I'm a Bruin!

This week has been such a crazy week.  We are beginning to wind down our time in the classroom at National-Louis and we will soon be stepping into our own classrooms as teachers!  Paper after paper after proposal after proposal...  things are coming due left and right!  Presentations are being prepared for and the excitement is beginning to stir up amongst the classes.

This week becomes even more crazy because last week Wednesday I left Chicago and headed to Seattle.  One of my best friends Kara was getting married and I was in the wedding.  I flew out to spend some time with her because 1) it has been over six months since I had seen her (because I was in Africa) and 2) there were a lot of last minute things to get done and organize for the wedding.  It was so great to see her and spend good quality time with her family.  They are so wonderful and they showed us a great time both in North Bend and in Seattle.  Then on Sunday we participated in the wedding; on Monday I spent time in Seattle with my friend G.G. Flint; and then flew back to Chicago, arriving super late Monday night.  Upon arrival in Chicago I got a text from a classmate Nicki saying that our school placements were finally posted.  I began to freak out and to calm the anxiety because I still had to take the train all the way home before being able to open my email, Nicki just text me my placement and co-resident.

I am happy to say that I got my number one choice school and in just two short weeks I will begin teaching 7th grade mathematics with Faith Peddie at

BRADWELL SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE!

I am so excited to get started and dig into what Bradwell and AUSL have for us.  I feel honored and excited that I will be working with MRC Jency Kanichirayil as she was the one who interviewed my back in the day and has now chosen me to be on her staff.  With that, I feel so ready and excited that I don't want to wait any longer!  I know it is going to be a lot of work and I am expecting to get my butt kicked a few times if not more than a few times, but it needs to happen sooner or later.  I am excited to learn and grow as a teacher for whatever the future holds.  I have enjoyed class so far, and I am not excited about going to online classes, but...  I am ready to be interacting with students, parents, and staff.  I don't know if I am going to LOVE 7th grade but that is why we are in it and working it out with the help of our mentors and coaches.  One thing I really wish I could do was coach.  I know that time will hopefully come sooner or later, but I wish that time was now!  I will have to free up my schedule a bit to go and watch some games and cheer on My BRUINS!  So... with all that to say, you may be hearing more and more about Bradwell in future blogs and/or how hard life may get!  Through it all, I am hoping to keep the bigger picture in mind and remember that I am human!  Good days and bad days are going to come and that is NORMAL, A OK!  I, along with my other residents, need to stay focused and working hard, and we will be just fine!  Let's Do This!

Keep It Moving!

So...  we are now over half way done with the first term of our Master's Program.  It is so crazy to think that we will soon be in the classroom, working on implementing, and not spending all day with our cohort!  WEIRD!  What is that going to be like?  I think back to the interview where we had a Q & A section with old residents and the one thing they all kept saying was...  "It will go by fast.  You will learn so much and before you know it, it will all be over and you will be graduating."  I remember sitting in the Q & A thinking...  yup!  Sure, sure!  That is what everyone always says and sometimes it does actually fly by and other times, it seems like it will never end!  All I can say is, SO FAR...  it has flown by.  I have really enjoyed getting to know my cohort and entering into intensional, deeper conversation with people who all hold different stories than myself.  I am really excited for what is to come and not just meaning our dance parties, or barcrawl, or Friday gatherings, or potlucks, but the whole thing; classroom stories, long nights of preparation, needed vent sessions, and then graduation!  What a year we have before us.

On another note, I wanted to throw out the idea of gender equality and see what everyone thinks.  In class today I brought up the fact that our reading touched on the idea that the roles of men within the household are very significant.  I think we all can agree that men, especially fathers, are super important and drastically change the outcome of ones life when they are present or not.  I know from personal experience that not having my dad around drastically changed my life.  I can testify to growing up in a primarily single-parent home with my mother and sister and noticing a void.  This is not to say that my mom didn't provide, build things, do yard work, fix the car, cook, clean, help with homework, etc. but to recognize that I acted out to capture the attention of guys.  I can pin point situations that occurred when all I wanted was the approval and attention of a man because I didn't receive it from my own dad.  My dad and I struggle through our relationship to this day, and would this have happened if he would have been present in my life? I can't say for positive, but I am pretty sure!

Gender equality looks different in many different realms for example:
- Within the Work Place.  Do men and women get equal pay and equal opportunity?  Do we have jobs that are pretty specific to a gender whether we verbally label it or not?
- Within the home.  Do we value one parent over the other?  Is a mother's role more important than a father's or vise versa?
- Within the school system.  How important is it to have male teachers and mentors?  Do men primarily teach math, P.E., and science within the middle school and high school, if so... why?
- Within the government. What is it going to take or will it ever happen that we have a woman president?
- Within sports.  Is it for a woman's own good not to play in the NFL?  Is it simply that spectators don't place as much value on female sports as they do on mens?

