All posts by Cat Tishelman-Charny

MVP #8

Blurring the In-School Ouf-of-School Line, Urban Adolescents

“A young person’s goals are often considered agents only if they include large-scale activism, for example, petitioning an elected representative regarding nuclear waste disposal or cleaning up a section of the Hudson River. However, I propose that agency can also be more personal, focused on one’s own life and immediate community.” (Basu, 254)

This passage stood out to me because of the various definitions and interpretations of the word “agency”. I agree with the interpretation that agency is personal, and that a person must use their own power within themselves in order to be able to help other people. I view acquiring agency as taking control of the smaller or simpler things in life, such as walking, reading or writing. Multiple members of my family lost their agency when they lost their ability to walk. They had to depend on family members for their activities of daily living such as grocery shopping and driving. Agency is intellectual or physical power, and part of an educator’s job is to help empower their students, thus giving them agency.

MVP #7 – Standardization and NCLB

Differentiation as an Approach to Teaching Diverse Learners, Urban Adolescents

“If the current trends persist, we will soon be able to describe the middle school curriculum as a collection of test-driven content and skills isolated in separate subject classes and superficially covered by teachers using standardized methods and materials. It is time for middle school educators and policy makers to raise some serious questions about the kind of curriculum that seems to be emerging from the standardization movement” (Brown, 196).

This passage stood out to me because it speaks to some of my fears for students of today and the future, many of which come from the effects of No Child Left Behind. Public school requirements for standardization and emphasis on testing are causing students stress and ruining their willingness to be creative and engaged. The cycle of memorizing information to spit back out for a test and then moving on and forgetting about it is not productive for a student’s growth or development, nor is it productive for society. There are so many different ways for children to learn and grow which, of course, do not all line up with one another, and one of the goals of education should be to help students figure out ways to open their minds as unique individuals. I wonder to what extent these public school standards may change in the future, and how I’ll be able to use whatever power or control I have to get around the increasing standardization.

Media & Technology Critique: YouTube

Media and Technology Critiques, Urban Adolescents

YouTube has been a popular modality in the classroom for much of my academic life. Particularly through my study of history, I find YouTube very helpful. Throughout my history classes from middle school through to college so far, I’ve gotten so much out of watching and listening to former presidents speak, for example. When I started learning about the Cold War in eighth grade, the subject came to life for me, as I was being shown some of Reagan’s famous speeches or interactions with Gorbachev. My teacher was also able to show us music from the 60s-80s protesting the Cold War. YouTube is very convenient for both students and teachers. Teachers no longer have to rent or buy a specific film, video or CD in advance, and students with Internet have full access to anything the teacher shows in class. With that being said, not all students have Internet access at home and many who do have to share with multiple people. This puts many students at an unfair disadvantage from the start.

Another positive use of YouTube in an adolescent classroom would be for research. When I had to do research projects or papers throughout high school, we typically had to find written primary source documents from databases approved by the school. Though written documents are one important form of a historical source, videos can be helpful and fun as well. During my first semester of college, I wrote a research paper and gave a presentation about United States public schools and No Child Left Behind. I was excited to be able to use a video of an Obama speech. I would have loved to have had that opportunity from my teachers in middle and high school, because it brings a little more life to topics or assignments that kids may find boring.

A feature I love on YouTube is the ability to play a video in different speeds: 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x, normal, 1.25x, 1.5x, and 2x. For students viewing an educational video at home, they can view it in whatever speed they’re most comfortable with. This feature can be helpful for students who speak English as a second language or learn at a different speed than others. There is also a feature to view closed captioning on a video, though there’s still much room for improvement from YouTube.

One issue, however, with using YouTube to learn is that it can be easy to lose focus. Whether I’m using the site for study or leisure, YouTube’s column of recommended videos on the right side of the screen sends me down a “rabbit hole” of videos, sometimes for hours. I’ll start out with one topic or focus and end up watching something completely unrelated to the original focus. This could hurt kids who may already have difficulty staying focused.

Although YouTube can also be used for students to post videos of presentations or projects, an obvious issue with that would be adolescents’ self-consciousness, low self esteem, or bullying. When I was in sixth grade ten years ago, everyone in the class was assigned to create their own civilization and talk about it in a video. I used quick cuts to create and act as two characters: an interviewer and interviewee. Though I enjoyed making the video for myself, I ended up feeling self conscious about my changing appearance and social awkwardness in front of the camera. In hindsight, I’m glad that that video was made on a DVD that only I had, rather than being on YouTube where students could easily download it. With all the cyber bullying that goes on through social media these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if kids would download someone’s YouTube video to make fun them. A possible solution would be for students to post their YouTube videos as private, so only the teacher would be able to view it and show it to the class. However, even when a YouTube video is set to private or unlisted, a tech-savvy person would probably be able to find it.

MVP #6 – Graphic Novels

eLiteracy and Social Media(tion), Urban Adolescents

“History for many students is often a boring exercise in the classroom primarily due to many standardized and sanitized textbooks that strip away the interesting dramas and contradictions that constitute our histories. As a result, these textbooks tend to discourage critical reflection and thinking in their presentation. In contrast, a graphic novel like Maus can engage students’ attention and activate their imagination through the author’s use of multi modalities in presenting visually arresting narratives that feature the multilayered emotions and contradictions of the characters” (Chun, 147).

This passage got my attention, as someone going into teaching history, because of how accurate it is. Even though I’m passionate about studying history and am finishing up my history major, a lot of the assigned reading is very dry and boring. Particularly in high school, much of the textbook readings were boring to the average student. The way our public schools tend to structure the curriculum focuses on wars and centers around white men. We don’t typically focus on interesting personal stories, music, art, women, minorities, etc. The assigned readings felt repetitive and cyclical. I and other students at my school would have loved to learn history through graphic novels, and I’m sure it would have encouraged discussion in the classroom. I recall one history class I had in high school which I loved, but because of the dry reading material, class discussion was nearly nonexistent.

MVP #5

Socioemotional and Psychological Development in Adolescence, Urban Adolescents

“Much of the work related to this phenomenon in the last decade has focused on differential treatment based on race or ethnic group and has relied on students’ perceptions of differential treatment. Researchers interested in the relatively poor academic performance of adolescents from stigmatized groups have suggested that discrimination or teachers’ differential treatment of students based on ethnicity, race or gender may play a role” (Eccles and Roeser, 227).

This passage intrigued me because this effect is something I’ve never thought much about before. I recall throughout middle and high school that I thought girls were stereotypically better at reading or writing whereas perhaps I viewed the boys as better at math or science. I’d never thought about the impact of teachers’ stereotypes on ethnicity or race in particular. It makes sense that teachers’ expectations of different groups of people would affect their performance in school. This passage also made me reflect on how I may have been affected by teachers’ biases when I was a kid, as well as biases I may have had toward other students. Perhaps I unfairly prejudged my peers’ abilities. I wonder how much of it I could have picked up from my teachers, friends, or family.