Stress - Students', Teachers', Parents'

This past week has been crazy with so many art projects and essays due. Now that I look back, I wonder how teachers, who have their own teaching and family worries, deal and work with students who have stress on their academics and at home, too. There's also the parents, who may stress over their income, putting food on the table, buying necessities, etc. So then, how do you relieve some of these stresses?

One of the many things that I learned from this course was to be more open-minded. I don't recall ever seeing my teachers so stressed that they couldn't teach a lesson properly. Everyone always seemed calm and was ready to teach everyday, which was helpful to us students because we were already stressed about learning new content and taking tests. Study is students' main priority. However, when it comes to teacher, when he/she is in the classroom, the students are his/her priority. And, at home, personal situations are a priority.

So, as a future teacher, I need to be prepared and to understand that while I may be stressed with many other unrelated-to-school problems, I need to put my students first whenever I'm in the classroom. Students need to feel that their teacher and school cares about them so that they will be comfortable in the school setting and work on improving their studies.

As for talking with parents, teachers need to be aware of family situations and understand why students behave the way they do, what teachers can help with, what they should not interfere with, and always try to keep the parents updated even if it is just an email.

Instructional Plan

In order to apply what I have learned from the class and the readings as well as my visit to Newark, I have decided to come up with an enormous project for the Culturally Responsive Instructional Plan. The plan will be for 10th graders in my graphic design class and the focus/topic will be on Port Newark. The students in my class will simultaneously learn about the history of the port in Brian’s history class, and they will learn about the soil changes and pollution that occurred over time caused by the port in Alex’s earth science class. In my graphic design class, the main concept that I want my students to learn is how to research and apply information they learned in school in real life situations. Furthermore, being able to use acquired knowledge for the benefit of not only other students in the school, but the students’ community as well will give the students in my class a sense of pride and expertise on the topic. They will be able to contribute to their community and make a difference in people’s lives by educating residents about the environment that they all live in. People in Newark may have heard about Port Newark, but may not understand or be aware of underlying problems and influences.

Students will ultimately be working towards a fair, which will be similar to an information event that will address the history and environmental changes of the Newark Port. The audience of the fair will be for parents as well as all of the Newark residents. However, there will be two parts. The first part is researching for information; the second part is creating a book about how the port affects each student individually; the third part will be the making advertisements for the fair; and the fourth part is to prepare to present students’ knowledge, influences, and history about the port during the fair. Because this project is very big, I intend to use two marking periods. The first marking period will consist of learning about the port in the students’ two other classes and using the information learned to first create a timeline of events and to then think of how the information taught by Alex and Brian affects students. For homework throughout the first half of the first marking period, students will be asked to research more information about the port and how it influences/affects their community, neighborhood, and family. Students will need to post their responses on their blog. However, if students do not have access to the Internet after school, they may hand write their responses and then come to school the next day to post their blog entries. During the second half of the first marking period, students will begin working on their books. Book layout design principles will be taught and students will be able to choose the format, i.e. digital, paperback, hardcover, etc. In their books, students need to include the history of the port, how soil changes and pollution occurred over time as well as their own thoughts about the port, which will come from the blog responses.

In the first half of the second marking period, students will begin to work on advertisement design for the fair. They will be posting their designs on the school website, around the school, on their blogs, and handing pamphlets out to family members and friends in their neighborhoods. The second half of the second marking period will consist of preparing for the fair, which includes all necessary charts, timelines, books, decorations, information pamphlets, presentations, etc. It would be ideal to hold the fair at the port; however, due to safety issues, I believe it would be better to hold the event at the school gym. There will be four stations and the first three will be divided among three parts regarding the port: its history, its effects on soil changes, and its contribution to the increase of pollution in the city. The last station will have students’ books where visitors, parents, family members, friends, etc. can look at how the port influences the students and also view what the students have been working on for two marking periods.

I intend the project to be big. This way, students are engaged and have responsibilities to fulfill rather than spend their time on the streets joining gangs or skipping school. As mentioned in Delpit’s article, teachers should teach more to urban students (221). Assigning fun and self-satisfying responsibilities will show students that the school cares about their students attending school everyday, their creations and ideas. Students will have the opportunity to present and show all of their hard work during the fair and through their books. Attending classes where the teacher lectures during the whole class time could be very boring. Without the opportunity to interact with peers and have core responsibilities to follow through, students will be disinterested in school.

Furthermore, the project also addresses necessary life skills that all students should learn in order to become successful in school and in the future. The seven main life skills that the project allows students to develop and practice are: 1) research skills – from the first half of the semester where students need to discover how the port affects them and their neighborhoods; 2) blogging and literary/writing skills – students will be able to practice expressing their opinions, questions and comments in written form on their blogs; 3) socialization – students will need to talk to family members and people in their neighborhoods for more information; 4) critical thinking/problem solving/creativity skills – students will need to figure out what content best fits in their books, what info can be eliminated, and how the content should be placed and viewed from an audience’s perspective; 5) group work – students will need to work with one another to prepare materials for the fair; 6) presentation and public speaking skills – students will have the opportunity to speak in front of a real live audience, not just in front of the class; and 7) technology skills – students will learn how to use various programs for bookmaking, presentations, printouts, etc. These seven main skills, as outlined in the “21^st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems” are necessary for students to develop so that they are well-rounded citizens, especially in their communities, and are prepared to face the real world.

I mentioned the seven life skills as a necessity for students’ futures. However, practicing those skills during the project helps students to connect with their community by researching other residents’ opinions about where they live, looking into detail how the port affects current times and students’ lives, and understanding what roles students play in their neighborhoods and how improvements can be made. Having students learn more about the community is essential to building bonds between the students and the community they live in. An example would be learning about family history. Perhaps a few students’ ancestors lived in Newark years ago and were marines on a destroyer that was docked at the port in 1945 (Destroyer History Foundation, 1) or the health affects of their parents, who work at the dock. There is so much information and family history that students can discover and learn about from the project.