Symphonic State of Mind

To start, take a second to watch (or listen while you read) this excerpt video clip of Mahler's Fifth symphony (click to get to the youtube video). Before I was a writer, before I came back to school to pursue my teaching certification, I was a trumpeter and from the first moment I heard this symphony, not only did the opening trumpet solo capture my attention, but as Pink says in his chapter on "Symphony", the overlapping and interconnecting of the various instrument parts created an entirely unique moment I'll never forget.

I'm drawn to symphonies like this Mahler one (and many of his others) because of the layers and layers he creates to tell a story... a story that I believe is different for every listener (and possibly different every time one hears it too). Mahler definitely saw the "big picture" as Pink states, when he composed his master works. I also feel that way every time I read or write poetry.

Okay, now take a moment to read the poem of the week to the right here by May Swenson. I vote for what Sidney Harman said and totally think poets should be "tomorrow's new business leaders." She literally paints a picture with her symphony of words... a metaphor maker for sure who turns the park upside down.

If you can't tell by now, I love this idea of symphony Pink describes and while I'm not in love totally with how he related it to the business world, I think it would be a lot of fun to utilize it in our classrooms and lessons.

A Letter to E.D. Hirsch

Dear E.D. Hirsch,

My, my do you have a strong point of view on education! I'm a newcomer to your philosophy but am taken aback (greatly, mind you) by what you have to say. If you can't tell by now, I totally disagree with your ideas and want to take a moment to explain why.

My biggest issue with your ideas is within your book Cultural Literacy because I do not believe students need to know STUFF (to put it bluntly) through a uniform curriculum and then tested on it with an "objective" test of some sort. I feel like we'd be creating mini Ken Jennings all around our country (no offense, Ken) who can regurgitate useless knowledge that they aren't even sure why they know it in the first place!

Our students need to learn that stuff in context with other useful lessons... lessons that dare I say it, should be taught with hands-on, engaging activities where students not only learn from their teacher but learn from each other through dialogue, interaction and can then apply the new knowledge to other areas in their lives. When you state: "Whether a word is learned by targeted practice or by the contextual method of enriched language use, its actual meaning is, for the most part, just a brute fact. In a sense, all words are learned by rote" you imply a terrible method of learning "meaning" in which adults are the gate keepers of it all and children must obtain it from them (i.e. it sounds like a "banking" method of teaching which Paulo Freire was so strongly against).

Mr. Hirsch, while I value the fact that you've taken such a great interest in our schools and the curriculum that they follow, I do not value your philosophy and your ideas. I think progressive education is working hard in this country today and I actually hope to see some more radical approaches take a more prominent role in our schools.

Best,
Keriann

A Balancing Act

Isn't that what using the NJCCCS in our lesson plans is all about? A balancing act? Well, at least some of it is. I read through the Language Arts Literacy section because I'm going to be an English teacher and most of it seems pretty straightforward. Some of the writing requirements for "by the end of Grade 12" section under 3.2.12 B "Writing as Product" seem a little over the top to me and I kept thinking, I didn't do half of this stuff until my college English classes, how the heck am I going to teach/assist my students to do some of this?

And that's where the balancing act comes in. Maybe all of my classes won't get to "write a literary research paper that synthesizes and cites data using researched information and technology to support writing" (#6 under the above mentioned section). There are going to be times when creating a cool research paper assignment for some of my classes will be warranted but there will be other times when teaching a cause/effect essay format is more important to help my students pass the standardized exams.

So, I think as long as a school recognizes the needs and can find balance in using the NJCCCS it can be useful. I worry I'll have a supervisor who will expect to see all aspects covered over the course of a year and I just do not see that being possible. Part of me also wants to burst the bubble that surrounds these standards and say, "how many of you actually use these to guide you, help you with your lessons vs. how many of you use these and put the obnoxious little numbers in your lesson plans to please a supervisor?" I fear I'll fall into the latter description and not that I probably won't actually teach what the standards are requesting but I just don't need to mark it with a grocery deli counter tag or a USPC code to validate it.

This I believe

I've been reading the novel, Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin for a few weeks now (I'm normally not that slow of a reader but this book found me in the middle of a busy time in my life so... I get in about 3-4 pages every night right before I fall asleep), and what I originally thought I believed about education has been reaffirmed.

If you don't know the story, it "recounts the journey that led Greg Mortenson from a failed attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2 to successfully building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan". He establishes The Central Asia Institute to "support community-based education, especially for girls" in these remote regions of the world. His fight to educate these impoverished people and their children especially before the Taliban does is a remarkable one to say the least.

As I venture into my somewhat typical mission to become an educator in the American schools, I must ask myself, "what is it I believe I should be educating my students for?" As someone who grew up and went through the American public school system, it was ingrained in me to believe I needed an education to get a good job. I had to go to college and do something great with myself. And by great it was clear it should be a good-paying job, not something like the musician I wanted to be because I'd never survive. So are we grooming our students then to fulfill a capitalistic goal... get out there and make some money for yourself!

I believe there should be more to education than that. I think about the children in Pakistan learning to survive because that's what's most important in their lives right now. I believe what should be most important in our school's here in America is teaching our students how to be great citizens. We are two months away from a major election and I'd place a bet that if I asked any teenager (18 or younger) "who would you like to see as the next president of the U.S. and why?" they might be able to say "Obama" or "McCain" and might provide some reasons they've overheard their parents discussing or perhaps read online, but how many of them would actually CARE!? So many of us teach in public schools but how much of our curriculum and lesson plans have anything to do with what it means to be a "public" and what it means to be a citizen?

Keriann, a Poet at Heart

Hello and welcome to my first blog, Tick Tock Poetry. What the heck does "tick tock" refer to? I have no idea myself. I was staring at this antique clock my grandfather gave me when creating this blog, which I knew I wanted to have something with poetry in the title (I'll get to that in a minute <-- no pun intended there) and in watching the second hand ticking away, I thought to myself, "why not tick tock?" and it just stuck (mostly because ehem, the name was available! =)

So, getting back to the poetry part. I am an avid reader of poetry and a write-when-I'm-inspired poet (which happens anywhere and everywhere). I love all sorts of poetry but my faves are your modern writers: Sharon Olds, Yusef Komunyakaa, Mark Strand to name a few. So, don't be surprised if you see a poem or two on my blog.

Ok, more about me (that sounds so self-centered but that is the point of this first post), I am currently a fashion copywriter for a children's clothing company. Ya know, Elaine's job on Seinfeld? Yeah, that's me. I write the little blurbs you see next to the clothing online. Something like, "a fashion favorite perfect for play date fun! Made of our comfiest 100% cotton jersey, pre-washed for softness..." Brilliant, I know ;-) The sad part is the entire job perpetuates gender stereotypes through the language I select to sell the items. Sigh, but that's the industry, that's our society and that's how it goes.

I am thankfully moving on from that business and am in the middle of finishing up my MAT at Montclair State University to teach English at the high or middle school level. I will be student teaching next semester (Spring 09) and this time next year hopefully teaching in my very own English classroom. I am taking CURR 530 as one of my core requirements (actually substituting it for one of my required courses) and am very much looking forward to learning more about curriculum development. I think this class in conjunction with my methods class will play together nicely in preparing me for my future as a teacher.

One more personal note, I am a HUGE tennis fan and as I write, the U.S. Open Men's Semis are on... so I'll leave you now for the battle between the fantastic Federer & cocky Djokovic (can you tell I'm a Fed fan?) and tick tock with you later.