I would like to think that it is common sense that if parents are involved in their child’s learning that the child will benefit and be more successful in life and academics as a whole. Jackson
and Davis emphasized this aspect by writing a chapter on how to get parents and
community members involved in learning so success is achieved. Through reading
this chapter I kept thinking to myself and writing in the margins “Duh,” “Of
course,” and “Doesn’t everyone know this,” but I guess in some households the
norm on schooling has gone out the window. Parents no longer think that it is
their specific job to enrich their child’s life on the knowledge of academics
and be interested in what their child is learning at school, after all that is
where their tax money is going, right? In my household, I was a three sport
athlete, I worked at part time job and I was in all the school plays, my parents
were on the sidelines cheering me on during sports, in the audience during my
performances and “nagging” me to do my homework. They were always interested in
the new things I was learning, the field trips I went on and the amount of
homework I got in a night. With their involvement, I felt that I had to prove
myself and show what I could achieve. It saddens me to think that some parents
don’t even care what their child does after school let alone what they learn in
school. Family involvement is very important because it helps boost morel and
self-esteem in a child. With the involvement from others besides teachers they
know and realize how to act and behave in the “real-world” and their self-worth.
We should always give credit where credit is deserved. The children or young
adults as they may be are the kin of their parents and I feel it is their
parent’s responsibility to bring out the best in their children. Davis and Jackson
listed non-expensive things parents can do to show involvement on page 196 and
I feel that these three things should take place in every household. They are
(1) create a home environment that encourages learning, (2) express high (but
not unrealistic) expectations for their children’s achievement and future
careers, and (3) become involved in their children’s education at school and in
the community. By following these three expectations most students are able to
get higher grades, better test scores, have more positive attitudes, receive higher
graduation rates, better attendance and fewer placements in special education
as well as high enrollment in postsecondary education (colleges). The school
also profits because they know the parents by name and get the support for what
they do and how they do it. Throughout the chapter there were many ways on how
to involve parents that I may use in my classroom and spread school wide, but
most of them I felt we learned in practicum and were common sense like mentor
programs, after-school programs, and community service. I think another great
idea would be to have the parents read the same book as the students and have a
discussion with parents versus students so the students come show their
knowledge and the parents could enlighten their children on different ways of
reading the text (this worked out well with A Clockwork Orange in my
high school English class). I feel involvement helps all around: parents,
teachers and students and should be implemented throughout the whole year.
Showing posts with label TP2000. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TP2000. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
ch. 8:A Safe and Healthy School Environment
Have you ever understood why the students
that played three sports a year was in the high level track? In this chapter Jackson
and Davis explain why a safe and healthy school environment is important and
how we can maintain one. Health and fitness can affect an adolescent’s learning
and that is just not health and fitness from the student but from the school
itself. Did your school offer a healthy meal? Did you have free time for
exercise? Was your P. E. class year round? Did you have recess in middle
school? These questions if answered yes to the majority than you indeed came
from a healthy environment and were taught to be healthy and fit. What about
safety? Did you fear bullying? Were you scared of a lockdown or shooting? Was
there graffiti on the walls? Did your teachers belittle you? If answered no to
these questions than you were in a safe environment as well. Finding a balance
between safety and healthy is difficult to reach so Jackson and Davis help teachers
evaluate themselves by listing out standards for a healthy learning
environment, classroom management and discipline, promoting positive
interethnic and interracial relations, peer mediation and health promoting. The
two sections that hit me the hardest were the interethnic and interracial
relations and peer mediation because a lot of it has to do with the students
themselves. I love the idea of having students
mediate with each other to help solve their own problems because it tends to
allow them to take ownership and build confidence levels in themselves and
trust with those around them. Overall, this chapter will be a reference to me
when I have a classroom of myself.
