Different Learners.

For my topic this week, I chose to address special education at Hillcrest. This school offers a wide variety of support, from full inclusion classrooms to a separate life skills class for those students with more severe disabilities. On the surface I think this school has a great special education program. The particular class that interested me was life skills. These students come to music twice a week; once a week with the rest of the life skills students and once integrated into a grade level. As a teacher, I often feel that aspects of these students’ music education are limited. In the life skills classroom, the class is run at about the level of a kindergarten class. My issue, however, revolves around the fact that nothing new is ever introduced to these students. I do realize that repetition can be very beneficial with these students, but they have the same five or six songs and same instrument activity they do every week. To me, it leaves a lot to be desired. When these students are integrated into a regular classroom music class, I feel they can become “invisible.” One of the life skills aides agrees with me. She says, “Sometimes teachers will tend to overlook my students and that's a challenge. They will automatically assume the students can't do it. They will not include them in things.” I have noticed this even in music class—life skills students are simply “there,” there is little to no effort to adapt activities to meet their needs. For example, the other day our forth graders were reviewing the string family of the orchestra and were going over answers. One of the life skills students kept calling out right answers (which is something above and beyond what was expected of her). However, she was never acknowledged as having the right answer and was never called upon to provide an answer for the class, even though she clearly had an understanding of what the class was discussing.

With this being said, I have noticed huge support of these life skills students from others at Hillcrest. The same teacher says, “The regular ed. students are usually wonderful and very helpful. Even that has to be monitored because sometimes they want to do everything for our children and of course our main goal is independence.” I think this relationship is important for both students. Life skills students are provided with a safe environment and understanding from peers. The “regular ed.” students are provided with the opportunity to see and appreciate different types of learners.

parent teacher conferences

I had parent teacher conferences last night. It was really interesting to see what everyone's parents had to say. It was also kind of kewl to be able to talk to them about their child. Has anyone else had the change to go to one of these?
Also is anyone else going to the region chorus festival in chatham on december 4th?
For my topic this week I did change, and I asked a bunch of people within the school if they would be willing to make change, and most of them werent willing tobe the person, they would jump on the bandwagon but they wouldnt create the change. I know that I would be willing to make change and waves. But I was wondering would anyone else? Like I know that we talk alot but at what point will we stop talking and act?

I've found in many of the conversations I've had with teachers that I am frustrated with the answers I get. I feel this because there seems to be a negative trend in how people view the future of education. For the last week I tried to go around to everyone I talked to, to see what they feel is future of education. I'm not sure if they think I'm looking for a negative answer, or whether they truly feel the way they do, but they all, with the exception of two very young teachers, predicted very negative futures for education. One teacher said that teaching today is "not the profession she entered into." Another said that she worries whether she'll even have a job in ten years with the way technology is "interfering" with our lives. From the conversations throughout the semester I arrived at the conclusion that they all felt that the role of a teacher was insignificant now, and from these conversations I deduced that they feel these roles will only worsen. I'm not sure whether to agree or disagree when so many people complain about the state of education, and then predict poor things in the future. Isn't that kind of giving up on the future?...kind of saying we can't do anything about it?

Topics

Trying to determine my topic for this weeks discussions was actually more difficult than I expected. I kept tossing ideas back and forth, but I just couldn't really decide on something that I liked. I originally thought I would want to write something on grades, because personally I hate them, but then I thought that we covered that topic in a round about kind of way before. I wanted to pick something more controversial, something that I knew I could get people to really talk about.

The first person I spoke to was my co-op. She was actually the one who suggested that I should write about tenure. She said, "tenure is good if it does what it's supposed to do. It was established to allow teachers to have some freedom: freedom to push issues or to do further research in their classrooms. However, this isn't what always happens. Instead tenure has allowed many teachers to become lazy and to slack off in their teaching." After speaking with my co-op I realized that I actually didn't know a lot about tenure for teachers, so I decided to do some research. I found that " Most of America's public school teachers (58 percent) believe tenure protects teachers from district politics, favoritism, and the threat of losing their jobs to newcomers who would earn less, according to a new survey, titled Stand By Me, from Public Agenda, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research organization. Yet a majority (58 percent) of teachers also admit that being awarded tenure does not necessarily mean such teachers have worked hard and proved themselves to be very good at what they do. One union official admitted to defending tenured teachers "who shouldn't even be pumping gas."(School Reform News, 2003)

I found this very interesting. I remember having a professor in high school who was a horrible teacher. He probably should have retired 5 years before I had him, but yet he was still there teaching. I was so frustrated with him that I even complained to my principal and they did actually re-evaluate him. However because of the law, there was little that they could do.
"How expensive is it? A 1994 study by the New York State School Boards Association found that dismissing a tenured teacher in that state takes an average of 455 days and costs $177,000. If the teacher appeals, costs can approach twice that amount. Preparations for the required due process hearings take as long as six months, during which time suspended teachers in states such as Connecticut receive full salary. In addition, there are costs for substitute teachers and costs for the hearings. The process often ends with the school district either paying off or transferring the bad teacher. Like the fox guarding the henhouse, the unions have taken over attempts to reform the tenure system. Their solution is an experimental "peer review" process that involves teachers evaluating teachers instead of principals evaluating teachers to determine who is incompetent." ("Why Bad Teachers Aren't Fired", 1998)

