teacher voices

TEACHER VOICES: Marni Spitz, #7

“I’ve changed my mind about Kindles.”

Posted on by Marni Spitz

ms. spitz 4favicon I’ve changed my mind about Kindles. (I’ve also changed my mind about which Janet Jackson album is my favorite, but that is blog post for another time.)

Back to the Kindles: It’s not that I never liked them, it’s just that I was always on the side of real, tangible, physical books. You know—books. Turning the pages! Judging the covers! (You know you do.) Bookshelves! Oh, the bookshelves! And of course, that incomparable feeling that happens when you close your book on that final page, look up, and relish in its completion. When it came to books (and my taste in pajamas), I was traditional and old-fashioned. But now, I am all aboard the Kindle Train. Toot! Toot! (But I still love me a matching flannel set of PJs.)

What caused this radical transformation, you may ask? It wasn’t my own Kindle-reading experience, but rather it was witnessing the incredible happiness and reading-frenzy that Kindles have sparked in my kiddos.

KCP-at-CAT

Here’s what happened: I got 20 Kindles to loan out to my young readers (thank you, Kindle Classroom Project!) and started dealing them out like crazy in my Reading Lab classes. Before you knew it, I was the Stringer Bell of Kindles! I was the Lucious Lyon of a Kindle Empire! And with each day, the Kindle following spread like a Taylor Swift song. Kids who weren’t even in my Reading Lab were requesting Kindles. In fact, kids who weren’t even my students were requesting Kindles. I simply did not have enough to meet the demand.

So I did what any successful Kindle dealer would do—channeled my inner Stringer Bell and widened my turf: I got more! Twenty more! I now have half my Reading Labbers hooked on their Kindles, including a few of those sassy pants who at the beginning of the year unabashedly told me there was nothing I could do to help them like reading. Look at you now, sassy pants! You can’t get enough of your Kindle! (Cue told-you-so smirk and giggle.) Kindles have been nothing less than magic for my young readers in a way I never could have imagined.

One huge Kindle Classroom perk that I have observed from Kindle-dealing is the infinite access to books. While I absolutely love my classroom library (bookshelves!) and love the value on reading it communicates, it can be limiting. At most, I have five copies of a certain book. But with their Kindles, my students have an endless library at their fingertips. They really have the whole world in their hands! No more, “Oh I’m sorry, Honey! Perfect Chemistry is all checked out!” or “I’m sorry, Sweetie! I don’t have the third book in the Maze Runner series!” or the saddest of all: “ I’m sorry, Darling! We don’t have that one.”

When those conversations happened, my students would would have to wait forever to get the book they wanted. And when that happens, when you can’t put a book that a kid requested in their hands, that is just heartbreaking. But Kindles mean they can read any book they want, when they want, how they want. (Like Hulu, but for books! And completely free for my kiddos! Free Hulu for everyone!)

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It’s absolutely awesome. When a student like Starr, who has received almost more referrals than any other freshman but loves Reading Lab because she has a Kindle, that is awesome. When a student like Damaria, an 11th grader who loves reading so so much but lives far from the nearest library gets to have a Kindle and read to his heart’s content, that is awesome. When a student like Elaine, who always showed up to First Period late starts coming to First Period on time (and even early) so she can maximize the SSR time on her Kindle, that is awesome.

In simple terms, Kindles make reading easy and limitless. There are no hurdles, no hoops to jump through. And for students who have experienced reading in their lives as something filled with countless hurdles and hoops, a hurdle-free experience is just what they deserve and just what they need to find their inner-reader. The Kindle says: “We want you to be able to read any book you want, free of hassle.” favicon

Ed. note: Marni Spitz teaches U.S. History and Reading Lab at City Arts and Technology High School in San Francisco. Donate to Marni’s classroom!

teacher voices/teaching

TEACHER VOICES: Michele Godwin, #11

“All parents love their children.”

Posted on by Michele Godwin

favicon Wednesday, 9/16 – 8:30 pm
Having dinner with a friend and fellow teacher. We are complaining about our jobs, as we are wont to do when we get together. I bemoan how much work it takes to get my students to do anything, how being in a room with them is like herding cats. I can’t tell them, “Everyone needs to work on their EOP (Educational Opportunity Program) essays. Get to work!” because they aren’t at all self-sufficient. I go on and on about how exhausting it is to spend a mere hour and a half with them twice a week. I describe it as a game of whack-a-mole, where I’m helping one student fill out a college application online (“What does ‘D.O.B.’ mean?”), begging another to please PLEASE register for the next SAT (“I’ll do it later,” he tells me for the fifth week in a row, as he thumbs through a copy of Watchmen), and lecturing three others about making up their lost homework/missing quiz/failed test. Random students from other advisories walk in and out of the room for no apparent reason. And all the while, I’m flapping around with my whacker, trying to solve problems and whack moles and help them see their future.

I am frazzled just describing this scene to my friend, and I realize I’m slipping into the “teacher-as-martyr” mode that happens so often when teachers talk to each other. I finish the tirade with my usual gush: “They drive me crazy, but I love them so much!” And I mean it. My love for them is the only thing that keeps me sane.

My friend, who works at a private school, wants to know more about the craziness.

“Why are they like this?” she asks. “Do their parents just not care?”

This is a common refrain in our culture: Where are the parents? When young people behave badly, or fail out of school, or don’t behave, many of us are quick to look to the parents. When my students are not doing as well as they should be, I call the parents. Of course!

