First Person

“HOME, NEIGHBORHOOD, & SCHOOL: STUDENT BORDER-CROSSING”

Description: This multimedia presentation combines lecture, video, hands-on data analysis, and facilitated group discussion to help educational professionals explore issues of student border-crossing.

“It helped me to realize that there’s more to the student than what I will see in school.”
Prospective teacher

“This presentation has made me more hesitant to generalize ‘inner city students.'”
Prospective teacher

“It really opened my eyes to different views of student/teacher relationships and how different students want very different things from their teachers.”
�Prospective teacher

“It helped me figure out how we can help kids transcend their boundaries as opposed to placing the entire burden on them!”
-Prospective teacher

Using a combination of Patricia Phelan’s ‘Students’ Multiple Worlds Framework’ and a case-study approach to the stories of First Person students, participants are asked to identify the borders that students face, including socioeconomic constraints, low expectations, and cultural and linguistic boundaries. Participants will also identify commonly employed student border-crossing strategies and helpful strategies for reducing the burdens and risks associated with border-crossing for students. Participants will be expected reflect on their own practice and to relate the experiences of First Person students to those of students they encounter in their own work. First Person is an especially valuable resource for prospective and current middle and secondary teachers; secondary counselors; college access personnel; and others working in urban middle and secondary schools.

Audience: Educational professionals in middle and secondary grades

Prospective student teachers in the Pipeline to the Future Program listen raptly to the students of First Person.

Materials:

• First Person Introductory DVD (15 minutes)
• First Person Profiles Interactive Data Application
• First Person Student Border-Crossing PowerPoint presentation and lecture

Fee scale: 90-120 minute workshop led by Director Benjamin Herold and/or participating First Person students: Sliding scale

Recent recipients:

PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS

• Teach for America, Summer Institute 2006
• Philadelphia Education Fund, Pipeline to the Future (new student teachers) 2006
• Arcadia University, ED 503 (Graduate Seminar for Career Changers)
• LaSalle University, ED PSYCHOLOGY (Student Teacher Supervision)
• Byrn Mawr & Haverford Colleges, ED 200 (Critical Issues in Education)
• Temple University, URBAN ED 610 (Graduate Seminar on Service Learning)
• University of Pennsylvania, ED PSYCHOLOGY (Adolescent Development)

EDUCATIONAL PROFESSIONALS

• College Prep Roundtable, Annual Conference
• Pennsylvania Department of Education, Project 720
• Philadelphia Education Fund, All-staff development session
• Distinguished Educator Lecture Series (with Dr. Elijah Anderson)
• Research for Action, Brown Bag Series
• Philadelphia Futures, Staff development session
• GEAR-UP, staff development