships that lead to which careers discussions. Today there were 3 students out absent, and that is the most that I have seen out of 16 students in this classroom 109, run by Tim Shannon. He is an excellent teacher with more than ten year teaching here, and one year at a Traditional Structured School in the Warwick School System. His wife is also a Teacher at CCRI, which is about two to three blocks away from the Met School. The Campus there hosts many of the Met students, who are working on Internships and taking classes that directly apply to their future career choices. What a difference the Met School is from the Central Falls High School that I went to from 1964 to 1968. Dream about what a school should be and then take a tour of the Met and you will see what I mean. I really loved this FNED-346 class and the Met Tutoring as well.
Fred Issa, FHTOFA, Future History Teachers of America. I just made this up.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Saturday, November 29, 2014
EMPOWERING EDUCATION - Critical Teaching for Social Change, By Ira Shore
Education Is Politics: An Agenda for Empowerment
This is my favorite of all of the Year's Handouts with regards to Teaching Methodologies. I am still not comfortable using the term Pedogogy? For the entire school year we have been talking about the following; What type of school environment and city did you come from? My answer is always;
Working-class schools but in a very tightly disciplined environment, whereby the Counselors would help you immensely if you were an Honors or Deans List student. Since I rebelled against its Hitler- type environment, I would keep my nose clean, but lost interest in school and the disinterested teachers who felt that I was destined for the Factory floors of Industry. I had a straight B which kept my Mom and Dad out of my hair, and the teachers out of my lifestyle. I could hear a lecture once, or read an article once and it would stay with me for an entire school year almost verbatim. But I digress
once again. Our teachers themselves were under the yoke of a dictatorial, narrow-minded, thick-waisted, perpetually scowling, discipline first, foremost, and always unhappy looking ogre. Like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to his gaze, of which I would return it with equal distain and loathing.
I like how Ira Shor says that the most important thing that young students should be learning before the three R's is Socialization. He urges teachers to encourage students to question their experience in school. Wow. This is what I used to do and get in trouble for? I would question things like Why don't we have a school cafeteria, and have to brown bag our lunches daily? How come we no longer have a football teach? How come the Student Council are all Straight A Students that seemed to get elected and yet everyone swore that none of us voted for them. I smelled a Rat. A Big Smelly Rat?
Ira has the right idea, how we need students to develop socialization skills first and be able to ask questions of our teachers and principles and not be kept in a state of fear from authority. I had no problem with the three R'S. I had a real problem with the "other" three U's that we had in our school.
Unnecessary Restrictions, Unwanted Repression, Undemocratic Restraint. As Ira Shor says, "The restraint and imposition in the socializing function of school. He further states that a school year that begins by questioning school could be a democratic and critical learning experience for students. I have seen this type of "openly democratic learning" in Tim Shannon's classes at the Met School in Providence. He does not ever raise his voice, as his students listen out of respect, not out of fear. The principle is a smiling, soft-speaking man who also is respected, not feared. Fear is only a short-term motivator, while respect and love last a very long time. I took a chance on the Met School and their method of teaching in small classes, mutual respecting, highly socialized environment of free speech.
I was not wrong in that choice then, and I write of this now as proof that this teaching method works.
Back to "Empowering Education" where he says, "you must arouse children's curiosity and think about school." We do this with a discussion about why do we go to school? This gets them to open up like the petals of a flower when it faces the sun. And with the same sense of facing knowledge in an open encouraging democratic classroom, where you want to learn, and not be forced to learn by fear.
Piaget urged a reciprocal relationship between teachers and students, where respect for the teacher coexisted with cooperative and student-centered pedagogy. "If the aim of intellectual training is to form the intelligence rather than stock the memory, Piaget wrote, "and to produce intellectual explorers rather than mere erudition, then traditional education is manifestly guilty of a grave deficiency." That pretty much sums up that portion of thinking in this part of the article.
Further, In a curriculum that encourages student questioning, the teacher avoids a unilateral transfer of knowledge, she or he helps students develop their intellectual and emotional powers to examine their learning in school, their everyday experience, and the conditions in society. This is exactly the reverse of what I believe is happening in the Traditional Teaching Schools of today. Discipline and Order is first order of business, which is wrong. First order of business is to establish an environment of free thinkers, an opportunity to ask questions and get honest answers, not the politically correct ones, or the ones that the school board preapproved. I am not suggesting that we throw the "baby out with the bath water?" I am suggesting that we change what is not working, and make substantial paradigm changes to what we know is not working, and has not worked for a long time. Fred Issa
This is my favorite of all of the Year's Handouts with regards to Teaching Methodologies. I am still not comfortable using the term Pedogogy? For the entire school year we have been talking about the following; What type of school environment and city did you come from? My answer is always;
Working-class schools but in a very tightly disciplined environment, whereby the Counselors would help you immensely if you were an Honors or Deans List student. Since I rebelled against its Hitler- type environment, I would keep my nose clean, but lost interest in school and the disinterested teachers who felt that I was destined for the Factory floors of Industry. I had a straight B which kept my Mom and Dad out of my hair, and the teachers out of my lifestyle. I could hear a lecture once, or read an article once and it would stay with me for an entire school year almost verbatim. But I digress
once again. Our teachers themselves were under the yoke of a dictatorial, narrow-minded, thick-waisted, perpetually scowling, discipline first, foremost, and always unhappy looking ogre. Like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to his gaze, of which I would return it with equal distain and loathing.
