Comments for Jacqueline's Blog

Comment on What inspires you as a teacher? by melaniepar

melaniepar — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:18:57 +0000

You inspire ME! You are such a good teacher and it’s obvious you love your job. It inspires me to always want to do my best! Hasn’t this year been great AND inspiring!?!? We’ve been in class with some intelligent, fun, “real” people and that in itself is inspiring.

Comment on What inspires you as a teacher? by park

park — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:56:44 +0000

Jacqueline,
You have inspired me all year long. I have listened to the struggles you have encountered at school trying to make some social changes occur. That’s wonderful. And you advocated on behalf of your students and that’s also inspiring. You’ve thought of me when you came across articles for your own literature reviews and shared them with me. You have lent me your videos and explained things to me so that I could understand. You have been such a welcomed inspiration and I hope that you continue to speak up for what you believe in…I know I’ll be listening.

Comment on Oakes and Lipton Chapter 12: Teaching to Change the World by melaniepar

melaniepar — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:34:14 +0000

Hey Jacqueline! I feel that I was prepared as much as I could have been going into my first day of being a “real” teacher. I spent much time in classrooms in different grade levels while in college. I feel that our profession offers a small amount of scaffolding, but I definitely wouldn’t say it’s career-long. Teachers in our county have mentors for 3 years. (or is it even that long?) Our school used to have meetings/staff developments for new teachers, but that ended last year. Sometimes I think mentorships at our school are jokes. People don’t meet with their mentee or they feel uncomfortable giving suggestions. Some are given 1/2 day during the entire year to observe their mentee to see how they’re doing. I wonder if there are any schools in the country that have career-long scaffolding?

Comment on Chapter 9 Oakes and Lipton: The School Culture by koubs1

koubs1 — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:22:02 +0000

I empathize with your situation because administration can make or break a school especially where morale is concerned. Our administrators are close to retirement and we are already talking about what could happen when they leave. I have always had consistent administration and the feeling of the staff towards them has always been positive. All were great places to work and that had EVERYTHING to do with the administration. I am sure it is no coincidence that high performing schools in our county get the same principal for many years. Which came first the chicken or the egg? I think people take schools to get their foot in the door , put in their time and then leave ASAP. As far as funding goes, I often wonder if all schools get the same $ for tutoring. Do we get the same amount as you even though we have few students who actually need the service. Many of ours are sped kids who are double dipping. Summer school is a whole different issue. It almost seems as if they are trying to phase it out. I actually am a fan of the idea of year round school to alleviate some of our difficulties with retention and consistency. Summer school with a different teacher can’t be all that helpful. It takes a couple weeks to learn what works for the child and most often the work and strategies are not consistent.

Comment on Chapter 9 Oakes and Lipton: The School Culture by crothstein

crothstein — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:07:50 +0000

Hi Jacqueline,
When Katy and I saw the Cobb Bd announcement for your school we thought of you and Melanie. It is ridiculous. The school culture has so much to do with our psyche, our moods, the aura of the building and thus it affects the learning of our students. It seems like some schools in Cobb are thought of as ’stepping stone’ schools for principals, they stay there just long enough to get moved out. Some schools are like ‘training grounds’. What does that say about our students? I never understood the ’shuffle the principal’ policy in Cobb. What is the purpose of that? It seems to me if a principal knew she were going to be embedded in that school/community for a large number of years, the committment to the faculty, parents, students, even the physical building would be greater. I guess we live in a transient society, and it’s a large system, so one solution is to create small intimate clusters. I think that’s what you are trying to do. So I applaud your attempt.

Comment on Culturally Responsive Teaching Web Site by thinton

thinton — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:29:39 +0000

Well said! I fully agree. As I have seen in your responses in our book study, Jacqueline, you are a very sensitive person and a deep thinker. I think you have exposed the central theme for many people. Often times, the efforts that are made to change old paradigms are ignored or be-littled. We must recognize the needs of all in order to bring about lasting and positive change.

