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- Module 3: Key Questions
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- Circle of Courage: A Suburban Experience
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- Module 2: Reflection Questions
- Module 2: Reflection Questions
- Module 2: Reflection Questions
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February
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Reading the document, "The Role of the School", filled me with such emotion that I have not felt prior to this time. I've known of many of these factors while I've been teaching, but to have them so powerfully presented in this document left me wondering. I wonder why knowing about these issues/forces hadn't had as great of an impact on me earlier. Knowing was not enough, seeing elucidated in this manner was what it took to truly appreciate the plight facing educators today.
ReplyDeleteThese factors outlined here are most definitely at work today. Having spent time as a Vice-Principal in a small urban school and then a larger urban school and then as a Learning Leader in a small urban high school, I have seen many of the forces still at work.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I've seen poverty as a huge factor in students' abilities to achieve in school. Children have often come to school hungry at both the elementary level and high school level and have had to make use of our muffin program as a result. I've also had students in my large urban high school chuckle because at their elementary school they made use of the muffin program but at their high school they made the muffins for those schools. As with most things, poverty is all relative.
3.1 Special needs.
ReplyDeleteIn my present teaching assignment, I have three special needs students in my grade 9 homeroom. In our homeroom program or Advisory Program, students come to the classroom for 20 minutes each day. We take part in activities that work toward development of moral values.
Twenty years ago in my first high school, a rural high school, I also had a 16-year old Downs Syndrome girl in my class. Her ability to comprehend what was happening in the classroom was significantly limited by her condition.
3.2 Demographic shift.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, the demographic shift is taking place. My first Vice-Principal position saw the most significant Aboriginal proportion I've seen. This school had high poverty issues with which it needed to contend. The school itself satisfied many of the criteria for community status,but was obviously not in as great of need as others in the city.
3.3 The information society and globalization.
ReplyDeleteOne of the greatest challenges that teachers face today is that of the information society. Today cellphones and the internet are a daily concern in the classroom. Texting takes place to such a level that it is becoming an issue on an almost daily basis. The distraction presented by increased technological access forces teachers to be constantly vigilant of its use. Today it is not unheard of to have students use a comera to record goings on the classroom, only to have it available on YouTube later that day. Privacy truly is a thing of the past.
3.4 Poverty.
ReplyDeleteIn the elementary schools where I was Vice-Principal, one of the worst insults that flew around at recess was "you're just poor!" insult. The perception of poverty was as much an insult as the actual fact of being poor that schools much add responses to the bullying schools today must have a standard response to such bulling technique.
3.5 75/25…60/40.
ReplyDeleteI had heard of these numbers, though not the specific values. The numbers of 25% non completion of high school is alarming but the projected 40% is shocking. These numbers will only worsen unless an intervention of large proportions takes place. The cycle of poverty will only worsen because we see that completion of high school has such a strong correlation with ability to work after school is completed.
3.6 Pupil mobility.
ReplyDeleteIn my previous schools I have had students who have come into the school, stayed for a short time, developed relationships with teachers, other students, support staff and then in a short while have left to relocate to another school in another neighborhood or to the reserve.
If money is tight and rent can't be met, single-parent or two-parent households find it easier to move on than to have to find the money to stay and pay their bills.
Often times, when First Nations students return, even after a weekend around "cheque day", their lives have been turned upside down and getting them back on track takes a large effort on behalf of the entire school.
3.7 Family changes.
ReplyDeleteFamily changes in lower income families have can have an immense impact on the life of a child/youth. In elementary school, students in single parent families experience far more difficulties than do students in two parent families.
The number of single mother and single father families continues to increase and so do the problems that inevitably result from their increase.
3.8 Cross-cultural issues.
ReplyDeleteThe cross-cultural issues that continue to develop highlight the discrepancies between our society's and the aboriginal's belief structures. However, as we continue to strip away our Western cultural artifacts, we begin to lose what makes us Canadian.
