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.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
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.
Friday, April 15, 2011
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 12th 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.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
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.
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