Mother: Anoka-Hennepin School policy contributed to gay son’s suicide

This article talks about a young man that committed suicide last July, and his mother believes he did so because of anti-gay bullying in school. His mother believes that the district policy stopped teachers from preventing anti-gay bullying and intervening when it occurred. After reading the policy I can see why she would think that. The fact is that this student should have had a safe school environment like the schools guarantee, and he didn’t. Bullying is becoming a big issue in schools not just bullying of LGBT but also other students. I hope schools change their policies on these types of things so teachers are able to do what is right without the fear of being fired for it.

http://thecolu.mn/4484/mother-anoka-hennepin-school-policy-contributed-to-gay-sons-suicide

Education Minnesota outlines action to address the achievement gap

1/22/2011

The article outlines the Education Minnesota President, Tom Dooher’s plan for better education. I agree with some of the ideas he has like lowering class sizes and getting parents and community involved in our children’s education. He also believes that we need to improve on our early childhood programs. We need to have all day kindergarten classes instead of the half day option. Dooher also touched on annual teacher evaluations and how those would be assessed. One way to assess teachers that I agree with Dooher on is having the evaluator sit in on a class or two and see if the teaching style is up to par. Dooher also put forth the idea of evaluating teachers on their student’s grades. This article also cleared up a few questions I had on the two year teaching license article that we read for our first blog. Dooher clarified how a mid-level professional could get a teaching license if they had a degree in the subject that they wanted to teach and could demonstrate the ability to teach that subject.

http://hometownsource.com/2011/01/11/education-minnesota-outlines-action-to-address-achievement-gap/

Freedom Writers revised

1. Erin Gruwell wanted to make a difference in these kids’ lives in the classroom so they would stop living life by the rules of the street.

2. The class was separated by race and the students didn’t think an education would matter in their lives. Nobody wanted to learn so Erin had to get them motivated and engaged in order to get them to learn.

3. Almost everyone had been shot at, and each on had at least one friend that had died in a shooting. Some had family that supported them being in a gang rather than getting an education. Some students just had abusive parents and violent lives that they didn’t care to share.

4. Their family obviously didn’t care about their schoolwork because they didn’t even show up to conferences. They didn’t want to learn so they had an academic performance that reflected that attitude.

5. She started talking like them to try to relate to them. She mispronounced tupac and that got some of them raping and talking amongst themselves, and that may have been an accident that she mispronounced his name but it worked.

6. Relating the learning material to the student’s lives. Helping the students relate with each other, and showing them they are all alike in a lot of ways.

7. She found books that related to the students and purchased them with her own money. Since the story was similar to the student’s stories they wanted to know more about it so they read which they would not do before. She came up with the idea for the journals so they could have a chance to share their story if they wanted, or they could just write for the sake of writing.

8. The administrators felt that integration ruined the school and that the kids in Erin’s class were unable to be taught. The administration also denied Erin’s class books because they assumed the kids would ruin them and they wouldn’t learn from them anyway.

9. Erin had high expectations for her students, but they had low expectations for themselves. Erin showed them that they could learn and education does matter. So I believe it’s fair to say she had a big role in their learning and success in school.

10. I learned that sometimes I may have to think further out of the box than I originally thought in order to get through to some students. I learned I have to think of students not as who I know them to be but as a person that exists outside of school and that they do have outside influences and a life that I can’t do anything about.

Freedom Writers

1/17/2011

I think Freedom Writers gives an extreme version of an inner city classroom. I don't think it would be easy to find a classroom where every student has been shot at; with the exception of the one white student. It would also be difficult to find a class that is as hostile over skin color as the students were in the movie. I know that these issues are present in the classroom in many different schools and I believe that the strategies that Mrs. Gruwell used to defuse these problems are good examples. Her methods could be used in real classrooms. In the movie, the students believe nobody cares about their education. Therefore, they lack the motivation to learn. Mrs. Gruwell sees that the student beliefs are true when the classroom is refused new books and parents do not attend parent teacher conferences. The administration blames integration for ruining the school. When Gruwell was refused books by the school, she decided to buy them on her own. She strategically chose the book that would compare to her student's lives in order to get them engaged in the reading. Once the students were engaged, they started to apply themselves more in class and the environment became less hostile. In turn, they connected as students. In the end, the once mortal enemies in the classroom are friends and they all know that they can make the future they want for themselves.

Unfortunately, we do have schools full of students who have no motivation from parents or family to do well in school. That's why I think that anyone looking to go into a career in education should be prepared to get every student motivated and involved in class. Gruwell had her own way of getting that particular group engaged in the classroom. The well chosen book she handed out and the journal her students wrote in about their lives were her tools for student success. All teachers should have their own bag of tricks so that their students don't get disinterested and thus unmotivated. In the movie, the kids were considered unteachable. In real life, we know that no person is unteachable it's just a matter of finding a way to teach them.

Why I want to be a special education teacher

1/13/2011

When I was seven parents were told by my first grade teacher that I was lazy and that was the reason why I was further behind the other kids than I should be. I had detention almost every week because I had bad grades which my teacher blamed entirely on me. When my mother finally got sick of me being extremely angry all of the time because I hated school she asked if I could be tested for a learning disability. The exact quote she got was “do you know how much that will cost the school?” After a month or so of my mother harassing the school to test me they finally gave in. the results showed that because of vision problems I had up until first grade that I was behind in almost every area. I had dyslexia before my vision was corrected so all through kindergarten I was seeing things differently or not at all. After my vision was corrected I had to essentially re-learn everything because I didn’t recognize simple letters. When the tests showed that I needed help in school they put me in the special education program. I stayed in the program all of the way through high school because It took that long for my math skills to catch up to every other student. Through the years in my “time management classes” as they were called I was fortunate enough to have GREAT teachers that I looked up to. Those classes meant the world to me because I could get one on one help when I needed it and they showed me how to stay focused and prepared. So I guess the reason I want to be special education teacher is so that I can  help kids who are experiencing the same struggles I went through  in school, and make sure they don’t feel left out and ignored like I felt. Also there may have been four or five teachers I coach Osseo Senior High Track with that told me I would be a great teacher.

Alternative teacher licensure

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=900178

1/13/2011

I beleive the idea of trying to fill teaching positions so classroom sizes shrink is a great idea. On the other hand I do not think that a two year degree would prepare a person for a teaching position in todays schools. Making it easier for mid-career professionals to take a two year course to get into teaching sounds like a good idea as long they have some type of post highschool education already.