I’ve met with many parents in my 15 years of teaching. I’ve met with doting parents, overbearing parents, and seemingly clueless parents. I’ve seen parents get angry at me, at the school, at the principal, at their kid’s friends. I’ve seen plenty of parents get mad at their own kid. I’ve seen parents cheer, yell, cry, and shrug their shoulders. I’ve seen lots of responses from parents.

I’ve never met a parent who didn’t care about his or her child.

M’s parents struggle because her family is still reeling from her mother’s stroke a few years ago. Mental illness runs in their family, and right now, the whole family is trying to keep its head above water. That doesn’t mean they don’t care about her and want what’s best for her. It means that they struggle. A lot.

K’s mom works all day cleaning houses. E’s mom is supporting the entire family, including her sister’s new baby. A’s mom goes to visit her husband in jail when she’s not at City College, working toward a certificate in child development. D’s mom is flying back and forth between San Francisco and her hometown, so she can take care of her own, elderly parents. All parents have a lot on their plates; some parents have more than others.

But all of them love their children. favicon

Ed. note: Michele Godwin is in her 15th year of teaching high school. She’s back at Leadership High School, where she taught from 2001 to 2008. An English teacher by training and experience, Michele has changed her focus to build a library for Leadership. In addition to her fundraising and library organizing, she is an 12th grade adviser. These are her musings from the past few weeks. Please donate so Michele can buy more books!

Books are best in young people’s hands

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon I love taking pictures of bookshelves. That’s because books are beautiful.

Here’s one:

Kathleen's classroom, San Francisco, CA.
Kathleen’s classroom, San Francisco, CA.

And another:

My home bookshelf circa 2014.
My home bookshelf circa 2014.

Aren’t they beautiful? I think so.

The only problem with books on bookshelves is that they’re on bookshelves, rather than in students’ hands. When books are on bookshelves, rather than in students’ hands, they’re not immediately accessible to students to read.

The Kindle Classroom Project believes that books should be universally accessible to students. Books should be mobile and ready to read. Like this:

10th grader at Envision Academy, Oakland, CA.
10th grader at Envision Academy, Oakland, CA.

By no means do I argue against homes, classroom libraries, school libraries, public libraries, bookstores, and other institutions that include bookshelves. After all, as a public, we do need to see physical books as part of our environment. There should be large, public displays of books — in order to celebrate books and what’s contained in them.

But if we’re really interested in having young people read books — especially young people who do not have easy access to books — we need to bring those books to them.

That’s what the KCP does. Students receive a Kindle and a library of 1,700+ (and counting!) books. They get to keep their Kindle 24 hours a day for as long as they like until they graduate. This means reading can happen at school, on the bus, at home — and everywhere in between.

The access to reading doesn’t stop there. Let’s say a student finishes a book at home and wants to start another one, but the new book isn’t yet part of the Kindle Library. Thanks to the generosity of KCP supporters, the student requests the book on the KCP website, and I buy it immediately when I receive the email notification. It’s a little like reading magic.

What’s also magic is that no books get worn out, no teacher has to keep track of books or spend time raising money for books, and no student has to remember to return books, or fear fines for losing books. Every bit of time can be spent reading and enjoying books.

The old way of promoting reading — by putting books on bookshelves and inviting students to approach them — has done little to change the landscape of which young people read vs. which do not. We need a new and better way — one that brings good books to young people, puts good books in their hands, and says, “Here you go. Please enjoy.” favicon

technology

How to send and receive photos and MMS messages using Google Messenger on your Republic Wireless Moto X (2013)

Posted on by Mark Isero

motof2-w620favicon OK, that was a long title. I love my 2013 Moto X. In a world of huge phones, the Moto X is small (4.7 inches) and does the job right. That is, except when it’s on Republic Wireless, a service I want to love (great phone, great deal, similar to Google Project Fi’s $40 a month for 2 GB, unless you use less, and then you get money back).

The problem is that no matter which texting app you use (stock Messaging app, Google Messenger, Google Hangouts), you can’t easily send or receive photos or other MMS messages. Every couple weeks or so over the last year, there’s a problem.

But I think I have the solution.  Here it is if you’re using Google Messenger:

1. Uninstall the latest version of the Republic Wireless App.
Go to Play Store, Apps, and search for Republic Wireless. Uninstall the app and restart your phone. When you turn it on, version 1.8.4.1268 will automatically be loaded. I’m sure there are benefits to the current version (2.0.6.1985), but for me, I’d rather be able to receive and send MMS messages.

2. On Google Messenger, install a custom access point name.
In Messenger, go to settings, advanced, access point names. Note: You won’t see access point names as an option until you send your first text. On the top, press the + sign. Here is the information that you’ll need:

Name: You choose
MMSC: http://localhost
MMS proxy: 127.0.0.1
MMS port: 18181
MCC: 310
MNC: 000

After you type in this information, be sure to save it by tapping the menu button in the upper right corner and pressing save. Go back to your list of access points, scroll down to the bottom of the list, and make sure yours is activated.

3. Test it out by sending or receiving an MMS.
You might have to quit out of Messenger and run it again. But once it’s working, remember this crazy thing: Every time you quit the app or turn off the phone, your access point will be unactivated. This means that when you go back to Messenger, you will need to reactivate the access point. (Don’t worry: You won’t have to type in the information again.) This is why you shouldn’t close the app unless you’re restarting your phone.

One final tip: If you receive a photo or an MMS that is not automatically downloaded, delete it immediately. Otherwise, weird things will happen.

This is all pretty silly, I know, but until Republic Wireless supports Lollipop on the 2013 Moto X (when is impossible to tell), this is the best solution that I can come up with. favicon