Inauguration Day

My school made arrangements for the entire school to watch the inauguration of President B. Obama in the gymnasium. While Obama's speech was well received by the students. I immediately saw a digression or deviation in regards to progress, once the speech ended with the benediction by Dr. Joseph Lowery.

My school is composed of all Hispanic and Black students. After the election many black students begin to celebrate at the expense of the Hispanic students. Asking questions like "What have Hispanics done?" followed by "we have a Black President, and yall are wack" ..... I was deeply disturbed by these comments! The interesting part is that several Black adults in the school behaved the same way ... celebrating in isolation as opposed to celebrating a major breakthrough on behalf of all minority groups.

In conclusion, I think the election of Barack Obama coupled with the sentiments of many demand that we review the definitions of racism and inequality in their most basic forms.

Home Visits

January 24, 2009 -- I navigated my way through the Bronx to conduct several visitations to student's homes. Each home I visited was located in a Public Housing Complex. I am a firm believer that teachers MUST holistically understand their student's backgrounds to be the most effective. My experience during these home visitations further substantiated my claim.

A few Notable Observations:

1) The crime that students are surrounded by in HUD Public Housing Complexes
2) The dilapidation and filthiness of the buildings that many students reside in (ex. Standing urination in elevators, trash spread through halls, etc.)
3) I went to one home which was filled with children, and one little boy ran up to me and insisted I pick him up (DAD DA ... DAD DA). "I ain't your daddy"
4) Several parents were shocked that I (and the other two colleagues who accompanied me) cared enough to make a visitation.

Stay Tuned ....


Side Bar: I'm positive that I will not live in NYC longer than two years ... perhaps this will be the last year ... this weather (and something about the overall ambiance) is killing me and my brain is crying out for intellectual stimulation

Also budget cuts have in question the job of every teacher without tenure :(

Weekly Update

Ice Skating

January 14, 2009 – Four teachers, my assistant principal, and myself accompanied a group of students from our school’s Inquiry Team (students are chosen from the bottom third to receive extra intervention with the hope that these strategies will increase the level of performance of the kids, and become infused into every classroom) to Rockefeller Center to ice-skate after school. It was a wonderful experience. As soon as we exited the subway station, several students begin to comment on the demographics…. Several noting they were the only black and Hispanics in site. This is critical to note, as many people believe every part of NYC to be a great melting pot.

Once we were on the ice, the students and adults had a blast. (To Lambda Chi brothers reading this – I am proud to report I did not fall once!) It was extremely comical to watch the students, as they started out scared to leave the wall slowly navigate to the ice. In addition, it was funny that when I did almost bite the ice, I grabbed a student to prevent myself from falling – the student held me up – then requested extra credit on the final.

Final Exam

In NYC, high schools end the semester February 2, 2009. Thus, our school just started administering our final exams. (We start early as each teacher must administer a final and the students must take the State Regent’s Examinations) In fact, I administered my final examination yesterday to my classes. (I have a stack of test and papers to grade – anyone want to help me?) As you might imagine, my exam was said to be too hard --- but I am preparing them for college – so they had better get use to it (Standards shifted when they got Mr. Cooper)

Asia Society

I went to the Asia Society last night with a friend. We had a lot of fun! I definitely recommend everyone visit the one in his or her locales. http://www.asiasociety.org/

Week of January 5th

Last week went by extremely fast. It was our first week back from winter break and our last full week of instruction prior to final exams and regents. The best part of the week instructionally was my lecture on poverty --- the kids were very engaged as they debated whether people “choose” to be poor.

While most students agreed that people chose to be poor – it became clear their concept of poverty was distorted … they equated poverty to homeless people begging on the streets. I hope that by the end of the unit they are able to see both individual and structural causes of both homelessness and poverty.

In addressing the temperance movement in another class, we also discussed the decriminalization of marijuana. The students were very opposed to the idea.

Two of my students also shared life stories that included molestation in foster homes and parental alcohol abuse. – The way these things were handled further reinforced my charge to move to a macro level within education and social entrepreneurship VERY soon.

The goal is to write to you all at least weekly.

Talk to You Soon!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone