Reflection Journal (410)
03/22/10
Starting the fourth week of study.
Monday appointment with Hudson School. Will be teaching Excel to 6th grade.
3/22
Meeting with Hudson School.
Everyone at the school is so busy I really have to carve out my own niche here.
Meeting with my mentor. My syllabus will be ready for
next Monday.
3/23
Studying birth and raising children affects
on environment. A lot of personal stuff here as I was a single parent in a
foreign country (Australia) whilst my children were young; one at three years
and the other was six months old. What affect would my environment (living in
the front of a tofu factory in Adelaide) have had on them.
Also flying to New York to see my family when they were one
and three and a half year old. I flew by myself.
The first child – his mother and
I did not know he was on his way – we had met in
Sydney and we were in the States when the 'event' would have happened. We drove
across the States; New York to San Francisco, the first month of pregnancy
drinking huge amounts of alcohol everyday and smoking
cigarettes and doing other various things.
3/24
Worked on Grade 6 Lesson Plan: Using a
Spreadsheet to fat content from a fast food restaurant. After
meeting with the person who will be my mentor I am not sure how much imput I will have from him. He does not answer my phone
calls or my emails. I am being left with a new group of students in a school I
have not taught in before. But I know 6th graders – I have taught
them for years and there is a certain generic quality – we will come good. I have to be careful when teaching this particular
topic; if some students are overweight they could feel singled out. But in this
school there were only 12 students – what a dream class. Because of the time
problem – of not having time to investigate schools, and this one being near my
home in Jersey City and the principal being a well known
educator I chose this school. I went to the first staff meeting and was introduced
but no one else wanted to take me on as it is toward the end of the year so I
am with a computer class, what I have been doing for a decade. My mentor is
young enough to be my grandson – not to worry. He seems quite disinterested but
will do what he can .He has two years teaching experience and forty years
younger than me. Teaching is always a new challenge.
4/07 Preparation for first class
observation tomorrow. I will be in a 4th grade
class. Gathering together the papers I need for my mentor. Will give him:
choose one of four
tasks
which theorist will
I be influenced by? Piaget or Vygotsky?
4/08
4th Grade class.
In the morning the 4th grade class went to chapel
then to music class. I attended chapel with them.
Having worked in various schools this is my first one with
any spiritual participants. Briefly looking at other schools (not counting
universalities) I have worked at:
·
Albany, New York; two singled sex
academies – private schools. There was some emphasis on service to the
community but with no spiritual gatherings it felt empty. I am not a very
spiritual or religious person but there was something empty about the culture
of the schools. There was a lacking cohesiveness.
·
NYC – A
private school, the only one at the time which was a school for profit. There
was a strong service element and link with other countries. For example there
were trips to Peru, Africa, India and China to do work projects such as putting
in wells or building a school. The school was run as a business and because of
this there were low salaries, and for some reason not a community spirit within
the school. The teachers were often disgruntled claiming everything was about
profit and not really the students. There was no specific spiritual focus but
there were rules. This is an IB school, and the curriculum was based on IB
standards.
·
NYC – a
public charter school. There was definitely no spirituality at this school. And
maybe this was part of the problems within the school. It was a daily
battleground with police at the school several times a week in the upper-grades
( 6- 8 ) and seemingly very little teaching going on.
I was the technology integrator and my role was working with teachers. My main
concern was keeping track of things. For example, more than 20 new Macs went
missing in the first few months, 7 out of 10 still cameras and four out of five
video cameras. Nothing could be unattended. On the first day of school, an
administrator was giving a talk on the year ahead, he left his new Power Mac,
still connected, walked out of the room and came back to find his computer
gone. There was no centering or any social responsibility being taught.
Spirituality of any sort would have helped in this school.
·
St. Luke's School is an Episcopal
school. There is not a lot of focus on this except for the time the students go
to chapel, usually two or three times a week. The students partake in the
service, singing songs, do their prayer lists (which usually consist of various
dead pets they give blessings to or a celebrity gets prayed for). Somehow this
one event in the student's life I think gives some grounding to their lives or
at least in their school day life. Teachers rarely participate in the service
nor sing. I doubt that any are Episcopal, the principal is a Unitarian and few
would consider themselves Christian. Because it is an 'inclusive' school there
seems to be an almost total avoidance within the school of anything Christian.
