I saw Waiting for "Superman" yesterday. Kristin offered to go with me, and she was great person to go with. I really liked the movie. David Guggenheim did a great job of making you care about the children that the movie follows as they try to get into a charter school. And I liked how he illustrated the statistics with little cartoon people. Honestly, I was expecting the movie to be more controversial. I'd heard different groups (especially teachers' unions) were boycotting it. I left the movie feeling really sad that people were refusing to see it or saying it was evil. Because really the message of the movie was that we need to work together to make sure children get a better education.
I guess some teachers are angry because the movie didn't say much about parents who need to do their part and be more involved in their child's education. True. But the movie gave examples of schools that are being very effective at education children from low-income families and bad neighborhoods, and I'm sure they face similar problems with parental involvement. And I think parent involvement is really, really hard to fix. We can't really force parents to care about education. Yes, it would help me out a lot if students came to my class knowing their letters and numbers and shapes. But I know that's not the case. The movie was saying we can't use parental involvement as an excuse anymore. We can't just say, "Schools would be better if parents were more involved. But they're not. So oh well." And maybe if we could do the hard work of improving school for this generation's children, when they have children, they'll be more invested in their education, because they have experience the value of a quality education.
There's a lot more I could say, but I'll stop for now. The movie definitely got me thinking, and I'm thankful it's gotten people (like everyone) talking about education reform. I just went on the NEA website to see if they had anything directly to say about the movie, and I found an article about how a union at a Florida school district actually bargained for stricter evaluation for teachers and even merit pay. So the presidents of both of the major unions and the Secretary of Education went there to have a forum about this, and now they're telling everyone, look, we're in favor of reform. Waiting for "Superman" definitely gave the unions some heat, and maybe some positive change will come from that.
In other, more fun news...my class had a costume party on Friday! We don't really do Halloween at our school, but of course this time of year the kids are thinking about costumes and candy and trick-or-treating. So when they filled up their jewel jar, I let them brainstorm ideas for a party and vote, and costume party won unanimously. Which is fine by me. It was nice that it was more than two weeks before Halloween, so I could just call it a costume party and leave it at that. We had a lot of fun. I realized I didn't really have anything to wear, and I had just lectured my students about how they could use things from around their house or our classroom to make a costume, and that they didn't have to go to the store to buy something. So I didn't really feel like I should go buy anything either. I can't believe I no longer have a feather boa, tiara, or princess dress, at least not here at my apartment. So I ended up wearing pajamas and slippers and my bathrobe. And I wore my glasses because it came up in class one time that I had glasses, which of course the students didn't really understand since they've never seen me in them. So I wore them, and two kids told me I looked like Harry Potter. Great. Just cause I'm white and have short hair and glasses doesn't mean I look like Harry Potter. I mean, I don't have a lightning bolt scar on my forehead. But I see how they would have made that connection.
Here are a few pictures of the festivities:
A lovely little fairy
Snow White with little face paint freckles
A princess with major attitude
A super tough Mr. Incredible. Who later started crying from fear when he thought someone was going to make him eat ants on a log and applesauce at our cooking class.
Cute, right?
I guess some teachers are angry because the movie didn't say much about parents who need to do their part and be more involved in their child's education. True. But the movie gave examples of schools that are being very effective at education children from low-income families and bad neighborhoods, and I'm sure they face similar problems with parental involvement. And I think parent involvement is really, really hard to fix. We can't really force parents to care about education. Yes, it would help me out a lot if students came to my class knowing their letters and numbers and shapes. But I know that's not the case. The movie was saying we can't use parental involvement as an excuse anymore. We can't just say, "Schools would be better if parents were more involved. But they're not. So oh well." And maybe if we could do the hard work of improving school for this generation's children, when they have children, they'll be more invested in their education, because they have experience the value of a quality education.
There's a lot more I could say, but I'll stop for now. The movie definitely got me thinking, and I'm thankful it's gotten people (like everyone) talking about education reform. I just went on the NEA website to see if they had anything directly to say about the movie, and I found an article about how a union at a Florida school district actually bargained for stricter evaluation for teachers and even merit pay. So the presidents of both of the major unions and the Secretary of Education went there to have a forum about this, and now they're telling everyone, look, we're in favor of reform. Waiting for "Superman" definitely gave the unions some heat, and maybe some positive change will come from that.
In other, more fun news...my class had a costume party on Friday! We don't really do Halloween at our school, but of course this time of year the kids are thinking about costumes and candy and trick-or-treating. So when they filled up their jewel jar, I let them brainstorm ideas for a party and vote, and costume party won unanimously. Which is fine by me. It was nice that it was more than two weeks before Halloween, so I could just call it a costume party and leave it at that. We had a lot of fun. I realized I didn't really have anything to wear, and I had just lectured my students about how they could use things from around their house or our classroom to make a costume, and that they didn't have to go to the store to buy something. So I didn't really feel like I should go buy anything either. I can't believe I no longer have a feather boa, tiara, or princess dress, at least not here at my apartment. So I ended up wearing pajamas and slippers and my bathrobe. And I wore my glasses because it came up in class one time that I had glasses, which of course the students didn't really understand since they've never seen me in them. So I wore them, and two kids told me I looked like Harry Potter. Great. Just cause I'm white and have short hair and glasses doesn't mean I look like Harry Potter. I mean, I don't have a lightning bolt scar on my forehead. But I see how they would have made that connection.
Here are a few pictures of the festivities:
A lovely little fairy
Snow White with little face paint freckles
A princess with major attitude
A super tough Mr. Incredible. Who later started crying from fear when he thought someone was going to make him eat ants on a log and applesauce at our cooking class.
Cute, right?
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