ED 701
While reading Darling-Hammond's book The Flat World and Education, I unfortunately felt like I was reading something far too familiar. Even though I have not been in the teaching profession very long, it has been clear to see the problems in education. While substitute teaching at different schools, I was able to see how far money and support went in terms of benefitting the students. While funding is the obvious issue, I think a lack of support is there too. Other countries put such a value on education, and see teaching as a prime profession. Here, teaching is not looked at the same way - more so a "those who can't do, teach" attitude.
That being said, I do feel very fortunate to work at the school that I do. My kiddos are lucky enough to (for the most part) have supportive parents who are able to spend time/money on their child's education. We have access to technology. At times, I wish we have more, but I know that we are more well off than other schools. As for what I can do in my own classroom - I can teach children that it is ok to ask questions, and to make mistakes. It is beneficial to collaborate with others, and it is okay to struggle during a problem that involves deep thinking. All of this is especially critical with how fast technology is growing. Students have a world of knowledge at their fingertips - now we just have to teach them how to use it.
2 Comments
Lori
10/26/2015 07:01:48 pm
Thank you for mentioning how important it is to have value placed on teaching! That seems to be a significant difference between the U.S. and the three top-performing countries. Placing value on teaching results in several major benefits for education, including a more comprehensive teaching training program, more qualified and skilled teacher pool, and more respect for teachers (which trickles down from society to parents to students). One of the greatest struggles that we as a country will have in catching up to the top-performing countries isn't in resources or dollars, but in changing the culture of (dis)respect for teachers and education, particularly in many low socioeconomic communities that haven't directly experienced the value of good education.
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Roger
11/6/2015 05:56:50 pm
True collaboration requires a non-judgemental acceptance of every facet each students brings to the problem, then choose the best path through compromise or consensus. This allows for mistakes, misunderstanding, varied perspectives, etc. Collaboration is sausage-making!
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