what is the most important change that k-12 education needs?

I have come up with more than one idea as to what I believe is the most important change needed in k-12. The first thing is the home/school connection. I believe that if there is a bigger and more evenly understood connection between home and school then our students will have more encouragement to continue their learning at home. Although many factors will get in the way. There is no way to guarantee that all home lives are similar, which is why I think that if there is more involvement from the school reaching out to understand each individual home life then children will feel more encouragement to succeed. There are at risk families who may need more help than others.

Another idea I have is to change the way we educate our teachers in an ongoing fashion. Allow teachers to have more trainings and mentoring available to them. I have seen examples of this at my sons school, where I recently did an interview with his teacher and was given some insight to what these teachers have available to them on a daily basis. I think that is part of the reason that his school is so valued by the community.I have witnessed student teachers, para educators, and in class advocates for those in need at his school. This seems to work to bridge the gap between home and school as well as provide teachers with a round table like place to bounce ideas off of one another.
There should be more teachers, or para educators, or "experienced" volunteers being the thresh hold between home and school.

"Against School"

This was a very interesting read, one that quoted many famous historical figures and provided a whole bunch of proof. After reading this I realize even more what the task at hand is with our 3rd paper. When Gatto starts to explain either a support or a contradictory part of his research he uses other works to back himself up. The idea of boredom at school and the remedy that children must carry that life within themselves seems very true to me. I grew up on a dirt road, away from my friends, and no kids around to play with. I was never bored. I feel like I was introduced to many many things by just being outside, writing poetry, playing make believe and learning through curiosity and self entertainment. John Gatto gave so many specifics to why school is viewed the way that it is. I agree with the initial goals introduced, 1.to make good people 2. to make good citizens and 3. to make each person his or her own personal best. But are these things we see as a constant guide to teaching? Not exactly. With the introduction of the easy entertainment and consumerism in this paper those core goals are overlooked a bit. We will not inspire good people, or citizenship or our best possible achievements with instant gratification. There is a large part of independent research and self enrichment that is lost within the world of computers, online shopping, google research, and television. Gattos comparison with Ben Franklin whom we read about previously proves the difference in today's learning standards and those standards that were undefined in Ben Franklin's time. I got a many good ideas from this paper to further research and use towards building my 3rd paper.

Rose vs. Black

From the article "resolutions someone should make for 2011" Mike Rose explains the things he would change in order to reverse the bad habits of the past, and change the school system for the better. I agree that we "should stop the accountability train" and really look into what makes each student an achiever. There are many achievements in school that may not be textbook "right" but may hold just as much value and importance as standardized tests. I had never thought about the idea of having a standardized test to judge any other professionals in their workplace. I also learned that sometimes these famous figures that are sent to report on a something to do with education may not be qualified to do so, for example the president coming to California to talk about education and then meeting with Steve Jobs? That makes almost no sense besides the fact that Steve Jobs was educated, the only correlation I see there.

In the video starring Lewis Black he shows different excerpts from reality TV show that portray American Education...my first thought, why are we using a child's education as a form of entertainment? The amount of money that goes into making these reality TV shows seems like a waste to me. He shows different reporters commentating on education, one says "we are going to dedicate this whole week to education" just a week? Why not a lifetime? Schools in America, especially in lower income areas are broken. The fact that these wonderful charter schools are being designed and legalized in many states across the country doesn't necessarily mean anyone we know has access to them. It is a "lottery" to get in like he said.

  The article by Rose states " There are many factors that affect student academic performance, and the largest is parental income" Such a sad reality. This is shown in the clip with Lewis Black as well, 578,000,000 dollars for a school?! I am sure those kids are receiving better than average education because their community can afford to employ that kind of teacher, and promote that kind of consistency much more than a low income area.

Notes on Chalk

In the introduction a man is sharing the reasons why this movie means so much to him, he says he was surrounded by teachers his whole life. His mother, aunts, and other relatives were all teachers. They complained, but they loved being teachers. This movie takes place in time periods; first day of school, 34 weeks until summer, one week before spring break, etc. but my notes do not go in this form. My notes on the movie were taken and classified by the teacher, and then by the main ideas that I got from the movie.

