Professional Development Session

A week ago I attended a professional development session for Teach for America. There was a panel discussion on how to empower students behind their race and cultures. Most of the discussion was around African American students. They talked a lot about providing appropriate culturally relevant materials in class and in discussions. Also, they talked about being sure to talk to families and communities to get them involved.
I work in a school with predominently Hispanic and Latino/a students. Thinking about how the panel discussed getting African American families involved, has caused me to think more about how to get my students' families involved. My students' families are very community and family related. They always do things with their whole family and aunts and uncles and cousins. I have been trying to learn more about my students' families and what things they do with their family.

small groups

Last week another special ed teacher in my school and his co-teacher tried out parallel teaching. They had great success with it. They seperated the class in half, one side facing the front, one facing the back of the room. They had the kids scoot in close and created the expectation of working quietly so that everyone would be able to learn. When they had taught one skill, instead of the students moving, the teachers just switched. This eliminated any transition time or chaos. The students were very well behaved and were participating more in the smaller group setting.
Seeing this type of co-teaching work well was really exciting because it showed me that it could happen. My co-teacher and I do smaller group instruction as well, but the noise level is the hardest part since both of us can be quite loud usually.  It also strengthened my belief that small group instruction can be really effective. I see students jumping at the chance to answer a question  or even ask a question. I've had students tell me they are only comfortable doing that because they are not in front of so many people. I hope to be able to utilize a lot more small groups in my co-taught classes.

Gentrification and gangs

Yesterday I was talking with a couple students about "bad" neighborhoods in Chicago. The first one they mentioned was Cabrini Green. One girl said that she lives near the area and it used to be really bad but now has changed in the last year. Both students were talking about what changes had occured in that area and the affects it was having on people. I started to explain to them the concept of gentrification and how that was what Cabrini Green had basically undergone.  From that discussion one of them mentioned how they were thinking of building a Target in the area and how it would  be a big deal for the gangs in other areas. She said that kids from other neighborhoods would be all over the groups in the Cabrini area because they would be thought of badly because of living where a Target is. 
It was a really interesting converstation about gang relations and why people who are in gangs are so dedicated to their neighborhood and what traditions they have always believed in or who they have always hated. My student couldn't say that there was any specific reason they hated each other, just that they always had.

Standardized testing

Last week we had our first Interim assessment. For my juniors, this meant taking a practice ACT. I have very clearly one student who does not need to be taking the ACT, and I am working on the case to get her out of it. However, I have 12 other students with IEP's, maybe six or seven of whom really can and will benefit from taking this test. The five or so really struggle with it. They are clearly too far behind to even acess the material and therefore end up with scores in the low teens and little improvement.

My school is a college prep school. It also likes to say recently that it is starting to prepare students for life after high school too. As great as that sounds, and I appreciate the new mindset, we still require every student to take standardized tests their whole high school career and base everything we do in the classroom off of those tests. I never remember focusing so much on a standardized test when I was in high school. But then again, was I just better prepared and "well rounded" enough to do well without having to prep for it everyday?

Co-teaching

Today I was surprised to hear that my co-teacher and I are doing a very good job utilizing small groups for instruction. I was surprised by this because I always feel like we could be doing better because we do groups every other day and the other times I just stand and watch him teach. I think it's interesting how such low standards there are for co-teaching, but at the same time, I wonder if my expectations are just too high?