What do you think?  Are we, as America, stalled in gender equality, have we successfully completely the task, or are we somewhere in the middle?  I don't know if there is really a right answer to this and I recognize it is all bias and based off person preference.  With that said, our own history and stories play into our views and opinions on this topic as well.

So...  WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Starts with VALUE!

This week was a really good week for me.  I am not sure if it was a good week because we had half days Tuesday/Wednesday and no class on Friday or just because I felt productive and engaged this week?  I am enjoying our classes so far and I think one of the main reasons I enjoy them so much is because we are engaged in conversations that I had in undergrad, but more in depth.  I love learning about different cultures and groups of people because I learn so much from them!  I often feel like I identify with other cultures on a deeper level than I do with the "average white American" for many reasons.  The lens at which I see the world through is extremely different than the "average, white, female, American" because I have been given the opportunity to travel.  I have lived or visited a handful of countries like Ecuador, Thailand, Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico, England, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, and Zambia.  I have been able to see others cultures and the reality of their lives.  As an educator, I have learned about their systems and the way in which they treat their people and their youth.  And then I was raise in America.  I was raised in a middle-class, predominantly white neighborhood, by a single-parent.  If I had to define the lens in which I see the world, I would say it is pretty messed up! haha.


With that said, being able to see other cultures and lifestyles first hand have played into my ability, teaching strategies, as well as passion for education.  When looking at the umbrella of Education, America is barely sheltered from getting wet.  We (as in Americans) value  and see education in a completely different sense than most other countries around the world.  In America, it almost seems like we think we "deserve" education rather than seeing it as a privaledge and a gift.  I define the word "deserve" as: to merit, be qualified for, to be worthy of, or have a claim to (reward, assistance, punishment, etc.) because of actions, qualities, or situation, and I think that is wrong.  One of the main reasons I believe US students perform relatively poorly on international tests of academic achievement, relative to other countries is because we value education much different.  Education in America is about what WE, individually, can get; it't about ME and my child; it's about teachers performance; and more than anything, we don't often take ownership over our own short comings and situations.  Now...  don't get mad at me and jump to conclusions but if we really look deep into ourselves and our situations, we do not value education for the great body and we don't work very hard to earn the results we desire.

For example, when I was working in Zambia, I had a boy who talked 4 miles to school because he could not afford to go to the government and he was offered a spot at our community school.  FOUR MILES... can you imagine?  We don't even make our kids walk four blocks, why?  Because we don't have to!  We know that if we complain or decide that we don't like that choice, there are ways around it.  For my Zambian student, he knew there were no other choices.  It was either walk to school because that was his way to succeed and better himself or don't, and identify your own future selling vegetables or staying in the village barely able to scrap by.  On the less extreme side of things...  I worked for Charles Mumba.  Charles and his wife Margret had seven kids and Malawo is the youngest.  Malawo is in 11th grade at a government school where she pays to attend, she wears a yellow and blue uniform everyday, she walks to school, she has to be all natural during the school year (meaning no relaxer, no make-up, no extensions, no shown piercings), and she attends extra lessons to supplement her schooling.  Her school is one of the better schools in Ndola but the education is still not up to her parents standards and so she attends extra lessons from 3:00-7:00pm Monday thru Friday.  This means that Malawo is doing some sort of school work/activity from 7:00am-7:00pm Monday thru Friday!  WHAT!?!?  Can you imagine?  I surely can't unless it is basketball or softball practice, which I enjoy!  Finally, I am often reminded of the Jewish culture when I think of excessive studying and hard-working.  Orthodox Jewish people send their children to Hebrew class most mornings before school.  In this Hebrew class, the students study the Tanakh from cover to cover.  They memorize, read, test, and study so that they can re-sight the Hebrew Bible by memory.  These parents and students realize that it takes countless hours of reading and studying to be able to perfect this.  I don't often think they want to study for hours on end, but they know what the end result is and they strive to be the best.

As an educator, I find this to be a HUGE problem!  I think education is ridiculously important and it is a shame to think that we, as Americans, don't understand or realize how important it is.  I also think that it is situational.  For me growing up, I didn't even really have to think about college because in my house, it was rather expected that you would go.  I didn't value my education and aspire to be the best or most knowledgable until recently and I think that needs to change.  Statistics are starting to show that Americans are not the smartest skittles in the bag and I think that begins with VALUE!  If I could change anything, I would strive to change the mentality that young people have about school and education.  I would... and hopefully will... get students involved and engaged in away that they enjoy what they are doing and are able to take ownership of their learning.  I desire to have well rounded students who are aware of the rest of the world and recognize their privilege even as Hispanic Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Polish Americans, in America.  All these cultures and ethnicities represent and make up what is known and seen as America and it is time that we recognize it ourselves.  We, as educators, have a huge opportunity to help others recognize their ability and value!