  On the first day of school each teacher is introduced. Mr. Stroop is a 3rd year History teacher, he begins his school year asking students how they spent their summer, making them laugh, and it seems like he has a connection with these students. He has a meeting with an obvious superior discussing his goals from the last years meeting. He hasn't improved his lesson planning, or his organization or sarcasm. " But the kids like the lesson" is his answer to why he doesn't follow and plan a specific outline for each class. Mr. Stroop had been told before he began teaching as a piece of advice, "don't be their friend" but he had found that he wants the students to trust him and bond with him.
   He is hard to take seriously, there is a scene where he is asking his students to tone down their intelligence, not to use big words, and not to correct him even though he may be wrong. There is a scene of him out shooting targets, he says"do your best, your not going to get every kid" referring to shooting his targets and the amount of kids that succeed in high school. "6 out of 10 get a college degree...i tried" he says. He shows great concern in being voted teacher of the year, seems as though more effort is put towards that than towards the curriculum in his History class. When he loses this election he shows his rage and loss of control in front of his classroom of students

  Mr Lowry is a first year teacher who seems to have come from basically no training at all. Right away the students know he is new, they ask him how long he has been a teacher and he replies "1.5 hours." He stumbles over his words, jumps back and forth between subjects, and shows his frustration and confusion all over his face. He checks out a book on classroom management to try to help himself find control, the kids joke alot, laugh, and hide his chalk from him. No one in this class seems to be learning. Then one day he agrees to be in the Spelling Hornet, the slang words spelling bee ran by the students that the teachers study for and compete in. He wins, with the help of his history class that came together to help him. They bonded and as a result we saw a huge change in the classroom dynamics. Its as though the kids did not respect him or consider his personality until he let them see it, let down his guard and poof, he was respected after that. His frustration showed greatly when there was a cell phone incident in class, Mr Lowry lost his temper and used cuss words, then went to the students home and bonded with his mother, didn't seem to solve anything except drive in the nail that he was inexperienced and lost within his job.

Coach Webb had the right idea on how to teach I believe, her students responded to her and she laughed with them, also holding control over her classroom at the same time. She said "you make students understand their expectations and suddenly they perform at that level". At the same time her skills at interacting with other teachers and staff were not so great. Many staff members confided in the A.P that Coach Webb was pushy, and condescending. She seemed very concerned about the little things, hall passes, food in the lounge fridge, more so than academics or physical education. She thought that having her best friend serving as the new Assistant Principle would help her to have more dependency on administration, that she could complain about something and her friend would help her out. There were multiple scenes when Coach Webb would be complaining about how things were done, that things "should Be in black and white, no grey area". In the end of the movie she does a little soul searching and decides that "I need to try and approach people differently, try to encourage them instead of coming down on them"

   The Assistant Principle in this movie went from teaching traditionally in the classroom to administration when a position became available. Right away you can see that the Principle, her superior is more willing to talk about his interests, and his life than he is to talk about her duties. He remains very vague and tells her to expect to spend many hours here, even some Saturdays. She becomes overwhelmed pretty early on as she is being bombarded with complaints by staff. Instead of being able to focus on academia she is always fighting a battle for someone. She mentions towards the end of the school year that she has been focusing so much on the "bad kids it makes her realize how much she misses teaching those who do care" She talks about academics and children learning the lessons in her class more than any other teacher. There is a scene in the end when she says schools need more nurturing, but it starts at home, a place that she herself had not been spending enough time focusing on.

     Throughout the movie the teachers spend some down time visiting in the lounge, they go out for drinks together, and that bonding between staff is something I agree with. Within this school there is no clear lines of who does what, or what is allowed. No consistency in a school can affect teachers, staff and students. Some teachers are appearing to be putting tons of effort into their class, while others appear to be lacking. The teachers in this movie complained and spoke more about each other than they did about teaching students. Even during the teacher of the year debate we heard topics including, copiers for every teacher, less faculty meetings, corporal punishment which had no relevancy to this school. The teachers were more passionate about improving their working conditions than improving the children's learning conditions.

  Watching this movie made me realize that teachers are always faced with their own trial as they are human like anyone else, but the focus needs to remain on the students, learning, and especially bonding since students are much more willing to listen when they respect you.

sections 48-49 WS

48- Classification is a way to organize information about a certain topic or topics. You find things in common between a studied group and use them to bring organization to your essay. Classification sums up the way we use body paragraphs to present information in an essay. You want each paragraph to represent a certain characteristic, or topic of your essay. These body paragraphs come together to explain in detail the characteristics you may have researched or observed for your essay. In our upcoming essay number 3, we will be "arguing for a change or addition we would like to see in the k-12 curriculum". These changes must come from what we have seen in the movies Chalk and Superman. Since we will be using two different sources we will have to organize this essay with classification in order to present the facts clearly and argue our point.

