1. If President Obama asked for my suggestions about
education I would recommend the following:
The first thing that I think that we need to do is openly
acknowledge that what we have been doing is not working. We need to stop
searching for quick fixes in education and focus on making long term, adaptable
plans with realistic goals. We need for people to read books like the Ravitch
book and not only understand our mistakes but learn from them. We also need to
understand that what has worked in the past does not always work in the
present. As teachers, we are expected to meet all of our students needs knowing
that all of those needs are different. We know that what works for a majority
of our class is not going to work for everyone. The same will apply anything we
implement in education. Every state, every district, and every classroom will
have different needs an no one policy will work for them all.
The second thing that I would recommend is that educators
communicate with the decision makers. Not only at the government level, but
with anyone that is contributing funding to education. They need to hear what
teachers need to help their students be more successful. Teachers need to be
actively involved in the decision making process since they are the ones directly
effected by these decisions. I am not saying that teachers should be the
decision makers but their opinions need heavily influence the decisions we make
in the future.
The third thing would recommend is that we invest in
creating new set standards. I think that we should start out by creating a set
of solid, yet basic standards that can serve as a base that we can build upon.
These need to continue to be reevaluated every several years and changes need
to be made as we are introduced new challenges. These standards need to be very
clear and teachers need to be provided with ample training on not only what
they are, but how they should be used in the classroom.
The fourth thing that I would recommend is reevaluating how
we use testing. I do not think that we should do away with testing. Instead we
need to change how we use the information that we get from testing. The results
should simply be a way to monitor the progress that schools make. They should
not be used for teacher evaluation or to reward or punish schools. We can use
the information to set attainable goals different for each individual school
instead of assuming that we can get everyone to proficiency.
Finally, I would recommend funding after school programs. It
has become very clear to me that teachers cannot fit everything that they need
to teach into one day. Art, music, and physical education have almost
disappeared in some schools. We need to keep kids busy and we need to keep them
active. There is plenty of research that shows that lengthening the school day
can help increase student performance. Teachers have a lot on their plate
already so we need to turn to implementing programs where students can get the
help then need. Homework clubs, tutoring centers, sport programs, art programs,
music programs should be provided to help keep students busy and help those
catch up that need extra support. We know that some families and communities
cannot provide this support and we also know that students that have the
opportunity to be involved in these types of programs have a better chance of
succeeding. Many charter schools and private provide these types of
opportunities. It’s time that public education did the same.
2. Reading the Ravitch book has been extremely meaningful
for me. I have only seen the disadvantages of NCLB. Ravitch was able to show me
why decision makers thought it would work. It has shown me that some things
that seem to work on a small scale do not always work for every school across
the nation. Our attempts to find quick fixes for education have not worked and
actions need to be taken before we destroy public education. Most importantly I
think that Ravitch shows us to have a critical eye. There is so much
influencing education today and we need to truly look at the strengths and
weaknesses in a policy before we implement it. We have to understand that the
decisions that we make in education will have a dramatic impact on our
society.
3. As a teacher all I can do is prepare my students to be as
successful as possible. It seems like testing is not going anywhere so all I
can do is prepare my students to do their best on the standardized tests. I can
continue to find a balance between teaching to the test and making sure that I
am still providing lessons to make my students into well-rounded scholars.
Right now, I can only control what goes on inside my classroom by making sure I
am supporting my students to meet their needs.
4. http://www.nsta.org/ the National Science Teachers
Association
This site has a wide variety of portals to help teachers
become better instructors of science education. It also provides a number of
professional development and workshop opportunities for teachers to attend.
http://www.californiareads.org/ California Reading
Association:
This site also provides a list of professional development opportunities.
It also provides a lot of books that can help teachers with reading in their
classroom. You are able to purchase them directly from the site.
5. A) The experiential resources I would still like to visit
are:
-The academy of sciences in San Francisco
- Mission San Jose
-The California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento
- The San Francisco Zoo
-The Exploratorium in San Francisco
B) The 5 books that I would like to read:
