India....and math?

Reading an Edutopia article about "Online Learning- The Next Great Debate?" it discusses how Brittish kids are working with online tutors in India for math and are doing remarkable.  Also the tutors are affordable and the schedules are flexible for parents.  They are making the Open University sites with these tutors free to anyone no matter where they live which is aiding in a lot of students understanding of math material because there is always someone to ask for help.   Therefore, is this idea of having students take classes or get tutors from India a threat to us as educators?  Soon with all teaching of maerials be available to students that way from other countries and will it be cheaper for the families than the education we provide?  It is definitely something to ponder over.

Class Sizes Growing but What About Funding?

In the past few years there has been a noticable decrease in classroom size.  However, just this year there has been an increase in students, but no funding.  This is trouble some for teachers, because they then have to spend more money out of their own pockets to help make sure all of their students have the materials they need since the school itself does not have the financial capabilties to supply enough materials for each unit.  Teachers see this trend as something to worry about but some principals see it is a good thing and a way in which we may need to innovate the way we teach to accomodate all of these different children and their learning styles...but how?  Are we going to hold regular classes, distance education classes, on-line classes, etc. from school and reach all students that way so that we do not end up with 30-40 students in a class?  That sounds like all well in good, but what about when your community is poor and the technology is not in place to within educational opportunities like that?

Common Core Standards

Every year it seems like curriculum is changing and now with the adaptation of the Common Core Standards it will be changing again.  We just received different genre units for English this year and now looking at how we are supposed to be implementing in the Common Core standards for next year, units will need to be changed again.  The idea behind the whole Common Core I think it good so that our students are just as prepared as others across the globe, but how will we test them and what will be the cut-off for passing?  If we are completely doing away with MEAP tests and the MME in 2014 and replacing with this new test completely computer based, how will our students do?  Right now with MEAP is they receive 50% or better they pass, but with the Common Core everyone involved gets to set the criteria...what if it is too high and our students can't perform to that level...then what?

Prom tickets to pass a test?

Should we really be bringing students to do well on a test?  With all of the up and coming ideas of how teachers will be evaluated based on test scores and that could lead to them having a job or not are we resorting to anything we can to make sure students pass?  In an article from "Curriculum Matters" they talk about motivating 12th graders to pass the NAEP test by giving them prom tickets.  But in all essence some students just don't care when it comes to taking this type of test, so by promising to give them something do you really think that is going to change their attitude?  Also, what are we teaching them by doing this in the first place?  I am not so sure about this idea, anyone with any other thoughts?

Restructuring Teacher Prep

Based on an article from Teacher Prep they discuss how teacher prepration should be restructured.  This idea of redoing how we preapare teachers is not a bad idea because they feel that the school district should become more involved in the students preparation.  This aspect then leads to a clearer view of exactly what does happen in a "real" school setting and how the school district affects a teachers career.  Also, a big push is for universities to really look at what they expect students to learn and be able to do by the time they graduate and are ready to become teachers...are they really being prepared to best of their ability?  Or, should there be some necessary changes to help students truly see the big picture and how everyone is involved?

Using Music in the Classroom

Students love music so why not utilize it within the classroom?  There is so much controversy over whether a song is appropriate or not for students, so you need to be very careful what you play.  Therefore, I do not normally use music very often.  However, this article from Edutopia gives me a different outlook on how to incorporate music by just using instrumental tunes.  By playing this type of music students can picture what is happening in their mind.  Then, based on this picture they can write a creative story from their minds.  This use of music is different but is a great way to help students generate ideas and incorporate something they really enjoy into the lesson, Music!

Current Events and Real-Life Projects

Current Events is a hot topic for most adults, they want to know what is happening daily in the news.  However, middle school students do not seem to be as interested and it is hard to get them to watch the news or listen to the radio to become informed on the issues.  However some teachers have taken such issues as the oil-well explosion and the Chilean mine collapse and created real-world projects for students to complete, even though there is no text to teach the material.  They are taking the headlines and putting their students in the places of these people and coming up with wasys to make it relevant to their lives and how they would handle the situation.  Wouldn't this type of assingment gets students more enganged and demonstrate their knowledge better than normal day-to-day work.  Yes this type of assingment takes a lot more work for the teacher, but it is not because of us we choose this profession, it is for the students and ways we can help them learn.  Next time you are planning an activity think about the students and how you could relate the activity to their lives.