that played three sports a year was in the high level track? In this chapter Jackson
and Davis explain why a safe and healthy school environment is important and
how we can maintain one. Health and fitness can affect an adolescent’s learning
and that is just not health and fitness from the student but from the school
itself. Did your school offer a healthy meal? Did you have free time for
exercise? Was your P. E. class year round? Did you have recess in middle
school? These questions if answered yes to the majority than you indeed came
from a healthy environment and were taught to be healthy and fit. What about
safety? Did you fear bullying? Were you scared of a lockdown or shooting? Was
there graffiti on the walls? Did your teachers belittle you? If answered no to
these questions than you were in a safe environment as well. Finding a balance
between safety and healthy is difficult to reach so Jackson and Davis help teachers
evaluate themselves by listing out standards for a healthy learning
environment, classroom management and discipline, promoting positive
interethnic and interracial relations, peer mediation and health promoting. The
two sections that hit me the hardest were the interethnic and interracial
relations and peer mediation because a lot of it has to do with the students
themselves. I love the idea of having students
mediate with each other to help solve their own problems because it tends to
allow them to take ownership and build confidence levels in themselves and
trust with those around them. Overall, this chapter will be a reference to me
when I have a classroom of myself.
Ch. 4: Designing Instruction to Improve Teaching and Learning
Through this chapter, we were exposed to the
challenges of a curriculum. How should it be set up? What do we want to
accomplish? And, how can we accomplish it for all learners? Jackson and Davis
stress that our main goal is to ensure that every student achieves success. As
middle school teachers our vision of a “successful” 15 year-old student is (a)
intellectually reflective, (b) caring, (c) healthy, (d) ethical, (e) a good
citizen and (f) en route to a lifetime of meaningful work. Educators are placed
in the school system as the heartbeat of the students—they are responsible for
the teaching and the learning process. Sometimes the teachers become the
students of the students to make the process full circle and rewarding. The
three things to make learning successful when integrated together are
curriculum, assessment methods, and students as well as the instruction. The
instruction is the meat and potatoes of the classroom and includes the tools,
strategies, lessons, and activities. This setup is much like the backwards
design we used in practicum. The curriculum is what is being accomplished all
together, the assessment is a way to have students demonstrate what was accomplished,
and the students needs, interests and concerns must mesh to make learning
successful. I disagreed with the equity and excellence section greatly because
I grew up in a tracked school. I hated how the upper levels and lower levels
had different projects from each other and choice was eliminated. I believe
that if all schools were untracked than students would have a greater chance to
become stronger and show their full potential. Tracking, I feel, is a way to
pull the weaker students down and push the higher achievers up at the same
time. Don’t we want to push everyone to success? I enjoyed reading about the
two models, WHERE and differentiated instruction and I feel both of these would
boost student achievement and overall success. When a student is engaged he/she
would be more likely to do their best and give effort to their work. Through
both of these instruction methods, choice is the key. This chapter also focused
on reading and learning how to read. I found it heartbreaking how many young
adolescents actually couldn’t read. I know in my classes, strategies will be
sought out but I loved the idea of libraries in the classroom with books on
content in all reading levels. When I was in middle school we had reading buddies
at the elementary school, where we’d go over once a week and read to a first
grader. I felt that this was beneficial to both the middle school student and
the first grader. I think this “buddy reading” should be implemented in all
districts so that reading is still the focus but not priority.