I like how Ira Shor says that the most important thing that young students should be learning before the three R's is Socialization. He urges teachers to encourage students to question their experience in school. Wow. This is what I used to do and get in trouble for? I would question things like Why don't we have a school cafeteria, and have to brown bag our lunches daily? How come we no longer have a football teach? How come the Student Council are all Straight A Students that seemed to get elected and yet everyone swore that none of us voted for them. I smelled a Rat. A Big Smelly Rat?
Ira has the right idea, how we need students to develop socialization skills first and be able to ask questions of our teachers and principles and not be kept in a state of fear from authority. I had no problem with the three R'S. I had a real problem with the "other" three U's that we had in our school.
Unnecessary Restrictions, Unwanted Repression, Undemocratic Restraint. As Ira Shor says, "The restraint and imposition in the socializing function of school. He further states that a school year that begins by questioning school could be a democratic and critical learning experience for students. I have seen this type of "openly democratic learning" in Tim Shannon's classes at the Met School in Providence. He does not ever raise his voice, as his students listen out of respect, not out of fear. The principle is a smiling, soft-speaking man who also is respected, not feared. Fear is only a short-term motivator, while respect and love last a very long time. I took a chance on the Met School and their method of teaching in small classes, mutual respecting, highly socialized environment of free speech.
I was not wrong in that choice then, and I write of this now as proof that this teaching method works.
Back to "Empowering Education" where he says, "you must arouse children's curiosity and think about school." We do this with a discussion about why do we go to school? This gets them to open up like the petals of a flower when it faces the sun. And with the same sense of facing knowledge in an open encouraging democratic classroom, where you want to learn, and not be forced to learn by fear.
Piaget urged a reciprocal relationship between teachers and students, where respect for the teacher coexisted with cooperative and student-centered pedagogy. "If the aim of intellectual training is to form the intelligence rather than stock the memory, Piaget wrote, "and to produce intellectual explorers rather than mere erudition, then traditional education is manifestly guilty of a grave deficiency." That pretty much sums up that portion of thinking in this part of the article.
Further, In a curriculum that encourages student questioning, the teacher avoids a unilateral transfer of knowledge, she or he helps students develop their intellectual and emotional powers to examine their learning in school, their everyday experience, and the conditions in society. This is exactly the reverse of what I believe is happening in the Traditional Teaching Schools of today. Discipline and Order is first order of business, which is wrong. First order of business is to establish an environment of free thinkers, an opportunity to ask questions and get honest answers, not the politically correct ones, or the ones that the school board preapproved. I am not suggesting that we throw the "baby out with the bath water?" I am suggesting that we change what is not working, and make substantial paradigm changes to what we know is not working, and has not worked for a long time. Fred Issa
Monday, November 24, 2014
Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome, By Christopher Kliewer
I am of an age where children with Down Syndrome were kept away from other children, considered "normal" under school standards of the time. It was wrong then and it is still wrong now to segregate these children, and others with disabilities. These children were called "special" or "special needs" and as I said were kept away from the so-called "normal kids" of the same or close in age. They had a "special bus" and "special classrooms" and were not very often in close proximity to other children. This was at a time when Society thought it best to hide these children away from the others, like their was some sort of unnamed shame or a curse that fell upon the family. If they allowed the children out at all, then they were installed into these segregated classrooms. This was during the 1950's and 1960's when "judgment and "democracy" were not operating at their level best in their thinking.
I always felt a bit sad when the special students would be at recess, but in another part of the school year with an extra fence around it at Broad Street School, in Central Falls, where I grew up. I always remember that there was a little girl who would spend her entire recess standing next to the fence between her "special recess area" and my recess area looking longingly into our much larger recess yard and looking at all of the other kids who would not talk to her.
One day I walked over to the fence and started talking to her, and she was startled when I started to talk to her asking her name. At first, she did not talk to me and I thought that this was her special disability. After a minute or two, she blinked and said that her name was Daisy, and why was I talking to her, that she was very different from me? I said, "You are not so different because you have two eyes, two legs, and arms, and two hands like me?" She
said she had some sort of a disease that made her older than me? I still did not understand since she was the same age as me. We started talking everyday at recess time and we would share apples and oranges and I noticed that her sadness seemed to melt away. Daisy had blonde hair, and blue eyes always with a ribbon in her hair that matched her outfit. I do not know why, but I always felt happy when I saw her in the recess schoolyard, even though we were separated by Society and with a fence. My friends also were not happy to lose one of their team mates and said why are you talking to a retard? I put him in a headlock until he admitted that she was not retarded, but just special and then he went away.
