Inspirational Quotes

"Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate."

Anonymous

"Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."

Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa

 

"I continue to believe that if children are given the necessary tools to succeed, they will succeed beyond their wildest dreams!"

David Vitter, U.S. senator

 

              

             

 

Assessments

Assessments is a topic that I kind of straddle the fence about. I believe assessments are good because the teacher and parent need to know how their child is doing academically. By doing this teachers can know what type of interventions need to be in placed to ensure that the child can be successful and so that the parent is aware of their child’s academic standing and they can implement any strategies on their end.  I do not believe that standardized test should be a determining factor of whether or not a child is going to the next grade level. Some children are not good test takers but can make straight A’s on their report card all year and fail their test and have to go to summer school to attempt to past the test again or repeat the grade. These tests are looking at the academic level of the child, but what about the social level. This is very important as well. Also these tests are taking the fun out of learning and teaching. Teachers are teaching to the test and are not teaching the necessary skills to be successful socially and skillfully. It has become clear to me that we're spending way too much time focusing on assessment and evaluation. In fact, conversations about data driven decision-making, authentic assessment practices, design-down planning and testing protocols have now worked their way into the everyday vernacular of teachers and students, and have become such a strong plot line in the narrative of modern-day schooling, to the point where I fear that the very ideas and practices that are supposed to make our children's education richer and more meaningful are actually having the opposite effect. All indications point to the fact that we have somehow convinced ourselves that assessment and evaluation policy and practice is our raison d’être in public schools. Now don't get me wrong; I'm not opposed to strong, equitable and responsive assessment practice. This needs to be an important pillar in modern schooling. I am, however, opposed to anything that suggests that assessment and evaluation are the new horses and that imaginative, passionate and inspired teaching is somehow secondary to the project. When richly complex and engaging learning experiences are sidelined because they are "too difficult to assess", we are taking something precious away from our children. When our curriculum design and lesson planning is engineered and guided primarily by the set of expectations that will be measured and commented on come report card time, then we run the risk of losing sight of the real needs of the real students that we work with each day.
When our teachers feel that they have to rush through their work with students so that arbitrary reporting deadlines can be met, then they are forced into covering curriculum as opposed to uncovering or discovering it. When our school days continue to be compartmentalized in order to reflect the boxes on our report cards, then we prevent both students and teachers from exploring the world in all of its integrated beauty. In essence, if we want to encourage our teachers and students to become more deeply involved with what we are asking them to do, then we need to place our conversations about assessment and evaluation in their proper place. And believe me, that place is not in front of engaging, flexible and responsive teaching (www.cea-ace.ca).  I really enjoyed reading this article because it allowed me to think more in depth about tests and how it is taking away from our teacher and students.

 India

In India the schools are overcrowded, there is not much material, and the teacher-student ratio is very poor. The enrollment rate in India is 95% but there are signs that the children are not benefiting from being in school because of it is overcrowded and lack of materials and teachers. Although the school is given money it is not being used in the proper areas. The government carried out a national sample assessment once every three to four years, so how can you determine what the child has learned within that time frame granted that they are still in school. This assessment did not cover all educational districts. Pratham took on the liberty to find out what the kids are learning and the results show that after five years in school 50% could not read at a level expected after two years of school (www.guardian.co.uk). Pratham's annual status education report, Aser, is conducted across all 600 educational districts of India and assesses 700,000 children every year. What it has exposed over the last six years is that in some states, schools may be well-funded but they have failed to translate that into effective education (www.guardian.co.uk). Now all of the states and districts in India are aware of the educational gaps in their students and low performance schools. One of the strengths of the Aser programme, explains Banerji on a visit to London last week, is that it puts information in the hands of citizens and helps engage the whole community in educational issues (www.guardian.co.uk).  It takes a village to raise a child. When everyone knows the issues then they can be a voice that will be heard to make the educational issues get better for their children.

References
Is our focus on assessment taking away from our children's education?,=. Retrieved June 16, 2013 from http://www.cea-ace.ca/blog/stephen-hurley/2012/01/1/our-focus-assessment-taking-away-our-childrens-education.

India pioneers volunteer-led assessment of educational standards. Retrieved June 16, 2013 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/mar/15/education-goals-assessment-india-school.

Stressors: Divorce


Stress can come in many forms for young children and some we think should not affect children but they do. As a child I grew up in a two parent home until I was around six years old. My parents divorced when I was young and my mother raised me and my other three siblings, but my father was always there. Even though my mother had custody of us he would get us every other weekend and holidays like he was suppose to and was at every event for us. Not having both of my parents under one roof was kind of stressful because there would be times that I would want them both with me. My oldest brother took it hard because he wanted my dad around. He started having low performance in school and becoming rebellious. He received counseling and love and support from both of my parents and became strong again.Overall, I believe I had a great childhood and loving parents that did everything in the world to make sure I was never without.

I understand that in today's society alot of children are not that fortunate. Divorce affects children in so many ways. Especially if the mother or father abandons the child with the marriage. Divorce has emotional, physical, and long term effects on children. Below I listed an example of each emotional, physical, and long term effect.

Teenage children of divorce are three times more likely (35% instead of 13%) to need psychological help within a given year. (Peter Hill - Recent Advances in Selected Aspects of Adolescent Development- Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 1993)

Between children of divorced parents there are relatively more cases of injury, asthma, headaches and speech defects than among children whose parents have remained married. (Dawson -Family Structure and Children's Health and Well Being- National Health Interview Survey on Child Health, Journal of Marriage and Family)

In 1991 a study was done of children from which the parents were divorced six years earlier. The study found that even after all that time, these children tended to be lonely, unhappy, anxious and insecure. (Wallerstein - The Long-Term Effects of Divorce on Children -Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 1991)

As you can see divorce is a stressor in many ways.
Refernce
Children Divorce Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.children-and-divorce.com/children-divorce-statistics.html. on June 1, 2013.