Peabloggy

I have written poetry for at least 20 years. Last week, I gave my first poetry reading in two. My experience with poetry led me to read about Poetry Out Loud, a national creative arts competition for high school students, co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

While doctoral studies do not leave much time for penning poems, I have kept my hobby alive, and I feel pleased that many high school students are fueling their interest in the arts by participating in  Poetry Out Loud. Now, if I could just get my professors to let me submit chapbooks for my final projects, then I would be set. Poems about quantitative methods, anyone?

-Teresa Bagamery Clark

As part of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States last week, he addressed educators representing the nation’s 200 Catholic colleges and universities at the Catholic University of America. As my cohort has learned in Social Context of Education, religion, like politics, is a sensitive discussion topic in a democracy. However, like the Pope, we should engage in dialogues with our neighbors about subjects that shape us as citizens (see Jean Bethke’s Elshtain’s Democracy on Trial).

Pope Benedict XVI exhorted the crowd at Catholic University with the concept that “faith is compatible with reason.” This is a wise perspective for all institutions of Christian higher education. Teaching biblical beliefs should not water down the content and expertise of education; if integrated correctly, it should improve upon all areas of a university and the college experience as a whole.

-Teresa Bagamery Clark

I will not lie and say that I loved gym class all of my life. In fact, I really did not care for it until about my junior year of high school, which, incidentally is when I finally shed all that baby fat. That year, my friend, Jenny, and I were reigning badminton champions in our physical education (PE) class. As a senior, I enjoyed playing flag football when the weather was just right for lining up in the school yard. Although, running the mile was another story; I always speed-walked it. I have never had the endurance for continuous running.

I support adding a half-credit of PE per semester for Tennessee’s K-12 students. Exercise is good for body and mind, giving students the opportunity to develop fitness habits as well as to ease tension before a big exam. I hope that the schools are also incorporating nutritional counseling with the added exercise, as those go hand-in-hand in combating obesity and developing healthy patterns for life.

-Teresa Bagamery Clark

I am by no means an expert on charter schools, so I hesitate to post on this topic. But, as I look for teaching jobs for next year, I’ve been thinking about unconventional approaches to education and the possibilities they hold. I spent eight weeks in a comprehensive high school student teaching with 12th graders, and I learned firsthand about many of the limitations involved with teaching 130+ students in 55 minute class periods every day. So, when I heard about Big Picture High School, I was intrigued.

The Big Picture Company, based on a school model based on The Met Center in Rhode Island. The Met model, which is being replicated at Big Picture Schools around the country - including one here in Nashville - focuses on tailored curricula with a vastly smaller number of students than typical students. Teachers are assigned 14-15 students, and they work with those students over the course of four years to develop projects and secure internships that address each student’s unique interests. Teachers have time and opportunity to invest in students’ lives - “one student at a time” - and students see a direct correlation between school and the things that are truly important to them in life.

I’m sure there are drawbacks to the approach Big Picture schools take, but I am intrigued enough to find out more. Eliot Levine’s book, One Kid at a Time, catalogues the Big Picture model as it originated at the Met School, and is worth a read.

- Rachel Bowers

One year ago this week, college students around the country were united in prayer and support for fellow students suffering from shocking acts of violence. As when a brother is hurt or a sister slain, university students cried out as a family against the attack at Virginia Tech. Groups appeared online with courageous words of unity and strength among the collective body of higher education, students standing together with their peers. No longer rivals, colleges throughout the nation rose up to encourage a suffering campus.

University staff all over shuddered at the thought, “could it happen here?” As new emergency plans, evacuation routes, and alert systems have emerged and tightened over the past year, let us hope that the response of teams of campus professionals can prevent another painful memory. Let us hope that with wisdom we may foresee danger, and that the good within us will overcome disaster. We remember.

-Teresa Bagamery Clark

Today, I had my first experience with Tennessee’s annual state mandated assessment, the TCAP. I proctored the Language Arts section of the test for a seventh grade class of 27 students, and I watched them diligently read and bubble. Most of the students seemed to fare well - this school has historically positive TCAP results. And while I have often questioned the validity of tests such as these, I am surprised (in spite of myself) to find that a school can teach to the test and also ensure a good deal of useful learning for students. After the test, the kids were incredibly fidgety for the rest of the day (and I would argue that TCAP week should come with an abbreviated schedule of half-days), and they certainly did not enjoy the test, but it seems like the opportunity for this kind of assessment provides a sense of accomplishment for students and teachers alike.

I don’t think test scores should be used to punish teachers or schools or blame anyone in particular for the ills of a school or district, but I am coming to the conclusion that standardized tests aren’t all bad. I may yet change my mind, though. I still have three more days of testing to proctor.

