PTA. If you're the mom of a school-age child who attends public school, you know about PTA (or PTO). Because I used to be a teacher, I always felt that I needed to contribute to the school. I should volunteer. I should join PTA. I should be at the school helping out as much as possible.
The reality is for me that I don't really like to do it. When the teachers find out I used to teach school, they always want to put me with a small group of struggling readers and have me do a reading group. Or help a student who needs help with math one-on-one. But it's very uncomfortable for me. Often they do it with no guidance, so I'm not sure what it is they really want me to do. It's one thing to be in charge of your own class, have a curriculum that you use and are familiar with and do what you want with it. But when you are helping out a teacher, you aren't the one in charge. They are. I once had a kindergarten teacher hand me a packet of letter activities and a list of students' names and thanked me for helping. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Therefore, I have sort of avoided helping out in the schools. I sign up for the teachers to send work home for me to do, like cutting things out or sorting through papers, even grading. But I try to stay away from being in the actual classroom.
At the end of last year when PTA papers went out, I decided that it was time I did my fair share. After all, I will have three kids at the school and I have experience teaching school. So I decided instead of just paying PTA dues and doing work for the teachers at home, I would try to do something more. I looked at the choices of what committees to sign up for and picked a few that seemed interesting to me, thinking I could help on at least one committee. The things was, there was just a list of committees, no explanations attached as to what you actually did on that committee.
About a week later, I got an email from the PTA president asking me if I would be the Art Commissioner. No explanation as to what it was, no information about the art program. I was promised I would get more information in a couple of weeks and told that I would be helping with the school's art program. I thought I have experience with art and know a little about it, this could be interesting, so I accepted.
I finally found out a few weeks ago what would be expected of me.
I get to teach art to the school. Once a month, the second Friday of the month, I get to go to the school and teach an art lesson on a famous artist to each grade level. It will be all day, from 8:30 am to 1:20 pm (Fridays are short days here) and I will see each grade level come through. I'll give them a fifteen minute lesson as a grade and then they'll separate back into their classrooms to do the artwork and I'll walk around checking to see what help is needed.
I am very excited about this. I do have a little bit of an art background--I studied art in high school and took some art classes in college. Art was a favorite subject of mine to teach too, when I got the chance, which was rare, based on the 100% focus on reading and math these days. I have been pondering the idea of teaching again when my kids are all in school, missing teaching. But I don't miss dealing with the district and the parents and the contract, etc. This will fill my desire to be teaching again without all the hang-ups. Plus, the curriculum is all made, all I have to do is follow the lesson outline and teach it. Once a month. It's just the perfect thing.
The best part is, they had no idea I had teaching experience and was knowledgeable about art when they handed me this assignment. I'm so excited about this!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Book Review: These Is My Words
These Is My Words by Nancy E. TurnerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is currently my favorite book. I really felt like I could relate to the main character on many levels. I loved reading about life in the Arizona Territory as well, having lived in Arizona for some time as a young mother. I always love a book from that time period (end of the 19th century). There are so many things we take for granted in our modern lives that they just dealt with back then. It makes me appreciate what I have. I also feel like we could learn something about hard work, even from fictional books from this period, or at least hard manual labor. I think sometimes, after reading a book like this, that we have it too easy. I would recommend this book to anyone. Even the romance wasn't gushy or overdone like in other books, and it was clean.
View all my reviews
Sunday, September 2, 2012
A Well-Rounded Education
American public schools are failing all over the nation. They are failing to teach literacy. They are failing to prepare students for higher education. They are failing to prepare students for life.
Reading and math, reading and math. I just read an article from some small town U.S.A. (outside of New Jersey) about how they are introducing all day kindergarten. Because of more hours in school, the article stated that they would be able to spend 30 percent more time on reading and 40 percent more time on math. The other 30 percent of the time was to be spent on building social skills. Let me ask this question. Whatever happened to science, social studies, art, writing, music, speech (as in public speaking skills), and P.E.? Why are these subjects being removed from schools all over the country in favor of reading and math? Don't people see what a disparity this is, how this takes us from what used to be a well-rounded education and makes it so lopsided and boring that young kids, who have a natural thirst for knowledge, are completely disinterested and bored in school by the time they are only seven years old? No wonder the public schools are failing--they are driving children away from loving learning and only teaching them to despise it.
