I'm Back! A Busy September at Arts High...

First, an apology to my loyal readers…it’s been a busy September here at Newark’s Arts High. I haven’t had much time to write, but now that I’ve got a rhythm going (no pun intended), and my schedule has been infused on my brain like a brand on a cattle, I can start thinking philosophically; I can start reflecting.  

The Summer of 2013 was a tough one for the city and the people of Newark. It’s no secret. The Brick City and its neighboring towns witnessed over a dozen homicides, with most victims under the age of 30. The state economy continues its recovery, but it’s a slow-motion recuperation. Unemployment continues to trouble our urban core, striking at our young people particularly hard. Bottom line, whether you’re living on Springfield Avenue or Market Street, North Ward or South, it’s been tough out there. It’s tough all over.

As this summer wore on, my determination to serve my students, to help them write, to teach them all sorts of wonderful facts, to tell them compelling stories, only toughened. Newark’s kids, and specifically the students of Arts High, are some of the best, brightest and talented in the state. You should see them, lining up to get into school early, performing marvelously, belting out songs, acting competitively in the classroom, and remaining at or around school long after 3 p.m. These students are a superb bunch. They deserve the best education I can give them. Their competitors in nearby Milburn and faraway Shanghai have some of the brightest and most ambitious teachers instructing them. For our kids at Arts, it can be no different. They deserve the best. They’re entitled to it, and I’m part of that promise.

Like a racehorse about to thunder out of the gate, I couldn’t wait for school to start. I couldn’t wait to get back into my classroom and put up my lively variety of state and national flags that scream “there’s a whole world out there!” I immediately got to work on some of our hallway bulletin boards, making sure they screamed learning. There’s one I’m particularly proud of, titled “Shanghai: China’s Megacity.” It’s got a map, pictures of the city (historic and current) and many “blurbs” of information about its neighborhoods, technology and policies. Blurbs vary, with some focusing on Shanghai’s wireless youth culture, and another explaining its important role as a refuge for Jews in World War II. But most excellently (is that correct grammar?), I added a small electronic “zipper” sign that I update daily on news and events emanating from that important metropolis. Our kids have to know that there’s a global village out there, outside of Newark…and that it is a dynamic world, ever-changing, endlessly fascinating.

My teleconferencing is up to a strong start, though it needs to be accelerated. As my readers know, I’m a strong believer in bringing technology into the classroom in a meaningful way. One method is through Skype, a free teleconferencing program from Micosoft. It enables me to bring a wide variety of speakers directly into class to teach, discuss and debate with my students. This month I was able to pull off three of these conferences, each one hitting directly on a specific portion of the curriculum. The reaction of my wonderful students and many of their parents was again a welcome one, an audience that appreciated that like many other teachers at Arts High, I was clearly “thinking outside the box.”

The first Skype of the year was actually during the first week. I wanted to show our remarkable kids that I wasn’t just filling them with promises. I arranged for Florida state historian Jon Grandage to speak to my students about the Spanish Empire in America, and Spanish Florida in particular. Grandage conversed with the students from his distant, palm-fronted Tallahassee office, fielding questions on Spanish brutality, Native American rights…even the possible location of the Fountain of Youth. One student was particularly impressed with the sensitivity of my new microphone; when he coughed quietly, Grandage replied, “bless you,” albeit from 900 miles away. The students also found many of his stories compelling and unique; I know a lot about Florida’s history…but Grandage…he knows everything!

For my second Skype, I was determined to bring my students an expert specifically on the African Slave Trade. I found him, across the stormy North Atlantic, outside of London. Dr. Joshua Newton, a curator at the Royal Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, mesermized my students with artifacts that only he could find. Newton spoke of the trade’s inhumane brutality, of a 17th century Europe obsessed with slave-grown crops like sugar, coffee and tobacco. Many students audibly gasped when he displayed manacles used by British slavers to restrain African children. Some of my students were visibly moved, with one telling me afterward that she was never aware that slaves in the Caribbean lived an average of just 2-4 years. “I never thought about slavery like that, like it was a Holocaust…Africans did not go to the islands to work, they went there to die.” Another student remarked, “I always thought of the Caribbean as a vacation land, as place to relax…I never knew about its twisted and tormented past.”

Today’s Skype was an important one as well, and served the students in the district’s efforts to get “college ready.” Students know that I have a particular interest in the Puritans and Quakers, both for their important roles in our local history and their contribution to the American character as a whole. After giving them a lesson, a study sheet and a podcast on the topics, I brought in the heavyweight: Dr. David Hall of Harvard University. From his campus office, Hall peppered the students with stories of everyday Puritans he had found in his research. “Sure,” he told them, “the Puritans grappled with subjects like God, Satan and Witches, but they were also very practical. They spent a lot of their time developing new ways to keep livestock, particularly pigs, from wandering around.” Students then began an impromptu debate with Hall on whether or not the Puritans left a positive or negative legacy. While no one could come to an exact agreement, one student spoke the truth when she observed “regardless of what we think about them today, Puritans were people who were doing their best to deal with the world they inherited.” Well said! 

At conversation’s end, Hall invited all of the students to come up and take a look at Harvard’s impressive campus at Cambridge, and reminded them that a few of them might wind up there in the coming years. My students glowed!

Using Skype, of course, is just one way I employ technology to increase and reinforce learning, and to keep the classroom atmosphere dynamic and fluid. I’ve already recorded and sent out several podcasts for my students, and assigned a few documentaries. So my efforts to reinforce knowledge “on all fronts” continue persistently.

Thanks for reading…check my blog often to get updates on my classroom activities and historical musings on the long, fascinating, epic chronicle of the Brick City…there’s more to come!