Wednesday, December 12, 2007

reasons why we're in MAC

we love jeff and liz

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Money isn't the answer

Willow Run Middle School is a technological paradise. When I first stepped into the school, I was amazed at the new-ness of their building. This facility makes me want to learn. It’s clean and well kempt and quite modern. On the walk over to Shirley’s classroom, I made a comment to her, “I feel as if I’m in Jurassic Park.” Remember in the first movie with the opulent main building? Try visiting Willow Run’s library, and you’ll begin to wonder where the T-Rex skeleton should go.

I could hardly believe the extravagance of technology here. A Smart Board in every room with a ceiling-mounted digital projector is coupled with a laptop-cart, complete with a full battery of thirty laptops. Gone are the days of the analogue clock. Even their time here is digitalized. Naturally, the kids don’t waste their time or energy turning an ordinary pencil sharpener. Each room is equipped with a desktop computer linked to a color laser printer that can be accessed through the wireless network and printed to from anywhere. The ceiling is no longer a place just for lights anymore. Here at Willow Run, speakers are poised above the students and distributed evenly throughout the room. Knowledge now comes in 5.1 surround sound.

But there are some relics of the past that have lingered and endured in this room. The lonely overhead projector has become a shelf for boxes and papers. The only other technological eyesore is an ancient television mounted in the corner. Its screen is as big as the computer monitor just a few feet below it. Where’s the wall-mounted eighty-inch DLP television? This is shameful.

At Belleville, I have no windows. I would enter into a death-match with any of the other teachers there if it meant I could win a windowed room. It’s sad because a majority of these “windowed rooms” only have openings that are a foot and a half wide. Shirley’s room has six large windows. Each window is three feet wide and about six and a half feet high. It’s pretty much a whole wall of glass that’s broken up by intermittent windowpanes.

Big Brother is always watching you in Willow Run. Every room has a little hockey-puck shaped glossy black thing attached to the ceiling. Big Brother is always watching. After I finish writing this, I’m going to go look for O’Brien.

It seems blindingly obvious to me that money isn't the answer to bridging the achievement gap. this school is state of the art in almost every way. yet it functions similarly to schools that in much greater disrepair. perhaps amazing technology and amazing facilities aren't all that they're cracked up to be.

but honestly, i would jump at the opportunity to steal a classroom out of willow run and use it for myself.