Letter to the Editor

I believe that Response to Intervention (RTI) is a great idea for deciding who gets into special education. The problem is veteran teachers special education or otherwise have told me that it is not being used as it was meant to be. School psychologists have told me that they often encounter young special education teachers attempting to use RTI, but veteran teachers aren’t trained to put interventions in place or track the student’s progress.

RTI is meant to be a huge general education initiative, and the fact is that general education teachers are not trained in how to implement it. A lot of general educators don’t know that school psychologists, special education teachers, principal, social workers, and councilors are resources they could use to learn and help implement RTI. The idea behind RTI is that it would save money by lessoning the number of special education students being serviced. In reality RTI would cost us more money because we would be implementing something that nobody knows how to use. By simply adding classes for general education degrees and training programs for veteran teachers we could make RTI work. RTI is meant to be carried out in the general ED classroom in order to keep kids out of special education. Problem is special educators are the teachers that are being trained on the general education initiative.

If we really want to save money by keeping kids out of special education if they don’t need it, then we need to train the right people how to implement it. RTI could save money while limiting class sizes for special education. Students wouldn’t be getting services they don’t need along with the label of special ED student. Schools have the resources but don’t use them because some view change as bad. RTI would change the dynamics of the special education classroom by limiting the student put in them. That would give teachers more one on one time with students that need it. If RTI was actually used less students would get the label of special ED, and teachers would know what accommodations to give students instead of handing them off to special education. I think that if RTI does eventually become the norm for schools that education in all parties’ eyes would be made easier.

Chapter 6 Education Nation: The Youth Edge

Chapter 6 was all about how teaching methods have not kept up with technology over the years.

The five key points I found are

1.       Students as technology teachers- The idea that students help teach the teacher how to use technology that the students are familiar with.

2.       The march of the digital natives- Students are growing up with newer technology all the time. We need to embrace this and use the newer technology so the students don’t need to learn old technology.

3.       Students should have a say on what technology is being used in the classroom.

4.       Bring student hobbies into the classroom to enhance the learning.

5.       Use technology to travel to new places using video and programs like Skype.  

Studentfirsts.org

I recently visited the website Studentfirsts.org that set up to take action in many states concerning education. Some of the topics on the site that I found were saving the good teachers in schools when there are layoffs regardless of tenure. They also take about fair teacher evaluations compared to the way the system works right now where the newest teachers get the boot. The site is in support of those good teachers out there and I really like this site. Why shouldn’t the best teachers stay even if they don’t have tenure? It just doesn’t make sense to me that the new teachers who are usually the most motivated get fired before those that are sick of teaching yet they like a paycheck.

Chapter Five Education Nation

Chapter five in Education Nation is called the Co-Teaching Edge. The chapter talks about how parents are just as important as teachers in student’s lives. We need to be able to use coeducation our students in order to be successful. Brlow are the five points I found most important.

                        1.           “Teachers as prisoners of time” means the way the system is now does not    allow teachers to explore new teaching styles that may work better.

                        2.                Teachers are only one piece in a student’s education parents are another just as important piece, and the student is the third piece.

          3. “The Co-Teaching Edge is about forming closer partnerships between the adults in children’s lives: their teachers, parents, caregivers, and others in the community.”

                           

                         

          4.   The internet can bridge the gap between schools students and parents. Daily goings on in the classroom can be put on the internet so the parents can know what’s going on in class.

          5. Teachers should manage students learning rather than be the sole instructor.

Group six presentation

The topic group six covered was Governance and Finance/Regulating and Funding. The group covered how schools are funded and where the money comes from, also how a mayor can take over a school district. The pros and cons of alternative education were discussed. Like homeschooling, charter schools, Kipp schools, and voucher systems. I think the group did a great job taking a tough topic, and making it simpler.

Group 5 Presentation: The Organization of American Schools

The group went over the different types of schools what they are designed to do. The four different types of schools and their goals are listed below.

Academic-These schools help students obtain knowledge.

Social and civic- These schools help students become productive members of society.

Vocational- Helps students gain skills for entering the work force.

Personal- These schools help students in healthy open ways.

