Posts in Category Students
A Public School Teacher and Student Discuss Democratic Education
It wasn't the first time a left-brained colleague had come to me with such a request. Stacy, the pragmatic and exceptional science teacher from the 7th grade hall, sent me a Facebook message, "If you don't mind, I may refer my little sister, Anna, to you…She is considering education, but is losing faith in our current...
Posted on Jun 20, 2012 - 08:20 PM by Leigh Pourciau
A conference that will matter after it is over
Justo Méndez Arámburu has had a very clear message about IDEC 2012 over the last two months.
“The most important day of IDEC 2012 is April 1st.”
That date is remarkable because it is the day after the conference is over.
In total, the conference will bring together over 750 young people, educators, community leaders, organizers, academics, and advocates from around the world and across Puerto Rico. But, the most profound accomplishment of conference organizers has happened even before the conference begins. Unlike so many other conferences, IDEC 2012 has been organized to have maximum impact in the lives of young people and communities in Puerto Rico after the international...
Posted on Mar 22, 2012 - 06:58 AM by Scott Nine
A list of incredible humans who know what real education looks like
Late last week, I was in a conversation with Sheryl Petty where she graciously encouraged me to look at just how much IDEA and my own thinking is impacted by other humans who have put their ideas and love into words.
In support of #blog4idec and today's theme of "Human", I thought I'd try to brainstorm off the cuff (no help from Google) the names of the people whose writing has profoundly shaped my thinking about what real education looks like at the most human level.
Feel free to add your own incredible humans in the comments box.
And yes, I am inviting several moments of, "how could I forget ________, and _____________, and __________ . . ."
Here's my list of incredible humans:
...Posted on Nov 01, 2011 - 08:59 AM by Scott Nine
Teach for Humanity
This is a story about experience. Strangely enough, experience has the power to both sever and prompt connection. There are threads of my story—my experience—that are particular to me as a black child, a black woman, and an African immigrant. On the other hand, there are fibers in my story that are universal, and linked to my and your human self. I imagine that you will find things in my story that will surprise you, resonate with you, frustrate, and perhaps even anger you. I hope that all of the above will happen. When you arrive at the end of my story, I hope that you will be wrestling with your own experiences, struggling to understand how they have shaped you as a particular...
Posted on Oct 31, 2011 - 03:15 PM by Esther Ohito
Knowing and I Don’t Knowing
As the coordinator for the Detroit Future Schools program, I get to visit 12 classrooms all over the Metro-Detroit area every month. Grades range from third grade up through twelfth. School focuses range from the basics to aeronautics. Class sizes ranging from ten to thirty-five students. I’m learning more right now about schooling and learning (the two are not synonymous) than I did as an undergrad earning my teaching certificate. Every class has a unique personality–a unique pulse–but one thing remains the same…
In every classroom I’ve visited, I hear the phrase “I don’t know.” It is most commonly used in response to a teacher asking a student a question and the student...
Posted on Oct 27, 2011 - 02:22 PM by Ammerah Saidi
Links and a Theory
I was going through old email messages when I came across a link a friend sent me about a contest. The link was dead, so I decided to shorten it to the main http. I was redirected to a site by the name of "energizestudents.org." They feature videos about the things that should change in education, have a running blog roll, polls, and the "your point of view" education video contest. This site reminds me a lot of what we're doing here at IDEA. So I invite you all to check out the link - it might lend itself to a cool connection.Other than that I've been pondering about the financial side of the education system. Schools complain that they aren't getting enough funding. Due to the issue of...
Posted on Jun 23, 2011 - 11:53 AM by Zuleka Irvin
Spark’s Answer to the Dropout Crisis
Meet Tania*, 14 years old. Her story is typical of many students in urban public schools across the United States. No one in her family had completed high school. In seventh grade, she was struggling academically, and assumed that she would follow in her mother's footsteps and become a cashier at Wal-Mart. At school, Tania had not been asked much about her aspirations -- as it turns out, she dreamed of becoming an attorney -- and as a result she was not clear on how school could ever get her to that goal. Like so many students, Tania was in danger of lowering her aspirations at a very early age. It's a classic path to dropping out - as a 2006 Gates Foundation study pointed out, 47% of...
Posted on Mar 09, 2011 - 06:28 PM by Chris Balme
Reporting on Education
For my "Writing for Media" course, I need to follow a "beat." Unlike general news reporting, doing a news-beat involves continuously covering a specific topic. That means an in-depth understanding is required. One beat is the minimum for my class, although I thought of two issues. The first I thought to do is coverage of my school's organic farm. I attend meetings every week where important announcements are made, and I do farm chores five times a week. I think that the farm (and its connection to the school's food system and the local community) is a topic narrow enough for me to do small (unpublished) news stories. However...I *really* want to give a shot at covering news about...
Posted on Jan 31, 2011 - 09:16 AM by Zuleka Irvin
Online Education…in a Physical Classroom?
One of my classes for this semester is "Writing for Media." In this class I will get to snack on the practice of and theory surrounding media writing. The professor has put the entire class on the internet. The class is even held in the Mac Lab in the school library. Our writing assignments will be done on blog posts in the school's online education companion, epsilen.com. Also part of the course, I have created a twitter.com account, which is supposed to be used to follow and tweet about media happenings. As a person who can be painfully addicted to the internet, I have a serious problem with this class.
When I am at school, I try to avoid the internet as much as possible. At home in...
Posted on Jan 22, 2011 - 08:38 AM by Zuleka Irvin
A Fifteen-Year-Old’s Perspective on Testing
Hello Everyone!Here I am, it is 12:20 in the morning on January 13th 2011, and I am doing homework. Today was a snow day, and I, instead of staying home and doing homework all day, made the somewhat irresponsible decision of going out to my friend's house and having a snowball fight and making a snowman and laughing the whole day away. And now I am mad at myself for it. But, before I fall into such a pit of self loathing, I have to ask myself, why? Why is it so dreadfully important that I, a social fifteen-year-old, stay home out of the beautiful snowy weather and study? And at what point did I become so deeply involved in school that I would be so disappointed in myself for something...
Posted on Jan 12, 2011 - 09:18 PM by Claire Russell
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