- I believe it should be required for all teachers to take special education courses in order to get their license. And I believe that they should be required to keep updated on special education, through continuous courses, seminars, workshops, etc. With this, I believe that it should be required that if a main stream teacher has a student with special needs in their classroom, that the teacher be informed on their specific needs. Ex: My brother has many disabilities, among them are Asperger Syndrome and Cystic Fibrosis. Not only do his teachers believe that Asperger's is the 'new thing,' and don't think he has a problem, but not one of them is truly aware of what CF is, and what it entails. My mother has tried to send the teachers information packets for them to better understand the disease, but it means nothing to the teachers. This to me is a problem, not only personally, but for any child who faces school districts and teachers with the same attitude.
- I believe it should be required for all teachers to take multicultural courses in order to get their license. Yes, at St. Cloud State, we are required to take a certain number of courses, but I believe it is important to be informed beyond the simple understanding that these courses provide. Like the special education courses, I believe that teachers need to be informed on the backgrounds of the children in their classroom. To better help the students and their families, you need to understand where one might be coming from with their beliefs and cultures.
- I believe it should be required for all teachers to have studies abroad in order to get their license. Whether it is just studying abroad or doing the student teaching abroad, I believe that it is important to have an understanding of the global education system. The experience, from what I can imagine, of studying abroad, would not only give you a better understanding of education across other cultures, but a better understand of the other cultures themselves. This would give us the one-up to other teachers applying for the job, but also a new viewpoint on how we may run our classrooms. New experiences can never hurt!
3/22: Today my group did our presentation on chapter seven, philosophies of education.
3/25: Today we watched a video, Two Million Minutes. This video focused on six students across the globe, and how their two million minutes were spent. In the United States, we had Neil and Brittney. In India, we had Rohit and Apoorva. And in China, we had Jin and another student who's name I did not catch. Three main difference that I noticed between these countries, were that U.S. students go to college to find out what they want to do in life, where they want to go; India students go to college already knowing what they want, and where they are going, usually by the age of seventeen; and China students focus solely on their grades throughout high school with the intent of getting into the best colleges with the highest grades. Some other facts that I found interesting were:
- U.S. ranks number 24 in math, globally
- In. focuses on math and science to get into engineering, which will get them out of poverty
- Ch. with their one child policy, all the focus goes towards that child's education
- In. dedicate 12 hours per week to studying
- Ch. studying is the top priority in high school
- U.S. dedicate 20+ hours per week to sports and extra curricular activities
3/29: Group Five, Chapter Eight: The Organization of American Schools
- Goals of a School
- Academic
- Social and Civic
- Vocational
- Personal
- Characteristics of an Effective School
- Optimal school and class size: 600-900, 20
- Clear academic focus and strong leadership
- Interactive instruction
- Frequent monitoring of student progress
- Parental involvement
We were asked to think about the organization of our schools and what the pros and cons were in terms of the number of days per week, the scheduling, the format of the school building, etc. The school that I attended was your traditional high school. We went to school five days a week, 8:30 to 3:15, September to June.
When I was in high school, we used what was called a 'block' schedule, which was about an 90 minute class, five days a week. Instead of having this class all year-round though, we would only have it for either have it for a quarter or a semester, depending on the class. For me, I really liked this. Not only did it give the teacher enough time to get the lesson done, but there was almost always time to work on homework before the period was over. With the shorter classes, there was just barely enough time to get the lesson done, let alone assign homework and have time for questions.
The layout of my high school was some what confusing. We had the freshman pod, which was at the center of the school. Then from there, the school was split to seniors to the left of the pod, juniors to the right, and sophomores at the back of the school. Having the pod for the freshman was nice because it gave you a sense of knowing where to start from if you got lost, and was an area dedicated to the newcomers of the school. The other grades were kind of messed up, in terms of how they were divided up. The lockers for the rest of the grades were up and down hallways that made no sense, but space was limited. I do like, however, how the classes were divided. Our school was divided by subjects, where all the geography/history/economics/government courses were in one area, foreign language, arts, sciences, all grouped together. This I like because after freshman year, when you knew where your classes were, it was easy to think back to where a certain subject was, instead of thinking about the room number and trying to find a class that way.
My class, class of 2009, was the last class to graduate from this school. Our district built a new high school, turning this school into a middle school, with fifth through eighth grade in the building I just described. This building was not built to be a middle school, and it not divided at all the same. Though there is much more signs, directing the students where to go, the school is way too big for the young ones. I was overwhelmed as a freshman, I cannot imagine being in fifth grade in that school!
