Seal & Me
Anyone wanting to know why education often suffers in this country should read the latest post by Todd Seal. I am in Tennessee; he is in California, but what he describes matches a lot of what I see everyday. Ultimately, the path to education greatness in this country will be found not necessarily in charter schools, curriculum reform, better testing, or merit pay (though those things may help) but in helping teachers like Seal and me deal with the muck that the average standard classroom can descend into.
4 Responses to 'Seal & Me'
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on February 14th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
And what it’ll really take is a concentrated effort on the part of teacher-prep schools, parents, community, and administration. That kind of cohesion isn’t seen in education much.
I’d suggest, though, that my Support class isn’t “the average standard classroom.” These students are picked because some data suggest that they aren’t prepared to be in English 1 without some type of help. Something bad has happened in their academic history and we’re pulling them into this Support class. But the filter isn’t fine enough to sort the “don’t care”s from the “can’t do it”s. I’ve got way more of the former and the latter aren’t getting much help because of it.
What are you seeing in your room? And are these mainstream, on-target students?
on February 16th, 2009 at 2:16 am
how can one help these classrooms? The European system forces adult-decision making earlier on: slowly they take away classes, slowly they limit how much you may learn. This leaves out a lot of late-blooming boys that do not get second chances. On the other hand, perhaps it would have helped people like me who need direction.
on February 16th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Todd: I teach at an inner-city high poverty school, and we’re lucky if we can get the kids that we are supposed to have in the support classes IN the support class. I teach standard junior English, which is a bit misleading as most of my students have low middle school reading levels and test at the 30th percentile in the nation (or lower).
I agree that there has to be a great cohesive moment for these students. I also agree that that much teamwork is absent in many schools.
Anna: One of the defining hallmarks of American education is that we try to educate everyone, despite the untested waters that leaves us in. I agree that the European model offers lesser resistance and perhaps fewer students in our “support” classes (because they are not in the school system), but I still question whether we can’t do better by them.
on February 24th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/the-speech-what-theyre-saying-while-hes-talking/
i found this interesting. it is tweeter-like feeds of congressmen during obama’s speech