So because I decided to make my topic tenure in education, I decided I would get the principals perspective on tenure, this time as a teacher and not a student. I spoke with on of the vice-principals in my high school. He took a while to think about what he was going to say and then he simply said, "I believe tenure is absolutely necessary in education." I thought that this was really interesting, especially coming from an administrators perspective. I asked him why and he said, "Think of it like this, as a teacher you see, on an average, 125 'clients' a day, and one of them is bound to not be pleased with you. If there wasn't something there to protect you (or teachers in general) the turnover rate of teachers would be ridiculously high!" He said, "of course there are downsides, as there are with anything, and there are teachers who become lazy, but there are things that can be done." I was really surprised at his view. I told him about my high school situation and he asked me how many "bad teachers" I may have had while in high school. I said maybe about 6, and he said, "out of how many?!" I understood his point. He then said, "I'd rather err on the side of teachers being good. I think without tenure in education, it would actually harm more good teachers than, without it bad."

I wanted another perspective, so I went and spoke to the art teacher again. She said, "well that is an issue! I believe there are issues, however, I think a lot of it also has to do with the teacher's personality. See me, I'm one who tends to want to stay neutral. However, honestly, in my department, I would have to say that the teachers that are going through the tenure process right now who actually deserve it, probably won't get it. Because of their personalities and their teaching ideas, they're not getting along with the supervisors and administrators, and they're they ones doing the evaluations. If you really think about it, the government are the one's who are regulating and running education, but what do they know about education?! We are never going to be able to fix education while the government is still running the show."

I guess were back again. All of the issues seem to come back to the government, and this idea of education being "schooled-up". I would say that out of anything I learned through this entire experience, you need to pick and choose your battles, and to pace yourself so that you don't become burnt out! I'm the type of person who wants to solve every problem and answer every question. However, I've realized that a teacher's work is never done, and that you really need to do you're research and to fight for what you believe in. And to always remember that we are teaching kids. That's what education is all about, and that's our job!

Theory Comment

So there are 24 kids in the theory class and it started out with only a few kids talking all the time, but now every single kid talks. It doesn't help that they are on different levels of musicianship too. On Friday they were so bad that they wouldn't even quiet down for my co-op. I've moved around their seats but that doesn't do anything because they all talk, not just one person. The other music teachers in the department have observed this to and they all think that the class should have been split into 2 seperate sections, but that's simply not going to happen this year. I get them quiet for 5-7 minutes but then it just starts back up again. They're all good kids and a good handful don't mean to cause trouble, but they don't realize that the talking echoes in that room and how loud it gets. The schedule that I'm on is a rotating block schedule so the class doesn't meet at the same time every day. So, I used to think they were the rowdiest when the class met right after lunch or during last period. I've come to find that they act the same way no matter the time, though. I really don't know what to do and it's getting worse and worse. My co-op is worried about how he is going to teach the class after December because he won't have the extra hand there to help. My co-op and I have devised a system for this class that we split it up (he takes half and I take the other). The talking is just as bad when they are split, though. Any suggestions on how to keep them quiet for more then 5 minutes? I've tried to give them multiple things in order to keep them focused but they still talk.

I'm in elementary and mostly teach 1st-3rd, and some 4th and 5th grades, and its interesting how wide the range is in the kids in terms of their fears. My 1st graders will do anything because most of them haven't developed fear in the classroom of, "What if I'm wrong?" and, "What will my friends think of me?" My 3rd graders seem to be just starting to feel intimidated and sometimes it takes just a little more encouragement to get the kids to participate. The 4th and 5th graders seem to really be at the point where they're developing a sense of themselves and how they fit in and tend to be very conscious of their grades, and possibility of being wrong, and what their friends think of them, that many of them tend to be silent in class. They're still at the age where mostly they want to be pleasing to others. So with the older kids, when I ask a question and am met with silence, I try to encourage them by telling them to take a guess and congratulating them when they take that chance, even if they are wrong.

With the younger kids, somtimes I use this same form of encouragement, but I guess I'm afraid that they are too young to understand that its ok to be wrong, so more often then not, I find myself telling kids that something was 'good,' or 'I like the way you're thinking,' even when it wasn't even close to the right answer. I'm afraid that if I don't sugar coat or twist my responses, that they'll stop taking chances in class, but I'm also afraid that I'm not doing the kids justice with my sugar coated responses.

Community and Fear

I thought the ideas in the “Culture of Fear” article were easily applied to any classroom situation. I know that as a student, I often have to be comfortable with a group of people before I willing to share my ideas and opinions. It is important to remember that our students may be no different. Students can be afraid of a variety of things, for example academic failure or being thought stupid or uncool by peers. I have come to realize that I also have fears as a teacher. For example, I worry that my students won’t feel comfortable in my classroom or that they will not understand/care about what I am teaching them.

These fears relate directly to a type of community. Many different communities exist in each student’s life—classroom, school, and town/wider community. In terms of classroom community, it is important to make sure students feel welcome and comfortable with each other and you as a teacher. Although this will not necessarily eliminate all fear in the classroom, it is an important step. This idea can be extended into the wider community. As students become aware of different people, groups, and community activities they become less likely to avoid them because of fear.