The value of an education

I grew up in a small 800 sq foot house in north Edmonton. When I was in Grade 8, my jr. high school, Wellington appeared on the front page of the Edmonton Journal under the heading of the "toughest school in Edmonton". Wow, did we think we were cool!

My father had a grade 6 education and my mother a grade 11, but all three of us children completed at least one university degree. My sister has two and my brother has three. Why? Because we were told over and over again by my mother, "if you want to improve your life education is the answer."

I have a great deal of respect for education. It has given me experiences and opportunities, I never even imagined as a child.

I have a great deal of respect for Vernon Watchmaker from Kehewin First Nations. He has decided to embark on a journey of education to make changes to his life. He worked hard and achieved. He is an outstanding role model for his children. Watching their father commit to getting and education and achieving it, they too will come to respect education and the opportunities it offers.

So congratulations Mr. Watchmaker, I hope you continue on your journey.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/From+homeless+graduate+years/5741170/story.html

Report card time

Recently a friend of mine who teaches jr. high was told at a staff meeting, each teacher is expected to write 3 full paragraphs (3/4 of a page) about each student. The comments should be "meaningful" and explain in detail where the child is in terms of grade level, how they are being taught and exactly what the teacher is going to do to help the child improve.

Most Jr. High schools have 40 minute classes, 4 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. The class size is somewhere between 20 and 30. So if we do the math, 8 classes of say 25 students per class is 200 report cards. 200 x 0.75 of a page = about 150 pages.

150 pages is a small novel and not easy writing either. The teacher must choose their words carefully, to communicate clearly and not offend or upset the parent. If there is a spelling error or a typo, it will be pointed out. Teachers are expected to complete report cards in a few days of time (while continuing to teach every day all day long). This is only one of four report cards done in the year. By the end of the year the teacher will have written 600 pages worth of report card comments.

I have to assume the parent with a student at this school will get several pages of comments. My only hope is they will have the time in their hectic schedules to sit down and read every word care and carefully reflect upon their child education.

As a parent I am happy with 65 per cent and "good effort" on my kids report card. If I am really concerned with my child's education, I can pick up the phone or go to the school and "talk" to my kids teacher.

True Education

Education for the sake of "true learning". If you have 20 minutes, its worth listening about the barefoot college in India. The school is about "learning" not making money. What can we learn from this?

http://www.ted.com/talks/bunker_roy.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-10-19&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Politics of change

I am willing to give the new Minister of Education Tomas Lukaszuk a chance mostly because I like Alison Redford. So far Redford seems supportive of Education but .... only time will tell for sure.

The PC's have announced the return of a large chunk of funding for Education. While thats nice, it never should have been cut in the first place so they are simply correcting something which was done wrong. No extra points there.

Lukaszuk has decided not to go forward with bill 18, the new Education act in the Fall Legislative Session. Again a good idea, there are some changes which are not well thought out. Two that come to mind are mandatory schooling to age 17 and funding education for high school completion to age 21.

"Over the next few months we will be engaging students, parents, teachers and members of the community in a discussion on how the Education Act can make a difference in Alberta classrooms,” said Lukaszuk.

http://www.alberta.ca/acn/201111/3147269F45DBE-D1A2-0106-A0EE19F6672F171C.html

Sounds very political doesn't it ... talk talk talk. Everyone had input with "Inspiring Education." What they need is someone with a little common sense to sit down and write something sensible.

In the mean time teachers, TA's, principals and the entire eduction system will somehow forge forward without the brilliant guidance from our elected leaders.

ADHD

Should we be so quick to treat ADHD with drugs. So many children are given drugs for ADHD, largely based on evaluations from schools but is that the best approach? Are we stifling their natural creativity?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110311153543.htm

I have worked with children with ADHD and know how challenging it can be but perhaps we need to question if the structured classroom is the correct environment for all children. Instead of drugging children to make a square peg fit in a round hole, perhaps we need to make two completely different holes.

The arts and creative programs are always the first to be cut in schools. Perhaps its time for public education to diversify and teach children in different ways.

Just a thought.

