vouchers for schools

School vouchers; are they useful or destructive? This article takes no stance on either side but poses a great argument for both. Recently in the state of Washington urban city children have received the newest idea in increasing minority education, school vouchers. In districts where over half the children are below their required age appropriate reading level a change needs to be made. For some students this change came in the form of school vouchers. With these vouchers students can now attend private and charter schools on tax payer’s dimes. These new schools now give students the academic experience they would have never received in their old urban schools.

Many of the parents are praising this idea, claiming that they are certain that their child would have never known their potential if it had not been for this new voucher system. Patricia William, a single mother, said that at first she liked her son Fransoir’s public school, John Quincy Adams Elementary School, a tall sprawling building in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Teachers seemed good, but overwhelmed. It was other parents, not teachers, Ms. William said, who told her that Fransoir was hyperactive. “I was not getting quality information from them on time,” she said. “For some reason, it was not working.” From this new system Fransoir’s ADHD is under control and he is learning on an equal level with his peers. With success stories like this it is easy to see how this new system can truly benefit many of our minority and low income families.

On the flip side of this argument are the teachers and administrators, many of whom totally oppose this new voucher system. Marsha Parker, the principal of Turner Elementary school is quoted as saying, “vouchers and charters is a way of raping the public schools of students and resources.” Many educators feel that if students start fleeing the urban school system then many of the necessary changes that need to be made will never happen. Already schools are seeing a huge number of students leaving their districts. One school is being forced to merge with another jut to stay afloat

podcast blogging

On my very first podcast I had a couple of technology problems and it took forever, but I finally figured it out and this experience proved to be fun and exciting. The podcast that I listened to was titled Nauset Public Schools: Technology Monthly, by Kathleen Schrock. This podcast was a monthly rap up of the technology that they were implementing in their school system with the aide of technology workshops. When the podcast first began I felt that this was going to be a very informative segment about how technology is making the classroom easier for the teachers. I figured that they would be discussing webpage’s, blogs, and podcasts, things that we have been learning and trying to implement into our learning as we go through this teaching process. Instead what I heard was how easy it was to do their checking or how great the digital camera workshop was. One woman was really excited about her new knowledge of GPS, because her husband and her could now catch bigger and better fish. They only teachers that even spoke of the usefulness of technology in their classrooms were the technology teachers. All of this great technology is never going to be useful unless the school as a whole is on board. Even though these teachers were excited about the new technology they had implemented into their lives. It really seemed like these teacher weren’t realizing how all this technology could be useful to them inside their classroom. I am very grateful for all of the technology that I have been introduced to in this Te 302 class. I have always been very resistant to technology and computers and with the help of this class I have found how unbelievably helpful technology can really be. I hope that as I progress in my teaching education that I can use all of the tools and knowledge I have gotten from this class into my curriculum and throughout my teaching career.  

How many of you college students changed your major over the course of being at the university. I changed mine 3 times, graduated and had to go back to school because at 22 I finally decided what kind of career field I wanted to be in. Imagine you first day of high school; you are nervous, excited, and anxious about what awaits you. A counselor calls you down to the office and explains that you must now pick a major and a minor to focus on during you four years in high school. I could barley pick out an outfit without my friends approval let alone a huge decision like a major to study. This idea may not be too far away from Michigan schools, Gov. Jeb Bush proposed a bill that education experts say would make Florida the first state to require incoming high school freshmen to declare a major, just like college students. The Florida House passed the Republican-sponsored bill Thursday 85-35 on a straight party-line vote. Under this new bill students can pick from a variety of majors including humanities, communications, math arts, foreign languages and vocational skills. In the article they use an example of a 17 year old high school student who is interested in becoming an engineer. “For example, to prepare for her career, Lila would have to earn four credits in major courses like engineering, space technology and physics, 15 core credits in courses like math, science and English and 5 minor credits in elective courses like drama, zoology and Spanish.” 

