Do American Students Need More Time in School?

I have very mixed feelings on the topic of whether or not American students need more time in school. On one hand, I do think that students need to spend more time in school and learn all year around, but on the other hand, I genuinely think that students need to relax and just be kids. While you are young, you should be able to enjoy it. When you eventually have a full time job, summer is just something you look at from a window in your office, but summer when you are a kid means camp, swimming, outdoors, and fun! There is no reason to deny kids of this. They spend 180 days a year in classrooms learning. This does not seem like a lot of time, but if you factor in that they are only learning how to prep for a test, then it really is a long time. Schools now do not focus on actually teaching the curriculum, they focus on making sure the students will pass the standardized test that they need to take in April of every year. When I think back to May and June of K-12, I remember having movie days and teachers not actually caring about the course work because we had already taken our standardized tests. Then when September came around, it was back to test prep and craziness. It is said now that the average kindergartener in New York is given about three hours of homework for test prep a night. My question is, when is it time for this student to be a kid? If we take away summer, yes maybe there will be slightly higher test scores, but is it fair to take away from a students childhood? There is no reason for a five year old to spend six hours in school and then another three at home doing work and then going to bed shortly after that. It is unfair to expect that this student will succeed and fully excel because they are going to be tired of it all. Kids need time to just be kids sometimes. If they are constantly stressed at such a young age, they are going to end up with anxiety disorders, and more kids will be diagnosed with ADHD and ADD because they will never have time to go outside and enjoy life. It is not okay to expect that students will want to do this and can actually handle it. It will also be a lot more expensive to operate the schools over the summer. Most schools do not have air conditioning, so it will be unbearably hot inside the classrooms. They will probably have to install air conditioning, which will cost a lot as well as running the air conditioning. They will also have to pay the teachers more to stay at school during the summer since it is their job and taxes with either go up or they are going to have to fire more teachers in order to pay for the teachers during the summer. Many school districts have already fired a large number of teachers and it has become hard enough to teach the students because there are too many of them. I do not think that extending school would be a good idea.

Merit Pay

I have very mixed feelings about merit pay accelerating school improvement. In theory, the idea sounds really great: the greater teachers get paid more, and the teachers who are no longer “excellent”, will no longer want to work in the district. This sounds all good and fun until it becomes a huge popularity contest. No matter where you are and if you do not want to believe it: all authority plays favorites. This merit pay is supposed to be used to help motivate teachers to be great in order to be paid more. Although I do believe something needs to be done about the poor preforming schools and the bad teachers, I do not know that this is the best one.        

            Charlotte Danielson’s approach to this is evaluating the teachers and helping them to grow as educators. If we follow her approach, then the students and teachers would both benefit from it. Evaluating teachers could be a good start. If you evaluate them and force them to do more professional development and incorporate those techniques into the classrooms, then they might have a shot at improving rather that just telling them they can never get paid more. Because I believe in people, I really think that there is some way that we could help the teachers want to be better, rather than just bribing them with money. Although money is nice, it really isn’t everything. If you can make the teacher regain perspective and be passionate about what they are doing, then money doesn’t really matter as much. I definitely think that something needs to be done about the schools that are not preforming well, but I do not think that the merit pay is always a good idea. I think that the biggest reason I do not like this is because of how many people play favorites in every business setting. Even if they are not trying to play favorites, people always make friends with the right people and often take away recognition from the people who truly are amazing at what they do. It is important that people in the professional world make good connections, but it is not fair to people who never got the chance to. The new teachers or the ones who are older with new administration might have trouble getting the right connections with these people. It should not be about bribing people with money, it should be about making these people care about what they do. There are plenty of people out there that just need a push to excel at their job. This does not have to be money at all. Targeting these people who are favorites is not the answer and the ones who really do work their butt off are more likely to slack off when they are not being recognized for their accomplishments. I think that something definitely needs to be done to motivate these teachers, but playing around with the money that is already barely there is not a good idea.

