Is there anyone on this ship, who even remotely, looks like Satan?" -- Kirk

I read the "Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and saw the movie.  It gave me a chill watching as the people were herded into the gas chamber and I thought "Is there anyone in there who remotely looked like Satan?".  I did not think so.  My heart cried out as I watched the innocent die for no other reason than being different.

If I used this book in my class, I wonder what my students would think.  Considering that most of them have no idea about World War II as it relates to their own personal experiences, it would be hard for them to understand all the of intricacies that happen in the book.

But there is one story which is somewhat of a parallel to this story.  It is one that most of my students are familiar with and just like in the Boy with the Striped Pajamas, there is a devil in it.

It is the Mirabal Sisters' story.  The same Mirabal Sisters for which our school is named for.

The Mirabal Sisters were three sisters in the Dominican Republic who stood against the tyranny and oppression of a dictator by the name of Rafael Trujillo.  Three of the four Mirabal Sisters were executed in a field after captured and tortured by Trujillo's henchmen.  They were known as the Butterflies as it was a symbol of their fight against the Facist government led by Trujillo that had encompassed all of the Dominican Republic and its people. The three sisters, Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa all had some part in the revolutionary acts that plagued Trujillo.

Just like Hitler, Trujillo utilized torture and death to control these people and used propaganda like Hitler to instill fear, hatred and complacence into the general population.  In his own way he used the Mirabal Sisters and others of the Popular Socialist Party as scapegoats and examples to keep the people in line, much like Hitler did with the Jews.  He also murdered more than 50,000 Dominicans and Haitians over the time of his rule.  Of course, it was less than Hitler's number, but he killed 20,000 to 30,000 Haitians civilians during the Parsley Massacre in a five day time.

Our students are taught the history of the Mirabal sisters by not just their school, but their families as well. It is something where they receive actual accounts of how family members lived and survived during those times.  It is also something that they can relate to their own personal lives as it is their grandmothers, grandfathers and other relatives who tell them the story. 

They can also compare the way their relatives saw those events to the way it is reported historical and start thinking critically about the differences between the two. 

Not to say that they should not study the events that took place during World War II.  They should look at the two and think about the things that were the same and the things that were different between these two events.  They should question why did Hitler hate the Jews so much, and why did Trujillo hate the Haitians so much?  Does this type of racism based on color, religion or race still exist in our time?  Has there been any other events in the world that can be said somewhat mirrors what went on in these two events?  By doing this, they can be able to question their own motives when they ostracize a student for the way they look, or where they were born, etc.

Based on this event being part of their culture, it would be a great lesson and the students will have the prior knowledge to be engaged.

Knovio...Schmovio.. It's out of this world, Scottie!

Exploring new techniques and tools is just as fun as exploring strange new worlds...

Knovio is a tool that lets you present information via online using multimedia technology and PowerPoint presentations.

Although it seemed simple enough to me, I had an issue with it recognizing the camera.  I did notice that it said it was in a Beta version and since I am an IT professional and also an educator I knew what this meant.

It is in a testing environment.  Whenever someone says something is in a Beta version, it means they still have not fixed all the bugs and issues that arises when you create new technology. Of course, to me at least they are being honest, unlike Microsoft who calls their Betas for their Windows OS different names (ex.  Windows 95, Windows 2000, Windows XP and so on).

But I digress,  Knovio is a wonderful tool if you know how to use it.  Students are able to view the information from class, home or any place where they have access to a computer and the Internet.  The utilization of multimedia tools for communication purposes is effective for special education.  Students who cannot read, but have normal visual and auditory senses can use this tool to acquire information about a subject, story, etc.  

It can also be used for collaboration and sharing of information between colleagues and other educators.

Check it out:  http://www.knovio.com/

These are the journeys of the New York City Teaching Fellows. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new techniques, to seek out new ways to engage students and new strategies in literacy, to boldly go where no person has gone before...


And that is how it begins.  In this blog we will be bringing to you what we believe are the techniques and strategies to "great teaching" and use these tools to reduce the "achievement gap", that currently affects our school system.