Decreasing the Negative Effects of Materialism

It seems as if people want more and more things these days.  I'm often guilty of it too, seeing the new and better version and wanting the upgrade, an additional pair of shoes or cute jeans, a copy of the book instead of the library borrowed version. I love the simple reminder in this video, especially in the week following such a busy holiday.

This year, I spent a great deal of time making presents for family and friends.  I jokingly said that they were the most expensive presents I had ever given, considering the time I put into them.  While they may not have all turned out professional looking, I can say that I poured my love into them.  Working with a small budget, I used a lot of recycled materials- half used paints reclaimed from the dump, canvas, fabrics and picture frames  purchased from garage sales, glue, pages from the funnies and old magazines, and a little ingenuity.  My children, too, had fun creating home made gifts- painting, finger knitting, hot glue gunning, collecting, and wrapping up things they had once enjoyed and knew their cousin or sibling would now enjoy.

My favorite gifts from the holiday- the lovely book my eight year old son wrote about me and the beautiful generosity of my daughter who chose three children off the angel tree and said I could use whatever money I had planned to spend on her, because she didn't need anything.

Civil Rights Education

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:March_on_Washington_edit.jpg#file

There is a huge push to improve science, reading and math education, and now, social studies which includes history, economics, geography and civics is joining the bunch. Well, it's about time! Afterall, there is so much talk about the economy and how to fix it, how to get citizens involved in the political process, and the move towards participation in a global community. Crazy when some kids don't know how to read a map and don't have any general idea about where things are located in the world. Crazier even still when students leave high school without a fundamental understanding of the principles upon which the United States was built, the principles which work to protect their individual freedoms. Not every student will leave my classroom ready to become a lawyer, but I hope that I am able to teach them the foundations of our Constitution which protect their rights, and instill a respect for the sacrifices of the many people before us who have led the way to a more just society. Even more, I hope that that education inspires them to non-violently stand up for just causes in which they believe.

It is discouraging to read this report from Teaching Tolerance which rates 35 states as an F in civil rights education. Florida is one of three states that received an A, but even our great state shows room for improvement. When I look at history and civics, the civil rights movement stands out as an illustration on the power of nonviolent protest to making wide scale changes in society. This Southern Poverty Law Center further analyzes the data, and an interesting trend emerges. The educational institutions in the South score significantly higher than the north, west and midwest.

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Growth Mindset

What causes some students to persist when things get challenging and some to quit easily? I'm sure there are many reasons, many of which educators can't influence, but teaching students to look at their learning through a growth mindset has been shown to make a huge difference, not only in learning outcomes, but also in positive self concept. My co-teacher sent me this great link that has a nice diagram of the difference it makes.

A Teacher's Hope

This summer, I had the privilege of meeting up with a student I taught in an American school in Venezuela eleven years ago. For about forty minutes, we stood out front of Universal Studios and remembered his fourth grade year together. He told me the things he most remembered about that school year, some big experiences and some little incidents. We remembered how our small third and fourth grade class organized a school wide clothes, food and toys drive and prepared a lunch for children in a nearby orphanage. (A Venezuelan orphanage is significantly different from one here in the States.) We remembered the plays we did,the songs and dances we performed, the books we read, and the party we had at the end of the year. He told me he still had the picture taken on the last day of school of me, surrounded by all the students, all of us crying over the end of the year. (Anyone who knows me knows how sentimental I can be, and, knowing I was moving on to another school made me even more so.)

This young man, now a college student, reminded me of a day when I had worn some thick rimmed, odd looking glasses to class. When many of the students laughed, I talked with them about people having differences, and how important it was not to make fun of people for the things that made them different from us. I nearly cried when he told me how, as a teenager, he often thought about that day, and how it changed the way he looked at people and responded to their uniqueness.

Teachers, I think, start out their careers hoping to make a real difference in the world. By nature, we're idealists and optimists. We imagine students who, in our class, developed the confidence, motivation and skills to make a positive impact on the world. Sadly, somehow along the way, many lose that enthusiasm. The end goal becomes more about having student pass the grade or, even worse, pass the test.

I'm not completely naive. I know that standardized testing has its place. Because of those hated tests, we're more aware of class and racial divisions in education. We're focusing on our struggling learners and have accountability in teaching them the basic skills they need to function in an ever changing world. My students do learn what they need in order to "do well", but it comes incidentally through authentic learning experiences, not through a year long focus.

I feel blessed that I am in a teaching environment where I can hang onto the optimism, idealism and enthusiasm I had as a young teacher. This year, my students will put their hands on primary historical documents and will talk to people in their community who were involved in civil rights and who represented our country in conflicts and wars. They will learn the skills to promote peace in the world, starting at the personal level and moving into the international arena. They will participate in service learning that will enrich their understanding of the complexity of problems in our world and will empower them to take steps toward fixing those problems. They will investigate, inquire and experiment. They will work cooperatively to create meaningful products that deepen their understanding of so many relevant topics. While doing all that, they will have the chance to experiment with emerging technology, learning as I learn along side them, how to participate in our increasingly digital world. And they'll balance that digital experience with time in nature, time on the water and land, time observing beautiful birds and underwater creatures and stars. They'll personally choose literature to read, figure out how they personally connect with it, and sit with friends discussing how others connected to it. Their dig into their own memories and write their own stories, discovering that every story that we tell about ourselves forms us a little more. And they'll participate in a global partnership with a school in another place in the world...hopefully realizing that the needs of people all over are the same, and that it is an international, intercultural responsibility to protect the world and be a part of the solution to our many challenges.

Not everyone will walk out of our classroom at the end of the year realizing how important this year has been in their life. But if I've done my job right, I will have nurtured the development of habits of mind that will empower my students to be lifelong learners capable of actively participating in our world, whatever it evolves into over the next few decades. And if I have done my job REALLY well, they will remember the lessons of tolerance and appreciation for all people.