aimlessmiss

taboo you

Volume 10, Issue 2 of Taboo, The Journal of Culture and Education, is available for download.





It seems that McGill is deep into Freire and Critical Pedagogy. In their own words:

The Freire Archives and International Journal of Critical Pedagogy are
publicly accessible, publications will be available in both hard copy
and virtually through this website. Housed in the project are the
papers of seminal scholars who have contributed to the evolution of
Critical Pedagogy. In addition, the project will promote research in
Critical Pedagogy and bring together both local and international
educators and continue its development globally while highlighting its
relevance with marginalized and indigenous peoples.

All kinds of big names here. Kincheloe and McLaren most prominent among them

Technology Interns

My List: A Collection on "tech interns" (web2.0,school2.0,iTP) | Diigo

the nice white lady teacher

Does anyone else lose it watching this?

parody of nice white lady teacher trope

And as much as the recent spate of teacher-savior films make my skin all bumpy, I can't help but bop my head when Gangsta's Paradise comes on.

hi

visiting from the Pale - just a quick note while I'm here...

on the work front organizational management is at an all-time low. seriously pathetic.

writing term papers on:
teacher narratives on centralization of 1986 compared to post-NCLB era;

the teacher as savior in film: 1955 to 2007; and how reflections of reality impact what is

will you be my AP?

Spent time over this holiday weekend discussing the state of education, urban and otherwise, with future aunt-in-law. She is AP of a school on the north side of Chicago, an English teacher at heart, and her vision of the ideal classroom takes the breath away. I hope she will comment on this post clarifying her views and correcting my misconceptions.

But as I understand it, teachers' work is to allow students to develop confidence of voice, the ability to conceive of and express new ideas. Teachers are advised to strategically release control, abdicate power to students as constituents, thus promoting a sense of collective responsibility and group membership.

L, are you there?

Bookroom nightmares to the Nth power

Here's a little photo montage via Scott McLeod of Dangerously Irrelevant via Will Richardson of Weblogg-ed.

All are of the Detroit Public School Book Repository. Scary. They kind of remind me of what I found when I opened the cabinets in my classroom my first year. Going into my fifth (on Thursday!), the worst I expect is a little book attrition. Hey, the summer help's gotta read too, right?

what I actually read this summer

Phillip Roth - The Plot Against America
Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Alice Munro - Open Secrets
Ian McEwan - Enduring Love
Charles Dickens - Hard Times
Frederick Douglass - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Henry Adams - The Education of Henry Adams (first five chapters)
Louis Wirth - The Ghetto
Jack London - John Barleycorn
Calvin Trillin - Tepper Isn't Coming Out
Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things
Benjamin Kunkel - Indecision

how i'm aimless

I plan to enter a doctoral program in Urban Education Policy in Fall 2007. I will study part-time while continuing to teach high school English. I have taught in the same public alternative/transfer school since I entered the profession four years ago through the NYC Teaching Fellows program.

Throughout the next five to ten years I will be actively engaged in study, teaching, and research directed at improving urban education. Using the forum of aimlessmiss, I plan to record my thoughts and experiences in hopes that the practice of writing will assist me in documenting the development of my ideas.

For those unfamiliar with the latest NYC DOE lingo, the "aim" is an integral part of any satisfactory lesson plan. It should appear in the upper left-hand corner of the board, printed legibly. Pretty handwriting goes a long way toward earning a positive reputation.

The aim is essentially the goal for the class period. Each literacy coach I've had insists on a different formula for writing the aim. Some say it must be an open-ended question, others prefer the gerund expression, and still others just prefer whatever aim they come up with. I use the gerund/infinitive expression model, though I generally keep the same one for the length of the unit, and I alternately label it the "goal" or the "focus." (Here's an example: to analyze Tennessee Williams' use of literary elements in A Streetcar Named Desire. Brilliant, huh.)   

My academic and professional interests are varied – surely I have ideas and biases, which is to say I approach this project with 26 years of life experience – but I do not at this time seek to advance any particular agenda.