Sheryl Grant wrote a useful overview of what transpired during Black Cloud Game 1.0. Read it here.
While you’re at it, you can check out video from the Humanities 2.o MLA Conference Panel over here.
Not much of an update, I realize. I hope to write about this in the next day or so. (For the record, I asked my students to give Manual Arts a grade and both classes were evenly split between Cs and Fs!)
I have previously written about my regular practice of having students evaluate me as their teacher at the end of each term. In an effort to encourage others at Manual to do the same thing, I am posting the entirety of the 19 evaluations I received this year. I realize this sample size is smaller than in the past. However, with the number of crossover students taking both my 11th and 12th grade classes, this number represents approximately half of the individual students I currently had enrolled. The prompt I asked students to respond to, once finishing their final was:
Evaluation: This is the end of your 2nd mester of English, you will not have any more English classes this year. Please write down what you think could be most improved about this class for future students. What do you think was least helpful in your development as a reader, writer, and critical thinker? What do you think was most interesting or most helpful? How can Mr. Garcia be a better teacher? Do you have anything else you would like to say? Please do not put your name on this evaluation.
I’ll also add that since many students were pressed for time, polishing off their final writing assignment, this too made the sample size what it currently is – something I will actively attempt to improve the next time around. I occasionally hear of other teachers wary of evaluations or visits from administrators or other visitors. My feelings on the matter are that my classroom has an open door for anyone willing to be a part of our class community. That being said, I hold myself most accountable to those I consider the true “boss” in the Ed. system: my students. I think if we’re really going to value their educational needs their voices and concerns should be listened to on a regular basis.
All of the samples can be found as a Word doc here. While I’m not attempting to offer any kind of rationale for the positive or negative statements some students made, I did want to reflect on some of the things I’ve learned from these evaluations. Yes some of these are positive and some are negative, but the point of this initial half of the post is to really offer up a transparent view of these evaluations. [Since this probably isn’t of interest to everyone, simply click after this section if you’d like to see these reflections.] Continue reading
This started as what was going to be an email to a colleague. However, I’m thinking that posing this as a discussion maybe a more fruitful dialogic exercise.
My situation is as follows: I have a class of upstanding and exceedingly bright individuals. These students regularly point the way toward large-scale change but hesitate at taking the small step (humongous dive?) toward action. In any case, I recently used the song “Police State” by Dead Prez as the beginning of a writing assignment. It’s a song I’ve used in the past and one that kids generally enjoy (though hip-hop is not at all the apriori musical preference of my students). However, after the experiences and reflections of the lockdown, of critical analysis of the election, and after a lengthy review of Critical Race Theory, I think something snapped … in a good way. The kids are way engaged and on-board the Critical Theory train. They regularly use the word “proletariat” (as it’s mentioned in the song) to describe the conditions of the campus. Students discuss if racism or classism is the bigger issue at hand. A student is writing an essay talking about how Obama is going to be a part of “the problem”.
So on the one hand, I’m thrilled – the kids are vocalizing their concerns from a clear, “Critical” (with a big “C”) stance. They’re bringing up their own topics for our daily discussions. They looked at this video, for instance, and were able to empathize and critique the key arguments made. One student is providing the class with additional resources, such as this video he’s asked to screen tomorrow.
And so my query for you is about this: It may seem odd, but I’m worried that my kids are a little too critical. They are heading toward being too one-sided in the dogma they endorse.
I plan to rectify this; I have had some teaching peers preaching the concepts of critical pedagogy but not quite executing them. Instead, I see their students as mindlessly unengaged in their thinking due to the totalism these “progressive” teachers impose. So, that being said, I have specific ideas on how to balance the theoretical base of my students. However (and although I will likely only hear from one or two of you), I’d like to open this post up as a collaborative space for discourse. Do you see a need to fix this situation? How would you approach it? What’s your take on the process of critical discourse in your classroom?
(As for the picture – here are some anthropologists of the future – specifically the year 2158 – doing fieldwork and observations at the ancient site of Manual Arts High School circa 2008. Taking notes, these anthropologists were asked to stay as quiet and reserved as possible as the natives do not like being disturbed.)
In regards to the assignment mentioned in this post, here’s one student work sample:
Me: Please make sure you’ve underlined the passage: “For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.”
Student: Mr. Garcia, this has nothing to do with the play, but what is up with that pregnant man?
Me: … Actually, that question has a lot to do with what we’re reading…
And so began a great in-class tangent about how the progeny of the pregnant man pose a serious threat to Macbeth, just like his foe Macduff. Also covered in the discussion: differences between sex and gender, the significance of the play’s second apparition appearing as a bloody child, and speculation about if the pregnant man has a “peter-deter*.”
*Student term, not mine.
We’ll see how this goes.
