School Board Panel

I thought that the school board panel tonight was very interesting and informative. The school board members did a very good job of presenting their opinions on the topics addressed by all of us students and Jim. I thought a lot of what they said was very useful to us as teachers, in a different way from what we learned from the administrators from Decorah school district the previous weeks. I really liked the insight the school board gave us on their way of dealing with issues that arise. It was very intriguing to hear about how the money is allotted in those types of situations and how certain money can only be used in certain places and not used to cover up where you are lacking in other spots. I thought the most interesting two points that were brought up in the later of the forum was about NCLB and incorporating foreign language into children at a younger age. First off, again it was just a surprise to me that they had so many positive things to say about NCLB. For some reason I feel like there's always been a negative connotation on this law, but from what we have heard from these people it seems like it has only come in handy. I really liked how they said that even if they still didn't have the law that they would probably still enforce the testing. I guess NCLB really can't be all that bad if they have seem major improvements from it and all. It was good to hear that it was helping for the best! Also about incorporating language into schools at an earlier age was also something great to hear. I babysat a family this summer where the kids were 3, 5, and 8 and no lie everyday they begged me to teach them Spanish, so I did! And honestly by the end of the summer they knew a lot of the basic words and would use them all the time! It's very exciting to see kids get so motivated about these things, just like our visitors were saying. Being and ESL Elem. Ed major this is definitely something that is going to come into my future and that to me is great to hear! It was a pleasure to have them come talk to us tonight! Thanks :)

AdministrativePanel

When the two faculty of Decorah Schools came to talk to us in a sort of panel style on Monday night I feel it was very helpful to gain their opinions and knowledge of subject matter. They were very informative in their style of presenting and very open to questions and working us as students into a part of their lives. I feel like they gave us a very real opinion of what it is like in administration work and in schools in general. I took a large piece of what they said away with me, but there were some main focuses I'd like to talk about quickly. First off, like we talked about in class, NCLB. It was interesting that they had really no complaints about the NCLB act, which almost seemed surprising, however as we discussed in class they really have to support it. It's a law that everyone is going to have to abide with, so you might as well find the positives in it right? I really think they showed a high sense of positivity towards this law, just agreeing that it was "one piece of the pie", one part of the long processes involved in school matters. I like what they said in regards to NCLB that if the teachers and doing just what they need to do, it doesn't need to be NLCB centered, but the NLCB date will follow naturally. If teachers are doing what they need to do, the data will support that, and I'd have to agree. In their closing words they gave out their "best advice for beginning teachers". If I had to remember one part that was most important about their visit it would be their advice. You can't just love kids, you have to love working with the kids and wanting to impact their lives. You have to love what you do and never give up your true passion, because the rest will follow. It was a great experience to have their perspective!

"High Stakes Community Schools"

I thought this debate we did on Monday night was very interesting. I really liked the idea of a "mock school board" meeting because I really think it put things into perspective for me. Someday this is going to be us! It's going to be us fighting for our rights and teachers and us receiving new curriculum changes and ideas to improve our schools. I think this debate served a really good purpose of making us truly think what we believe in. That is what I really enjoy about this class is that fact that everyday we are challenged to think what would we do in this situation? I really like an open minded class like this where everyone's opinion are heard and we are all defending our opinions. In this, I think that this hypothetical situation of "High Stakes" schools was perfect in the way of challenging our beliefs and depicting the fine line between too much structure versus none at all. For my group, we chose to be the supporting parents of high achieving students for the proposal. It was interesting to stand on that side of the debate because obviously many people in the room were much against it. At first when we chose this support group I wasn't so sure I actually agreed with the proposal fully. But, after looking into the points it had and talking with my group members, it actually seemed pretty reasonable. Maybe not so extreme about the things the teachers would have to go through, but the general idea of the proposal had a lot of good ideas! We talked about the strengths of this proposal in our group and we came up with a lot of different ideas. Mostly we said that yes, we do support this idea as parents of higher achieving students because not only does this plan raise the bar for our students, but ALL students in general and if you set this bar high, kids will strive to reach it. We also talked about how this more individualistic idea with each student would give these students much more motivation to achieve. I feel a lot of this proposal is much needed in this school district. So most of these things do seem extreme, but there really isn't anything wrong with a lot of the ideas, what are they going to hurt? There is so much more to bring up about the debate, however I think in general terms it was great way for us to learn the material. I think interaction like this is key to remembering certain ideas and for developing us into proper teachers. It's great to see different techniques our professors use because someday we will most likely be incorporating them into our daily routine! I really enjoyed this hypothetical debate.