What American Dream?

Question:  Do American public schools have a responsibility to "compensate" for students whose out-of-school experiences aren't as rich or enabling as the experiences of other students? Why or why not? If so, what are some of the ways they should compensate? If not, how does this affect your understanding of the American Dream?

Answer:  Who conducts or identifies the American Dream these days?  Who believes that there is one dream for all people?  I often find myself wondering who fed me the classic lines of "The American Dream" growing up because it was not modeled nor did it come close to the life I was living.  I can vividly remember thinking that the American Dream looked like one of the last scenes in the movie Major Pain.  The part where Major Benson Winifred Payne has a dream that he marries Dr. Emily Walburn, a teacher at the school, and they adopt of have children of their own.  The clip in the movie shows them grilling behind their cute house, with a big yard, surrounded by a white picket fence.  A "bad guy" comes to try to kill the Major and he saves the day and everyone is SOOOOO HAPPY!  Movie Review  Isn't that the ideal dream?  A happy family, with a stable living environment, whose lives are happy and safe?  Well....  it sounds nice to me but the truth is not always so.

The more I learn about the world and our different cultures, I begin to realize that we all have different vantage points.  We all see situations and circumstances differently based on the the lens (the way we grew up, where we grew up, family situation, schooling, race, age, gender, etc) we have inherited.  I use the word inherited because we did not ask to be born to the parent or parents we have nor in the situation or circumstance that we find ourselves in.  With that said, we all have different ideals and values.  We all see the good and the bad of our world differently and therefore, how can there only be ONE "American Dream"?  How is it that ONE dream can satisfy and mold to fit millions of people with different lenses? 

All this to say, One Man's Study suggests that there is no significant link between a school's resources and student achievement after controlling for demographic factors.  In conclusion, this suggests that the school environment is more important than that which is outside. I do not exactly agree with Eric Hanusheck's interpretation of the data but I do agree with the outcome that the school environment is more important from a teacher's perspective.  As a teacher, we cannot control that which happens outside of school.  We cannot control the home life of our students nor the choices that are being made, but we can and will control the environment within the classroom.  With that being said, it is our job as a school to provide all that is necessary for our students to succeed!  I believe that we should be allowing opportunities for students to encounter and experience new things that they may not be able to outside of the classroom.  In a perfect, "American Dream" kind of world, all our students whether rich or poor, would be experiencing the same things and receiving the same quality education!  But then we are quickly diverted back to real life and the understanding that sometime, most times, life is not fair.  Things are not equal and the "American Dream" does not exist for more people!  In this case, I do believe it is our job to compensate for those experiences and opportunities.Some ways in which I see our schools compensating for these experiences are through field trips.  I believe field trips are great ways for students to encounter new things outside of their personal bubble.  Another way of compensating is through the use of technology.  In our world today, technology can do crazy things.  I think we need to invest in our teachers to use technology to its fullest.  We can skype with people from different countries; we can use google Earth to show close up visuals of other parts of the country/world or google docs to communicate via pen pals; we can research topics to become more aware and informed; we can create a virtual experience for students as if they were there, in that specific place!  I personally do not know a lot about technology but know that it can be a life changer in the classroom!

I do not believe it is fair to use the term "responsibility" in the question above.  I would hope that teachers would long to introduce their students to new things and allow them experiences like everyone else.  I think there is a lot of pressure on teachers to do this, do that, work on this, don't forget that... when in all reality, teachers follow a curriculum and structure their lessons accordingly.  If there was free reign and no standardize testing, I would say we all have the responsibility and owe our students the service to do so but....  until that day comes, we need to do what we can and be the best teachers we can be!  ;o)

Back in America!

Back in the US of A!  What a feeling.  To top it all off, in the last three weeks I have returned from Zambia, moved to Chicago, and started grad school.  So far so good but it has been a bit chaotic.  I am getting my Master's in Urban Education and for the last week we have just scratched the surface of stereotypes, hierarchy in education, culture related to culture, and statistics that affect the outcome of student success.  All this information has been super interesting and a rather easy transition because I have been dealing with the same sorts of questions in Africa, but obviously on a different scale.

As I come back after almost 2-years, culture shock wasn't what I thought it would be.  I don't feel like I have had any moments where I couldn't deal with the emotion or understand the struggle between the two cultures, or two lifestyles that I have been living for the last 2-years.  I LOVED life in Zambia and at the same time, I  LOVE life here in America.  They are COMPLETELY different, and that is ok!  I think the hardest thing thus far has been entering into a grad program that focuses so much on urban life and racial diversity for the following reasons:

1)  I try not to compare "our problems" in America to the problems that we faced in Zambia.
2)  Everything we talk about in class from profiling, stereotypes, and achievement gaps we faced in Zambia but on a much different scale.  So it has been interesting to recenter myself and allow statistics to be different and realize that in America, we value things differently.
3)  There is a different level of motivation and self-worth in America.  Generally, people in Zambia are poor, but they have such a drive and motivation to be better.  I had one student who attended my school who walked 4 miles each way just to attend school.  He was very seldom late and he never complained about it.  Education was a priority to him and his grandmother and he knew that was his only way to become a better citizen/man!

