Introducing Vox Culture's Public Relations Team Leader Shen Ge!

Please welcome Vox Culture's Public Relations Team Leader Shen! Shen is in charge of directing, leading, and assigning tasks to the Public Realtions Team. In addition, reaching and seeking out to media contacts. 

I am formally educated in Aerospace engineering and physics, butdoing solar energy work in two solar companies. I also like to do research, photography,and poetry on the side.

What attracted you to Vox?

VOX = Culture + Art + Social Causes I care about all three. Sounds like a good combo.

What is your favorite ice cream? 

My favorite ice cream is either Strawberry or Vanilla. 

If you can be any famous person for a day, who would it be and why?

I would be myself. No one better than half-tapped potential.

What are your favorite things to do in houston?

A few of my favorite things to do are explore new restaurants, cafes, and bars, meet new people, go to art shows and poetry readings and collaborate with other locals on creative projects.

Recap: Education in Houston & Beyond

On Thursday, April 30th, Vox Culture presented the third installment from its 2015 series on education, Education in Houston and Beyond. The event consisted of an education panel that brought awareness and focus on the current state of education in Houston, addressing the means to tackle the growing issue with literacy rates in Houston’s schools. The event featured speakers: 

• Mark Cueva, Education Liaison to the Office of Mayor Annise Parker, City of Houston
• Laura Isensee, Education Reporter, Houston Public Media
• Michelle Wagner, ELA Specialist at Lee High School and HISD Representative
• Sobedya B. Gomez-Chou, University of Texas Ph.D Candidate and Education Specialist

As part of the entertainment, and our continued effort to connect the arts with the cause, poetry was performed by Houston artists, Laurie Chandler and Bucky Rea.

Please stay tuned in the coming months, and once we return from our summer break, for some potential video recaps and quotes from the above speakers and artists.

Artist of the Month, Miss Ruby Rivera!

This month we are featuring Miss Ruby Rivera, an HISD teacher by day and fierce salsa dancer by night. I had the pleasure to ask Miss Rivera a few questions about the Texas Salsa Congress and her involvement in the arts.

What got you involved in the arts? 

For as long as I can remember I loved dance, music, painting etc. I lived in a single parent home most of my life and thankful that my mother put me in many after school programs in Houston. These programs introduced me to the arts and gave me a foundation that would just continue to grow as I got older.

How did you get started with the Texas Salsa Congress? 

Although I was born in Houston I went to college at The University of Texas at Austin. I was living in Austin and moved to Houston to work in admissions for UT in 2000. Shortly after I moved to Houston, I went to my first salsa club in and fell in love with the dance, and knew I wanted to be part of doing something to contribute to the salsa/mambo dance community.

What challenges  and success have you encountered with the Texas salsa congress ? 

Challenges, you might need a book not a newsletter!  In general, the salsa community was small compared to what it is now so one of the challenges was to build the community. In the beginning it was very grass roots to clubs to want to support salsa nights or work with someone who was female in a very male dominated industry. In addition, a huge challenge was to sell Houston, Texas to the world since we compete against cities like Miami, Chicago, New York which people don't need a lot of convincing to travel to those cities. I had to work on highlighting Houston as a city and also our wonderful dance community here in Texas!

Success-in 2016 we will celebrate our 12th Anniversary of the Texas Salsa Congress! We are now one of the oldest salsa congresses in the US. Also, in general to see all the dancers who have come to Houston from all over the globe see what Houston is all about and also provide great shows and instruction for our community to grow as been very rewarding.


What ways can the community support the Texas Salsa Congress? 

As an organization we are always looking for support with anything to can help our growth as an organization and event.  We continue to support Houston through organizing events such as Latin Beats at the Downtown Aquarium which provides a free night over the summer for families.   We can always use donations, sponsorships, volunteers for the event or volunteers that can offer help with marketing, website, or any areas of expertise that might help with the Texas Salsa Congress.

The Texas Salsa Congress is honored to be able to host event that showcases Texas and the arts. We can't wait to see all of you on the dance floor at the Westin Oaks-Galleria March 10-13, 2016!

Implications of Autistic Spectrum Disorder for High School Students

In education teachers are ideally situated to ensure and define standards for teaching students with autism/autistic spectrum disorders provided they have the tools and adequate resources to do so. The essential criteria for the diagnosis of autism may be closely related to a range of developmental disorders which include Asperger’s syndrome. Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) may be characterized by but not limited to inappropriate social interaction, social aloofness, elaborate repetitive routines, and poor motor coordination, narrow / intensive interest in only one or two subjects, borderline IQ and what could be considered a triad of impaired social interaction. This triad may be recognized at all levels of intelligence or with other physical or psychological disorder.

In order to better address and meet the needs of students with autism in a sometimes complex learning environment, both educational and clinical interventions are sometimes combined to help address each student’s need by facilitating a school environment that fosters interaction with others, develops communication skills, and reduces stereotypic and/or self-destructive behavior.

