Curriculum

Curriculum…  A curriculum states the course work a school offers their students.  It also encompasses the things a child should learn in their educational development.   The curriculum is often decided upon by the school district or in some areas a national board sets curriculum.  To me this is problematic.  I think that sometimes people who are involved in creating curriculum and aren’t directly in the classroom can totally miss the mark when it comes to what’s going on in the classroom. 

Regardless, we have curriculum to help follow standards.  Resources such as books are tools to be used to cover curriculum.  I very much agree that if there is no breathing room with curriculum, the kids can miss out on some seriously valuable self-created learning experiences. I also feel that if the curriculum is too lax, students won’t be well rounded, nor will they have a basic understanding of all they need to by the time they are ready for the next step in life.

Mias

I missed this phlog, but I feel the need to post one anyway.  We all have biases, different tastes, different likes and dislikes, different things that fit our fancy, whatever you may want to call them.  I have a bias against needles, horror flicks, rap music, certain genres of books, specific dog breeds (not a fan of the ankle biters), don’t particularly care for snakes (but I can deal with them), a huge bias against the color pink, certain foods make me cringe…  The list goes on and on.  These are rather insignificant biases to most people, but to me, they make me who I am.  Going with the snake thing, I don’t particularly like snakes, but I can push that dislike far enough aside to do my job if I have to work with one.  This is what I think matters the most.  Yes, we all have biases.  That’s just a fact of life.  It’s how we act upon and deal with our biases that matters.

I was brought up to not associate myself with certain things.  I have found that throughout my life, many of these things are widespread.  I encountered many of these things in college, and still meet them in my work.  One thing I can say that I have a bias against is drug use.  I wouldn’t say I dislike people who decide that this is something they want to do.  It makes me sad because I see it as a waste of funds and good brainpower that would be useful elsewhere.  To me, a lot of the people I have encountered that decide to partake in these activities are looking to fill a void (and this is just my opinion).  So therefore I feel that they should try to find something more beneficial to them instead of spending x amount of time high and unable to function to their full capacity.  But who am I to judge why they are doing it, what they are trying to remedy, etc?  This is where the idea of how you deal with your opinion is important.

I encounter people who currently, have, and probably will use drugs.  Now, I could either (A) find out that someone uses drugs, be disgusted, irritated, and let it control my whole mind frame concerning the person, or I can (B) put my emotional bias aside and realize that I have no control over that and look at what I do have control over.  Made up scenario:  Student, who is a known dealer on campus, is in my class.  I am not going to treat him any differently than any of the other students.  That would not be right.  That is not why I teach.  Yes, I would like to influence students through my teaching to understand that there are better and safer ways to spend their time, but I haven’t the slightest idea as to why that student is doing what he is doing. 

I feel that our biases make us individuals.  However, I think we need to respect the fact that we don’t all have the same biases and we don’t necessarily have all the information about others, so we shouldn’t try to force our ideals on them and maybe we should try to see the world from their point of view.

Future: Cuba At It Again

So, after reading Devon’s phlog I figured out the assignment, so here it goes:

New Waves for Cuba High School

Cuba Independent School District is in the news again, however, this time they are in a positive light!  Their very own Brecque McEldowney has been selected to receive 2017’s Teacher of Year Award.  McEldowney has been teaching biology and chemistry at Cuba High School since 2011.  “It was my first ‘formal’ teaching job.  I absolutely fell in love with the students in my district.  I think the school has been given a bad rap what with all the negative news attention we have been given, but I assure you we are doing some great things at this school.”  McEldowney has taken students every year to a summer program at MIT and has successfully aided students, from this once science and math poor school, to getting their scores up enough to get into world renowned science research schools/programs. 

A favorite program that she has gotten her kids involved in started as a summer job she took for her summer vacation.  The extremely knowledge-driven teacher from Cuba successfully landed a position at Mossel Bay’s Oceans Research facility, which specializes in the study of mega-fauna found on the coast of South Africa, including the feared Great White Shark.  “Brecque excelled in her position here.  She was so excited about what she was doing every day.  Her enthusiasm for her studies and her desire to somehow take her knowledge to her students was just heart warming,” says Ocean’s Research Director Enrico Gennari.  After she completed her study, McEldowney received a grant to take 5 students interested in studying ocean life and a parent chaperone to Mossel Bay for a life-changing experience.  Ana Curie and Nick Einstein were part of her first group of student to go to Mossel Bay in 2014.  “We had never seen anything like it!  We were able to see up close what these animals did.  And the size of them was mind boggling!” Nic and Ana said recalling their trip.  Closer to home, McEldowney has been able to work with Los Alamos National Labs to get her students into a summer internship program in which they learn about how LANL runs, what they study, and why their studies are important to the area.

