Grading Education Isn't Easy
It has become increasingly obvious to me that everyone that looks through the window every day at school, does not really understand what's going on. Everyone has an opinion about the state of education, yet no one who gives those opinions has the correct answer to solve our problems. Maybe if everyone started with themselves, asked themselves what they could do to help, it would fix itself, without our state governors stepping in, without our government stepping in, and without our President stepping in. In this article, the author discusses the issues of how public and charter schools are performing in Ohio. The concept of a charter school is to allow parents a choice. The charter schools give parents the opportunity to put their students in a community school that is exempt from certain state mandates so that the school can put its best effort forward. These schools generally receive more money than other public schools, but can also incur unintended costs. The success rate of these schools is extremely high in most cases, with almost 35,000 students enrolled in Georgia charter schools, there is a lot going on. In Ohio, there are over 75,000 students enrolled in charter schools. These schools have traditionally outscored public schools in goals for value added education. In recent years, though, regular schools have taken over. Progress is being made every year in all schools, for the most part, but can we tell which is truly doing better? Does this mean that charter schools are useless now? No, I don't believe so, but there are some issues charter schools are facing that are much greater than public schools. With the current economic state, charter schools are in financial danger. Many schools are failing and having to close or revert back to a public school. This costs jobs and social and economic impacts for the surrounding communities. What can we do to save charter schools or improve our public schools? Outsiders cannot answer those questions. I wish I could say I had all of the answers, but I think everyone in education would agree with that statement. Every person that is an educator or an administrator has some piece of the puzzle to fix what is going on. We are losing ground to other countries in aptitude and ability, yet we are complaining instead of fixing. Let's get on the same page, make some goals, and go accomplish them. I bet the entire country would be a little better off.
Showing posts with label teachers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teachers. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Students taking responsibility
Giving Students Responsibility
Teaching Students Responsibility
Both of these articles can help us as teachers evolve into effective educators who place responsibility of education on the students. I always tell my students that they can learn from a book or they can learn in my lab doing hands on projects that promote leadership, ethics, learning, responsibility, and higher-level critical thinking skills they may not necessarily get in other classrooms. However, the buck has gone too far in the wrong direction of allowing students to not be responsible for the education or their actions. National and state laws now dictate that a failing student is the responsibility of the school, the administration, and even worse, the teacher. The last time I checked, I was not the student, nor did I raise them, if they cannot do well in my class after everything I have done to make it interesting, accommodate their needs, and even assist them, then something needs to be done with the student. Students in special programs such as ESOL or Special Ed or have BIPs or IEPs now know they cannot fail. Even if they are the biggest butt in the world all year long, don't do a darn thing in the class, and cause disruptions every day, they are promoted. This sense of, "I can do whatever and still pass through" has to stop. We are entitling children, CHILDREN to run our classrooms. We do not become teachers to be promoters or passers of the weak and insufficient. Instead, we are supposed to be raising up the next generation that will take over some day after we are too old to do so and bring in a revolution of change or progress. Instead these students now know they will be passed even if they have not accomplished basics so teachers don't have to deal with them another year, or we don't want it to look bad on our Adequate Yearly Progress reports. Rules, laws, and lack of understanding and support for education has tied our hands as educators to make it the responsibility of the student to learn. It was a privilege to be in a nice classroom, with nice books and a great teacher back a few years ago. Now its demanded. When did we become so insignificant? Yes, there are students who have no parental involvement and have basically raised themselves. But they are at school from age 5 or 6 to 18. That is more than half of their known life spent in a scholastic setting where we as educators can make a significant difference only if we try to get it through their heads at an early age they have a responsibility to themselves and to everyone around them to do something better than their parents did or are doing. We teach these kids it is okay to fail because someone will give you a pass. There are so many government programs that support individuals that fail for free its ridiculous. The attitude of acceptance for failure must change and we need to set a standard high that it is not okay to fail. The U.S. is falling behind in education because of our acceptance of failure and it is only worsening.