Actually within the school, connected to the church, there are no Christian
symbols or images but there are Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and etc. work
throughout the school. What stands out with the chapel prayer list is that
students think of others. In class students give their list to the teacher
verbally during class, before chapel. By asking them
to say something they care about they are going beyond their immediate selves.
On today’s
list there were the pandas in China, The Amazon, Iceland (this is the week of
the volcano that halted world flights to Europe), runners in the Boston
Marathon, And for the list of whose souls should be prayed for there was:
Kate’s grandpa, Febbie Prince – she hung
herself from being bullied on the Internet (this gave rise to a discussion on
bullying), Gerty – a garden snake, Lizzy –
another snake, Red the fish and several other pets.
Saying all this about spirituality my first day at St.
Luke's School followed Easter break and Passover. Our 4th grade teacher being Jewish
was able to enlighten the students about Passover. They had begun work on
posters before the Spring Break (Easter Holidays) regarding Passover.
Our teacher, Elon, has a very organized
classrooms.
20 April, Tuesday.
Kids do not fail a grade they are “counseled
out” in
other words go to another school. This puts pressure on students to not only
behave but also to work hard. There are a certain amount of scholarships for
those who cannot pay $30,000 per year. They receive a yearly scholarship based
on their grades and social interactions. All students, even those paying full
fees have to perform to the school’s accepted
levels. Students applying for entrance spend a day at the school and are
observed for interaction and behaviour by teachers as part of the process of
entrance. Before pre-school, children are observed for social abilities such as
sharing as part of the entrance exam. There is a waiting list for entrance.
Currently the reading book for 4th grade is ‘Number
the Stars’ by Lois Lowry a story of a ten-year old Jewish girl in
Copenhagen during the period the Nazis occupied Denmark. What I found different
with this school than other schools is that the students love reading. It is
one of their favorite activities, and it is a treat to be given quiet reading
time in class. In other schools the students would rather spend time on
computers and this is something that stands out in this school. One student
recently was reported not doing their homework and the parents said they were
always reading books in the evening. This is a credit to St. Luke’s
School education when reading is more fun than watching television or playing
computer games.
21 April Wednesday
As 4th grade is studying Eastern religions and
Buddhism in particular we had a field trip to The Tibet Centre. We took the # 1
train one stop to 14th and walked the last couple of blocks. As I
have taken a lot of school trips on subways for various field trips, though
never 4th grade, I was interested in behaviour and interest at the
centre from the children.
Walking to the subway and taking the train the students were
much better behaved than other schools, especially last year when I worked at a
public school and the children were so unruly.
At the Tibetan Centre we had a guide who explained what the
centre was about and showed us and discussed the Buddhist artifacts. They knew
how the Buddha had become the Buddha already and the life story of the 14th
Dalai Lama, who will be at the centre in a few weeks. They were very interested
in all that was explained and asked a lot of questions about the statues and
about Buddhism in general.
Learning about enlightenment and ethics and morals at this
age is a good grounding. This fits in well with Piaget's Theory of Moral
Development; the autonomous morality, or the morality of cooperation at around
ten year old, which are the age of our 4th
grade students. (Berk, 2009 p. 492)
4/26
I lost the past
week's reflective journal due to my computer crashing. I back everything up but
after working two 12 hour plus days on assignments last weekend then teaching
Monday and Tuesday all day I got behind and lo and behold now I am really
behind.