One day I saw her "Special Ed" teacher talking to my regular Teacher and did not thing anything about it. At the end of the school day, my teacher at the end of classes, my stopped me and asked me why was I talking to Daisy? I said because she was sad and pretty, and nice and we were now friends. I also showed her a blue ribbon that she had given me because it was the exact color of her eyes. My Teacher said that we were in different classes and we would not see each other pretty soon. I said because of the school year ending? She said Yes. I said that is ok I am going to go over to her house and surprise her. My teacher got this real weird look and walked away. That day I stayed at school later than usual and I waited until she boarded her "special bus" to take her home. Since she lived the closest to the school, she was dropped off first, so I only had to run ten blocks. I got to her house out of breathe, just as her Mom was closing the door to their pretty little white house with a small picket hence all around the house. I held my breathe as I pushed the doorbell with its own special musical chimes. I was later told that the music was, "be it ever so simple there is no place like home."
A beautiful women came to the door, and she was the exact replica of her daughter Daisy, blue eyes and blonde hair and skin that seemed so thin and translucent. She seemed a little mad and said, "Yes, what do you want?" I said, "I am Fred" like it should have some very special meaning. Oddly enough, she said, "Oh you are Daisy's little friend?" I said, "Little? I am taller than she is?" A second later I heard Daisy call out to her Mom, "Mom, Fred is my friend, let him in." Her Mom was not happy, but she led me into Daisy's home where she was on an oxygen mask, lying on the couch, watching cartoons on television. I stopped short at the door
to the living room when I saw Daisy hooked up to machines. I said, "What is wrong with you?" All she said was I am sick and need to have oxygen before and after school and take these medicines." All I said was, "Oh, OK, I understand" But I really did not understand.
Her mother, Grace said, "I am glad that I got a chance to meet you. Daisy keeps talking about her friend Fred at school, and it has made a big difference in her since you two have become friends" I said I do not understand what you are saying?" She said, "Since Daisy has met you, she seems to be getting better?" I said, "OK, Great" So Daisy and I sat on the couch and had chocolate milk and chocolate chip cookies and all was right in the world. I started to come over to Daisy's house after school and the bus driver let me ride the bus to Daisy's house. Daisy's mom now encouraged me to come to her house as much as I wanted, because she said it made Daisy sparkle.
I asked Daisy where her Dad was, and she got a sad look on her face and said, "When I got sick he and My Mom split up?" I thought was pretty strange, but I was told never to question adults.
Well in summer, my family and I went to our Summer home in Warwick Neck, Rhode Island called Rocky Point Park. We owned the home, but leased the land. It was so big, that three of my aunts
and uncles and their children all had their own sections of the beach house. It was great. Daisy and I were allowed to talk daily. Towards the end of the Summer, Daisy had to go to the Boston Children's hospital and I did not hear from her for a week. My Mom and Dad were waiting for me when I got back from the beach and said that the three of us were going back to the city for an event and I had to put my Sunday suit on. I said without question OK.
So after I showered and put on my best Sunday suit, the three of us went to Heroux's Funeral Home only about five blocks from my house. I was accustomed to Aunt's and Uncle's that I never knew that died so this was not unusual for me. When we got out of the car, and I asked, "Mom who died? She only said, "Daisy is here?"
I said, "Great, I have not seen her all summer and have so much to tell her." She yelled for me to stop, but I just ran in and looked around to find Daisy? I then found her mother, Grace and a tall man standing next to her with a bunch of old people standing in a line. I asked Grace's mom, "Where is Daisy?" She turned her head to the right, and in a small white coffin, was Daisy, in her favorite blue dress with her gloved hands folded over her. All of the wind went out of me, and my Mom and Dad caught up with me just as I started to slide to the floor. They half held and half carried me to the thing that you kneel on before the coffin, and while my parents prayed, I took the blue ribbon that Daisy gave me, and put it across her forehead, where I kissed her good-bye. I heard her Mom yell, "Daisy" and along with just about everybody in the room they all started crying and screaming. I ran from the room and never went back into that Funeral Home again. Children of Special needs should be included and not segregated by themselves.
I always felt a bit sad when the special students would be at recess, but in another part of the school year with an extra fence around it at Broad Street School, in Central Falls, where I grew up. I always remember that there was a little girl who would spend her entire recess standing next to the fence between her "special recess area" and my recess area looking longingly into our much larger recess yard and looking at all of the other kids who would not talk to her.
One day I walked over to the fence and started talking to her, and she was startled when I started to talk to her asking her name. At first, she did not talk to me and I thought that this was her special disability. After a minute or two, she blinked and said that her name was Daisy, and why was I talking to her, that she was very different from me? I said, "You are not so different because you have two eyes, two legs, and arms, and two hands like me?" She
said she had some sort of a disease that made her older than me? I still did not understand since she was the same age as me. We started talking everyday at recess time and we would share apples and oranges and I noticed that her sadness seemed to melt away. Daisy had blonde hair, and blue eyes always with a ribbon in her hair that matched her outfit. I do not know why, but I always felt happy when I saw her in the recess schoolyard, even though we were separated by Society and with a fence. My friends also were not happy to lose one of their team mates and said why are you talking to a retard? I put him in a headlock until he admitted that she was not retarded, but just special and then he went away.