The group explained how some schools are not year round schools or schools with summer vacations. Instead some schools have an alternating schedule so breaks are more in number but less in length. We heard how some schools are open four days a week or spend less time each day in class. These schools were developed to save money. Some of these schools have fewer drop outs than other schools. I think I like the idea of having more breaks during the year and giving up summer vacation. That practice was started for rural areas where students needed to help out on the family farm during that time but that isn’t the norm anymore. Plus that lengthy break is hard for kids because they forget so much over breaks.

Waiting for Superman reflection

The film was about how are schools are failing our students are dropping out, and we are not acting on these things. Charter schools were another focus, and how every student can’t get into these schools. School lotteries were held to see which kids would get into charter schools. The odds were often stacked against the kids trying to get into the charter schools. I agree with one part of the film where someone says it’s the adults not the students that are the problem and the students are suffering because of adults poor decisions. I don’t think government or the general public wants to admit they are the problem. I think some failing schools are failing not just because of the teachers but also because of how the system works. After watching the film I really hope that one day people realize that education is more important than it is being treated now. Parents need to get involved and tax payers need to know that education deserves more money than it is getting if the county is ever going to get back on track.

Somali-Americans hail Owatonna school settlement

A settlement between federal officials and the Owatonna public school district after a federal civil rights investigation of alleged harassment of Somali-American students in schools ended in Somali parent’s favor. A student in the school district had written a paper on the Muslim religion and culture. In the paper the student wrote about how Muslims pray dress, and eat dogs. Somali students found the paper derogatory and their parents complained to school officials. Somali parents didn’t feel the school did enough to correct the situation. They didn’t give the age of the student that wrote the paper but I can see a younger less mature or educated student writing a paper like this. But a younger student may not know that this is a bad thing, and in that case I don’t think it’s a big deal unless the school doesn’t explain to that student why it is bad. If this student was in high school and knowingly wrote this paper to make fun of or anger Somali students then it’s a different story. If the student writing the paper did write this paper with ill intentions then the district should be held accountable for not punishing the student. I think the right thing to do is educate students on other religions before these things happen. I know after a guest speaker came into our 12^th grade classroom to talk about Muslim beliefs a lot of stereotypes were discounted, and the class agreed the experience was good. If we leave our students uneducated on subjects like this some will make these kinds of decisions more often.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/13/owatonna-somali-harassment-settlement/

Australia prioritizes education cooperation with Vietnam

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Allaster Cox gives reasons for continuing to give scholarships to Vietnamese students. He believes that the educational relationship between the two countries will help further the research in education being done in both countries. I think he has a good point, because the students going to university and other institutions in the other county might help build other connections between the two counties. Australia give more scholarships to Vietnamese students than any other country does. I think that shows that these students are proving to be good for the universities which could eventually mean they would be good for the country. So overall I think it’s benefiting both countries, Australia gets to perform research, and Vietnam gets educated students who have an association with Australia.  

http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Australia-prioritizes-education-cooperation-with-Vietnam/20114/125763.vov

Ideal subjects in a Teacher Prep Program

As a class, we were told to share what three things we would want to learn from a “Teachers Prep Program.” So below are the three foremost topics in my eyes that I believe are the most important and the least talked about.

I think the first thing that a program should teach is how to not just be a teacher, but also be real person. If a student views a teacher as not caring or emotionless, it becomes hard to trust that teacher or feel comfortable in class. Teach us how to set the appropriate boundaries for a classroom that fosters openness and free spirit. 

The second aspect that I think should be covered in the program is how to be culturally diverse and more aware of how student’s lives outside of school affect how they act inside school. This is important is because each student has his or her own beliefs and what you say or so could offend them.

How to best deal with parents of students is the third thing that I think is important to know for a new teacher.  Your job puts you in a classroom with these people’s babies/investments and they expect you to know and do exactly what they think you should know and do.

Group Presentation 4 Educational Philosophy

Group four gave their presentation on chapter seven “Educational Philosophy.” The group did a good job of explaining the four different philosophies and what each one entails.

Perennialism is a philosophy that suggests that constant training of a student’s intellect is the most important way to make sure a student achieves. It’s a strict and very narrow way of thinking.

Essentialism is a philosophy that focuses more on basic skills and critical knowledge needed in everyday life. It’s a little less narrow viewed philosophy than perennialism.

