No Child Left Behind

After a complete semester of Educational Psychology, I have received quite my dosage of No Child Left Behind talk. Believe it or not, I was very new to the whole concept, and didn't truly understand what it was and what it did until this class.

Initially, I was just as worried as everyone else was against it. I'd hear people only talk about it in a negative way, and that it was taking all creativity away from the teacher.

I must say, I have somewhat changed my mind on the issue. There is no reason that a teacher cannot do there job with it in place. I've realized that it's main goal is just to keep teacher's on the right track and away from wasting everyone's time.

If by being creative and enjoyable, teacher's are still teaching their students well, then there is no reason that they can not continue to be that teacher. I'm positive that the really good teachers out there, have students that are doing well on the testing.

Monday Night Forum Lectures

What a great idea! What better sources to provide for teachers to ask questions for then administrators, teachers, school board members, and parents. That pretty much covers all the categories. The only thing we missed was students themselves!

I feel like I got a lot out of the forums. It is a great way for future teachers to learn what others think, as well as gather some of my own thoughts and create my own opinions. I really liked the format in which it was basically open for us to bounce questions off of them. I felt like the teachers were very insightful, as well as the parents. They both gave really good answers that made me think about how I would deal with certain situations.

This process, though it may seem like we get bored, is worth doing for future students. I think that the risk of getting a little bit bored during the last 5 minutes of a lecture is worth how much we are able to get from asking these people questions. It also helps that Prof Langholz found people for the forum that were so in touch with the education system.

Chalk

What a movie? I really enjoyed Chalk. For anyone who hasn't seen it, you don't have to be a future teacher to get a kick out of it. This movie made a great attempt at bringing humor into the world of teaching. Some people had a problem with the fact that they are making jokes about teaching, but I did not see anything wrong with it. I think that any way we can bring in humor and fun to education while still getting "the point" is a good thing.

At first I loved Mr. Stroope. I thought that he was very inspiring to the kids on the first day of school, and figured he was going to be our example of a good teacher. He had them laughing and interested on the first day. Then I was introduced to the other side of Mr. Stroope. He really never gets anything accomplished in his classroom, and his campaign to be the most loved teacher was ridiculous!

All in all, I really enjoyed it.

Can She Save Our Schools?

Michelle Rhee is the new chancellor of the Washington D.C. school system. She is attempting to turn around the school system in D.C. (which is one of the worst in the country). Ms. Rhee will do anything and everything imaginable to try to get the school system to where she wants it.

I find her ways to be very "out there," but not as bad as everyone is making it out to be. She did fire 270 teachers in her first year on the job. That number is very high, but she is just trying to clear the system and start over again in my mind. There will never be another year where she fires even close to that many teachers.

I actually think that she is doing good things for that school district. It is unacceptable to be as low as they are right now, and I think that what she is doing will help. Though, she wouldn't be an ideal person to work for, that's for sure!

iMovie Project -- Last Child in the Woods

My group created our iMovie about the book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. I enjoyed working on the movie, though it was very time consuming. There were clear positives and negatives in relation to the movie project in my opinion.

I really enjoyed the group work process. Our group had many great discussions on the book, and we had a lot of fun filming the movie. I think that creating the movie, helped us get even a better understanding of the book, and helped me appreciate it more (especially since we had so much fun playing outside for our movie).

On the opposite side of the spectrum their were one or two not so spectacular things about the project. First of all, it put a lot of emphasis on having a good computer person in your group. My group was lucky, because we had someone who was very savvy when it came to making movies, which helped us all have a better understanding when working on it. But I can't imagine how tough it would be for a group if they had all members that know as much as I do about computers. It would have been a nightmare. Secondly, the project was extremely time consuming. Though it's not a bad thing, it was a lot of time to put on a review of a book.

All in all, an enjoyable project with the group and circumstances I had to work with.

High Stakes Community Schools

The High Stakes Community Schools plan was presented by Professor Knick on a Monday Night lecture. The plan was on the "extreme" side in most people's views that were there. I think that we are just accustomed to how strict schools tend to be right now. I think that the main question is how far will we go to turn around our children's test scores? Yes this is an extreme plan, but if the quality of education is based on how much our kids know (test scores) then we need to find a way to get good scores. This plan hopefully will fix the problems.

I don't think that this plan puts anyone in a great situation. I don't think it puts the teachers in the best environment to teach, nor does it give the students as quality of an education as possible because of the amazing emphasis on test scores.

I found the lecture extremely enjoyable. The main reasons for the success were that (1) Professor Knick and Professor Langholz were so organized and had the right answer for all of the points made by the students, and (2) I think the students did a great job of developing opinions based on our roles. This was definitly one of the more enjoyable lecture nights, probably could of used more than an hour on the lecture.

"Believe in Your Students"

This post covers the influential speech by the young Dallas student. His speech to all of the Dallas public school workers was very inspirational. His theme was that the students need the teachers to believe in them and to care for them and to never give up on them. I find this to be an important topic, because too much do you find teachers just giving busy work, or accepting that a kid can't do something instead of pushing and helping the student to learn the material as well as the other kids.

This idea is definitely a concept that puts many teachers at a higher level. The goal of a teacher is to get the best out of their students. Students will almost always work hard if they know that the teacher has their back and cares about them succeeding. This is even more important in life today when too often we find parents who don't put enough care and concern into their child's academic life.