challenges of a curriculum. How should it be set up? What do we want to
accomplish? And, how can we accomplish it for all learners? Jackson and Davis
stress that our main goal is to ensure that every student achieves success. As
middle school teachers our vision of a “successful” 15 year-old student is (a)
intellectually reflective, (b) caring, (c) healthy, (d) ethical, (e) a good
citizen and (f) en route to a lifetime of meaningful work. Educators are placed
in the school system as the heartbeat of the students—they are responsible for
the teaching and the learning process. Sometimes the teachers become the
students of the students to make the process full circle and rewarding. The
three things to make learning successful when integrated together are
curriculum, assessment methods, and students as well as the instruction. The
instruction is the meat and potatoes of the classroom and includes the tools,
strategies, lessons, and activities. This setup is much like the backwards
design we used in practicum. The curriculum is what is being accomplished all
together, the assessment is a way to have students demonstrate what was accomplished,
and the students needs, interests and concerns must mesh to make learning
successful. I disagreed with the equity and excellence section greatly because
I grew up in a tracked school. I hated how the upper levels and lower levels
had different projects from each other and choice was eliminated. I believe
that if all schools were untracked than students would have a greater chance to
become stronger and show their full potential. Tracking, I feel, is a way to
pull the weaker students down and push the higher achievers up at the same
time. Don’t we want to push everyone to success? I enjoyed reading about the
two models, WHERE and differentiated instruction and I feel both of these would
boost student achievement and overall success. When a student is engaged he/she
would be more likely to do their best and give effort to their work. Through
both of these instruction methods, choice is the key. This chapter also focused
on reading and learning how to read. I found it heartbreaking how many young
adolescents actually couldn’t read. I know in my classes, strategies will be
sought out but I loved the idea of libraries in the classroom with books on
content in all reading levels. When I was in middle school we had reading buddies
at the elementary school, where we’d go over once a week and read to a first
grader. I felt that this was beneficial to both the middle school student and
the first grader. I think this “buddy reading” should be implemented in all
districts so that reading is still the focus but not priority.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Ch. 3: Curriculum and Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning
Through this chapter Jackson and Davis look at the lesson plans and curriculum with the end in mind. This process is called the backwards design. Through my experience in practicum, the backwards design worked to see the whole picture, the assessments, the objectives and the lessons. With the backwards design, we must base the objectives on the standards, what are students need to know at the end of the lesson. I feel that through this design the students are more apt to learn more because of the freedoms through the design. As long as formative and summative assessment takes place during the lesson we can see progress in the students’ growth. Therefore, none of the students have to do the same task for a lesson to be learned and growth to subside. The backwards design is an excellent way to set up a classroom curriculum because ALL students can meet or exceed high standards. We need not to “dumb” down the curriculum and its lessons, but, reveal connections, reality and interests for all. Through the backwards design, we must follow the standards that the NEGP sets forth for us to reach every individual student and bring out the best in each and every one of them. The standards are (1) concerned with the essential ideas (having understandings and questions you want your students to know by the end of the lesson), (2) useful and clear, (3) rigorous, accurate and sound, (4) brief, (5) feasible and taken together, (6) assessable, (7) developmental, (8) selected and modified or supplemented by consensus, and (9) adaptable and flexible. With these standards and the end in mind anything is possible. Therefore, I believe the backwards design is the best way to set up any lesson with any content.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Turning Points 2000 Ch. 6: Organizing Relationships for Learning
Jackson and Davis articulate the places where improvement is needed in the classroom. They believe that we must (1) change the curriculum, (2) change teaching methods, and (3) change assessment strategies. Through these three main components we also need to visualize solids relationships with our students and the other teachers we interact with on a daily basis. I appreciate when they say education “happens” through relationships because if we’re not happy with who we’re around we are less apt to pay attention and stay focused. At least, when I am uncomfortable in a situation, I shut down, I don’t participate and I’m blank. Students are capable of this shut down to or sometimes, they go to the other extreme and become the class clown. Motivation derives from support. Therefore, if our students are supported then they will be motivated to succeed. Numbers come into focus during these changes. How many students on a team? How many teachers? Is it better big or small? I agree with the smaller the better in the classroom atmosphere, but I also think a “good and successful” school will have a wide-range of dynamic teachers, maybe ten maximum so that each team has two teachers of each subject so variety occurs and not everyone does the math the same way or read the same books, yet, they can bounce ideas, curriculum and strategy off each other. In practicum, the teams worked out well and think overall they are beneficial depending on the persona of each team teacher and how they hold themselves and work with each other. I could live with it.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Synthesis and Abstract on Ch. 2 Turning Points 2000
Abstract
Throughout this chapter, Anthony Jackson and Gayle Davis focus the Educational setup on the 7 recommendations every teacher should follow. These recommendations are
1) Teach a curriculum grounded in rigorous, public academic standards for what students should know and be able to do, relevant to the concerns of adolescents and based on how students learn best.