I had written about Excel in 6th grade and
applying chapter 7 – cognitive development as much as possible. I am going
through my own crisis or something as it is reading all this. My PhD was in
communication and the Internet. Not child development. My crisis is that I was
a single parent from when one child was six months old and the other three
years old. We had little money and lived on a farm and then other homes – we
had 10 homes in 10 years. I read all this material and place my children at the
different ages for cognitive development. We took a trip from Adelaide to New
York when they were one and a half and fours old, just me and them – to
visit my family. We went again a few years later and the last time we took a
trip around the world they were nine and eleven. I was thinking they were older, they seemed older for what I have been reading. We
had a terrible life. One spent his fifteenth year locked up for murder but got
out after a year as the person he was with was the one actually did it and
confessed. My son was just doing the 'protecting his mate' thing. What a shit
year. My youngest said at age seven he would play for the New York Yankees when
he grew up – he did get signed by the LA Dodgers at age 17 and played a
couple of years pro ball until he committed suicide soon after turning 20
because his girlfriend who was in Sydney and he was with the Dodgers in Florida
broke up with him. He flew to Sydney and went off his 15th story hotel balcony.
It is difficult reading this – I did it wrong
but being on my own in a foreign country was difficult. The South Australian
Family Court gave me custody but as their mother lived in Adelaide I was not
allowed to move back to the States with them. So what does a single parent in
Australia do? I did 14 years of university. And it has been good because I have
taught at university in New York for several years, and I have taught K – 12
for more than five years and now I am doing prac teaching at two different
schools and next semester in Adelaide I will be doing a prac teaching. Then if
I pass this bloody thing – at age 63 – I
will try to get a teaching job somewhere in the world again.
Collaborative event. I
will begin to write this out. This is my first time being a part, all day, of a
classroom. As the technology integrator at the past school, the computer
teacher in two previous schools, and the Chair of Computing, and Director of
Technology for two years all in private schools I have never been the one who
did all the classes. I am use to students coming to my computer room. I lucked
out and have a great 4th grade mentor teacher who has really taken
this project on. He tells me everything he is doing and why. I am doing two
units with him. My third unit I am doing at another school and this did not
work out so well. The school was just too busy for me, so I have been teaching
6th grade computing three days a week and I am doing this for a
ten-week block. I feel a bit ripped off as I have done this at two schools
before but I need to do it for this course and have a 'mentor' observing and
filling out my forms. My 'mentor' the IT person, young enough
to be my soon if not grandson sort of observers. His only comment has
been that I was going a bit fast. OK – I am all for
doing it better, and I have slowed down – though the
kids were with me all along. I cannot imagine what he will write on the form
for me.
May
03 Monday
I seem to get a lot of ‘yard duty’lately.
At first it seemed like a waste of time watching children run around like their
heads were cut off, but now I find it is a good time to get to know other
teachers in an academic setting. St. Luke’s is a very community type of school,
being small and in the heart of The West Village. Teachers have lots of get
togethers, sometimes a parent will have staff visit
once a term. Nothing like having a party in a ten-million dollar home, makes one realize no one is really different – parents
have children at the school and they are concerned their children get a good
education. It is really enjoyable (outside of the well catered food tables)
discussing with people about education and for me I enjoy it when someone is in
the technology business. One of our teacher’s husband
just put in the telephone cabling for Bob Dylan’s apartment in lower Manhattan.
St. Luke’s is near the World Trade Centre and on September 11 they could see
the buildings coming down, and children had to stay at school into late in the
evening. You hear stories when on yard duty that would never be heard otherwise
(and surely not in Adelaide), so I am enjoying yard duty. A small playground
surrounded by large buildings. At the end of the day whether in a small rural
Australian school like my children went to or at a school in the midst of
Manhattan, children have the same issues and work out socialization in the yard
wherever they are.
04 Tuesday
I
have the students in fourth grade at St. Luke’s putting their work in folders
now.
I
strive to create a learning space that is accessible by all students. Keeping
journals and portfolios is key to this. I use
portfolios in assessing overall achievement of students in the following way.
