2 years ago
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Every week in the classroom has some moments when students say or do crazy or hilarious things, there have been some good ones over the last couple of weeks…
1) Two girls stayed after class and timidly walked up to my desk. When I asked what I could do for them, they both looked at each other then one whispered to the other “you ask him”, the other replied “I don’t want to, you are the one who has it” finally they looked up at me and one of them asks “Mr. Wilson, do you know how to get rid of a hicky?” I told her to put some ice on it and eventually it would go away.
2) A tall girl who is notorious for skipping class and behaving poorly walked confidently into the back of my room a few days ago. I asked her who sent her, and she replied calmly “Mr. Wilson did” My class giggled, and for some reason, instead of putting her out of her misery, telling her I knew she was lying, and sending her back to her own class I asked, “Why did he send you?” She paused and replied “so that I could do my work” I responded “Mr. Wilson sent you so that you could do your work… I am Mr. Wilson, you may go back to your class now” She squawked and ran out of class.
3) One of my quietest students who aspires to be a veterinarian showed up Friday in the back seat where he usually sits with those latex looking gloves that dentists and doctors wear. He wore them throughout the day during class, at the end of each class he would take them off and place them in his backpack. During the last class of the day two fingers of one of the gloves ripped off. The student, who almost never talks in class, put his partially gloved hand in the air and said out loud “Oh no, now I can’t operate on my test. Oh, well, you will see in a few years this will be the fashion, everyone’s gloves will be missing two fingers!” I started laughing so hard I could hardly contain myself. He aced the test despite feeling incapable of operating on it.
4) One of my students has recently made significant improvements on his performance in math class. I told him a few days ago that I am proud of him. Now, every time that I circulate throughout the class to check students work which probably amounts to 4-5 times per class period this student earnestly asks “Are you proud of me?”
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Modeling
I haven’t kept up either of my blogs for some months now. That doesn’t mean that I have stopped thinking, or stopped having interesting experiences, on the contrary… it just means that working full time and going to school full time have taken precedence over blogging. I want to air some of my observations from the trenches of America’s public school system in underprivileged areas. Most of these thoughts have been brought on by a question that Teach for America asked its corps members on our mid-year survey. One of the questions read “Is educational inequity the most pressing issue facing our country?” I paused to reflect on all the factors that contribute to educational inequity, and then to the factors that feed those factors. Trying to place them into a hierarchy of most pressing is somewhere between difficult and impossible. When I started TFA I (correctly) assumed that some of the fault for educational inequity and other societal problems lay with the actual school system. While there are lots of broken pieces in our school system, and there is fault and blame to go around, I want to call attention to some principals that I find lacking in America’s underbelly. Principals that I think have been fundamental to America’s success and could be fundamental to her fall… today I will start with modeling as a teaching technique, and keep a look out for more on the way.
Modeling
While I have considered a career in modeling, that is not the topic of this post. Rather modeling is something we talk about all the time in teaching. Modeling how to do a task, operation, or procedure is simply good didactic practice. Modeling is how much of our learning occurs both in school and at home.
I have had some funny run ins with parents who perhaps don’t see that the modeling that the student sees at home is being acted out with detrimental effects in school. For example, we recently called in a parent to discuss her child’s insatiable appetite for hitting his peers every time anything slightly annoying happens to him. As soon as we told the parent about this issue, she turned to her son and walloped him upside the head and said “Don’t hit” she seemed to think that she had resolved the issue. I had to turn away and cover my face so that the parent wouldn’t see me laughing at her… all that she had taught her child in that instance was that when frustrated, the natural response is to hit.
