Abstract
The article discusses a study by the authors on school leaders' ability to create and maintain a turnaround in low-performing schools. It shows that the financial statement in most high-poverty school is a restricted dilemma that doesn’t allow fair teaching, and it also states priorities. It shows questions that schools should ask themselves, including whether the research they have done will influence classroom and school leaders, whether policies and practices are manufacturing low achievement, and whether all students are proficient in reading. Questions about the learning environment include school safety, the influence of poverty on learning, and bonds between students and school. It cites several high-poverty schools that became high-performing schools through the process of asking important questions and working persistently on systemic improvement.
Introduction
Tough questions come with tough times, our school system is going down under, and what are we doing to stop it? Elementary schools are allowing their students to pass grade levels without reading at the proper grade level, and some can’t even add or subtract. What measurements should we stop allowing kids to continue on to the next grade level, and on what grounds should we let them continue, without the proper knowledge or the proper tools? We are telling kids it is okay to just barely get by, that it is okay to continue even if you don’t know the steps to further your education. How can we stop teachers from doing what they think is right? Who can we talk to, to inform the community the standards of their world, between the standards of the real world? Luckily there is a solution to every problem.
At Granger high school, that was known to be undeveloped and an inadequately graded school, has changed. A sixteen year old that was interviewed was ecstatic about the future. She stated “It didn’t used to be that way here, my sister told me…but that’s all different now. I’m hoping to go to a university in two years!”(William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008) Dayton’s Bluff Elementary School has also taken a turn for the better. This school, which was known for being the “lowest-performing elementary school in Saint Paul, and the lowest- performing in Minnesota” (Gorski P, 2008), has taken a toll for good measures. They have celebrated having accomplished their goal of reading a million words in the past year. Principal Andrew Collins proudly exclaims that “twenty-five books were read this year by each of our students, and we’re letting our community know about it!” (William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008) It seems that inadequately graded schools are now making a change for the better. Instead of coming out as C, D, or even F schools. They are making a comeback and even some competition for the upper level schools. As we continue to grow knowledgeable from research on school effects (Teddlie & Stringfield, 199), with more recent analyses of strategies that have guided hundreds of schools in their successful efforts to reverse historic trends of underachievement (Barr & Parrett, 2006; Calkins, Guenther, Belfiore, & Lash, 2007; Chenoweth, 2007; Duke, 2007), we initiated a study seeking to understand how school leaders actions influence a turnaround in low-performing schools.
Schools didn’t only get to where they are today by statistics and historical facts, they also had to ask the right questions, to the right people. Considering the economic down fall due to the recession budget cuts have hit home, when it comes to school. While coming to a bump in the road, they try to begin over coming one obstacle at a time. The first question that is being asked is “Building the necessary leadership capacity; Focusing the staff’s everyday core work on students, professional, and system learning; and creating and fostering a safe, healthy, and supportive learning environment for all. (William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008) Facing such a financial decline, these questions can help a school run, more effectively and allow them to concentrate on the main goal; the students future, how just because it effects us now, they can make a difference.
We have new obstacles to over come, does that mean now we eliminated our bad habits that manufacture low achievements? Just because you have bad habits, doesn’t mean your habits will continue as new options come about. Richard Esparza is Granger High school principal. He has been there through the bad, and now he is living through the change, the way things are suppose to be. He states that “All principal must accept that some students may fail, but you don’t stop there.” He has required that if students receive below a C on a test, they are required to get extra help. (William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008) You should be concerned about your students, just because they listen, doesn’t mean they comprehend. A lot of students work better with individual help; they might not get a lecture the first time. This is why extra activities are required, they help students practice what they know, and some students will be able to learn it from their peers.
Learning doesn’t stop in schools; it also starts in the community and at home. When you build positive and productive relationships with students’ families and the broader neighborhood and community this helps high-performing and high- poverty schools. They go about interacting the communities, family, and schools together through service learning projects. Using service learning projects, allow students to help out the community. They are shown what happens outside of school walls, and outside of video games, and the internet. They are more active and become more knowledgeable about different subjects, they also stay out of trouble.
