Category Archives: The Homeroom

[I Need Your Help!] Lamenting Signs of the Times: What Will Happen to Education and Citizens’ Voice?

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The state of education in Los Angeles today: Whose voices are being represented? Whose voices are being heard?

For the majority of 2008, I was regularly blogging for the LA Times’ education blog, The Homeroom. Although I didn’t post as regularly as I’d wanted to (perhaps the challenge facing any blog contributor), I was generally excited about getting authentic experiences, challenges, and questions arising from Manual Arts to a larger audience. More than that, I was enticed by the prospect of opening up occasionally difficult conversations for readers at large. Since I was writing largely for non-educators, I was hoping to present a more sobering, realistic vision of what we experience at our schools on a day-to-day basis. No more Freedom Writers, but also no more stereotypes of a purely “dangerous” school and community.

If I could write about school life in a way that could make readers squirm, I felt like I was doing my job (after all, I landed the writing gig after basically emailing the editor at the time and asking why the only teachers represented at the time were from the Teach For America Program). I’m not trying to paint myself as a self-righteous Zorro in the edu-blogging sphere. However, I am pleased by the strongly worded comments that would occasionally follow posts I authored. My second post – about the CAHSEE “Boot Camp” that our school instituted – was followed by a reader accusing me of being a “classist” and not being able to see “the big picture.” Similarly, I regularly blogged about the graffiti curriculum a colleague and I were developing and implementing. The long string of angry comments that followed those posts was thrilling. It wasn’t just the fact that someone would be angry enough to say I was not fit to work with students (going as far as insinuating that I should be behind bars), it was the idea that people at large – not just educators – were engaging in much-needed dialogue about education. This dialogue, admittedly, was limited and often only reactionary. However, it was a step toward re-centering the school in society.

All that being said, I am concerned about the state of the LA Times. Aside from having an official connection to the paper via The Homeroom, I don’t necessarily consider myself an LA Times-apologist. And while there are numerous outlets for us to get our news in this 2.0 day and age, I think there is a lot of value in a strong print media in the city. (Yes, critical theorists out there, I realize there are a lot of problems with this as a blanket statement.) I am distressed by the news that the LA Times are effectively cutting the local/California section of the paper. While it’s being framed as an effort to improve news at large, I can’t imagine that the few local education stories slotted into the paper’s B section will grow in any dramatic section now folded into the main A part of the paper. (It’s not like there’s now more Howard Blume to go around!) I am also wary of the many, many more cuts being made to the Times’ staff. I don’t feel equipped, at the moment, to offer a full critique of the economic decisions or situation at the LA Times or at large. However, it feels strikingly similar to the notion of the district cutting teachers in LAUSD to deal with facing budget cuts while still claiming to be interested in improving student education. Someone’s logic is a bit flawed, regardless of monthly bottom line.

Long story short, I didn’t choose to stop blogging for the LA Times in November, December and now in 2009. The paper basically cut the blog (along with a few others). There was word of folding it into the LA Times main LA Now blog at some point (the site that The Homeroom now automatically directs visitors). I can’t imagine that this will be happening anytime soon with the stretching of staff over there.

A Call For Action

As perhaps a way to turn this into a more optimistic post than those initial ‘graphs suggested, I’d like to offer up a thought. As I said, I think it’s important for educators and non-educators to be involved in larger discussions about what’s taking place in classrooms today. I think this should take place in a way that feels local for now, to help change the way most people turn to look to federal changes as a sign of what’s taking place in education (Ask the average adult and I bet they could at least say what NCLB stands for. Ask the average adult how NCLB mandates are affecting the closest public school in their community – even if they have children enrolled there – and I don’t think you’d get as consistent a response). If the LA Times aren’t going to do it (and they don’t necessarily should/have to), let’s get a general space for educators and non-educators to share and discuss education as it takes place in Los Angeles. Sure, there are plenty of sites of about education out in oceans of urls. However, what if LA had a consistent place of dialogue for its educational needs and experiences. What would you say? How would you say it? Anyone else interested or have any ideas about how to build something like this?

An Experiment

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We’ll see how this goes.

My Homeroom post about the lockdown as well as a few colleagues’ emails are also up. I realize the lockdown issue may sound like a broken record on this blog. However, serious debriefing, insane anecdotes (which will hopefully show up on the wiki), and furious teachers suggest that Friday’s incident will hopefully be something of a catalyst for change at our school.

