Posts (page 2)

District Info:

5,000 students

1 high schools

2 middle schools

5 elementary schools

Budget : $30,000,000

District office

Superintendent: $150,000

Assistant Superintendent: $125,000

Staff(record/bookkeeping, secretary, insurance, support) of 6: $40,000/ employee

Salary total-$515,000

Administrators

High School Principals           Middle School Principals 

$110,000 (x 1)     $105,000 (x 2)    

Elementary School Principals

              $100,000 (x 5)

High School  Asst. Principals           Middle School Asst. Principals      

$85,000 (x 4)                                                 $80,000(x6)  

Elementary School Asst. Principals

$70,000(x 5)

Adminstration salaries : $1,990,000

Teacher Salary(Pay scale for bachelors/masters is attached on very back sheet)

-assume average salary of $50,000

-assume desired student teacher ratio of 15:1

-325 teachers($ 50,000 average)

Teacher Salaries($16,250,000)

Librarians + nurses(1 for each of the 8 schools)

-assume librarian salarary($50,000) x 8

-assume nurse salary($45,000) x 8

Librarian/nurse salaries=$760,000

School Resource officer/police

-1 at each of the 3 secondary schools

-assume salary($45,000)

School police salaries($135,000)

Custodial/Maintainance staff

-assume district wide custodial staff of 50

-assume Salary($30,000)

Custodial/Mainatainance staff salaries=($1,500,000)

Total salaries:21,150,000 + 15%=$24,322,500

Athletic Dept. budget: $ 2,000,000

Summer Pre-K program: $1,000,000

Security camera's on every classroom: $100,000

Total Budget: $  27,422,500

Rainy day fund: $ 2,577,500

If the swine flu was present in the district I teach in I would hope that administration would side with caution and cancel school for a week. I understand that swine flu is no more dangerous than the typical flu at the time, but as a new strain that could mutate into something dangerous with pandemic potential at any time, the best move would be to get the kids out of school for the time being.
I am sure that something could be worked out with MDE where students could take care of state testing when it was deemed safe to return to school. I think that the schools in Texas and New York city did a good job at being extra cautious, and making student safety a premium.

I want to send my sincere thanks to the 2nd years for mentoring us 1st years through what will likely be one of the more challenging career/life situations we will experience. Being 1st year teachers is tough, and being 1st year teachers in critical needs schools can just about give you an ulcer. Your wisdom, leadership and experience made the process a lot easier.

In particular:
Karl, Angela, and Molly: Thank you for always being so warm and friendly, and for all the good advice.

Lisa: You were about the best mentor I can imagine. You were the one who initially showed me how to teach and as a mentor were always such a good listener. The package you got for me at the beginning of the(stapler, hole punch, etc...) year meant the world. I am really thankful that such a class act was my lead teacher during the summer and my mentor during the year. Thank you for everything and I wish you the very best because you deserve it.

With regards to the article on strip searching, I think what happened in Arizona was entirely inappropriate. I've had students have their bags checked because of hearsay from other students about stolen items. I feel something like that is entirely appropriate(bags checked) however too much searching can cause students to feel criminal which in turn can have a negative impact on Curriculum and Instruction in the classroom in that the students may begin to act more criminally. Therefore searches should only be conducted when sufficient evidence is present or when a potentially dangerous situation must be averted.
Strip searches for drugs should NEVER occur because the bad(emotional trauma for students) outweighs any potential good(possibly finding drugs). Strip searches for weapons/guns could possibly be acceptable but only if a metal detector first is used, I'm kind of iffy about that.

With regards to authentic/alternative/performance assessments I am at a crossroads. I see them as appropriate and beneficial with certain types of students, but only as a supplement to their traditional instruction. I know I am in the minority among my teacher corps peers in believing that standardized testing is a good thing and that traditional assessments are overall a better assessment tool than alternative assessments in most cases. This is true especially for the student populations we serve as teacher corps members. There are a number of factors that must be in place in order for alternative assessments(independent projects) to be worthwhile, and most of these are not in place at the schools we work in. Many of these alternative assessments require funding that the school simply doesn't have. This however, this is not the biggest pothole that must be crossed. The largest issues are the skills and motivation of our students. Project based assessment requires highly motivated students who have at least a basic understanding(preferably more than that) of the concept or objective covered by the assessment. It is in this way that students may enhance their understanding of a topic through a project to supplement their classroom instruction. Alternative assessments are not a very good way of developing base-line knowledge and skills which are things that a majority of my students do not have. Because of this I run a pretty typical classroom assessment-wise. My assessments consist of tests and quizzes that include multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, and matching questions with occasional alternative assessments mixed in(illustrations, powerpoint presentations, etc..).

