The Abstinence-Only Sex Ed. program that I am paying for

I do not usually feel the need to comment on the politics of this country. I hid safely behind my dual citizenship, claiming Canada with pride and a hint of condecention. HOwever, over coffee this morning I was accosted by the latest headline in Education Weekly. Apparently with the passage of the much discussed health care reform bill, was the renewal of Title V, some legal-eeze that mandates Abstinence-Only Sex Education for our youngsters. The article describes that this program was first signed into law under Clinton more than ten years ago. It also states that this program will continue to recieve over $250 million in funding over the next how ever many years.

The article goes on to delineate the type of abstinence program that would qualify, because clearly not every abstinence program is doing it right. There are eight tenents that a program is measured against, the first of which is "Teach abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school-age children". Which makes me reflect about my own relationship. I guess since I do not have the legal right to marry, I should not be engaging in sexual activity. I guess I am missing out on what is described as the "social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity," and I am clearly putting myself at risk because "sexual activity outside the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects".

Apparently there has been one lone study in the past ten years that has shown scientifically based evidence of the success of an Abstinence-Only education program. One. I wonder who funded that study? I wonder who performed the data analysis? I wonder?

Where am I? is it really 2010 or did I wake up in the middle ages? I understand that the government needs to find methods for controlling to population, this is not new. But what happened to the glorious idea, seperation of church and state, upon which this country was founded (I at least know that). People want to have sex, we always have we always will, it is out of our control regardless of our religious beliefs. I think history has taught us that. Besides which with shows like 'pregnant and 16' and the multitude of visual media that sell using sex, we probably want to have sex more now than we did 100 years ago. Perhaps we should study that?

First Special Education iphone application

Well ladies and gentleman, the wait is over. We finally have an iphone app that helps us prepare for our IEP meetings. Watch this!!

Tech tools for teachers

Recently, I have not had the opportunity to keep the Teacher Cafe up to date. This is the result of a few major distraction in my life, the most prominent of which is is getting admitted into graduate school. Yes, the news is true, I will be pursuing my PhD. in Special Education here in the Bay Area at both Berkeley and San Francisco State University, in the Joint Doctoral Program. I know, its a mouth full. I am sure not as much to chew as my immanent five years of schooling, but a morsel none the less.
The other major distraction has been my current course work, some of which takes me further into my budding interest in becoming technologically literate. In my search for new and interesting materials on the World Wide Web, I came across something locally grown. This web tool is free and designed to give teachers the flexibility to create whatever teaching tools they feel will best address the student's need. Flexibooks are digital text books that can be compiled by reusing already approved materials that are aligned with state standards, or by creating your own from scratch, or somewhere in between.
California has mandated a push towards technology based texts and this resource is way ahead of the game in offering a new solution. The most exciting part of this tool is that any teacher can now personalize and differentiate their texts to meet any students needs. In addition these tech texts can save paper, be transported to any machine, and will increase students ability to use the tech tools the schools provide them with.

web tools

Well it certainly has been some time since my last post. That's probably because I was busy teaching, applying to graduate school, and figuring out these new tech tools for my tech class. Yes that's right!! the Luddite in me is having to step aside for a new and improved woman for 2010. I feel very proud of myself. In the last two days I have created one Voicethread, one vodcast, and uploaded them both the my lesson website.
The resources I used were easy and fin to use. I now have this glowing little yellow ball at the top left corner of my screen, it's my Jing. This handy site lets you film your screen and talk all at the same time. To me this is simply amazing. It uploads all of these to a screencast account and from here one can easily distribute them to anyone. Love it.
Voicethread is also a helpful teaching tool because the teacher can create content and the students can comment on that content, making it an interactive educational experience.
Check them out. If I can do it....you can do it.

Hip-Hop Helps HighSchoolers

Well well is what I got to say

I thought I I would never see that day

When I white lady who works in the midwest

Would figure out what works best

(actually thats not true it just rhymes well)

In this weeks CEC spotlight, a daily email that gets sent to me, I came across an amazing article. Apparently there is a curriculum out there that is designed to teach English Language Arts by using the language of current hip-hop artists, Makes perfect sense to me.

