My Summer at Tech Camp

After returning from a week long vacation, I am back at Camp El Valor for the second four-week session and I must admit, I am very excited! We have the same curriculum, but new faces and new challenges. The first difference I’ve noticed is the wider range of ages. Last session saw mostly fifth and sixth graders. This session has quite a different split: several incoming fourth graders, as well as several incoming freshman with a strong showing of all ages in between.

I find teaching in multiage classrooms incredibly exciting and rewarding. My first job teaching was in a Montessori classroom of 12-14-year-olds. I then moved into a 9-12-year-old classroom. Montessori splits by age, not grade, and I find this creates a motivating, dynamic environment.

At camp, days 1 and 2 always include several introductory activities. While many children are learning keyboarding posture and technique, more advanced typists are transcribing hand-written journals about their science experiences into Microsoft Word documents. While some work on creating interviews in a question and answer style, others work on turning their questions and answers into paragraphs about the person they interviewed.

Already I’ve seen the younger children observing the older children, witnessing the “next level” as the older students discuss their work. Some of the nine and ten year-olds asked if they could write in paragraphs, too. “Of course!” I answered, excited to see their desire for a challenge. And the older children seem more ready to set a positive example. Students learn better when they have peer role models they can rely on for help, and when they practice their skills by teaching others.

The typical expectation of a single-grade classroom, that children possess similar knowledge and skills, creates pressure on both children and the teachers. There is a tendency in a homogeneous age group to judge the children who fail to meet benchmarks as “below average.” Yet there is no evidence that supports the idea that groups of children who are all the same age learn the same things in the same way at the same time.

Conversely, in a multiage classroom, the difference in ages begets different sets of behavior and performance expectations. In this environment, the teacher more readily addresses differences because differences are more obvious. It is also easier for a child to address his or her strengths and weaknesses without feeling judged by his or her peers. Students can progress along a continuum of simple to more complex skills at their own pace.

Dr. Maria Montessori developed educational methods based on her belief that children learn best by doing, not by being acquiescent vessels to be filled with pre-existing knowledge. Montessori believed learning should occur in multiage classrooms where children at various stages of development learn with and from one another. Though it’s been several years since I’ve been in a Montessori classroom, I see her idea of multiage learning once again as fresh and innovative, offering possible solutions to many of the problems that plague public school teachers. I’m finding my multiage experience to be reinvigorating both for me, and for the children in this camp.

Posted by Amy Abeln at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In her blog last week, New Terrain, Jessica Shyu posed the question, "Why do teachers stay?" I think a lot about why teachers quit. But Jessica’s question demands optimism, something that is easy to lose in this profession.

I teach because I want children to reap the benefits of problem solving, the enjoyment of reading and the pride of finishing a well-written paper. I want to help each child develop a positive self-image in order to appreciate the beauty of life, and the critical thinking skills needed to determine the injustices of the world. I teach because I love to learn and I want to pass that love on to others. But this doesn’t answer the question, “Why do teachers stay?” The truth is, though I love to teach, I’ve never stayed with one job longer than three years.

Today I attended Camp Graduation. It was very emotional, as it is every camp, every year. I gave a short speech. It seems a bit cheesy now, but it came from my heart and I could barely get it out past the lump in my throat. In my speech I said:

“Learning is a journey that lasts your whole life. There is always something new to learn. Never quit wanting to learn. Never quit trying to overcome obstacles. Never give up.”

Tears broke past the lump in my throat when one mother gave a moving speech. She said, before breaking down herself, how thankful she was that her son had a place like El Valor to come to in the summer; a place where he could learn in a positive environment; a place where the people really cared. When she started crying, I started crying. It’s something about this place, this atmosphere, it’s almost magical.

Another mother spoke about her daughter finally answering the age-old question, what did you learn today? She said:

“When she comes home from school I ask her, what did you learn today? She says, ‘nothing’ or ‘not much.' When she comes home from camp and I ask her, what did you learn today? She talks my ear off about monarch butterflies and pollination. About recycling and building Web sites. I love the way this place excites our children about learning.”

