Halloween

I started reading the Article "A Mind's Eye: A Halloween Activity to Ignite Young Imaginations" by Gaetan Pappalardo and instantly my mind wondered to the whole debate about Halloween being celebrated in the public school system. Though the article is not debating the issue of Halloween being celebrated in the classroom, it touches on it stating "We all know that Halloween has been a questionable holiday. Some school districts have totally ditched it; some make it an inservice day for teachers without students; some even changed the name" (Pappalardo, 2010).



Growing up, I enjoyed celebrating the holidays in school and found them to be a time of fun with other classmates along with a good bonding experience with those around me. There was a student who always missed school when we had our Christmas party and I thought nothing of it until recently. The student missed school because his culture did not celebrate the holiday and his parents thought it best that he stay home. I will not knock the parents for this because they had their reasons and reasons I will never know, but if it was simply because they did not believe in the holiday and thought it to be bad that their child celebrate it, then I have some questions I would like to ask them. As a teacher, and basically a parent to most of my students, I find it a wonderful experience to be introduced to different cultures and holidays. When I was in the Dominican Republic, I celebrated Easter the way the Dominican's did and enjoyed learning about why they do what they do. When I visited South Korea last year, I arrived on White Day, where women actually celebrate the men in their lives; sort of a reverse Valentine's Day. I too wanted to participate and found myself looking at all the expensive chocolates that one could buy. I guess my whole thoughts are, why remove culture from our schools and rob children of great learning experiences. We have to learn to all get along and except others for what they believe, why not start by throwing the holidays back into the school system? Children have their own minds and as soon as we start giving them responsibility of making their own choices and decisions, they take control of their lives and will quickly learn what they want to do verses what their parents want them to do. I think it is important that parents allow their child, no matter what age, to decide if he/she would like to participate in a holiday party or not. If the parent has to make that decision, than obviously that child is too young and will not be morally or religiously harmed by attending that school holiday party.



Maybe in the end...I just thought it was cool to stick my hand in the dark box and feel the brain (spaghetti noodles) or eggs (eyeballs)!



Reference:

Pappalardo, Gaetan. "The Mind's Eye: A Halloween Activity to Ignite Young Imaginations." Oct. 27, 2010. Retrieved from edutopia.com Oct. 27,2010. Link to: Halloween

D.C. Teacher Firings

I subscribed to the EducationNews.org for one of my RSS feeds and might have found just something to keep me interested for hours. The articles I have seen so far touch on topics that make me want to read more. The first was about D.C. firing teachers for poor performance, D.C. Teacher Firings and the second is in regards to classroom sizes being unmanageable, "Some New Orleans Teachers feel 'helpless' as classroom sizes grow" by Timothy Martinez. In the article, the author interviewed teachers who stated "You cannot in clear conscience cram this many kids in a classroom and make sure their needs are met (Martinez, 2009)." Though I am not able to relate to having 3o kids in a classroom as this teacher had, I can understand based off of conversations I have had with my friends who are teachers in regular education classes. Thinking back to when I was in elementary school, if there were more than 25 in a class, the class was considered too big and a split class might have been formed with 2 different grades being taught in the same room, by the same teacher. Now, a room of 20 to 25 is unheard of and when rooms get that small, schools start thinking about moving those kids into another classroom, making the other classroom larger and having to let that teacher go. I fell victim to the same sort of thing last year as my room, of 10 special needs students, was dropping down to 5 returning students. At that time we had no clue how many students would be coming into my program. So, my school decided to drop my classroom and combine my low functioning special education classroom, called Community Based here in Phoenix, with the Multi-disabilities classroom made up of even lower functioning students. I was lucky and was given another position but I would have lost my job had another not opened in my District. Anyways, the teacher with my previous students and her students is now overwhelmed trying to meet the needs of 15 very different students and still keep sanity. Even in the world of special education, 15 students in the class is 8 students too many to actually have a chance to meet all of their needs.

