Decorah Board Members

This Monday's lecture the class heard two members of the Decorah Board of Education speak about some important education issues. One member had been on the board for many years and the other was fairly new. The first topic which we talked about for a while was how budget in school districts is controlled, issued, spent, etc. They explained that the school board actually doesn't decide where the majority of the money goes, in fact they only deal with around 10% of the money. I also found it interesting when they described how the budget worked. They said that there were certain cylinders that money went to, and only went to. In other words, certain money can only be spent for certain things. Now knowing that I can understand better why some things in my high school were lacking while others were progressing. The next topic brought up was, yet again, the No Child Left Behind Act. They said that they thought that the act was overall a positive change because it set a standard for schools to hold them accountable. The data they now have helped them to see where they were and where they needed to go. After some questions from the class, the board members made the point that as future teachers, it's important to have a good attitude about it because it is the law. I agree with their stance on having a positive attitude about it, but I still have some issues with the act itself. The third question and topic brought up dealt with increased national competitiveness. The male board member came up with the good point through telling a story that many times for some of those high-achieving foreign schools, they don't have as good of social or emotional skills, or, in other words, they have high IQ's but low EQ's. I definitely agree with his point, because not matter if someone can do calculus like no other or name all the elements alphabetically, if they can't carry a normal conversation with someone or speak properly in public, they have not developed correctly. The board members then brought up the Iowa Core Curriculum which, apparently, will go into effect by the time we are teaching. They didn't give too much information about this act, but they did say that it will be highering the expectations of Iowa's education. Finally we touched on the topic of second languages. The male board member was very in favor of second languages because he said that other countries learn English to accommodate us, but when foreigners come to the United states, they are expected to learn English. I thought he made a very good point with that statement, and I agree with incorporating second languages into elementary schools. The only issue, of course, as with many of these ideas, is that we don't have the funding. Overall I thought that this group interview was very informative and interesting, and I thought that the board members did a great job of answering questions and giving their opinions.

Class Interview

This Monday the entire group of Educational Psychology students plus Jim interviewed the Principal from the Decorah Middle School and the Activities Director/Assistant Principal from the Decorah High School. (I forgot their names, so I'll refer to them as "the principal" and "the activities director") Jim began with a very general, but always an interesting question: what is a good teacher? Both gave great definitions for what good teaching entails. The Middle School Principal mentioned that good teachers let kids know what it is they're supposed to be learning. As obvious as this may sound, I do agree with her that as a teacher it is important for the students to know what goal or objective they're trying to reach. The activities director summed up good teaching, at one point, into one word: differentiation. He explained that this had to do with the fact that students learn in different ways, and being able to teach something by using many techniques is important for teachers. I entirely agree on this, yet it is one of the biggest challenges for teachers because it isn't always possible with teaching certain things. Both of them also agreed that good teachers have connections with the kids and care about them. Then we got going on the No Child Left Behind Act again. The class questioned them especially on this question, perhaps because it has been a popular theme of discussion for this class. As much as the class was challenging them on this issue, I thought both of them answered the questions fairly well. They both explained that standardized testing is "only one piece of the pie." They claimed that the NCLB Act also doesn't necessarily restrain teachers, it just takes the expectations up another level. They made a very good point about how in this day in age teachers can't afford to just do something because it's fun for them or because they feel like it. What they teach now has to be research-based. I will only agree with that to a certain extent. Research doesn't always necessarily portray truth or reality, therefore entirely relying on research to guide teaching, I believe, can't decide every single thing a teacher does in the classroom. There has to be a certain amount of free will for teachers, otherwise they'd go crazy! Finally, the last question asked was "Do you feel that our schools and our teachers are preparing our students for the world they will become a part of?" (Jim obviously asked this question) The Activities Director made a good point that although our math a science scores are much lower that countries such as Japan or China, they have a significant amount of more students than the United States does, therefore they would have better scores. It also has to do with where the priorities are of the country. Obviously the United States puts entertainment on a much higher level than other countries, so the students may tend to lean towards focusing on activities more so than academics. I will admit that I was guilty of that throughout high school. In my opinion, comparing our students to countries such as China is not on the top of our concerns in education right now. I think we have to make the cake before we can frost it, so to speak. Overall, I thought the guest speakers did an excellent job of handling these intense interview questions and although I didn't completely agree with everything they said, they presented their information very well.