This plan to me will not be successful. Students are too interested in what their friends want, then what is best for their education. I feel that given the choice many of the students will only be interested in something if all of their friends are interested in it too. Very few 15 year old girls are going to go against the grain in the better interest of their education. Although this plan may benefit some students, I feel it will hurt a larger population overall. 

iPod nation

Last week’s lecture we began talking about podcasts and the usefulness for not only this class but as future educator. My article for this week comes from the campus of Georgia College and State University. This rural university has adapted many new ways that the students can stay on top and engaged with everyday school activities using iPod technology.  
Some of the ideas they have tried over the school year are as follows: iDreamers, this is a team of students who are constantly inventing new ways to use ipod technology. Recently they have found a way to use ipods as video yearbooks and pamphlets advertising for the school. History professor Deborah Vess asks students to download 39 films to their video-capable iPods so she doesn’t have to spend class time screening the movies. Psychology professor Noland White has found a new-age answer to office hours: a podcast of the week’s most asked questions. Hank Edmondson, a government professor known around campus as “The Podfather,” was among the first to use iPods to supplement his course lectures. Edmondson now makes lectures, language study programs, indigenous music and thumbnail art sketches available for download to the iPods of students in a three-week study-abroad program he leads. He used this technology overseas during trips to many of Madrid museums. He would prerecord whatever information he uses during that time. Now the students had more individual time to walk around and enjoy the sites while listening to the lecture over headphones.
There are some skeptics to this technology, many of them with this same idea of students not actively engaging with the material. “Learning is through interaction, discussion, critical questioning and challenging of assumptions,” said Donna Qualters, director of the Center for Effective Teaching at Northeastern University in Boston. Many teacher feel that if we cut out face to face interaction and group discussion students are missing out on a great deal of valuable learning.
In the college level I think this technology is absolutely useful, already students don’t get the required one on one time so the shift is not that great. In high school I agree with the arguments from the opposing side.  Students at this level should be focusing more on group interaction and the importance of critical thinking. However new ideas are always forming and I feel this technology will benefit all levels of education some day.

colorado article

Colorado article

This week’s personal article comes from my mother who cut it out of the Oakland press while I was on spring break. The reason that I wanted to write about this article was due to the fact that the teacher in the article is making great strides in my eyes towards a more educated school system. Although there are laws in place I rarely see the separation between church and state, as a government teacher this should be a read flag that we point out to our students. I feel that school should not be controlled by the mainstream safe media. Unfortunately many times teacher that step put of this box are reprimanded with suspensions and job loss. My article takes place in a Colorado high school. Mr. Jay Bennish was temporarily let go from high job after comparing President Bush to Hitler during a class lecture discussing Bush’s state of the union address. During the presidents speech he claimed that “We have been blessed essentially by God to have the most civilized, the most advanced, best system and that it is our duty as Americans to is the military to go out into the world and make the world like us.” The statement to me not only violates the concept of separation of church and state but flat out angers me. These are the same feelings that Mr. Bennish had when he discussed this with his own classroom. Unfortunately for him not everyone in the class felt the same way.

When the conversation was brought to the attention of the principal and the school board he was let go on the ground that he failed to present a balancing view point. I felt this was an easy out for the school system until they could sort out all of the facts. Bennish won his court case and was back at school on the first of March. When interviewed about his position on the situation was that his “intentions were to stimulate his students to think critically.”  When you challenge students to think outside what is being feed to them on T.V. they are forced to make a decision about what they believe and feel is right. In high school these “radical” views are rarely presented by teachers, many times I think it is out of fear. Fear of losing your job, fear of looking different among your colleges, fear of parents. It is very refreshing to hear about a teacher who stepped outside the box and won. Steps like these will pave not only the way teachers teach but how students learn.

The Rise Model

In wrapping up our section on motivation, I thought I should write one last blog just to beat it into my brain. This week we read about motivating the alienated or at-risk student. The article I found was a model on how to motivate these types of students. This is the RISE model, composed of four main components; relevant subject matter, interesting instruction, satisfied learner, and expectations for success. 

In class we have touched upon root causes and factors that may increase the likelihood that a child may be an “at-risk” student. These factors are also included in this article, what I found shocking was the number of students that are affected by this. “Estimated 25 percent of students in this country drop out before high school graduation, and in some urban areas 30 percent of the students do not complete eighth grade.” As educators we need to see these numbers as a huge red flag, understanding that students are becoming less motivated and more alienated at a younger age. 

Relevant subject matter 

“Some interest, some bond of connection must be found between the subject matter and the learner” (Dewey,33) In order to engage at-risk students we need to make the topic relevant and meaningful, this can be done in several ways. The first is to connect content to students’ interests and experiences. This article uses the example of Romeo and Juliet, in order to connect this story to students she asks the question “has anyone ever dated someone that your parents didn’t like?” Already students can use outside personal experiences to connect with the material. Another way to increase the relevance of the material is to communicate the intended value of the activity. An example of this would be that it is important that you learn math so that you are able to balance a check book when you are older. 