In fact, my amazing assistant Ms. Vasquez, who went off to New York to study at Columbia, used to plaster the Learning Center wall with lyrics from all the new artists. I have no idea who they were, but the kids simply loved it. In fact if memory serves it was our "Even Rapper use a Thesaurus" wall.

Here is a good example of educators using their heads. We make all kinds of other resources that incorporate aspects of current culture in order to be deemed more appealing, why not this. At its origins hip-hop was a form of artistic expression that allowed unheard voices to break free from social oppression and rewrite the rules. Why not rewrite the rules of what we teach and learn at the same time. Makes perfect sense to me.

Well thats the end of that. Short post, I know, but I have BBQed chicken that needs my attention. I am making Mexican Sopapillas for the first time and I want everything to go well

The Distinct Sense of Accomplishment

Today I awoke feeling tired and grey. As summer slowly fades into fall, the sunshine fades to grey and gloom, morning comes later and later, and the routine starts to wear on the soul. Unfortunately I do not get to wake up later and later, and this sad reality makes it hard battle the dark cold morning.

When I got to work this morning I did not have any indicators that it was going to end in the way it did. I had one cup of coffee, which I only recently started drinking again, racing through my veins. I decided that it was the perfect time to begin working on some supports for my students in American Literature. They will be writing synthesis essays about the American Dream. They will use information from the novels they have been reading in class. They will also use first hand accounts from interviews they performed with immigrants, including myself, and compare what they know about the American Dream with the American Reality. Meaty stuff.

I have several students who will need a number of scaffolded supports in order to be successful, and I have one particular student who will need a completely modified assignment. Usually the process of creating these supports would take several days and involve a series of emails between myself and the teacher. 

In the past my search for graphic organizers has led me to a smattering of PDFs that are almost perfect if I could simply change the title and what is written in the boxes. Followed by the pleasure of being whisked away to another pages that offers me membership for a meager $29.95 a month. However, today was a new day. My distinct sense of accomplishment was birthed from the discovery of the most amazing teaching resource I have found this week.

In my search for Graphic Organizers I found the gold mine, the jackpot. With permission from Pomperaug Regional School District 15  you can download word.doc's that are a series of Graphic Organizers. They are all collated by themes or types and the icing on this cake is that they have Spanish versions as well. 

My distinct sense of accomplishment. In a few short hours I had compiled an entire educational experience, altered them to meet my needs, printed and bound them. Done and done. This happens rarely and must be celebrated when possible. In fact I am a lucky person because I am again overwhelmed by a distinct sense of accomplishment by simply passing this information on to you. It feels great.

Edu-pists

To all you teachers out there it may seem strange for me to de-virginize my blog about teaching with such a strange medley title. "What is an edu-pist" you may ask yourself? My response is this:

At the beginning of the week I was approached by one of my students who was struggling with some very big emotional challenges. This student confided in me about something very personal and very serious. As this was happening, I began to feel my skills as an educator, my years of schooling in curriculum and assessment, vanish and I felt the need for something else to fill this void. I started to hear the words of my couples counsellor race through my head. "Reflect back", "Validate a person's feeling", "Summarize", "Ask open ended questions". I began channeling my partner, a Psy.D. student. Remembering snippets of stories about sessions and what worked well and what failed miserably. This slide show of strategies flashed rapidly through my brain, and all the while my face remained calm and collected. I just want to know...how the hell did I manage to do it?

In the world of education we get exactly zero training in how to deal with the social emotional problems our students bring to school. I am speaking specifically about the techniques and skills that come in handy when students require more than some positive reinforcement and a behavioral goal. How many student have you worked with who required outside resources? This is what social workers are trained to do. How many students have you worked with who had some family issues that needed to be aired? This is what counsellors are trained to do.

My intention should not be misconstrued. I do not want teachers to feel that I am making some grand statement about how over worked we are and about how the other professionals are not doing their part. I will save that rant for another time. Until the day someone invents a robot that can be programmed to do the job of a teacher, social worker, and therapists we are left to deal with the way things are. The point I am trying to make is that we Educators often find ourselves in situations that we are unprepared for. All students have an Educator and not all students have social workers or therapists. My soap box is this: Educators deserve the dignity of some basic training in therapeutic competencies, so that we may act competently and appropriately when situations arise. Just my little request for reform of the teacher education system, nothing earth shattering.