Cheater's prosper

I think it is time to consider giving up testing in schools. In this article the school board in Newfoundland and Labrador passed a ruling that students caught cheating on a test must not be given a zero and must be given a re-write.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2011/10/24/nl-cheating-students-school-board-1024.html

This is very very different then saying "work it out with your teacher." It means no matter what the kid does to cheat in class, no matter how blatant and in your face the cheat is, the teacher still has to offer a re-write, presumably giving up their lunch time or after school time to accommodate.

If I remember correctly, students caught cheating on diploma exams here in Alberta were also permitted to re-write the exam.

As a teacher it would be just easier and more sensible to say, "I would recommend that you don't use your text book or copy the answers from the person next to you but if you decide to do it anyway, ok, I will mark the test and record the grade." It's really just a review assignment but we will all call it a "test" just to appease those who know nothing about education.

In fact why don't we just teach cheating as an exam strategy. It makes sense, "Hey kids if you are not prepared, cheat because you will then get a second chance. It's a really poor test strategy to 'try your best'." Kids need to know this.

Is it any wonder that private schools are becoming more popular.

Regrets

I spoke recently with a retiring teacher. She was emptying her filing cabinet of teaching materials she collected over her over 20 years of teaching.

She said she was filled with sadness seeing all of the creative projects and activities she was never able to do with the children. Every minute of spare time was absorbed in meeting excessive paperwork demands and just trying to keep up with the excessively heavy workload.

Right now she said in a classroom of 30 grade 7 students, she has about 5 who can't read at a grade 1 level, about 10 that read at a grade 5 level, another 10 at grade level and the remaining 5 are above grade level. She is expected to teach the curriculum materials to each student individually at their level. That requires having at least 4 different versions of each assignment or test. Textbooks are written at only one level. That is one of 5 classes she has during the day. Excessive paperwork is the reality of "individualized instruction."

Classroom management is also a challenge as several kids in her class are labeled as ADHD and some as learning disabled and one requires all assignments to be printed on coloured paper. That last requirement means that she must re-load the paper tray of the photocopier to print just one test.

Assignments and test must also be marked regularly and with 5 classes of about 30 students, so her entire evening almost every evening is spent marking papers and writing assignments.

Unfortunately the creative projects like labs or outdoor explorations get set aside. The creative things that might engage students are not evaluated as plusses on teacher evaluations nor is the material tested on standardized exams.

What matters to the bureaucracy is the number or entries in the teachers mark book and that there are no zeros in the mark book. Ridiculously unrealistic expectations from bureaucrats who spend no time in classrooms is destroying education.

Can a new premier make a difference?

So far, so good. It looks like Redford is going to support education in the province.

"On Sunday morning Redford repeated her promise to reverse the Stelmach government's $107 million funding cut to education."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/10/03/edmonton-redford-education-premier.html

Rural communities have already sent their teachers away, will they be able to get them back again?

Education Act

The Alberta Governments proposed Education Act which will replace the outdated School Act.

Highlights of the new Education Act include increasing the age of compulsory attendance to 17 from 16 years to encourage more students to complete their high school education.

The reason for this is to reduce the shamefully high drop-out rate in Alberta. Making school mandatory for the few kids who see little to no value in education is a waste. There are some kids who know what they want at an early age. They want to go work at mom or dads business or they have some sort of work lined up. Forcing them day after day to sit in a classroom to simply fulfill a government requirement is not likely to help them complete their high school.

If the government wants to encourage kids to finish high school, pay for college or University. Free post secondary education would be a great incentive to stay in school.

First Day of School

I know scheduling the school year is a tricky task because the government mandates certain holidays but not all. Students are required to complete a certain number of hours before writing diploma exams and so on.

However why is it, the bureaucracy as a whole can't decide the first day of school should be after the labour day long weekend. I don't want to argue or debate about who is at fault, the board or the provincial government. I don't see why everyone can't agree this is a sensible decision.

It is particularly true in St. Paul because of the LRA Rodeo. Very few children are going to be ready to return to school with rodeo activities happening. I think we should set a provincial rule, school should not begin until after the long weekend in September and work the rest of the schedule around that.