Comment on Oakes & Lipton Chapter 7: Classroom Management: Caring, Respectful, & Democratic Relationships by ctyson1

ctyson1 — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:41:16 +0000

Jacqueline, it sounds like you have quite a challenge in this little boy. Someone told me once that all human behavior has a reason. It might be hard to see the reason, but it’s there for that individual. I have taught children with that kind of extreme behavior. At least, I’ve tried to teach them! I’ve made home visits and even spent time on Saturdays with them, but until they feel wanted by the most important people in their lives, they can’t seem to concentrate on learning. All of the classroom management plans work for the majority of students, but there are always those “frequent fliers” who spend time in the office because of misbehavior. They need individual help that often goes beyond the expertise of a classroom teacher. It’s another one of our challenges that can never be measured by a standardized test!

Comment on Pedagogy of the Absurd by Ken Goodman by coreyrieke

coreyrieke — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:57:28 +0000

Hi Jacqueline. Your blog presented a new perspective to me; The idea of teachers being comfortable with what they are teaching and the lack of knowledge and experience some teachers possess. Your suggestion about teachers going out and taking more classes in order to increase their knowledge of what they teach is a good one, but how many schools are set up so that their teachers can do this? In my school, we all participate in the same staff development experiences. We aren’t given a list of choices. Unless we go out and seek something else that would more than likely require us to pay for it, we’re stuck with what we’ve got. However, when I taught in Clayton County, we were given a staff development catalogue every semester and we were allowed to choose the course that would be most beneficial for us. However, not everyone took advantage of these opportunities. You’re talking about night or weekend classes that interfere with people’s personal lives. Some people feel so overwhelmed and frustrated during the work day that doing anything extra can seem a bit unnecessary. I don’t know what the answer is. However, I do think that programs like our Ed.S program that will raise awareness in some teachers is a start. Our eyes have been opened and we are now more knowledgeable about what should start happening in our schools. We can be leaders and help to open the eyes of others, without being forceful and overbearing.

Comment on Freire: Second Letter: Don’t Let the Fear of What Is Difficult Paralyze You by ctyson1

ctyson1 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:40:22 +0000

Isn’t it refreshing to read what Freire has to say?

His thoughts about fear reminded me of something. I have often thought that as adults we have come to a realization of our strengths and weaknesses. We’ve lived life long enough to know what we’re good at, and usually no one makes us do anything that we don’t want to do. For example, if I know I’m a good cook, I am not intimidated about trying a new recipe or sharing the results of my cooking with family and friends. But if I were asked to waterski with a group of friends, I would feel extremely intimidated because I tried that once with very poor results!! The memory of a past experience would be fresh in my mind if I were placed in that situation.

On the other hand, we constantly ask children to do things they don’t want to do. Even when we lead them by the hand, offering encouragement and guidance, they are entering an unknown or untested area of their lives. Granted, they need a wide range of experiences and sometimes they need a push from adults, but we should be aware of their fear. As teachers, we take our students into the difficult arena of reading comprehension in all of the academic content areas, and we asked them to perform math calculations. As we teach, we have to be aware of how hard it is to face what seems like an impossible task.

Comment on Oakes and Lipton: Chapter 3 - Philosophy and Politics by koubs1

koubs1 — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:48:17 +0000

Your comments made me think about several things:
If we follow a road map for education, I have a fear that it will lead to cookie cutter, direct instruction teaching which will allow us even less freedom to be progressive educators than we already have. My gut tells me that other countries do not think about how to educate their children because they do not educate all of their children. The principal you described sounds great although I have some concerns about teachers being held solely accountable for educating their own students. My concern is that if accountability rests on our shoulders then inevitably performance ratings and salary will be tied to our students performance in the classroom. We face many challenges in the classroom which impact our students ability or inability to succeed. I think higher ups are very quick to point the finger and that is why the pendulum continues to swing for special education service delivery from self contained to inclusion with regular ed and back again with no real answer in sight. I do know that it is tough to get teachers who willingly teach inclusion because of the accountability. Many of the good teachers at our school are burned out from going the extra mile and they get stuck doing it because they are so good at it. What will happen in 2014 when 100% of our kids will have to pass the CRCT? Who will be accountable then for the special education kids? We have already established that it is unrealistic to expect kids to pass the same test on the same day given in the same way so why will they be asked to do just that in a short 5 years and who will be held accountable when they do not? I am just leary of putting all the accountability on the shoulders of teachers but the track record shows that is exactly where it will fall.