Reflection

This week I am doing a quick reflection on this blog.

First positives:

This blog helped me to better conceptualize the information that was presented in class.

I like blogging so this was a good format for me.

Blogging is fairly straightforward so I spent more time focusing on the content instead of designing and fiddling with computer graphics and fonts

I could get an idea of what my peers were thinking about the same subject

Negatives:

I am not good about posting consistently, especially on my personal blogs so this was sometimes a struggle to come up with something each week.

The prompts were somewhat limiting

Will I continue this blog: probably not, I don’t have a great love of social media

Will I continue to blog in general: yes, it’s a helpful format for my business and can be delivered directly to subscriber inboxes which is handy

Summary: All in all I do like the helpfulness and straightforwardness of blogging. However, I am not very good about keeping on top of creating and posting new information which is what readers want. It did help me to reflect on the reading each week which was nice but sometimes I feel like I have a ton to say on one subject and about two words on another subject. Which, is probably normal to feel that way about different topics. I found that I really liked learning and studying the teaching approaches, I believe that it really impacts what a teacher teaches and what they do not and what each different view finds most important. All in all I would give it 3 out of 5 stars! ;)

2000-2015: The Now

I suppose that after covering the beginning of public education up to 2000 I ought to post something about what is going on now (2000-2015) for public education. This last decade and a half has seen two major transformations in public education. That of the No Child Left Behind, and Common Core.

First let's discuss No Child Left Behind (NCLB). I really do believe that this was created with the best intentions and that it looked good on paper. However...reality is a lot different from writing down something on paper. It was designed to help all the students to achieve success, especially those who were struggling. In reality? It only served to make education mediocre, and perhaps it did help some of the struggling students but it had several negative and lasting impacts on education. It failed to acknowledge the bright and advanced students, and due to the extreme focus on standardized testing that it has forced out several of the fine-arts classes such as music and art which is sad. I feel that the fine-arts truly are what make us human, creativity is the breath of the soul.

Common Core State Standards are an attempt to correct the extremism of NCLB. It allowed teachers to once again have the ability to determine the "how" of teaching. It's focus is on standards and meeting those standards. It also attempts to create skills that children will need in college, which is fine, however a little short-sighted. I also feel that standards are great but we need to ensure that our students are actually learning and not just regurgitating information. And standards are fine how do we relate that to actual learning. Nor, do we as teachers, have a need to explain why the standards are there; I have seen more than one teacher post the standard on their whiteboard but never explain the importance to their students.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 15, 30, 60 years in education.

1980-2000: "The Bottom Line"

Well education had really been picking up since the 1950s. However, there was a public scare of a "learning crisis" because the open door to free-market reforms led to competition in what the schools should buy from private companies. Which lead to the continual revision of said standardized test today.

This lead to standardized testing, which for good or bad lead to major educational reforms. However, one good thing did come out of this era: COMPUTERS and technology! Which has been, as a teacher, super helpful in finding strategies and ideas to use in the classroom.

Another big reform to come out of this era is charter schools. Charter schools were a big push in some ways to increase achievement scores and use curricula that was focused more on special projects and other things not in a traditional classroom.

One really good thing out of this era is that more and more people in America were attending public schools. I believe this is because of the legislation and government funding in the last era. However, I am not a big fan of standardized testing I believe that it cheapens American education and fails to prepare our students for real life situations where the answer to a problem may not be a simple A, B, C, or D.

The last part of this chapter talks about how “public education” has been a fundamental element of American society. One thing that this chapter fail to mention is due to our “public education” we believe that other societies should have free public education as well, even if it does not fit the other cultures that we encounter. I think public education is something that also separates a country from a 1^st world country or a 3^rd world country in our minds. Just something to think about.

School: 1950-1980 Separate and Unequal

This chapter of School: The Story of American Public Education discusses how segregation was effecting American public education in the 1950-1980s. Which I think is a little ironic since American education has been very unequal from its beginnings up to this point in history. I also find it ironic that the books quotes an African-American that specifically states that they didn't want to have desegregation but simply a better education. Which ticks me off a little bit. I believe that all human beings ought to be treated as human beings, nothing less. So the fact that neither side wanted to be desegregated somewhat makes me mad!

I also find it interesting is that this is the first time that we let the government interfere with public education, especially in the way of funds. Not to mention that the government continues to implement change forcibly through funding. I am not sure that this is a healthy mindset or that all changes made are bad but I am simply stating that this is the way it is and I find the implications interesting.

However, the book notes that by desegregating schools education has become a little more equal overall. However funding continues into today to make a difference in the quality of education that students receive. I am not sure that public education will ever be truly equal across the board simply because there are too many variables that factor into a public education. State funding, the value that the community places on education, and the varied education given throughout the United States. But we continue to try to improve this system which I think is a positive for us.