Mind The Gap (session 2)

1.  “Good schools under private management would proliferate, while bad schools would be closed down by market forces (the exit of disgruntled parents) or by a watchful government.” (pg 10)

As a theory, this idea works fine, just as it does in the business world. However, once you think about the fact that these are schools, and not businesses, the idea falls apart. When schools are closed, what happens to those students? Do they go to another school, and over-crowd that school? The most important thing to anyone involved in education should be the students, and closing a school in the middle of the year does not benefit students. 

“I began seeing like a state, looking at school and teachers and students from an altitude of 20,000 feet and seeing them as objects to be moved around by big ideas and great plans.” (pg 10)

This quote is similar to the one above, and I have the same problem with it. I don’t like the idea of looking at schools, students and teachers as objects. When you look at the “big picture”, it is inevitable that individual students will get lost in that shuffle.

2.  On pg. 16 Ravitch says that a well-educated person has a well-furnished mind, shaped by reading and thinking about history, science, literature, arts and politics, and has learned how to explain ideas and listen respectfully to others. I agree with her definition. I would also like to add that a well-educated person can express their thoughts in writing, and can respond to things that they learn in a rational matter. For example, I believe a well-educated person can read a book, form an opinion about what they read based on their background knowledge, and then relate that opinion clearly to others. Lastly, I believe that a well-educated person has a strong moral compass, and can use their knowledge in the real world outside of school. 

3. What stands out for me from the class discussion was the debate about charter schools. I didn’t think that that was going to be a topic that would spark so much debate among our class. I have always been slightly against charter schools, and I had read ahead in the book to the chapter where Ravich talks about charter schools before our discussion, which cemented my ideas on the topic. I don’t think that charter schools are a good idea, because they act like private schools but take public money, which isn’t fair to public schools. However, during the discussion, some of the points that were brought up surprised me, because they were things that I hadn’t thought about. These points didn’t change my mind, but it was very interesting to hear different perspectives.

 During the discussion, I would have liked to talk more about the pros and cons of using a business model to organize and reform schools. I thought the topic was intriguing, and the class was bringing up some good points. I would have liked to contribute more to that discussion.

4. One of the gaps that I found in my subject area knowledge was a 5^th grade earth science standard stating that students should be able to read a weather map and use them to predict the weather. I have no idea how to do this, even though I do remember learning about it in one of my undergraduate classes. I believe all I need is a refresher to bring that knowledge back. I found three sources that I believe would help me deepen my content knowledge in this area.

Book: Weather Map Handbook, by Tim Vasquez

Journal Article: Interpreting Weather Maps, by Smith, P. Sean, Ford, Brent A. In: Science Activities

Website: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wmapread.htm, Webstite title: Reading Weather Maps

I decided to explore the website more thoroughly than the other two resources. The website lists the symbols that are often found on weather maps and what they represent, including high and low pressure areas, cold and warm fronts, ect. For each symbol, the website also goes in depth about what each symbol predicts and how it will affect the weather. For example, low pressure systems predict storms, precipitation and cloudy weather while high pressure systems predict sunny weather. In addition, the website has information about how weather is predicted using weather satellites and radars. After spending some time exploring this website, I feel more confident in my content area knowledge of this subject.

5. 

Space Moves: Adding Movements to Solar System Lessons, by Deborah Jenkins and Brent Heidorn

This article describes ways to make lessons about the solar systems active. It includes miming what actions would look like on other planets and competing in a “space Olympics”, where students calculate the height of their jumps, ect, on different planets using the gravitational force of that planet. This article might be more geared toward pedagogy than content (oops) but I still think it’s really useful, and it does contain some really good content information, such as a table on the gravitational forces of each planet. I like this article, not only because it gives some ideas for a specific unit, but also because it inspires ideas for ways to make other science lessons active. I had thought about making science lessons hands on, but I hadn’t thought about actually making them active and having the students move around. I would be very interested now in looking for more sources that follow this topic and make science lessons active. I think that this author was convincing to me because he herself is a teacher, and has done these lessons many times with her own class. I always trust actual educators who write about their own classrooms more than theoretical research. I would seek this author out for other things that she has written. 

Seizing Up the Solar System, by Heidi Wiebke, Meredith Park Rodgers, and Vanashiri Nargund-Joshi

This article was particularly interesting to me because I had never thought about the accuracy of solar system models before. I always assumed that the models in books and online were accurate. However, this article brings up the point that many of these models are not accurately scaled, especially in the distance between planets. The author also points out how important it is for students to truly understand the scale of the planets and grasp the magnitude of our solar system. I liked that this article gave specific and concrete ways for students to investigate the true scale of the planets, and question the scale models they might see in their science books. However, I don’t think I would seek out any other articles written by this author. The topic doesn’t interest me enough for me to want to read more in depth about it. 

Question for Joan: I've been looking up both content and pedagogical articles. Is that ok, or should I shy away from the pedagogy for now?

Blogs I've responded to:

Eddie Izumizaki
Ashley Dever
Marcella Place