Journal No. 6

Being a substitute teacher, I'm granted privileges that full-time, content area teachers are not. I don't have to plan lessons, attend meetings, or stay after school to help students with their work. My time is basically occupied with handing out assignments and making sure the students in my classroom are well-behaved and respectful not only to me but to one another. Having so much free time during prep periods has given me the opportunity to witness the interactions between teachers and students. The other day I was helping out in the school's curriculum office during MCAS testing. While I was there, a student walked into the office. This particular student is a Senior and should be graduating in a few months. The student talked about while he needed to attend some weekend classes to make up time that he has missed, he had finally passed the Biology portion of the MCAS and was on track to graduate. He had been so stressed by the MCAS because it was the basically only thing that was holding him back from graduating with his classmates. Fine and McClelland (2006) talk about the concerns that they have with regards to standardized testing and the effect it has on some populations of students. The authors talk about how young girls who are forced to drop-out of high school because of high-stakes exit exams are more likely to become pregnant than those who do not drop out. (p. 302-303) They also talk about how minority populations are affected. The student a mentioned earlier is of Latino descent. The article talks about how minority populations are "disproportionately required to pass high-stakes tests in order to graduate from high school and disproportionately fail", which ultimately leads to these students not receiving their diplomas. (Fine & McClelland, 2006, p. 302) I've never been a huge fan of high-stakes, standardized testing, both as a student and as an educator. It puts too much pressure on the students to do well. Students obviously need to be assessed to see where they are in terms of their development. But these tests often mask what students actually know and how students learn. The pressure to do well on these tests can certainly have an effect on their performance, which can then lead to the students dropping out of high school. The students who drop out are, according to Fine and McClelland (2006) "earn less, are more likely to be sick, have higher mortality rates, are more likely to be incarcer- ated, be on public assistance, get pregnant, bear a second child, and/or give birth to a low-birth-weight infant than those who graduate." (p. 302) The student I observed is going to be able to get his diploma. Some students aren't so lucky.

Journal No. 5

I went to the Lowell Community Health Center Teen Coalition yesterday after work. My first visit was cancelled because of February vacation, so I didn't know what to expect. Are these troubled teens? What kind of homes do they come from? Do they have any interest in being at the center or are they being forced to be there by their parents? After sitting and talking with the kids who attend the after-school program, all of the questions that I had were answered. The kids talked enthusiastically about things like going on college visits with the group and what classes they enjoy and don't enjoy. Some kids were getting homework done; others were helping prepare a survey that the LCHC administers every two years to the local high school and middle schools. The most enjoyable part of the experience happened around 3:30 in the afternoon, when one of the kids called everyone into the main room for a "Mood Check". Everyone in the room got a chance to tell the others what their mood was on a scale of one to ten, which I feel would be a great tool to use in managing a classroom. It got everyone involved and seemed to strengthen the connection between the kids. With everything that I saw, I can say that I am extremely impressed with the work that they are doing down at the LCHC Teen Coalition. The kids love being down there with each other and get a lot of help looking for and applying to colleges. I can only hope that more programs like the one at the Lowell Community Health Center will be opened in order to help those teens who may need some encouragement in taking the next step in their education. It is something that I am definitely interested in getting more involved with.