Teaching with Sega

The idea is to change how education is viewed, and to reach as many kids as you can.

The above statement is a quote from High School teacher, Paul J. Ackerman, speaking about a new advance in introducing technology into the classroom environment. Not just any technology, though – video games. In her article, Rhea R. Borja explores the response that both students and teachers have to video games and computer applications becoming the modern method of learning. According to those in her article, the virtual lessons are well received by most in the high school community. Students seem to find the class work, which is made up of designing and programming your own video game on the computer, both challenging and entertaining. The teachers claim that the games serve as a “vehicle for honing students’ mathematical, problem-solving, and reading-comprehension skills.” Although Borja’s article opens with a student designing a game that involves shooting bullets at an enemy underwater, she addresses the logical concern for promoting violence by writing,

Educators are realizing that video games don’t have to be violent. Instead, a new breed of games, imbedded with core academics and analytical and problem-solving skills, teaches through a method some educators call “stealth learning.”

Although Borja never comes out and says explicitly what is meant by “stealth learning,” the meaning of the term is made all too clear by various quotes from Mr. Ackerman and others in his position: “These kids are learning algebra without knowing it,” and, “The kids have to do math;...they have to manipulate numbers.”

My concern, when I consider my own teaching and learning experience, is that an education is not something that should be obtained unknowingly. Mr. Ackerman and the “stealth learning,” seemed to be supporting a method of teaching that ‘tricks’ kids into learning by attracting their senses and forcing them to use math and science as a way to further their fun. This method is riding a very thin line between introducing children to the idea that math, science, and other subjects are worthwhile in-and-of-themselves and introducing children to the concept that all of these subjects are just skills that you have to master in order to succeed and create the best entertainment tools.

In my own classroom, I like to have sets or introductions that bring up a topic of interest to the students, and after bringing up this topic of interest, I try to show the students how math is directly and indirectly involved with it. This method of having a set or introduction to the beginning of the lesson may be somewhat “stealth”; but, never during my teaching am I trying to convey to the students math is a skill you have to develop in order to be a creative innovator and secure a safe-job in the future. I want to teach my children math. I want to teach them to see the beauty in math, and to love it for what it is. I don’t want to teach them the beauty in video-games and the necessity for math in order to complete an assignment.

With the introduction of video-games and more technology in the classroom, we need to stop and seriously consider what our educational goals are. Is our goal to produce better creators of software; do we want to advance in technology as far as we possibly can, at as young an age as we possibly can; do we hold out any hope for simple appreciation and awe of the subjects themselves; do we want all of these goals to be rolled into one? I am skeptical of the newer uses of technology in the classroom, but perhaps it is because I am unclear on what sort of minds we want to send from the classroom into the world.

Wish I'da known

It’s almost the end of my first year teaching. Am I glad I came to Mississippi? Yes and No. I feel like I came here for good reasons, and I’ve learned a lot – not just about me, but – maybe more importantly – about other people as well. I had a lot of really difficult times this year and a lot of moments where I seriously contemplated just quitting and doing something new. I am glad that I stuck it out, and I am glad that I am staying next year – although, I am moving from the Delta to Jackson, which some may argue against. Do I wish I had done anything differently? The happy little trooper in me says “no, I am thankful for every hard lesson learned.” However, truth-be-told, the trooper can go to hell. Here’s what I would’ve liked to have known before I came here: Teaching, at least your first year teaching, is a lonely life. I acknowledge that I am not the most outgoing person, but I enjoy being around people. Being a work-a-holic, straight out of a college course environment, wanting to do my very best – all of my time was spent on planning for my students, unpacking, planning, grading, planning, and sleeping . . . did I mention planning?!! I pulled more all-nighters this year than my four years of college combined. It was ridiculous. I had no time to finish what I wanted to finish for my lesson planning, my weekends were dedicated to Oxford work, and anytime allowed for myself (which is NEVER during a weekday) was mainly dedicated to mindless T.V. or reading. I was lucky enough to have a significant other living in Mississippi to spend time with some weekends – but even so, I was exhausted and not the social animal I once was. In short, for the past 9 months – teaching, and nothing else, has been my life. And it usually wasn’t the fun, passionate, making a difference in the lives of others type of teaching; it was the I-will-tear-the-skin-off-of-my-face-and-eat-it-if-you-will-just-complete-one-task-without-interuption type of teaching (not to say that I am not making a difference, but it really requires me stepping outside of myself to see that difference).

Some people in the teacher corps would argue that anyone pulling an all-nighter, or dedicating their life to lesson planning is doing something wrong. Maybe they’re right. I’ve certainly calmed down on the planning since then, and I don’t think I’ve staid up all night since before Christmas break. My reasons for slowing my work-drive, though, are not the most reasonable. I’ve found that the time and effort I put into planning is wasted on school-assemblies, unorganized administration, inclusion teachers who are more of a classroom management problem than my students, and hundreds of other little annoyances and interruptions in what should be a routine and professional learning environment. I suppose that before applying to the Mississippi Teacher Corp it had occurred to me that things in the public schools here might be a little backwards and difficult. But now that I’m here… C’MON!!! Backwards isn’t even the right word: F*#KED UP is really the only term that comes to mind. Plus, I’m beginning to feel like it isn’t even the schools we’re placed in, but public schools that span the nation (not ALL, but some) seem to be in this crazy crisis, and I don’t even know where a district, a state, or even a nation begins to change this. I feel so helpless in my position, and had I known that I would feel this helpless, I am not sure I would have chosen it as my initial career path.