2) Use instructional methods designed to prepare all students to achieve higher standards and become lifelong learners.
3) Staff middle grade schools with teachers who are experts at teaching young adolescents and engage teachers in ongoing, targeted professional development opportunities.
4) Organize relationships for learning to create a climate of intellectual development and a caring community of shared educational purposes.
5) Govern democratically, through direct or representative participation by all school staff members, the adults who know the students best.
6) Provide a safe and healthy school environment as part of the improving academic performance and developing caring and ethical citizens.
7) Involve parents and communities in supporting student learning and healthy development.
This is illustrated as web on page 25, where we can see how each piece works together to ensure success for “every” student in the end. In a middle level curriculum collaboration is sought out to be the key to success, it gives the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another (students and teachers alike) and forms that bound that, “we all similar and you are not superior to me.” Collaboration puts us on the same level. There should be a press for parental involvement for is pushes students both inside and outside of class. They will always have someone to collaborate with and help them. Out of the 7 recommendations, I feel #7 is the one many school districts need to still work at. Project Appleseed is an interactive website that helps community members, parents, teachers, and administrators work together to improve and support student learning as a whole.
Through the portrayal of the “envisioned” 15-year-old (page 22), we wonder how he got to be this way. This link, multiple intelligence in the classroom helps us identify who are students are before we start teaching so that we can ensure that they are being taught at their level of need. The “envisioned” 15-year old has five main characteristic which are:
1) Be an intellectually reflective person
2) A person en route to a lifetime of meaningful work
3) A good citizen
4) A caring and ethical individual
5) A healthy person
These five characteristics should be formed through their middle school years, so, it is our job to teach our students in this manner and build confidence and community based learning. After all, we must strive to be “proactive and not reactive” (24) meaning that every teacher should look for the best in all or every one of their students which ensures success for every individual across the board.
Synthesis
Through reading everyone’s blog we all had the same concerns, questions and interests they were (1) how can we involve community and parents in education, (2) the importance of the 7 recommendations and (3) the characteristics a young adolescent should carry. I found that through this chapter we agreed across the board that “schools and families must collaborate to establish continuity,” (24). This continuity is important for a child to succeed. They need to be hearing the same things from in a classroom as what they are told in their house. They need support. With this community based learning teachers also need shift the “core” material to be interesting to each individual. We need motion to change because structure will never be visualized or in motion unless change and structure support each other. Through that statement I conclude that learning needs to be fluid and come natural. The support from outside forces needs to be visualized hands on in order for it to work in middle school classrooms. Maybe by posting work around town, in the newspaper, etc. students will realize their stance and importance in the community. Some ideas for community and parent involvement comes from activities in the classroom that include parents, teachers, community members and students alike. Through this involvement we can build on the person as a whole be bouncing off points from each recommendation because each child is an individual who learns in different processes and needs support in various areas. If we include community and the recommendations as a web, we will have success in every student.
Now, I want each group to take a look at these management techniques and discuss how community involvement and the 7 recommendations will help develop the struggling student into the “envisioned” 15-year old student (22). We will then discuss the importance of a pendulum balance between core knowledge (classroom perspective) and community based learning. Will you involve the community? Did your school involve the community? How? When? Did it help you?
Throughout this chapter, Anthony Jackson and Gayle Davis focus the Educational setup on the 7 recommendations every teacher should follow. These recommendations are
1) Teach a curriculum grounded in rigorous, public academic standards for what students should know and be able to do, relevant to the concerns of adolescents and based on how students learn best.
2) Use instructional methods designed to prepare all students to achieve higher standards and become lifelong learners.
3) Staff middle grade schools with teachers who are experts at teaching young adolescents and engage teachers in ongoing, targeted professional development opportunities.
4) Organize relationships for learning to create a climate of intellectual development and a caring community of shared educational purposes.
5) Govern democratically, through direct or representative participation by all school staff members, the adults who know the students best.