The modeling that my male kids see out of males is usually even worse than what I’ve described above. Only a small percentage of my students have male role models in the home, and some have no males in their lives whatsoever. So where do they see male behavior modeled? TV, movies, music, sports and me. This translates into a myriad of problematic beliefs and behaviors including machoism, objectifying women, defiance towards authority, pride, etc
Sports figures have a chance to redeem the males that my students see on TV. Of course the fact is that TV shows A-Rod doing steroids, J-Rich doing 90 in a 35 zone, and Pacman Jones starting gun fights in strip clubs… great male models. This week was another example: A friend invited me to a Sharks NHL game, I was thrilled to go, not only for the good company but also because my kids love the Sharks and watch their games often. I am not much of a hockey fan, and haven’t been to a game in quite some time. I was disappointed to see the stupid kind of macho flare-up fights that occurred at least every five minutes in a hockey game. The fighting is completely purposeless, and detracts from an otherwise beautiful game. Just as bad as the actual skirmishes is the crowd’s reaction. They seemed to cheer louder for each one of the tiny flare-ups than for goals scored. I felt like inviting the man next to me to my middle school so he could cheer on the brawls there too.
Is that really what we want to encourage? Many of my students who don’t have male role models at home take notice of whatever other models they see. It is no wonder they get up in each other’s faces every time anyone says anything that could be construed as offensive -- they see it on TV, they see it in the arena and they hear thousands of adults cheering for it.
While I hope that I am a good model of how a man ought to interact with his world, I fear that what they see in me diametrically opposes 12-15 years of their own observational experience. Those years of observing bad models aren’t easily undone.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Food
I regret to say that my life is such that I don’t have nearly as much time as I used to cook everyday. As a result I have eaten out much more than I have ever before, and this more regular restaurant attendance has led me to reflect on the best dished and restaurants that I have had over the last say 6 months.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Yenta, Hitch, and Today
Occasionally we all observe some event that seems to epitomize some aspect of the Human experience. This week, the middle school play ground was the backdrop for one such observation. The protagonists were Victor and Jasmine, two popular eighth graders. Victor had been sad in class all day because Jasmine broke up with him. One of his friends had told him so. In the staff room, one of the other teachers told me that Jasmine had been sad all morning because one of her friends had told one of Victor’s friends that Jasmine was breaking up with him, but she hadn’t wanted to break up, but now she didn’t know what to do because Victor had already heard. Soon after the bell rang for recess, two circles formed on the blacktop: one around Victor and one around Jasmine. Victor and Jasmine never spoke to each other, and attempted to hide from each others darting glances. Occasionally one of the groups would send a student or two to parlay with the other side.
I don’t know what ended up happening, but I had to chuckle at the way Victor and Jasmine allowed their relationship to be brokered and influenced by their friends. In fact, their relationship became a public discussion and negotiation, in which everyone and anyone was an accepted counselor and negotiator, everyone, that is, except Victor and Jasmine.
While this example of a brokered relationship is perhaps an extreme, we aren’t so far removed from the days of a paid Yenta or Hitch nor from playground negotiating circles as we might care to believe. I spoke at some length about the merits of brokered relationships with a friend who vehemently defended the practice as both valid and nearly necessary… her arguments weren’t groundless either as she has had brokered lifelong relationships for several siblings and friends. I can’t help but wonder why in this most important matter of personal relationships we hand the reins, at least partially, to others thereby allowing them to make, or to help make our decisions?
Why do we ask others to do the finding out for us – by that I mean we ask “do you think that she likes me?” “Do you think that he was just being nice to me, or was he flirting?” etc, etc, etc. Answer: because we feel unsure, insecure, afraid, and awkward to actually find out from the horse’s mouth. I even think that some people enjoy the actual discussion and the late night scheming with roommates, and friends more than they actually want to know the answer to these questions.
Even worse is the public evaluation. Why ought we to allow a large group to have their voice heard on whether or not I should be with so and so. The public isn’t choosing whether or not to be with so and so, I am; as such, the responsibility for that decision falls on me and not on tangentially involved third parties.
I don’t honestly think that my rant will change anything, but I wonder what a world would be like in which our insecurity and awkwardness didn’t prevent us from being transparent. Sinclair Lewis’ Babbit is a marvelous exposition of the risks we run as a society when we lack transparency… perhaps I should read it with my middle schoolers, and perhaps as a society we would benefit from his 90 year old advise!
