Student Teaching, Stress, and The Daily Show (Sidwell Style)

So far, my student teaching experience has gone very well. All the students are nice, my cooperating teacher is extremely helpful, and I have even been allowed to already take the lead in teaching a couple of assignments. Really, there hasn't been anything negative to report about the experience so far. However, I can already tell that my schedule for the next few months is going to exhaust me.

There is the student teaching itself, which is basically a full time job I don't get paid for (I actually have to pay my college extra for tuition because it is extra credit hours). Then I have 3 classes to take 2 nights a week: one is a graduate class, and one is a class where I am putting together different pieces of my teaching portfolio every week. I also have to keep my part-time job because I am poor, and have bills to pay (I mainly work on the weekends, when I do have time off from student teaching). Finally, I have a wedding to plan with my fiance, who I am already seeing a lot less of due to my busy schedule (and we live together). Free-time, and regular sleeping hours will be rare, if existent at all.

Fortunately, there are things to help me with the stress. The Daily Show is one of them. Here is a link to a couple of web clips to an education related story: the Obama girl's first day of school.

Promoting NCLB

From Chocolate News on Comedy Central. This is very funny (and very inappropriate):

President-Elect Obama on Meet The Press

Isn't it encouraging to have a President that will value science again? Another education quote from the interview:

“There is an incredible bully pulpit to be used when it comes to, for example, education: Yes, we're going to have an education policy; yes, we're going to be putting more money into school construction. But ultimately we want to talk about parents reading to their kids. We want to invite kids from local schools into the White House.”

Congresswoman hangs up on Obama and Rahm Emanuel

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) thought is was prank from a Miami Radio DJ, but no, it was really Obama and Emanuel. Apparently that sort of thing happens all the time, and some politicians actually fall for it:

The Ball Buster

I am referring to the woman in the picture above, D.C. School Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Some might gasp at such a description, but I can't think of a more appropriate description. Michelle Rhee is a ball buster. And yes, you do need a ball buster to do the job that Ms. Rhee is trying to do. For better or worse, she is now the de facto face of education reform in this country.

Certainly, she has a tough task at hand, and no one can doubt that she needs to get tough to do it. But there is also a lot of room to worry. This part of the Time article has already given a lot of people pause, including myself:

"In many private encounters with officials, bureaucrats and even fundraisers–who have committed millions of dollars to help her reform the schools–she doesn’t smile or nod or do any of the things most people do to put others at ease. She reads her BlackBerry when people talk to her. I have seen her walk out of small meetings held for her benefit without a word of explanation. She says things most superintendents would not. “The thing that kills me about education is that it’s so touchy-feely,” she tells me one afternoon in her office. Then she raises her chin and does what I come to recognize as her standard imitation of people she doesn’t respect. Sometimes she uses this voice to imitate teachers; other times, politicians or parents. Never students. “People say, ‘Well, you know, test scores don’t take into account creativity and the love of learning,’” she says with a drippy, grating voice, lowering her eyelids halfway. Then she snaps back to herself. “I’m like, ‘You know what? I don’t give a crap.’ Don’t get me wrong. Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don’t know how to read, I don’t care how creative you are. You’re not doing your job.”

Fair enough, but standardized tests also don't take into account the seriousness with which most students take them given there is no link between the test scores and grades. Don't even get me started with the issue of human grading of more subjective test questions. And as far as education being too "touchy-feely", students are not robots. People, especially young people, are highly emotional, and complex beings that come from numerous different backgrounds. They respond to different methods of teaching, discipline, evaluation, etc. in different ways. Don't get me wrong, there should be strong discipline, tough standards, and accountability. But it isn't so black and white.

Another concern with Rhee that myself and others have is that she may go too far in trying to shake things up. Yes, things need to be shaken up, but how much is too much? Robert Pondiscio makes a better argument than I can on this point:

"Here’s what worries me: accurate or inaccurate, fair or unfair, the increasingly confrontational, impatient, blunt, even rude public persona that’s affixing itself to the Washington, DC schools chancellor runs the risk of getting in the way of what Michelle Rhee wants to accomplish. I’ll put it bluntly: piss off enough people whose help is essential to your success, and your failure becomes inevitable, a consummation devoutly to be wished. Then for years to come, the answer to the reforms anyone proposes becomes, “Oh yes, we tried that in Washington under Michelle Rhee and you remember how that worked out.” If she fails, Michelle Rhee’s failure will not be hers alone. At worst, she runs the risk of damaging the ed reform “brand” for a generation."

Rhee kind of reminds me of another famous education reformer:

Granted, this is an exaggerated comparison, and I'm not saying that this is the way to do things. But Crazy Joe and Ms. Rhee both have more in common than people think. And without question, both are ball busters when it comes to education reform. Let us all hope that Rhee does what she needs to do to get the job done without going overboard.

Reassuring

Some have doubted that we will be getting out of Iraq within 16 months, as Obama promised, since he has announced his national security team (particularly keeping on Robert Gates). But Matthew Yglesias lays out some convincing points to those critics:

"The reality, obviously, is that the SOFA and the security agreement have made 2007-vintage disagreements about timeframes for withdrawal essentially irrelevant. Between an American government that wants to set an end to our involvement in Iraq and an Iraqi government that wants to set an end to our involvement in Iraq, it really does become a question of hammering out the logistics and framing the politics. The strategic debate about the wisdom of things like John McCain’s plans for a hundred years of occupation is over."

It also helps that Gates supports a withdrawal:




Now putting troops from Iraq into Afghanistan is another matter. I haven't quite made up my mind on that one yet.

Computer Brain Interface

Watch CBS Videos Online
This is amazing. There is still along way to go in terms of response time and availability with this technology, but think of the possibilities for disabled individuals, including students with severe or multiple disabilities. I got this from the blog Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs.

One of the things that disgusted me more than anything when watching the Republican National Convention last month was when Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin bashed community organizing as essentially a meaningless task. The Daily Show (my favorite show on television) takes on this issue in a smart, revealing, and very funny piece by John Oliver.

For more information on what community organizers do, read the description on Wikipedia and idealist.org.

What does the Vice President do?

Above is a video of Joe Biden being interviewed by a 5th grader in Palm Beach. It is a nice little video, but when the child asked him what the Vice President does, I thought Biden's response could have been better. Yes, Joe Biden will serve as an advisor (and a good one he will make), but I have yet to hear a Vice Presidential candidate explain the official duties of the office when asked about it. Remember, there aren't that many.

I realized I am making a bigger deal out of this than I should be, and Biden's response wasn't that bad. Maybe it's just the teacher and Political Science major in me. Hey, it's a better response (and certainly more accurate) than Sarah Palin's. Good Lord!