Now on to the news: Last Thursday I was yuck but the day was still wonderful. Do you want to know why? Allen made it HOME!!! Finally, after a much too long (16 month) deployment he is home with his beautiful family. I think that I cried more on Friday when I saw these pictures than I have in months.
I am so very happy for them. Thank you 172nd Stryker Brigade and welcome home!! This holiday season (and everyday for that matter) take a minute to reflect on the sacrifice these men and women have made. Think about those that will not be reunited with their families and think about those who are.
Other news on Thursday: My niece turned 2!! Isn’t she the cutest thing?
Next subject: Grocery Store. Our grocery store has these great disinfecting wipes by the carts. I love them. I hadn't noticed them until this week and you better believe that I used them. I wiped down the seat and handles like a freak... No germs were left on that bad boy- trust me. Because I was still feeling ill my purchases were minimal. I picked up fruit, soup and vitamin water. Have you had that kind of water before? I really like it.
Random- I know.
Friday: I had class Friday night and during the class we meet some students who are enrolled in the local alternative school. It was very interesting to talk with them because they have faced and overcome various struggles, such as: meth use, parents who are/were addicted to meth and other drugs, history of suicide attempts, sexual and physcial abuse, etc. Meeting with the students reinforced my opinions on the need to make education more individualized. Teachers need to be taught various ways to assess a student's knowledge regarding a subject before they teach them (because in many cases students spend more time reviewing or relearning material learning new material). I was so spun up about the issue that I got into a debate with a history teacher in the class. He stated that he couldn’t preassess his students because he didn’t have enough time. Hmm... Do you not have enough time or do you not know some alternatives and/or affective solutions. (Before you tell me you can’t- think about the possibility. Give it a try for Pete’s sake.) I let him preach to me and then explained to him what I “heard”. Then I gave him some affective solutions to his problem: A pretest does not have to be a 5 page essay page or a traditional standardized test. You can hand out index cards with your Unit title on it and ask 3-4 simple questions regarding the topic. If the student(s) seems to have a plethora of knowledge regarding the issue you may want to consider some alternatives for their assignments. Additionally, if some of the students clearly have more limited backgrounds on the subject you can tier their assignments to lead them to your goal of the unit. The key is determining your goal and looking at the big picture. What do you want you students to learn? You should teach based on a goal not based on an activity!!! (How is it that a non-teacher knows this and a teacher- someone who is paid to "educate"- does not?) I then asked the teacher if he ever offers any alternative assignments to his students or gives them choices in what they may complete and, of course, he said no. He lectures. He actually said that he likes being the center of attention. GIVE ME A BREAK!! Isn’t your job to teach?? Teachers today have to embrace new ways to teach their students. It is no longer affective (nor do I think it really ever was) to stand in front of students and preach. You are not why the students are in school. The students are why you are in school. Okay, I will get off my soap box.
Now on to Saturday: I had class again on Saturday. I was very excited about the class for a couple reasons: a. we were going to be analyzing our survey results, and b. we were discussing our opinions on a book I just finished, Kill the Indian, Save the Man.
I should begin by thanking all of you who helped me out with the surveys- Your responses were wonderful and I appreciate the time you spent filling them out. My survey results came from all over the country (AK, TX, NC, FL, OH, MT, WA, GA, AR, and LA). They were extremely well written and thought out. I could not wait to share my results with my peers and teacher... They really were wonderful.
Unfortunately, the survey analysis did not go as well as I had hoped. In fact, the teacher asked me if I wanted to just write a paper on the responses regarding a couple questions and call it a day. Call me crazy but I said, “NO!” People took time to fill these out. I took time to ask them. I paid you a lot of money to learn something here. I want to know what everyone said (other classmate’s results) and determine if there is a conscience. I want to see what the students said compared to the adults. We stayed in class for another hour looking at the results. Really they just looked while I tried to get some data. Here is what I found:
Issues regarding education:
Majority of students (out of 100 students polled) said- violence (second highest response was- teachers)
Majority of adults (from my results) said- Funding
What they would change, if they could:
Majority of students said- Teachers (second highest response was- make classes more applicable to real world.)
Majority of adults said- Standards, teacher qualifications, and student-teacher ratio
I am extremely disappointed with this class and feel that it was an absolute joke. The fact that it was a graduate course in education made it even worse. I did learn from the class but only from my own initiative. My biggest concern in education today is the quality of teachers and the level they are being educated at. I think that all teachers should be required to earn bachelors in the subject area they plan to teach and a masters in education. I know that my friends from OSU who all earned BA’s in their subject areas before earning masters degrees are much more qualified than some that I have meet throughout Alaska and Montana. Teachers do need to be held accountable for learning in their classes. I believe that accountability can be measured in an individual manner (verses standardized testing) and hope that “professionals” in the field begin to find more ways to weed out people who are in education for the wrong reasons.
4 comments:
Your subject made me think of the 60 Minutes episode Andrew and I watched last night. It talked about how some teachers these days are using Fantasy Football to teach math classes.
How do you feel about that? From the show, it actually agreeded with the idea and had stats. to prove.
I thought it was very interesting.
I need to figure out a way to get your home address. Hmmmmm....
I have something to send to you!
Surprise, surprise...A blog comment from me! I'm not a regular "post-er" but since it's my job to analyze education policy, what you wrote really sparked my interest. I totally agree with your comment about educators teaching in their specialized subject area. For all of the bad things about NCLB, the "highly qualified teacher" piece definitely makes a difference (when states actually follow that part of the law - and consequently, Ohio does). I've also seen the work being done at alternative schools firsthand...people can complain all they want about charter schools and voucher programs, but when you've seen what these students have been through and seen proof that the "regular" public school system just doesn't work for everyone, it'll totally change your mind! I'm off my education soapbox now...Hope you're feeling better.
Your niece is incredibly cute! I love the picture.
I have plenty to say on the subject of education, actually. I know that there are bad teachers out there, but I also believe that there are many awesome, incredible teachers who get a bad rap, just because they are teachers. So many people (by that I mean parents) expect teachers to make up for the fact that they sat their child in front of a television for the first 5 years of their lives. Many people are also of the opinion that if teachers were "really smart" they would have done something besides teaching. At the same time, I do think that we should have high expectations of teachers, I just don't think we can blame teachers for the majority of our problems in education.
Also, I disagree that teachers need to get a bachelor's in their subject and then a master's degree. I assume this is the same everywhere, but, at least where I went to school, doing social science education, art education, or whatever subject didn't mean that you took fewer classes in the subject matter, you just also took education classes. In some cases, you actually took more classes in the subject than your counterparts who were not doing education. I also believe that teachers should teach for a few years, and then get a master's degree. In part, because they may decide after teaching to add a different subject through their master's, go into adminstration, or some other specialty. It also doesn't make sense to me for school systems to pay that much for a teacher without experience. In some ways, I also think it cheapens a master's degree.
I am sorry that you didn't learn from your class. That is disappointing.
Ok, this is way too long of a comment, more of its own post.
Oh, and thank you for being excited for us with Allen home. We went to another homecoming tonight, and it was awesome, too! Everyone was so happy!
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