49- Comparison/ Contrast I believe we will be using the information presented in this section to help us write about the two movies we have yet to watch at school. I will be making a list of similarities and differences to help me to organize my argument. I have a tendency to begin trailing off and getting off subject when one thing leads to another, and so on..... The sample provided in our book helps to give a clear idea of what our essays should sound like when being read; a presentation of information on the two movies, organized and/or classified to argue our point of what we believe should be different in the k-12 curriculum.
 

challenges for students k-12

Brainstorming for paper # 3
 What seems to be the biggest challenge for students k-12?
 One challenge I think of right away is generalizing students. Teachers tend to generalize more in that age group than in college students. College students are at school by choice (in most cases) and usually they are of adult age. On the other hand k-12 students may be generalized or stereotyped because of many factors like the company they keep or the kind of learner they may be. These generalizations can be harmful to a child and may hold them back form their true potential.

Social anxiety, shyness, or introverted students can be a real challenge in the grades k-12. Many students who experience these things then tend to struggle with school work, or avoid school to avoid the uncomfortable scenarios. This is a challenge because it can be hard for a teacher to make a student feel at ease and the student may miss out on very important forming of fundamental skills.

 Other challenges may come from a students home life. In k-12 students are expected to still reside with their parents, some may not be provided with a healthy home life to nurture and prepare a student for school each day. They may miss homework, or have the stresses of home carry through to their school day. This is a challenge for younger students because they may feel embarrassed or sad and go to great lengths to try and keep that a secret. This could greatly affect school along with many other scenarios that pose a challenge for younger students.

paper 2 rough draft

My paper still needs to be shortened up a bit. It falls at 1800 words. I am not quite happy with my closing paragraph either...Open to constructive criticism and input! thanks!

Educators Roles

There are many important things that a teacher does for their students, many hats they wear so to speak. These teachers spend their free time planning lessons, and preparing themselves to make the best for their students. Their jobs are very multifaceted. Mrs. Watson and Mrs. Gruwell were faced with a very different set of students who existed in very different times. They were on opposite sides of the country teaching students of the upper class versus students of lower class. They were discouraged in their missions due to different kinds of hurdles.  Teachers are our guides through school, they help inspire our thoughts, and if they are doing their jobs well the information sticks with us forever. In school, from elementary through college the most important role played by our teachers is advocate for the student; Mrs. Gruwell and Mrs. Watson have represented this role throughout both movies.

Both women were unspoken activists of their time. They were mentors to their students in a way the students had not seen before. Mrs. Watson was a revolutionary of her time. She exposed the girls at Wellesley to think outside of their norm. She showed them modern art, helped them to see their futures consisted of more than just a wedding, and was at Wellesley to make a change. These were the smartest women in America and some of them had not even considered that they had more options other than marriage and what was expected of them in those times. They were expected to conform, and please their husbands. As well as retain major amounts of etiquette and poise while studying math, language, arts, history and writing. Mrs. Watson had come from California where she had seen other women as well as herself go through college and have a career for themselves. The life she knew and had seen other west coast women obtain was not one entirely focused around marriage, and that was the message she was bringing to the girls at Wellesley.

When we examine Mrs. Gruwell in her environment, we see the same characteristic there. She was also a revolutionist of her time. She was an activist more for equal opportunity of all people, not just women, or the elite like we saw in the last example. She spoke for the students of Long Beach and really represented their needs. When Mrs. Gruwell was told her students could not have certain textbooks and reading materials because they could not be trusted to take care of them, she went out and bought them for her students with her own money. She wanted these students to be challenged the same way other classes were challenged. The students in her class had no desire to learn English because they had never been shown dedication, or desire to be taught. Mrs. Gruwell invited them to share their life stories with her through diary writing and in turn she learned just HOW to teach them. In later years she continued teaching these particular students and even went on to work at the colleges they attended. Mrs. Gruwell fought for this right by going straight to the school board and superintendent to be granted permission to stay with her students, and allow them more learning opportunities than they ever knew possible.