- Rachel Bowers

As I write this post, my eyes wander to the stack of 90 student essays that have just been graded. I feel that I have performed one of my first true feats of strength as an aspiring English teacher. Next week, my students will begin rewriting sections of these essays (I can already hear the groaning!). What weighs most heavily on my mind, however, is how little students appear to be reading the novel their papers address. For the crafty student who listens in class and skims his Spark Notes, it could be easy to make all A’s and yet never crack open a book.

Educational researcher Tovani (2000) calls this phenomenon “fake reading,” and she has experienced it first-hand. She claims that she read the first and last page of assigned books, found the Cliff notes, and managed to write high scoring essays without every actually reading and interpreting a text on her own. It was not until she began attending an adult book discussion group that she found she could no longer get by with faking it. The other book club members were relating personal experiences to the novel in a way that only true readers can. As I continue to tweak assignments and projects during my current teaching unit, I keep Tovani’s book club in mind. How can I push students to become personally invested in their readings?

–Katie Harris

I was reading the Village Voice (I will warn the reader here that some content in the Voice is not child friendly) today because the cover story caught my eye. I like to read the Voice because I think the Social and Political writing is usually very good. The honesty of the voice and the transparency of the research involved generally make for an interesting read. That said, I started reading because the article was about home-schooling in New York City in the African-American community.  I was a little disappointed, though, that the article didn’t really delve into complexities of home-schooling, both in terms of its affect on the students and the commentary on the public school system.  Draw your own conclusions.

Yes, parents home school their kids because of religious views, concerns about quality and safety, and personal convictions about how their children are to be raised, I’m well aware.  Home schooling is not a solution, though.  It may work well for educated parents with time and resources to provide their students with a base of learning that will prepare them for the professional and social world outside their doors.  But, to be honest, I don’t trust any parent I don’t personally know to be able to do that, and I don’t trust a lot of them that I do know to be able to do it. Sorry friends.  The one thing I’ve learned at Peabody is that teaching is a complex profession, and doing it well is hard for the professionals.  To teach my own future children everything I think they should know about everything would require more time than I could ever give them.

As an M.Ed student I can understand how I might seem probably somewhat biased in my views.  I do want to be a teacher at an evil, corrupting Public School (wringing hands maniacally).  Let me explain away why I’m not.  I’ve had a lot of terrible teachers in my life.  Terrible.  Lots of them.  I was bullied in school.  I consider myself Christian (and I hope others do too). I think there is a lot wrong with public schools.  Yet, here I am, with a bachelor’s degree and honors from a major university and getting a master’s degree from a prestigious ed. program.  I have four brothers and sisters who would all be excellent poster children for surviving in spite of the system.  I attribute all that success to our parents and our upbringing.  All five of us have been in school since we were old enough to be sent to daycare/pre-school because my parent’s were relatively young and working long hours to support us.  Home schooling was never an option, and even when they had the resources to offer my youngest brother private school he turned the offer down, much to their consternation.

Why all the rambling, I hear those of you still reading asking yourselves?  I believe public schools are dying for the very same reason our politicians rush into things like wars or the open arms of lobbyists, because we are letting them.   What is the largest factor determining a student’s success and the improvement of neighborhood schools?  Parental and community involvement.   Everything else like funding, spending, and environment depend on what the taxpayers and voters of our democracy demand.  Lacking the funds to chose the best schools for my siblings and I, my parents taught us to love knowledge and be responsible independent people.  Lacking the parents to guide and raise their children with all the money in the world we get citizens like the Spears family or the Jacksons (of Michael, Latoya, Jermaine etc…).  There are exceptions. There are shades of gray.  There are no rules.  There is only motivation, understanding, and kindness.

Teach your own children if you want, that’s your prerogative. I don’t think there are enough lifeboats for all of us.  Maybe we should fix the whole instead.

–Luke Webb

When I started college in 1999, I moved into the same residence hall where my father once resided and served as an RA. And when I say the same, I literally mean the same furniture, same furnishings, and everything else. I didn’t really care that that hall had not changed in over 25 years…I was just happy to be out on my own. But then again, I am probably not like a lot of our students today.

I currently work as a Residence Director in a hall that is 95 years old, and it happens to be the most popular option for first-year male students at my institution. My wife and I might tire of the paper-thin walls and the lack of some amenities, but my residents love it for one simple fact: it’s a community. Community should be the big issue in housing, not catering to the individual. And it doesn’t cost $270 million to build a community that students don’t want to leave.

-Landon C. Clark

I came across an article this morning on USA Today about the graduation gap between urban and suburban schools. As I just finished a paper a couple of weeks ago for the Social Context of Education class in the Ed.D. program, this article seemed all too familiar. Educators have been attempting to bridge performance gaps for years because it is a HUGE problem in K-12 and higher education. As I went through the articles for my paper, the impact of neighborhoods and parental involvement seemed to stand out as primary reasons for student success and failure, and this could tie in to the results in the USA Today article. It is a very touchy subject, but the reason why suburban and urban schools differ so greatly in graduation rates might be more contingent on what happens after the student leaves school.

-Landon C. Clark