That being said, I love my students, I love the Delta, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part (even a helpless part) of something important.

Math Poems

Math is good
Math is sweet
Math will knock you out of your seat
I love add, subtraction
Multiplication, and division.
So many math thing,
Its hard to make decision.
I love fraction, decimal, adding,
Subtraction, all the thing
Have good action.
- 7th Grader



Sittin in math
Talkin bout numbers
And all of a sudden
I start to wonder:
How could 2x2 always be 4?
How could 2x3 always be 6?
And even polygons are something
I don’t get.

How could a triangle
Always have three sides?
I guess that some things
Just like to hide.

This was supposed to
Be a poem, but I made it a song
About Multiplication and
3 sided polygons.
- 7th Grader





Math asks for a difference, it asks for a sum.
I love to talk about shapes, especially the polygon.
Integers could be bad, Integers could be good.
Math taught about stem-and-leaf plot
Something I easily understood.
Math class is good I must say.
I learned a lot and earned an “A”.
- 7th Grader


Math is lame.
Math is boring.
I will go to sleep and start snoring.
- 7th Grader




Math is great.
Math is fun.
If you mess with me,
I’ll hit you in the head with a Pentagon.
A polygon has Five sides –
Doesn’t that make you want to cry?
- 7th Grader

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

Language is extremely fascinating. I really don’t know if the No Child Left Behind proposal is extremely vague or if I am just reading it that way. It was all very hopeful, but it read more as a list of goals without any method for achieving them. If I had to sum up No Child Left Behind in one sentence, it might be, Schools, and everyone in them will be expected to improve on their own, by their own standards, and then evaluated by a multiple choice national exam at the end of the year. I know I left out the funds that are handed out, and those are important – but, even the money given to the higher needs schools is difficult to understand. Who determines what makes a proficient school? What really happens to a school that is taken over by a state? Is the state ever unsuccessful? If so, do all students really have the opportunity to go to an “adequate” private school? Really?
While reading this proposal all sorts of questions, ones which demand specifics, were springing up in my head. It seems that the government wants to put more pressure on education, but is willing to leave it up to individual states to decide how and where this pressure will be placed. I don’t want to say that this type of freedom for the state is bad, but there seems to be a huge negative outcome: the state can lower its standards in order to remain proficient. I don’t know if this thought of mine is entirely true, and – if it is true – I am struggling to think of a positive solution.
So, is No Child Left Behind the way to go? Unfortunately my knowledge of the history of America’s education is still limited to what I’ve learned in the past couple of months. However, I feel that I know enough to say that No Child Left Behind is hopeful. It certainly needs some tweaking – in which way, I’m not sure – but I believe that it could be successful.

My school is in danger of becoming a level 1 and has taken what they deem to be the “appropriate action” of hiring a consultant to bring us up to a level 5. It is complete crap. The first time the consultant spoke to the teachers – sometime in September – she emphasized the importance of education and how essential a complete understanding was. Only, she clearly annunciated it as e-sensUal. At the time I just listened and silently chuckled to myself. I know its silly to judge someone based on a grammatical error… but still, it was pretty damn funny to listen to a woman who is giving a speech about the e-senuals of education.
As the year went on, she became less and less funny. She rarely came to the school – maybe once every couple of months – and when she did visit us, it was to sit in the cafeteria and conference with us during our planning periods. She has never seen me teach, and yet every time I conference with her, she has some idea of what I’m going through and how I can improve my strategy.
After we gave a practice MCT at the end of the third nine weeks, our brilliant consultant decided that our math scores were not impressive enough and she concluded that the only way to improve them was to begin writing our lesson plans for us – weekly lessons for EVERY SINGLE TEACHER. Of course, her idea of writing a weekly lesson plan was less than par. She gave everyone a list of benchmarks to teach on certain days. Every Monday I am supposed to teach the same six (that’s right, SIX) benchmarks. Then, the next day, I move on to another SIX benchmarks. It was a complete change in consistency for my kids, a bitch of a time planning how to fit so many benchmarks into one week – and, she took my textbooks away.
Today was my breaking point, though. She came in to the school and watched our assembly. – As a side note, I have two assemblies in a row this week: A fashion show and an award show. This means that the hours that can be devoted to the students’ learning are, instead, granted to them as time to dress up and walk-it-out. – After watching the show, she had her colleagues go around to observe and evaluate each teacher. The last period of the day I teach a seventh grade science class. My observer came in and watched my students and me discuss and solve measurement problems. My kids were AWESOME!!! They were yelling out answers, correcting each other, racing to be the first one with the solution. Someone even asked me to give them a high-five (a happy first for me). I was psyched at the end of the day and expected nothing but pleasant and constructive criticisms.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any comments on my teaching or the lesson. All the lady was concerned about was the layout of my classroom (I teach in a computer lab and the desks must be arranged such that most of the students are facing the wall.). I have been working in this classroom for the entire school year, and while I understand what a shitty situation it is to teach in there, I have adapted quite nicely. Regardless, she spoke with the consultant and my principal and they have decided to move me from my room into some unknown area. Either I will end up a drifter, going from class to class each period, or I will have to switch classes with the ancient and sweet inclusion teacher who has practically made a home out of her tiny room. If she gets moved out, I will feel so guilty, and whatever shred of respect I had left for this consultant will certainly disappear.