paper #3

Our schools and teachers face many challenges with the educational system. From not enough pay to little resources that are available. Everyone tries to point the finger at eachother for the problems. Teachers are not teaching, school is under funded, the students refuse to learn. What does that solve? in order to solve the problem we must first face that everyone is to blame. When we look at teachers, we see educators creating the world of tomorrow. We need strong passionate teachers who are dedicated and motivated to our students. Many children tend to fall behind in class, miss class and drop out altogether. Students are struggling to stay motivated in class which can lead to poor grades and failure. Student's are losing interest in education and teacher's are failing in attempts to teach. Drop out rates increase and proficiency stats decrease as we see in the film Waiting for Superman. In the film they show statistics of proficiency in reading, in which our nations capitol has the lowest of 12%. To ensure the motivation and dedication, teachers should be annually reviewed to see how well they are teaching, to their performance in class.

In the movie Stand and Deliver we see Mr. Escalante teaching his class. Like any normal class, they do not seem interested at all. They rebel and taught him all the time. But we see that he is motivated to get these students to learn. He finds new ways to make the kids interested and when they were interested they learned something. He had used real life examples in his teaching methods. He used an apple to teach the students fractions, when they were able to see the apple and realize what one half meant, they were able to learn and understand one-fourth and two-thirds of the apple. His students have beomce more interested and their self confidence has greatly increased. Mr. Escalante became a friend to the students and inspired them to try harder. In the beginning the class was unmotivated and willing to fail. But as we saw towards the end, the class was much more motivated and willing to take the AP test. Mr. Escalante was dedicated to the student's, this is true when he pushes the class into signing contracts to be in class and to stay late. Also when he has a heart attack and disobeys the doctor and goes back to teach when he shouldn't. As we see in Chalk Mr. Stroop is the complete opposite, he shut his student's down. We see a scene in which he is talking to two of his students. He tells them to not use big words and to not be smarter than he is. This is an example of what a teacher shouldn't be. Mr. Stroope cares to much about his image, he was even more focused on winning the teacher of the year award. Even had student's spying for him. Schools have played the same role as teacher's who only think about themselves. In Lewis Black's rant about public education he points out that a school has spent billions of dollars on the buildings and making it looks better, instead they could have used the money to buy resources for the classrooms. Schools have to be focused on educating the student's than repainting its walls. What does the building have to do with student'ts education?

In the movie Chalk coach Webb was very motivated and dedicated to her class. She wanted to make the class feel better about themselves and to think more positively about what they can do. She believes that if you can make them think they are good in something and have potential in that they will soon think they can do it. She also says that if you hold them at a level of expectation even though you may think they cannot do it, you make them think they can and they will perform at that level. Even though it was her first year teaching, she was ready to go and knew that she could be great for her class. On the other hand Mr. Lowrey was dry and tasteless in his class, he would benefit greatly if he had other teacher's support. Great teacher's are passionate and love what they do. Mr. Lowrey ended his teaching career after his first year. Great teacher's teach 150% of the curriculum, and bad teacher's only teach 50%. Those teacher's do not dedicate themselves to the job and do not care wheter they teach or not. Reviewing each teacher can help pick out the ones that need help and the ones that don't.

Talking about teachers getting reviewed, Mrs.Watson from Mona Lisa Smile was contantly watched over and reviewed. Her goal was to help her class think out side of the box. The whole point of school and education is to pass the student's on so they can do great things. Mr.Watson was trying to make the girls think that their is more to life, though her intentions were good they did not follow certain guidelines the school had. The federal government passes laws and fund schools, the states however also fund schools and pass their own standards that often conflict. Mr.Watson was dedicated to her students and wanted them to succeed, she had even filled out an application for a particular girl. Even though her methods conflicted with the schools, like the laws do she was able to teach the students and they were able to open their minds and become more interested in themselves. Mr.Watson was able to realize that this may not have been the place for her, if we can review teachers and find the problem we can start to understand why and fix the issues.

Akel, Mike, dir. Chalk. 2007. DVD. 18 Mar 2013.

