I consider myself an individual of average intelligence. Honestly, that was not a fishing line. I have to work hard to understand things and as such, there are several things in this world that have me a little baffled.
First, what is the purpose of a year round school if the teachers aren't roving? I understand that many schools are year round because there simply isn't enough room in the school for all of the teachers to be there at one time. However, for the past three years I taught at a year round school where every teacher had their own classroom. I also understand that buses play a part in which schools are year round, but our school only had one bus because almost all of the students were within walking distance. My administrator even agreed with this, she tried to convert our school into a 9-month school to allow for more teacher collaboration, but was denied.
Second, why are schools being built in this district that are too small to begin with. It seems to me that there are so many schools that are being built that have to add portables either before school starts, or within the first couple of years that the school is open. Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?
Third, with all this NCLB and schools failing to meet standards, What's going to happen to the many schools that aren't meeting NCLB standards? When they say the state's going to come in, take over the school and teachers will lose their jobs, whose going to replace all those teachers, and how many people are actually in a position to come in a take over a school. Another threat is that schools will lose their funding if they fail to meet NCLB standards-does that really make sense to take money away from a school that is struggling-as if no money will solve the problem? Are these empty threats? It'll be interesting to see what happens with this next school year and all the teachers that failed to meet HQ status this past June. Like I said, there are many things I don't understand, maybe someone out there does and can enlighten me.
There are probably many, many more I can add to this list, these are just a few for now. Feel free to add to the list.
2 comments:
Hey Nikki--I was interested to read your post. When I worked in Springville in a Special Ed class I was told that these children also had to meet the NCLB standard. I couldn't really believe that. Doesn't it seem stupid that someone that is blind and deaf has to measure up to someone without these problems? Maybe you could clarify this for me. Is that true or are there different standards for these children?
Hey Adrianne,
Yeah, all kids have to meet NCLB, however some have IEP's that are indivdual education plans to meet the limited ability level of these students. Even so, a school could be considered as failing if their special ed. department doesn't meet the requirements. I'm not completely clear on how it works, but I do know that all my students, regardless of their language, or ability have to take the tests with some accomodations sometimes, and none other times. It seems a bit ridiculous to me-but maybe that's because I still don't understand it completely. However, this is a pretty hot topic.
Oh, by the way, this blog will hopefully have some pictures on it at some point and will be more for family than education- so it might be more fun.
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