A lot has happened this week. Working on my wiki page, set up a group on Facebook and the mayor of New York City appointed yet another non-educator to be schools chancellor. This time, he already had his selection made when the outgoing chancellor Joel Klein, made his announcement. A lot of opposition is building regarding his choice of Cathie Black, a former publishing executive as chancellor. To be continued...
I'm kind of worried about how my wiki will look like and hope that I can do it in a way where the information is easily accessible. Setting up the group on Facebook was easy once I made friends with everyone I want to be in the group. Wikis have already proven to be great tools for use in education as several teachers in the mid-West and other places have demonstrated. I'm not too sure about Facebook because of some of the limitations regarding the amount of characters you can type for comments, etc. However, it is great for posting short things like assignments, links to articles and things of that nature. So, I guess there is some use for it in education.
I have also have had the opportunity of reading some very interesting articles about creativity in schools and students as well as how young Black male students are still behind in terms of achievement. In my opinion, No Child Left Behind has done a lot to stifle creativity in students and teachers because of the emphasis on testing. Because of this law and budget cuts which seem to be more and more prevalent, programs such as art, music and sports are being eliminated. But when students apply to college, they are expected to be "well-rounded". If you school cut the art, music and/or sports program and your parents cannot afford to pay for you to do these things, how can a student become well rounded? They could do community service which I think is important regardless but still where are the opportunities for our students to be come creative? Something to think about.
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