Some people read Promising Futures and thought the concept was a great idea and that it would be beneficial to Maine. Some schools were having problems with academic achievement and students were disengaged and didn't feel like they had any say in their education. The Department of Education wanted to change this so they came up with core practices to help schools improve. These practices involve the teachers, students, and administration in the schools.
While some thought Promising Futures was a good thing for Maine schools, others believed that schools should already be practicing these principles. Teachers shouldn't be overloaded with students so that the class sizes are smaller and so teachers have more time to prepare their lessons. "Obviously teachers need to respect and understand their student, obviously students need to be engaged on several levels and be an integral part of determining their own educations." Many people felt like these core principles were very obvious and schools shouldn't have to be reminded to accomplish them. These core practices are what we've learned throughout our years at UMF and they seem like second nature to us, but not to the teachers that have been out of college for many years. And this comes to the point that teachers need to have refresher courses in education. This will be beneficial to not only teachers but also to students. Teachers will get more ideas about lessons and how to assess students.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The assessment link was cool. Since I am one of those people who really want to continue her education I think links like you have posted are great resources.
I like that you pointed out how while these practices may be second nature for those of us who have been in the education program here at UMF, what we have learned is not, in fact, common knowledge and there is a huge population of veteran teachers out there who have not been exposed to certain ideas or no knowledge of how to execute the core practices. Because of this our generation of educators are cast into the role of "savior" or "mentor" when we start teaching in public schools, and so, ultimately, we have a great deal of responsibility in initiating and executing the practices that will successfully reform our education system.
Post a Comment