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 :)