American Priveledge

I left for home one day after an in class discussion on race privilege and prejudice that was sparked by the shooting of the allegedly handcuffed Jamar Clark. Waiting for the bus in the irritating cold I was approached by a stranger who began a not entirely welcome conversation, as often happens on public transit.

The man was black, in his twenties with short hair and Beats headphones dangling from his neck. "I was just over there where that police car is." He said.  I recognized my instant prejudice of the situation - being approached on public transit by a minority, and so I assumed they were probably going to ask for something. Alternatively I thought he might be trying to steal from me - the latter situation being one I have never experienced yet seemed to expect of these specific interactions. I recognized, probably in thanks to the earlier in class discussion, the conclusions I was jumping to and opened myself up to the conversation, and started listening. And he began to tell me what happened.

He approached an active police scene out of curiosity, he was wondering what was happening when the female officer on the scene yelled to him "Back up! I don't want to get shot today." He knew immediately it was because he was black, and so he left. He then approached me for conversation where I immediately jumped to my own bias about him as well. It was a short bus ride, but we sat together and we talked more about the things he deals with on an every day basis. He worked really hard to save enough money to buy a new car. The first few days after he bought it he was pulled over nine times. Whenever he sees police officer while driving this vehicle he has to assume he will be pulled over. I was able to see easily see this was a really nice young man, and I recognized it the moment I chose not to ignore him based on my own prejudice.

Just a few days later my boyfriend and I packed up Blue Blast (Our Dodge Caliber that is outfitted with a 4'' memory foam pad in the back, offering a comfortable warm place to sleep on long trips) for a pretty spontaneous trip to Colorado to catch an encore of a show we saw in Minneapolis.

600 miles into this trip, the morning of the concert and 400 miles left to our destination, Blue Blast gave up on the side of the highway After a little research we discovered that 7 miles away was our only hope - a little town of Gothenburg, NE. A small town built around community and that describes itself as progressive in many ways, with a population of 97.3% white people, and 1.8% mixed. My boyfriend and I had to split up immediately to find the nearest mile marker (The tow truck would't come without it.)  and immediately were offered help by different nice people.

In fact, everyone we interacted with or heard interacting with each other was extremely nice. We felt a little bit out of place, with my boyfriend in his fashionable hoodie and laptop messenger bag, but no one gave us a hard time. As we sat in Deb's Diner, where we could choose from a few different cheeseburgers or a crock pot buffet consisting of Chili, Spaghetti or chicken wings,  I began to think about the man I met on the bus.

Within minutes of breaking down 3 different strangers invited us into their vehicles to help us out.  A very nice homicide detective even came to help after he saw us part ways (which he assumed meant that we'd had an argument) and within a half hour we had a tow to the local auto shop.

I don't mean to suggest that Gothemburg was the type of place that may refuse service based on skin color, or maybe not give the attention we received from the local businesses, but I definitely think our skin color played a huge role in the amount of stranger support we were offered.  We were back on the road within a few hours and made it to our destination of Boulder CO with hours to spare.

When Allen Stone performed 'American Privilege' that night, it definitely took on a deeper meaning for me after everything that had happened.  And 'everything that had happened' was really nothing that hadn't been happening before. It was just everything I became more aware and sensitive to.

 My boyfriend would often joke about 'white privilege' - most often the specific trait he called 'assumed innocence.'  We'd walk up and down the back alley of this venue in Colorado hoping to catch an interesting 'behind the scenes glimpse' of the show.  He'd point out that no one would be alarmed by our presence because we don't fit the stereotype of trouble makers, and therefore would be assumed innocent rather than guilty.  This same concept comes up any time a Target door alarm goes off in his presence and no one suspects him of stealing, or how if he were to shoplift he could likely get away with the excuse of being forgetful, since that 'assumed innocence' is on his side.