Recently, the Canadian National Anthem was going to be dropped in the a New Brunswick school. This was done because some parents had asked it not to be played. Reasons for their complaint were not disclosed, owing to privacy issues. This decision was later reversed due to the outcry heard from across the country. This is an example of a decision trying to placate a few voices in their community. By doing that originally the Principal of the school erased part of his country's national identity.
3.9 Human services integration.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of Community Schools was proposed so that many of the social services available to students and families could be housed in one location. This location was logically chosen to be the school. This was seen as "a major expansion of the role of the school in contemporary society." (SCHOOLPLUS: A Vision for Children and Youth, 2001)
3.10 Rural depopulation.
ReplyDeleteHaving worked for six years in a rural school, I understand the prospects of rural depopulation. As we experience a greater push towards globalization, we see few job prospects being made available in rural Saskatchewan. This inevitably will lead to depopulation as people leave towns to live in the cities.
I teach Distance Education Calculus and have taught Distance Education Physics. These classes have an audience throughout the province because rural school divisions cannot always afford to draw one of these specialized teachers to their communities. Without the ability to offer these classes in their schools, divisions lose students to larger cities. Distance Education may be one way to stem the outward migration of people from rural Saskatchewan, but it might only diminish the flow, not stop it.
3.11 Curriculum reform.
ReplyDeleteThe provincial curricula have been redrawn twice since the mid-80s but have not been implemented fully because of many factors. These factors have seem to have rested on the teachers adopting new methods or philosophies of their craft. Full adoption was met with resistance and only now, over 20 years later, are teachers more supporting these improvements to way students are taught.
3.12 Career concerns.
ReplyDeleteStudents are facing research that shows that they will have evolving careers that will change through the course of their working lives. The provincial curriculum is adapting to this reality by making career guidance a greater priority for students, as they gather information and ideas about their future directions. Schools understand their increased role in providing this information and direction for students.
3.13 Violence.
ReplyDeleteSchools today are dealing with a higher incidence of bullying than they were in the past. Also the incidence of extreme violence as seen in Columbine and then Taber has received much media attention, bringing it into the homes of Canadians from coast to coast to coast. The numbers presented in this report are true, but we must also ask ourselves if we are being manipulated by the media, through fear reporting, to believe that the violence is even more pronounced than it is.
Media is paid to sell copy. If running a story about bullying sells, the media will run it. If a story about the amazing work of a grade six class falls victim to that sort of editorial preferential treatment, then that happens. The public's perception is too often shaped by what is seen on the evening news.
As a former Vice-Principal and present teacher, I know that we do not allow the media into the school to talk to students. The media, instead, waits just off school property to talk to any students that might be interested enough to talk to them. The media plays off of students' desire to be "in the news" rather than work ethically and waiting for an official representative to talk to.
Violence sells; extreme violence sells even more. Students see this and know this. When copy-cat crimes of violence are perpetrated, the perpetrator is well aware of this and may actually wish to be remembered as the biggest, or the baddest, or whatever.
Yes, I believe that the media has had a played a role (however small or large) and must take some responsibility for what has transpired in some of the cases we hear and see in the news.
3.14 Student attitudes and behavior.
ReplyDeleteWhile working in my first school as a Vice-Principal I was given the opportunity to work with a grade 3 aboriginal boy who was in trouble for bullying others at the school. When I heard his story I was amazed that that was all he was doing.
His mother had been a prostitute and was addicted to heroine and died of an overdose. This boy and his brother were placed in a foster home but was moved along through several different homes. In one of his last homes before coming to my school he watched as his brother was beaten to death in the bath tub by his foster-dad.
It dawned on me that there was very little I could do that could possibly be any worse than anything that has happened in his life. My only approach would have to be to understand him and the problems that were moving him toward his bullying behaviour.
The problems teachers experience in school can only be described as daunting. To have to be educational experts, social workers, and psychologists. All of these things while 25-30 students sit in front of them.
We do the best we can with what we have to work with. With supports like SchoolPLUS or Community Schools we can only hope to be able to make the necessary interventions in some of these children's lives.