I don’t know what ended up happening, but I had to chuckle at the way Victor and Jasmine allowed their relationship to be brokered and influenced by their friends. In fact, their relationship became a public discussion and negotiation, in which everyone and anyone was an accepted counselor and negotiator, everyone, that is, except Victor and Jasmine.
While this example of a brokered relationship is perhaps an extreme, we aren’t so far removed from the days of a paid Yenta or Hitch nor from playground negotiating circles as we might care to believe. I spoke at some length about the merits of brokered relationships with a friend who vehemently defended the practice as both valid and nearly necessary… her arguments weren’t groundless either as she has had brokered lifelong relationships for several siblings and friends. I can’t help but wonder why in this most important matter of personal relationships we hand the reins, at least partially, to others thereby allowing them to make, or to help make our decisions?
Why do we ask others to do the finding out for us – by that I mean we ask “do you think that she likes me?” “Do you think that he was just being nice to me, or was he flirting?” etc, etc, etc. Answer: because we feel unsure, insecure, afraid, and awkward to actually find out from the horse’s mouth. I even think that some people enjoy the actual discussion and the late night scheming with roommates, and friends more than they actually want to know the answer to these questions.
Even worse is the public evaluation. Why ought we to allow a large group to have their voice heard on whether or not I should be with so and so. The public isn’t choosing whether or not to be with so and so, I am; as such, the responsibility for that decision falls on me and not on tangentially involved third parties.
I don’t honestly think that my rant will change anything, but I wonder what a world would be like in which our insecurity and awkwardness didn’t prevent us from being transparent. Sinclair Lewis’ Babbit is a marvelous exposition of the risks we run as a society when we lack transparency… perhaps I should read it with my middle schoolers, and perhaps as a society we would benefit from his 90 year old advise!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Social ills, Starfish, Systemic change
Working for a non-profit social-ills conscious organization has given me cause to wonder and talk about how one really ought to go about addressing social problems, and how I or anyone else can really help or make a meaningful impact on the world.
In the past I have felt as though there were basically two different approaches to trying to make a positive difference in the world: a one individual at a time grass roots approach that preaches first bettering yourself, then reaching out to your family, then those closest to you, then your community, etc. This approach puts us in the trenches of real lives and issues with the full complexity of individual situations and people. The parable of the starfish illustrates this method of making a difference: an onlooker pointed out to an unnamed good doer that his work of throwing beached starfish back into the ocean was completely futile because he could never hope to save any significant number of them, not to mention all of the thousands of starfish on the beach. The un-phased good doer held up a starfish and said “yes, I know, but to this one it matters”
An alternative approach to making an impact involves a perhaps more traditional top down leadership model in which an individual seeks positions of influence to inform, involve, and engage their fellow men and women. This model seeks to change the societal structure by altering policy and regulations. In our starfish example, this top down good does would spend his or her time recruiting and organizing labor crews of people to go to the beach to throw star fish back into the water. This model seems to dictate that the individual sets out to change the world, or at least to take an issue head on.
I have often wondered about the merits of these two models. Until recently I foolishly viewed them as mutually exclusive. I was surprised in one of my first Teach for America trainings that TFA believes that in order to have an impact, both models must be used… the individual in the trenches cannot see broadly enough or influence enough potential collaborators to root out entire social problems, nor can the academic or politician in an ivory tower understand issues sufficiently to grasp their full complexity without spending time in the trenches combating whatever the issue might be. At TFA the social ill we are fighting against is educational inequity, and we propose a two phased battle… first the one fought by individual teachers in classrooms, then leading to phase two that plays out in school board meetings, state and national political chambers, other wide reaching institutional avenues.
Thus to truly “make a difference” or play a role in solving most issues I feel that it is important to be involved individually at a ground level, and then just as important is the drive to influence others to collaborate and effect broad systemic change. Further lingering questions that may earn a post of their own are: In a world full of problems that range from genocide to teen pregnancy, and from illiteracy to racial, sexual, or religious discrimination what issues ought I as an individual to focus on? Is it right to focus on one or a few pet issues? How does one really find the root cause of social problems and avoid merely treating the symptoms or the consequences?
