Did your college train you well enough? The Government doesn't think so!

Are teacher colleges producing results or just cashing in? The new secretary of education, Arne Duncan, believes universities are making a ton of money off of the college of education and not reinvesting it back into the department. He believes most teacher colleges are putting out poor products and is ready to tie stimulus money to force colleges that train teachers in two key areas.
One area is classroom management, which happens to be our topic this week. The other complaint Duncan said he heard from recent graduates was they, “were not taught how to use data to improve instruction and boost student learning". These two areas were continually brought up as Duncan talked to hundreds of young teachers in the Chicago area.
The report in USA Today by the Associated Press cited A 2006 report found that three of five education school alumni said their training failed to prepare them to teach, the report was by Arthur Levine, a former Teachers College president. A couple of questions to my fellow bloggers are:

1. Do you feel your teaching college prepared you to teach in the area of classroom management, especially in high-needs classrooms?

2. Do you feel your teaching college prepared you to use data to improve instruction?

In response to the first one, I do not feel my teaching college prepared me as well as they could in the areas of classroom management, especially in the high-needs sector. One of the classes I had when I was student-teaching had 17 students with IEP’s with behavioral problems, low academic skills, and some that spoke limited English. It was a nightmare. Of course I had two teaching aids in there to help keep them on task but I was never trained for a classroom like this. I was told in theory by professors how to develop lesson plans but not what to do when one calls you a white F---er and I definitely wasn’t trained on what to do when you are waiting for security to come and remove them.
For the second question, I will admit my teaching college did require us to research topics and provided us with some examples of how to find data on educational topics. I cannot remember how or if we learned how to use it to improve instruction because I don’t recall doing a lot of “teaching” to my classmates for practice. To me that should have been in every college teaching class.
Moving back to the report Duncan did not solely blame the universities for the lack of well prepared teachers. “The government is also to blame, he said. Most states have paper-and-pencil licensing exams that measure basic skills and knowledge but not readiness for the classroom, he said, and local mentoring programs are lacking”.


The Secretary has an interesting solution to this problem. Duncan noted the administration is using stimulus dollars to reward states that tie student achievement data to the education schools where their teachers had credentials. His department also is helping to pay for an expansion of teacher residency programs in high-needs schools. I think this could be hard to track and I hope for the sake of future teachers the government does this fairly and then provides the colleges an opportunity to improve themselves.
Self-reflection is something every teacher learns to do at the end of the day and in this case so should some of institutions teaching that concept.  I am not asking that we tear apart our former alumni but they should be open to suggestions because in the end we all want great teachers in the classroom helping students.

Blog #9: Can I work 4 days too?

Most of you have heard people say how easy teachers have it because most do not work in the summer, but can you image the grief the teachers in Hawaii are getting for voting in favor of a four day work week? I can’t. The teachers union in Hawaii recently passed with 81% in favor of shorting the school year to 163 days, instead of the regular 180.
The reason for this school day shortage is money. Big surprise! The economy is hurting Hawaii which according the AP, “More than a quarter of the state's general budget goes to the state Department of Education”. The governor, “withheld 14% from estimated salaries, or $227 million,” the article from USA Today stated.
The teachers union, “ probably wouldn't have voted for the contract if they had to work the same amount for less pay, paving the way for the shorter school year, said Hawaii State Teachers Association President Wil Okabe. He also said the state couldn't get the necessary savings if teacher furlough days were scheduled for holidays — or workdays with schools kept open. By accepting the shorten days the teachers also accepted concurrent pay reduction and postponed layoffs and random drug testing for two years.
So my first question to my classmates is, “would you have voted in favor of this?”

It is a very tough call because you have a feed yourself and your family. Nobody wants to be laid off and no one wants to take a pay cut. I can’t image being put in a situation like this. On one hand you are thinking of yourself and on the other you are thinking of the educational opportunities the students will be missing by the shorten school year.

Students and parents in Hawaii are voicing their thoughts on the issues. "It's just not enough time for the kids to learn," said Valerie Sonoda, president of the Hawaii State Parent Teacher Student Association. "I'm getting hundreds of calls and e-mails. They all have the same underlying concern, and that is the educational hours of the kids." The article does mention that some parents concerns were along the lines of not finding daycare for younger children and parents of special needs children not finding the proper services.

The state Hawaii has some other problems that many of you are familiar with, the No Child Left Behind Act. The Act set standards that states must meet in order to continue to receive federal funding. Hawaii is, “already ranked 47th in the nation in eighth-grade reading and math, according to 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress test scores.” This is a real problem and by cutting more learning time how can Hawaii ever catch-up to other states? It won’t and might fall to last place which might take years or decades to recover from.
Since Hawaii is all one district the chance that this problem will go away is limited. I think the state is doing what it thinks is best for the budget, so we don’t have another California on our hands. I think the teachers are taking cuts to keep their jobs. What I wonder is what is the federal government doing? We are being pushed to nationalize healthcare which will cost at some estimates $860 billion dollars but the federal government isn’t concerned that the young people will be missing out on an education. Ironic, since Hawaii is the President’s home state don’t you think?

