This election has so many momentous issues on the ballot, and one that strikes particularly close to home for soon-to-be teachers: Initiative Measure 1240. Lately, everywhere I go, I've been confronted with this question of whether or not Washington State should adopt the initiative to create charter schools.
Side note- literally, as I am typing this, a "Say Yes to 1240" commercial is on my television, trying to persuade me to vote YES ("for our children", as the man says. Oh, political ads...). Perfect timing for this blog post!
I feel like this is a really significant issue. If approved, it could have a dramatic change on public education in our state.
The point of my blog post this week isn't whether or not I think it would be a good opinion or what I voted for. I really just want to take the chance to delve into this issue further, and see what is being said about it across the interwebs...
An article titled "Big Money is Behind Charter Schools" begins the article by writing, blatantly, that,
"Voters in Washington state will have a chance to direct public funds
toward private bank accounts if they adopt an initiative to create
charter schools this November. Who are the bajillionaires behind the
campaign?"
This article brings a few important things to mind. These schools would serve less than 1% of WA students (but could that be because they are only proposing the creation of 40 schools? This article does not specify), students from charter schools haven't been proven to do better on standardized tests than students from regular public schools, and corporate sponsors of this initiative have raised millions in support and stand to gain a pretty sizable profit should this initiative be passed.
The Stranger's Election Control Board had this to say,
"There's a lot of money to be made off of I-1240, hence the $8.3 million
backing it got from the likes of Alice Walton, the Bezos family, Paul
Allen, and Bill Gates. (The idea that Bill Gates, who never set foot in a
public school as either a student or a parent, should tell us how to
run them is doubly insulting.)"
A site that was decidedly in favor of approving charter schools for Washington State wrote that charter schools "are free from
regulations that dictate curriculum and design", and are therefor more flexible in their curriculum and design. They also wrote that "charter public schools can be laboratories for innovation" and are committed to improvement.
This is what people are writing about this issue. What do you think? What might this look like?
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Real Students, Really Blogging!
We've been talking and discussing and questioning the integration of technology in our classrooms and how we might best utilize technology to get it into our students hands. This past week at my dyad, I observed students blogging!
These eighth graders were blogging up a storm by contributing to the classroom blog of student's book reflections. My cooperating teacher has them read books from different genres every quarter, and they write a reflection of the book after they are finished and post it to the blog. When looking for a new book, they can select a genre that they would like to read next, and can use the reviews from past students to give them an idea of whether or not they would like to choose that book.
I've been asking myself about students blogging in the classroom, and what would that look like? With little funding, would that be possible? In this instance, it seems to work really well. Students are blogging for a purpose and are writing about books that are important to them. In my opinion, blogging in this case is better than the alternative. Instead of writing for the teacher as audience, these blog contributors are writing for the audience of their peers. Instead of handing in a paper copy of a review to a teacher who would keep it, grade it, and return it, a whole community of readers and writers is being maintained by this blog. Pretty neat, if I do say so.
These eighth graders were blogging up a storm by contributing to the classroom blog of student's book reflections. My cooperating teacher has them read books from different genres every quarter, and they write a reflection of the book after they are finished and post it to the blog. When looking for a new book, they can select a genre that they would like to read next, and can use the reviews from past students to give them an idea of whether or not they would like to choose that book.
I've been asking myself about students blogging in the classroom, and what would that look like? With little funding, would that be possible? In this instance, it seems to work really well. Students are blogging for a purpose and are writing about books that are important to them. In my opinion, blogging in this case is better than the alternative. Instead of writing for the teacher as audience, these blog contributors are writing for the audience of their peers. Instead of handing in a paper copy of a review to a teacher who would keep it, grade it, and return it, a whole community of readers and writers is being maintained by this blog. Pretty neat, if I do say so.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Unnamed 10/16/2012
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"Ms. Chajet’s objection is not to testing itself, but to the way tests are being used to evaluate schools and teachers. "
Sunday, October 14, 2012
A Few Lessons from J.K. Rowling
I came across this today and it resonated with me for a few reasons. J.K. Rowling talks about the "importance of failure" and "the crucial importance of imagination": two things that have been really important themes for me this morning.
The video I found can be accessed here.
J.K. Rowling talks about how she had to experience "failure" to realize what she wanted to do. She persevered through many struggles in her life and wrote some of my favorite fiction of all time. It reminds me of Carol Dweck, who wrote about the importance of praising children for their efforts and perseverance. Instead of saying "you're so smart!", Dweck's research suggests that we should be saying something more along the lines of "it looks like you worked hard at that!" or "good job putting so much effort into that!" This article was really interesting, and showed how children who are praised specifically for effort are more willing to try harder tasks and are not as anxious about making mistakes.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Week One in Dyad Placement
Going from kindergarten to eighth grade...
I was overwhelmed the first day, trying to wrap my mind around how different this placement is from my main placement. It would be easier for me to list the few ways that they are similar than to go through the many, many ways that they differ. And how would I remember all of their names when the class period keeps ending, and there is a whole new set of students each hour! I went home, reflected on everything I'd learned, and really let the day sink in.
The second day, our CT had us "jump right in!" and we each taught a lesson on a different period. It was fantastic. It gave me a lot of ideas, I was able to do some constructive reflection on my own lesson, and now I feel much more at ease in front of our silly, smart, and enthusiastic class.
I'm thinking about how, this week, we really started from scratch and jumped right in- knowing very little about the classroom dynamics beforehand. We each taught the same lesson, but they were both so unique. The purpose and the format of the lesson were the same, and even so, each time it turned out differently. I think it's something to think about, especially because I was thinking about the many districts that require teachers to use a set curriculum. Even in a set curriculum, aspiring teachers can make lessons their own, and that realization was comforting.
I was overwhelmed the first day, trying to wrap my mind around how different this placement is from my main placement. It would be easier for me to list the few ways that they are similar than to go through the many, many ways that they differ. And how would I remember all of their names when the class period keeps ending, and there is a whole new set of students each hour! I went home, reflected on everything I'd learned, and really let the day sink in.
The second day, our CT had us "jump right in!" and we each taught a lesson on a different period. It was fantastic. It gave me a lot of ideas, I was able to do some constructive reflection on my own lesson, and now I feel much more at ease in front of our silly, smart, and enthusiastic class.
I'm thinking about how, this week, we really started from scratch and jumped right in- knowing very little about the classroom dynamics beforehand. We each taught the same lesson, but they were both so unique. The purpose and the format of the lesson were the same, and even so, each time it turned out differently. I think it's something to think about, especially because I was thinking about the many districts that require teachers to use a set curriculum. Even in a set curriculum, aspiring teachers can make lessons their own, and that realization was comforting.
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