Education

mikepegg44

http://www.khanacademy.org/about

whygohome

1. A longer school year. This 2 months off shit is garbage.
2. school hours extended. 8-3:30?
3. More intensive and practical curriculum.
4. More opportunities for trade school education. Not everyone will be going to college, and if someone wants to become a mechanic, carpenter, etc, education should be provided that directly relates to these fields.
5. Education should not be about $$$. Unfortunately, like everything else in this country, the corporatization of the education system is detrimental. Not everyone should be pushed to go to expensive universities. This push begins in high school.
6. Stop pushing poor students through to higher grades. if a student has a C or a 75 or below average, LEAVE THEM BEHIND.
7. Smaller classrooms. Friends and family members, due to budget cuts, have classes of 25-29 or more. This is not a good learning environment.

riotgrl

cincybearcat wrote:

riotgrl wrote:

cincybearcat wrote:

How many hours a week june through august?

Depends...not a full 8 hour day but I do spend most of my summer creating lesson plans, reading books and professional journals, and attending professional development seminars - many times spending huge amounts of time away from my family. I shouldn't still be surprised that people think teachers laze about all summer but that does seem to be the general consensus :?

So if I average 45 hours a week during the school year for 40 weeks (1800 hours) and roughly 20 hours per week during the summer and breaks (about 12 weeks total is about 240 hours) that means I work an average of 39 hours per week for 52 weeks/1 year. About the same as anyone else. Sorry, for a teacher this really hits a nerve :fp:

I didn't say that. But it is a nice big chunk of time that can be used for all the things you mentioned to get prepared for the school year.

And if you think people in other jobs don't spend huge amounts of time away from their families due to work, then I'm not sure what to say.

All I'm saying is, we have a reality. That reality is working parents. Lets figure out how to balance it all to work out for all. The customers of the process are the kids and the parents. Their needs should be met first and foremost. I'm sure that most, if not all, teachers agree to that statement. BUt as with anything else, we all have our different ideas on how to best accomplish that.

I never said that other professions don't spend time away from their families. I was simply acknowledging that teachers, in fact, spend as much time working and away from their families as those people do; that we aren't doing nothing from June through August.

My earlier posts about this topic specifically mentioned a more flexible schedule for school. Although, if we're really discussing educational change, I am really talking about change at the high school level. What do we REALLY want from education? A babysitter to fit in with our work schedules? Elementary schools are failing not in schedules and not in content but in the perception that every kid should move to the next grade even when they don't master the basic material. Most kids aren't even considered for retention until 3rd grade because that's when the discrepancies in learning really start to become apparent. Honestly, as I said I teach high school I can't give as educated an opinion about changes at that level as others can but I do know some changes that need to be made at the high school level. I mentioned several before but, you're right, we all have our different ideas of how to fix the system. It's too bad that the focus is usually on petty issues rather than real change. I feel that if parents, teachers, kids and the administration at the school formulated a plan to effect change then great things could happen if everyone had an open mind about what that change might look like.

riotgrl

whygohome wrote:

1. A longer school year. This 2 months off shit is garbage.
2. school hours extended. 8-3:30?
3. More intensive and practical curriculum.
4. More opportunities for trade school education. Not everyone will be going to college, and if someone wants to become a mechanic, carpenter, etc, education should be provided that directly relates to these fields.
5. Education should not be about $$$. Unfortunately, like everything else in this country, the corporatization of the education system is detrimental. Not everyone should be pushed to go to expensive universities. This push begins in high school.
6. Stop pushing poor students through to higher grades. if a student has a C or a 75 or below average, LEAVE THEM BEHIND.
7. Smaller classrooms. Friends and family members, due to budget cuts, have classes of 25-29 or more. This is not a good learning environment.

This. This would be a start but as was mentioned earlier its all about the status quo. It's broke but it's too scary to change it.