Travel Blogs

I had the opportunity to visit and observe 2 elementary charter schools in Miami-Dade County for approximately 3 hours each. One charter school was located in Downtown Miami, an inner-city setting and the other was located in rural Homestead out by the fields and farm land.

It is amazing as some things simply tend to stay the same.

Charter schools are suppose to be the envy of all public schools due to their boastful leeway for innovation and academic freedom. Students are suppose to be flocking from traditional public schools to these high achieving, creme de la creme schools of high caliber. Yet, here in Florida we are not seeing what other successful and effective/efficient charter schools in Chicago, New York, or Washington, D.C. are experiencing. Stoies of how urban learners are now obtaining high quality academic programs.

The only difference between the rural and the inner-city charter school was sheer size overall as a student body and in class size. The rural school was smaller and set up in an old building. The inner city school was lucky to have an older school building from many years ago.

Yet, I still see the same issues I have seen over the past five years with other charter schools across our state. It seems to more an epidemic than a cure. Teachers were not teaching; they were assigning work and dittos to the whole class and then sitting back down at their desks. Students were working individually never cooperatively. Misconduct and classroom behavior was rampid throughout the building. Classrooms were dirty, furniture old and broken, tattered textbooks were stacked. There was no sight of a comprehensive core reading program, of student work celebrated on the walls, no library nook in the corner, and certainly no work stations or centers. Administrators rarely made themselves seen throught the time I was there. When I asked teachers why they chose teaching at a charter school many shared that they needed the job and could not get on with the district, or that they thought this would be easier so a cut in pay would be worth it.

I know not every charter school is like this. However... I bet you can find many public schools that fit this same description.

It simply is not right! Children deserve to be taught not assigned work. With all of President Obama's plans to increase and ramp up funding for more charter schools something has to give and make teachers and administrators more accountable!

Charter Schools... Help or Harm?

With President Obama's push with choice and charter schools for students who are not making the grade in public schools, are urban learners actually getting more assistance or less? Are our most needy students receiving quality teachers, curriculum, and resources? What about the demographics of the schools, are we talking segregation again? So, bottom line... are charter schools truly the answer for our urban learners? Do charter schools help or harm students?

My volunteer hours dovetail into my curriculum action project, so stay tuned to my upcoming blogs. I will share observations of my site visits to various charter schools across Florida. The first two took place in Miami. One was in an inner-city setting in downtown Miami and the other was in a rural setting in the Redlands. I bet you would not believe the similarities despite the locations!!!

A Little Background....

I think it is appropriate for you to know a little more about my teaching experiences.

As we read the past few articles, I reflected on my beginning teaching experiences. I was that young twenty-something fresh out of college taking her first teaching position in an inner-city elementary school in Miami, FL. who never had much urban experiences in her field course work in undergraduate courses. I was an over protected kid with over bearing parents who hated for me to drive on express ways until well... um... I took this teaching position over 20 miles from home straight up US-1 then I-95, etc. and hated it even worse! As a matter of fact, my father drove me to the interview (stop laughing!) and told me you can't work THERE!!!

Well, I took that job. It struck me odd that the Principal asked me, "How do you teach Black children?" I was thinking what kind of question is this? Is she trying to see if I am a racist since I am white and blonde. My response was simply, "Like any other child with love, respect, taking them from where they are to where they need to be." Little did I know. How green. College never prepared me for what I was about to step into, the culture, the needs of the children, all the takes place before you can even open a text book; I had no clue. Luckily, I was a Title I teacher, so I was able to learn from trial and error with small groups of students on a whole different level. I did that for a couple of years then became a fifth classroom teacher.

Those years teaching in the inner-city taught me so much. It was not easy!!! I saw many teachers ran off by students. I have cried out of frustration and wanted to run off as well many times, but I did not. Students counted on me. They knew I was REAL. I was there for them. I cared. I have taken children grocery shopping before. Called HRS when abuse was happening in their home. Created a safe haven and unique lessons that involved service grants to better the community or clean up a beach. Learning was fun! The year I left to teach closer to home, since I moved further south in Miami my students scored so high on their district test scores they had to re-test them.

STAR teachers do exist!

Cartledge & Lo ... Chapter 2 STOP the FCAT BAND-AID FIX

Hi there! I know we did not have to read Chapter 2, but I really wanted to see what our authors had to say about reading instruction since that's what I do for a living. So as I was sitting at the salon getting my hair done, I read through chapter 2 and saw that they were congruent with what NCLB and reading first believe. So... since we did not have to read this, I thought I would share a strong salient point from this chapter that every educator in America should hear!!!!

Here are the following quotes/passages that stood out to me found on page 23.

"The importance of intervention at the earliest sign of problems in reading is cannot be overstated. Some have advised that screenings and interventions begin as early as preschool, and certainly no later than kindergarten."

"Undiagnosed early reading reading difficulties rapidly metastasize into academic deficits and disruptive and self-destructive behaviors that special education is powerless to cure."

"There may be a critical period for children to learn to read, probably within the period of four to eight years of age."

"... impoverished urban learners need preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade experiences to make up for this loss. They need explicit and systematic instruction in the key elements that are universally accepted as being important for reading acquisition."

SO... all of the energies that are being placed currently in the annual Winter FCAT drill and kill only is the temporary band-aid fix. Cartledge & Lo have brought to light what other researchers in reading have been saying. Put your resources in K-3; catch them before they fall!!!!

Teaching Urban Learners...Cartledge & Lo

What an amazing text!!! Each week I look forward to reading the next chapter. Cartledge & Lo are right on target with urban learners. As the Director of Reading First Professional Development (a federally funded grant that stems from NCLB), our targeted population is to support the lowest performing schools across Florida of which many are urban. So, as I read the text I am constantly making connections to what we have been suggesting to our reading coaches and teachers through our professional development services.

Again to recap the components of effective instruction both seen by Cartledge & Lo as well as myself and our organization (RFPD):

• Clear Academic Focus & Specific Learning Goals
• High Rates for Overt Active Responding
• Teach for Fluency/Automaticity /Accuracy
• Constantly Provide Ongoing Progress Monitoring
• Establish & Maintain High Expecations
• Build on Student Success
• Promote High Order Thinking
• Make Reading Activities Meaningful

Embracing Diversity

Teaching in this day and age means that we are faced with a diverse student population. The teaching profession must embrace that diversity and seek to meet the needs of the students that are sitting in the classrooms. No longer can we rest of what we knew about students and learning from ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. We must be willing to learn about students today, embrace their diversity and shift our approach to teaching to meet the needs of students. The only change we can facilitate is the change within us as an educator.