Why do I call myself the other Mr. L

Why I call myself the other Mr. L is based on one of my heroes in the field of education. That hero is a man who grew up 25 minutes away from me in North Philadelphia. In contrast I grew up in West Philadelphia on the "other side of The Park (Fairmount Park)."  The man that I'm speaking about is no other than Mr. Salome Thomas-El, principal of the Thomas Edison Charter School in Wilmington, Delaware. Also, he is the author of the book I Choose To Stay: How a Black Teacher Refuses To Desert the Inner City.



In this book Mr. El talks about his days as a teacher and chess coach at the now defunct Roberts Vaux Middle School in North Philadelphia, an inner city community in our hometown. Like Mr. El, I choose to stay in the inner city and was a chess coach with the same aspirations to help students become lifelong learners. I've done this at a middle school on the outskirts of Philly in Darby Borough an inner ring suburban town which has similar socio-economic characteristics as some areas of North Philly. Many students and staff members referred to me as "Mr. L" because many of them couldn't pronounce my last name which is Lumumba (Loo Mum Ba). I didn't mind because like Mr. El I too choose to stay and dedicate my life to the success of our children. This is why I call myself the other Mr. L.

Positive People and Classroom Management (Blog #5)

As we are near the closing of our 2014-2015 academic year I will continue to build on and expand positive communication with the parents, administration, and most importantly our students. What I will do is offer more rewards such as donuts on Friday, dress down passes, last ten minutes outside, etc. Also, I will be making more positive phone calls. I continue to smile whenever they visit.


However, there is one particular girl in my mid afternoon class whom I do not get along with at all. No matter what I've tried to do positive for her she is very ungrateful and down right indignant towards me. Given the fact that I am a spiritual man I believe the Great Master brought this young lady in my life for a reason. With that said I'm going have to rely on the Great Master through meditation and prayer to offer the best solution for resolving my conflict with this young lady. Furthermore, I am seeking ways from the Great Master for a positive people management plan. In order for me to do that I will have to move my ego out of the way and exercise humility. Then I will be able to do the proper and professional incentives for my students and the other stakeholders in education. All things have their day in the sun.

The incorporation of STEM (Blog # 3)

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) are here to stay. Regardless of the subject I or many others teach STEM must be implemented in our class. The first step I plan to do is teach the students the 9 step process through visual aids and memory pegs so that they remember. The 9 step process are the following:

1) Define the problem.
2) Brainstorm
3) Research
4) Develop Ideas
5) Choose the Best Ideas.
6) Model the Prototype
7) Test and Evaluate
8) Improve Design
9) Communicate Results.

Next, the students are going to apply these steps when we read the novel I-Robot after ther AZ Merit tests. With another teacher we were going to co-teach in designing and building robots. Students are going to work in groups of four. Before I make this a reality I want to do more research on STEM and embrace this.

The implementation of engagment strategies (Blog #4)

Although at this time I do plenty of different active engagment strategies, there is always room for many other new ways and ideas to implement other strategies. First, I have to do what my college supervisor/cadre leader Dr. Crudder strongly advocated and that's to spend fifteen minutes a day watching and studying engagment strategies during my prep time in school. Also, I plan to look at the websites on active engagment that he presented two weeks ago during our last webinar.

Second, I will need to implement new strategies and habits. For example, I need to increase wait time when it comes to questioning. Lately my wait time has been increasing from 2 to about 4.5 seconds.
Also, the questioning I'm now starting to use derives from the Bloom's Taxonomy higher levels such analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing particular concepts.

Third,  research has shown that posing questions before reading and studying material is effective for older students such as the ones that I teach. Currently, I utilize Dr. Rich Allen's U-Turn strategy/game of Review/Preview when it comes to reading chapters within a novel.

Lastly, I think I want to implement response cards and wheels especially when we are reading argumentative articles and essays. This can elicit debate. My middle school students will have to use their evaluation skills to prove their argument and make counter claims from their opponents. This is where their higher ordered thinking skills comes into place.

Although I have only scratched the surface, I will continue to search for ways to actively engage my students in the topics that I am reviewing within whatever subject that I'm teaching. Whether it's math, science, language arts, or even philosophy---it doesn't matter. Active engagment strategies is definitely beyond the shadow of a doubt a must.

students who are older, high ability, and/or known to be interested in the

subject matter.

* Very young children and poor readers tend to focus only on material that

will help them answer questions if these are posed before the lesson is

presented.

My interactions with our school counselor

My interactions with our school counselor is a definite given due to nature and climate of our school especially when it comes to conflict and bullying. The reason I say this because whenever there's a conflict between two students and us teachers know about it and do not take action by reporting it to her she will immediately ask via email why and our administrators will know about it. Also, we have to answer to them about why. Even if we aren't aware of the conflict the students can and will create a falsehood to make us teachers seem as if we're being neglectful.


And based on my experience with this situation I make sure that any conflicts I witnessed she's notified via email as soon as possible. Also, the two conflicting parties (the students) are sent to our Responsible Thinking Classroom. Then a situation report is filled out by me and I make two copies. I give my counselor the master copy and I keep the other copy for my records.


With the help of my team I was able to direct the parent to counseling services provided by my counselors. That's it! We are not allowed to give any personal advice because we're not counselors. 

The Common Core & Me Blog #1

As for a foundation for me to implement the Common Core in my English/Language Arts (ELA) classes currently I am using the Hess model of the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) matrix based on Bloom's taxonomy. For example, I would have my students implement DOK Level 2 (Analyze) the different themes from the stories and novels we have previously read. Also, they would categorize the different types of figurative languages they have seen within the poetry we have read. Furthermore, DOK Level 3 (Evaluate) requires them to cite textual evidence from both informational and literature text. These are only but a few examples that is aligned with the required Common Core Standards.