Creation of a Video

I learned to use a new tool, so that's a bit of a hooray! Also making the video did have me in a slightly less jaded mood, so that is definitely a woot! So here it is my video on Educational Laws...

A school board without a community

So for my second assignment I needed to view some PTA or PTO or school board meetings. I searched high and low and this is the assignment...

Please consider this a warning, I didn’t go into this assignment with my eyes wide open. I went in with a bad attitude, and I have to say that I come out of the assignment the same way. After doing the research for assignment #1 I wasn’t expecting to be surprised. I’m sad to report that I wasn’t surprised, and I come out of assignment #2 even more dejected than I was after assignment #1.

I spent a good portion of time trying to find the YouTube video of the high school district that I graduated from and Hatboro-Horsham School District in Montgomery County Pennsylvania. Sadly I could not find any kind of video of the meeting or any meetings for that matter. Instead what I could find 4 minutes from the school board and PTA and PTO meetings.

The most current set of minutes is from June 15th of 2015 so almost a year out of date. The reading had no one that was not a member of the school board. And actually two members of the school board including the president were actually absent for the meeting. As it was the end of the year it wasn't surprising to see that the vast majority of the minutes or giving out Awards and recognizing the retirements of several important members of the school District. On a good note the recognition did not just include teachers but Administration as well as staff in the cafeteria and bus drivers. I appreciate that all members of the district or included in the recognition. I was sad to see that there was very little information on the actual year that has just passed as well as future information regarding the coming school year and plans for that.

I would love to see more activity from the community at Large but sadly I don't think that's going to happen. The community doesn't step out when everything seems to be working well. The Hatboro-Horsham School District is one of the best in the state of Pennsylvania and was ranked in the top 20 of the United States at one point in time. In fact one of the only issues that I can recall from my tenure going to the school (graduated in 1997) was the lack of diversity due to cost of living in the community.

Sadly too many people ignore something until it's broken. Because of this the activity from the community is very limited. Actually I struggle to call it a community as there is very little interaction between people or even neighbors.

There's one other thing that I noticed and I've noticed it a lot and University levels as well and that is the explosion of the Administration staff over the last several years maybe decades. It makes me truly question whether or not the school funding issue is actually just being allocated to administration rather than the students.  Perhaps we don't need so many administrators and instead we could focus more on teachers and students but that's an aside and a topic for another day.

**I feel like I need to make it clear that I do actually love teaching. It is truly the highlight of my day getting to work with my students and teach them all about science and sharing stories with them and reading stories to them. However this last week of research has left me angry and bitter and questioning the whys.

A Lesson in Common Core and Anger

After doing research all week I found myself at a point of anger and frustration that I may have never seen before. I have never come so close to quitting something so quickly as I did this week. 

Researching both American teaching unions (NEA, AFT) as well as the common core standards (CCSS) and several other International (UNESCO, UNICEF, NUT) and American National teaching websites (AAE) I've come across a system that I believe is broken well past the point of being fixed.

I'm a fan of unions I believe overall that they truly to help people and that with them more can get done. I need that clear because what I found when researching the two biggest American teaching unions as well as the largest in the UK was nothing more than rhetoric. 

The importance of equality runs through the NUT’s work. It is a key priority of the NUT to ensure that its members have a voice in the Union, in the classroom and in broader society, and do not face barriers to promotion, representation or participation. We believe that all children and young people should have equal access to a good school and an education system which treats staff and pupils fairly.

The language was flowery and beautiful. The overall substance was definitely lacking. Talking about fairness and equity, which are both very important, is all well and good. Without a plan in place or even a starting point those terms and that idea holds no water.

The main problem I found going website to website was that while all of them are full of  lovely rhetoric there was not an ounce of "here's what we need to do". There's absolutely no action plan. Perhaps the most disturbing part at all was there was no goal. 

The purpose of Education also known as the the why was nowhere to be found on the first five websites I visited. On the last website I visited which was the Common Core website I finally found the goal. Unfortunately I found that goal to be completely backwards from what I believe education is meant for. The goal of the common core standards is in this order college, career, and life. 

If that truly is the goal of Education in the United States of America then the system is absolutely doomed to fail and not just the system of education but the system of government itself.
For the first time in a very long time I actually had to be talked about from a virtual cliff. I was past the point of frustrated and angry and truly couldn't see why I should be a teacher at all if this was the goal of Education in America. If the purpose of education is to send our students to college then we've already failed them.

Website after website left me feeling bitter and angry. Perhaps I can be of Paris and believed that education for the sake of Education is truly the purpose of teaching. Perhaps I can say that because I have an education or that I've lived overseas for the better part of my life. I can say with certainty that if we are only educating our students for the sake of going to University. Then we may as well not be teaching them at all.

I live in a community of teachers, and the majority of my friends are all teachers. I have been discussing this research with them for days, and found myself getting angrier, and more jaded the more conversations we were having. These teachers are from across the globe, Ireland, UK, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA. It was finally another teacher (from Ireland) who reminded me that I don't teach the government that I teach individual students. It is that conversation alone that allowed me to continue on and write this blog. 

The research has taught me that it's time we take a much harder look at the whys of Education. We need to to think about the reasons that we are educating our young. It's through the understanding of why that will be able to truly fix the system and make it so that it can be equitable and fair to all.

It's time to take a much closer look at secondary education and the idea that vocational schools are less deserving than or colleges. It's time to realize that using our hands is just as important as using our brains. That a mechanic has no more or less significance than someone who's working in an office.

I am happy to add that while talking to a few education majors in university, a friends students, I was pointed to a recent article published in Korea, talking about the importance of vocational institutes, and that there will be a great deal more funding sent to them in the coming school year to help deal with the overwhelming unemployment numbers that Korea is experiencing. 

Info-graphic #1...A Learning Experience

Here it is the first assignment I'm uploading. I am choosing to upload this mostly because this was something that I feel I failed at. I don't hate what I did, I don't even dislike what I did. I do however find that what I did was completely different from what all of my classmates or cohorts did. I'm still not sure if I misinterpreted or misread the directions. All I do know is that in the end, mine was how I would use the information and research rather than restating the research. So here it is my info-graphic.

This was my first attempt at an info-graph, it was a far bit off from what my of my cohorts did, but then I've always been a bit different! I'm a big fan of applying lessons rather than regurgitating information. 

Let's Begin

Cheers! Here is the beginning of my licensing journey. I have been teaching in South Korea since August of 2011. I have loved my experiences and expect to continue doing so. That said, I have decided it is time to get my license. Ideally I would use this to continue working internationally, in an actual international school. Also, it'll be nice to have it as a fall back in case I must return to the land my parents call home (The USA). I hear Hawaii is hiring.

I am using a program called Teach Now to assist me with getting my license. This is where I will be sharing and documenting my journey with anyone interested in following along.  I'll include assignments and general feelings here.