The Class/Entre les murs introduces us to a year of teaching in an intercity school in Paris. With a group of unmotivated and disrespectful students, teachers are not able to take a regular approach to teaching; they must create their own style that targets the students within their classroom. Throughout the film, the audience questions the topic of “student voice” and whether or not M. Marin and the school are providing their students with enough opportunities to achieve this. Student voice involves providing students with a platform to share their input and be heard in a receptive way. While the concept seems great, just how valuable is student voice?

I often catch myself asking the question, “What is the ultimate purpose of education?” Is it simply to learn a bunch of different things that the government deems valuable? Is it to prepare students to find a job and work? Is it to teach students to be contributing members of society? What I’ve come to find is that the purpose of education is far more complex, proving to have more purposes that I could ever define. But how much more could the students gain if they were contributing to their own education?

Students learn about issues in the world (pollution, racism, etc.) and people who are remembered for something great (Laura Secord), but are students being prepared to tackle these issues and be remembered for their contributions? I believe that teaching students about being a leader and a contributing member of society isn’t enough; we must provide them with the tools and characteristics to become that leader. By allowing students to have their voice heard and to be an active contributor to their education, they will come to realize that their actions and decisions can make a difference and they can bring positive change to the world around them.

Edutopia provides us with three reasons why student voice is key:

1. What students have to say matters in how learning happens.
2. Students have untapped expertise and knowledge that can bring renewed relevance and authenticity to classrooms and school reform efforts.
3. Students benefit from opportunities to practice the problem solving, leadership and creative thinking required to participate in a decision-making school community.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/sammamish-2-including-student-voice-bill-palmer

As a teacher, we must learn to share the power of the classroom with our students, allowing them the opportunity to hold the reigns of their own education. Not only does this make students more engaged in their learning and learn more content because of their engagement, but it prepares them to be the best person that they can be. This is all we can really hope for as teachers.

In this week’s readings for Curriculum Planning, Implementation, and Assessment, there were many themes that overlapped. Specifically, the theme of technology being integrated into teaching and assessment was one that has always interested me.

Mishra and Koehler spoke of the importance for teachers to see new technologies and learning tools, rather than threats to the education system. In fact, they encouraged teachers to use technology, saying:

“Teachers need to develop a willingness to play with technologies and an openness to building new experiences for students so that fun, cool tools can be educational (p. 18).”

I believe that this is so important in the classroom today. So many students resort to using technology (i.e. texting, Facebook, Twitter) during class time for one reason: they are bored. This is where the teacher could either go to war with the students over using this technology at an inappropriate time, or change their approach to parallel the desires of the students. A young adult, I would align myself with the second approach, creating innovative ways of teaching which utilize technology. However, I can definitely see how experienced teachers could fear the use of technology, especially if they themselves are not comfortable with it.

By adopting an acceptance of technology into the classroom, the role of the teacher does in fact take a shift. As Cooper says in Chapter 2:

“The sheer volume of information available today, as well as the rate at which information is increasing and being replaced by current and better information, cannot all possibly be captured and transmitted by teachers and textbooks (p. 13).”

We as educators want nothing more than for our students to learn as much as they can during their time with us. By integrating technology into our classrooms, we are not only introducing them to the subject matter at hand, but we are also teaching them technology competency, opening them to a world of additional learning before their eyes.

My father is someone who believes that one day, all teachers will be replaced by computers. Since I’ve had my fair share of debates with him about this topic, I will admit that I was relieved to see that the 8^th Big Idea of assessment affirmed my position. When Cooper mentioned that “one of the essential characteristics of the teaching-learning process is the human interaction that occurs between students and a caring, sensitive, skilled teacher,” I immediately sent a screenshot to my father (p. 7). His response surprised me:

“Some teachers could be [replaced by computers], but you will never be that kind of teacher because you have the passion to teach and will be a success.”

It looks like it is possible to have teachers and technologies working together to create the best possible learning environment for students. I look forward to and welcome the introduction of many technologies into my future classroom.

I’ll admit, my schooling experience was far from “urban”. I grew up in a relatively privileged city and was not exposed to many cultures that were different from my own. With that being said, I have always been someone who is fascinated by people and their story (can you tell I’m a Psychology major?). Albeit a little apprehensive about being the in Urban Education cohort at first, the readings from Daniel and Chambers changed my mindset.

Daniel’s approach to the topic of “urban” is one that provoked a lot of thought. One of the strongest themes that I took away from her article, “Reimagining the Urban: A Canadian Perspective”, is that for us to fully grasp the concept of urban, “its relationship with the suburban needs to be conceptualized, explored, and analyzed as another mutually constituted relationship” (p. 823). By establishing a strong distinction between the urban and the suburban, we are further increasing the divide between the two, thus refusing to create a feeling of unity and inclusion among all areas. As Daniels states, we must change our perception of urban to “move beyond the notions of geography, space, and social class exclusivity” (p. 828). We are all citizens of the same city, province, or country, and despite whether we live in an area that is deemed to be urban or suburban, we should all be entitled to the same quality of education.

Chambers took more of a personal approach to the topic of urban in her article “’Where Do I Belong?’ Canadian Curriculum as Passport Home”. My favourite quote from Chamber’s article follows:

“… home is that place where the past is continually present, both complicating this moment right now, and giving us and them, children and students, the courage and the confidence to face the future.”

This is such a strong reminder that our home, Canada, is what we make it to be. If we continue to neglect certain areas or display prejudice against certain cultures, then we are weaving hatred into the fabric of our nation. How do we as teachers help to rectify this problem? I am a strong believer that leading by example is one of the most invaluable teaching tools. In addition to adopting a positive curriculum, we as teachers can help by displaying acceptance and promoting inclusion and diversity in our classrooms.

Needless to say, after reading these two articles, my preconceived notions about what urban education was have changed. Here’s to two years of learning more about urban education!