McEldowney is from a family of teachers and hence grew up with a great appreciation for education, though she tells us she practically hated formal schooling until she got into education.  “I would say that I did not exactly enjoy school.  I just wasn’t a morning person so attending morning classes was difficult for me … especially if I wasn’t likely to get an afternoon nap,” McEldowney laughed as her student aide giggled in the background.  “My parents played a huge part in my education.  I actually wanted to quit college and join the army or Peace Corp, which was totally out of the question for them.  It did take a while for me to figure out that I couldn’t run from science.  When I settled with getting a biology degree, I found a whole new passion for what I was doing.  I had always known I wanted to be a teacher; I just wanted the experience to back up what I was teaching my students.”

Miss Mac has been part of the team to implement a vocational type program here at CHS.  “Our team has worked incredibly hard writing grants, finding resources, and finding teachers who would come in to help with such a large-scale task.  We are proud to offer our students the opportunity to have a vocational certificate by the time they get out of high school.  We offer vocational classes as electives so we still fit school standards with English, Math, Science, and Social Studies, but they get the same hours in as they would in a continuing education vocational college” says McEldowney.  CHS now offers CDL, beautician, welding, EMT basic, vet tech, and dental hygienist programs.

With her unconventional methods and out of the box thinking about education, which she accredits to CNM’s Alternative Teacher Licensure program, she swam her way to the top while challenging and encouraging the students she has worked with.  “They are all important to me.  If they need me, I’m there.  If there is some way I can help them connect their interests and their work, I will do everything in my power to get them what they need.”

Not Part of the Required Blogs... Just Reflecting

I was thinking about some of the teachers who presented information to the various classes I was in, and was considering why certain classes appealed to me, especially classes that I didn’t usually like.  Those of you who are history lovers disregard my next couple of statements.  I never liked history.  In fact, it was more of a torture class in my grueling block schedule in high school.  Honestly, I probably don’t remember a thing about it accept that my history teachers would sit on a tall stool regurgitating facts about this and that.  I was not thrilled to take history in college, seeing as my history path had already been paved with terrible memories.  I took New Mexico History in college (required) and went into it expecting the usual.  A hunched over elderly man walked in 5 minutes late and apologized because his dog just wouldn’t have him leaving at such a time.  This made everyone laugh.  The man wrote a few quick points on the board and all of a sudden shot to life using strange voices and unconventional (sometimes offensive) gestures to paint a picture of New Mexico before it was actually New Mexico.  The entire class was mesmerized and at the end he said in a ragged voice “that is all for the day.  Be on time for the next class.”  With a grin he picked up his books and hobbled out.  His voices, analogies, and actions in class made that history class the only one I ever liked and the only history class I could ever remember anything from. 

I thought about my students.  Most of them have directly pointed out that they don’t like science, but “it’s ok because you’re weird miss.”  I reflected on this, thinking “is that I’m going to get in trouble eventually for being severely unconventional weird or I’m just a geek and the things I say spark their interest weird…”  I know I do weird things like taking my students into the hall with a spool of string and arranging them into the orbits of the electron cloud with accurate orbital shapes.  Some of the other teachers frowned at this saying I was letting them play and that wasn’t teaching them anything.  I disagree.  I think the lessons they take part in are the ones they learn the most from.  I can stand at the front of the class all day and tell them about s, p, d, and f orbitals and most of them will look at me like I’m crazy and totally shut down.  Making them get up and apply these ideas is a whole new concept to most of them.  When they say “we don’t get them smart words you’re using.  So this chemical reaction stuff don’t mean a daaaa… I mean a dang thing to us.”  Then I know I have to approach it differently…  Ok, let’s blow something up… Yup they get it now.  Those two chemicals reacted, meaning the atoms making up the molecules were rearranged to make other molecules.  Ding, ding, ding!  Folks we have a winner!!!  Maybe, unconventional can be good...  Not popular with some of the other teachers, but what if that’s what some of these kids need and even the ones who are on track appreciate a pretty show every once in a while.  

Purposes and Football

I have decided that one’s over all thoughts on education and the purpose of it stay somewhat the same.  However, your purpose in being a teacher may change depending on the students you are working with.  The first time I wrote a ‘philosophies of teaching’ essay, my overall goal was to inspire a love of learning in my students.  I still agree with this, but I also feel that my main goal with the students I work with is to make sure they feel important and know that they can succeed regardless of what they are told.  In reality, there are a lot of kids of all ages that don’t feel that they are important.  As teachers, we are typically with our students more than their parents are.  If they don’t feel important, we have a good amount of time in a day to “address” this, if you will.  I try everyday to directly acknowledge each one of my students so they know they matter to me.

My aims in my classroom are to create a safe and unbiased learning environment.  High school students are typically going to make fun of each other; kids in general make fun of each other.  I get that.  My friends and I gave each other a hard time.  I do think that there is a HUGE difference between being down right cruel and demeaning and giving each other a hard time.  There are boundaries, and I constantly discuss these boundaries with my students.  I constantly tell them to be nice etc (mostly in the hall).  They have learned that in my classroom no question and no one is stupid and that if they are worried about asking a question they can write it down and put it on my desk and I will address it the next day.  I think it is highly highly important for students to feel comfortable in their learning environment, so that’s one of my major goals for my classroom.

Football…  hmmm… Haven’t really been able to keep up with football this year…  Let’s go with 24-31 Giants….