Ten New Teaching Activities to Engage Students

Dear Rethinking Schools friends,

Several new developments for the Zinn Education Project, the online social justice teaching site that is a collaboration between Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change. First, we're delighted that we just passed 13,000 registrations. Over 13,000 educators are using resources at www.zinnedproject.org to "teach outside the textbook." This is very encouraging news as we enter the new school year, and as corporate-produced text materials more and more dominate the curriculum.

Not registered? It's free and gives you access to dozens of great teaching activities. www.zinnedproject.org.

And we've just added ten new articles that describe numerous ways to engage students in rethinking history and society. All of these originally appeared in Rethinking Schools magazine or other Rethinking Schools publications. We've re-edited the pieces for the Zinn Education Project site, and they've been attractively laid out.

The new articles are described at http://zinnedproject.org/posts/12353 and include:

-- Five Years After the Levees Broke: Bearing Witness Through Poetry
A teacher's reflection on the power of poetry to spark critical reflection on current issues of inequality surrounding disaster response in the United States.


-- Learning About the Unfairgrounds: A 4th-Grade Teacher Introduces Her Students to Executive Order 9066
Students hold a "tea party" and a mock trial to connect with a challenging novel.


-- Lewis Hine's Photographs
Students use photographs to spark creative writing and critical thinking about child labor issues and social justice.


-- Stenciling Dissent: A Student Project Draws on the Language of the Streets
Students connect protest art and history.


-- The Other Internment: Teaching the Hidden Story of Japanese Latin Americans During WW II
A unit combines poetry, photography, and role play to teach about the untold history of Japanese Latin American internment during WW II.


-- "Don't Take Our Voices Away": A Role Play on the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change
A role play on the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change asks students to develop a list of demands to present to the rest of the world.


-- The Coming of Pink Cheeks
A personal story of what happened to the Kikuyu people of Kenya when Europeans took control of their land.


-- Remembering Mahmoud Darwish
A teaching idea uses the famous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish's work to inspire students.


-- Unleashing Sorrow and Joy: Writing Poetry from History and Literature
How to effectively incorporate poetry into history or literature classes.


-- "If There Is No Struggle...": Teaching a People's History of the Abolition Movement
A role play puts students in the position of abolitionists confronting difficult choices about how to end slavery.

Check these out at http://zinnedproject.org/posts/12353.

Finally, if you will be in the Washington, DC area on September 21, join us for the dedication of the "Howard Zinn Room" at Busboys and Poets in Hyattsville, MD. It's a benefit for the Zinn Education Project. The illustrious guests include Bernice Johnson Reagon, Amy Goodman, Dave Zirin, Laura Flanders, Medea Benjamin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Craig and Cindy Corrie (Rachel Corrie's parents), and Howard Zinn's son, Jeff Zinn. Details at http://zinnedproject.org/posts/11738.

I hope to see you there.

As always, thanks for your support of Rethinking Schools.

Bill Bigelow
bill@rethinkingschools.org
Curriculum Editor
Rethinking Schools
www.rethinkingschools.org
Co-director
The Zinn Education Project
www.zinnedproject.org

Chicago Public School Students: 'When Will We Ever Be Good Enough?'

'When Will We Ever Be Good Enough?' Chicago Students Ask  Huffington Post

"You want a real school turnaround? Invest in us!"
That's the heartwarming (and heartbreaking) message from Chicago Public Schools students who have been speaking out forcefully in the last few days, calling on public officials to stop looking down on them and start working for all students, not just some.

 Last week, a YouTube video produced by a group of students from Sullivan High School on Chicago's North Side took on mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel's debate comment that "If you take out Northside, if you take out Walter Payton (both test-in schools), the seven best performing high schools are all charters."

The students thought that didn't sound right, so they did some research and found out that, in fact, NONE of the top performing high schools in Chicago were charter schools.
According to Don Moore, head of local education advocacy group Designs for Change, as reported by NewsTips:

Not only are no charters among Chicago's top-ranked high schools; not one charter is among the twelve Chicago high schools with 50 percent or more of students meeting standards. Unlike charters, eleven of the top performing schools are governed by Local School Councils, which select their principals for four-year performance contracts. (The twelfth, Rickover Military Academy, has an advisory LSC.) Also unlike charters, all twelve are staffed by unionized teachers.

Newstips adds:

Beyond that is a concern that school policy will be based on prejudices rather than facts. Emanuel's misstatement "shows that the people that people think know everything aren't really looking into the problems they say they want to fix," said Christina Henriquez.

Christina, that problem goes all the way up to the federal level, where the Blueprint for Education Reform has been found to be based on very little real evidence, too.

South Shore student's letter
Catalyst magazine printed a letter from a student at South Shore, Makyla Bell, asking why the current students were not going to be allowed to move into the brand spanking new high school building, which now sits mostly unused across the street from the current old high school facility.