I am not taking a political jab, I am frustrated becasue students are going to suffer and some tend to have no problem bailing out GM or investors, then why not give the state short term loans to keep the schools open?

Blog #8: Mister, Mister, do you know of a black man that would like to teach?

  I read an interesting article in our local newspaper, the Bismarck Tribune, about how a push is on to bring more black men into the teaching profession. MISTER is both an acronym-Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models – and a reference to the 1967 film “In the Heat of the Night,” in which Sidney Poitier’s character demands respect according to Kathy Matheson an Associated Press Writer.


The MISTER teaching program encourages young black males to enter the classroom in exchange the program will cover tuition cost with scholarships. According to Roy Jones, the national executive director, “If we can recruit linebackers, point guards, and track stars, we can recruit third-grade teachers”.

He makes an interesting point but those black males enrolled in MISTER will not bring the alumni and sport fans to the games, which in turn pay for huge projects and salaries on university campuses. That is major problem for MISTER. The average salary according to MenTeach is $51,000 a year in the U.S. (this is not the case in ND). The average sports figure makes millions, which program attracts the most attention? You know which one does.
Currently, only 2 percent of teachers are African-American and with gang violence and low test scores the black community needs role models that are black. One black male student commented, “A lot of males, they don’t like school because they can’t relate to their teacher”. Do you think this is the case? Do have trouble relating to some students? To bump the number to 3 percent of the national average 45,000 black males would have begin the MINSTER program.

Now I am not a black man, I am a very white man in some case a reddish pink man in the summer time, but that does not take away from the fact that I believe more black men are needed in the school system at all levels. According to Matheson, “87 percent of teachers are white, with 77 percent being female,” and this trend will continue unless teaching is looked at as a successful profession by all minority races.
At my school of education in Omaha we had 2 minority males in my graduating class of let’s say 200. That tells me that organizations like MISTER have a long way to go. They are currently in 28 colleges and seven states. The issue isn’t if black men can teach, we know they can, but are the unions and universities really making a strong push to get them into the profession? This could be a question about any minority group in your area. Maybe they are and I don’t see it, please let me know.
My final question is what could we do as teachers to encourage our minority friends and students that teaching is a good career choice?

Blog #7 Is the iPhone sending the “right” college message?

I know some of you may have you iPhone or iTouch and that is great. I use my iPod all the time when I am working out and my next laptop will be an Apple. The topic for this blog comes from USA Today and an article they did on colleges providing free electronic devices to students as a way to stay connected with them and expand the role of technology in all the areas of Higher Ed.
At Abilene Christian University all incoming freshman receive a free iPod Phone or iPod Touch. The University can then connect to students when they miss class by Podcasting the lectures or in some cases conduct two podcast classes and one on campus class that might pertain a lab. According to Kathleen Gray, “Faculty, for the most part, see technology as a way to better connect to students in their interactive, multitasking, apps-ready world”. It should be noted that students do have to pay for the monthly charge for those devices.
Another popular item being used in Higher Ed is the Kindle, a reading device from Amazon. It can hold over 200 titles, is wireless, and sells for about $149. Mike Kenney, a chemistry professor at Case Western, says, "It is possible to have an entire academic career with you at all times”. You pay half as much to download material to read as you would purchasing a textbook. Just think of the money we could all be saving. We could use that money for Happy Hour after work or for a vacation after we graduate from VCSU.
On the other hand, maybe technology isn’t for everyone and maybe students should spend less time online and more time physically interacting with classmates in live debates or lecture halls. I mean it has built relationships and does if the Professor a chance to ask questions to students instead of waiting for an email.  Other concerns are that cheating is taking place and students are more interested in checking their Facebook page then listening or viewing online lectures.   We all know how difficult it can be to focus and set aside time to complete our own homework online.   By giving students the option to listen to a Podcast can parents be assured that little Jonny is getting the best education and his money's worth?  I would sure hope so. 
Personally, I can see both sides to this issue after completing my last project on the Millennials. They love technology and are good at it so why not embrace it and work with them to learn more and be more creative. I also see that cheating online does take place, cell phones go off in class, and iPods are in the hears of every student, so very little talking is going on in the hallways and at the Student Union. 
Do I think colleges should provide free iPods and iPhones to them? Not, at the cost to school  but if a grant is rewarded or the students want to pay for it then they should be able to try it.  

My college does offer Podcasts, online classes, IVAN, video lectures, and about any other “new” thing that comes along.  Many Professors haven’t jumped on the bandwagon but as time goes by more are taking part in the programs.  Our President is big on technology and trys very hard to show the upside to the generation we are now teaching-connecting to them is his theme.

Do you think colleges should use technology to teach or should students learn in the classroom? Or both? What would want your child do?