I had a very well-rounded education. In elementary school, we went to P.E., art, and music once a week. They were pull-out classes with a certified instructor in that subject area that went for an hour each time. We also had one library day, which was 45 minutes. Those times were teacher prep times for our classroom teachers, plus we learned a lot in those classes. In art, we learned art history and about various artists in each period in art history and their contribution to art. In music, we learned about singing and various musical instruments. In P.E., we learned how to play many different sports and participated actively in doing them. In our classes, we learned science and social studies. I remember learning about how batteries worked and how the incandescent lightbulb worked, all in elementary school. We learned about the different time periods throughout world history, and that is when I developed my love for history.
Today's kids get plenty of instructional time in language skills. They have "balanced literacy" (something I'm actually on board with and I think is great, but too much time is focused on it). They have guided reading, shared reading, independent reading, and writing and word study (spelling). Guided reading is when they divide into leveled reading groups and read. Shared reading is when they read together as a class. Independent reading is just that, reading independently. They focus on phonics (now called something else but it slips my mind) and whole word studies. They do spelling. They touch on writing, but I feel they don't do enough with writing. It's mostly reading. This "balanced literacy" takes up much of the day, about three hours. If they are in school for 6.5 hours (which mine are), they have 45 minutes for lunch, 15 minutes for a separate recess, that only leaves 2.5 hours for everything else. Since math is also a priority, they usually spend 1-1.5 hours on math alone. Our school has a time set aside for extra help, to help kids who have fallen behind or give enrichment to kids who are keeping up and need more stimulation. I think that's great. We are lucky to still have P.E., although it's only 30 minutes and is very different than what it was when I was growing up. Library is 30 minutes, and they have computers too. As far as music and art, that's not really required anymore so many schools skip them altogether. Science and social studies are also often neglected, which is why 4th graders no longer know how to read maps (this should be taught in 1st and 2nd grade) and 5th graders no longer know much about history.
Education is always a big issue in elections. Everybody realizes that our system isn't working very well but nobody seems to know what to do about it. I suggest bringing us back to a well-rounded education. Bring back science, social studies, music and art. Include dance and theatre arts in that as well. When I was studying elementary education, I had to take classes in each subject area and learn the basics of that subject as well as how to teach it. We also took classes on how to integrate subjects into one another because time in the classroom is limited so it works to teach more than one subject at a time (like writing a history report using proper grammar and mechanics). I don't know if this is how teacher education still works, since it has been more than a decade since I went through my program, but if it is, it doesn't make sense that they aren't doing this enough in school.
I think more testing should be done. Not end-of-the-year type of standardized testing, but testing that finds the child's abilities and strengths and then places them according to that. Teach all the subjects but utilize methods that work for that type of learner. Allow children to use their strengths as a ladder and then help them with the areas which which they are weak. Allow them to excel in the areas they are naturally good at and praise and reward them for it so they feel good about something they do. With the curriculum so rigidly focused on reading and math, that leaves a lot of children in the dust who are intelligent, even brilliant, but just struggle in those subjects.
I realize none of these things will probably happen in my lifetime, but it's nice to imagine. I'm starting to understand why home schooling is such an attractive option for many people because if done properly, it allows you to do just this, focus on your child's strengths and help them overcome their weaknesses. Focus on their learning style and adjust your teaching style to help them. Perhaps, though, if all these home schooling advocates spoke up about what needs to change in the public schools and then initiated that change, we'd have better schools.
Writing this has made me miss teaching in a lot of ways. I did love teaching all the subjects, especially finding neat ways to incorporate one subject into another. I think it's even gotten harder to do that with so much emphasis on reading and math. Reading and math are important, true. However, more can be done to make public education in America more well-rounded and inclusive.
