Using the discussion category...

Posted on June 24, 2005

This category is intended for you to raise general discussions about course content. Feel free to add a respectful comment, question, or reflection that is inspired by class activity.

Class #1, Monday, June 27th

Posted on June 27, 2005

I thought the discussions today showed just how divergent we are in terms of our

background experiences,
years on the job,
disciplinary specializations,
program affiliations, sex (thank you, Leo) and
areas of teaching experience (for those of us with teaching experience).

I am looking forward to getting more specific about areas of immediate interest.

Also, I'm thinking we might add a focus on the culture of poverty, particularly generational poverty. Might it be helpful to look at some of what the research literature has to say about what people from vastly differing socioeconomic circumstances do to cope with what society has to offer for them. And, what successful schools and teachers have done with these populations?

Charlie

Wednesday July 6, '05 -- Information Processing

Posted on July 6, 2005

I suspect the brief foray into information processing might have seemed like a random event but I really wanted to make sure that the idea of "planning" as we talked about it on Tuesday got picked up and attached to the idea of metacognition. In my mind, the only way to do this is to do it within the larger picture of information processing. This particular reading was deliberate and specific in terms of actual teaching moves that enable learners to be more independent within their zpd. Those moves are all good ways to scaffold information (http://www.fno.org/dec99/scaffold.html). It was good information.

Please read the chicks-sent-me-high (Csikszentmihalyi) interview. It will set off bells all over the place. In your spare time, of course.

Charlie

The context of Dottie's Story

Posted on July 7, 2005

Dottie's Story is a chapter in the book I wrote during my sabbatical. The book is a collection of my stories about what I've learned across the year of my life about race and me and systemic racism in this country. I try to make the point through examples in my own life that seeing ourselves and knowing ourselves as a category (white) is essential to working through other socially categories (black, mixed, privilege, etc.) from which we've constructed our racist behavior.

This particular chapter occurs after I've decided not to accept invitations to work with faculties unless the invitations come from the faculties themselves. Instead, I've declared the bottom line for me as a teacher educator is whether I can make a positive, measured (!) difference in the lives of schoolchildren through my university students. Making that difference is the bottom line of whether or not I believe I am effective (and good) at what I do.

The reference to the Big Red Book is a reference to one of the first chapters in the book in which I tell how race became "named" for me. The list of names that occur in the text (Manny, Doris, etc.) are teachers I worked with when I taught Junior High.

Final Class

Posted on July 8, 2005

Well, we did it! I apologize for the timing being off today and am grateful you could stay around to hear each of us out with our posters. They represented a good deal of thought, integration, and plain old work. I've put some on the website. I'll get pieces of all of them up and running soon. But right now, like for you, life calls and I've got to move on for a bit. Anyone want to join me at 5am for the house moving? (Just kidding!) All the best, Charlie