I fully understand the money issue that is taking over in this country but I also think there is only one way we can immediately improve our education system, and that is to provide students with smaller classrooms so they can be successful and be given the attention that they need. I also think it is important to look at classroom sizes for the happiness of teachers. Schools will start losing great teachers who are over worked, over stressed and do not feel that their needs are being taken into consideration. American schools are going to continue to go downhill if we do not start looking at classroom sizes and teacher happiness before we start implementing longer school years, longer school days and all for less pay.

Reference:
Martinez, Timothy. "Some New Orleans Teachers feel 'helpless' as classroom sizes grow. December 26, 2009. Nola.com. Retrieved on October 23, 2010. Link to Helpless Teachers

Read Write Web Introduction with Me!

Though I am of the "younger" generation who should be all up on technology, I have never considered myself to be. I just bought my first lap top when I started this masters program and my first ipod touch a month ago. Heck, it took me over a month to add more than 2 cds to my ipod touch. As I looked through all the articles that are posted on the Read Write Web, I started to realize how out of touch I am with what is going on in the world of technology. I knew very little about any of the articles other than Facebook and Microsoft. Sometimes I wonder if technology is just not as important to me as it is to others or if I just can't find the time to get involved as much as others. Maybe technology would permit me to have more free time but I look at how addicted I have become to Facebook and how it soaks up all of my time, and realize, technology just makes me want to play around more. I remember the days when I would go running with a portable cd player. It was easy; you popped in a cd, went running and you really did not have to think about it. Now, I have this ipod touch, I have to upload songs to it, make a play list and that all takes me time. The portable cd player was easier, well except I had to keep buying batteries for it! It is frustrating though to listen to others talk about all these great advancements in technology and I have no clue what they are talking about. Even for this masters program. I have struggled with some of the things we need to do and have had to go get help from a friend who is only 2 years younger than me, but way more up on technology than I will ever be. That frustrates me but also tells me why getting this masters will be beneficial not only in my classroom, but to my personal and social life too.

Okay, off my soap box...After reading the article "Facebook Moves to Encrypt User IDs" by Audrey Watters I started thinking about a reason I am not so into technology. I find it scary that people can go on the web and find out so much information about each other. One thing I have loved about living in Phoenix is that I can go anywhere and basically do anything without having to worry about running into anyone. Now I am worried that Facebook will leak out personal information that I may not want others to have. Once again it makes me question how great technology is in this world when we seem to have more and more problems arise from its existence!

For Kids' Sake, Let's Connect Schools and Parents

I agree with the article "For Kids' Sake, Let's Connect Schools and Parents" by Suzie Boss it asks the question of how "welcomed" parents feel into either the school or the classroom which I find to be very important. Being a special education teacher, I am constantly in contact with parents in regards to day to day activities. I am constantly updating parents on what we will be doing in the future and find time to contact parents when there is a concern that needs to be addressed. I also ask that parents do the same with me so that together, we can best meet the needs of the student. One of my students, I will name him Ander to keep his identity concealed, I have had for 3 years now. When his mom can't get him to do a chore around home, she will call me and ask that I handle the issue. Not that she feels this is my problem or that I need to do it, but she knows the relationship I have built with the student and how he will listen to what I tell him. We have also set it up that consequences that are needing to be given at either school or home will be followed through at both places. This connection with the school and my student's mom, has helped him progress so that a simple call to me, will immediately change his behavior. It also helps me know that mom is trying to work on the same skills I am working on.

Often times I even have parents just walk into my class to talk to me. I have never asked that they first report to the office, but instead, allow them to come talk to me directly. Parents have no problems coming to me with concerns and it has made a tremendous impact on their students' progress within my program. Those parents who are not as involved in the classroom, tend to have a student who does not make as much progress on their goals and frequently changes in behavior do not occur.

My classroom is pure evidence that parents and classrooms need to work together. As a group, goals can be worked out in and out of school and a student can be held accountable for any behaviors they may have.

Reference:
Boss, Suzie. "For Kids' Sake, Let's Connect Schools and Parents." October 21, 2010. Edutopia.org. Retrieved on October 20, 2010. Link to article: Connect Schools and Parents