Education is the Miracle…

I absolutely LOVED Taylor Mali tonight! Besides the fact that he had me laughing for almost the entire time, he was also inspiring beyond belief. One of the things he said was that we often “question authority,” but we need to ”speak with it.” He had a valid point when he explained how many people are afraid to actively stand up for thier opinions and views. I know that I am often guilty of this. I need to work on speaking with more authority and confidence so that my students will believe in me and themselves. Mali spoke with such assurance. He was amazing at dramatic reading.

Taylor Mali deserved his loud applause when he said, “Education is the miracle. I am just the worker.” You can find that poem, and others here: http://www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=56 If you weren’t able to go tonight, PLEASE lookat this. This poem alone could inspire someone to become a teacher. I am even thinking about printing it out and hanging it in my room as a reminder of why I want to teach.  His last poem about the Impotence of Proofreading was so creative and utterly hilarious. That was the most inspiring event that I have attended this year, maybe ever. I am defINITEly a fan! Are you?

Stacia

The Master Mind of David Hirsch

Last night, I attended the lecture on high stakes testing and the decline of teaching.  The only word that can define this lecture was surprising.  The information and statistics thats Mr. Hirsch presented were overwhelming.  For example, he told us that New York State has the fifth lowest graduation rate in the country.  The dropout rate has also increased by 17 percent between 1998-2000.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I always thought that New York was one of the better states  concerning education in the country.  However, based on this information, I am wrong. 

Another thing that Mr. Hirsch spoke about was Regents exam).  When he said this, everyone let out a groan because we have all been through them.  An interestign fact was that the exams that students MUST take (like the math tests) are made easier in order to increase the passing rate.  This angered me because students are being cheated of an education.  I am not asking for regents to be hard, but I think it should be reasonable.  Mr. Hirsch also brought up an English regents, which I believe we can all relate to.  He said that the Regents board took out certain things in the text that were used in the test concerning religion, sex, race, and drugs.  This made me confused.  Haven’t we been striving to relate more of the students’ lives in the English curriculum? By doing this, students are being cheated. 

 Overall, this was a great presentation.  I am looking forward to buying his new book when it comes out.

 Alexis

 Have a great holiday!

Payne is a Pain in the you know what

          I wanted to start out by saying that I really enjoyed the presentation. What a shame that teachers take what Ruby Payne preaches and think her information is valid in some way. Most presentations usually have good things to say about researchers. I really liked how this one was unconventional and took a stand to say, “hey, this woman is wrong. Just because she has some published piece does NOT mean she is necessarily right!”

          The whole concept of taking kids in poverty and pushing them into a middle-class lifestyle is absurd. If we are really supposed to take kids out of their lifestyle and automatically and drastically change them, then that inevitably destroys who they are in and what they came from (their roots). What a demeaning process, and I am amazed that this woman, Ruby Payne, thinks she is right (and any “educator” who may think so as well).