And it’s true. This place is inspiring, and not just for the children. If I could teach here all year, I’d stay. If I had worked with these parents in some of my old jobs, I might have stayed. If I felt supported and appreciated the way I feel at El Valor, I’d stay in that job, too. Unfortunately, many teachers often feel fatigued by the constant battles and guilty for acting like wardens in their over-crowded classrooms. Teacher retention is a crisis among many plaguing our public school system. Until major overhauls are made, many good teachers won’t stay. It’s unfortunate but true.

Posted by Amy Abeln at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We have entered the fourth and final week of camp session one. We just returned from camping in Mokena, IL, a first for many of these children. I’ve enjoyed seeing them in a new environment. We met a skunk, a groundhog, a coyote, two gray wolves and a raccoon from the Big Run Wolf Ranch, a federally licensed non-profit educational facility specializing in North American wildlife. We helped replant the prairie at the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. We identified caterpillars in the wild and studied butterflies gently swooped up in butterfly nets. We learned how to watch for birds using binoculars.

Many of the students were well prepared for this cumulative experience, as these are the things we’ve been studying for the past three weeks. They researched wolves, coyotes, butterflies and birds, cropped pictures in Adobe Photoshop and inserted these photos, along with their research, into tables built in Microsoft Word documents. They learned how to make bibliographies. We bonded with each other and had meaningful learning experiences. The children are now struggling to finish their Web sites depicting their camp experiences before graduation, which is this Saturday. We have a lot of work to do to get things done!

Of course, we’ve taken to complaining a bit, as is human nature, even though we all realize our fortunate situation. A much more fortunate situation than most of us face for this coming fall, including the children. And this lack of excitement for returning to school is something we discuss in camp. One boy, a smart and kind 12-year-old said,

I love learning, I love camp. But I hate school and I don’t want to go back.

It is always a difficult transition, going from this summer program at El Valor back into the rat race of 30 plus students per teacher with short 40-minute periods. Last weekend I met three teachers who resigned this past Spring after three or more years of service in CPS. One is moving into architecture, another into biology. Both are still volunteering as mentors. The third teacher I met is moving to LA to teach Literature to a small class of twelve students in an exclusive private school. We talked for over an hour about the loss of great teachers in CPS.

But back to the topic of technology. Someone asked me recently in a comment on the blog,

Any suggestions for using computers in the classroom that is more meaningful? How do you motivate the teachers to do this?

I think research is meaningful, especially when it is related to the curriculum. However, the students must know how to read. I think building Web sites based on learning experiences is a good way of incorporating technology, too. But the second part of that question,

How do you motivate the teachers to do this?

This is the tricky part. It is difficult to keep good teachers in a system that overcrowds its classrooms and undervalues its resources, let alone motivate them to try harder when already feeling exhausted and defeated.

I also encourage reading. I find reading motivational. Read books about technology. I am currently reading The Flickering Mind by Todd Oppenheimer. It is a good one. Next on my list is Technology in Its Place: Successful Technology Infusion in Schools by John F. LeBaron and Catherine Collier. In addition, I find it is important to observe others using technology in the classroom and make your own evaluations. I do believe that any teaching method, technology or any other instructional tool and/or activity must be continuously evaluated based on student-centered principles if we are to give our children the education they deserve.

Posted by Amy Abeln at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Two cheerful and gifted girls sit in the back row of my morning technology class.

“Are you having fun at camp?” I asked.

“We love it!” they replied in unison, like best friends often do.

“What do you love most?” I questioned, secretly hoping for a few compliments.

“We love science class!” the bolder one remarked, while the quieter of the two smiled and nodded away at her friend’s proclamation. I must admit, my ego deflated slightly even though I felt elated to hear two sweet, smart and beautiful girls professing their love of science.

“We love the projects,” the quieter girl added.

“We like technology, too,” the more assertive one reassured me, “but we get to do computers all the time in school. We’re in the gifted class. But we hardly ever do science.”

They ‘did’ computers but not science in their gifted program? What did they do on the computers? I’ve been in several Chicago public schools where ‘doing’ computers often revolves around a separate agenda, vaguely connected to the curriculum. I’ve also witnessed (and been guilty of) using computer time as a reward for finishing class work. But working at El Valor has made me rethink these practices. At the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, we worked hard to create a challenging technology curriculum for El Valor that fosters and integrates the study of science and that demonstrates to students how to use computers as a tool to enhance understanding.