I think the LA Times will have a story up in a day or two also.

On Changes Amongst the Rank and File

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I don’t feel at liberty to really go much further than what I’ve written over at the Homeroom, re: being principal-less at the moment.

A while back, Octavio mentioned that there is a story about the changes that took place over the course of a year at Manual. I think that this is a story that will hopefully get written down by us in the future. At such a point, I think I can more objectively and rationally articulate  my feelings and thoughts about the present situation. Until then, the above link will need to suffice.

Hey! Over Here … in the Real World!

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C’mon people. I’m in South Los Angeles here. Our school’s Internet moves at just less than a creep. I can’t get a working ethernet cord, log on to social networking sites, youtube, etc. You’ve heard me whine about it before. Obviously most of my students aren’t accessing the Internet at home. Our isle of misfit computers at school is their only (semi-)reliable resource for developing media literacy skills. I don’t say this to bash the equipment at our school, but to criticize the disparity between my students’ opportunities to engage online and students in more affluent neighborhoods.

I continue to hear about amazing things happening in Second Life, about online study groups, and vodcasted lectures. But we’re still stuck in our first, perpetually offline life, like it’s still 1999 and Napster is alive and destroying our dial up connections.

At a recent school focus group meeting, several teachers discussed frustration with technology access on campus. The skills students need to succeed in college and beyond are expanding. Sooner or later someone is going to expect my students to be able to quickly and effortlessly post to a blog, add to a wiki, or collaborate via some sort of social networking protocol. And once again, my school will have failed to prepare them for such a task.

And About those Cameras
Somewhat related to this, I recently wrote about a video experiment I am conducting in my first period class. [If you’re too lazy to read the link, I’m having students in my first period class videotape the lesson everyday. Of course, I say it much more elegantly at the link, so just go over there ya putz!] What I’d like to add is that, by handing the cameras to the students, power and agency is shifted within the classroom. Suddenly, I’m not the one scoping out misbehavior; we are complicit in maintaining order within the classroom. As a result, the camera empowers instead of demeans – unlike the recently installed security cameras that students frequently bemoan.

On Friday, Professor Greg Niemeyer spoke with my students. Part of his talk described the differences between surveillance, co-veillance, and sousveillance. I have a feeling that this is something we will be revisiting on Monday.

Greetings Homeroom Readers

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If you’re reading this site for the first time, it’s likely due to the new linkage from the LA Times Homeroom blog (if you’re not, go check out my other digital home, the Homeroom – now with beautiful picture and bio of yours truly).

Here you’ll find more education discussion as well as related projects I’m involved in. I also occasionally write about music, film, and literature (oh my!). Assuming you’re local, maybe you like reading books too. Consider being a part of the Beyond Pedagogy reading group (and yes, Gloria, once I figure out how I’ll be adding the books and dates for the group to the sidebar).

Speaking of music, Laurie Anderson’s performance last night at UCLA was a revelation. Though the middle of the show dragged slightly, the storytelling rhetoric and eerie, sardonic monotone that Anderson relies upon are still refreshing today. Hers is less a concert than an extended sneak preview of the impending apocalypse (for the view pleasure of an upperclass WASP-y audience).

Driving back to the east side after the show, Rhea and I discussed the speech-song format that Anderson has used throughout her career. The parallels to the recent acclaim of the Obama “Yes We Can Song” are clear and probably written about in a more informed manner elsewhere on the Internet. Reflecting on the form these compositions take, however, I see some clear instructional opportunities that could be adapted from the kind of work that Anderson produces. I’ll jot out some initial thoughts about this later (there’s a grant application that’s awaiting my flourishing touches).

The obvious highlight of the evening was the pop-laden “Only an Expert can Deal with a Problem.” Though a much fuller sound than the version below, the lyrics and delivery are worth your time.

Elsewhere on the Internet…

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As The American Crawl gathers more and more dust, I’d like to humbly throw out the fact that I’m now blogging for the LA Times education blog (at least occasionally). I think I’ll eventually have a bio and/or fancy picture posted there, but for now a single post is all that suggests I exist over there.

There’s a storm a-brewin’ at the high school, mark my words…