Blog Post 14

Problems:
1. Giving more choices of schools to families.
2. Using technology to improve teaching and learning skills.
3. Adopting a knowledge-based curriculum
4. Starting education before a child is 5 years old.
5. Making teaching a more professionalized job.
6. Pick only the best teachers of their graduating classes.
7. Seniority
8. Establish a board to police the teaching profession.

Solutions:
1. Give the families more schools to pick from in their area.
2. Teaching technology skills to cater to their future needs in life.
3. Everything being knowledge-based will help with real life application.
4. Starting a child in the education process starts long before they turn 5 years old. They learn how to do basic every day activities. They are capable of so much before kindergarten.
5. Making your job as a teacher more than just a job. It is your career. People should view teaching just as any nurse, law, and medicine career. They are teaching the future of this country. It should not be taken lightly.
6. Picking only the best in the education graduating class would make things more competitive. It should be taken seriously, and only the true hearts of education should be teaching. By hiring any education major for the job might not always be the best choice. Having a heart and passion for teaching, and wanting a job for a pay check are two different things. It should be taken into consideration.
7. Seniority, this can we taken care of by the school board. Every teacher should be evaluated equally. If they are not doing their job, they do not deserve the job. Many charter schools are moving towards this movement today.
8. This goes along with the board making sure teachers are actually teaching, and not just watching movies. This board will keep everyone in check. It will keep the real task at hand at its correct standards.




Agree or Disagree:

I agree with the statement that there needs to be more options for families to send their children to. I have personal experience with this problem. I went to a tiny county school, but I wanted to go to a bigger county school They bigger school was known to be a top school, with a great education program. I think giving families the choice of which school to attend is a better option than making them go to a school that is lower on the education scale. I believe every child should have the best education possible, but some times It is not always the best option.

Using more technology in the classrooms. I do agree with this. In the century we are in today it is imperative to keep the students up to date with real world application. Technology is real world application in today's classrooms. They need to learn how to use computers for something other than social media. Many jobs require knowledge of excel, power point, and sometimes other more complicated applications.

Adopting a knowledge-based curriculum is important as well. Applying real-world application is important. Yes they need to be full of past knowledge, but they are living in today's world. They need to be capable of doing things for themselves.

I agree with starting a child in an education program before the age of 5. I was in school when I was 4 years old. I also know many people who started in k-3. A child's brain is really developing at this age. They soak up things like sponges. Children who start the education program early have said to have higher scores, and have better grades. Learning starts from day one.

I also agree that teaching should be a more professional job. Teachers hold the future in their hands. It's a big job, and they have big shoes to fill. Teaching should be viewed just like medicine, law, and nursing professions. Teaching is certainly not an easy task, not just anyone can do it. People should appreciate the teaching world more than they do.

Seniority, I strongly agree that this needs to be changed. One of my best friends just was hired at a charter school. They have no such rule as seniority. A ten year teacher is viewed and reviewed as a first year teacher. I believe this keeps everyone on check, and makes sure that every teacher is doing exactly what they are supposed to. I had many teachers in high school that were absolutely terrible, but they had seniority, they were overlooked. This is one of the major problems in the education department.

I think it would be a good idea to establish a board to police the teaching profession. It goes along with the seniority rule. It would keep everyone in check, and make sure everything is up to standards.

In conclusion, I agree with everything that was said by Joel Klein. There are so many problems with the way educators are viewed and education as a whole. It can all start with awareness and action. I believe that schools are aware of the problems that arise today. They just need a voice to take full control of the situations. As a future educator I vow to give my all, all the time. I do not want to be like those teachers in high school that have bad reputations of being "that teacher". This was a great assignment, probably my favorite article to read as well.