Liz's Blog

Disparities in Children

2009-11-29T07:54:00.000-08:00

   Besides money, how are our students different? Just like no two finger prints are alike, no two children are alike. They differ in a variety of ways. Our students differ in their access to quality health care, their access to technology, their access to quality food, and the role models in their lives. These are but a few disparities our children face. Health care is a major focus right now in our country, but I am not going to get into the political aspects of our health care system. I work with students that have medical issues such as ADHD, ODD, and Bipolar Disorder but are not receiving their medication because the parent cannot afford it or they parent has been denied medical insurance. I also deal with students who have the characteristics of one of these disorders but the parent cannot see a doctor because they don't have medical insurance. These conditions being left unmedicated and undiagnosed are having an impact on student academic and social success in school. It breaks my heart to see students with rotting teeth in their mouths. Studies have found that your health begins with your mouth. Improper oral care can lead to other health problems including heart disease. I ask students with poor oral care when they are going to the dentist and the general response I get is, "My mom doesn't have any money."
   Student access to technology differs greatly. Many students have access to technology in the form of cable/satellite television, game consoles, and cell phones, but they don't have access to quality technology instruction. Even in schools, students differ in their use of technology. Some students are still using computers to learn how to type instead of learning how to create interactive presentations. There are major disparities in the quality of computers that students have access to on a daily basis. The newer the school in a district, the more likelihood students will have access to quality computer systems. The lower income areas which tend to have the older schools, therefore older technology, cannot be neglected. The students especially in these schools need access to quality technology instruction.
   Our students also differ in their access to quality food. It is more expensive to eat healthy than it is to eat processed foods with low nutritional value. How do we change this as leaders in education? I'm not quite sure other than to educate our parents and students more about what they are eating. Classes can be given at the school on nutrition should be available to parents. Why not utilize local resources such as fitness centers and community park services to come in and talk with students about the importance of proper nutrition and exercise. We need to reexamine what we are feeding our students. If I eat the school lunch I am ready to crash from the amount of carbohydrates in the food. Are processed chicken rings and beef fingers the best we can serve our students?
   The final area that I want to address is the disparity our students face when it comes to their role models. Our students are influenced by a number of forces to include family, church, school, media, and peers. As educators we can only control our influence on students when they are in our care. Are we doing our best to model for students how we want them to conduct themselves as adults? I can clearly remember a lesson I learned when I student taught eleven years ago. I was in a fourth grade class therefore, the chairs weren't very tall and with me being long legged I just stepped over the chair and sat down. I didn't think it was a big deal but my cooperating teacher corrected my improper seating technique. She told me that our students watch everything we do and we are their model for how they should conduct themselves. I learned a great deal from that simple lesson and it has served me well over the years. When I see a teacher yelling at a student and getting into his/her personal space, I ask them, "Is that how you are going to expect this student to handle conflict resolution with other children and when they are an adult?" I have found that students want the same thing we want, respect. Like the old adage goes, It takes respect to get it. Check out this video about respect.

Respect Video

Diversity in Education

2009-11-29T06:37:00.001-08:00

Diversity is such a broad term in education. There are multiple forms of diversity that present challenges to leaders in education. Diversity can come in the form of cultural, racial, socioeconomic, and technological, just to name a few. The connectedness of the world due to globalization is forcing the United States to address these various forms of diversity to ensure that we are helping the leaders of tomorrow to be prepared for the future. The Department of Education recognizes this need. This quote is from the Department of Education website: "Relatively few minority students choose to engage in academic programs that provide the requisite training for careers in international service. Yet in order for the U.S. to more effectively serve as a leader in today's world, it is important that this diversity is represented in government and the foreign service, as well as in the education, business and non-profit sectors. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is seeking to increase minority representation in internationally-focused careers and classrooms." As leaders in education, it is crucial that we recognize the forces impacting our world, which should guide how we improve our education system. How can we help our students to be prepared for a globalized future? We have to recognize that our world is changing and realize that we should be leaders in the globalization process. Our students should become aware of our global society at an early age. They should be learning about other countries, explore the possibilities of technology, and engage in service projects that bring awareness to global issues. We should be teaching our young children a foreign language from the time they walk through the doors of our schools. We have the ability to determine the leading languages which will benefit our youth in the future. Other countries recognize this need and teach their young students English. Our secondary students need intense career training. They need to know what types of jobs will be in demand in the future and what is takes to do these jobs. Taking a personality test on the computer and choosing from a list of careers that match their personality is not going to cut it. The health of our country is dependent on recognizing the many diverse issues facing our education system and helping our youth survive in a world very different from the past.

