External Forces on Education

I just finished reading a journal article that once again points out that when there is reform in education-it is driven by a top-down approach. When will we as a society or as educators be political animals and take back our government? I know I am getting off on a rant here but the more I listen to the news and have discussions with my students and colleagues the more I am convinced that the nation is in "a moral adolescence." The rate of homelessness in children, the rate of teenage pregnancy, the lack of value in education as reflected in teacher pay and the comments in the blogs following any online articles regarding education. Ugh-what should one do? I always said that when I win the power ball I would start a charter school and fund a housing environment for single parents that would provide child care and access to medical treatment. But now I think once I finish my terminal degree I need to get going and open the school and do what I can to make a positive difference because I don't know that in my current position that my sphere of influence is as large as it could be if I were somewhere else. Okay I will step away from the computer to move my laundry along. Until the next blog...

ASCD in Orlando-Time Well Spent

This has to be the best conference I have attended so far in my professional life. I went by myself but definitely see the benefit of bringing a team so that you can attend as much as possible because there are so many excellent sessions! This was how I spent the beginning of my spring break and as the title suggests I did view it as time well spent. I heard several prominent authors speak and felt recharged professionally. It was also nice to share perspectives with people in all roles in the education world as well as people from around the world. The only down side was that I did not win a personal response system. As a side note, I hope to start a student chapter of ASCD on campus.

After Best Practices Institute

So this past week I attended UVA's Best Practices Institute on Differentiated Instruction. A wonderful opportunity to continue to develop my own skills and maybe learn another way to teach DI to my students. One of the conclusions I always come to after attending one of these conferences, is good teaching is good teaching. Good teaching means knowing your students so that an instructor can create differentiated instruction that is meaningful to the students. Does our current established system really allow for that? Also the other conclusion I come to is that I really miss the K-12 world. I think I will give higher education one more year and then I may venture back to my happy place-middle school.

My brain is tired...

After reading a chapter regarding how children learn, are we really taking advantage of the rate of development and abilities of children? or do we underestimate them? For example I show the film Educating Peter which chronicles a young man with mental impairments in a third grade class in the early 90's as the inclusion movement was really beginning and the students in my class(college aged) are always amazed at the insights of the third-graders. I think we underestimate the abilities of children and somehow we need to find a way to change that... what is the answer? ...the search goes on

Deep thoughts or maybe not...

After reading a review of research on teaching courses online, I am left with some questions- how do employers compare GPA's among candidates who graduate from a bricks and mortar school versus an online school, or do they even have a second thought? How will we make the change in the coming years in the K-12 model to incorporate online learning? Will we recognize the future institution of public education or will be a foreign concept? Are current teacher preparation programs really preparing our pre service teachers for the reality they may face?

Can't think of a clever title... questions?

How do reflective practioners create environments where there is "infinite self-motivated learning"?

How does one balance the knowledge centered, learning centered, and assessment centered perspectives on learning environments?

If students spend 14% of their time in school (stated in How People Learn), why do we blame our society's ills on education?

When will parents be assessed in the NCLB fashion that teachers are?

How do we recruit the best when pay and work conditions leave something to be desired?

Will we outsource our educators?

When will we as a society recognize the wisdom in the words of Lee Iacocca , "In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have."?

How does technology promote or deter progress?

What is progress?

Is it healthy to be "connected" all the time?

My mind is on fire!

After reading the first batch of articles and viewing the map-wow that is a lot of information to take in. Upon viewing the map I thought of a great brain-storming activity- to blog/discuss depending on the environment on each trend/issue because each is worthy of a discussion that may provide insights from each person and if you could vary the stakeholders, business community, parents, students, administrators, etc what an event that would be! However the reality is that the various stakeholders do not interact in enough meaningful discussions to impact positive change. That is my current opinion. We'll see what the future holds. . .