My thoughts on the greatest challenges I face
posted by Janet @ 4:50 AM
SITE2006Keynote
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
SITE2006Keynote
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16 Comments:
Great idea!
Group:
Our national leaderhip is at present one our greatest challeges in the US.
(CI)
The greatest challenge is making students mad enough to stand up and be counted and work against the injustices of the world starting in the US! I work with students each day that are now willing to go out on the limb and be activists. We need to be seen and to be counted and to make change.
Assisting everyone in this room to encourage others to sue ICTs in classrooms.
The lack of postive leadership in the real way to state the challenge.
George
To get more courses in prospective teachers curriculum that they can be more well prepared than their students...
How do we passionately advocate? I hope your keynote can streamed to the White House!
Getting secondary school teacher candidates to realize that they have to teach all the students, not just the ones who want to be in their class. Convincing them that even the "hard to teach" kids can learn if we try and helping those teacher candidates learn the strategies for reaching those students - especially in a high school and university culture that largely does not embrace that position - I become the prof with great ideals that don't match the classrooms they are doing their field experiences in....
Balancing the demands of day-to-day work with the time needed for creative problem-solving.
...getting school leadership to get their eyes on the right ball...
My biggest challenge is how to keep the excitement that ed technology deserves in the forefront of my colleagues' minds when there are diminishing funds for technology in higher ed and k12 education and budget cuts on campuses everywhere. Competing demands for increased accountability and assessment in higher ed seems to ignore the role that technology should play in managing and shaping ongoing and effective assessment. With PT3 grants, I could be the mouse that roared in discussions but the diminishing visibility of technology in teacher education has changed me into a squeak. My graduate students are writing and receiving US Dept of Ed grants and are so excited. Now these funds are threatened too and I wonder if technology in k12 education is headed for the same lean years and diminished capacity.
Marsha
Marsha
Although the Civil Rights may have united the country into action, and I believe in most of the outcomes. I, however; believe many of the issues we run into education in this country is a direct result of the belief that all children can learn equally and wish to learn equally. Not all, not most, desire to go to college. I believe all children can learn, but need to have a some say in what they study.
As a result of this push we have not only set some students up for failure, but complete and totally unhappiness and complacency. As in other countries we need to rethink our educational goals and let our students select their path. Give students all the ICT literacy skills they need to be successful in the 21st Century, and then allow them to choose either college or career paths of study.
The future is theirs. Our future relies on their success. We need to guide them in a direction that serves their best needs not what Civil Rights deems to be politically correct.
One of the challenges that I have been facing of late is remaining positive and energized about education with the pitfalls we face with budgets, administrations who lack awareness, other teachers who are apathetic or just plain tired, and studente who no longer feel that a school is a good place to be. Why am I choosing this profession?
Then I see those students that take ownership of their learning. They challenge their teacheres for excellence in the classroom and beyond it. They get excited over making a good grade on a hard project, want to work collaboratively and ask for more to get to their goals, not what the SOLs tell them the goal is supposed to be. And when they get into college or find a good first job that they wanted, not just one that pays the car insurance and a tank of gas, and some take more classes later in their lives, I start to remember why I am choosing this career.
For those who are working directly with K-12 teachers interested in organizing for change, you might take a look at a book that one of my good friends wrote: TEACHERS ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE, by Cathy Fleischer. Cathy's husband, Andy Buschbaum, is a lawyer and has been an environmental activist most of his life. He has provided Cathy with some help thinking through how change occurs.
I know we're all overwhelmed, and it's hard to carve out concrete steps that are "doable" in our daily lives yet "big enough" that they feel consequential. All we can each do is...something...just something to keep the fire burning...
Janet
I listened to your keynote address this evening.....Can you hear me now? Wow! Wonderful! Not to change the subject, but I am on our school's health committee. And right now it seems that everybody in the world needs to be learning as much about the avian flu virus as we can in preparation in case it becomes a pandemic, that is, when it starts going from human to human.....when the virus mutates to that extent. All of the health experts that I read say that everybody needs to learn as much about it as they can right now. I asked an MD here in Little Rock, Arkansas, about it....that is, what should schools do if it becomes a pandemic. And he said at the snap of a finger to close schools immediately. Isolation rather than congregation. My fear is that school administrators are not as aware about the potential problem as they need to be.
I can identify with you being from Michigan in that I grew up the first 18 years of my life in Port Huron, Michigan. While you were teaching, I was on a US Navy ship periodically in Vietnam during 1967-68.
The other thing that educators need to be pushing for is year-round education. It is past time that school buildings be used during the summer months rather than stay closed and unused. It is past time that teachers be given the opportunity to teach more days during the calendar year so that their yearly salary more nearly reaches that of other professions where people work more days during the year. Year-Round (YR) schools also help the students.
Respectfully,
Paul J. Smith, Ed.D.
Facilitator (Teacher)
Accelerated Learning Center
Little Rock School District
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