KIDS NEED RECESS

While searching for an article to blog on, I came across an interesting article posted August 7, 2008 in the Chicago Sun Times entitled "Some schools too poor for recess", by Rosalind Rossi. This article talked about kids needing recess, art and physical education, in order to cope with the violence, trauma and stress that they have to live with as a day to day part of their lives. In some Chicago area's most affluent schools students participating in that midday break is a very real part of school for them. Not so true for schools serving Chicago's poor in the city's most violent areas.



These children are deprived of recess, physical education and fine arts, which will give the students a break from formal academics and allow them to socialize with their peers. The Sun-Times also did a survey on how most children living in violence are afraid to leave their blocks or go to their local park to play. An expert on kids and violence, Olga Jarrett and a Georgia State University associate professor, who is president of the American Association of the Child's Right to Play states, "Its a big problem." she recommends recess be given to children daily up to eighth grade. In a study she conducted, she found that fourth-graders were more focused after recess then those who did not participate in recess.



This is a big problem to me!! Again, the poor children are being deprived, or their education is compromised. This is just another factor in why poor children are not learning on the same level as other children. We all know that children are not machines, but yet they are expected to go into the classroom pay attend to the lesson given, watch their behavior and dare not talk or walk around. No other class of people is expected to sit for six hour a day without some form of interaction or relief. And yet these children are expected to perform on the tests and make the same grades and achievements as children who receive recess, fine are and physical education more than once a week. If we know something as small as recess could play such an important role in improving children's education why is it so hard to implement it, its not rocket science you know!!

"Some schools too poor for recess"
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1124746,CST-NWS-recess25.article
By Rosalind Rossi, Education Reporter/rrossi@suntime.com

"Students' robbed of their childhood"
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1095822,CST-NWS-healing07.article
By Rosalind Rossi, Education Report/rrossi@suntime.com

Performance base pay for teachers

On March 11, 2009, the Chicago Tribune printed an articles on teacher performance incentives. The article entitled "Chicago school is ready for teacher performance pay", was very interesting and this article really started me to think long and hard on weather or not it should be implemented. After long deliberation, I think I'm totally for this issue. Right now I'm currently employed in the medical profession, and after this semester, I will be seeking a job in the education field. Now every year, around Thanksgiving, the staff at my hospital get a bonus. Everyone from Housekeepers to Nurses can look forward to adding funds to their Christmas money they have budgeted for gifts. Our bonus is determined on how much money we save the hospital and the amount of money they make. So everyone is very aware of the spending and how much things cost, so we all try to do our best to save the company money. But if we don't stay within our budget, the staff is still rewarded our annual salary.



Late Tuesday President Obama advocated expanding performance-based pay for teachers. There will be a trial program that will take part in Chicago in which twenty schools will take part in a federally funded program. The program will get on its way once the approval of the Chicago Teachers Union along with the majority of unionized teachers. They will receive $27 million dollars over the next five years from United States education officials.



This could be very tricky and the teachers have to make sure that they read all of the find print. Now Merit pay could mean that teachers are under a microscope during the 3 weeks of testing time each year. When reading the blog "Bad Teachers/Merit Pay vs. Good Teaching" Posted by a Teacher of 12 years, she and other who commented on the subject, hit some very good points that made me think twice about performance base pay.



Every child is different and everyone learns at a different level and in different ways. If merit pay is an incentive to try harder then I'm all for it. Since teachers are being measured on test scores and the schools performance, just maybe this is one way to add to the motivation pot. I think teachers deserve as much incentive and reward as the world could possible give them.

Sites Related to blog:

Stand Up For Schools
"Bad Teachers/Merit Pay vs. Good Teaching"
by Mrs. Turner
http://www.standupforschools.org/forum/topics/bad-teachersmerit-pay-vs-good

Chicago Tribune.com
"Chicago Elementary School is part of a trial program"
by Carlos Sadovi
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/content/education/chi-performance-pay-11mar11

Dewey's "Theories and Morals"

In Dewey's Chapter 26 of Theories and Morals He talks of how past and present are equally important and how the two intertwine. I must admit reading Dewey takes some real thinking. It is not an easy read by far, but once you get it I think you get it. I found the section on history and present social life very interesting. In the summary he stated that "It is the nature of an experience to have implications which go far beyond what is at first consciously noted in it. Bringing these connections or implications to consciousness enhances the meaning of the experience. Any experience, however trivial in its first appearance, is capable of assuming an indefinite richness of significance by extending its range of perceived connections."





Knowing our past surely affects our future is my belief! Living life you will make mistakes that could very well create obstacles that could prohibit you from accomplishing you goals. Once these experience are lived they become your past. In an articles entitled "How Our Past Becomes Our Future." published by Jonathan Parker, PhD. he states that "In every life there are obstacles automatically created by forces we have set in motion in the the past. If you look back on your life you will see that some or perhaps many of the things you suffered with seem to be expertly, intricately and perhaps even intentionally manufactured motivators. " This articles is used for self-improvement and spirituality, but is fit into my understand of what Dewey was trying to get across.