So, as we go forward, I am going to forewarn you that I may blog a lot about the comparisons and they struggle between understanding for me, because it is a real struggle!  I don't EVER want to make Chicago problems, AUSL struggles, or American challenges seem less important or worthy, it is just difficult to wrap your mind around things when people in other parts of the world would "give up their life" to be educated.  Long story short, I want to work in urban education because I truly believe that we need adults who are passionate about education, well-round and aware of other worlds to put life into perspective for our students through challenging, encouraging, and motivating environments.  If there is one thing I have realized more and more through my experience and entering grad school classes, we are all more alike than different.  People on every continent suffer the same struggle and fight the same fight but at a different level.

Some of us teachers will be working with ESL students who may experience culture shock. We may be working with students who get moved around every year or every other year; some of us may struggle to connect because of our personal stories or experiences so I have attached a few things I have been reading that may give some insight or things to think about.  These readings are simply about culture shock and reengaging into a community that you are unfamiliar with.  We, as teachers, will need to be able to assist in that transition process while understanding, or trying to understand where they are at!

ESL students and Culture Shock

Thought this was interesting

More in-depth with Culture Shock

Twalamonana!  Stacey

And we're back!

Today is Monday and it is running on three days of being back here in Zambia.  This first night I flew in there was a dance party and what a way to begin.  It was super fun to join with everyone out at Mya and Samuel's house where we ate a lot of food (which was good because I had none at my house) and we danced the night away.  To bad no one was there to complain about Kristi's playlists!  haha.

Things are good.  I am living in the Dream House with two Danish folks named Lena and Jakob.  They both just graduated from college and are here for three months.  So far so good.  Today was my first day at Wiphan and I must say...  it is really weird to be here without Kristin.  It was so awesome to see everyone again!  It was great to see the kids as they came out for break.  They all asked where Kristin was and some even demanded that she return now! haha.  Love it!  But...  off I go.  Gotta run some errands and finish unpacking.  Stay posted for more!

Love you guys!

Dear Friends and Family:

            I am very excited to share with you’ll that I will be moving to Ndola, Zambia for a longer commitment to work with Wiphan USA.  This has been quite the process and I will be returning to America (in March) for just three weeks after doing my first round with Hope Community School throughout the last seven months.

            My time at Hope Community School was exciting and life changing.  Because they go to school all year around, I taught grade five for their last term and then moved up to grade six for their first term of the New Year.  I was left to teach on my own for two months and it was both challenging and encouraging.  I have been able to build a relationship with all 45 of my students that would not have been possible in any other situation.

            I am very sad to leave Hope School and my amazing students but so excited to be transitioning to an organization like Wiphan.  Wiphan strives to live out James 1:27 in such a realistic way!  Wiphan has two schools that care for 400 double orphans, a skill training program for 100 widows, a medical clinic, and 4 orphanages that currently house 15 children.  On top of these things, they strive to live boldly and show Jesus in everything they do.

Look at my Ruth read!!!!

            In Ndola, Zambia 86% of the population lives below the poverty line and 45% are below the age of 14.  The average life expectancy is 38 years primarily due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic as well as Malaria.  With the struggles of everyday life, we long for all who come in contact with Wiphan to be able to encounter the Lord and the hope HE has promised to us!

(Check out Wiphan.org for more information)

            When full time with Wiphan, I will specifically be working with several different programs such as: working hand in hand with all our teachers through organizing curriculum and programming, working with the sponsorship program, and I will also be running a follow-up program for our children who have pass their National Exams.  A small group of us have also started a not for profit called ZAMTeach.  I will be heading up ZAMTeach with another American girl named Kristin, as we strive to encourage, equip, and develop the skills of teachers all over Ndola.  These workshops are open to any school in the city and run every few months.

            With all this said, I am extremely excited to be going back to do life with these people.  We have high hopes and great expectation for what God is going to do through us in the next leg of this journey.  I would love your support and partnership in this project, if not financially, through prayer and encouragement.  If you feel in a place to financially give, you can do so online at: http://www.wiphan.org/donate/donate-one-time/ (one time donation) and http://www.wiphan.org/donate/donate-recurring/ (to support monthly).  Please make sure you put Stacey Ernvall in the memo line and all donations are tax deductible.  My total support needed is $1200 a month for the duration of my time in Zambia.

Thank You For Your Love and Support!