The most direct impact of policies from above is the paper shortage. At my placement we've been told not to make any more copies, which seems a little nutty to me for an art class. Add to that an awareness that the paper we have in the classroom is all we have, there's no more resupply this year... It's a funny thing that decision-makers love to cut these little tangible line items, subtractions that directly impact the students. I'm picturing a stereotypical gnomish accountant smiling and saying "we can save 3% if we stop supplying pencils!"... Students fall asleep when they're sitting down, so why don't we just stop supplying chairs, think of the money that'd save!
Oddly enough, over at west oakland m.s., there doesn't seem to be any problem with photocopying and paper at all. It's a handout-heavy school, more than I would give in my own classroom, but there just seems to be this assumption that if a teacher needs to copy something to teach class, he or she should be able to do it, no problem... It's a difference of focus, since it's a small school both physically and in population and the kids are pretty energetic, teachers and administrators are immediately concerned with the kids in their faces all day every day. That kind of proximity helps keep everyone there very clearly focused on getting the kids moving forward.
as far as the communities in which I'm teaching and language development... San leandro is still an unfamiliar city to me. I've driven through it once, gotten the tourist impression of it, other than that I've only seen the neighborhood between the highway and my school, it has a tranquil suburban quality, there's a nice deli... yet despite all that, my CT told me just yesterday that a school-wide "investigation" into gang activity has begun. From what she tells me, it sound more like a fact-finding and survey project, since no one really seems to know what's going on (or able to communicate it due to bureaucratic limitations).
Supposedly there's a couple kids in my class that might be participants, identified (in proper murky profiling fashion) by black hoodies and being latino. The particular kids in my class who fit the mold happen to be (generally) more pleasant and reasonable students, that's saying much for 7th graders, so I hope that whatever action results from this investigation is proactive rather than punitive...
there was a recent ban on sharpies due to tagging activity, though we are allowed to use them in art class (but since we don't have funds, we can't buy sharpies, and the kids aren't allowed to bring their own to school)... There's undoubtedly more irony buried in the directives and regulations surrounding where I'm at, I'm still figuring it out.....
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