Reading and math, reading and math. I just read an article from some small town U.S.A. (outside of New Jersey) about how they are introducing all day kindergarten. Because of more hours in school, the article stated that they would be able to spend 30 percent more time on reading and 40 percent more time on math. The other 30 percent of the time was to be spent on building social skills. Let me ask this question. Whatever happened to science, social studies, art, writing, music, speech (as in public speaking skills), and P.E.? Why are these subjects being removed from schools all over the country in favor of reading and math? Don't people see what a disparity this is, how this takes us from what used to be a well-rounded education and makes it so lopsided and boring that young kids, who have a natural thirst for knowledge, are completely disinterested and bored in school by the time they are only seven years old? No wonder the public schools are failing--they are driving children away from loving learning and only teaching them to despise it.
I had a very well-rounded education. In elementary school, we went to P.E., art, and music once a week. They were pull-out classes with a certified instructor in that subject area that went for an hour each time. We also had one library day, which was 45 minutes. Those times were teacher prep times for our classroom teachers, plus we learned a lot in those classes. In art, we learned art history and about various artists in each period in art history and their contribution to art. In music, we learned about singing and various musical instruments. In P.E., we learned how to play many different sports and participated actively in doing them. In our classes, we learned science and social studies. I remember learning about how batteries worked and how the incandescent lightbulb worked, all in elementary school. We learned about the different time periods throughout world history, and that is when I developed my love for history.
Today's kids get plenty of instructional time in language skills. They have "balanced literacy" (something I'm actually on board with and I think is great, but too much time is focused on it). They have guided reading, shared reading, independent reading, and writing and word study (spelling). Guided reading is when they divide into leveled reading groups and read. Shared reading is when they read together as a class. Independent reading is just that, reading independently. They focus on phonics (now called something else but it slips my mind) and whole word studies. They do spelling. They touch on writing, but I feel they don't do enough with writing. It's mostly reading. This "balanced literacy" takes up much of the day, about three hours. If they are in school for 6.5 hours (which mine are), they have 45 minutes for lunch, 15 minutes for a separate recess, that only leaves 2.5 hours for everything else. Since math is also a priority, they usually spend 1-1.5 hours on math alone. Our school has a time set aside for extra help, to help kids who have fallen behind or give enrichment to kids who are keeping up and need more stimulation. I think that's great. We are lucky to still have P.E., although it's only 30 minutes and is very different than what it was when I was growing up. Library is 30 minutes, and they have computers too. As far as music and art, that's not really required anymore so many schools skip them altogether. Science and social studies are also often neglected, which is why 4th graders no longer know how to read maps (this should be taught in 1st and 2nd grade) and 5th graders no longer know much about history.
Education is always a big issue in elections. Everybody realizes that our system isn't working very well but nobody seems to know what to do about it. I suggest bringing us back to a well-rounded education. Bring back science, social studies, music and art. Include dance and theatre arts in that as well. When I was studying elementary education, I had to take classes in each subject area and learn the basics of that subject as well as how to teach it. We also took classes on how to integrate subjects into one another because time in the classroom is limited so it works to teach more than one subject at a time (like writing a history report using proper grammar and mechanics). I don't know if this is how teacher education still works, since it has been more than a decade since I went through my program, but if it is, it doesn't make sense that they aren't doing this enough in school.
I think more testing should be done. Not end-of-the-year type of standardized testing, but testing that finds the child's abilities and strengths and then places them according to that. Teach all the subjects but utilize methods that work for that type of learner. Allow children to use their strengths as a ladder and then help them with the areas which which they are weak. Allow them to excel in the areas they are naturally good at and praise and reward them for it so they feel good about something they do. With the curriculum so rigidly focused on reading and math, that leaves a lot of children in the dust who are intelligent, even brilliant, but just struggle in those subjects.
I realize none of these things will probably happen in my lifetime, but it's nice to imagine. I'm starting to understand why home schooling is such an attractive option for many people because if done properly, it allows you to do just this, focus on your child's strengths and help them overcome their weaknesses. Focus on their learning style and adjust your teaching style to help them. Perhaps, though, if all these home schooling advocates spoke up about what needs to change in the public schools and then initiated that change, we'd have better schools.
Writing this has made me miss teaching in a lot of ways. I did love teaching all the subjects, especially finding neat ways to incorporate one subject into another. I think it's even gotten harder to do that with so much emphasis on reading and math. Reading and math are important, true. However, more can be done to make public education in America more well-rounded and inclusive.
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