The longer I reflect the more instances I can think of where this privilege has come into play, and it's definitely not something I want to bring with me to the classroom. I don't want to make assumptions about students, or families. I recognize and know that there is a current societal issue of prejudice and privilege, and I can't deny the fact that some of these things can have truth to them - even if it's just a nasty self fulfilling prophecy where our assumptions perpetuate the issue. I can't deny that it's a real issue, but I can choose to do my best not to perpetuate it and take it even further. Some students are going to have their privileges and their obstacles because of their race or background, but I can do my best to keep them out of my classroom.

Strength

In a recent lesson I discovered an opinion held by Lisa Delpit that teachers should recognize and build on a student's strengths. This is something I believe in 100%, and an idea that I discovered for myself fairly recently.

When I started my education beyond High School I ended up in  a private school majoring in Biology. It definitely wasn't my calling in life, but I wanted to take the route I was supposed to take, even if it meant working extra hard at concepts that I just couldn't really connect with, no matter what I tried. I eventually chose to leave that school to figure out what was truly right for me - and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I learned that I was following a path that didn't play to my strengths, and as a result I would have spent my life working extra hard and never reaching my potential.

The logic of this actually made sense to me when I came across Tom Rath's Strengthsfinder. This is a book and online personality test meant to reveal your personal strengths. It doesn't speak at all to your weaknesses, because those shouldn't matter. It shouldn't be your focus. The idea here is that if you are strong at something you're going to see 10x the results with half the effort. This isn't to say that knowing your limitations doesn't have it's value, but if math doesn't make sense to you, and you just can't connect with the concepts, you're obviously going to have a tough time following an academic path based in it.  That's not to say that you couldn't find success easily, but you'll be in a classroom with people who just seem to effortlessly get it. You could put in the hours, the focus and the effort to catch up and be as good or even better - but what if you instead focused that energy on something you were already good with?

I've talked before how I believe that exposure to all subjects is good, but overexposure becomes a problem. There is a fine balance when dealing with children - because they often don't know what's best for them or what their strengths are, but that's where we come in. It's our job as educators to help students find their ways, to recognize their hidden or budding talents, and to give them the tools and direction to be successful with what comes out of them. We are mentors and developers, and if we want to see success grow from the students we teach, we must help them figure out what that success may be to them.

Digital signage in the classroom - with Enplug!

Enplug is a super simple digital signage software that's used in all sorts of places. I first saw it in the Goodwill store in Dinkytown where they use it to engage their customers with social media. The wedding venue I work in, also uses it so that guests can upload live photos and messages during a wedding. I've done more research into what it can do, and it turns out the answer is: a lot.

Enplug can be used for menus, social media feeds, graphics, news feeds and more.  I would mostly use the social media feed and graphics with the idea of having a constantly updating digital screen in the classroom that provides a fresh feed of content every day. It doesn't need to be a super fancy screen either, for the most part any t.v. screen would work.

The social media aspect would be used as a way to engage the kids with conversations taking place outside of the classroom. The nice thing with a system like Enplug is that it's filtered, and I can choose what content comes through from the vast unpredictable world of social media. I always imagine working with young kids, so this would be especially important for keeping offensive content out. As for the content that is let through, I can imagine a couple of fun educational uses.

The first would be in a sort of vocabulary capacity. The idea is for the students to choose specific words or subjects and to simply catch any content that is using those words or phrases. Depending on the subject matter, this could bring in some new ideas and interesting discussions.

Another option would be to have parents and students participate with a specific hashtag, and contribute content to a specific idea or project. This could be showing their families, their work, their home, something from home they are proud of, etc. It could be an ongoing show and tell project even. These screens wouldn't be part of an active lesson, but would instead create passive content for children to engage with before class, during recess/lunch, or even after school. If I can get kids to engage in the learning process outside of 'structured learning time,' then I think it would be an experiment that I'd consider a success.

Funding Education

Over the last couple weeks I wrote about a couple of ideas that I had for introducing Raspberry Pi into the classroom, including a vision to update the great Gingerbread Man escape game. One of the obvious and important questions that arose from this was: "How much will it cost?" My answer; Relatively? Not much...But admittedly more than a lot of schools might have to spare.

