Bad Kids

My mother is a first grade teacher and has been for about twenty years. Over the course of her career she has said time and time again that the kids today behave a lot differently than they did when she first started teaching. The kids have a harder time paying attention and listening to rules and directions. My mom finds that the kids now get in trouble more. They aren't afraid to get their name written on the board to stay in from recess. I think that this problem has a lot to do with the parents. Parents just don't seem to care about what their kids are doing in school or how they are behaving. They also don't disapline their kids like they used to even when I was growing up. Punishment is not an option in a lot of homes. I think that that is terrible because it is not the teachers job to babysit the kids! The students should come to class prepared to learn and try their hardest to behave throughout the day so that the teacher can do his or her job. So much time is wasted punishing kids.

The Olden Days

Do you remember when you were in elementary school? Did you ever think, wow this class is so hard! I definitely remember thinking that. Well, today many of the things we learned as elementary students don't even exist anymore. The school system upgraded all of the standards and so, therefore, classes got even harder. The government expects so much more from students these days. I work for America Reads and so I get to help tutor students from different schools. Honestly, some of the homework they have is difficult for me to understand! I think that's pretty sad. I'm not sure if it is helping our future generations or making it hurt more because more and more kids are failing grades. Elementary school should be for introductory knowledge. Why do they have to be pressured to learn about things I didn't learn about until junior/senior high school?

Inclusion

Inclusion is a pretty new term used in education. It means that ALL students should be included in the regular education classroom as much as possible. There are special education classrooms to help disabled students understand material and do better in their studies. However, the government expects all regular education teachers to try to include these students in their everyday classroom. This could be difficult because teachers have to make arrangements and changes to their day to make sure every kid in the classroom can learn exactly the same material and be tested on it. I don't understand why there has to be inclusion in the classroom. I think it makes the regular education teachers job a heck of a lot harder and more tedious. I also think that if there are special education classrooms, why can't they be used? I think that way the special education students will get more individual time with a special education teacher and they will be able to have a better understanding of material they need to learn.

More on NCLB

Here's a little more of what I think about No Child Left Behind. This law states that every child must be on the same level by the year 2014. This level says that each child should be performing at 100% on the proficient level of the state standardized tests! Every single child? That includes children with disabilities I will have you know! I think that every child learns at a different pace and not all can perform at 100%! That just seems to be an impossible goal to cover. So you see, according to my last post, that teachers truly must focus all of their energy on teaching the subjects for the state standardized tests. They must spend most of their time reviewing and going over information that will be on them so that each class in every school will be able to make the standards. If they don't achieve their goals every year then the school will be punished in a certain way each time they don't fulfill the goal. Once again, I feel like this law should be abolished or changed in many ways so that it can actually help and not hurt our education of this generation and others to follow!

No Child Left Behind!

How many people feel that No Child Left Behind is a law that will and is working for the students of this country? I certainly do not think it is at all. I have heard from many teachers that complying to this law is making their jobs miserable and unbearable. Think about it, teachers now much focus so much of their time and energy on the subjects on the state standardized tests, like the PSSA's. Those subjects include reading, math, writing, and now science. There isn't any time for music, art, or history! I feel like kids need music and art in school! If not, where do our future singers, painters, etc come from? I started playing my flute in fourth grade and I've sang ever since kindergarten! I loved music in school and it was what I looked forward to the most. Without it I feel that school would have been extremely boring. Also, without teaching history how are kids going to know what happened in the world? I think that by teaching history students get a view of the mistakes made, and the way of life has changed over time! It's important for them to learn it so that history won't repeat itself! Basically what I am saying is that No Child Left Behind has left many children behind in knowing some of the most valuable subjects that have been around. I think that there needs to be something done to alter this law so that so much time isn't spent directly on math and reading! I think it would make both the kids and the teachers feel more at ease and have a better time in school.

Why Teach Elementary Students

Often times when I tell people what my major in college is they frown and ask me why I would pick that. They tell me that teachers don't make any money, it's hard to find a job, and that I will probably quit after five years due to stress, etc. This angers me a little bit, and I never know what to say to those kind of people who think that. First of all, teachers actually do make a good amount of money depending where they work. My mom is an elementary teacher and she was a single parent for most of my life and we never had any financial problems. Second of all, is it hard to find a teaching position. Yes. However, they are out there you just need to know where to look and to be smart about it. For instance, if all your life you knew you wanted to be a first grade teacher in a rural school district what would you do if a position opened up for a fifth grade classroom in the city of Harrisburg? Obviously, you would want to take it because it is hard to find a teaching job. That way if you take it you'll have a better chance, later on, with experience to possibly have your dream job. Thirdly, there is stress in being a teacher. There's stress in pretty much any job you have. Some people aren't meant to be teachers so they quit. That's fine because if you're not happy then you shouldn't continue to be unhappy. That's why many teachers quit. It's just a statistic. I've wanted to be a teacher all my life and can see myself doing it for the rest of my life. You never know but as of now, I know that this job is what i'm meant to do. So, I don't think people should judge people of being teachers before they know the whole story. What do you think?