As I have taught computer classes in K – 12 and at university it has made sense
to have students create folders for their work and save it to both the school's
server and to whatever device they had, such as a thumb drive, DVD, an online
domain, or to email it to their own email. This has been dependent on the age and
grades I am instructing. I have an individual folder for each student. The goal
is that within the folder there would be a folder for each grade and the
student would be able to go return to their folder each year and recover what
had been done earlier. For example, in grade two, children were using the
applications, Comic Life, iVideo, Power Point and
several others. I am not at that school this year and therefore I am unaware
whether they are adding to their folders for grade two. In grade 6, 7, 8, 9, and
10 at a previous school students were creating
webpages, 3D animations and etc. and they were saving their work into their
school folder as well as to online sites such as Google Documents providing a
method of growth analysis in the future. With older students, year 11 and 12,
electronic portfolios are important as part of their resume to enter
university. They can show what they have accomplished in design and their
sophistication with various applications. We have had video projects that they
saved to youtube and other online sites that are
viewable and commentable by others. Within their
folders there are subfolders labelled as drafts and
finals. And it was not just work from my technology classes that we were saying
but also work from other areas such as creative writing.Claimed
benefits of portfolio assessment, Brady and Kennedy (2009, P. 68) include the
tangible illustrations of student learning, facilitation of metacognition,
and the
enhancing of the student ownership of their learning.
05 Wednesday
Attending a homeless handout – seven students and our
principal, Mr. Simpson, and went to a church uptown to handout. It was a good
experience for everyone. The students who come from the elite families of NYC
bagging up food and handing them to a long line of people, mostly who are
homeless keeps us all aware of the world we live in. St. Luke’s does this
weekly and on Fridays they have AIDS night where about five people come for
dinner in our cafeteria. I have gone to several of these as well as their AIDS
walk. St. Luke’s Church has a mission that is specifically catering to the gay
community. It is actually called the gay Episcopal Church, the white female
priest is married to her black female partner and they have a couple of adopted
black children. This is a very inclusive school.
06 Thursday
Working
with Schools Unite Network “SUN” creating safety maps to make safe
walking routes for students throughout Manhattan. We will be including St.
Luke’s soon and I have been finding where and how students commute to school.
Most students live nearby and are brought to school by their nanny. Several
take a town car or taxi. I do not know anyone taking a subway, probably because
these are younger students and more wealthy. There are a lot of students in primary
age taking subways alone and this was the way at my previous public school. A real contrast to the previous private school where students would
all be hailing taxis after school even down to sixth grade. The only
ones taking subways and busses at St. Luke’s is staff. Still many of the
students walk the few blocks home with a friend and some alone, so finding safe
routes is important. Eventually we will have these as Google alerts to families
and caregivers so if there are any incidences in the area we can quickly
identify the area to avoid. Recently there has been a lot of activity from the
media due to some high profile celebrity divorces – they hang out in front of
the school gate and we have to shoo them away – because these are children are
have the right to privacy. I was able to only get a couple of student release
forums to share their news video – several children cannot be photographed at
any time or identify in anyway because of who their parents are.
07
Friday
Curriculum is those subjects that are most useful for living in contemporary
society.
The fact is that we live now with issues that need to be embraced now. For too
long myth and beliefs that are thousands of years old have held progress back.
Yesterday's narrative was good for yesterday but we need to develop
contemporary narratives based on science, facts, experience and not regurgitate
what once was thought to be true. Basically the old curriculum needs to be
trashed and put together in a way that will move society forward and not as an
appendage clinging for yesterday's hopes and wishes. Then again it is useful to
include some of the past narrative to know how any topic/position has gotten to
where it is.
10
Monday
Tolerance is an overused word, however when I
view schools I have taught at in New York vs schools
I have only read a bout in the South of the USA
schools in New York are much more adaptable to different social influences. New
Yorkers, before 911 and after, even though made up of many various cultures do
work toward the greater community. In a NYC school there can be dozens of
different cultures in one classroom. In many schools in middle class United
States there is an over abundance of white Christian
children. I went to such a school K – 12, where there was not one person in the
school that was of colour and outside of a few Catholics, there were only
Protestants. No Jews, Muslims or anything else and this was in Upstate New York
in the 1960's in a school of many thousand. There was little tolerance for
anyone else and this is still like that in many areas.
My Specialization is computer technology and
a socially critical curriculum to me would and does incorporate views and
interactions with other cultures and not just what is in our community in NYC
but with other countries as we take education into the Flat Earth principle
worldwide.
We
are all responsible for student safety and I am happy to a be
a part of this.