Progressivism is a philosophy that focuses on real-world problem solving and individual development. The problem solving emphasis also goes along with other life skills and a focus on democratic and collaborative skills

Social Reconstructionism is a philosophy that believes schools/ teachers should take the lead in addressing social issues that might not be addressed otherwise. The philosophy involves treating ever student the same, collaboration, discussion, and group projects

The group did a better job of describing these philosophies than I did. They also gave us a worksheet that showed us what our teaching philosophy may be. The scores I had were pretty evenly distributed over all four areas so I will have to think about these philosophies and see which one I agree with more. Overall the group did a great job!

“Two Million Minutes”

There are approximately 2 million minutes for students from ninth grade to graduation. The video “Two Million Minutes,” which we watched in class showed how students from the United States, China, and India spent that time. I couldn’t believe how much harder students from China and India work compared to the students from the U.S. Not only did the Chinese and Indian students go to school for more hours a day than did the American students, but the time they spent studying after school far surpassed the U.S. students. I think the fact that the students here in the U.S. can achieve a GPA of 3.7 or higher and spend almost no time studying, when compared with these other counties, is proof that we don’t hold our students to the same standards.

There are obvious differences in the lives of these three groups of students. The U.S. students were more interested in making friends and having fun than the other two groups. The reason for that was also obvious. The students in China and India were living in smaller homes and spent more time with family. They focused on studying in order to keep competitive with all of the other hard working students in their countries. They also have to fight hunger and other obstacles that the U.S. students do not. Sports were only brought up by the U.S. students. I found that interesting because instead of sports in China and India they focus on other extracurricular activities like learning to play an instrument or computer programming. I was also surprised and a little upset to learn that U.S. students on average don’t take more than 2 years of algebra or go beyond their first year of biology during high school.

 Working was also another topic in the video. They talked about how U.S. students work after school for money to use when they hang out with friends or buying a car. The other students spend the time they would use working for studying because they know that instant gratification is less important than getting a secure better paying job in the future. It almost seemed as though students in the U.S. thought they were special and it was a given that they were they were guaranteed a job later in life. After watching the video it was clear that U.S. students have a sense of entitlement and aren’t willing to work as hard for the same job as someone else from China and India.

Presentation #3

Group 3 did their presentation today on chapter 6 which is Education in the
United States and It's Historical Roots. I think the presentation was informative, and gave a good history lesson on education in the U.S. After the presentation the professor expanded on the topic of assimilation involving the American Indians. We watched a short video on how American Indians were forced to go to schools run by white teachers that tried to force the population to conform to the "civilized" way of life. The whites made the American Indians dress like them and talk like them, in an attempt to take away their own cultural identity. In the end it didn't work, the damage was already done, many American Indian lives were already ruined. The American Indians started their own schools and kept what culture they could alive.

Intercultural Developmental Inventory

I have the scores from my Intercultural Development Inventory Test. This test is designed to measure the stage of my Intercultural Development. This is an important topic in education today, as diversity in public schools is increasing all the time, and teacher's need to be able to teach more diverse group of students. They use a scale ranging from1 which is denial to 5 which is adaptation. According to my IDI report, my perceived orientation score indicates how I rate my own capability in understanding and appropriately adapting to cultural differences. In this category, I scored a 114.93, which is between minimization and acceptance on the scale. My Developmental Orientation score was 74.78 which falls between denial and defense/reversal. Needless to say I was a little upset by this until I saw what was on the back sheets of the packet. The packet has some questions and answers on the back that were part of the test. One of the things I noticed first was that it says is that I am a member of an ethnic minority which is not true. So I looked into it further and noticed six other questions were also answered differently than I remember. I also answered that I never took a foreign language and have never studied abroad which are true and I’m sure count against me. I actually had no choice in foreign language in high school because I had to give it up for Time Management. I also would like to study abroad if I get the chance. Because these answers are different than I remember putting it makes me feel that these scores are different than they would be if my actual answers were. If I were to use this score though I would need a lot of work in trying to learn new things about different cultures and be open to new experiences.

2nd Presentation

My group presented on 3/2/2011 and it went really well I think the way we all pitched in with ideas and were willing to listen to each other was a huge reason it went so well. We had our printouts of select pages of an IEP, we had questions for the class to think about, and our power point was ready to go. Each of us was ready to talk about our part and I think it all went well.