One day I saw her "Special Ed" teacher talking to my regular Teacher and did not thing anything about it. At the end of the school day, my teacher at the end of classes, my stopped me and asked me why was I talking to Daisy? I said because she was sad and pretty, and nice and we were now friends. I also showed her a blue ribbon that she had given me because it was the exact color of her eyes. My Teacher said that we were in different classes and we would not see each other pretty soon. I said because of the school year ending? She said Yes. I said that is ok I am going to go over to her house and surprise her. My teacher got this real weird look and walked away. That day I stayed at school later than usual and I waited until she boarded her "special bus" to take her home. Since she lived the closest to the school, she was dropped off first, so I only had to run ten blocks. I got to her house out of breathe, just as her Mom was closing the door to their pretty little white house with a small picket hence all around the house. I held my breathe as I pushed the doorbell with its own special musical chimes. I was later told that the music was, "be it ever so simple there is no place like home."
A beautiful women came to the door, and she was the exact replica of her daughter Daisy, blue eyes and blonde hair and skin that seemed so thin and translucent. She seemed a little mad and said, "Yes, what do you want?" I said, "I am Fred" like it should have some very special meaning. Oddly enough, she said, "Oh you are Daisy's little friend?" I said, "Little? I am taller than she is?" A second later I heard Daisy call out to her Mom, "Mom, Fred is my friend, let him in." Her Mom was not happy, but she led me into Daisy's home where she was on an oxygen mask, lying on the couch, watching cartoons on television. I stopped short at the door
to the living room when I saw Daisy hooked up to machines. I said, "What is wrong with you?" All she said was I am sick and need to have oxygen before and after school and take these medicines." All I said was, "Oh, OK, I understand" But I really did not understand.
Her mother, Grace said, "I am glad that I got a chance to meet you. Daisy keeps talking about her friend Fred at school, and it has made a big difference in her since you two have become friends" I said I do not understand what you are saying?" She said, "Since Daisy has met you, she seems to be getting better?" I said, "OK, Great" So Daisy and I sat on the couch and had chocolate milk and chocolate chip cookies and all was right in the world. I started to come over to Daisy's house after school and the bus driver let me ride the bus to Daisy's house. Daisy's mom now encouraged me to come to her house as much as I wanted, because she said it made Daisy sparkle.
I asked Daisy where her Dad was, and she got a sad look on her face and said, "When I got sick he and My Mom split up?" I thought was pretty strange, but I was told never to question adults.
Well in summer, my family and I went to our Summer home in Warwick Neck, Rhode Island called Rocky Point Park. We owned the home, but leased the land. It was so big, that three of my aunts
and uncles and their children all had their own sections of the beach house. It was great. Daisy and I were allowed to talk daily. Towards the end of the Summer, Daisy had to go to the Boston Children's hospital and I did not hear from her for a week. My Mom and Dad were waiting for me when I got back from the beach and said that the three of us were going back to the city for an event and I had to put my Sunday suit on. I said without question OK.
So after I showered and put on my best Sunday suit, the three of us went to Heroux's Funeral Home only about five blocks from my house. I was accustomed to Aunt's and Uncle's that I never knew that died so this was not unusual for me. When we got out of the car, and I asked, "Mom who died? She only said, "Daisy is here?"
I said, "Great, I have not seen her all summer and have so much to tell her." She yelled for me to stop, but I just ran in and looked around to find Daisy? I then found her mother, Grace and a tall man standing next to her with a bunch of old people standing in a line. I asked Grace's mom, "Where is Daisy?" She turned her head to the right, and in a small white coffin, was Daisy, in her favorite blue dress with her gloved hands folded over her. All of the wind went out of me, and my Mom and Dad caught up with me just as I started to slide to the floor. They half held and half carried me to the thing that you kneel on before the coffin, and while my parents prayed, I took the blue ribbon that Daisy gave me, and put it across her forehead, where I kissed her good-bye. I heard her Mom yell, "Daisy" and along with just about everybody in the room they all started crying and screaming. I ran from the room and never went back into that Funeral Home again. Children of Special needs should be included and not segregated by themselves.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Tutoring at the MET School on November 20, 2014, By Fred Issa
Once again doing my Service Learning in the Inspiring Minds Program at the Met School on November 20, 2014. This weeks main occupation is to review Trimester Exhibitions that each Student must do. Today I reviewed two sophomore students give their presentations to their peer group, teachers, and staff members, as well as in front of their parents.
The first young female sophomore student to gave her presentation was home schooled until high school, so being around a lot of other students at a time was fairly new to her up until only last year. Her name is Ruth, and she just got back from the United Kingdom, where the family was on vacation, and where her Dad was born and raised. Ruth is a very busy young lady, as she takes classes in plastic welding and grinding, as well as doing an Internship in working with younger children in using clay to produce clay doves, as well as putting together plays in a local youth community center, besides coming to school four days a week. She has a good record of being in school almost every day and being on time.