As individual interpretations of the criteria for diagnosing ASD in students vary among teachers, the implications for students may be challenging based on the complexity of the learning environment and size of the school. High school students change classrooms for every subject. They navigate several corridors to get from one classroom to another. A student with autism may find it difficult to navigate or cope with this complex environment as well as complete classroom tasks within a rigid time frame. As Robert a 13-year-old boy in a mainstream high school put it

‘It’s like a treadmill that goes round and round, and there’s not much chance to actually stop and smell the flowers, it’s just go, go, go.’

(Magnusen, C. (2005) pg. 34) 

Consequently students with ASD face further inherent barriers such as time management and processing information in time for course evaluations. Additional limitations may include following specific assignment tasks to do with hypothesizing, drawing conclusions, summarizing and finding supporting opinions’ within a given text.

Admittedly researchers have found that some students with ASD may require more time to process verbal information than their peers (Szatmari et al., 2003). While some ASD students obsess about making no mistakes; others may adopt an extremely laid-back demeanor. This laid back demeanor however is not indicative of how a student might perform academically.

With a set time frame for exam evaluations and/ limited access to advice and information, students may suffer undue anxiety without additional support from teachers. Nonetheless students with ASD in high school are able to choose subjects that reflect their strengths and interests.  Part of the enlightenment and educational theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau suggest “Education for the individual” which means allowing any individual with a desire to learn to have access to what they want to learn; in other words, provide individuals with the proper resources and tools for knowledge acquisition (Starobinski, 1988).

There is a strong case that by improving the training of teachers combined with good will and enthusiasm schools may succeed in the most elementary task of identifying the varied manifestations of autistism especially those associated with intelligence quotient (IQ). Dr. Grandin advises that with reasonable intervention and guidance, teachers can be optimistic about helping students with autism to make progress. Teachers must orchestrate a learning environment that is developmentally appropriate, motivating, and functionally useful.  He quotes:

“teaching is an art, and the true teacher is an artist”

                                                                                                (Dewey 1998b, pg.288).

Undoubtedly, every student with ASD is unique. To identify and support students appropriately, we need the collective support of parents as well as the expertise of practitioners and teachers who continually dedicate their time and energy to this very special condition.

REFERENCES:

Bulstrode, C., & Holsgrove, G. (1996). Education for educating surgeons. BMJ, 312(7027), 326-327

Bell, Y., Gray, J. A. M., & Bulstrode, C. J. K. (1993). The New Deal Tool Kit.

Clark, T., Keane, E., & Lane, K. (2012). A practical guide for teachers of students with an autism spectrum disorder in secondary education. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Harris, J. A., Jacksn, C. M., Paterson, D. G., & Scammon, R. E. (Eds.). (1930). The measurement of man. University of Minn. Press.

Magnusen, C. (2005). Teaching children with autism and related spectrum disorders: an art and a science. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Starobinski, J. (1988). Jean-Jacques Rousseau, transparency and obstruction.

Interview with a Anonymous Teacher

During a recent conversation between a member of the Vox Core Team and with a teacher in Houston, who for terms of privacy and respect will be refered to as The Anonymous Teacher, a key question was brought up that led to the following 5 points being made, that we felt were important to share with our audience and the general public, and key to the conversation on the issue of Education. The question was: What are some of the main issues that you see as a teacher in HISD?

After you read this, if you'd like to share your thoughts and/or have a conversation with The Anonymous Teacher, please respond in the comment section on our Blog, Facebook or Twitter accounts, or send a message tocrystal.koo@voxculture.org.

 

The Anonymous Teacher gave the following response:

 1. Cell phones, for all their potential, are primarily "at will" distractions. They are a serious issue. Teachers are not backed up when it comes to enforcing the policy, so our path of least resistance is to let them go... and it's like ignoring a cancer hoping it goes away. Videos are taken (at humiliating times), pictures are taken (which are uninvited), texts are non-stop (which a most often about something messy or inappropriate. Just last week I took a phone from a student looking at a feed called HISDputos, a twitter feed from an ex-Sam Houston High School student, that featured nude pics of our district’s female children). 

Considering the neural plasticity of our minds, and how they rewire (literally) in ways coerced on them by the technology we use (see The Shallows by Nicholas Carr), the attention spans of our students are shortening, the urgency to learn has been hijacked by apathy, and valuable instructional time is wasted on off-task behavior. Teachers need more support from the administration and school board (teeth, if you will) to deal with the problem. The technology has amazing benefits, but the negatives are exasperating and contributing to the degradation of our students’ education, and therefore our ability to complete on a world stage. 