Unequal Education: Failing our Children

3/15/2011

We watched a video today about two students going to two different schools blocks away from each other, but both were very different. One school was called Riverdale and it was a predominantly white school. A student named James attended Riverdale and the documentary film crew followed him throughout a few of his school days. The other school that was compared to Riverdale was called South Fordham a predominantly black school, and the student that the documentary followed from that school was named Lonnie.

At the beginning of the video, Lonnie was afraid to go outside to dump the garbage at his own apartment building. Lonnie’s mom talked about how just days earlier a little girl got into a fight outside in the street. When we visited James house, however, he said he liked his neighborhood and his house was much larger than Lonnie’s family apartment. I can’t believe that those two homes are as close a few blocks away like the video said, because the neighborhoods are so different. I was also sad to see that one of Lonnie’s teachers was teaching a subject that he was unqualified to be teaching. Along with the unqualified teacher, Lonnie did not have access to microscopes in science class or other materials that are beneficial in a classroom. While at James school, he could use microscopes and many other things Lonnie did not have at his school. I don’t think school funding should be based on the amount of taxes paid in the area of the school district because it creates issues, shown in these two schools. It gives a head start and an unfair advantage to the children in richer areas. Both kids had the same ambitions, but one had a greater potential to achieve them just because his family lived in a richer area.

Education Nation Chapter 4

Chapter 4 was dedicated to showing how education is not just something that happens in school but is something that is important in everyday life. It talked about relating school learning to real life and how variety in learning isn’t a bad thing. Also that it is good to explore your own curiosities and learn on your own.

The five points that affect me:

1.       Learning doesn’t stop when the bell rings at the end of the school day.

2.       Learning does not stop over the summer break, especially if you encourage students to learn more about their own interests over the summer.

3.       Learning from others who are learning the same subject is important because by teaching other what you know helps engrain it in your own mind. It also helps develop social skills needed in the real world.

4.       The idea of “School life = Real life”.

5.       Time is limited during a class period, but using technology you can bring that learning home to the student.

Education Nation Chapter 3

This chapter is about how education has not kept up with technology. The idea is that students can’t reach their full potential if they aren’t allowed all of the available tools to succeed.

The five points that affect me:

1.       Embrace technology and change teaching styles accordingly, because technology can take education outside of the school setting.

2.       Don’t use one teaching style when you can use them all.

3.       Lectures are pointless when you can use more meaningful and exciting ways to present the material.

4.       Use technology as a way present and convey ideas.

5.       Online learning elevates and levels the playing field.

Education Nation Chapter 2

This chapter was mostly about hands on learning and how lectures just don’t cut it now that technology is around. The book also touched on how the feelings, ideas, home life, and many other things can affect a students learning and will to learn.

The five points that affect me:

1.       If at all possible provide project based learning, and use experiences that are relevant to student’s lives.

2.       Use and strengthen active-learning practices.

3.       Video, images, and music are much more powerful than just words alone.

4.       If a student’s heart isn’t into learning than their mind won’t be either.

5.       It’s not only about what’s going to be on the test, but about what will help a student in the real world.

Speaking in Tongues

Speaking in tongues is a documentary we watched in class that followed four students in the         San Francisco public school immersion program. The students shared how they felt about the program and learning in school using another language. Families talked about how proud they were of their kids, and how they know another language that will allow them to have more opportunities throughout their lives. The documentary showed how it is important to be bilingual in the world today, because the world keeps getting smaller all of the time. I like the idea of the program and I wish it was available when I was younger. These schools are a stepping stone toward educating our children to be competitive in the global market.

2/24/2011

The group that was assigned chapter 4 in our book gave their presentation today. The presentation was about exploring diversity in the classroom. The explained what culture was and what culture actually meant and all of the dynamics of it. After explaining what culture was it was easier to understand what they were talking about when they said that it can be difficult for someone of a different culture to learn the same way in the classroom as another student of a different culture? The videos they showed were excellent and informative, and it gave all of us an idea of what we needed to do to become a teacher in that aspect. They also added in a jeopardy game at the end with questions that were directly from the presentation. Overall it was a great presentation which makes it hard for my group because we have to follow them.

2/22/2011

On this day in class we split up into groups and discussed the meanings of the following terms.