Tough decisions, for tough times, the schools that were studied to continue to develop successful rating, express confidence that the processes they had in place would guide their decisions regarding the use of possible stimulus funding. (William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008) To maintain a high- performing school they also need to maintain a good staff. Funding is down, but to maintain this high- performing they want to add staff, because keeping personnel is key to a low student- teacher ratio and caring relationships in school; and providing targeted support to the students who need it most. (William Parrett & Kathleen Budge, 2008)
Schools can become a high-performance school, all they need is motivation, and confidence that their students will be able to come out of their bad habits, and continue new and improve habits. If not then those kids will be kept back, there is a pro and con for everything, and a consequence for become the best. To every great leader, there is a road, he or she must follow, and that road leads to greatness, but only you can become great.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Philosophy
Abstract
The article discusses a philosophy that was discussed during Plato and the Socrates time, the philosophy I used to guide the practices in the class room was “Who can take your happiness away? And how “Other people can beat, imprison or even kill your body, but they cannot alter the virtuous state of your soul.” These theories came from Plato and the Socrates, but instead of using them the way he did in his society. I gave examples and true influential stories, about how we can use Plato’s theories and use them in our society today. The article states how it is effective, and some society issues that correlate into classroom behaviors.
Introduction
Education is your way to the future, but before we can look into the future of education, what made education was its past. We believe in order to fix the future we must look at the past; I believe that in order to see the future, we often predict the past. We use many methods of the past in today’s education. Obviously we do not beat kids until they memorize the commandments, or the fifty states, yet instead we reward them and encourage them to learn. But why would students want to learn? What makes knowledge so powerful, that everyone must have it? I believe it strives with being the better person, and being the best in society. Society helps shift and make the person, who we become, and the person who we want to be.
A great man, named Plato once asked “Who can take your happiness away?”(Garth Kemerling, 2001) The response is, you. You are either happy with yourself and your decisions. Or you live trying to fix yourself, trying to improve your well being, trying to improve what you are and what you do. When a student in class acts up and doesn’t want to do work. In the long run, the student has inflicted evil upon himself. Plato stated that “No one can inflict fate upon someone else. Only you can make yourself evil, and only you can make yourself virtuous.”(Garth Kemerling, 2001) I believe that your character has a lot to do with how you handle school, whether or not you participate, and whether or not you do well. Your social actions affect how you live your everyday life, whether you see things optimistic, or pessimistic. Even someone who is having a bad day can be turned around with someone else who is having a good day. These emotions and interactions allow the other person to look on the brighter side. For example a student can show another student that there is no reason to mope around because, you received a C on a paper, when you knew you deserved an A. Instead of saying oh that’s too bad and walking away. Just being there for the student, list suggestions to help a person out, or hanging out with the student, this can change a person’s perspective for ongoing events in the day.
Plato also states that “Other people can beat, imprison or even kill your body, but they cannot alter the virtuous state of your soul.”(Lee Adams Young, 2000) Have you ever head the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?” This is what Plato was trying to perceive to his listeners. But in the long run is this even true? Audrey Witterup came up with an influential story that had the views of Plato, it went like this, and “There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven six nails into the fence. Over the few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the numbers of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and then the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that we was able to hold his temper. The day passed and the boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, you have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out, It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the world is still there.( Audrey Wittrup, 1989) As for in Plato’s case no matter how many hurtful things people say to you, your soul should not be effected, because such words are meaningless.
I believe that no matter what you do in life, it is a lesson well learned. The fact that we make mistakes, and terrible things happen to us, as well as good things, it allows us to live life to the fullest. Plato and the Socrates were all about living life their way, how you have to be virtuous and you had to live life according to the rules. Everyone has to live life by some book or another, but which book, and what rules, are up to you. Society can only alter your ego, and your self esteem. You alter your soul, and your actions to confide in society, to make the world a little less complicated and a little more direct. The question that I ask you is, are you living your life, or are you living there’s?
The article discusses a philosophy that was discussed during Plato and the Socrates time, the philosophy I used to guide the practices in the class room was “Who can take your happiness away? And how “Other people can beat, imprison or even kill your body, but they cannot alter the virtuous state of your soul.” These theories came from Plato and the Socrates, but instead of using them the way he did in his society. I gave examples and true influential stories, about how we can use Plato’s theories and use them in our society today. The article states how it is effective, and some society issues that correlate into classroom behaviors.
Introduction
Education is your way to the future, but before we can look into the future of education, what made education was its past. We believe in order to fix the future we must look at the past; I believe that in order to see the future, we often predict the past. We use many methods of the past in today’s education. Obviously we do not beat kids until they memorize the commandments, or the fifty states, yet instead we reward them and encourage them to learn. But why would students want to learn? What makes knowledge so powerful, that everyone must have it? I believe it strives with being the better person, and being the best in society. Society helps shift and make the person, who we become, and the person who we want to be.
