New Media

To me, New Media encorporates the wide variety of digital media students engage in today. Blogging, texting, emailing, video games. podcasting, and a variety of other communication mediums fall under the New Media heading. My students, even at the second grade level, encounter media in a variety of ways in their daily lives. In my classroom, we use regularly use the internet for emailing and research. In their home lives, they use the internet to IM friends, play video games (for hours) and download music to their iPods.
Although I try to utilize the technology available in my school to encorporate New Media in my teaching, I often find that we have "technical difficulties" and either cannot access the internet because the network is down, or our equiptment is broken. In addition, the equiptment we do have, is just not maintained well enough to last. This year, we had increased access to SmartBoards and there were several boards and projector carts available for teacher use in each wing of our school. However, the boards and carts were so large that I could barely fit them in my classroom! I know that I was not the only one that felt that way because at the end of the year the boards and carts were completely covered in dust!
Sometimes I think that districts purchase items just to show the parents that they are utilizing technology, but there is little thought given to the logistics of the classroom. In addition, no investment is made to educate teachers on how to use this new technology in a meaningful way. Therefore, I find my ability to tap into the "New Media" my students engage in, has to be relegated to homework assignments that are optional like accessing certain sites to read information about a subject we are studying. One assignment that I had the students complete this year was to write a review of a video game that they enjoyed playing at home. The students really enjoyed this assignment and I would have liked students to have been able to bring in the games to show the class, but the equiptment was out for repairs that week.

Reading Autobiography

Reading Autobiography

I do not remember a time when I struggled with reading or writing. I have always loved reading. Some of my earliest memories of reading are of my father sitting at the table engrossed in a newspaper, while my mother read a book over her morning coffee. As a child, books were always around me and were a part of my daily routine. Whether I was being read a bedtime story, watching my father write reports for work, or helping my mother bake cookies by reading a recipe together, I was surrounded by literacy. I do not remember exactly how or when I learned to read, and it is possible that I was able to read before I started school. However, I do remember the value of being a “good reader.” I recall many times being selected to read aloud in class. I remember being selected to read a passage at church during my first holy communion and I remember how proud my family was to see me standing at the podium in front of the whole congregation.
My “success” with literacy was celebrated not only in the classroom, but in my home life as well. In fact, my interactions with literacy at home were very similar to those I experienced at school; a connection already existed between my home world and school world. I never understood how reading could be hard for someone, how some of my friends were never asked to read “out loud” or share their stories. I didn’t understand why some students needed “help” with reading and spent so much time with the teacher, while I completed my work independently.
When I entered high school, although I still enjoyed reading, I did less and less of it. My reading outside of school was always related to school in some way. I remember not really enjoying any of the books I was required to read. However, I do remember how poorly prepared I was for the volume of reading my college coursework required. I remember spending hours in the library desperately trying to study material, and not really knowing how to study.
As a Political Science major, I remember reading books on theory, law, and history, although I do not remember specific titles and authors. It was the reading that I did for my Education minor that really made an impression on me. I remember reading the works of Jonathon Kozol and being so shocked and saddened by the conditions he described in urban schools. The great disparities that exist in our public education system inspired me to write my college thesis on school financing in the state of New Jersey, and I examined how the Abbott decision evolved and changed the educational landscape of the state. It was this research that led me to my first teaching job at a charter school in Jersey City. I wanted to see how, or if, the charter school movement could address the challenges facing urban districts.
During my first year of teaching, I remember reading several books by Katie Wood Ray, Donald Graves, Lucy Calkins, and others, as part of a book study group founded by the teachers at my school. Although no money was budgeted for professional development, the teachers that I worked with decided to create their own professional development opportunities, and their dedication continues to inspire me today. Although I no longer work in a charter school, or even in an urban district, the conversations I had with teachers that first year, and the reading we did together, continues to inform my daily practice.
Lucy Calkins dedicates her book, The Art of Teaching Reading to her son Evan, “…who knows that reading, writing, listening, and talking are ways to build a better world” (Calkins, 2001). My own reading inspires me to question the world around me, and it has led me to answers. My own writing has made me a better listener, able to hear the messages hidden between the lines. Reading and writing have allowed me to speak my mind, and given me the knowledge upon which to base my ideas. Most of all, reading has inspired me to teach, and in doing so, I am able to share the gift of reading with others, and play a role in building a better world.

References

Calkins, L. (2001). The art of teaching reading. New York: Longman.

Discussion Questions -Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Discussion Questions

1 - In a discussion about public schools in India, Blake and Blake talk about people abandoning the public school system, “Poor lower class, illiterate parents who desperately wish their children to become literate are paying cripplingly heavy sums to send their children to newly opened private schools – called “public” schools in the British tradition – particularly if the language of instruction is English”(p.5).What implications would this type of practice have for any country in which a poor system of public education leads to increased privatization of schooling and/or a rise in “for-profit” schools?

The idea that a country's public school system is so terrible that access to quality schooling is limited by wealth, is frightening. Education then becomes a privilege, available only to a limited socio-economic class. However, is this really any different from what occurs in our own state and across our country? We all are aware of districts where parents choose to pull their children from the the local public schools when they are not satisfied with the education provided. Furthermore, people choose not to live in areas with poor public schools. When looking for a new house, the first question usually asked of a realtor is, "What are the schools like?" In addition, we all know about districts, where parents cannot afford to put their children in private school, nor can they move to a different town or city with a "better" school. Instead, they are forced to send their children to underfunded schools, with minimal resources. It makes me think of the work of Jonathon Kozol, who vividly describes the "savage" conditions of public schools in areas often adjacent to the wealthiest school districts in the country. What then, is the answer? Do the "public" really see the importance of a quality public educational system? Is it not best for all children to have access to free, quality education? Wouldn't it make sense take the time to work and improve a public system already in place? Or, if given the opportunity, is it easier just to abandon it all together?



2. Do you think literacy is 'the most important struggle we face today?'

This question was brought up in response to Blake and Blake's opening statement in Chapter 1,
"The goal of worldwide literacy is probably the most important struggle we face today" (Blake & Blake, 2005, p.1). The class discussion followed, "Would a starving person choose a book or a sandwich?" I think the problem goes even further - why do people end up in that position in the first place? We all know that poverty and education are linked. But is education all people need to break the poverty cycle? If the person chose the book over the sandwich, would he/she really be able to buy his/her own sandwich one day? Or, is there a power structure in place that ensures that some people go hungry? People with little or no education are usually forced to take low paying, dead-end jobs with little opportunity for advancement. Low pay often leads to long hours or second jobs which allows little or no time to devote to independently advancing one's own education. I agree with one of my classmate's statements that we have to do more than give people the choice - a sandwich or a book, we have to acknowledge the deficits in a system that allows people to be starving in the first place.