Live and Learn New Mexico!

The orientation at A New Awakening in Rio Rancho went well. Let's just hope the three students return next week for the first class. I gave them a math workbook to go over this week and told them to try to do the pretest. If they can't figure out a problem, I told them to ask someone else who may know. If they just don't remember how to do a problem and need a reminder, they can look at the answer key in the back of the book. These are things I've done in the past. We are all adults here, which means a lot of things but for this post, it means that we have the ability to (re-)learn on our own, with prompts that mean something to us, and with the help of our friends and family. My class is not about telling the students what they need to know to pass a high school equivalency test; it's about guiding them in their learning, first to pass the test, and then, more importantly, to get on with their lives and do what they want to do. For the first class, I will ...

My 35 th high school reunion approaches, and I have been thinking a lot about it. This seems strange to me, thinking so much about this reunion. Those classmates who are organizing it are posting great links and memories of our growing up in Los Alamos. I believe that is what has sparked all this thinking on my part but who needs to be thinking so much on a lazy Sunday morning? Even way back then, I knew the Los Alamos High School Class of 1980 was a special one. When I look back as an educator, I truly think that we were a class that represented the Golden Age of Education at LAHS. We left for college, jobs, whatever, with a good education under our belts. We were shaped deeply by our experiences at LAHS, not all in a good way, however. Even in our awesome graduating class, even back then, there were disenfranchised students, those who struggled. They, too, were shaped by LAHS, but in bad ways that the community of Los Alamos never recognizes because as a community, it o...

One thing I’ve always wanted to do through L&LNM is create jobs in the communities we will be serving, if only in a small way. As I’ve taught classes in adult education, I’ve noticed the natural ability many of my students have for teaching and explaining things to their classmates. We will always need good tutors and teachers, and it didn’t take me long to see the potential for hiring some of our students on in that capacity, perhaps as interns, when they complete our program and get their high school diploma. This can happen in each community we serve, and in some communities, the creation of even three jobs can make a difference, especially if they are rewarding, worthwhile, and look good on a resume. Here’s a good example of what I want to do – my daughter’s boyfriend, we’ll call him Jesse because that’s his name, passed the GED a couple of years ago. He is 25. He is a crazy hard worker, a college student, and he has been applying for jobs (restaurant, grocery store, e...

Both APS and Rio Rancho school districts are facing a shortage of teachers this fall. Their plan, I believe, is to hire retired teachers as substitutes until vacancies can be filled. I think we all know why this is happening. Teachers are tired of being attacked and held accountable for their students’ performance on standardized tests. They are also tired of trying to build up student self esteem when standardized testing is so good at tearing it down. It just isn’t worth the heartache. I’m hoping that those teachers who have decided not to return to teaching in the public schools (or those who have decided not to even enter the profession in the first place) have found other rewarding ways to make a living, and I hope that those who truly love and are good at teaching will be able to continue to do what they love, just in another venue. Teachers Doing Capitalism I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again for those who haven’t read earlier posts – teachers can do capitalis...

I have not had Internet service at my new home for more than a month now, and I realized that maybe I could be reflecting on what I’ve learned from the experience rather than just bitch about it. For I have indeed learned much from this unfortunate ordeal. What really got me thinking, though, was what someone said on a show I was watching, that if our computers and internet went down worldwide, we wouldn’t know what to do or how to do it. We use technology that we really don’t know much about. I am of that transitional generation that did not have computers in every classroom. There were no personal computers in our homes. We took notes on paper, writing with pens and pencils. Calculators, not computers, were a fairly new classroom tool when I was in high school. There were computer classes but they were more computer programming than what we think of as computers in the classroom. When I was working on my BA, I typed on a typewriter, switching at some point to a memory type...

  Yesterday, I headed up the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe to meet a friend for lunch. How green everything was -- green for New Mexico. We’ve had a good monsoon season, I’d say. I hadn’t been on that road in a long time and was surprised to see so many people in Madrid. That little town has really capitalized on its uniqueness. I have mixed feelings about that but my daughter and I plan to visit soon and just spend the day checking out all the shops and restaurants. I’ve noticed, too, that there are many upcoming events in the town of Cerrillos, slightly off to the side the Turquoise Trail, and we will probably check some of those out, too. The drive to Santa Fe via the Turquoise Trail is a short trip but just being out on the road and enjoying the amazing scenery for that long was refreshing. I was invigorated. On the way home, I took I-25 to the Tramway exit and then had the Sandias to look at for many miles. Tramway goes all the way down to Central, and then I took...

I am getting mentally prepared to teach a GED prep class after not teaching for a while. During the time I wasn’t teaching, the standardized testing issue was hot and I have had to think about the GED, which has always been a standardized test. (Pearson bought the GED out, and I am supposed to put a trademark sign after GED but it’s a pain so I’m not going to. Just know that Pearson owns it.) Of all of the standardized tests under fire these days, the GED makes the most sense to continue using. I can’t really think of any other way to assess the learning, on a large scale, of those individuals who didn’t graduate from high school, for whatever reason, that is, if there truly is a need to assess that learning . Maybe we need to quit assessing at the end of K-12 and instead let employers assess prospective employees when they apply for jobs. That way, they can make up their own tests that reflect the skills needed to work at those businesses. I don’t see the GED going awa...