Guggenheim, Davis, dir. Waiting for Superman. 2012. DVD. 18 Mar 2013

Newell, Mike, dir. Mona Lisa Smile. 2003. DVD. 18 Mar 2013

Black, Lewis, dir. Back in black. 2010. Film. 18 Mar 2013

Menendez, Ramon, dir. Stand and Deliver. 1988. Film. 18 Mar 2013

Waiting for superman: Notes & in class blog post

many parents who want to put their child in a good school, rely on luck. their childs name is put into a lottery, random numbers on a ball, computer or picking a name out of a bowl.
daisy wants to be a nurse, doctor and a vet. she already wrote a letter to her college asking to attend, she says to find different ways to make learning fun.
reading scores and math had flat lined, and the schools pay double for each student.
franssico is in the 3rd largest school in the district thats over crowded in the bronx
biancas mother will do anything for her daughter to go to college, she wants her to get an education, career and make a difference.
arizona 26% and california 24% proficiency in math
our nations capital has 12% proficiency in reading
only 3 out of 100 students at roosevelt will graduate with the proper classes to get into a 4 year college.
40,000 didnt graduate over 40 years at alan locke high school
failing neighborhood might be blamed for failing schools
oliver high school drop out factor, 68% of inmates in penn are drop out students.
for the money they spend on one inmate they could have sent them to a private school from k-12 and had money left over for college.
the government will give the schools money but the state also funds the schools and has certain criteria of their own that may counter what the government has. which can block the schools from teaching the students properly
a bad teacher covers 50% of the curriculum per year, a good teacher covers 150% and they both get paid the same.
public school teachers tenure has been automatic whether they teach or not, and you cant get rid of them no matter how bad or what they do. but university professors may never get it.
teachers that are good cannot be paid more because its not in the contract, so bad teachers are paid for being bad and it doesnt change.
schools trade off bad teachers hoping the next one was better than the last.
teachers under trial still get full pay for being in a room for 7 hours a day waiting for a hearing.
1 in 2500 teachers lose their teaching credentials
geoffrey canada became a good teacher in 3 years and a master teacher in 5 years.
charter schools, public money, public education but privately run. and children enrolled from lottery.
US ranks last in average scores but first in confidence.
schools havent changed but the world around them has changed.
kids can learn, if you apply the right material and stuff the kids will learn
we have tried money, laws and reforms, but you cant have a great school without great teachers.

after watching the movie, my thoughts about education has been altered. The movie showed so many sides to one story, good teachers and bad teachers, and the fact that you cannot get rid of a bad teacher because of the contract, if you cannot teach, you shouldnt be a teacher. That charter schools are so much better yet only so little people can get into them, if they are so good, more children should be able to attend the schools. A big factor though is teachers, teachers are the ones that parents rely on to teach their child, we need great teachers and great schools, in the movie they showed families trying to get their kids into those great schools, we need our public schools to be just as good. Geoffrey Canada had made a point about whether kids are getting dumber each year or is it the school, to me I think that students are part of the problem as well, whether they choose to pay attention in class, do the homework and make a effort, as one of the kids had said he wasnt doing so good in school because he never came home and studied, but when he started studying he became a better student, but of course its up to the teachers to engage the students interest to help them make that effort. In the movie they showed a lot of examples that teachers get paid whether they teach or not, so if a teacher isnt teaching the students, the school is going to continue to fail the students. The whole point of education is to pass the students so they can go on to do great things we need teachers who are passionate and willing to do their job and not sit around to help those students pass and not be failures and drop outs and go to prison for the rest of their lives. With Fransico, his teacher had told his mom that he had trouble with reading, but yet she would work with him at home and read with him and he would do just fine, she had taken him to reading tutors who had said that he could read and knew what the words had meant, and yet his teacher refuses to communicate with his mom and send home his folder.

Gilyard & Arizona bans

In Gilyards article he starts off talking about visiting elementary school students who are in a creative arts program. In the program they do singing, dancing, poetry, and oral interpretation. Activities that occur less and less in schools. The article continues to talk about the program being cut and that the students will be doomed. Same in the NEA article, the MAS program would be cut. which was a very successful program that had graduated ninety-seven percent of the students who had participated in the program.  Taking away these programs have had a negative affect on the k-12 curriculum. Such classes are good for students, to teach them to think one another level beside just learning math and science which is good. But creative art classes are good for students who enjoy the classes, they learn better when intrigued and captivated. These articles are important because they pertain to our main topic of k-12 curriculum changes, whether it needs to be changed or something added to it.

K-12 education: changes

In my opinion the most important change to the k-12 education is, inspiring students to learn, to want to learn something more and to think. When viewing chalk I noticed that the students in the history class of mr Lowrey's, did not want to learn, as one of the students had said something around the lines of we don't need to know this stuff. As I look back on other movies and articles, I remember the movie stand and deliver mr escalante was able to inspire his students to learn and go beyond what they thought they could, in which they did. Also in Mike Roses article I just want to be average part two, he speaks of a teacher that had "hooked" him, inspired something in him to do better. Inspiring students to learn and do more can help them in school and outside of school, making students to better themselves in the real world and to overcome challenges.