Leading with Faith

2009-11-22T15:41:00.000-08:00

Leading in an ever changing world requires a great deal of courage and responsibility. I do my best each day to serve those I work with and educate through the philosophy of servant leadership. I see an even greater need for positive role models for our students. The accessibility to information and the numerous influences on their developing ethical base is very concerning to me. When I was an adolescent, my mother who is a devout Catholic, often told me, "there will be people out there who will try to influence you and change who you are as a person. You have to be strong and stick to your faith." I realize more and more as educators we are in a war against negative influence which bombards our students on a daily basis through media, music, and the Internet. We have to be ever diligent in helping students become ethical thinkers and strong enough to stand up for what is right. My job requires that I speak to students on a daily basis about what is right and wrong. We can't get tired of talking to our students. My daughter attends private Catholic school where they attend mass weekly and have religious education daily. Is it a guarantee that negative influences will be stopped, no, but she is developing a strong moral base. As educators in public school we cannot take our students to prayer service or teacher religious education but we can teach ethical thinking, servitude, and citizenship. They need our guidance and we need them to develop into strong citizens who will someday lead this country. I pray for our students and hope that God will guide them to a life filled with blessings.

Thinking Globally

2009-11-15T20:04:00.000-08:00

The need for citizenship training in schools focused on the diversity of our world is greater than ever. Unfotunately most schools ignore the need for teaching their students about globalization. Link on to the article to read more about the need for global ciitizenship training in schools. I have also included a link to the IB-PYP site which explains the mission of the International Baccolarate Program. I miss the days when I worked at such a school and learned with the students about global issues. My students developed attitudes of collective responsibiliby, a love for the Earth, and an understanding that we are all interconnected in some way.

Global Citizenship
IB - Mission

The Disciplined Mind

2009-11-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about the paper I need to write for class in which I have to discuss what I believe are the most important leadership imperatives for today's leaders. With a daughter in high school, soon to be out on her own in the big world, I constantly think about what she is learning in school. She comes home from school with straight A's in precalculus and other advance placement courses, but the child couldn't figure out how to turn on the shower faucet this weekend when we spent the night in a hotel. I'm afraid she isn't being taught how to think and problem solve. The more I read Five Minds for the Future and chapter 2 in particular, The Disciplined Mind, I can see we are doing our students a disservice. The following statements from Howard Gardner reaffirmed that something has to change in our education system, "The absence of disciplinary thinking matters. Shorn of these sophisticated ways of thinking, individuals remain essentially unschooled - no different, indeed, from uneducated individuals - in how they think of the physical world, the biological world, the world of human beings, the world of imaginative creations, the world of commerce" (p. 36). Changing our schools to help students develop disciplined minds should be at the forefront of educational reform. The major dilemma is how to train teachers and school administrators who lack disciplined minds themselves. We have lived in a world so long in which memorized facts have been enough to get us where we need to be, but the changing dynamic world we are evolving into is going to require a different type of thinking. We all need to work on developing a Disciplined Mind.

Today's Learners

2009-11-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

Are the learners of today very different from learners in the past? I think it really depends on when you yourself was a student in public education. It hasn't been quite that long since I was roaming the halls of Andress High School in El Paso, less than two decades ago. We didn't have the technology that exists today, but we did many of the same things. Students today spend a great deal of time on social networking and websites. It has been found that students are spending just as much time if not more on the computer than watching TV. We use to social network when I was a teen for hours but it was through the telephone and the use of three way calling. You were not in unless you had call waiting and a three-way line. We faced many of the pressures that teens face today, but one of the major differences is the amount of information that is available to the students of today. We learned from older students and the grapevine. All students have to do nowadays is go to Google. It is impossible to keep students from the information so we are going to have to find ways to teach student how to harness the power of the information that is easily accessible. Parents need more information about how to protect their children from the dangers that exist in the digital world. It never dawned on me that my child would create a Facebook page, but she did without my knowledge or consent. Then again, I never told her she couldn't. Instead I should have explain the ramification of putting too much personal information out for people to see and the potential dangers. Schools are constantly looking for ways to reach out to the community in order to increase parental involvement. Creating information sessions for parents about the latest fads such as Facebook, Twitter, and sexting, and ways to be more involved in their child's use of technology could prove to be very beneficial. We have to be more involved in the lives of our students; the potential for danger is just a click away. Take a look at this story about a teen that committed suicide a result of sexting. We have to be more proactive than ever.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29546030

Technology Ethics

2009-10-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

Teachers step into schools each day with the intentions of helping students acquire more knowledge than they had the previous day. What to teach is generally dictated by state standards but teachers choose how they are going to teach concepts to students. In the process of developing lesson plans, teachers have to consider if their methods are ethically sound. When using technology in a lesson, such a the internet, teachers have an ethical obligation to preview websites and put protections in place to prevent students from venturing to inappropriate websites. Teachers also have an obligation to monitor the use of technology. Many students know more about the technology they use than the teacher teaching the course. They also know how to hide what they are doing. Teachers need to become skilled at monitoring students as they use technology.

