Group Five Presentation

Group five did their presentation on chapter eight: The Organization of American Schools. They showed us two really interesting news video clips. The first one was on virtual schools, many people are saying we could get rid of teachers and have all online learning. I don't really agree with this because I know I learn best when I am in class, it's really hard for me to learn something if i'm reading it over the internet, especially math. I think this idea would also be really crucial because it would lack the social interaction skills all children need to be successful in life. It may be an options for some kids, but not everyone can learn like that. The other video they showed was about all day kindergarten. Many schools were switching from half days to all days. This idea was nothing new to me because ever since I can remember my school had all day kindergarten. I think it is really helpfull for students and gets them prepared for 1st grade. Group five also mentioned some ways schools could be set up, like a four day week instead of the traditional 5 day weeks. I actually think this idea would be nice because it gives teachers the chance to do bigger projects and have more time for lessons. I think it would be really nice for students to have a longer weekend and get refreshed. This way I think they would be more ready to learn after the long break when they come back to school. This also gives a free day for teachers and students to make appointments and do other extra activities. In the long run it  should help cut back on the school budget. I have never attended a school like this, but I think it would be really interesting to see how it worked. I think group five did a great job with their presentation and it was interesting to hear the different ways schools could be organized because I wasn't familar with a lot of them.

School Organization

The school that I attended was Wabasso Public High School. I attended this school from pre-school until 12th grade. Starting with pre-school we had the option of going full days or half days. My mom decided to have me go for only half days in pre-school. In Kindergarten all the students attending for full days. Throughout elementary we only had one class for each grade so I was always with the same classmates. Wabasso considered k-6 to be elementary, 7th & 8th grade was junior high, and 9th-12th grade was high school. Once we were in 7th grade the students from the catholic school joined our class so we then had two sections instead of just one. Wabasso also followed a traditional school year. Class started at 8 and ended at about 3, this gave students a lot of time for extra activities after school, like sports. My school also had the three months in summer off. Since that's all I grew up with it's really hard for me to imagine what it would be like to have school all year. I'm not sure if I would really like that because I know the summer is when I made a lot of memories with my friends since we were all off in the summers. The only thing that I think would really be nice about school all year is that students would maybe remember the material better if they didn't have such a big break in between.

2 Million Minutes

I thought the movie 2 Million Minutes was very interesting and eye opening. It's very clear that schools in the United States are very different then the schools in China or India. Americans don't seem to be aware of the world around them and that they are competeing with the rest of the world. The first thing that really shocked me was how much time Americans spent on homework compared to the other schools. The average student in America spends about one hour a night on homework and this does not include weekend. Instead of having our main focus be academics we put a lot of emphasize on our athletics and social lives. The kids who are interviewed from the U.S admitt that they don't put a ton of time into studying and their school work, but the one's who were interviewed from the U.S got into the school of their choice and the student's interviewed from China and India did not get into the schools they wanted to because there education is so competitive. I noticed that in India they have very good family support. They families want them to stay focused on their future. Many of them decide what they want to do with their future at a very young age. China also seemed to have very strong supportive families. Since they are only allowed one child per family many of the families invest their money and efforts in to that childs future and education. Both of these countries put a very high emphasize on their studies, and less on sports and social events like the students in the United States do.

Group 4 Presentation

Group four did their presentation on chapter seven, the philosophy of education. They went through the four areas in which the philosophy of education covers. These areas are They were Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, and Social Reconstructionism. They gave us a inventory type worksheet that determined which philosophy described how we wanted to teach the most. I really liked this worksheet because I think it will become very useful when we start writing our final papers. They also used some really great quotes in their presentation and the incorporated some clips from a few movies that gave us a chance to see what some of the areas in the philosophy of education looked like. Overall, I think this group did a really good job covering such a broad and important topic. The information they presented will be very helpful for deciding which philosophy we want to follow in the future.

Global Achievement Gap: Chapter 6

*Chapter six is about closing the gap and Wagner talks about a few schools that inforce the seven survival skills. The school he talked about alot was High Tech High, which is a school development organixation consisting of k-12 public charter schools. These schools are very well known for their highly rigorous education practices.

*High Tech High doesn't base their education off of textbooks. They use interdisciplanary projects which is project based learning to help teach students. They don't teach students to just memorize material for the standardized test, yet their scores are amongst the highest in the country compared to other schools.

*The original reason High Tech High was formed was the concern that kids were leaving high school knowing how to memorize facts and they were unable to apply what they know to the real world. In other words students were not being prepared for real world skills that they needed to succeed.

*Some of the common set goals at High Tech High were..
-Serve student body in response to ethnic/diversity of local community
-Integrate technical and academic education in both high tech and liberal arts fields
-Increase the number of successful student in math and engineering
-Graduate students who will be thoughtful, engaged citizens

*Warwick was one of the teachers Wagner interviewed. Warwick said they way they teach at this school is a way in which the students will be perpared for the real world. He said when they graduate the goal is that they will have the ability to articulate their thoughts, beliefs, and feelings.

*HTH is a new graduate program that was formed off of these High Tech High associations. It's a program for future teachers, they spend the majority of their school working with a mentor in classrooms. I think this is a great idea and will teach the students so much more than just sitting in a classroom.

Ideal Teacher Prep Program

 I think many things could be done to improve programs for teacher preparation. The first and most important thing I think they should change is giving more time for student teaching. I have talked to so many people who are teachers today and they say they have by far learned the most during their student teacher experience. I think allow students more time to get hands on experience is so crucial because the only way you get better at something is to actually get out their and do it. I don't feel that the time that we have for student teaching is near enough right now. Another aspect I think that could be included is requiring general educators to take more classes on special education, specificially on strategies on how to teach these student's with exceptionalities because they will all be in our classrooms. I am going into elementary education and for that reason I am planning to get a special ed minor, but many teachers do not have that minor so I think more classes should be required to take for teachers who are planning on going into general education. The last thing I believe would improve the teaching preparation is requiring students to take 2nd language electives, maybe switching some of the goal areas that are recommended for generals and instead of just offering the 2nd language actually require teachers to have to take a couple of those classes so they at least have a background of another language. The student's that I did my field experience with had spanish class two days a week and I think it would be very helpful if the main teacher also was familar with the language so they could not only learn it during those two class periods a week, but incorporate it into some of their everyday activities.

Group 3 Presentation

Group 3's presentation was on chapter 6, which is on the history of education. They started off the presentation with a short youtube clip that gave some expert opinions on how our education system needs to change to fit the way student want to learn and the new technology that today's society is comming out with. They also went over the different periods throughout history on our schools and how these periods have helped shape what our education system is today. I really enjoyed their interview. They interviewed two teachers that taught in California. They gave some really good advice for future teachers. One of the most important things I took out of it is always ask questions and take workshops. I think this is very important in order to grow and become a better teacher. At the end of their presentation they gave us a crossword on key terms over their powerpoint presentation. I think this group did a great job and their information will be helpful to know in the future.