My assessments in the future(summer/next year/beyond):
If I am teaching at a low-performing school I will continue to use more traditional methods. I believe that bookwork/lectures/note-taking/skill-building exercises are the best way to attain basic skills and knowledge that a majority of my students are lacking. I have learned from the alternative assessments I have given that my students will do the absolute minimum, if they do anything at all. Likely due to either apathy, laziness, or lack of skills necessary to complete the project.
If I am teaching at a good school with motivated/advanced students then I would definitely whittle some performance based assessments into my classroom. These assessments would hopefully enhance my students knowledge of an objective.

Roadblocks to adding more alternative assessments
1)funding
2)time
3)student motivation
4)Lack of basic skills necessary for alternative assessments

Reference:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/13_03/assess.shtml

I began reading "portrait of Mississippi" with the expectation that what I would find would not be pretty. I knew the statistics that Mississippi was last in the nation in areas of education, health, and personal finance. I also was aware that there would be inequalities across race, gender, and geography. I was surprised however about how great those disparities are. While some areas in Mississippi are doing quite well(or decent at least), these areas are dwarfed by the poverty in a majority of the state. And while white people are not living up to the standards of whites around the nation, most blacks would be just as well off if they were living in Thailand or Libya.

#1

"Summer School: Unfulfilled Promise", brought up many important issues and suggestions on how to make summer school more beneficial for the students it serves. This ushers in thoughts on how we, as MTC members can properly serve our eager(and not so eager) to learn pupils this summer.
On page 18 of the article several recommendations are made with regards to summer school.
1.Summer school should be available to all failing students.
-This would be ideal, but difficult in our current economy. More teachers would be needed to keep student-teacher ratios down which means even more money. Funding this would be extremely difficult
2.Summer school should be a required part of a year round program.
-The problem with year round programs are for working parents in those districts finding day time child care for brief 2 to 3 week intervals when school is out. Most day care centers do not allow such haphazard enrollment. Other than that this sounds like a good idea.
3.Summer school should be free
-This sounds good, but it takes funding away from other areas of education(likely).
Really this is just another ideal situation that funding will likely never allow.
4.Mixing clear standards with instruction flexibility
-This is extremely important. You have to be able to monitor the progress of your students, otherwise you're just shooting in the dark. Also, instruction flexibility can bring more interest and innovation to the classroom that makes summer school more enjoyable for both students and teachers.
5.Summer school should be focused on meeting individual needs.
-Sounds good, but designing individual curricula for hundreds of different students is an enormous task and would compound a great deal of stress on summer school teachers.
6.Teachers should be proven at helping struggling students
-Again this ideal, but the fact of the matter is that teaching is a stressful job and long hours are required. Summer is golden beacon that keeps teachers from getting burned out and ensures that teachers can have a high quality of life. It is therefore more reasonable to take whoever you can get to teach summer school.
7.Conduct research on what works
-This should continually be done and discussed amongst the faculty putting the program together.

My vision this summer for the MTC summer school, is that we can foster a love of learning in our students, get them caught up, and grow a new crop of first year teachers that will be better prepared for real situations in their first year than we were. Success for our students will be based upon teaching the curriculum in an innovative way that will allow student mastery of the objectives required. In ensuring that our students are indeed achieving it will be desirable to give them pre- and post- summer evaluations of the grade 8 middle school science test, and compare the scores.
One important issue that I think is important to get across to the 1st-year teachers just how different summer school is from the situations they will face in their regular classrooms. It is important that our 1st years understand that it is important to be strict and have consequences for students who do not follow procedures. That way the procedures will be followed. I remember watching Lisa Booth, our 2nd year mentor give a kid a writing assignment for not raising his hand before answering a question in a class discussion. thought that was harsh at the time, but I now am unfortuanately well schooled in the phrase "if you give them an inch, they will take a mile". It is also important to get across to our first-years the importance of slowing down on the first days of school to practice class rules/procedures. As Harry and Rosemary Wong write "The ineffective teacher spends the1st day of school attempting to teach a subject and spends the rest of the year running after the students. The effective teacher spends most of the 1st week teaching students how to follow classroom procedures."(The First Days of School,Wong and Wong)