I found this interesting blog about knowledge. The other site is about technology ethics. Just something to think about. I couldn't get them to come up as links but you can cut and paste into the address bar and it should take you to the site.

www.tonybates.ca/2009/03/12/does-technology-change-the-nature-of-knowledge/
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/tsullivl/304Su01/ethics/handel.htm

Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

2009-10-18T15:53:00.000-07:00

This question has been debated for years, but I think with a creative approach it is possible to teach anyone something new. When you work in a school you see how kids change from one year to the next. Kids change with the times, but their schools don't change to meet their needs. They embrace what is new because they don't know any better. To meet the needs of today's diverse learner schools must change how they operate. I believe giving students more choices about how they learn material or demonstrate their knowledge about a concept is a first step which is cheap to implement. Teachers will have to approach lesson design and assessment practices differently but with the proper professional development, it is very doable. I believe stakeholders have to become more informed about our changing society and its influence on today's students. Schools need to be the medium for getting this information out but also provide methods for addressing their unique needs. To ensure that I am a positive force in this change process I need to study students more in order to find out what makes them tick. Check out this video clip about 21st century learners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScUq7iZk9rQ

Shifts in Learning

2009-10-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

I found an interesting slide show this evening while I was exploring the web looking for more inforamtion about shifts in learning that should occur to meet the demands of our global digital economy. Check it out at the link below. Also check out Nussbaums website which you can access from the slide show. A number of valid points and observations are made on the slide show. For example, there needs to be a shift from an emphasis on teaching to an emphasis on co-learning. When I taught, my students were always much more engaged when they saw that I was a learner just like them. We often talk about modeling for our students but neglect that fact that we also need to model learning not just tell them what they need to learn. Another shift mentioned on the slide show was a shift from school improvement as an option to school improvement as a requirement. Unfortunately, so many people in our society are afraid of change and many a change agent has met their demise in school districts that are afraid of the accountability monsters. If school boards don't see immediate improvement or see a dip in test scores they revert to the old ways of doing things that are not helping today's diverse learners. It is amazing how much our world has changed in the ten years I have been in the education profession and how much we have stayed the same in education. The next ten years should be an interesting journey as the need for change will be unavoidable. Don't forget to check out this slide show.

http://www.slideshare.net/snbeach/shifts-in-learning

Deep in Thought

2009-10-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go? We all ask this question as we try to cram as much as possible into our busy lives. I'm sitting here in the UMHB library in one of the study carrels hoping time slows down for a while as I have become so interested in reading everyone's blog but still have a ton of work to complete. You are all so insightful and make me think about this journey we're on and my own thought processes. This week I met with my teachers to discuss some concerns they had about the alternative program. I began by telling them that I am in a state of transition. I'm on a spiritual journey to becoming a better leader. Leading with Soul has inspired me. After I poured my heart out to them they got real. We talked openly about the things that were bothering them and they released a lot of anxiety they were feeling. We walked out of that meeting laughing and talking about when we were going to have our next meeting. That's how all meeting should end.

One of our focus questions asks us to consider how generational differences are impacting relationships between teachers and administrators, as well as between teachers and students. Being a fairly young administrator has not been an issue for me. Most of the teachers I work with are older than me, but I treat everyone with the same dignity and respect. I know teachers that have been in the profession for a number of years tend to think differently than a brand new teacher, but you just have to learn how to finesse them and utilize their experience so they are willing to work towards the campus vision. I struggle more with our relationships with students. Our students are living in a different world from even 10 years ago when I entered the teaching profession. The old five percenter rule probably needs to be bumped up to more like ten percent. It use to be said that you can expect that five percent of the students in your class will be a constant behavior concern. When I was a kid you did an assignment because you were told to do it; now many students are have to be convinced or threatened that they should complete an assignment because it is in their best interest. Most of the students I work with have so much going on in their world that school work is the last thing on their mind. Family lifestyles are changing, money is a constant issue for many, and little attention is being paid to the need to form relationships with our youth. One reason I was glad to get out of teaching was that I wouldn't have to worry about my 20-22 students all the time, but now that worry has been replaced with every student in the elementary alternative program. I think about them all of the time, constantly pondering how we can make a difference in their lives. We have them for seven hours a day and have no control over the seventeen hours plus weekends they are away from us. All I can say is that each day is a new day and a new opportunity to make a difference no matter how small.

On another note, I ran today in a 10 mile race on Ft. Hood. I was able to complete the race before the heavy downpour and finished within the top 10 females. I don't recommend running that kind of distance unless you fully train for it because now I can barely walk. I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Do what you can to make your place of employment a better organization and continue to practice getting in touch with the right side of your brain.

A Whole New Mind

2009-09-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the book last night. I thought it was wonderful especially the second half which described each of the apptitudes Pink described as being essential for survival in the Conceptual Age. Pink's sense of humor had me laughing at several points throughout my reading and he brought to my attention many things about our future that I have never even given much thought to until now. With my daughter being a junior in high school A Whole New Mind has me talking with her about expanding her horizons in search of career choices. I'm going to have her read the book; she can use some help getting in touch with some of her senses. Anyone interested in creating a laughing club. Just kidding. The concept is interesting, but I can't see myself standing in the park shouting Ho-ho, Ha-ha-ha... I look forward to helping to prepare the professional development session for the Cohort that will take place on Oct. 16th.

I feel accomplished!

2009-09-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

I have never thought about creating a blog. I guess you would say that I was intimidated by the technology and thought it would be extremely time consuming but it has been relatively easy creating it. Stay tooned as I learn more about blogging and educational leadership.

2009-09-21T18:11:00.001-07:00