Wednesday, November 14, 2007

No Child Left Behind

While looking over the No Child Left Behind website I have my likes and dislikes on both of these issues. With No Child Left Behind, I feel that it is good to test students to see where they stand academically. I don’t think it is right to distribute a test to students that is not on par with the student’s grade level or a test not written by people in the teaching profession. My opinion is the greatest way to achieve success is to stay constant in what you do. By making test that are not constant it makes a very difficult task for the students and teachers. Every school is different from the next. These tests could be very easy to the students that are in school districts with money and could be very difficult for Abbott school districts.

Some students are not good test takers. Some students can not put there thoughts on paper. Maybe these tests should be made by the school district and given out to just there school level. No Child Left Behind is more of a statistic then a helping tool. Math and English will get a student far but by adding other subjects it just makes it more difficult to learn. Students should be graded on these two subjects (math and English) and leave the other subjects for the children to enjoy and experience.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

The Hearts in Arts

My experience at Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey was an enlighten experience about teaching. When first hearing about going to Newark out of all cities I had huge doubts about it. Newark in the media has always and will always be know as the toilet of New Jersey. Never is anything acknowledge or any good every shown on television. Every time you watch the news you hear about gang violence, drugs, muggings, etc. So I didn’t have two much high hopes on going. Also I drive a hooked up cherry red anniversary edition Camaro and was afraid of seeing that gone.

The drive to Newark was not that bad because it is a fifteen minute drive for me. I found Arts High School and to my surprise no it was the opposite of what I was expecting. I joined up with some of my peers ad entered the high school were I saw my partner in crime. We sat in the auditorium and were treated by the advance choir. They sounded like professionals. From there we were greeted by the principle Dr. Fair-Brown and vice-principle Mr. Pedro. They were both really friendly and answered all of our question. After the first couple minutes there I felt very comfortable being in this school.

From there the students of Arts High School showed us around the high school. The school is nothing what I expected. The school is geared more to the performing arts but their education departments were just as good. The entire faculty treated us as if we were part of the Arts High School family. The students were showing us pictures that they drew and dance steps that they are learning. Everyone treated us respect. The ceramic teacher was by far my favorite teacher. He was joking around with the students in his class and us as well. He also gave us important advice for us to build on. From what I saw in his classroom, I admire his classroom philosophy and honesty. I also talked to Mr. Pedro who is a wonderful person to also be around too.

My views on Arts High School changed so much after visiting it. I felt safe and secure in the area I was in. In my opinion there should be more praise coming from the media about this school. I am not going to lie, I was thinking about dropping this class because of going to Newark but after visiting it I won’t mind becoming part of the Arts high School in the future. I want to thank Dr. Fair-Brown, Mr. Pedro, the students and faculty at Arts High School and Dr. Goldstein for enlighten me on an exciting world that I just discovered. This will be a great building block to groom me as a better teacher in my journey.