Culture

Multi Culture

Diversity

Intercultural

Competencies

American Culture

In our groups we discussed what we thought these terms meant and then the entire class shared what their groups came up with.                           

We then watched a video on Intercultural Competence, what it means to be culturally competent, and why it is so important to be intercultural competent.

2/15/2011

We took an online test called the Intercultural Development Inventory in class today. The test is designed to measure our stage of development in cultural competency. The reason it is important to know where you are on the scale is because classrooms are getting more diverse every year.

2/10/2011

We watched news a broadcast on popularity and social cruelty in schools. The segment started by defining what makes a child more popular than another. After defining who was popular and who wasn’t they looked into what type a power a popular child has over others. They went on to talk  about children with no friends and children with few friends, and how every child needs friends and children without friend may need help to get them. The next topic was a piece on bullying and how sometimes it isn’t seen by the adult supervisors, also what bullying does to a child’s life. They ended with a group of students putting together an anti bullying campaign. After the video we broke into groups and formed our own “Anti Bullying Campaign”. We made posters that had our ideas and slogans on them and presented them to the class.

2/8/2011

At the beginning of class we practiced our listening skills. We found a partner and talked to them for one minute while they said nothing, and then we switched so we had to listen. After that we moved on to chapter three in our class assigned book. Chapter three is about schools and society, but we spent most of our time talking about bullying and cyber bullying. We then watched a movie called bullied. The movie was a true story about a young man from Wisconsin that was bullied in school because he was gay. He recounted all of the struggles he went through with the school faculty that would ignore the fact that he was getting beat up, and the emotional struggles he dealt with during that period. I then when home and ordered a free copy online for myself.


Today I watched the movie bullied and as a future teacher I plan to combat bullying by educating students on how words and actions mean alot more than they think. I think less people would be bullies if they knew how bad they made people feel.

2/3/2011

During class we talked about an organization called Teach for America. Teach for America has the goal of bringing quality educators into low income/urban areas. The teachers that go through the program get placed in these areas to try and give the same quality education to the students that are given in middle to upper class schools.

We watched a video featuring Tony Wagner, who wrote the book, The Global Achievement Gap. I the video Wagner talked about how even our top of the line schools aren’t teaching our students the skills they need to succeed in the job market today.

1. Critical thinking and Problem Solving.
2. Collaboration across Networks, and Leading by Influence.
3. Agility and Adaptability.
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurialism.
5. Effective Oral and Written Communication. 
6. Accessing and Analyzing Information.
7. Curiosity and Imagination.

According to Wagner effective oral and written communication is one area that employers say our graduates are lacking. As someone that is four years removed from high school, and has been part of the workforce since then I can say that I agree.

We also read a small piece taken out of Linda Darling-Hammond's The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity will Determine Our Future. We read the piece and then split into groups to talk about it. My group agreed that if small fishing counties can go from little to no education, and then jump to being well educated in a decade by implementing new techniques that the United States should be able to do the same if people would allow change.

2/1/2011

Today Dr. Johnson went over the MTLE. This is the new test that will replace the praxis, and the first round of the MTLE is required to start junior block. We were also split up into small groups to make mind maps of chapters one and two of our text books. We used a large sheet of paper along with markers to outline the major points of each chapter. Each group was assigned one chapter and was paired up with another that would cover the other, and when we finished our posters we presented it to the other group. I think splitting the chapters up this way and then presenting them to others helped both groups understand the key points better than if we read it.

1/20/2011

We watched a You-Tube video called RSA Animate: Changing Education Paradigms. The video brought up a lot of good questions about how we should be educating students of the 21^st century. The video went over why some people think ADHD is an epidemic, but it also said that we blame ADHD when it’s obvious that sometimes it’s just the way material is presented. I agree with the video that we need to change our teaching style to better fit the new world.

1/25/2011

We met in our small groups to decide what our main topics from chapter five in our book we would focus on. We ended up choosing Students with Exceptionalities. We brainstormed to figure out how to split the topics up between our group members, and I chose the section on the IEP. From that point we decided to search for videos that would be connected to all of our topics and would show different perspectives. We found a video that followed a student throughout his day focusing on his struggles. Our group decided we wanted to use power point so we could start on our own slides and put them together later.