My Homeroom post about the lockdown as well as a few colleagues’ emails are also up. I realize the lockdown issue may sound like a broken record on this blog. However, serious debriefing, insane anecdotes (which will hopefully show up on the wiki), and furious teachers suggest that Friday’s incident will hopefully be something of a catalyst for change at our school.
I think the LA Times will have a story up in a day or two also.
Though it didn’t make any huge headlines the day after, I think that Friday’s lockdown will need some in-depth debriefing on Monday. At least for me, it is frustrating to see our school’s media attention focused on these events only. How many times did the news play images of our students being escorted in handcuffs or lying on the ground in handcuffs? What do the captions and the narration say about the hegemonic viewpoint reified for the many people tuned in Friday afternoon?
Where was the media when our community came together in the name of iDivision? Or when my students discovered the Black Cloud? Or our SLC’s other amazing teachers created events with the Human Rights Club, the Science Club, the Gay Straight Alliance, or any of the other many, many positive experiences for the students of South Los Angeles? What about the incredible artwork now completed in Doolittle Hall? Why weren’t these events “Breaking News?”
Though I’m fleshing out the details, I’m expecting all of my students to create their own “Breaking News” stories over the next few days. They will be filling in their own helicopter shots of the school with something positive to say about their community. We’ll use these as building blocks for a Socratic dialogue which will be conducted the Wednesday before our Thanksgiving break.
I don’t feel at liberty to really go much further than what I’ve written over at the Homeroom, re: being principal-less at the moment.
A while back, Octavio mentioned that there is a story about the changes that took place over the course of a year at Manual. I think that this is a story that will hopefully get written down by us in the future. At such a point, I think I can more objectively and rationally articulate my feelings and thoughts about the present situation. Until then, the above link will need to suffice.
C’mon people. I’m in South Los Angeles here. Our school’s Internet moves at just less than a creep. I can’t get a working ethernet cord, log on to social networking sites, youtube, etc. You’ve heard me whine about it before. Obviously most of my students aren’t accessing the Internet at home. Our isle of misfit computers at school is their only (semi-)reliable resource for developing media literacy skills. I don’t say this to bash the equipment at our school, but to criticize the disparity between my students’ opportunities to engage online and students in more affluent neighborhoods.
I continue to hear about amazing things happening in Second Life, about online study groups, and vodcasted lectures. But we’re still stuck in our first, perpetually offline life, like it’s still 1999 and Napster is alive and destroying our dial up connections.
At a recent school focus group meeting, several teachers discussed frustration with technology access on campus. The skills students need to succeed in college and beyond are expanding. Sooner or later someone is going to expect my students to be able to quickly and effortlessly post to a blog, add to a wiki, or collaborate via some sort of social networking protocol. And once again, my school will have failed to prepare them for such a task.
And About those Cameras
Somewhat related to this, I recently wrote about a video experiment I am conducting in my first period class. [If you’re too lazy to read the link, I’m having students in my first period class videotape the lesson everyday. Of course, I say it much more elegantly at the link, so just go over there ya putz!] What I’d like to add is that, by handing the cameras to the students, power and agency is shifted within the classroom. Suddenly, I’m not the one scoping out misbehavior; we are complicit in maintaining order within the classroom. As a result, the camera empowers instead of demeans – unlike the recently installed security cameras that students frequently bemoan.
On Friday, Professor Greg Niemeyer spoke with my students. Part of his talk described the differences between surveillance, co-veillance, and sousveillance. I have a feeling that this is something we will be revisiting on Monday.
Well, we’re an iDivision school. It’s official. I’ve already chimed in on this, as has my principal, as has our Network Partners.
There’s a riveting story just under the surface with regards to Manual’s journey into the iDivision fold. I don’t think most of us will be able to really recount these stories any time soon, but maybe one day – when my credential is long past being cleared – we can gather round the proverbial camp fire and reminisce.
In any case, the real work begins in the next few weeks. Our transition team will be established and another wave of teachers, students, parents, and community folk will rise to the occasion. I’m excited about the prospects.
So, to briefly recap before the real work begins, this is what I have as a result of getting into the iDivision (I’m omitting and forgetting a ton of stuff, but this was kind of fun to compile quickly):
3 iDivision t-shirts (two “One Manual” shirts, one in Spanish)
3 “Yes iDivision” buttons
1 “Vote Yes for Local Autonomy” button
3 Local Autonomy/iDivision stickers
1 “I Voted” sticker
2 heavily highlighted/margin-filled copies of “Excellence Loves Company”
2 reams of iDivision fliers and leaflets placed in my box (approximately)
97 emails that have the word “iDivision” in the subject
3 School Board committee meetings attended
5 different weekly meetings held specifically related to getting our school into iDivision
2 Network Partners
One Manual