We wanted to help public schools get funded and we wanted to raise awareness about underfunding. We thought that one of the best ways we could help was to participate in protests and lobbies. We met a lot with the alliance for quality education to fight for funding in public schools.
Writing valentines letters to scholarship donors at Mt. Carmel Holy Rosary Parochial school
by Aditya
At the Mount Carmel Holy Rosary School in Harlem, we helped kids write letters to the donors of the scholarship that they were on. It was not a lot of work for us but we learned a lot about the general mood of the school. The kids told us that they have about a 20…
Lobbying In Albany With AQENY
by Aditya
The bus going to Albany Left at 7 from One MetroTech Center and it arrived in Albany at 11. We went into the building and were guided to a room where all the lobbyists were sitting. A few different people made speeches, a parent, a teacher, and a student, about the problems that underfunding caused…
Protesting At City Hall With AQENY About Underfunding
by Aditya
With AQENY, we participated in a protest that was pushing to give schools the money they are owed. It turns out that schools in New York state are owed around 6 billion dollars. When we got there we briefly met with Maria (our contact) who greeted us and gave us signs to hold. Then we stood…
Phone Interview With Jacqueline M Cotugno
by Aditya
We interviewed Jacqueline M Cotugno, who works with jumpstart, over the phone in order to find out a little more about jumpstart. Although she reiterated many of the things we heard at the Jumpstart breakfast, she did impress upon us a few new things. She talked about what the college students learned in the program:…
Volunteering at The GO Project
by Aditya
Recently we volunteered at the Go Project. The Go Project is an organization that does group classes, at our school, on Sunday, teaching kids from K through 5th. Each class has a professional teacher and handful of volunteers. I chose 5th grade, and was placed accordingly in class 5B. Then we went to the auditorium…
Breakfast at Jumpstart
by Aditya
Jumpstart is a preschool tutoring program that provides resources and attention to preschool children. They focus on vocabulary, literacy, reading and writing. They give room for creativity while maintaining a structured 2-hour session. We contacted them and were able to go to a breakfast with them. We learned about how they structure their tutoring sessions,…
Meeting with Halee Sage
by Aditya
Halle Sage was a Teacher in Teach for America. She worked in a small public school in inner-city Baltimore for 2 years. During the meeting, she told us about her experience as a Teacher. She said that in her school the other 2 teachers decided that one would teach math, the other would teach English,…
Meeting With Maria from AQENY
by Aditya
The Alliance For Quality Education is an organization that works on making sure everyone gets equal school opportunities through legal action. They deal with things like Charter school got-to-go lists and other related issues by suing the school for the cause of expulsion. They also fight for underfunded schools by pushing policies and actions legally.…
Beyond Measure
by Aditya
Beyond Measure was a movie that explained and showed a New schooling technique. It criticized the current public school system that primarily teaches for the test, not for the attainment for knowledge. It described a demoralizing effect of failing on a test for something you didn’t learn. It explains that you can’t judge a person’s…
Waiting for Superman / The Myth of Charter Schools
by Aditya
“Waiting for Superman” is a controversial movie about charter schools. The movie talks about how Charter schools work and how they began. They use many fancy statistics to make it seem like they are the answer to the failing public school system. Then we read an article called, “The Myth Of Charter Schools”. This article…