Chalk: Notes

50% of teachers quit within the first 3 years
coach webb got the students to do an activity to fall back and trust the person catching them. that is a good way to have the students interact with eachother and for the teacher to interact with the students.
the histroy teacher mr lowrey has been teaching for an hour and ten minutes. He came off as a little harsh and nervous.He was struggling on his first day, asking students question that he hasnt explained yet. He has no control over his class, they do not pay attention to him. They do not listen to him, two class mates started yelling at eachother and they did not stop even when he asked. Another classmate had left the class when he was talking to him. They hid his chalk, and the students just laughed.
mrs reddell first year AP, not prepared she was a choir directer before. she spends many hours working at her job, she gets home usually after 10. She doesnt fully understand what she can do about certain disciplinary actions, when a student said something mean to her, she didnt know what she should do with the student, and I believe the man she was talking to just said that she shouldnt take everything to heart. later on in the movie, she talks about how she cant handle all the teachers coming up to her and complaining.
mr stroope 3rd year history, he is funny with the students. gets to know them by asking about their summer. his goals were working on sarcasm, cleanliness and organization, lesson plans. He sometimes teaches on the fly but the students seem to like it. He needs to be more detailed on his lesson plans. He wants the students to trust him and know that he cares for them. He doesnt like it when the students use bigger words that he doesnt understand, and that the students may not understand. He talked to two students to tone it down.
There is a teacher that does not follow the tardy policy,
coach webb wants to make the students feel like they are good at something and to make them want to do what they are good at. To make them think they are good and they will perforom at that level.
mr lowrey has tried to incorporate humor in the classroom.
the teachers seem  to have a good relationship with eachother.
mr stroope took command and told the teachers to stop borrowing things that dont belong to them, like money, paper, or leaving the classroom while in class. Teachers are suppose to be role models.
mr stroope called will's parents, about his grade, will gave the wrong number. Will did not respect or listen to his teacher.
teaching, you do your best, your not gonna get every kid. you practice, hone your skill.
mr lowrey asked the students to not bring the phones to class, one student did, he wouldnt give up his phone, so he sent the student out, and the student said he was a horrible teacher. He his having a hard time teaching his class. his students still disrespect him
Mr stroope was nominated for teacher of the year.
Mr. lowrey went to his students house to talk to his mom, she started to help him loosen up and to help him get respect from her son.
coach webb thought mrs reddell would be the gap between the administration and teacher, that the teachers can come to her and talk to her and get help.
Mr. Stroope did not win teacher of the year. He is talking to his students about the bright side, next year, he is over reaccting about getting last place. most of his attention went to winning this position than teaching his students and giving them his full attention.
Mrs. Reddell misses being a teacher, she enjoys going in and being a sub.
There is a spelling hornet, where all the teachers spell the slang words the student use.Mr. Lowrey decided to do it and his class is coaching him. he made it to the final round. Mr. Lowrey won the spelling hornet. his students and him are starting to bond and get along. They were all spitting rhymes with eachother before class ended. He was making a connection with the kids, that only took a whole year to make. Though he thinks he hasnt found his groove, he may not come back next year, he doesnt know if he likes it that much.
coach webb learned she needs to approach teachers differently. that she does come off as pushy and very opinionated and she understand that some of the teacher may be more sensitive and she needs to be more easy going and soft when approaching other teachers.
mr stroope lost the election, but what was worse was he lost it in his class. he was a bad role model for his students, he cared more about himself than he did for his students, such as telling his students to not use bigger words because he doesnt understand and not to act smarted than him, tossing a desk in class and yelling at his student for saying "second place is not last place" and he insulted the student by saying i may not be good at math but i do know that second place out of two places was last place.
mr lowrey said being a teacher is a gift, that maybe it can be learned, but noone taught him. I feel that not everything a teacher knows or does was taught to them, they learn it as they go. through experience and practice.

Mike Rose & Lewis Black

These men have made me think about education differently. Being a student, I went to school to learn, I did the best I could to learn everything the teacher was teaching. I never questioned whether there was a problem with my school, or if a teacher was not doing their job correctly. A problem with education is the children, whether they learn the information or not. You can talk and teach to someone but its up to them if they want to learn it. Teaching should engage their attention and be interesting enough that the kids who are not fond of school can be interested and learn. Lewis Black made a comment that a school  was worth half a billion dollars. They say that schools do not get enough money and they are on a budget, yet this school is worth so much. The building is not a factor whether the education is good or not. He also states that our schools are broken and that it is not hard to see that. He is all for charter schools, they offer a great education, but for all the other kids in public schools. How can we make the education better? A lot of students go to public schools, we want our kids to achieve, but what does that mean? after viewing the reading, I believe that achievement has been lost, to me we cannot rely on our "high test scores" to prove that our education is getting better. And that teachers are effective, you cannot judge the greatest of students and teachers on a test, though it may look good on paper, does it really make the students feel good knowing all they have to do is pass a test? students need to be challenged. Engaging and challenging, but of course the first thing to do to make education better is to figure out the big problems and solve them, not put a band aid on it. Like Mike says, if you fire 10% of the bottom and replace with the top 10%, will you have to do that every year? that to me is just a band aid. This just makes me think what is really wrong, and what could possibly be done about it.

John Gatto

I have never thought that a teacher could get bored. To me, being a teacher must have been exciting. With all the different students they have for each class. I wouldn't have thought it got boring to them, though I can see that if a student didn't care to learn it can be boring to teach someone something they love to a student who just wants to pass the class. Parents have a choice wether to send their children to school or not, but it is important for a child to grow and to learn. We have school so that all these kids can learn and grow, and to better themselves. Some people may disagree that schooling is not needed yet education is important. But how else will these students learn if there is no "forced schooling?" who is willing to teach these kids if they were not to go to school. We have teachers for a reason, to teach the kids what they need to know to survive in this world. Schooling helps a child mold into what they need to be when they grow up. John Gatto believes that we have become a nation of children, in some ways I can agree with that. Especially since people are so easily manipulated. Talk about ads on t.v, people watch those day in and day out and they buy them. Even if they are completely useless to them, they still buy them. We believe what we see and what people tell us.