While the presentation was forty minutes long and her powerpoint was basic and well done, and more than enough content and data in her documentation, she was a little nervous as this was her first time ever doing a presentation in front of an audience, she did well. If I were to make some constructive suggestions, I would tell her to initiate eye contact, as well as speak louder and slower. She did have Public Speaking, so she was more confident than any of the other students I have seen speak so far. This is definitely a girl to be going to College after high school to become a teacher.
The second young lady to give her presentation was also a first time sophomore presenter, but she did not yet have Public Speaking training yet. Her name is Naida and she gave Powerpoint and good data documentation in her presentation. Her voice was too low and I was in the last row and could not hear a lot of the presentation. She will definitely benefit from a Public Speaking course, or a very similar Carnegie Course. This young lady also loves children and will also be headed to college to become a Elementary School Teacher. I now have 25.8 hours of Service Learning at the Met, and will continue on until the end of the school semester. I like Tim Shannon's teaching style of firm but fair, and he was a gentle touch with his students in his class and in other classes as well. He does not embarrass his students, but takes them outside of viewing and hearing range of the other students and talks softly while gently admonishing them, looking to correct any negative behavior. He has a lot of patience, more like a parent than a teacher. I intend to return to the Met School next semester if there are opportunities.
Fred Issa
The first young female sophomore student to gave her presentation was home schooled until high school, so being around a lot of other students at a time was fairly new to her up until only last year. Her name is Ruth, and she just got back from the United Kingdom, where the family was on vacation, and where her Dad was born and raised. Ruth is a very busy young lady, as she takes classes in plastic welding and grinding, as well as doing an Internship in working with younger children in using clay to produce clay doves, as well as putting together plays in a local youth community center, besides coming to school four days a week. She has a good record of being in school almost every day and being on time.
While the presentation was forty minutes long and her powerpoint was basic and well done, and more than enough content and data in her documentation, she was a little nervous as this was her first time ever doing a presentation in front of an audience, she did well. If I were to make some constructive suggestions, I would tell her to initiate eye contact, as well as speak louder and slower. She did have Public Speaking, so she was more confident than any of the other students I have seen speak so far. This is definitely a girl to be going to College after high school to become a teacher.
The second young lady to give her presentation was also a first time sophomore presenter, but she did not yet have Public Speaking training yet. Her name is Naida and she gave Powerpoint and good data documentation in her presentation. Her voice was too low and I was in the last row and could not hear a lot of the presentation. She will definitely benefit from a Public Speaking course, or a very similar Carnegie Course. This young lady also loves children and will also be headed to college to become a Elementary School Teacher. I now have 25.8 hours of Service Learning at the Met, and will continue on until the end of the school semester. I like Tim Shannon's teaching style of firm but fair, and he was a gentle touch with his students in his class and in other classes as well. He does not embarrass his students, but takes them outside of viewing and hearing range of the other students and talks softly while gently admonishing them, looking to correct any negative behavior. He has a lot of patience, more like a parent than a teacher. I intend to return to the Met School next semester if there are opportunities.
Fred Issa
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route, By Jeanne Oakes
Tracking by itself is obviously discriminatory. Tracking could and would work one of two ways. Once low-ability students are identified, the process should not end there. The low-ability students should not be shuffled off away from the rest of the class, into being labelled as slow learners, but immediately resources must be applied to these students, so that they can be brought back up to the level that the rest of the class of students are currently operating at.
Once that you have "labelled" someone as low-ability and it then becomes common knowledge if and when they are moved, you have unfairly stigmatized these students among their peer groups. There may be a certain amount of teasing when this happens as kids can be cruel to one another, and may not even be aware of the harm that is caused. This was during the fifties and early sixties.
I referred to a childhood friend of mine, who had ADHD and was wrongly classified as mildly retarded. This immediately "marked" him with the neighborhood kids, and they started calling him retard. The sad thing is that while he was slightly slower in comprehension and the poor school system of Central Falls could not afford to give him one-on-one counseling, he was a pretty good athlete, and read the Daily Providence Journal from cover to cover. He was in many ways far smarter than most of the strictly book learning students and had a great memory for football statistics.
Once Dennis was "classified" and put into a class where the other kids had all kinds of physical and mental handicaps, the real damage was done. He was ashamed in front of his parents, and his grandmother who lived with his family. Worst yet, his Baby Brother Bruce went on to become the Central Falls High School Principal, and then later in Lincoln, RI, he became the School Superintendent.
Had any remedial resources been applied, life for Dennis would have been much more satisfying and he could have gone on to college, like his brother. In a poor school system like C.F., there is little or no resources, and very little pity, and very few do overs. My friend Dennis was pigeon-holed unfairly and it followed him the rest of his life. He settled into a job as a janitor in a local nearby school system, in a nearby city of North Providence, and he met a really wonderful girl and married. But because of his being wrongly "stigmatized" as slow and put into a class of very slow and handicapped Students, he decided never to have any children.
