In a time when the current generation of students cannot put down their text messaging, internet-accessing, video-game-playing personal devices, blogging provides a fitting arena for progressive proponents of social and political change in order to leave this world in a better condition than that in which we inherited it. I first opened this blog during a burst of excitement over my then recent transition into the public service of high school teaching through the Oakland Teaching Fellows arm of the New Teachers Project. Why, then, is this the first actual text to appear on this page? Well, as many teachers know all to well, the first year of teaching is an all-consuming endeavor. Now, eleven weeks into my second year at Far West High School in Oakland, I revisit my initial attempt to chronicle my reflections upon my journey through secondary school education, to advocate for the betterment of the education system in America, and to promote education of the public as the long-term solution to the problems of our time.
Inspiration visited me once again, having returned home from an 8 am to 8 pm workday that culminated in our monthly School Site Council (SSC) Meeting, of which I was elected to chair one month ago. We have a very small 9-12th grade high school, having approximately 180 students. Although our school is currently located in North Oakland near a more affluent area of the city, most of our students hail from East and West Oakland neighborhoods. Some of them take multiple city buses with transit times of an hour to get to school. Under such conditions, we have some difficulty filling the seats at our SSC meetings with parents, guardians, community members, and students. Luckily, we had just the right number of each categorical attendee for a quorum. Those of us who were there, though, made a difference today.
The positivity in the room was as contagious as the H1N1 (but, um, much more positive than that). We all could sense the progress made in just a few short years at our school site, and today we took another grand stride forward in the efforts to provide our Far West students with a richer and more efficacious educational experience. We stretched our small piece of the stimulus pie (the amount of which was based upon our meager student enrollment) as far as we could within the constraints under which it was bestowed.
The word of the day was student engagement, specifically engagement through technology. We unanimously approved the expenditure of funds towards the purchase of two Promethean Boards--interactive projection screen-whiteboard hybrids. I often equate them to the touchscreen map that John King touts in the Situation Room on CNN, although it's not an entirely accurate comparison, it gets the point across. We also passed resolutions to purchase audience response systems. These interactive devices link to an embedded add-on in PowerPoint for practically instantaneous assessments and assessment results. For students who can text faster than I can type, a texting device that also functions as tool for learning makes a desirable substitute. We passed several more fund allocations earlier tonight. Each and every measure took us a fraction towards our goal of closing what analysts of the education system label as the achievement gap.
Publishing a blog might seem to be a meager effort towards the improvement of education in America, but if each of us made an effort, no matter how minute, we can establish a critical mass to affect a positive change in the social and political spheres that encompass all of our lives.
Robert Sindelar, Teacher
2008 Oakland Teaching Fellow
2008 Oakland Teaching Fellow
What happened to your dream to change the world?