Funding for education is left mostly as a responsibility for each individual state, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Maybe I am projecting, but it seems to me that this would imply that education funding, at least in the opinion of our federal government, isn't a federal issue. This seems to be echoed by the fact that education funding wasn't even mentioned in the first two Republican Presidential debates, and was barely mentioned in the Democratic debate. On the brighter side, the president's 2016 education proposal is focused on increasing equity and opportunity for all students; expanding high-quality early learning programs; supporting teachers and school leaders; and improving access, affordability and student outcomes in post-secondary education.

This proposal includes a $1 billion increase to provide support for school districts that have been serving a greater number of students from low income families.  This is exactly the type of focus that I think is critical in reforming our current education focus.  What baffles me as I look further into this issue is that it's been a campaigning tool one way or the other for at least the last 15 years, and it's still a major problem.

Education makes up 6% of federal budget and 30% of state budget. Looking at the general overview of the Minnesota State Budget, it's hard to argue where we could adjust spending, and I think it simply becomes obvious that burdening the state with the vast majority of funding responsibility for education is irresponsible. When you look at our national budget you see that 55% of our spending goes to the military. It's sickening when you start to research where this money goes, and find stories about manufacturers, banks, and other companies overcharging on military contracts. In one extreme case, a company is accused of charging $600 for a hammer on a contract for building military trucks.

This is a rabbit hole that goes deep, and there doesn't seem to be a single politician that believes the government is spending it's money appropriately. The most common campaign promises by far are ones related to how the government spends it's money. My question is, why hasn't someone done something about it already?

I definitely understand that there are people that benefit from huge piles of money falling at their doors. If I was selling hammers for $600 a piece I'd probably be on the other side of this issue, but I'm here, staring at a future career that manages to land itself on nearly every "top underpaid jobs" list on the internet, while also studying in the only civilized country that doesn't offer some form of free higher education.

It makes me angry, and I want things to change. I don't just want more education funding, I want more funding education. I want people to have access to a deeper understanding of where money comes from, where it goes, and who it's benefiting. When we spend 55% of our budget on military defense, does that 2 trillion dollars help the military 2 trillion dollars worth? or does it only benefit them 20 billion dollars worth because of companies inflating prices 1,000% to milk military contracts?

When a state spends 30 percent of it's budget on education, what does that mean?  How is that money being allocated, and is it going to the schools that need it, or is it staying in the area codes that pay higher property taxes?

My conclusion is simple: Numbers alone don't help anybody, and campaigning on promises to increase percentages or put billions of dollars into this or that don't mean anything. Without a true understanding what schools are lacking, and a solid plan to provide the funds to fill those needs, we might as well be throwing money into a black hole - or in the case of American politics, electing someone else to do it for us. I can't say for sure what the solution may be, but I think the first step we need

The Great Gingerbread Man Escape!

I remember in first grade, around Christmas time, we were in school and got to make gingerbreadmen cookies. Everyone was excited to taste our creations - but the unthinkable happened. We returned to the school kitchen, and I knew something was wrong when I didn't smell any freshly baked gingerbread. My worst fears were confirmed when we opened the oven. The gingerbread were gone. The official story was a breakout. A mass escape. Some of the other kids accused instructors or even the lunch lady. "Gingerbread mans can't walk!" Nate Hazel proclaimed.  Regardless of what happened, we had to find them. We started searching different areas of the school, but went home that day empty handed. It was looking bleak, but on the chalkboard the next day we had our first clue. The principal's office. There we found a note left by gingerbread men themselves laying out their plans. They were going to hide above the chalkboard in our own classroom until they could escape! We returned to our classroom and found them lining the top edge of the chalkboard. It was way above our line of sight at the time, so they may have even been there the whole time. I'll never know. I still wonder, even though this all happened in December of 1999.

And now it's 2015, and I started thinking: How can I put a new twist an such a memorable classic? I have to come clean - this idea wasn't entirely my own, but a collaboration with my boyfriend who recently started working with the Raspberry Pi device that I discussed in my previous post.  It was also inspired by some of the concepts of gamification that I've been learning about as well. What if we can update the classic game of 'find the gingerbread man' to include technology?