The state of Rhode Island years later took over the running of the C.F. School System and has for many years tried to right the wrongs of being wrongly classified such as Dennis. This is WHY I am very much against this type of Tracking. Left to its own devices, without the added resources required, but unavailable, the school system fails the student in a really big and damaging way. The opportunities are few and far in between once this tracking yields its results, with no way to redeem themselves and to be retested. You are pushed into a corner, and basically ignored and marginalized for life.
I know that there has to be some sore of tracking and classifying, but there must be retesting and resources made available to correct any learning deficit. I like the Team Method or Group Learning method and I see it work twice a week at the Met School. We need to replicate what the Met School is doing and change the paradigm for teaching. Fred Issa
Once that you have "labelled" someone as low-ability and it then becomes common knowledge if and when they are moved, you have unfairly stigmatized these students among their peer groups. There may be a certain amount of teasing when this happens as kids can be cruel to one another, and may not even be aware of the harm that is caused. This was during the fifties and early sixties.
I referred to a childhood friend of mine, who had ADHD and was wrongly classified as mildly retarded. This immediately "marked" him with the neighborhood kids, and they started calling him retard. The sad thing is that while he was slightly slower in comprehension and the poor school system of Central Falls could not afford to give him one-on-one counseling, he was a pretty good athlete, and read the Daily Providence Journal from cover to cover. He was in many ways far smarter than most of the strictly book learning students and had a great memory for football statistics.
Once Dennis was "classified" and put into a class where the other kids had all kinds of physical and mental handicaps, the real damage was done. He was ashamed in front of his parents, and his grandmother who lived with his family. Worst yet, his Baby Brother Bruce went on to become the Central Falls High School Principal, and then later in Lincoln, RI, he became the School Superintendent.
Had any remedial resources been applied, life for Dennis would have been much more satisfying and he could have gone on to college, like his brother. In a poor school system like C.F., there is little or no resources, and very little pity, and very few do overs. My friend Dennis was pigeon-holed unfairly and it followed him the rest of his life. He settled into a job as a janitor in a local nearby school system, in a nearby city of North Providence, and he met a really wonderful girl and married. But because of his being wrongly "stigmatized" as slow and put into a class of very slow and handicapped Students, he decided never to have any children.
The state of Rhode Island years later took over the running of the C.F. School System and has for many years tried to right the wrongs of being wrongly classified such as Dennis. This is WHY I am very much against this type of Tracking. Left to its own devices, without the added resources required, but unavailable, the school system fails the student in a really big and damaging way. The opportunities are few and far in between once this tracking yields its results, with no way to redeem themselves and to be retested. You are pushed into a corner, and basically ignored and marginalized for life.
I know that there has to be some sore of tracking and classifying, but there must be retesting and resources made available to correct any learning deficit. I like the Team Method or Group Learning method and I see it work twice a week at the Met School. We need to replicate what the Met School is doing and change the paradigm for teaching. Fred Issa
Tutoring at the MET School and Observing Student Trimester Projects on November 18, 2014
MET SCHOOL on Thursday, was a good day, as I got to see some of the Main Interests of the Students in other classes than Tim Shannon. For the reader, the Students of the Met School are required to do a Personal Project every trimester. If that was not pressure enough, your parents must be there, as well as your peer group, several Instructors and anyone else that has an interest to attend. During the interview while the Student is giving a Powerpoint Presentation, he is being graded on the content, context, delivery, quality of the presentation by all of the people listening to his / her speech.
Yesterday I was privileged to watch a young man who has been taking a Manufacturing Class at nearby Providence Campus of CCRI, where he has been taking a class twice a week on various types of welding and grinding of metals, plastics, PVC pipes, and other types of Manufacturing Processes. Not only does this person have to keep up his school grades, and the CCRI school grades, but on Fridays he was an Internship Job that may or may not pay him any money for his work. He is getting credit for his Internship Project as well as getting Early College Credit for his twice a week classes, plus the invaluable work experience that is so desired as a prerequisite before you can be employed.
I was very impressed by this young man whom we will call Jorge. His young blue-collar, working class parents were very proud and they listened to their son's presentation, as well as to praise being heaped upon Jorge by not only his Peer Group, by his Teachers, Instructors, and other Staff Members of the MET SCHOOL. I got a little teary-eyed watching the happy working class parents leaving the school a little while later, when they were wishing their son well and told him that they loved him. This is one young man who has his head on straight, staying away from the street corner and gangs of any stripe, and is headed for a successful career, and not for a life of crime and incarceration in jail.
These Personal Trimester Projects alone impressed me, not only by the immense amount of added work that is needed by the Student in attending additional training classes and getting an Internship Co-Operative position, and having to keep up his grades in various classes of the Met School as well.