I relayed the girls’ love of the science projects to my science counterpart at the end of the day. She smiled and nodded. “The projects are a lot of fun,” she remarked. I believed her as I looked around at the colorful displays of scientific art on the walls and the mess of tissue paper and crushed flower petals that littered her room.

We began to fulminate against the lack of science in schools and against the typical technology curriculum, in schools lucky enough to have the budget, for often failing to make meaningful academic connections. Then we laughed wildly at the thought of doing labor-intensive projects with one teacher and thirty-plus students. It's difficult enough with one teacher, three tutors and 18 students.

The students at this camp are very involved in the projects in both science and technology class, excited to be working and talking, sharing their ideas while they are learning. Nevertheless, with student excitement and engagement comes a bit of chaos, as all teachers know. However, at El Valor, with an adult to child ratio of about 1:4, confusion and aggravation are minimized.

All of this left me thinking. Computers are being used in schools, but at the expense of science? What other academic fundamentals are being lost? What does our society really need, technically savvy people or critical thinkers? It doesn’t take long to become technically savvy. When I think of all the computers and other equipment that I’ve seen sitting unused in schools, or used in ways unconnected to the curriculum, I have to question if we are shortchanging students. The skills and characteristics children need to be successful in today’s world involve getting a good education, and being educated is a lot more than just knowing how to use a computer.

Posted by Amy Abeln at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Recharge. This is what teachers do in the summer. My batteries run out of juice around April. By mid-June, when Chicago Public Schools let out, I feel completely deflated—and not from the students. This past year I started my own business to meet the needs of after school programming because I was unable to find a job in a school suitable for me. Sounds a little particular for someone with no health insurance, but I had worked in an unsuitable school before—a junior high with metal detectors and aggressive guards, where I witnessed the principal slap a kid across the his head and I taught thirteen-year-old babies with babies. The same unsuitable school where police barged into my classroom to question my 7th grade student, and my coworker was trampled by a troupe of 8th grade boys.

The most shocking aspect of that horrible experience, though, was that it came on the heels of the best working environment of my life; a summer job teaching technology to kids ages 9-14 at the El Valor Summer Camp in Chicago’s densely populated Pilsen community.

“A summer job?” many colleagues question with amused looks. I know what they are thinking. Aren’t summers supposed to be about relaxing? About not working and finding renewed energy to return to school refreshed and recharged? Well, my energy is renewed by working with underprivileged kids in a stimulating, motivating environment outside the institutional walls of our overcrowded, underfunded schools.

I’d like to take a moment to address the word "underprivileged." It is a fact that thousands upon thousands of children are attending poorly funded Title 1 schools, sitting all day in overcrowded classrooms with old books that, more often than not, have obscenities scribbled on the pages. And it is a fact that these children are, more often than not, from African American and Latino backgrounds. This sort of institutionalized discrimination severely limits social and economic opportunities for those who attend these schools, as evidenced in high school drop out rates. So, I feel motivated and recharged when working at El Valor because the people here are doing something to solve these problems.

El Valor is a multicultural, multiservice organization with a mission to support and challenge urban families to achieve excellence and participate fully in the community. The programs here are designed to enrich and empower people. I am blogging about my work at the camp this summer because there needs to be more effort around this country to create FREE motivational opportunities like the ones created at El Valor. The two 4-week sessions of summer camp address the many issues that plague underprivileged communities by providing an environment where children are nurtured intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. This camp addresses the recommendation set forth in 2003 by the president’s Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans to set new and high expectations for Latino children by creating partnerships that provide expanded options. El Valor collaborates with the USDA Forest Service, the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and Chicago’s Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to implement inspiring educational opportunities.

Working together with my exceptional co-workers (there are eight of us for 32 students) motivates me. Showing these children how to use technology to interpret their science investigations, how to build Web sites using Dreamweaver, and how to make art using digital cameras and Photoshop motivates me, too. I am motivated to want more for the people in my community, in my city, and in my country. So yes, my summer job recharges me. It makes me see more clearly the reasons I became a teacher. It wasn’t for the summers off.

Posted by Amy Abeln at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)