Thoughts on New York Times Article

Unfortunately, due to class size, school size, an insanely complicated bureaucracy, a centuries old institutionalized way of thinking, along with a billion other complications, the model presented in the NYT article would never work in a large public school-at least in my lifetime that is. Of course the harsh reality is that at the moment, schools are in a physical and philosophical state of decline that seems to be getting worse and worse and worse every week. But, if we forget about reality for a moment and think reeaallyyy optimistically, there is a chance that if the masses start holding bankers accountable for the downfall of our economy rather than public employees and the economy somehow miraculously works itself out of a ditch, government and public opinion might begin to invest in progressive education programs. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe the ideas of people who want to bleed the life out of our schools and the Marlborough experiment are compatible. Why? They both get rid of teachers. Seriously though, this model of students creating their own curriculum sounds great. I can imagine I would have been a much better high school student if I were allowed to pick out my own literature. I know some small private colleges do this and from what I've heard from friends who have, it was a good experience. In reality the Marlborough experiment is much more aligned with the way things work in the real world and it gives students an opportunity to better discover their likes and dislikes, and strengths and weaknesses. Maybe if schools adopted similar programs on a small experimental level and monitored how they worked over a period of years they could slowly find ways in which to adopt them on a larger scale. Otherwise, it would be a logistical nightmare. 

Thoughts on my Lesson Plan

SO far our lesson plan is pretty good.As it stands right now it is still a work in progress. Our activity, which makes use of the online Library of Congress, gives students the opportunity to  research newspapers from the early Twentieth Century, and then asks them to rewrite their story in a "day in the life" diary format. I believe some of the lessons strong points is the concept itself, the degree of freedom it gives students to make choices throughout the process, its differential instruction, and the high degree of individual learning and sharing opportunities. So far, one of the weak points is its organization and student work flow. It seems like we have all of the major concepts down, but it needs to segue way from one idea to another a little easier.
    The amount of work that goes into this process is pretty intense. Although in the future I doubt I will spend this much time on a single lesson, I do enjoy the challenge and the process involved.  I guess that's what teaching school is all about. Just like anything else you want to be good at,  you need train hard and push yourself above and beyond the circumstances you will face in the field itself. So far, the hardest part of the project has proven to be coordinating ideas. Realizing this, our group has chosen to have a different person take the lead on each lesson. I was talking to my girlfriend about this and she mentioned something pretty interesting. She said that for group assignments in her nursing program the instructor asked groups to pick one leader. Once the leader had been picked the instructor then picked someone else anyway. I thought this was an interesting way to challenge people who are less prone to put themselves "out there" and take the lead. Anyway, overall the experience has been a learning one, and most importantly I actually feel like I'm getting better at navigating a computer-which I've historically sucked at!

Thoughts on our Unit Plan

The essence of our groups unit is to try to show how the technological revolution drastically changed American culture. The massive migrations to the cties and and the shift from the farm to the factory had enormous consequences on the lives of ordinary people. Although this change began more than one hundred years ago, its effects are still felt today. Today, despite the fact that there have been great improvements in working conditions in the U.S. (which we can thank the union movement for); today there are still frequent reminders of how the industrial worker faces a dangerous and abusive work environment. I believe a good way to get students involved with their community and learn about government would be to plan a field trip to the NYS Department of Labor in Albany. http://www.labor.ny.gov/sites/legal/laws/domestic-workers-bill-of-rights.page 
 In Albany students could take a tour of the Capitol building as part of a larger unit, but we could pay special attention to the Department of Labor. With any luck I could arrange a meeting with a representative from the Department so students could have an opportunity to ask questions and get some first hand information from an expert. By learning about the Dept. of Labor, students will be able to draw easy connections between the conditions faced by workers of the past and present. It is key for them to understand that a major part of the reason working conditions have gotten so much better is because of government regulation. What I would also like students to take away from this, is that our elected and appointed officials have a duty to listen to the concerns of their constituents. These people serve an important role in our communities, and it is our job as American citizens to practice a relationship with our government.