If that were not impressive enough in one day, two students were preparing for their presentations by taking apart their computers to make them better? Clearly these Students are being positively engaged by their Teachers, Instructors, Resource Officers, and Staff of the Met School. Nowhere was there any discord, nowhere were any shouting or angry voices, but only the happy sound of Students from many different diverse backgrounds calling out to their friends of different races, colors, and creeds, and hugging them or giving each other high fives. How very different from the other Public High Schools in the City and the State of Rhode Island, where there is a Police Officer in every building, and fights and yelling and shouting seems to be the order of the day. It reminds me about the movie we recently viewed called, "Freedom Writers" where one first year teacher white teacher from affluent Newport Beach, California, goes to teach in a racially mixed, working-poor school system where there are four main tribes of students who cling together by ethnic origin and have nothing but hostility towards each of the "other tribes." By the end of the movie, Mrs. G has not only not written them off as losers, but took two part time jobs in order to buy reading materials from her own pocket, that they school would allow her to have for "those" students. By the end of the movie she has greatly improved their reading and comprehension scores, but have united them as a single Mrs. G's Tribe. She was also allowed to continue on as their Primary Teacher in the Junior and Senior years. The Met School reminds me of the net result of Mrs. G spending the time and her own money to make sure that her Students have a successful future, and not one of Drugs, Gang Violence, and the girls getting pregnant by age 15 or 16 years old. There seems to be no discipline problems at the Met School, only love and mutual respect of one another, to the point where everyone protects each other.
Fred Issa, 11-19-2014
Yesterday I was privileged to watch a young man who has been taking a Manufacturing Class at nearby Providence Campus of CCRI, where he has been taking a class twice a week on various types of welding and grinding of metals, plastics, PVC pipes, and other types of Manufacturing Processes. Not only does this person have to keep up his school grades, and the CCRI school grades, but on Fridays he was an Internship Job that may or may not pay him any money for his work. He is getting credit for his Internship Project as well as getting Early College Credit for his twice a week classes, plus the invaluable work experience that is so desired as a prerequisite before you can be employed.
I was very impressed by this young man whom we will call Jorge. His young blue-collar, working class parents were very proud and they listened to their son's presentation, as well as to praise being heaped upon Jorge by not only his Peer Group, by his Teachers, Instructors, and other Staff Members of the MET SCHOOL. I got a little teary-eyed watching the happy working class parents leaving the school a little while later, when they were wishing their son well and told him that they loved him. This is one young man who has his head on straight, staying away from the street corner and gangs of any stripe, and is headed for a successful career, and not for a life of crime and incarceration in jail.
These Personal Trimester Projects alone impressed me, not only by the immense amount of added work that is needed by the Student in attending additional training classes and getting an Internship Co-Operative position, and having to keep up his grades in various classes of the Met School as well.
If that were not impressive enough in one day, two students were preparing for their presentations by taking apart their computers to make them better? Clearly these Students are being positively engaged by their Teachers, Instructors, Resource Officers, and Staff of the Met School. Nowhere was there any discord, nowhere were any shouting or angry voices, but only the happy sound of Students from many different diverse backgrounds calling out to their friends of different races, colors, and creeds, and hugging them or giving each other high fives. How very different from the other Public High Schools in the City and the State of Rhode Island, where there is a Police Officer in every building, and fights and yelling and shouting seems to be the order of the day. It reminds me about the movie we recently viewed called, "Freedom Writers" where one first year teacher white teacher from affluent Newport Beach, California, goes to teach in a racially mixed, working-poor school system where there are four main tribes of students who cling together by ethnic origin and have nothing but hostility towards each of the "other tribes." By the end of the movie, Mrs. G has not only not written them off as losers, but took two part time jobs in order to buy reading materials from her own pocket, that they school would allow her to have for "those" students. By the end of the movie she has greatly improved their reading and comprehension scores, but have united them as a single Mrs. G's Tribe. She was also allowed to continue on as their Primary Teacher in the Junior and Senior years. The Met School reminds me of the net result of Mrs. G spending the time and her own money to make sure that her Students have a successful future, and not one of Drugs, Gang Violence, and the girls getting pregnant by age 15 or 16 years old. There seems to be no discipline problems at the Met School, only love and mutual respect of one another, to the point where everyone protects each other.
Fred Issa, 11-19-2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
Literacy with an ATTITUDE, Educating Working-Class Children in Their Own Self-Interest, By Patrick J Finn
I liked this article for two reasons, One) That this study reveals what I believed all along; That Teachers working within the same school district, and from the same textbook, teach Affluent Students differently from Middle-Class Students, as well as from Working-Poor Students. Two) That some teachers who have lost their Love of Teaching, revert back to Strict Discipline in classes, when they feel that they can no longer hold the interest of the majority of their classes.
I know that not every teacher can keep the enthusiasm for teaching like Hilary Swank's role in Freedom Writers. I have teachers in my own family, who are different stages of their careers. I even have a who is suffering teacher burnout, and fully recognizes that it is time to either change careers, or to just retire. When they talk at the table, they all start sharing their success stories about classes where they have achieved amazing results with working-poor students, or students from transient homes. After they have exhausted their successes, they will slowly start talking about their bitter disappointments, such as a favorite student who has come so far, to be shot in a senseless drive-by shooting or suddenly have to move away without explanation, or a gifted and talented 16 year old become pregnant and drop out of school, and not know how she later fared in life.