In the past I have felt as though there were basically two different approaches to trying to make a positive difference in the world: a one individual at a time grass roots approach that preaches first bettering yourself, then reaching out to your family, then those closest to you, then your community, etc. This approach puts us in the trenches of real lives and issues with the full complexity of individual situations and people. The parable of the starfish illustrates this method of making a difference: an onlooker pointed out to an unnamed good doer that his work of throwing beached starfish back into the ocean was completely futile because he could never hope to save any significant number of them, not to mention all of the thousands of starfish on the beach. The un-phased good doer held up a starfish and said “yes, I know, but to this one it matters”
An alternative approach to making an impact involves a perhaps more traditional top down leadership model in which an individual seeks positions of influence to inform, involve, and engage their fellow men and women. This model seeks to change the societal structure by altering policy and regulations. In our starfish example, this top down good does would spend his or her time recruiting and organizing labor crews of people to go to the beach to throw star fish back into the water. This model seems to dictate that the individual sets out to change the world, or at least to take an issue head on.
I have often wondered about the merits of these two models. Until recently I foolishly viewed them as mutually exclusive. I was surprised in one of my first Teach for America trainings that TFA believes that in order to have an impact, both models must be used… the individual in the trenches cannot see broadly enough or influence enough potential collaborators to root out entire social problems, nor can the academic or politician in an ivory tower understand issues sufficiently to grasp their full complexity without spending time in the trenches combating whatever the issue might be. At TFA the social ill we are fighting against is educational inequity, and we propose a two phased battle… first the one fought by individual teachers in classrooms, then leading to phase two that plays out in school board meetings, state and national political chambers, other wide reaching institutional avenues.
Thus to truly “make a difference” or play a role in solving most issues I feel that it is important to be involved individually at a ground level, and then just as important is the drive to influence others to collaborate and effect broad systemic change. Further lingering questions that may earn a post of their own are: In a world full of problems that range from genocide to teen pregnancy, and from illiteracy to racial, sexual, or religious discrimination what issues ought I as an individual to focus on? Is it right to focus on one or a few pet issues? How does one really find the root cause of social problems and avoid merely treating the symptoms or the consequences?
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Judge a Hotel by its Pillows
I have slept in quite a few hotels and hostels this last year… 16 to be precise. I have decided that while you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can judge a hotel by its pillow(s). At the low end, I stayed in a hostel in Rome that crammed ten beds into a space smaller than my parent’s master bath. The mattresses were about four inches thick, and the blankets and tiny pillow looked frighteningly likely to contain lice. I feel somewhat guilty for calling that small wad of cloth a pillow. It wasn’t much more than 18 ‘’ long or a foot wide, I put my sweatshirt underneath it to make it a little more substantial.
I am currently writing from the Crown Plaza in Foster City, CA. If pillows really are a proxy for hotel quality, this place would rival that seven star hotel in Dubai. There are no less than 11 pillows on my bed. No it isn’t a king size, and yes the pillows do take up half of the bed space. To be able to get in bed, I have to throw half of them on the floor, which is a shame because each one is uniquely fluffy. The beds themselves here have no peers. The mattress & box spring combo looks to be about three and a half feet thick, and may be the most comfortable bed that I have ever slept in.
If I ever open a hotel, which I won’t, I will be sure to find out where Crown Plaza gets theirs!
I am currently writing from the Crown Plaza in Foster City, CA. If pillows really are a proxy for hotel quality, this place would rival that seven star hotel in Dubai. There are no less than 11 pillows on my bed. No it isn’t a king size, and yes the pillows do take up half of the bed space. To be able to get in bed, I have to throw half of them on the floor, which is a shame because each one is uniquely fluffy. The beds themselves here have no peers. The mattress & box spring combo looks to be about three and a half feet thick, and may be the most comfortable bed that I have ever slept in.
If I ever open a hotel, which I won’t, I will be sure to find out where Crown Plaza gets theirs!
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