February 28...Public Schools!!!

Today's blog is a lead-in to a 20 minute Teach-In for Public Schools activity we will do in class on Tuesday. Pretend that someone you know says that public schools are a waste of time (inefficient, unnecessary, etc). Please take a few minutes and post a reply to this person. Feel free to draw on big picture stuff like the school-democratic society relationship or you can take a more personal tack and think about why you personally care about public schools  (e.g., why you want to teach or do social work in one, etc.).

February 14...Progressive Education

I hope you enjoyed the "This American Life" podcast about the Brooklyn Free School. How is it an example of Deweyan educational principles in action and how is it not?

February 7...Brainstorming ITAG Ideas

Much of our Feb. 7 class meeting will be devoted to developing our ideas for ITAG projects. Remember that ITAG stands for Inquiry to Action Groups. At this stage we first need to generate possible projects. For now, please feel free to propose any ideas--we can change or discard them later...the key for this blog is to be generative! For this week, please post twice. Feel free to suggest new ideas or to comment on existing ones. I will post with a few possible projects related to existing efforts that I know about. I will organize the content of your posts into a starting point for our meeting on Tuesday, during which we will continue to brainstorm and begin to narrow the choices. Just to get the creative juices flowing, some past projects have included:

• ·   Reading Sylvia Kluth’s book on restorative justice and then working with her in an RPS High School as videographers/documentarians, capturing and describing restorative justice in practice.
•      Working with RVATSJ to construct a “Talking About Testing” Booth 
•      Developing and delivering a poetry unit for middle/high schools students at an alternative school. The culmination of the event was an open mic/slam poetry event.
•      Organizing a book donation system that culminated in a book giveaway at a branch of Richmond Public Library that serves poor and otherwise marginalized communities. 
•      Working with a local elementary school to gather/disseminate info. on healthy food choices. The group created an interactive bulletin board and used it to find out how and where families find fresh produce and other healthy food. 
•    Working with an RPS middle school to design a curriculum to use with their learning garden. This group also wrote a grant to get the garden more supplies.

Jan. 31 On Being A Teacher

This week's readings collectively make the argument that part of being a teacher includes work beyond a a particular classroom and even school. Have you ever thought of the job in these terms? Discuss...

January 24...Labaree’s Competing Purposes of Schools

Are there any major purposes of schooling left out by Labaree? What do you make of his conclusion (Is there any hope to push back against the predominant notion of education as a private good?)?