6) Provide a safe and healthy school environment as part of the improving academic performance and developing caring and ethical citizens.
7) Involve parents and communities in supporting student learning and healthy development.
This is illustrated as web on page 25, where we can see how each piece works together to ensure success for “every” student in the end. In a middle level curriculum collaboration is sought out to be the key to success, it gives the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another (students and teachers alike) and forms that bound that, “we all similar and you are not superior to me.” Collaboration puts us on the same level. There should be a press for parental involvement for is pushes students both inside and outside of class. They will always have someone to collaborate with and help them. Out of the 7 recommendations, I feel #7 is the one many school districts need to still work at. Project Appleseed is an interactive website that helps community members, parents, teachers, and administrators work together to improve and support student learning as a whole.
Through the portrayal of the “envisioned” 15-year-old (page 22), we wonder how he got to be this way. This link, multiple intelligence in the classroom helps us identify who are students are before we start teaching so that we can ensure that they are being taught at their level of need. The “envisioned” 15-year old has five main characteristic which are:
1) Be an intellectually reflective person
2) A person en route to a lifetime of meaningful work
3) A good citizen
4) A caring and ethical individual
5) A healthy person
These five characteristics should be formed through their middle school years, so, it is our job to teach our students in this manner and build confidence and community based learning. After all, we must strive to be “proactive and not reactive” (24) meaning that every teacher should look for the best in all or every one of their students which ensures success for every individual across the board.
Synthesis
Through reading everyone’s blog we all had the same concerns, questions and interests they were (1) how can we involve community and parents in education, (2) the importance of the 7 recommendations and (3) the characteristics a young adolescent should carry. I found that through this chapter we agreed across the board that “schools and families must collaborate to establish continuity,” (24). This continuity is important for a child to succeed. They need to be hearing the same things from in a classroom as what they are told in their house. They need support. With this community based learning teachers also need shift the “core” material to be interesting to each individual. We need motion to change because structure will never be visualized or in motion unless change and structure support each other. Through that statement I conclude that learning needs to be fluid and come natural. The support from outside forces needs to be visualized hands on in order for it to work in middle school classrooms. Maybe by posting work around town, in the newspaper, etc. students will realize their stance and importance in the community. Some ideas for community and parent involvement comes from activities in the classroom that include parents, teachers, community members and students alike. Through this involvement we can build on the person as a whole be bouncing off points from each recommendation because each child is an individual who learns in different processes and needs support in various areas. If we include community and the recommendations as a web, we will have success in every student.
Now, I want each group to take a look at these management techniques and discuss how community involvement and the 7 recommendations will help develop the struggling student into the “envisioned” 15-year old student (22). We will then discuss the importance of a pendulum balance between core knowledge (classroom perspective) and community based learning. Will you involve the community? Did your school involve the community? How? When? Did it help you?
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Pages 102-105 of Turning Points 2000
Pages 102-105: Turning Points 2000
Through these pages, we are introduced to the licensing procedures of the teaching community. Although middle school is its own continuum, we have overlap because the elementary education majors are certified K-8 and the secondary majors are certified 7-12. Where does middle school fit in? Is it less important? In the “middle school” certification field, teachers take a test and then are certified 6-9 which is considered the young adolescent years where change and fears set in. This licensing for middle school certification is not required, yet one is more apt to get the job if they can show they placed in effort further than others in the field. Having this gap makes most feel like middle level certification is unimportant whereas it is the most crucial years of a student’s life. They learn and discover more about themselves as well as become independent and vulnerable due to relationships and puberty. As teachers in this level we must show a guiding hand and be there for encouragement along the way.
Through these pages, we are introduced to the licensing procedures of the teaching community. Although middle school is its own continuum, we have overlap because the elementary education majors are certified K-8 and the secondary majors are certified 7-12. Where does middle school fit in? Is it less important? In the “middle school” certification field, teachers take a test and then are certified 6-9 which is considered the young adolescent years where change and fears set in. This licensing for middle school certification is not required, yet one is more apt to get the job if they can show they placed in effort further than others in the field. Having this gap makes most feel like middle level certification is unimportant whereas it is the most crucial years of a student’s life. They learn and discover more about themselves as well as become independent and vulnerable due to relationships and puberty. As teachers in this level we must show a guiding hand and be there for encouragement along the way.
