<p>I think that we need to have smaller classrooms- IMO much time is wasted by having large classrooms in some classes that teachers are spending much time addressing discipline and handing out papers.</p>
<p>So more money to hire more teachers?</p>
<p>I also think that the schools of education need an upheaval. They are training teachers the same way they have always done.
time for some out of the box thinking.</p>
<p>“I think that we need to have smaller classrooms- IMO much time is wasted by having large classrooms in some classes that teachers are spending much time addressing discipline and handing out papers.”</p>
<p>Asian countries seem to do fine with larger classrooms. But that’s because the parents address the discipline problems. Do we really want teachers to handle tasks that should be taken care of by parents? I’m sure that lots of people probably do want that.</p>
<p>“I also think that the schools of education need an upheaval. They are training teachers the same way they have always done.
time for some out of the box thinking.” - I don’t agree with this. Unfortunately they are training them to think out of the box so much that what has worked in the past has been completely ignored.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Indeed they do. The staffing ratios are very little different between east Asian countries and the United States, but class sizes run considerably larger. One difference in how staff time is used is that teachers have larger classes, and thus fewer class periods per day, and they use prep time to confer with other teaches about how to improve their lessons. Teaching is a much more collaborative occupation in east Asia than it is in the United States. </p>
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<p>Do we really want teachers to handle tasks that should be taken care of by parents?
optimally no.
But are we living in utopia or reality?</p>
<p>I don’t agree with this. Unfortunately they are training them to think out of the box so much that what has worked in the past has been completely ignored.</p>
<p>I would agree that they need grounding in basics- even Picasso was a fantastic representational artist before he went abstract. However- I don’t see that they are being taught to develop their own curriculum and see gaps- instead they are distributing district materials without adapting it to their classrooms needs.
When the district adapts material that say " leave out grammar or long division" it would be out of the box thinking to go beyond that.</p>
<p>I would also suspect that there is a significant difference in parental involvement in those east Asian countries</p>
<p>my biggest concerns are not always with the knowledge base that students bring to class. my biggest concerns are with the “life skills” that they bring to college. Chronic tardiness, turning in work late, missing class and demanding make up exams- -just for examples. Of course, I have my own policies for dealing with all of these issues–but most kids don’t “accept” my policies and often challenge my rule of “no late work is accepted”.</p>
<p>it used to happen just once or twice a semester–now it happens almost every single day in every single class.</p>
<p>“I would also suspect that there is a significant difference in parental involvement in those east Asian countries”</p>
<p>Yes. Which is why I always say that we need better parents.</p>
<p>If someone else offers to do the parenting for free, why do I need to bother? That’s a lot of hard work.</p>
<p>Of course, I have my own policies for dealing with all of these issues–but most kids don’t “accept” my policies and often challenge my rule of “no late work is accepted”.</p>
<p>I think you better talk to your peers about that.
I know in my daughters classrooms-there was a box for papers- however- students often slipped theirs in days later because they weren’t collected when they were due.</p>
<p>“But are we living in utopia or reality?”</p>
<p>The current approach of the downward spiral clearly isn’t working:</p>
<ul>
<li>Spend more on school to do what parents should do</li>
<li>Parents see the school doing it so they feel that they don’t need to</li>
<li>Education declines so that the next generation of parents is worse equipped for parenting</li>
<li>Spend more on school to do what parents should do</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>Or. Stop, provide parental education courses and encourage and teach parents to parent. Use propaganda as needed. Start a virtuous cycle instead of propagating a vicious cycle.</p>
<p>BTW, what ever happened to all of those public service ads in the 1980s and 1990s? I hardly ever see them on TV anymore (not that I watch much TV).</p>
<p>Teach kids how to take notes. Some college professors are abhorred by the way college freshmen have weak note-taking skills in math and literature courses.</p>
<p>I agree with the parental education courses- starting in K-12.
As part of history/geography they could talk about the family- and the roles of parents/extended family. How that has changed over time & how it differs in US and other countries.
So many kids, my own included feel like they raised themselves- while I didn’t make the same mistakes as my own parents- I made my own different mistakes.
If kids knew more about the responsibilities in parenting- perhaps they would pay more attention in sex ed. ;)</p>
<p>i have to collect papers, then somehow put them away. sounds crazy, but if i don’t, students will arrive late, walk up to the podium or desk, and try to slip their work into the middle of the pile so i won’t be able to tell their late work from the other papers. they are quite clever.</p>
<p>Do they try to swipe another paper, copy it during class, and then slip them both in later?</p>