I like how Finn as a new teacher followed History in England over a hundred years after the printing press was invented, when it was illegal to teach people below the rank of yeoman to read the Bible. I am sure that they "thought" that they had a good reason for holding people back way back when, but this would be a criminal act against humanity if this were to be attempted today. Somehow it was considered dangerous to society to teach someone below their station in life the ability to read to keep the working classes in their place. I am glad that we are living in an age of enlightenment, where we are all obligated by law to continue our education at least up to the age of majority or 18 years old.
I enjoyed how Finn discussed how during the American Labor Movement during FDR's New Deal, that the "Labor Organizer" was the first one on the scene to help working people realize, organize, and harness, and use their power. [This was when we were also changing from an agrarian society to an Industrial one] Later, after WW II, the "Community Organizer" appeared on the scene, as the more affluent Americans fled the cities, leaving the poorest among us behind. This is when the Community Organizers started helping the working-classes adults and students see that literacy and school knowledge could be a potent weapon in their struggle for a better deal in life for them and their families. I like to compare these articles to situations in my own life with members of my family. In this case, my Mom always resented that she was a good student and liked school, but at age 16 had to quit so she could go to work in a sewing factory to help support their immigrant family of eight, of which she was part of. Similarly my Dad had to quit after the sixth grade for the same reason to help support his immigrant family seven people. Those were tough times and I asked why they never did return to school later on in life? They both answered that the war started and went from the factory into a branch of the service, and after the service got married and all quickly had families of their own. I can understand their situation during those times, My Mom was born shortly after My Grandmom got off of a ship from Sicily, on June 29, 1929, which was four months to the day before the Wall Street Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression, which some say lasted ten years, but for immigrant families lasted until World War II actually broke out. My Dad was born three years earlier, but he tried to sign up for the Draft using his older brothers birth certificate on December 8th, 1941. The recruiting officer called over the other officers at the Induction Center and said this young man is so patriotic that he has signed up for the Army twice today? They sent my Dad home after they asked why he wanted to get into the war so bad? All of my brothers have signed up and I am left at home with my baby sister. I want the fight the Japs like my three brothers. That was a different time and while I understand it, I like the times that we are living in today, specially for getting an Education at any age, not based on color, race, creed, but opportunities available for everyone.
I know that not every teacher can keep the enthusiasm for teaching like Hilary Swank's role in Freedom Writers. I have teachers in my own family, who are different stages of their careers. I even have a who is suffering teacher burnout, and fully recognizes that it is time to either change careers, or to just retire. When they talk at the table, they all start sharing their success stories about classes where they have achieved amazing results with working-poor students, or students from transient homes. After they have exhausted their successes, they will slowly start talking about their bitter disappointments, such as a favorite student who has come so far, to be shot in a senseless drive-by shooting or suddenly have to move away without explanation, or a gifted and talented 16 year old become pregnant and drop out of school, and not know how she later fared in life.
I like how Finn as a new teacher followed History in England over a hundred years after the printing press was invented, when it was illegal to teach people below the rank of yeoman to read the Bible. I am sure that they "thought" that they had a good reason for holding people back way back when, but this would be a criminal act against humanity if this were to be attempted today. Somehow it was considered dangerous to society to teach someone below their station in life the ability to read to keep the working classes in their place. I am glad that we are living in an age of enlightenment, where we are all obligated by law to continue our education at least up to the age of majority or 18 years old.
I enjoyed how Finn discussed how during the American Labor Movement during FDR's New Deal, that the "Labor Organizer" was the first one on the scene to help working people realize, organize, and harness, and use their power. [This was when we were also changing from an agrarian society to an Industrial one] Later, after WW II, the "Community Organizer" appeared on the scene, as the more affluent Americans fled the cities, leaving the poorest among us behind. This is when the Community Organizers started helping the working-classes adults and students see that literacy and school knowledge could be a potent weapon in their struggle for a better deal in life for them and their families. I like to compare these articles to situations in my own life with members of my family. In this case, my Mom always resented that she was a good student and liked school, but at age 16 had to quit so she could go to work in a sewing factory to help support their immigrant family of eight, of which she was part of. Similarly my Dad had to quit after the sixth grade for the same reason to help support his immigrant family seven people. Those were tough times and I asked why they never did return to school later on in life? They both answered that the war started and went from the factory into a branch of the service, and after the service got married and all quickly had families of their own. I can understand their situation during those times, My Mom was born shortly after My Grandmom got off of a ship from Sicily, on June 29, 1929, which was four months to the day before the Wall Street Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression, which some say lasted ten years, but for immigrant families lasted until World War II actually broke out. My Dad was born three years earlier, but he tried to sign up for the Draft using his older brothers birth certificate on December 8th, 1941. The recruiting officer called over the other officers at the Induction Center and said this young man is so patriotic that he has signed up for the Army twice today? They sent my Dad home after they asked why he wanted to get into the war so bad? All of my brothers have signed up and I am left at home with my baby sister. I want the fight the Japs like my three brothers. That was a different time and while I understand it, I like the times that we are living in today, specially for getting an Education at any age, not based on color, race, creed, but opportunities available for everyone.
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