Teaching Students Responsibility
Both of these articles can help us as teachers evolve into effective educators who place responsibility of education on the students. I always tell my students that they can learn from a book or they can learn in my lab doing hands on projects that promote leadership, ethics, learning, responsibility, and higher-level critical thinking skills they may not necessarily get in other classrooms. However, the buck has gone too far in the wrong direction of allowing students to not be responsible for the education or their actions. National and state laws now dictate that a failing student is the responsibility of the school, the administration, and even worse, the teacher. The last time I checked, I was not the student, nor did I raise them, if they cannot do well in my class after everything I have done to make it interesting, accommodate their needs, and even assist them, then something needs to be done with the student. Students in special programs such as ESOL or Special Ed or have BIPs or IEPs now know they cannot fail. Even if they are the biggest butt in the world all year long, don't do a darn thing in the class, and cause disruptions every day, they are promoted. This sense of, "I can do whatever and still pass through" has to stop. We are entitling children, CHILDREN to run our classrooms. We do not become teachers to be promoters or passers of the weak and insufficient. Instead, we are supposed to be raising up the next generation that will take over some day after we are too old to do so and bring in a revolution of change or progress. Instead these students now know they will be passed even if they have not accomplished basics so teachers don't have to deal with them another year, or we don't want it to look bad on our Adequate Yearly Progress reports. Rules, laws, and lack of understanding and support for education has tied our hands as educators to make it the responsibility of the student to learn. It was a privilege to be in a nice classroom, with nice books and a great teacher back a few years ago. Now its demanded. When did we become so insignificant? Yes, there are students who have no parental involvement and have basically raised themselves. But they are at school from age 5 or 6 to 18. That is more than half of their known life spent in a scholastic setting where we as educators can make a significant difference only if we try to get it through their heads at an early age they have a responsibility to themselves and to everyone around them to do something better than their parents did or are doing. We teach these kids it is okay to fail because someone will give you a pass. There are so many government programs that support individuals that fail for free its ridiculous. The attitude of acceptance for failure must change and we need to set a standard high that it is not okay to fail. The U.S. is falling behind in education because of our acceptance of failure and it is only worsening.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Only 100 People in America
If there were only 100 people in America
This article discusses the relevancy of a book written by David Smith that is being used to help children understand the concept of the world. In the book, the number of people living in America is reduced to 100 and 1 person equals 1 million people in the real world. Not only does this book help students truly see the magnitude of having 5 billion people living on the planet earth, it also makes connections in math, languages, social studies, and science. I believe that the use of materials that utilize cross-disciplinary material is essential when dealing with today's student. Gone are the days even when I was in high school 6 years ago of students being able to sit in a classroom and listen to a lecture and learn from it. We simply have to evolve as educators to meet the needs of the ever diversifying student population. At my school we have a high percentage of Hispanics that is somewhat uncommon amongst some of the other schools in the county. This leads to issues with language, almost all of them are in some type of ESOL class, and with their cultural background. There are two different types of Hispanic students at my school, 1 is extremely respectful of the teachers and does everything that is right and the other that knows how school operates in Mexico and the lack of quality teachers so they live for the moment and do not care about being a good student or citizen. Now this may seem like profiling or being racist, but it is something I deal with every day. So to deal with these things, I must alter lesson plans and become very rigourous in my discipline procedures that are normally somewhat relaxed in order to keep students from going bonkers in the class. On top of this, David Smith highlights the impressive, yet disparaging facts of the highly uneven distribution of wealth, the cultural mix in the population, and the dominant religion. This book can allow teachers to bring the world into their classroom and get students to think of more than just themselves in the learning process.
This article discusses the relevancy of a book written by David Smith that is being used to help children understand the concept of the world. In the book, the number of people living in America is reduced to 100 and 1 person equals 1 million people in the real world. Not only does this book help students truly see the magnitude of having 5 billion people living on the planet earth, it also makes connections in math, languages, social studies, and science. I believe that the use of materials that utilize cross-disciplinary material is essential when dealing with today's student. Gone are the days even when I was in high school 6 years ago of students being able to sit in a classroom and listen to a lecture and learn from it. We simply have to evolve as educators to meet the needs of the ever diversifying student population. At my school we have a high percentage of Hispanics that is somewhat uncommon amongst some of the other schools in the county. This leads to issues with language, almost all of them are in some type of ESOL class, and with their cultural background. There are two different types of Hispanic students at my school, 1 is extremely respectful of the teachers and does everything that is right and the other that knows how school operates in Mexico and the lack of quality teachers so they live for the moment and do not care about being a good student or citizen. Now this may seem like profiling or being racist, but it is something I deal with every day. So to deal with these things, I must alter lesson plans and become very rigourous in my discipline procedures that are normally somewhat relaxed in order to keep students from going bonkers in the class. On top of this, David Smith highlights the impressive, yet disparaging facts of the highly uneven distribution of wealth, the cultural mix in the population, and the dominant religion. This book can allow teachers to bring the world into their classroom and get students to think of more than just themselves in the learning process.
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