Ch. 2 of Turning Points 2000: A Design for Improving Middle Grades Education
Ch. 2 Turning Points 2000
A Design for Improving Middle Grades Education
The design begins with an average 15 year old and contributions he or she should be able to bring to society. They chose a 15 year old primarily because that age is the transforming age from young adolescent to adolescent. Everything an adolescent obtains would have been learned by this point in time. The average 15 year old should be an intellectually reflective person who is on the right track for a lifetime of meaningful work. This 15 year old is a good, caring and ethical citizen who is mostly of good health. To ensure all adolescents grow up in this standard model of the 15 year old, we must first obtain a goal of success for every student. These goals are backed up by a list of 8 principles or recommendations (pg 23-24). The two that stood out was to (1) be proactive instead of reactive, meaning every teacher should look for the silver-lining, the good in the students and (2) collaborate, meaning that everyone (students, teachers, parents, administrators, and the community at large) should be on the same page. This collaboration helps bounce ideas back and forth and make students feel important and attainable. With collaboration there forms a mutual respect for one another. Turning Points is also used to help us teach a core of curriculum knowledge that ties in to adolescent concerns. When the materials interest the students’, they are more apt to be engaged and focused on the learning as a whole. Therefore, the main goal with teaching by the Turning Point Standards is to ensure that every student fulfills Turning Point vision of becoming an intellectually, reflective person, a person en route to a lifetime of meaningful work , a good citizen, and a caring/ethical individual as well as being a healthy person. Turning Points should work as an intangible method in young adolescent life; it is stagnate whereas everything and everyone around us is changing. It helps pressure this ability that we need something steady in our lives for success and obtaining our goals as individuals. This should start at home, but for those less-privileged the school and the teachers must provide a base and that is where Turning Point takes a role in young adolescent’s lives and well-beings.
A Design for Improving Middle Grades Education
The design begins with an average 15 year old and contributions he or she should be able to bring to society. They chose a 15 year old primarily because that age is the transforming age from young adolescent to adolescent. Everything an adolescent obtains would have been learned by this point in time. The average 15 year old should be an intellectually reflective person who is on the right track for a lifetime of meaningful work. This 15 year old is a good, caring and ethical citizen who is mostly of good health. To ensure all adolescents grow up in this standard model of the 15 year old, we must first obtain a goal of success for every student. These goals are backed up by a list of 8 principles or recommendations (pg 23-24). The two that stood out was to (1) be proactive instead of reactive, meaning every teacher should look for the silver-lining, the good in the students and (2) collaborate, meaning that everyone (students, teachers, parents, administrators, and the community at large) should be on the same page. This collaboration helps bounce ideas back and forth and make students feel important and attainable. With collaboration there forms a mutual respect for one another. Turning Points is also used to help us teach a core of curriculum knowledge that ties in to adolescent concerns. When the materials interest the students’, they are more apt to be engaged and focused on the learning as a whole. Therefore, the main goal with teaching by the Turning Point Standards is to ensure that every student fulfills Turning Point vision of becoming an intellectually, reflective person, a person en route to a lifetime of meaningful work , a good citizen, and a caring/ethical individual as well as being a healthy person. Turning Points should work as an intangible method in young adolescent life; it is stagnate whereas everything and everyone around us is changing. It helps pressure this ability that we need something steady in our lives for success and obtaining our goals as individuals. This should start at home, but for those less-privileged the school and the teachers must provide a base and that is where Turning Point takes a role in young adolescent’s lives and well-beings.
