It's a Fork, It's a Spoon, It's a...Weapon? BLOG #8

You may have already heard this story, but if not, get this....6 year old Zachary Christie was suspended from school because of a Cub Scout utensil! Zachary could also face 45 days of reform school! Imagine trying to find character witnesses at a disciplinary hearing for this case!!

Zachary recently joined Cub Scouts and wanted to take his Cub Scout utensil to school. Why? Because it serves as a knife, fork, and spoon and he was SUPER excited to use it. Would you let your six year old bring it to school? Well, if you said no, you're not the only one. The reason Zachary's "punishment" is so severe is due to an incident that occurred at this same school last year....

A grandmother sent a birthday cake and a knife to school with her third-grade granddaughter. The teacher cut the cake with the knife and served it to the students. The teacher then called the principal and informed him about the knife. The third-grader was EXPELLED for a YEAR!

Christina School District in Newark, Delaware adopted zero-tolerance policies for possession of any weapons on school grounds. Zachary's Cub Scout utensil had a knife in it, therefore, school officials had no choice but to suspend him. Are school policies going too far? He's a first grader after all! "It just seems unfair," Zachary said, while practicing his lower-case letters with his mom.

Obviously, there's two ways we can look at this situation. Zero-tolerance means....zero-tolerance, no exceptions. Think of Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings. How about trying to decipher between innocent pranks and mistakes to more serious threats. We must protect the students.

Then there's the question of....are schools going too far? Because of the zero-tolerance policy, school suspensions and expulsions have increased dramatically over the last few years. These students are then often put on the streets or other places where behaviors could worsen. In Baltimore about 12% of the city's enrollment were suspended in 2006-2007. Ronnie Casella, an associate professor of education who has written about school violence added, "There's no evidence that zero-policies make schools safer.

So, what IS the answer? Zero-tolerance? Or be flexible and "tolerate" some mishaps? Maybe programs and support groups are the answer. How about adult mentorships?

* Seventh-grade girl expelled for using a utility knife to cut windows out of a paper house for a class projects.
* 13 year old boy suspended and attended reform school for 45 days after another student dropped a pocket knife in his lap.

* 86% of public schools reported at least one violent crime in 2005-2006. Maybe this is our answer. We must protect our students....right? Do we want to take chances?

Keeping Kids in the Classroom BLOG #7

What can we do to keep North Dakota's kids in school? Why do kids choose to drop out of school? Are North Dakota's schools doing enough to lower the drop out rate?

On the front page of today's Fargo Forum is a graph representing the number of kids dropping out of school in the state of North Dakota. In 2005, the drop out number was a total of 647. Two years later in 2007, the number of drop outs skyrocketed to 794 and stayed pretty steady at 791 in 2008. That means about 150 more kids opted to drop out between 2005 to 2007. According to Education Week, the projected amount of drop outs could reach 1,777 students in the class of 2009.

Compared to some states across the nation, North Dakota's drop out numbers are actually quite low. For instance, Education Week also projected that nearly 14,000 Minnesota students from the class of 2009 have dropped out of school. Nationwide the number stretched to 1.3 million dropouts. WOW! 1.3 MILLION? Why? According to the National Dropout Prevention Center some risk factors include:

• Learning disability
• Has high-risk friends
• Low achievement
• Held back from grade
• Poor attendance
• No extracurricular participation
• Low socioeconomic status
• Sibling dropped out
• Not living with both natural parents

As one of the largest school districts in North Dakota, West Fargo High School started a program called SHAC 18 months ago. This Senior High Alternative Center was started to retain students who are on the verge of dropping out of school. This center is an open, safe place where the students always feel comfortable and needed. "They've got their comfort zone here," said SHAC graduation coach Pam Raeszler. "They think nobody cares. We want them still to have a family and that's what we are."

But what about starting programs sooner...like at elementary levels? Why wait till senior high to encourage students to stay in school? Several elementary schools throughout the Fargo area are doing just that. Low attendance is one factor and one of the first signs that students could be headed to dropping out. Jefferson Elementary provides incentives to parents to get their child(ren) to school. And this year, to keep kids involved in school, the staff started offering after school intramurals. These after school activities include chess, soccer, basketball, anything and everything.
At Kennedy Elementary there is a monthly meeting called "The Morning Meeting Plus." The hopes of retaining students is encouraged through meetings with a dozen students per grade from kindergarten through fourth grade and one staff member. This meeting concentrates on character-building activities and by building community awareness.

Drop out prevention goes beyond the classrooms. Community involvement is also needed. Parents can get involved with mentoring programs or act as parent liaison at the schools. To involve the community within the Fargo area, United Way of Cass Clay is hosting a discussion this Wednesday with about 300 leaders regarding how to improve local school districts' graduation rates. "There's greater recognition," said Fargo Public School drop out prevention coordinator Bev Dillion. "We all need to play a part."