Should technology be banned?

Students will be returning to the classroom soon, leaving behind their facebooks and social networks to take up research and mathematics.

Personally, I don't believe social networks, cell phones and other modern communication devices should be banned from schools. I know I am in the minority as an educator. I agree they are distractions and may temporally attract student attention in the wrong direction but this is true of almost anything.

A pretty girl or a cute guy walking down the street will distract. A nice car will capture plenty of attention. In the 1960's Edmonton Public (and many other cities) built schools with no windows in an attempt to reduce these distractions. So children sat for hours in classrooms with no natural light, not able to see a tree or a snowflake. In the winter in Canada often it's dark when students go to school and dark when they get out. With out windows, children barely saw sunlight. The idea was soon discarded as silly and we went back to building schools with windows.

We are making a similar mistake today by assuming that if we ban communication devices and other technological distractions, students will pay attention to their lessons and learn better. So teachers, TA's and principals rome the halls looking for children texting their friend or calling their parents. Their phones are confiscated because this is a "no phone" zone. Although teachers are adults and should be completely capable of having a phone and using it properly, they too are banned from having phones. Both teachers and students continue to sneak phones into schools, hiding around corners to communicate with the outside world.

Perhaps it would be better to accept technology and teach kids how to use them properly and respectfully. If a student is abusing cell phone privileges, it will annoy the other students in the class as much as the instructor. Peer pressure is a powerful behavior moderator. If not, then the teacher should address the inappropriate behavior not the communication device.

Technology is a wonderful educator, I believe both teachers and the education system is doing a good job of using technology in education. However fear of distractions, holds back the entire system from making full use of technology.

A column worth reading

I believe we are more progressive than the U.S. in terms of our schools and digital content but this is still a good read.

"When we criticize students for making digital videos instead of reading “Gravity’s Rainbow,” we are blinding ourselves to the world as it is."

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/education-needs-a-digital-age-upgrade/?src=tp

Cheating

Most certainly any teacher or school administrator that cheats on a test should be fired. It's interesting in this case the teachers and administrators were not cheating to improve their own grades but changing student grades on standardized tests. It is not just one isolated case either, over a hundred educators are accused. This raises a number of questions.

Firstly standardized tests are supposed to provide an objective comparison for students applying to college or other post secondary institutions. How reliable are they?

Second if the teachers were willing to risk their jobs by doing something so unethical, why? Is it because they risked being evaluated on the results of the students? Were they going to loose their jobs because of low student achievement, so said why not try cheating?

Again this is an American study but I know that similar pressures do exist here in Alberta where teacher performance is evaluated on the grades students achieve.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/15/georgia.atlanta.schools.cheating/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

Blame the teachers

Although this is an American article, I bet a good many teachers in Alberta can identify.

"They also want public schools run with the top-down, data-driven, accountability methods used in private businesses."

http://dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=504

Student Advisory Councils

Student input into Education can be valuable if done correctly and managed properly. If this council becomes nothing more then a publicity stunt, kids will see through it and it will be done in a few years.

However, if done properly, it could be very useful. The most effective learning occurs when students feel engaged with real, meaningful projects. Development of these kinds of projects requires input from students.

Only time will tell ...

http://Alberta.ca/acn/201106/30812E12BF861-A902-B506-9ACC1FAE79E0C286.html

Money, politics and teaching

The first paragraph says it all ...

"Even with a $1.3-billion decrease in the 2010 deficit, the province says it won't restore $100 million to the education budget for teachers' salaries."

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/06/30/alberta-teachers-stuck-with-budget-cuts

I wonder how many teachers and school staff voted PC in the last election.

Exam time

An interesting exam strategy.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2011/06/24/calgary-hanna-naked-streaker.html

Net Generation

Should school be a place where we mimic the multitasking environment or should it be a place where we slow things down, teach students to read and write complete words, sentences and paragraphs?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/23/tech.popcorn.brain.ep/

Education vs common sense

Being an educated, intelligent person does not mean that you have any common sense.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/dean+medicine+resigns/4964115/story.html