State wants online charter school shut down

The online charter school has been under investigation for two years by the state for allowing students to graduate without completing what they feel are the necessary bench marks for math and other subjects. I think the state has a real case for not renewing the schools license or even terminating it. Not all of its students are graduating without completing the necessary requirements but I think that a legitimate school wouldn’t bend the rules for a student just so they can graduate. You never know if someone chose that school to go to so they wouldn’t have to work as hard for that diploma which would cheapen everyone else’s.

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/117557253.html

NORWAY: Foreign students flock to free universities

Students from all over Europe flock to Norway for the only free colleges left in Europe. I can’t imagine free college for 2-4 years. There are only a few programs that require tuition and those are specialized or masters programs. I think that it is a great that tuition free colleges exist, but it makes you wonder why these schools aren’t available in the United States. This is a short article but worth the read if you’re a former or current college student and you want feel like you were left out of a good thing.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2011021120194112

Governor’s budget protects E-12 education, boosts early childhood programs

Mark Dayton’s budget plan been called has “honest and thoughtful” Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher. The Governor plans to invest in children’s education instead of taking money away from education to fix the state’s 6.2 billion dollar deficit. I think that’s a great idea because why on earth would we punish students and teachers by taking resources away from education. I think that would just set the state up for a future of an under educated work force. Dayton plans to increase taxes along with cutting 15 million in unspecified K-12 programs. I hope this becomes more of a national trend to pay more attention to education to ensure the United States future.

http://www.educationminnesota.org/en/news/edmnupdates/2011/021511-budget.aspx

Japanese Elementary Teachers Take On Teaching English

Starting this April Japanese teachers of fifth and six grade students are supposed to begin teaching English as a required class. The only problem is that these teachers don’t know English at all because this was a seventh grade expectation in the past. The fifth and sixth grade teachers think it is absurd that they are expected to teach English if they themselves don’t know it. I have to say I agree with them on that part, but I think it is a great idea to put the program in place once they have teachers that can properly teach the language. Some of the teachers studied English in college years ago but they can’t imagine teaching it. I think it will take some time to get done, but the end effect will be well worth it.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/japanese-elementary-teachers-take-on-teaching-english-52528.html

Education Minnesota disappointed by alternative licensure decision

The group believes that the standards are too low for the teachers getting the alternative licensure and that it will bring down the quality of teaching provided. "The key to better teaching does not lie in making it easier to become a teacher. Our society does not address issues relating to doctors, attorneys, electricians or any other professional in such a manner.” I think this quote makes a good point. Why can’t someone get an alternative two year licenser for being a doctor or dentist? Is it because we view those jobs as more important and teaching kids is lower on the totem pole? I try to imagine trying to become a teacher in two years with no prior degree or interaction with kids in school. I can defiantly say that I could not do it. That’s why I agree that there needs to be more requirements added on to this two year licensure program like a degree in the subject to be taught, or supervision from an experienced educator for a period of time. Read the article and see what you think.

http://www.educationminnesota.org/en/news/newsroom/newsreleases/2011/022811-altlicensure.aspx

World Vision Taiwan supports continued education for poor children

A charity in Taiwan is using its money to help children of families in financial trouble to continue their education. They are donating scholarships to elementary school students all the way up to college students. I think this is a great example how a group or organization can step in and help people in need, and once these students are done with school they will most likely live better lives than they could have before. I wish I heard more stories like this happening in the United States. The article is short but uplifting, and I think it’s a good story.  

http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?ID=201102210031&Type=aSOC

Field Experience 1st day Feb 9

When I arrived for my first day of field experience at Talahi Elementary in St. Cloud the teacher had no clue I was going to be there, because her email had been full the entire week I had been trying to get in touch with her. Also the office did not deliver the message I left for her. After I introduced myself she knew why I was there and she invited me into the class.  I got to know most of the student’s names, and used that first day in the classroom to get a feel for what to expect for the next 9 weeks.

