Charter Schools

In this article, the issue is the Maryland district won't okay two charter schools. The result is the journalist thought the Maryland school district was fearful of the possible charter schools. The goal of one of the charter schools was to increase education for the poorer students. That seems like a harmless act. If the Maryland school district is in fear of the charter schools, I could see why. A reason could be the fact that it appeals to students who are less fortunate. Another reason for this fear could be the Maryland school district sees a charter school as competition. I can understand that since this nation is competing to find jobs. However, people should appreciate the ambition of the charter school teachers. On the wikipedia site, it stated that there is a waiting list for students and the charter schools only accept a certain amount of students. In that sense, this goes against Mann's policy of providing education for all, regardless of race, social class, and wealth. Charter schools might be a good alternative to public schooling but it doesn't give itself any merit by hand picking who students who get accepted into the school. There are slight changes which doesn't quite hurt the image of charter schools. While I was raised in a public school manner, I am in favor of public schools because I was brought up in that manner. It seems like a hierarchy in schools is needed but that reasoning is due to the fact of the context I was brought up with.
While charter schools might be viewed as a competitor for the public school system, people should look at the greater cause of charter schools. The charter schools are motivated to educate students, just as the public school is motivated to educate students. People should appreciate that charter schools and public schools are there to educate future job holders.


Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/15/AR2011021504469.html

Parent Teacher Relationship

I read this short blog about empathy and autism which had an aspect of increasing the relationships of teachers to outside sources, which included parents. This related to what we read with critical pedagogy because it noted that the teachers and parents weren't effectively communicating initially. Once the teacher and her students' parents had communicated, this lessened the barrier of the students' learning. I feel parents play a huge role in regards to student learning. If a parent doesn't support his or her child's involvement with school, this will reduce any incentive for the student to learn. After this incentive is reduced, the child will learn less because he or she doesn't have the determination to dive deeper into the learning pool. On the other hand, when a parent is involved in the schooling process, the student is more likely to perform better because the parents are the support system for the student. Having regular meetings with parents and teachers give the parents a chance to know how their student is performing; this also gives the parents a chance to collaborate with the teachers so the parents have an understanding of their role in regards to promoting learning in their student. Once a teacher has initiated any communication with the parents, at the parents' home, this will show the teacher does care about the performance of the students. When the parents realize that, the parents will be much more likely to attend an auditorium meeting; this implies that a group of parents would collaborate to find the best methods of staying involved in the child's education.
Although parents do play a factor in the learning process, there are other aspects a teacher must tap into so they are at the top of their game. The teacher has to constantly reflect on his or her teaching methods. If the teacher's methods of instruction are not working, scrap it and come up with a new method of teaching. With experience, this can be done quickly but teachers are responsible for the student to learn. This is part of the teachers job and part of teaching is teaching in alternative ways.
Considering alternate sources of the educational process, to discover what works for the teachers' students, is essential in the learning process.


Summary of the article:
The blogger wrote that teachers need to consider the source of student learning. Going to teaching clinics will help the teacher find that it factor in their teaching. The teacher must form a closer relationship with the parents or else the teacher is passively doing his or her job. By considering all factors contributing to the students' learning, the teacher will find a valid method of learning how they should teach. Having students and parents collaborate, possible ways of teaching would be to integrate PowerPoint presentations, student/teacher blog entries, and cooperative learning activities.

http://www.google.com/reader/view/?hl=en&tab=by#search/teacher%20parent%20relationship/0

Getting Started

Decided to post to see how this blog looks.