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I'll tell you something..alt cert teachers who have been in industry and then switch to teaching are looked down upon by career teachers and are treated as less than dirt even though many of them know more than the academia only book learned teachers. The fact that alt cert teachers CAN connect learning with real life because they have 10-20-30 years in industry goes against the "everything works on paper because it's in the books" academia only teachers.
BS! I worked with alt cert teachers and not one of them could connect with real life, 21st century, urban teenagers, who chewed these teachers up and spit them out after only weeks on the job. One English classroom in my school had a revolving door of 'alt cert' teachers - 5 before the semester break.
A very few stuck it out and learned some classroom management skills, but most stayed in the classroom (for salary and benefits) only until they found a "real" job or reached 65.
Many (I would say most) of the buildings used for Chi public schools are old, meaning they were built in the days before air conditioning, and the buildings were designed to be reasonably cool and for good airflow in hot weather. Many elementary systems throughout the state do not have AC in their schools (so as not to have to retrofit old buildings) including the district the encompasses the richest section of Naperville IPSD 204: Heat Plan for Non-Air-Conditioned Buildings . CPS fails to mention that weather has been reasonably nice since school went back in (the 100+ degree days here occurred in July & early Aug), and that a HUGE portion of their students don't have AC at home anyway. We live in the suburbs and are I guess now lower middle class, and we don't run our air at all, we can't afford to (not this summer anyway). We & our kids lived.
I find it particularly distasteful that CTU waited until children were in school to raise the actuality of a strike. In the past, strikes have occurred at holiday break times or just before school resumes, allowing parents to find child care or continue their summer/holiday child care plan. This strike was strategically implemented to cause associated parent worker "flu" work stoppages in other industries that the parents work in. A double down.
I did find it sad from a man on the street angle that of all the parents they interviewed on local news, not one of them mentioned anything about their kid missing education time, or falling behind, or that the work would have to be made up. Every single parent interviewed said some version of "Who the heck is going to watch/feed my kid if school is closed?" Sad commentary on our country, that at least in the CPS, we are paying an average wage of $71k to masters-degreed babysitters.
Hate to tell you but the US ranked higher in academic subjects years ago when there was no A/C in schools. We are in a slow decline according to international standards and fall lower each year.
Are we seriously debating the need for air conditioning in school classrooms in 2012??
That repetition is called homework which is now frowned upon by schools, parents and students.
Repetition is good, but I am also a believer in "hands on" in the primary grades.
Get back to a more participatory learning environment.
Too often, subject matter is rushed through during the day, only expected to be
compensated for, after the school day is over.
One of the reasons kids graduate with poor reading, writing, and math skills is
because no one is actually watching them do the work.
Too much sitting and watching IMO, on the part of the student, in the class.
With so many school systems going to a longer school year,
I see no reason why "most" of the material can't be done in class.
"professors of education at Penn State, found that in countries with the most successful school systems, like Japan, teachers give small amounts homework, while teachers in those with the lowest scores, such as Greece and Iran, give a lot."
When are the people of this nation going to step up and recognize this?
Don't hold your breath. It is unlikely they will. Too many think their kids are the responsibility of "the village", don't you know that? Some parents even whinge when they have to buy 35.00 in school supplies for kids they chose to bring into this world.
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