I read an editorial in the Des Moines register this morning about the new education plan. I thought it was interesting but also recognize that it was an opinion article. The author talked about how the governor was traveling around the state to sell the plan, but he had very few details about it solved. The author also discussed how many of the responses from the governor were "we will look into it." The author also discussed how the plan is not answering any questions that Senator Grassley has about children with disadvantages.
I tend to agree with the author regarding several of his/her thoughts. I would think a plan of this magnitude would need to be better thought out and vetted prior to any introduction to major stakeholders. I am interested in teachers as mentors but am not sure pulling the best teachers out of the classroom is a good solution. I have been observing in Waukee and believe that their approach might be better. They have an instructional coach in every building K- 8 and it is part of this person's job to help teachers in their classroom.
I am looking forward to having Jason Glass visit our class this weekend. I think that he and the Governor Branstad have a challenging road in front of them to make these changes. I think we can all agree that we should always be improving education, but I am not sure this is the correct route.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
I have been thinking about our last weekend of class and have a few thoughts since I have been using Twitter. I can see the value of Twitter both educationally and socially. First, it is a great conduit for us to share items that would probably not share otherwise. Secondly it provides a quick way to gather information that could be helpful either immediately or down the road. Finally, it provides us with a way to follow people who we consider significant.
As this is my second blog post, I am holding off on a final opinion on the value of blogs. I believe blogs can be valuable but they definitely require more time to either create or read. However, they can offer more feelings and insight than a simple twitter post. Perhaps as I continue to blog I will see how it can help me as an educator.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
EDL 279 Weekend 1
This weekend was much different than I expected prior to class beginning. After doing the reading, I was expecting to spend a lot of time talking about the different management jobs that and administrator does. Instead we talked about differences between the manager and an instructional leader. After that we were introduced to twitter and blogging as well as a little bit of google docs.
I feel that with time and some thought processing on my part, these could be very helpful as an administrator. I usually need time for my brain to process information and begin to see possibilities and I believe that by the next class I will have a better understanding how this can be used. As a band director I have always worked on "making connections" to enhance my teaching skills. As an administrator I will use the same process and Twitter will be very valuable for that purpose.
I feel that with time and some thought processing on my part, these could be very helpful as an administrator. I usually need time for my brain to process information and begin to see possibilities and I believe that by the next class I will have a better understanding how this can be used. As a band director I have always worked on "making connections" to enhance my teaching skills. As an administrator I will use the same process and Twitter will be very valuable for that purpose.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
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