Students BEWARE!! Blog #6

Is the amount of school days enough for our students? Are they receiving the best possible education in only 180 days? How does teaching until supper time sound? Say...6:00? Would that be sufficient time to "get it all in." Are you willing to teach year round with only time off for holidays? Are you thinking what's best for you or your students when answering these questions?

Inside The Fargo Forum yesterday was an article concentrating on just ONE part of Obama's school reform proposal: MORE SCHOOL DAYS or MORE HOURS ADDED TO A SCHOOL DAY.

While Obama was running for president, he mentioned during his school reform proposal that he wanted to extend our 180 days of school. He didn't think the nationwide number of 180 days was sufficient enough for our students. His solution? Having school 12 months instead of the traditional 9. Is this right or wrong? Will it work?

Obama has repeated over and over again that kids don't spend enough time in school. Do you agree? Other countries have LONGER days than the United States. Other countries even have MORE days. Why not us? Not spending enough time in school has put our country in jeopardy and at an extreme disadvantage over other countries.

Why do we get summers off? Why has legislators allowed kids to have summers free decade after decade? Is this a benefit for them or teachers? Long live the days where the majority of families still farm. This can't be the reason to have 3 months off! Obama would like to add more time to classes, add more time for school at the end of the day, and to also be open on the weekends so kids have a safe place to go if needed.

Boston's Clarence R. Edwards Middle School is just one of nearly two dozen schools partaking in a 3 year state initiative to add 300 hours of school time to their year. This means students are attending school for an extra 3 hours a day. There's your 6:00! America needs more school because other nations are going a reported 25-30% longer. Even though this 3 year state initiative is new, there have been positive results.

So, can the positives of longer days or longer hours out way the negatives? What are some disadvantages of more hours or days? Family time? Extracurricular activities? Homework time? Eating?? During Obama's campaign, I was all for more school time for our kids. I still agree. We were once a nation at the top in science and math. That is no longer the case. We need to start somewhere. Having summers off to help the family farm shouldn't be a priority any longer.

Teacher Quality Under the Microscope #5

How do we create better schools within our country? The answer is to raise the quality of teaching in the nation's classrooms. This, apparently, is no secret.

However, the question NOW is: How do we identify high-quality teaching? We all know that an effective classroom is determined by a high-quality teacher. So how do we find this teacher?

One of two ways is through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This foundation focuses on teacher effectiveness in two parts:
* research to develop and test methods to rate teachers
* experiments to try out new ways of recruiting, training, assigning, and assessing teachers
Altogether, this foundation will spend approximately $500 million within five years to identify high-quality teaching.

Another way to identify high-quality teaching is through one of four education-reforms within the Obama administration. The four key areas the U.S. Department of Education plans to target within the next year are:
* rewarding effective teaching
* expanding the learning time
* collecting meaningful data
* transforming under performing high schools
This education-reform, as well as the other three, will be conducted using $100 billion in stimulus money for education.

In a recent poll from 45 states, the top three indicators school officials would use in determining performance-based teaching were student achievement, teacher evaluations, and teacher attendance. Is student achievement defined only by test scores? What if teachers "teach to the test?" Doesn't that completely miss the point of high-quality teaching?

According to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation's second largest teachers union, acknowledges that single-salary schedules for teachers has shortcomings. The group "believes it is time to explore viable, fair, and educationally sound teacher compensation options that will raise salaries while contributing to efforts already under way to ensure high-quality, well prepared teachers for all students."

I believe financial incentives should be awarded to teachers who:
* acquire additional knowledge and skills
* agree to teach in low-performing schools
* participate in school-wide improvement
* mentor new AND veteran teachers
* teach in high-need areas

Would this cost millions or even billions of dollars to implement? High-quality teaching is all around us. All it would take is fellow teachers and administrators to say who qualifies and those teachers need to be acknowledged.

3-D Video Coming to Education Blog #4

With considerable advances of technology in classrooms...why not go 3-D? As youngsters, we remember going to movies in which images came out of the screen right toward us. The rush we got as a T-Rex was coming right at us! Well, that's how students in Boulder Valley Independent School District will be able to view science, math, and social studies in the classroom.

Can you imagine being able to view and study a real life-like skeleton in the middle of the room instead of seeing one on a poster? Can you imagine how a student would feel if King Tut was projected in actual size in front of the classroom? I know my jaw dropped when I realized that these images (and hundreds more) could be available to educators like us soon!! Perhaps even within the next year, schools across the nation will be piloting 3-D projectors! Like my 6th graders would say...AWESOME!