I have been impacted greatly by the board's decision to not allow us into the "new" South Shore school. I'm not going to act like we don't know why. It is said to us every day that we aren't allowed to go to the new school because we aren't good enough, or we don't deserve it....It just adds more to the overwhelming pile of nay-sayers saying we aren't good enough. When will we ever be good enough? When will we ever deserve anything? When will anyone ever help us? Maybe they'll decide when it's too late, or maybe when our future has already been mapped out for us to fail. With everything going on in our environment, we still come to school every day and are prepared for our short and very dim, expected-to-be unsuccessful journeys. And once again, still we stand, mentally tarnished and physically worn out.

Earlier this week, the local CBS affiliate did a news story about the handful of students who are having to walk over to the new building for one class per day just to allow the district to meet local occupancy rules (more here). The cruelty of this plan was only compounded by the fact that the sidewalks had not been shoveled, so students had to walk out in the street.

I dare anyone to look into the eyes of the Sullivan students in their video, or to read Makyla's letter, and not feel deeply ashamed about what we are doing to some of our most promising young people. This has got to stop.

Robin Reynolds Barre: An Open Letter to New Teachers and Those Wishing to Become Teachers

One of the many letters I received more than a year ago addressed to President Obama was from a teacher in Washington state named Robin Reynolds Barre. Today, she offers us these thoughts.

Robin Reynolds Barre

I write to you as an elder of sorts in the profession. I have been in the field for over 15 years now, a baby by some standards. But for those of you just beginning, I feel this is enough time under my belt, enough time spent in the trenches that I can share some words of wisdom. I am aware that many of you are preparing to teach in a public education system that has, for the last 10 years, been heavily influenced by the policies of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Thus many of you are products of this influence. This is an important fact and one that warrants an awareness of that perspective. I believe that as new teachers you have a responsibility to educate yourself on what system you came out of, how it has informed your beliefs and assumptions, and to begin critically assessing the influences of NCLB. A responsibility. To step willy-nilly into the classroom where you will be responsible for the educational welfare of dozens of students, without a critical eye to your own history as a student is irresponsible at best.

I believe, too, that as new teachers you have a responsibility to articulate why you want to teach; what is it you are hoping to achieve, what are the goals you have in mind for your students.
And then critically question those as well. Where do these desires, hopes, and dreams for students come from? What voices whisper behind the curtain urging you on? Are they from your own experiences as a student? Do these voices come from the policy makers? The media? College boards? The parents of the children you teach? And from where and whom do these entities gather their beliefs and assumptions?

While I have my own ideas about education, the purposes of, where we've come from, where we're going, the damage to our children and public education perpetrated by the NCLB Act, and the damage that's waiting around the corner as the Obama administration and Arne Duncan's education cabinet tout their Race to the Top reform policies, I will not try to convince you of these opinions. I simply want to say that you have a responsibility to step into the profession of education with your eyes as wide open as possible. You must research, read as many opinions and reports as you can regarding the ongoing educational reform debates, talk with or listen to teachers who've been in the field for more than 5 years and from as many educational settings as possible - charter schools, private schools, inner city public schools, early childhood education all the way up to higher education. And talk with the children, the direct consumers of this institution we call public education.

To walk blindly into a classroom without arming yourself with the knowledge of the political, philosophical, pedagogical, and ideological conversations being held regarding public education is to walk into a landmine where the victims include yourself, your communities, and most heartbreaking of all, your students. In 1997 I did this very thing. It has taken many years of educating myself to come to the realization that I was woefully unprepared for the world I was walking into. My teacher education program was adequate, focused on serving inner city populations and the underserved, for which I was grateful. However, it wasn't until years later that I could look back and appreciate how naïve I was, how that naivete did not allow me to serve my students effectively. Hindsight taught me that much was left out of the teacher ed curriculum that should have been included.

I offer here names, issues, titles, and links that you are obligated to look at. Yes, I am presumptuous enough to say "obligated." I'll use my own story as an example. Let's imagine that you go to school for 12-24 months preparing to step into a rural middle school classroom. You have been taught curriculum development, laws and ethics, positive discipline, instructional methods, assessment, child and adolescent development, and a healthy dose of student teaching in real life settings. Then you step into your own classroom for the very first time and wham! It hits you. This is real life - children living in poverty with no dictionaries, scissors, glue, computers, or newspapers in the home. Children who are being abused and neglected. Children who come to school with no breakfast and go home to no dinner. Children with ADHD, oppositional children, shy and withdrawn children. You make your first child protective services report and think your heart will break. Several years later, you get the news that one of your former students has committed suicide. And the list goes on.

They don't teach you in teacher education programs what to do under these circumstances. What is the job of the teacher when a student commits suicide? When a child comes to you with tomato juice in her hair because she is homeless, lives in the woods, and her tent was sprayed by a skunk? When your student doesn't come to school for several days and then when she does, she tells you she was raped? What is your job? These are my stories. I am sure if you ask any teacher in education today, any teacher worth their weight, any teacher paying attention, they can tell you other such stories. What is your responsibility under these circumstances?

The website for the college where I received my teacher certification states that "Teachers have an immediate, direct, and positive impact on the common good . . . Discover how education can be a powerful vehicle for social change." That is what I went into teaching for. I would imagine that most of you also have this dream. Or perhaps you want your students to become lifelong learners, critical thinkers, creative contributing members to their communities. If any of the above are true, you must educate yourself regarding the issues schools are facing today before you begin educating your students.