2. Off task behavior and apathy, as anyone could appreciate, leads to students who are behind. And what's worse, they are behind with the utmost confidence that they are not behind, and that they can easily catch up. Complacency has most definitely led to mediocrity. That said, Texas' rank in literacy levels against the US must be tempered with the amount of second-language learners we have compared to the states who top the charts. That said, I do not believe that STAARS is the enemy some point to. People are complaining about the 24 lines allotted for writing. No one complains about 14 lines in a sonnet, or the syllables of the haiku. It’s flash fiction, or the constraints of the genre. Either students can perform or they cannot. How many lines does it take to demonstrate their mastery? STAARS is just a measuring tool. If more teachers model, and understand, the writing process, you will see scores improve, not because the test has been taught to, but competency has in fact improved. 

3. There's no responsibility and no accountability. No pencil? No paper? No problem. The tax payer (or teacher) will buy it for you. No instructional time should be lost over a pencil. After all, every second counts. And if the student does not do any work, can a student truly fail? Not really. Not unless their attendance is bad. Attendance is tied to funding. Check the statistics on students, out of elementary school that fail for reasons other than attendance (because elementary schools will fail students for academics, sometimes twice! Then we have in middle school 15 year old 7^th graders who have lost hope, and are passed or moved up grades not for academics but for the socio-cultural impact they have on the younger children around them). I think you'll find it curious. 

If I have too many (more than 10%) students fail, I'll get called in to be asked why. "The student didn't do any work," is not an answer. So, I'm asked: Did you offer tutorials; did you council the student; did you call home or report them to their counselor; did you change their seat; did you offer extra credit; did you refer to the student's ARD or refer them to the CIS leader or assistant principal; did you do a home visit?" And sooner or later, I'll answer no. I didn't do that, and they say, "There you go. That's why the child is failing right there."

Christopher Levoy has said, "self-esteem is built through the accomplishment of meaningful tasks." How is any of this situation creating a meaningful task, with real-life consequences? It's doing the opposite. Students know they can't fail, so of course they lay back. Who wouldn't, and what child wouldn't? 

4. Teachers are given gimmicks to "correct' the issue. There are a million programs out there with acronyms that are offered (strongly offered) to teachers who have no idea who came up with them, what research validates them, or any information as to whether or not the strategies have been university tested to be proven to be effective. Teachers are infantilized, force fed quick-fix garbage by administrators who often spent the 3 year minimum in a classroom, and though they mean well, are not experienced enough, with a deep enough knowing, to be strong instructional leaders of a campus. Teachers need to learn to write with their students; they don’t need gimmicks. If teachers will simply model the recursive nature of the writing process, encountering every problem their students encounter through the assignment, they will organically know to introduce mini-teaches and mini-lessons. Research has shown this to be the case time-and-time again. 

Our brains are equipped with mirror neurons, and these neurons prepare the mind for learning. Human beings really are "monkey see, monkey do." Watching someone preform some variety of tasks is an excellent way to learn, yet our teachers, who are over-worked, opt instead for worksheets, which teach nothing. There is zero student investment in a worksheet. 

Writing is a mode of learning, and movement cements learning. Our students need to write, and they need to move around once in a while. Movement is the only activity that engages both hemispheres of the brain, yet, our students must sit still for a solid hour, 6 times are day, 5 times a week for 187 days a year. This is a simple thing that could be addressed with kiosks, stations, gallery walks, etc. Teachers, however skip these things, because they don't understand the research behind them, so of course they look superfluous from the outside looking in. Instead teachers are told, "Students have different learning styles. Be sure to differentiate." Whatever that means (without any research or demonstrations). 

5. Parents are not involved in the process enough. Education is a three-way conversation between the teachers, the student, and the parent. Like police, priests, and anyone else in a position of authority, the Me Generation has the false perception that the teacher has an adversarial role. This is not the case at all. Parents are my most power allies. I make on average over 100 phone calls home per year, and things most always change for the better once I do. Parents need to be given more credit, more trust, and be more informed about, not only, the academic performance of their children, but the behavior their children exhibit while away at school. The harshest cursing is the new “gee wiz.” It’s a feat of strength to get to my classroom each morning without being subject to hearing it. But, nothing is done. Like with cell phones, cursing goes unaddressed because we have to prioritize what we can deal with (and what will be dealt with—meaning, we’re not backed up much when we do, and it is SO very prevalent).  My class load is usually between 140-180 students per year. It’s not feasible for me to make phone class every day for everything and do all I have to do. And like a cancer, it does not go away if ignored. 

These are some of my concerns for our profession and our students with the way things are going now. 

That all said, I hope you can tell, I am very serious about being a good teacher. My report with my students is my best class management tool. I am the instructional leader of my class. We have class managers so that my students are “citizens” not “tourists” of their classroom, and I believe the socio-cultural experience of the class is as important as the content. I love kids, and I love teaching. But, I did want to offer my concerns, if anyone might find them helpful to begin a conversation. 

-The Anonymous Teacher