The core technology behind this idea is called Near Field Communication, or NFC. The basics behind it are really simple. An NFC tag is an extremely thin small computer chip, and whenever an NFC capable device gets within an inch or so, it triggers a script on the device that can be used to launch a website, start a phone call, or simply to display a message.

The idea is still a little rough, but it goes a little something like this:
The day begins with the children making their gingerbread men and bringing them to the kitchen only to return later to find an empty cooking tray! Luckily, Ms. Gonsalez saves the day when she tells the children we can build a machine (a Ginger-tracker? a Cookie-Detector?) that can be used to track down the gingerbread men, but she can't do it on her own.

This would then lead into the very basic Raspberry Pi creation lesson, where the children work together to build this very simple device. Again, it's not important that the children actually attempt any complex processes like coding, or putting components together, what is important in this part of the lesson is the sense of accomplishment at having built a tech device to solve their problem, and the exposure to the idea of coding, computer science, etc. in the simple fact that it exists, and that they learn it's something they are capable of doing if it interests them. The idea is to end up with a device that looks like computer components put together. It looks like something we built in a classroom - something like this:

Once we have the device put together (again, this will be a really easy thing to do. I watched my boyfriend build a tiny photo booth in under 3 hours.) the tracking will begin.

The rules will be very simple. Over the next couple of days as the children move throughout the school they will keep their eyes open for any traces of the gingerbread men. I originally imagine they'll find laminated pieces of the gingerbread men (an arm that fell off, or a button, etc.) but there might be a better way to do it.(What would gingerbread footprints look like?)

When students spot these pieces they report back to the class, and we make our way out with the new device in hand. And this is where the NFC comes into play.

The tag will be hidden inside whatever clue is found, so when the device is powered on and makes contact the the clue, text will appear on the screen. Maybe it will give an exact location, or a general direction, or something else entirely, but the point is that each clue will bring the students one step closer to finding out what happened to the gingerbread men.

Of course once all the clues are found the final step is locating the gingerbread men themselves. That will be the ultimate reward for the children for a job well done, and will hopefully leave the children feeling like they actually participated and succeeded in finding the gingerbread men through their own actions.

The exercise won't only reward them with a mouthful of cookie and a fun memory, or at least that's what I am hoping. If everything goes as imagined they will be left with their exposure to the idea of how computers work, the confidence that building a machine is within their reach, and some experience and familiarity with the idea that technology can be used to interact with the real world.

I think exposing children to these wonderful ideas early is like planting a seed that has the potential to grow into something wonderful. It was simple experiences like these that I valued through the years, and looking back I think they had a great effect on me over time. It's hard to put into words but the memory of the hunt that I described above was a lot of fun, and over 15 years later I can't think about it without smiling. I hope I can give my students experiences that are that memorable, or even more so.

Standardized Testing

Not having a better solution (yet) is not a good reason to stick to a system we know is broken.

Standardized testing measures everyone against each other to determine a statistical average, and to compare students against their peers. Progressive research continues to demonstrate that this type of thinking is outdated, and that measuring every student on the exact same metric might give an accurate representation to how well those academic subjects are memorized.

These studies go well beyond college as well. A recent student shows that there is no significant difference in performance between students who do and do not submit SAT or ACT scores when applying to universities.

According to the University of North Carolina, standardized test results do predict success in postgraduate programs - so it’s not to say that they are useless.  However, only 8% of the United States population hold Graduate degrees.  It makes since to voluntarily take a standardized test when considering postgraduate school, as it may help predict how successful you would be in that environment. Up until that point in a person’s life, the benefits become much more difficult to define.

One problem with the standardized test is what the goal is when they are put into place. We seem to be a society that loves numbers, percentages and to criticize. Most standardized tests today, especially in the k-12 world, are used to measure success, and not to predict success.  This means that the one major benefit that I was able to find when it comes to standardized tests (the fact that the results are a good predictor of success)  are just a happy side effect and not the purpose of the test in the first place.