Interesting Instruction 

As a student reaches middle school their curiosity declines, increasing the likelihood that students will come to school already bored and uninterested. This article suggests sparking new curiosity by providing conflictual paradoxical information. Example of this would be” We have learned that mammals bear their young, yet there is a mammal that lays eggs.” A second avenue to increase interesting instruction is by making abstract material more concrete by using metaphors and analogies. 

Satisfies learner 

This section focuses on the teacher more that the student. As educator we need to decipher between our students, understanding that not all rewards are the same for every student. What may be a good thing for one student may completely discourage another. At risk students need to believe that their efforts lead to rewards that they value. The best way to do this is through immediate positive feedback about the students progress. Keep in mind that feedback needs to be specific instead of controlling. Controlling statements such as, You did well enough to earn free time, tell the student that they only need to perform to please the teacher. There is no intrinsic reward to pleasing the teacher and students will begin to lose interest. 

Expectations for success 

Students tend to do better on an assignment when they believe they are responsible for their own success. There are a couple different ways that teachers can increase this awareness. First is by encouraging students to use “self-talk affirmations. The way the author describes this is that students need to first make a statement about their assignment (i need to take my time) followed by a statement about themselves (these problems are fun for me). These affirmation statements will invoke images, feelings, and ultimately actions. A second way educators can increase expectations for success is by emphasizing that working hard will lead to success, this concept is a fairly familiar. However how does this work when a student works hard and still fails? We need to be using this concept even more so when the child fails. This is done by asking the child to evaluate the steps they took to complete the assignment. This way teacher and student can sit down together and talk about a new strategies for the next assignment. Here the author notes that “students will likely expend more effort when they can plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning.” 

This RISE model is a framework that incorporates knowledge about students’ motivation and ways to include that into their instructions. This model is based on the idea that students needs to know that what they are learning is valuable TO THEM. Teachers need to make learning valuable right now, while avoiding statements like “You will need this as an adult”. I really liked all of the ideas in this article and I plan on using them in the future, because they are valuable to me 

The #1 Intervention That Students Can’t Resist–

My personal reading this week was a great way to keep your students motivted or at least captivated by your class. Its a great way to deal with a whole host of situtation such as; substitutes, unmotivated students, or students whole just dont like the subject you are teaching. I found this idea to be a great concept because i had never thought about the importance or usefulness of this in the classroom. By now, if you are reading this you are most likely curious as to what the concept could be, and are anxiuosly awaiting what it is.

…. Its curiosity in the classroom. However you can incorporate it will be a benefit to you and your students. Some ideas that this article posed were

1. substitute teachers

    the idea was to place envelopes on each desk and instruct the teacher to not let anyone open the envelopes unless they stayed on task all hour. Inside the envelope could be a whole host of prizes such as; candy, extra credit point, a great out of homework free card. The excitement is in not knowing what is in the envelope, the idea is to spark curiousity to keep the students on task.

2. Everyday stuff

  They suggest posting stay tuned notes outside the doors to encourage students to come and find out what all the fuss is about. Or using the in the lesson such as Get on A on the next quiz found out how in 3rd period. They could also be silly the example they used in the article was “find out what joke Mr. miller told in science today.

This litte extra can really go along way in the first step to motivation…. getting their foot in the door and their heads out of the clouds

Glad i am not alone

While looking through teachers live journals i came across an education student with the same worries and fears that i have. he explained that there is constant turmoil between your own learning and learning to become a teacher. he talks about not really understanding what it is to be a teacher until you are out experiencing it for yourself. In school you will be taught the process of teaching and as he describes it, “ways that teachers make your life a living hell.” You do not see the importance of usefullness of this information until you can go out an apply it for yourself. With this week coming up (tutoring talk begins) i felt it appropriate to vent about this. Whether its an hour once a week or an hour 5 times a week, we as future educators are not going to get the experiece that we need to feel comfortable claiming i can teach. Teaching is a very personal profession, one that i feel you have to work at independently without the aide of other teachers. i know that i will not be comfortable teaching until i have my own class where my rules apply and i can personalize everything i am teaching. how do you teach that in college?