Is America Regressing?

I have been taking a course through Teachers without Borders and one of our discussions have focused on the school culture in our area of the world. While my particular school culture has been a positive one, I had alot of trouble answering the particular question due to the recent turmoil concerning public teachers. Each day I wake up determined to do a good job, a great job, and am faced with a public that simply has disdain for the job I do; how can students respect their teachers when their parents believe that we are the cause for all the evils in the world? My foreign students tell me that they would never disrespect a teacher for fear of punishment and they are shocked by the attitude of American kids to their teachers. Are we regressing?

Has Education Become Less Important?

There has been such a backlash in this country lately concerning public education that I have been left to wonder if we are becoming a country that simply does not care about educating everyone. In my American Ethnic Lit class I teach about the beginning of public education in this country and how the US could boast of being the one place where everyone could be educated. Are we moving to a place where only those who can afford school will be able to go to school?

Second Life

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mpepper/slbib

Although many of my colleagues questioned the wisdom, I have used Second Life in my composition classroom before. While it is a viable way to engage students and to allow for 24/7 lectures, the problem really lies in a school's ability to handle the bandwidth required to run the program. In addition, one must insure that students don't move into worlds that are inappropriate (pornographic). The site above has a wonderful bibliography that is broken into categories including research, pedagogy and general.

Why We're Mad

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/20/ravitch.teachers.blamed/index.html?hpt=T2

A great piece by Diane Ravitch that explains why teachers are so totally enraged by recent events.

Wisconsin....

The rallies occurring in Wisconsin have me riveted for two reasons:

1. I work in New Jersey where the governor is determined to do exactly what the Governor of Wisconsin is doing.
2. My union, NJEA, has been essential in insuring that our pensions have been protected.

What will happen if this country stands by and allows our unions to be destroyed? Teachers work incredibly hard for incredibly low pay and have one focus - their students. Are there bad teachers? Sure. Are there more good than bad? Absolutely. It is time to stop demonizing educators.

Co-Teaching

Last week I had a meeting with three colleagues and two deans concerning a proposal that I had drafted on co-teaching. The concept is to bring together three disciplines - English, Sociology and Psychology - in the creation of a course where students would be engaged in all three. Students would remain in one classroom for a period of three hours and each professor would switch on the hour; thus, students would experience all disciplines. From a standpoint of education, this learning community is a great idea; however, it is a logistical nightmare.

How do we test new methods when we are faced with such insurmountable odds?

Ning

Before the folks at Ning decided to charge for their service, I used to use it all the time in class; now I have to think before I use a resource that costs money. However, I did find some interesting links thanks to Jenny Luca's Wiki (jennyluca.wikispaces.com):

English Companion Ning: http://englishcompanion.ning.com
Classroom 2.0: http://classroom20.com

Do you use Ning in your classroom? Why/why not?