Parents Forum

Well, it was a fun way to finish up our series by talking to the parents of some students from the community in Decorah. I was really interested in what they had to say about many aspects of the school day. I guess what they were saying was just resounding in my head as I kept thinking, "Ok Katie remember this! You will need to know this..." While they were talking I just wanted to start writing a list of all the things I need to remember for when I become a teacher, which will most defintely be a blog for another day :). One of the most interesting aspects that these teachers touched on I felt was the feeling they had towards NCLB. Kind of like we had talked about in class today, I guess after hearing all the other educators views on NCLB I was starting to accept it as a postitve thing. Like Jim mentioned, I was thinking after the parent forum that maybe I was being too easily bought into and having too much of a positive thought about it! They really didn't like it! I guess it was nice to see from the outside of an "Educational Perspective" what someone not doing our job thought about the whole dilema. Like one of the ladies mentioned, she felt it labeled her child. And like Steve mentioned, so my child has a low english grammer grade...what are we going to do about that? Sit around at night at work on english grammer? I mean there really are some aspects you just can't change. And I feel that NCLB does have some positive and negative aspects. I think as teachers it is our goal to compromise these two aspects and at parent teachers conferences need to not focus on all the data driven things, but more personal things with each student. We may have that data, but don't need to label kids by their scores. So much to figure out for the future of my teaching career! Should be lots of fun! I can't wait! :)