The reason the ill defined goal becomes an issue is because good ‘standardized test results’ are the goal, but what those test results represent seems blurry. Do they represent whether the school system did a good job? Does it represent if the school needs more money, or needs its funding cut?  What do we gain from standardized testing?

The answer to this question depends on who you ask, and what side of the argument you are on. One side likes to point out that “93% of studies in the last 100 years show that standardized testing has a positive effect on student achievement.”  On the other side you’ll hear “A May 26, 2011, National Research Council report found no evidence test-based incentive programs are working:”

I’m always wary of statistics like this because they seem to be worded specifically to support the idea that the writer wants to support. 93% of studies in the last 100 years show a positive impact, but how did that number change over time? If we just look at tests in the last 10 years, do we see the same results?

There are some pro arguments that more abstract benefits come from standardized tests. For example, proponents argue that separating minorities or non-english speaking students into separate testing categories creates an unequal system which would result in more segregation. This line of thinking makes sense to me, but I still believe that there are options to explore that can accomplish these same things without the drawbacks of standardized tests.

Overall I think we need to agree on an educational philosophy. What is education in America? What is the goal of education?  Only then can we decide truly if standardized testing has it’s place in accomplishing that goal. Right now the goal seems to be “get a good job”, but we’ve seen that the high school education isn’t preparing anyone for getting those jobs right now. So maybe that needs to change.

Educational Philosophy Statement

I believe students should be taught skills that will continue to be useful throughout their lives. The fundamental purpose of an education is to help an individual grow, and to create members of a society and a community that are capable of being productive and successful. If you’re not teaching children to be independent critical thinkers then you are churning out factory pieces to be exploited by corporations, politicians, and anyone else who’s best interest involves pushing for an uninformed population.

There are several expectations for basic adulthood that are not part of the school curriculum, and aren’t being taught consistently by parents, and I believe that is leaving our society with a ‘knowledge deficiency.’ Some of these things include skills like managing money, how interest on loans work, moderate nutritional education, writing cover letters and resumes, etc. Adjusting current curriculum's slightly away from topics like abstract math, classic literature and the periodic table to make room for more practical and universally used topics would be very beneficial. Children need to continue learning how to interact and communicate with the world around them. Abstract processes taught for the sake of tradition aren’t helping when it’s hard for many people to even justify the time they spent in high school learning things that never applied to their adult lives.. Exposing children to ideas such as geology, astronomy, algebra and calculus are great - but mandating that students dedicate time to those skills is wasteful. Education should be teacher guided but tailored to each individual.

I believe that courses should be interactive and collaborative. Exercises should encourage communication and broadening of social horizons within the classroom. Life is not full of solo projects, and only solo tasks. Any homework assignment should be a contribution to the class as a whole, not an isolated individual responsibility. Work should be done to benefit something greater than themselves, where the final goal is a sense of team accomplishment. Leading everyone to be proud of each other, where everyone keeps each other accountable and helps each other through struggles, and not just focuses on themselves.  

I believe that exercises should be structured so educational goals are met and the students add their own context. Childhood brains develop through their interaction with the world. Curiosity is rewarded with knowledge, and we must encourage and facilitate curiosity and experimentation. Students should be able to express themselves and play with the ideas and assignments given - so long as a true effort is being made and the student has striven to accomplish something, and the student was engaged, then there is no failure no matter the outcome. If a classroom exercise is to draw a duck, then drawing a blue 50 foot duck should not necessarily be judged on the accuracy in which it depicts a real life duck. Although there are cases where this may miss the educational goal, there are many instances where an effort outside of the specific instructions still exercise the intended skillset.

I believe that play should be structured into learning. I don’t think there should be a separation from play and learning. I think there’s a way to do both. I think it’s important for students to gain experiences and for students to learn by doing. This mantra can be applied creatively to come up with lessons that teach students useful lifelong skills, through interactive and collaborative projects where students can work on specific tasks that speak to their interest and strengths. This would not only lead to more students being engaged, but also the students being engaged on a deeper level.