Inspiration

The video below outlines the inspiration for the project you are about to join in...cheers!

As part of my masters research I came across President Obama's opening letter  and I meet it with mixed emotions.  The voice of the letter sounds approachable, however I couldn't escape the gut feeling that this is just another political goal that that sounds great, is ambitious, and ultimately no one in the trenches believes is doable.  After all, we a big more than one year away from all students being proficient (as planned at the onset of NCLB in 2002).  

It also explained my districts interest in raising the graduation requirement to match those requirements set by California University and State Schools (CSU/UC).  

It is important to note that this is a good idea, or noble as I put it in the video.  Many of our students have no one in their life that has high expectations for them.  If not us (school system) then who?  Anthony Muhammad described it as (paraphrasing), "We are regularly giving our students carte blache decisions about the direction of their lives at ages 15, 13,...10 years old, when we let them fail based on their own behavior, decisions, and motivation.".  Rare is the adolescent that can exceed his or her families lack of expectations.  

Although Muhammud, my school district, and President Obama may be right, that doesn't take away from the very real and present challenges that come with this mindset. As my district has moved towards a graduation requirement that matches the UC/CSU enrollment requirement secondary teachers across the same needs I described in the video.  We need not look any further than results of the algebra for all 8th grade mandate of 2008 to predict how this plan will work out so long as our approach to teaching and preparing to teach remains constant.  

My prediction is as long as the lecture is the main format of information delivery, we will not be successful in meeting the needs of so many students.  The flip is the response to the differenciated instruction need that I personally have been struggling with for 4 years.  Unfortunatley this is not something you can just "try out for a unit", because it sounds nice.  It is a big front loaded endeavor, one that I am willing to take on if it means that others have an opportunity to authentically assess the effectiveness before investing in their own practice.    I will still count on the support of others, after all...I have no clue what I am doing, which I think makes worth following.

When trying something new, the most common questions that arises are along the lines of, "what happens if...?".  

Providing an opportunity for others to see how I handle things, as well as establish a network of supporting suggestions when things go wrong (and they will) is a great two way road worth driving down.

Still intersted?  

I hope so, because I certainly am.

Cheers,

Sergio