Tuition freeze brings out passions

This article is about a bill that if past would freeze college tuition until 2013. If you are or plan on being a college student this topic should be something you look into. The article talks about college students who took the day off of school to show their support of the bill.

http://www.mndaily.com/2011/02/17/tuition-freeze-bill-brings-out-passions

Education Nation chapter 1

2/4/2011

The first chapter had a lot of interesting history and more modern ideas on how to better education in schools. The author talks about how even the simplest question from a young kid can have a very complicated. Even though the answers are complicated that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t tell them or encourage them to find the answer for themselves. The author then went on to talk about how we are teaching children to take tests not how to learn. He talked about how schools are to cautious on how and what we teach and that it is not surprising that school is boring to kids. The book says we need to get kids excited about learning and let them know why we teach them what we do and how it relates to the real world.

Five points that affect me.

1.       Help kids relate what they learn in class to how they will use it in real life.

2.       Help Kids understand Why they are leaning the things they learn.

3.       Praise achievements.

4.       Don’t label students, and treat them all on the same intellectual level.

5.       Make sure students know how to use the available resources, and encourage the use of them not only for school but also to look into their own personal questions.

Sudan needs English to build bridges between North and South

2/2/2011

In this article they talk about how the two halves of the country need a neutral language to communicate with each other. The South has already declared that they want to be a separate country and have chosen English as their language. The North uses Arabic which the South doesn’t like, but the North is going to use English as a second language. Police, Military, and leaders of the country are all pushing to put English classes in place so they can use English to communicate between North and South so they can both work together to stop human trafficking and other issues faced by both sides. Both sides also agree that English is the language of the internet and a key tool in building a better economy and country. I think they have the right idea in using a common language to bridge the gap between these two counties that were in a civil war up until 2005. I don’t know if the English language is a big part in building an economy though, but they might know or mean something that I am missing. I agree with their reasoning for adopting a language to communicate with each other. It makes me think about the U.S. and Mexican border where authorities used to work together to stop drug, human, and gun trafficking before the drug cartels too over. All in all I found the article interesting

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/11/tefl-sudan

Atomic Learning/Computer Lab

1/27/2011

We learned how to use the program Atomic Learning and it is a great program to use as a resource or resource finder. This was my first time using it so I still don’t know a lot about it but I’m looking forward to learning more about it.  

Mother: Anoka-Hennepin School policy contributed to gay son’s suicide

This article talks about a young man that committed suicide last July, and his mother believes he did so because of anti-gay bullying in school. His mother believes that the district policy stopped teachers from preventing anti-gay bullying and intervening when it occurred. After reading the policy I can see why she would think that. The fact is that this student should have had a safe school environment like the schools guarantee, and he didn’t. Bullying is becoming a big issue in schools not just bullying of LGBT but also other students. I hope schools change their policies on these types of things so teachers are able to do what is right without the fear of being fired for it.

http://thecolu.mn/4484/mother-anoka-hennepin-school-policy-contributed-to-gay-sons-suicide

Education Minnesota outlines action to address the achievement gap

1/22/2011

The article outlines the Education Minnesota President, Tom Dooher’s plan for better education. I agree with some of the ideas he has like lowering class sizes and getting parents and community involved in our children’s education. He also believes that we need to improve on our early childhood programs. We need to have all day kindergarten classes instead of the half day option. Dooher also touched on annual teacher evaluations and how those would be assessed. One way to assess teachers that I agree with Dooher on is having the evaluator sit in on a class or two and see if the teaching style is up to par. Dooher also put forth the idea of evaluating teachers on their student’s grades. This article also cleared up a few questions I had on the two year teaching license article that we read for our first blog. Dooher clarified how a mid-level professional could get a teaching license if they had a degree in the subject that they wanted to teach and could demonstrate the ability to teach that subject.

http://hometownsource.com/2011/01/11/education-minnesota-outlines-action-to-address-achievement-gap/

Freedom Writers revised

1. Erin Gruwell wanted to make a difference in these kids’ lives in the classroom so they would stop living life by the rules of the street.

2. The class was separated by race and the students didn’t think an education would matter in their lives. Nobody wanted to learn so Erin had to get them motivated and engaged in order to get them to learn.

3. Almost everyone had been shot at, and each on had at least one friend that had died in a shooting. Some had family that supported them being in a gang rather than getting an education. Some students just had abusive parents and violent lives that they didn’t care to share.

4. Their family obviously didn’t care about their schoolwork because they didn’t even show up to conferences. They didn’t want to learn so they had an academic performance that reflected that attitude.