Knowing what happened in the past are used in every profession to help and aid us. When in a doctor's office you are asked to fill out a form with all your and your family past medical history. This is try to identify health risks that might be hereditary. Scientist look at weather conditions that will tell if a life threatening storm will cause a catastrophe and just maybe they will be able to evacuate people before there is devastation. And history is studied so we can learn from prior mistakes and also learn from great experiences that may very well support us in accomplishing our goals.





How Our Past Becomes Our Future

By Jonathan Parker, Ph.D.

http://ezinarticles.com/?How-Our-Past-Becomes-Our-Future&id=2046034


Health Care Industry
"Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Reasoning"
Lawrence Kohlberg, Psychologist
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi-g2602/is-0003/ai-2602000337/

Pros and cons of a modified and year-round school years

I have always had a love for school, maybe its the fact that I've always love exploring new things. When the topic came up in class about extended school year I had to comment on it. In my research I found an article entitled "The Effects of Modified school calendars on Student achievement and on School and Community..." It talked about how in America the early years of formal education, was center around agricultural areas and how school attendance was limited to 5 or 6 months in a year. This was very important to family that depended on the farming economy, in which children were a large part of a families workforce during harvest time. It goes on to state that in the same era, urban schools might have a 11-12 month calendar. When families began moving from farms to the cities at an alarming rate,*(The Great Migration) the division of classes by age began and students of the same age needed to be educated on the same level. Since today only about 3% of American families depend on agriculture for income, the need for summers off seem to me, to be unnecessary.

Summer school is another means to extending the school year. In the book "The American School 1642-2000" by Joel spring, He talks about how summer school was established as a means for extending the influence of the school over children's lives. In 1872, Cambridge, Massachusetts' school committee decided there was a need for vacation school because they felt summers were a time of idleness, crime and many roam the streets with no friendly hand to guide them. I truly think that this holds true today over one hundred year later.

I believe that there are wonderful programs implemented today that aid in the growth of our youths education, More need to be done. Statistics show that crime and murder are at an increase during summer months when children are not in school or left alone while parents are at work. Implementing year-around school year or modifying the school calendar is indeed by my belief one of the way to increase learning and aid in adolescent crime.

Here are two sources related to my blog:

"The American School 1642-2000" Fifth edition
By Joel Spring, Published by McGraw-Hill, New York, New York 10020 Copyright 2001

"The Effects of Modified School Calendars on Student Achievement and on School and Community Attitude..."
Harris Cooper, Jeffrey C. Valentine, Kelly Charlton and April Melson
Review of Educational Research, vol 73, No. 1 (Spring, 2003), pp 1-52
Published byL: American Educational Research Association

out of school factors and school success

FND 511- Blog #1 (Final Draft)

Poverty and Potential: Out of School Factors and School Success

The article entitled "Poverty and Potential: Out of School Factors and Schools Success" By David C. Berliner list the seven factors that contribute to student success in school. They are as follows:

1. Low birth-weight and non-genetic prenatal influences on children

2. inadequate medical, dental, and vision care, often a result in inadequate or no medical insurance

3. food insecurity

4. environmental pollutants

5. family relations and stress

6. neighborhood characteristics

7. extended learning opportunities such as preschool, summer school after school

In his research Mr. Berliner talks about each factor in detail and how they play a direct affect on students living in poverty and how the factors play a role in the students learning. I'm in total agreement with the researcher and do believe these factors play a significant part in children's learning, but i also think that these factors have not just recently occurred. They are factors that have been in existence since and maybe before I attended grammar and secondary schools, and in my opinion, need to be addressed more aggressively.

I was very impressed by how Mr. Berliner talks about the effect of students being murdered, having a significant impact on teachers and students in the school. Factor number 6 (neighborhood characteristics) hit home with me. Growing up and presently living in a neighborhood where poverty is all around me, I identified immediately with this factor. In the past few years the news has been filled with CPS students being murdered, this year alone the number is up to 29-30 victims. I could only imagine the impact this has had on the peers and teachers of the murdered students. Reading the part of the student waiting for his murdered friend to show up for lunch only put me in the mind set of know that learning would be almost impossible for that child until he/she received some psychological help. Also, the impact it has on the teachers who taught the murdered students, and needless to say how they handle the class, grief and the issues after this event. Teachers themselves need help dealing with this tragedy. Teachers helping students seem almost impossible if they need help yours.

I believe that when the government take a more aggressive role in addressing the OSF's and begin realizing that they are just as or even more as important as the financial bailouts, then and only then may we see a significant turn around. Teachers are often time left with solving problems which they have no resources to do so.

Here are two additional websites related to this article:

Mapping Educational Inequality: Concentrations of Poverty among Poor and Minority Students in Public Schools

Salvatore Saporito, Deenesh Sohoni

Social Forces, Vol. 85, No. 3 ( March 2007), pp. 1227=1253

Published by: University of North Carolina Press

Stable URL:http:// www. jstor.org/stable/4494971

High-Flying Schools, Student Disadvantage, and Logic of NCLB

Douglas N. Harris

American Journal of Education, Vol. 113, No. 3 (May, 2007), pp. 367-394

Published by : The University of Chicago Press

http://www.jstor.org/stable/4496905