Technology, Education and Community Partnerships

This chapter was a little weak for me. I found the strategies for community partnerships more like guidelines for building successful partnerships. I was looking for more step by step strategies on how to incorporate technology and partnerships within the classroom effectively. I felt that the reading was more geared to what a partnership should be and should not be.

However, with that said, I was still able to gleam some important ideas from the chapter.

“Successful school-business partnerships are built on an understanding of each other’s needs and constraints, mutual respect and honesty, and projects that are beneficial for all involved” (p.113).

Programs where community businesses can involved will benefit everyone if and only if they are mutual goals and understandings between the companies and the schools. The educators want to show the students basic and real life applications of what they are doing in the classroom. And respectfully, the companies are looking for endorsements and free advertising. When I was in high school, we would partner up with community businesses to provide financially support for our productions. In turn they were given a advertisement slot in our program. I find that it is easier to have successful and meaningful partnerships in high school and perhaps junior high but not so much in elementary. My experience with partnerships in elementary school is limited. One experience that does come to mind however, was the Book It Reading Program with Pizza Hut. We got a free pizza for our class/ourselves when we read a certain amount of books.

That brings me to the next idea. “Schools are looking for project-centered curricia that provides a context for learning and use real-world applications that demonstrate the relevance for the skills that students are learning” (p.114). When I was student teaching, the school brought in a yo-yo man. He was supposed to be a motivational speaker. However, the children were more preoccupied with buying and playing with his yo-yos then what he was talking about. Also, the yo-yos were a week long distraction in the classroom. We, as teachers, did not see the relevance for the children in that assembly accept for the students to buy over priced yo-yos. A yo-yo was 15.00-60.00. Talk about exploiting the students. Most of the students can even afford to buy lunch or a pair of gloves, but here they are encouraged to spend money on a yo-yo… that was too expensive in my mind and broke constantly in addition. Richards sums it up nicely when he says “ Schools are places were students need to feel safe… and where they will not be exploited. It [Businesses] is in the nature of their world to identify and exploit marketing opportunities . Schools are a prime target for products allowed into the school receive implicit endorsements” (p.115).

It was hard to follow the BBN and CO-NECT design. However, the one partnership that I did gleam a lot from was the Cable in the Classroom Partnership. The website was very useful. http://www.ciconline.org.

At our school, we also have the Navy come in and mentor to our students who are struggling in reading. The Marines also come in and advertised the importance for healthy live styles with their marathon in October.

Richards, John. (2001). Stratgies for creating successful corporate partnerships. In LeBaron & Collier (eds.). Technology in its place. Jossey-Bass, CA: San Franisco (p.113-124).