July SEMESTER TWO
TORRENS VALLEY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
ADELAIDE SOUTH AUSTRALIA
19 th Monday
first
day
General Questions
·
what is the
educational environment?
Date
of Opening:
4th February 1980 Celebrating their 30th anniversary
this August
Years
Taught: Reception
to Year 12
August
2009 Census 566 students
Students:
ü Junior Primary
(R – 2) 105
ü Primary (Years 3
– 6) 161
ü Middle School
(Years 7 – 9) 151
ü Senior School
(Years 10 – 13) 149
·
what are
cultural backgrounds
From my observations this is primarily a white middle class
group with two or three students having Aboriginal heritage, four or five
Asian, and five or so Indian.
·
Students
wear uniforms throughout the grades – this differs from the other two schools I
mentored at during the first semester where there was no uniform code. However,
at the three previous schools I have taught K – 12 at; two private and one
public there did wear uniforms. The advantages of wearing uniforms is the
security of the school, if someone does not have a uniform then they most
likely do not belong on campus. The main advantage is that those who can afford
expensive clothes are on equal footing with students who cannot.
Trendiness/fashion is not part of the equation which often detracts from the
academic life of the
student.
Fiona's Care Group
Care group and roll call, settling children down – boys
still speaking whilst teacher speaking – looking at timetable – 17 students –
Went somewhere for holidays Fiona tells noisy boys she will send them outside
if they keep talking. Read Bible verse –
first day back after holidays
I was introduced talked about NYC teaching computer classes.
Fiona's first class: Research Project (RP) students have
netbooks
Community and etc. to link to RP
school intranet page
– students to link research project
Have in writing – capabilities – final evaluation
multimedia
Google docs survey monkey podcasts, webpage, wiki
pdf doc
20th Tuesday
All learners – what does that mean? In these schools in NYC
it covers the person living in the street, the subway driver, the mayor (well
maybe not him), we are students. We are all diverse. Even in my lifetime it has
been a life of diversity from being homeless in the streets of NYC as a
teenager, to being a San Francisco hippie, a New Orleans artist, parent, poet,
writer, photographer, researcher, traveller (26 countries last count), student,
priest, astrologer (though only for 40 years), tofu manufacturer, class
structures? Think I have lived in most, lots of different political
incarnations and on and on – I think I have identified with most segments of
society at some time – I have tried heaps of styles. So when it comes to being
able to ‘Recognize a learner’s specific
learning needs and seek specialised support’
well I am them, I have done that
- I can identify with you mate and as a fellow learner with many needs I
can support anyone.
21 Wednesday
Inclusive societies are societies where diversity is valued and where all
citizens have the means and opportunity to participate and prosper in the
civic, cultural, social and economic life of the community. (Social Inclusion
Statement 2009-10). The current literature on legal
and ethical guidelines for inclusive practices, despite the complex arrangement
of laws and policies for education in Australia, does not show that there is a legal mandate to ensure
that inclusive education occurs (Constitutional and legislative framework for
inclusive education in Australia).
I suppose what is good about a ‘Christian
School’ is that there is not supposed to be separation but just by its nature
there is. Anytime an intuition labels itself or boxes itself in with a
philosophy it is no longer inclusive. Would a Christian School happily accept
Muslims and Buddhists, atheist, or any one of the many groupings that are not
considered Christian? What about the basic rational for any particular course?
Every course is based on a Biblical Perspective. This is not against anything
Australian but at the same time it is no longer inclusive.
St. Luke’s in The Village, New York City was an
inclusive school to the point where it played down its Christian heritage to
the point to where they seemed embarrassed to celebrate anything to do with
Christianity.
22 Thursday
Students are much more wired today than when I did my PhD (”Conversational
Analysis of Chatroom “Talk” between
1998 – 2004 at the University of South Australia). The socio-cultural factors 15 years ago was using chatrooms
to communicate via the Internet. It would be a few years before people started IMing on their cell phones which was individualized and
involved two people and now we are back to a similar culture of when I did my
research on chatrooms with Facebook and Twitter and
the many other social sites (I have tested more than one-hundred in the past
decade) where streams of consciousness are sent out and 'commented' one, though
the chatroom mentality is not the same. In Virtual
Worlds such as Second Life there is more of an essence of chat in real time.