So how does it work is the question. Apparently, Panasonic constructed a pair of active glasses that are completely high definition. Now, if you happen to have HD on your televisions, you know how seamless it is. These glasses are LCD lenses that have absolutely no blurring. The glasses and TV screen go hand in hand as the TV emits images to the glasses through a receiver built into the glasses. The images appear in three dimensions when the projector's 120 Hz output gets divided between the left and right eye. Panasonic also constructed the complete classroom package: whiteboards, plasma panels, small laptops, cameras, and projectors.

So how much does it cost is another question. Although I didn't find the actual cost of this incredible idea, I did find that it is comparable to projectors with similar specifications that do not have 3-D capabilities. This is the reason Boulder Valley decided to give it a try. After extensive research and planning, Boulder Valley was able to incorporate 3-D imagery in the classrooms within 18 months.

"Educators have a lot to think about when considering how to implement 3-D," said Bob Wudeck, business development manager for IT's pro AV group, "including the brand of projectors, the content you want to use, research on 3-D and the technology, how best to invest, what type of glasses to use, and how you're going to clean those glasses."

How can we get one? There are pilot programs running and are ready to be implemented in the classroom. Once a few schools see the difference 3-D imagery makes compared to text books, there will be a huge boom from other schools around the nation. Why wouldn't a school want to incorporate this into a classroom? Just think about an actual event in history being projected right in front of the students' eyes! AMAZING!

9/11 Education to be Initiated in Schools (Blog #3)

As September 11th is coming to a near, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, gathered blocks from the World Trade Center site to discuss a plan to teach middle and high school students about the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Schools in New York City, California, New Jersey, Alabama, Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas is expected to test out the 9/11 curriculum this year. This will be the first educational plan focusing on the attacks.

This plan that will be introduced to middle and high school students was developed by the help of educators, more than 70 interviews with witnesses, family members of victims, and politicians including Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, the New York senator at the time of the attacks.

Students will be able to map global terrorist activity, watch videos, and incorporate interactive exercises through the curriculum. A range of viewpoints are reflected in the curriculum, such as Muslim scholors. These viewpoints will spark discussions between students. Within the new curriculum are images that can be challenging and drastic. Nothing will be sugarcoated. Teachers will be introduced to the new plan and interacting along with the students and producing extensive lesson plans regarding the 9/11 attacks. Some students may be too young to have strong memories of the attacks, so therefore one of the main goals of the curriculum is to develop a connection to what actually happened.

"In a few years, we will be teaching students who were not even alive at the time of the attacks," said Anthony Gardner, the executive director of the September 11 Education Trust.

As the threat of terrorism and war is still continuing in Afghanistan and Iraq, students will be able to think critcally about the attacks as a historical event and one that will be part of our future. Students in the middle and high schools will be able to think about September 11 and all that it meant and all that it means to the present.

Can Teaching Be Both an Art and a Science? Blog #2

Can teaching be both an art and a science? Some educators view teaching as primarily an art, while others consider teaching to be strictly a science.

In my opinion, teaching is a combination of both an art and a science. Effective classroom teachers integrate both in order to create positive student learning. Art and science may seem very different, but they are actually quite the same when used collaboratively. First, I will state reasons why some may view teaching as an art.

TEACHING AS AN ART

• Teaching involves emotions
• Teachers can not be taught how to understand and connect with kids and/or adults
• Teaching requires: dedication, creativity, and commitment
• Teachers build relationships with students, parents, and colleagues
• Teachers make a lasting impression on the students
• The artist side is remembered

As a teacher, I must be creative in my teaching styles in order for my students to maintain their motivation to learn. Teaching is therefore, an art. This article deals with extrinsic and intrinsic motivation which coincides with teaching as an art. Listed below are a few reasons in which some may view teaching as a science.

TEACHING AS A SCIENCE

• Students can be conditioned to learn
• Teachers adapt lesson plans when it failed the first time
• Learning by trial and error
• Teachers build the foundation through theory and research
• Teachers analyze observations and assess data
• Classroom management and procedures are clearly defined
• Fact-based material and information

While I am continually testing variables, researching and navigating information, the outcome constantly changes. The goal in our classroom is to learn. There's days where I learn just as much as my students. This scientific approach is through trial and error. This article explains when an example of teaching as a science is used through problem solving and a behavioral plan.

Can teaching be both an art and a science? Like I stated earlier, it is a combination of the two. A professional teacher could not be one without the other. Teaching is a science in which principles and rules are applied, and the art comes when those principles and rules don't follow through or don't work at all. An artist truly engages the students in the materials being taught and the scientist assesses the data to make sure learning is established. Effective teachers need the experience and skill that comes from the art of teaching whereas, order and proven procedures come from the scientific component of teaching. Quality, professional teachers are artists who incorporate the science of teaching.