5. She started talking like them to try to relate to them. She mispronounced tupac and that got some of them raping and talking amongst themselves, and that may have been an accident that she mispronounced his name but it worked.

6. Relating the learning material to the student’s lives. Helping the students relate with each other, and showing them they are all alike in a lot of ways.

7. She found books that related to the students and purchased them with her own money. Since the story was similar to the student’s stories they wanted to know more about it so they read which they would not do before. She came up with the idea for the journals so they could have a chance to share their story if they wanted, or they could just write for the sake of writing.

8. The administrators felt that integration ruined the school and that the kids in Erin’s class were unable to be taught. The administration also denied Erin’s class books because they assumed the kids would ruin them and they wouldn’t learn from them anyway.

9. Erin had high expectations for her students, but they had low expectations for themselves. Erin showed them that they could learn and education does matter. So I believe it’s fair to say she had a big role in their learning and success in school.

10. I learned that sometimes I may have to think further out of the box than I originally thought in order to get through to some students. I learned I have to think of students not as who I know them to be but as a person that exists outside of school and that they do have outside influences and a life that I can’t do anything about.

Freedom Writers

1/17/2011

I think Freedom Writers gives an extreme version of an inner city classroom. I don't think it would be easy to find a classroom where every student has been shot at; with the exception of the one white student. It would also be difficult to find a class that is as hostile over skin color as the students were in the movie. I know that these issues are present in the classroom in many different schools and I believe that the strategies that Mrs. Gruwell used to defuse these problems are good examples. Her methods could be used in real classrooms. In the movie, the students believe nobody cares about their education. Therefore, they lack the motivation to learn. Mrs. Gruwell sees that the student beliefs are true when the classroom is refused new books and parents do not attend parent teacher conferences. The administration blames integration for ruining the school. When Gruwell was refused books by the school, she decided to buy them on her own. She strategically chose the book that would compare to her student's lives in order to get them engaged in the reading. Once the students were engaged, they started to apply themselves more in class and the environment became less hostile. In turn, they connected as students. In the end, the once mortal enemies in the classroom are friends and they all know that they can make the future they want for themselves.

Unfortunately, we do have schools full of students who have no motivation from parents or family to do well in school. That's why I think that anyone looking to go into a career in education should be prepared to get every student motivated and involved in class. Gruwell had her own way of getting that particular group engaged in the classroom. The well chosen book she handed out and the journal her students wrote in about their lives were her tools for student success. All teachers should have their own bag of tricks so that their students don't get disinterested and thus unmotivated. In the movie, the kids were considered unteachable. In real life, we know that no person is unteachable it's just a matter of finding a way to teach them.

Why I want to be a special education teacher

1/13/2011

When I was seven parents were told by my first grade teacher that I was lazy and that was the reason why I was further behind the other kids than I should be. I had detention almost every week because I had bad grades which my teacher blamed entirely on me. When my mother finally got sick of me being extremely angry all of the time because I hated school she asked if I could be tested for a learning disability. The exact quote she got was “do you know how much that will cost the school?” After a month or so of my mother harassing the school to test me they finally gave in. the results showed that because of vision problems I had up until first grade that I was behind in almost every area. I had dyslexia before my vision was corrected so all through kindergarten I was seeing things differently or not at all. After my vision was corrected I had to essentially re-learn everything because I didn’t recognize simple letters. When the tests showed that I needed help in school they put me in the special education program. I stayed in the program all of the way through high school because It took that long for my math skills to catch up to every other student. Through the years in my “time management classes” as they were called I was fortunate enough to have GREAT teachers that I looked up to. Those classes meant the world to me because I could get one on one help when I needed it and they showed me how to stay focused and prepared. So I guess the reason I want to be special education teacher is so that I can  help kids who are experiencing the same struggles I went through  in school, and make sure they don’t feel left out and ignored like I felt. Also there may have been four or five teachers I coach Osseo Senior High Track with that told me I would be a great teacher.

Alternative teacher licensure

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=900178

1/13/2011

I beleive the idea of trying to fill teaching positions so classroom sizes shrink is a great idea. On the other hand I do not think that a two year degree would prepare a person for a teaching position in todays schools. Making it easier for mid-career professionals to take a two year course to get into teaching sounds like a good idea as long they have some type of post highschool education already.