Below are many links for you to begin this research. While I have included a few that stand on the other side of the issue from where I stand, the list is fairly biased, I admit. But it's a start. You can watch Waiting for Superman or The Lottery, read any of Michelle Rhee's articles and those of her supporters, or look to the current educational trends in Arizona and Texas to get a picture of the side on which I do not stand. But from my experience, these views are a dime a dozen. They're everywhere. It's the information that mainstream media does not spout, the information that gets swept under the corporations' big money rugs that I offer you here.

It is your responsibility to the democratic right to a public education, to our communities, and most of all to our children to educate yourself and research these issues. Otherwise, what are you doing in the classroom?

No Child Left Behind Act and Race to the Top

* original NCLB act
* The Obama administrations' revision of NCLB
* information regarding Race to the Top
* criticism regarding Race to the Top (RTTT)
* article which compares NCLB and RTTT

Diane Ravitch

Diane Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education. In addition, she is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. From 1991 to 1993, she was Assistant Secretary of Education and Counselor to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. From 1997 to 2004, she was a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal testing program.
* In this article she responds to PISA
* letter to Florida lawmakers as they geared up to vote in 2010 on merit pay for teachers based on testing scores of their students
* criticism against Ravitch's views, though I was confused as the blogger first accuses Ravitch of neoliberalism and then a few paragraphs down accuses her of neoconservatism.

Michelle Rhee

* Students First page about her
* from a Teach for America alumn (one of the programs that Rhee supports for reforming education)
* criticism against Rhee's position as DC chancellor of schools

Waiting for Superman and Race to Nowhere

* map showing connections between big money and education reform
* critique of Waiting for Superman
* regarding the involvement of private investors in education
* more about the involvement of big business
* Race to Nowhere - interview with Abeles

Today's Education Reform Movement and Teachers

* link to my FB note "Response to education article in Newsweek"
* link to article by a teacher ed professor addressing school leaders and policy makers regarding new teachers
* "When Did Teachers Become Bums?"
* "We're living in the darkest times for teachers that I've ever seen in my life."
* Marion Brady on teacher accountability

Repercussions of the Education Reform Movement and our Children

* link to my FB note "The Travesty We Call Public Education"
* repercussions of today's public education system's "movements"
* what this is doing to our children
* a short video about and by students
* on creativity
* the story behind Chinese students' outstanding test scores

  

Sir Ken Robinson

follow this link and there are other videos by this engaging speaker

Henry Giroux

Giroux currently holds the Global TV Network Chair Professorship at McMaster University in the English and Cultural Studies Department. He has taught at Boston University, Miami University of Ohio, and Penn State University. Routledge named Giroux as one of the top fifty educational thinkers of the modern period in 2002.
* Henry Giroux writes about Freire and the education plutocracy
 

Paulo Freire

I have no links, though be sure to check out Wikipedia's information on this towering figure in education. Books that are on the shelves of the responsible teacher are:

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed
• Pedagogy of the Heart
• Pedagogy of Hope
• We Make the Road By Walking
• Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare to Teach

Other texts for the responsible teacher

The Moral Dimensions of Teaching, editors Goodlad, Soder, Sirotnik
The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools by Berliner and Biddle - a response to A Nation at Risk, a document prepared by a committee under the direction of Reagan's secretary of education

What do you think of Robin Reynolds Barre's advice? Her list of articles and books? Is there anything you would add?

Rethinking Schools

Check it all out at www.rethinkingschools.org

The winter issue of Rethinking Schools, now online at www.rethinkingschools.org, is packed with articles to fuel the grassroots movement to defend and transform our public schools. Here's a sampling:

One of the scariest attacks on teachers this year links our salaries and job security to student test scores. It sounds so reasonable to people who don't know anything about it. Need ammunition for a school board meeting or the PTA? In "Neither Fair Nor Accurate: Research-Based Reasons Why High-Stakes Tests Should Not Be Used to Evaluate Teachers" Wayne Au offers six clear explanations why "value-added measurements" don't make sense for teacher assessment.
Fight back with great teaching: In Bill Bigelow's "If There Is No Struggle . . ." Teaching a People's History of the Abolition Movement, a role play lets students "become" members of the American Anti-Slavery Society and grapple with the strategic dilemmas of this pivotal U.S. social movement.

As the tragic suicides of lesbian, gay, and transgender youth mount, it is clear we need schools that are safe for students and teachers to be who they are. In "'My Teacher Is a Lesbian': Coming Out at School," Jody Sokolower details her own experiences coming out as a middle and high school teacher and explores questions like: Why, when, and how does it make sense to come out as a teacher? How can you protect yourself? What can straight teachers do as allies?
Our editorial takes on the impact of the escalating anti-immigrant climate, and calls for "Every School a Sanctuary."

This issue of Rethinking Schools also includes two significant investigative reports on Waiting for "Superman": "Superhero School Reform Heading Your Way: Now Playing in Newark, N.J.," by Stan Karp, and Barbara Miner's "The Ultimate $uperpower: Supersized Dollars Drive Waiting for 'Superman' Agenda."
and much, much more. . . .