A great man, named Plato once asked “Who can take your happiness away?”(Garth Kemerling, 2001) The response is, you. You are either happy with yourself and your decisions. Or you live trying to fix yourself, trying to improve your well being, trying to improve what you are and what you do. When a student in class acts up and doesn’t want to do work. In the long run, the student has inflicted evil upon himself. Plato stated that “No one can inflict fate upon someone else. Only you can make yourself evil, and only you can make yourself virtuous.”(Garth Kemerling, 2001) I believe that your character has a lot to do with how you handle school, whether or not you participate, and whether or not you do well. Your social actions affect how you live your everyday life, whether you see things optimistic, or pessimistic. Even someone who is having a bad day can be turned around with someone else who is having a good day. These emotions and interactions allow the other person to look on the brighter side. For example a student can show another student that there is no reason to mope around because, you received a C on a paper, when you knew you deserved an A. Instead of saying oh that’s too bad and walking away. Just being there for the student, list suggestions to help a person out, or hanging out with the student, this can change a person’s perspective for ongoing events in the day.
Plato also states that “Other people can beat, imprison or even kill your body, but they cannot alter the virtuous state of your soul.”(Lee Adams Young, 2000) Have you ever head the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?” This is what Plato was trying to perceive to his listeners. But in the long run is this even true? Audrey Witterup came up with an influential story that had the views of Plato, it went like this, and “There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven six nails into the fence. Over the few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the numbers of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and then the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that we was able to hold his temper. The day passed and the boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, you have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out, It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the world is still there.( Audrey Wittrup, 1989) As for in Plato’s case no matter how many hurtful things people say to you, your soul should not be effected, because such words are meaningless.
I believe that no matter what you do in life, it is a lesson well learned. The fact that we make mistakes, and terrible things happen to us, as well as good things, it allows us to live life to the fullest. Plato and the Socrates were all about living life their way, how you have to be virtuous and you had to live life according to the rules. Everyone has to live life by some book or another, but which book, and what rules, are up to you. Society can only alter your ego, and your self esteem. You alter your soul, and your actions to confide in society, to make the world a little less complicated and a little more direct. The question that I ask you is, are you living your life, or are you living there’s?
Monday, November 2, 2009
Reflection paper 19
In the Colonial times, your society was based on rank. What you did and how you were perceive was all in what your parents did, and what was passed down to you. The colonial times used ranks. It wasn’t what you put in it, it was how much money you could provide, and that will do the talking for you. Judges and Ministers were considered top of the line royalty. This also comes to play in what they taught the kids in school. Considering your royalty were Ministers, the majority of your education was on religion. What was royalty, was obviously what was right, at least that’s how they saw it. The kids were treated equally to what their parents rank were, if you were lower class you did not get the extra treatment as the other kids. This was most important when it came to education. Education was a gift, a gift that not all should be given, yet it was still desirable to all. When it came to reading, everyone wanted to learn, though not everyone could because of your rank. If you had no money, you could not be shown these privileges because only the wealthy were taught the desirable subjects. The longer you stayed in school, the wealthier you were as well as your peers. In the colonial times elementary school was not to educate, it was to promise the youth to grant them their social station, and to encourage them to continue to go to school. They needed a new approach for schools, one where it would go beyond the training of elementary promises, and primary training. The Ministry and the churches decided to build colleges and grammar schools to better their society, to continue they training of the young developers. If it wasn’t for the Ministry or the churches, schools wouldn’t have been invented and our society would lack the greater knowledge. Yet the Ministry and churches wanted everyone to agree with their way of life, with their religion, so they funded the schools and created a new learning environment that would benefit them as well as society. Being a teacher was considered middle class and some were considered high class, you had the knowledge that everyone wanted to learn. Everyone committed their life to the jobs that they did, if they were doing a job they did it well, to their full ability. They did it with what ever that had, and gave it all they had. Teachers had a role they had to play. You either excelled at something, or you didn’t have a job at the end of the day. In order to be in a job, you had to be the best. In society teachers were considered greatness, nothing bad came from them. When they created high schools only boys could attend, eventually along the line girls were able to join, but it wasn’t years among years until it happened. Boys always had the upper hand on everything; it wouldn’t be introduced to females until the men mastered what ever they were learning.
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