The Teacher Town Hall
On April 18, 2012 Teachers from a range of schools in the community came together to identify and discuss the major issues affecting the graduation rate in their schools, and had a constructive conversation about what can be done to improve the education opportunities for all students.
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How can we address the dropout crisis here in New Mexico?
We received this comment following the Town Hall. – New Mexico PBS
Thanks for organizing a very powerful venue for those that voices are not heard. It was very sad to hear from some of the teachers very quietly worrying if their “boss” was in the room or going to see this. This is sad and I believe one of the stumbling blocks in the way to eradicate the drop out issue. Great job! Now get some rest!
Bahati Ansari, BA, CPS, Founder/Executive Director
The National Racism Free Zone Institute ™
We received this comment following the Town Hall. – New Mexico PBS
Thank you for inviting us to participate. It would have destroyed the decorum if we had brought up the ‘real’ issues so we more or less played along.
The BIE system is a racially segregated but publically funded system that was outlawed by Brown v. Topeka, KS in 1954 for all other racial groups EXCEPT this one. Did racially segregated education work anywhere else in the country? Our governing boards are powerless because the BIE system answers to it’s own chain of command with the onus of control in Washington NOT the local boards….Every student must have a Certificate of Indian Blood to enroll here. We have 50% unemployment here at any given time…there is nothing like this along the Rio Grande corridor. We have zero access to places like Los Alamos, Sandia, Intel, etc. for summer programs for students unless we can locate families they can stay with.
In any case I did some mission work for the Quakers for 2 years at the County house of correction (until I became sick a second time with bladder cancer) so I know the issues with illiteracy and incarceration.
The big equalizers for us are KNME and internet….Dr. J.
Dr. Jerry Cronin
Ft. Wingate
We received this comment following the Town Hall. – New Mexico PBS
I’m sending much appreciation for all the hard work and impeccable details that went into the Teacher Town Hall forum last night by you and your staff. Every aspect was wonderful. Ray was astute and incisive with his facilitation–as always! The television team was on-task and professional. The banquet spread was gourmet quality (and I told the staff as much).
The issues that surfaced are deeply concerning. We MUST do things differently. Policy and political measures move slowly. Personally, I believe teacher education is at the core of HOW things unfold in the classroom.
Best wishes and Kudos for an outstanding evening!
Dr. Barbara Rousseau
We received this comment following the Town Hall. – New Mexico PBS
Thank you for speaking with me this morning. It was great that the attendees were able to speak freely. I hope your early morning meeting with the district leaders will produce results. The message is that legislators and administrators must listen to those in the trenches and make the necessary improvements if increased student learning and better teacher preparation are really wanted.
What wasn’t stated, but certainly implied, is that there is an obvious move toward privatizing education. The lack of quality instruction time, the plethora of testing and such superficially based text books–insulting to the children and demeaning the teachers–are only the tip of the iceberg.
Children are drowning and the temperature is dropping.
Sincerely,
Judith Binder
We received this comment following the Town Hall. – New Mexico PBS
Thank you and New Mexico PBS for hosting the American Graduate Teacher Town Hall.
It was so nice to be treated to a lovely reception and to receive a gift. This is definitely a perk we teachers do not experience very often.
The opportunity to share ideas and express our perspectives was helpful and important. Ray Suarez did an excellent job, sparking engaging and thoughtful conversation.
I hope to continue to participate in making a difference for our families in New Mexico.
Once again, thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Reina A. Romero, Site Supervisor
21st Century CSLC, YDI @ Carlos Rey ES
What alot of people do not relize is that Truancy Leads To Drop Outs. We have to start at an early age in educating parents the importants of education, because many the drop outs are from those parents who dropped out of school themselves. I agree with the gentlemen from one of the Pueblo’s that if there are things going on in a students life at and the situation is not a good situation as an eudcator you are not going to get that child to engage in academics.
Marty
I was the teachers that spoke to “a longer school day and school year” in order to provide more time to remediate and to make up for what has not happened at home, in lower socio-economic areas. I have not seen parenting change in 30+ years. Children are still coming to us in Kinder functioning at a 3 year old level … so it’s a catch up game their entire life…. or they drop out due to frustration. At our school, our parent liaison/community room presents the “Mind in the Making” course to interested parents. This course shows parents how to develop children’s cognitive abilities and potential when it is IMPERATIVE… that’s from the womb to age 3. The problem is that, we only get small groups of parents showing up, and they seem to be the parents who are involved with their kids, to begin with. So if we can’t change parenting in an entire community, we have to do it “all at school”… hence the longer day/year.
I also did not get a chance to mention another way to engage children who with low language skills, or have learning disabilities, and/or short attention spans, and that is through TECHNOLOGY! I teach ages 4 through 9 and the classes are integrated, meaning the autistic child sits next to the regular ed child. I almost can’t tell them apart, as they are soooo engaged in the academic games (such as Every Day Math Online, Waterford, Success Maker or any given academic game website. Children who have access to computers USE them and learn, be it through games or research. Our world is very dependent on technology, and our children need to be savvy as well. Unfortunately I have seen cuts in technology staff because of cuts in education, and as we all know… we should be putting the money into more staff and smaller class sizes… but our priorities in our local, state, and national government have shown us that we are NOT priority. Thank you again, for your opportunity to voice our experiences.
With regard to Truancy…. Yes, we want parents to know the importance in education, but I have two typical, and sad stories that I have to share as an example. I had a first grader miss 40 days of school. I asked him why he was late or absent. He said mom slept too late. I asked him why she slept so late. He said, “She was drinking the night before”. Another one of my students was spotted at the local casino. He waved to me, as he strolled with his parents and new baby sister in the stroller. This was at 7:30 pm. I figured they went to eat at the buffet. 3 hours later, I was leaving to go home and that family was still there. The children standing I the aisle with their dad, while mom gambled at a slot machine. These children are not being read to. They are not doing homework. They are not getting the same experiences their more affluent peers are. Yet, we are still comparing schools and grading them and talking merit pay????? LUDICRIS!!! Are we REALLY able to change this kind of parenting or do we just parent and “do it all” at school? The answer is obvious.
Celine, thank you for sharing your insights. How cool that you are using technology to level the playing field for all your students. If you have not already, please have a look at New Mexico PBS Learning Media: http://nm.pbslearningmedia.org/ It’s a free service where you will find loads of engaging online resources for your students.
Those truancy stories are truly sad ones. I am dismayed to hear that they are also typical. These seem to be things that teachers, schools, and especially children have no control over.
Thank you Laura, I just saw your reply, I had not revisited this page since I posted,… been busy.
Thank for the link, I will check it out. 
Celine is right, parents must take an active role in the success and future of their children in reading development. Ever since the 80′s I have known Celine and she has been right on the button with her involvement and true caring for education for her students.
I just saw this, Monty! Hello! How are you? Are you on Facebook? Here’s my link https://www.facebook.com/celine777?ref=tn_tnmn