Mrs. Watson was a very clever disciplinarian in her students’ lives. When she was first brought in to teach Art History at Wellesley, she was "welcomed" into a classroom of know-it-all women. They managed to embarrass her on her first day of teaching. All the women in her class had memorized their syllabus; they knew every slide she showed, leaving Mrs. Watson feeling very defeated. She set the tone of her classroom by returning to class with new and more challenging material. The women she taught were caught off guard and responded by having to work harder and learn new things about art history they had not been introduced to before. When Mrs. Watson was asked to forgive Betty for her absences and grant her an A for work she did not do, she instead questioned that system that had been in place for quite some time. She sternly told Betty that she was required to earn her grade and must make up the work. She also made the women feel disciplined when she read an article criticizing her for asking her students to think outside the box. She brought into class more slides that showed them how the rest of the country viewed their life choices. She was able to make the women understand and see what she was trying to teach them all along, that there were other options besides marriage and conforming to that role.

The characteristic that Mrs. Gruwell holds of disciplinarian is what got her class to come together in the first place. Without that, her students would not have the core discipline required of them throughout life. Mrs. Gruwell entered a classroom of students who already spent their early years struggling with authority, not being motivated by teachers, and not expecting to graduate at all. Mrs. Gruwell had a discussion with her students where she was able to point out similarities between all the different races in her classroom, she made the students move their desks and re-define their self-inflicted "borders" between the races. There was an instance where one student drew a very demeaning picture of another student who was African American. The picture circulated the classroom; it depicted black men with big lips and ears. Mrs. Gruwell got the entire class's attention by drawing a connection to the Jews and how Jewish people were depicted. The students were forced to see the wrong in racial discrimination and hate. Mrs. Gruwell was able to bring behavioral modification into her classroom by setting up a reward system for her students. If they did their work and showed that they were responsible enough then they would get rewards, like being able to go on trips, eating out with their teacher, being treated equally, and having a say in what they would study.

Mrs. Watson was an ally to her students once the students became more open minded to the way Mrs. Watson did things. She had come from California where women had careers and a family at the same time, so her outlook on life was very different than that of her students. Yet they managed to become a team at some point. When the girls held a secret gathering at their school they invited Mrs. Watson, made her feel welcomed and shared things with her about their personal lives. She in turn did the same, shared her stories with them allowing a bit more insight into the person she was. They were able to trust her since she kept this meeting a secret. One student, Joan, had told Mrs. Watson that she had an interest in Law school. Mrs. Watson was probably the only adult teacher that Joan could share this information with since women who worked were frowned upon by her society. Mrs. Watson helped her to apply and shared her joy when she was accepted. Joan had to let Mrs. Watson down when she informed her that would not be route she would take, instead she was married and that was truly what she wanted. Joan was able to explain her feelings to Mrs. Watson because she trusted her.

Mrs. Gruwell became an ally to her students when they allowed her into their lives by sharing their personal stories with her. She was able to get a firm sense of what they had been through and that led her to be able to teach them better. She read their stories that contained gang violence, abuse, drug use, and betrayal and survival that they had all endured. By taking her students out to see things in real life they knew they could rely on her to teach them, which was her first step in gaining their trust. Mrs. Gruwell was confided in by her students. They had not had a teacher before that they felt so safe with and respected by in the past. She worked hard to show them that she was going to go the distance for them. One student was able to connect with Mrs. Gruwell and take her advice to finally go home to his mother instead of living a life of homelessness and sadness. Another student was able to confide in Mrs. Gruwell about a court case that she was a witness on. She told the truth and was then in danger of being hurt physically because of her honesty that had put someone in jail for a serious crime. Mrs. Gruwell helped her out by allowing her to stay after school and then driving her home each night. At first they viewed her as another "white woman" trying to understand their lives, in the end they viewed her as a friend and confidant, someone they trusted and admired.

While both Mrs. Gruwell and Mrs. Watson had arrived at their new schools to make a difference, they had no idea what kind of difference they actually made. They both came together with their students to show them the true potential they had. They guided their students through this process in a very profound and admirable way. Both teachers were at first discouraged and they rose above this by truly speaking and acting on behalf of their students. Mrs. Gruwell and Mrs. Watson were exemplary advocates for their student body, the most important role they could have played.