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.