Do Computers Negatively Affect Student Growth

In the beginning of the ‘Yes’ argument of “Do Computers Negatively Affect Student Growth?”, I quickly was intrigued by the comment of children having to be hands on to learn. I agree and disagree with this statement. In a lot of ways, it is easier to learn when you are hands on with the object and are able to experience it. This articles example was how a child learns about trees is opening the tree up and feeling the bark, experiencing the texture and the sight of it. I think that it is important to have hands on experiences because that is the way a lot of people learn. But I do not think that in all classrooms, students experience ALL hands on work. I can honestly say that 9 times out of 10 my teachers gave us worksheets, readings, and writing assignments to help us learn. Although these can be good tools, this argument of having to learn ‘hands on’ isn’t being enforced regardless if there are computers in the classroom or not. Although I agree that experiencing something is better, I do not know that I agree with this part of the yes argument. One point I did like was the lack of use of inner capabilities. I cannot tell you how many times I have used spell check instead of learning how to spell certain words. I have trouble sometimes when I am writing on paper because sometimes I do not remember exactly how to spell certain words. It is really hard to learn when you text and your phone auto corrects it, or if you are typing and Microsoft Word adds commas, changes the spelling, or highlights what is wrong. Although it can be a very useful and helpful tool, it can also be a really hurtful one for spelling and grammar.  I also liked the point about the face-to face ratio. It really is not fair that we can no longer have face to face conversations with people. Most people will pick up their cell phones and have any conversation over a text message, or an email. When we are hiding behind a screen, we are losing our people skills. I also like the argument about HOW we use the computers in school. It is definitely important to look at this argument. If we are using the computers in class for research, the occasional education game, or to type up an assignment, I think that those can be useful tools. In many cases, It is argued that students use the computers for the wrong things during class and that is why teachers prefer to not use the computers. No matter how many blocks people put on the social media websites, the students are going to find a way to get on them anyway. It is hard to keep these students away from technology and social media when they are constantly surrounded by it. I do agree with the  yes side of the argument completely because it stresses that we do not need to get rid of the technology in schools, we just need to learn how to manage it.

Can failing schools be turned around?

Throughout the article “Can Failing Schools Be Turned Around?”, two different articles compared their views on whether or not low income areas could be successful. As a future educator, it is important to consider both sides of this argument because I could be in the position one day where I can one day help students of these situations. Personally, I believe that it is highly possible to help students of poverty succeed as long as you have the right resources and motivation. I agreed more with the yes side of this argument. Karin Chenoweth, the author of the yes side of the argument, discussed strategies to help these students get engaged and actually learn. It is important to remember that these students did not grow up in a house with a bunch of books and go and explore because most of these children’s parents were unable to afford taking them to museums and learning outside of the home. Although it is hard to motivate these children, there are definitely ways. As a teacher, you have to learn to motivate and engage the students, from there the teaching is easy. If the students do not understand the basics, you’re going to have to go back and find ways to teach the students what they have missed. I really liked this author’s suggestion of taking them on field trips and seeing things that they haven’t seen. This is such a good idea because if you experience something, it is more likely to stick with the students. Although sometimes it is hard to get the funding for field trips, they help the students gain vocabulary and background knowledge that they need to move on. This is really important for them because they should not be stuck only learning what they know in poverty. If they see what the outside world has to offer, they will quickly become more motivated. I also liked the idea of using videos for helping students obtain knowledge. Since we live in the age of technology, most students will be excited to use the technology and therefore will retain more. If you can obtain a video that will help the students gain knowledge and keep them interested, they will definitely retain the knowledge. Also, I thought it was an interesting point about teacher collaboration. If the teachers do not all reinforce the rules, the students think that they can walk all over the teachers. I feel that if the students are in an uncontrolled environment, they will not succeed. Organization and structure is definitely good for students: regardless of if they are in poverty or not. I do not agree with the no side of the argument because I felt as if they were just giving up. I do not think that it is right to give up on any student: regardless of the situation. Although it is challenging to help these students succeed, it is definitely not as challenging as finding a cure for cancer. If oncologists can help their cancer patients get rid of cancer, then a teacher can help a student of poverty learn to read, write, do math, and succeed. Sometimes we just need to work a little harder and dig a little deeper to accomplish this. It wont happen over night, but it can definitely happen.