Does everyone want to be so in touch with one another? I feel like baily out –
I do not want anyone Facebooking or Tweeting me whilst I am walking on the beach. Can we get
students away from Social Media? Harrisburg University of Science and Technology —has drawn praise,
criticism and even a jab on late-night TV — meant students and staff could not
access Facebook, Twitter or a host of other social networks while on campus for
a week.
23 Friday
Going through my summative assessment
of SketchUp. The most difficult aspect of assessment I have had over the
years, and I am still working on this, is how to grade differently for students
in various grades. Now at TVCS teaching SketchUp to grades 8, 9 and 10 I am
seeing little difference. They all are using the same syllabus, building a
house and populating it with furniture. Because of my going over each step
together I see no difference with the learner in any of the grades. A few in
each grade have used the program at home and are already quite adept at using
it so they are assisting me with getting other students on board. Now that they
are left on their own to construct a project I am not sure how I will grade an
8th grader vs. a 10th grader using the same program. I
have had this with teaching web design, 3D animations and many other programs.
As SketchUp is being used as a separate unit I am unable to tie it in with the
curriculum which would have made grader easier.
19 Thursday
Giving a presentation at Tabor College
to pre-service teachers on technology in the classroom.
Teachers do not have the time to investigate all the wonderful things available
on line and the purpose of a technology integrationist is to know the
curriculum inside out so as to assist the teachers when a program can be
adapted for the work.
Afterwards I reflected on how quickly two hours went and
whether I in fact covered too much territory. I think next time when they come
to Torrens Valley School I will concentrate on only one topic, probably how I
have integrated SketchUp throughout the curriculum; grades 1 – 12.
20 Friday
23 Monday
Several teachers have students at Torrens Valley and I have
them in my classes. It is easy to be self-conscious when co-teaching and
realizing the teacher’s child is also a student. What I enjoyed today the most
was when the mother yelled out ‘I got it’ then realized her excitement to
having figured out a problem in design in Google SketchUp had been expressed
more exuberantly than she had planned. So my co-teacher, parent, and now
student left class laughing and happy to be a part of the lesson. What is
especially good about this is that as co-learners it encourages others if we
all step out of assumed roles and become active learners. I have occasions over
the years, where I, who was supposed to be the expert on a piece of software
would have a student I was instructing show me a different process than I was
doing which would give a more rewarding result.
September
6
Monday
The Year 10 Curriculum consists of seven compulsory full
year subjects plus three elective subjects per semester. The curriculum is
under regular review and some changes may be made before commencement of the new year.
Compulsory
Subjects
|
Lessons
|
|
Biblical Perspectives (BIPE) |
3 |
|
English |
5 |
|
Mathematics Level 1 or Level
2 or Level 3 (Numeracy for Work and
the Community) |
5 |
|
Personal Development & Community: includes a Work
Place Practices SACE unit and Work Experience |
2 |
|
Physical Education |
2 |
|
Science |
5 |
|
Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) |
5 |
|
Elective subject choice: Elective 1 Elective 2 Elective 3 |
4 4 4 |
|
Care Group lesson/Assembly as needed |
1 |
TOTAL
|
40
|
Students choose 3 electives per semester from the following:
· Art
· Computing
· Design &
Technology
· German
· Home Economics
· Music
· Physical
Education Theory (Semester 2 only)
· Word Processing
7th
Tuesday
In today's world most people, those who have
to provide for their own means, are required to have knowledge that will equate
to a salary. In our current economical climate, at
least in New York City, many teachers, some with a PhD, are working at
bookstores at minimum wage because there are no teaching jobs. Teachers with
decades of teaching experience work for Borders or as a waiter in a restaurant.
Is it worth getting this degree?
8th Wednesday
The
likely effects of targeting NAPLAN related outcomes for a period of the year
would be both positive and negative. Students would get a strong understanding
on those literacy skills being tested in the NAPLAN and would have many
opportunities to practice and improve these skills throughout their schooling
years.