Ch. 1 of Turning Points 2000: A Decade Later
Ch. 1: Turning Points 2000
Turning Points—A Decade Later
Turning Points worked as reform of education. It was a changing process that ensured success in young adults. Is it ferocious to say that through this one report, this one plan of action, we will find success across the board? After reading this chapter, one would realize that every step in the Turning Points step-up is backed up by numerous facts and accusations that prove this method of teaching is the most crucial and beneficial in the young adolescent mind. Turning Points was first published in 1989 where change was emerging and the foreshadowing of what an adolescent education looked like deemed clear and possibility driven. Whereas previous in 1986 the CCAD was primarily established as a “place to challenge adolescents” per say. This challenge presented new materials in which students were unable to grasp right away. And in 1987 the council established a Task Force on Education of young adolescents. This Task Force examines 10-15 year olds and identifies promising approaches in improving their education and promoting their healthy development. At this particular time period it is heart-wrenching that middle schools are falling short of meeting educational and social needs of millions of its students. The Turning Points report was established for these particular students with 8 essential principles in mind (all of which are important and located on page 2). Through this model, students, parents and teachers are able to see the whole picture, a starting point and an ending point where all goals are attainable. Through the configuration improvements and pull, we find an urge to change structurally and organizationally. Teachers provide math manipulatives and extended writing assignments to make work more adhesive. Through the change middle schools became warmer, happier places. Overall, adolescents are tough, trying years where self-esteem drops and self-discovery begins. As teachers, we must open our students up to think creatively, identify and solve meaningful problems, communicate and work well with each other and develop a base of factual knowledge with the key focus of equity. We are all the same. We cannot judge. Our expectations must be the same across the board. “Teachers cannot come to expect more of their students until they come to expect more of their capacity to teach,” reminds me so much of the movie Freedom Writers where the students have to grade themselves and Mrs. Gruwell takes the “F” one of the students placed on his own paper as an “F you” to her because it is universal that teachers are and should be accountable for the performance of the students’. After all, they are the ones providing the material. Turning Points, in my eyes seems to work and make each person seem as a pendulum working off each other and collaborating to achieve a goal instead of simply having a teacher dictate what should and should not happen.
Turning Points—A Decade Later
Turning Points worked as reform of education. It was a changing process that ensured success in young adults. Is it ferocious to say that through this one report, this one plan of action, we will find success across the board? After reading this chapter, one would realize that every step in the Turning Points step-up is backed up by numerous facts and accusations that prove this method of teaching is the most crucial and beneficial in the young adolescent mind. Turning Points was first published in 1989 where change was emerging and the foreshadowing of what an adolescent education looked like deemed clear and possibility driven. Whereas previous in 1986 the CCAD was primarily established as a “place to challenge adolescents” per say. This challenge presented new materials in which students were unable to grasp right away. And in 1987 the council established a Task Force on Education of young adolescents. This Task Force examines 10-15 year olds and identifies promising approaches in improving their education and promoting their healthy development. At this particular time period it is heart-wrenching that middle schools are falling short of meeting educational and social needs of millions of its students. The Turning Points report was established for these particular students with 8 essential principles in mind (all of which are important and located on page 2). Through this model, students, parents and teachers are able to see the whole picture, a starting point and an ending point where all goals are attainable. Through the configuration improvements and pull, we find an urge to change structurally and organizationally. Teachers provide math manipulatives and extended writing assignments to make work more adhesive. Through the change middle schools became warmer, happier places. Overall, adolescents are tough, trying years where self-esteem drops and self-discovery begins. As teachers, we must open our students up to think creatively, identify and solve meaningful problems, communicate and work well with each other and develop a base of factual knowledge with the key focus of equity. We are all the same. We cannot judge. Our expectations must be the same across the board. “Teachers cannot come to expect more of their students until they come to expect more of their capacity to teach,” reminds me so much of the movie Freedom Writers where the students have to grade themselves and Mrs. Gruwell takes the “F” one of the students placed on his own paper as an “F you” to her because it is universal that teachers are and should be accountable for the performance of the students’. After all, they are the ones providing the material. Turning Points, in my eyes seems to work and make each person seem as a pendulum working off each other and collaborating to achieve a goal instead of simply having a teacher dictate what should and should not happen.
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