Focusing
predominantly on testing students' literacy and numeracy however, may mean that
little importance is placed on other subjects as well as the individual
students' needs.
The
potential a 'business as usual' approach to curriculum implementation has for
addressing NAPLAN requirements as it proceeds:
Applying
a ' business as usual' approach to curriculum would mean that the general
overall processes tested in NAPLAN would be included in the students'
curriculum rather than just the specific outcomes. This would mean that
students would have a much broader understanding and knowledge of all subjects
and processes, rather than very specific ones, targeted only at achieving good
NAPLAN testing results.
21 Tuesday
After
teaching at four universities (three in the USA one in South Australia) then
three New York City School K-12 schools and one Up State New York school, being
a student teacher had its ups and downs. I have been a co-teacher before in my
role as technology integrator but never as a student teacher.
I
just started teaching one day, University of South Australia, then at some
point I was teaching grades 9 - 12 in New York, then grades 6 - 10, and my last
employment was teaching K - 3 giving me a K - university teaching portfolio.
After all this and the job market dwindling rapidly in the United States,
110,000 teachers lost our jobs last year without replacement, and me turning
63, it seemed time to add an educational component to my schooling. My PhD was
in New Media from the University of South Australia and my Masters was in
literature and a BA in journalism, which is all fine to teach in a New York
private school but not in public schools, in Australia or the rest of the
world. Therefore, I have taken another degree.
I
had gone through the first 44 years of my life with little schooling - leaving
home and tenth grade to do the '60s. Then whilst being a
single parent with two boys in South Australia it seemed natural at age 44 to
begin university which I did for the next 14 years non-stop. Now with a
five year break I am doing it again.
Doing
my practicum at three schools, one in New York City, one in New Jersey, and one
in South Australia has furthered my education in ways that being a student
teacher at one school in one country would not. I am most interested in the
global schoolhouse, and I have been to schools in many countries including Viet
Nam, Cambodia, Thailand, China, and most recently Guatemala. I was offered a
job at a school in Beijing but my wife and I were not ready to move to China at
the time. We are currently on a world-wide search for teaching jobs.
So
what did I learn and what was different than when I was at all my previous
schools, the ones who paid me? Aside of suddenly putting together classes and
teaching them and not being paid the rewarding and learning aspect was within
the community and working together with other teachers on a daily basis. In my
paid life (ah I miss the money) I was on my own, I was
a law to myself. Now, for example, at St. Luke's in New York City, I was the
student teacher in fourth grade. In my years of teaching I had missed that
particular grade and it was different in that I was part of a regular
curriculum, not teaching technology. My school in New Jersey was a repeat of
other years of teaching and I was only fulfilling my requirements to get a
teaching certificate. My current term of teaching in South Australia is
different all together. Though I have ended up completely putting together the
course and I am teaching it (the teacher is out with knee surgery for the term
so I became the unpaid replacement with the onus on me to do what I wanted - I
taught Google SketchUp).
EXIT INTERVIEW
contact Myanmar 2014
Blog updated February 15, 2014 K - 12 technology (updated February 04, 2014). Travel Site (2014) updated February 14, 2014. Videos/Blogs on Youtube, Twitter, Wordpress, Photo albums. Updated 15 Second Street, Round Lake, New York and photos from parent's 1943 wedding as well as Leigh's page. Farmville page updated Thursday, March 17, 2011 5:58 PM. neuage.org updated February 11, 2014 10:31 PM neuage.us updated February 05, 2014 7:21 PM. Resume updated February 05, 2014
Technology Coordinator and Computer Teacher at Dalian American International School, 2 Dianchi Road, Golden Pebble Beach, Dealian Development Area 116650 P.R. China
Blog updated / Integrating Technology Blog February 10, 2014. also: terrell.neuage.us and/or neuage.me
Today working on picture poem links starting around "better" (). Picture poems are the digital format of work I did as a street artist in New Orleans in the 1970s, as well as New York City, Honolulu, San Francisco and Adelaide South Australia. Follow @neuage
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