Paper #3

     Schools from K-12 are in trouble. Schools across the US are cutting programs, and teachers which can severely affect the students and their grades.
For any government funded organization Budgets are tight. The main problem facing schools is how they choose to spend their budget. Every School district gives a different budget to every school, But every school decides to spend it differently. Two schools are being compared in order to see how budgeting can affect the students.  In such a diverse and complex system of education, If how school’s approached their budgets was Changed, it would help the overall success of students in their K-12 education.

    North Kitsap High School,(North) is located in Poulsbo, Washington with about 1,300 students. Coronado High school on the other hand is located in Henderson, Nevada with about 3,500 students. Both schools suffer with a budgeting problem. The difference is that North Has trouble at the school level (what the school uses it on) and Coronado’s majority is at the District level.

    Coronado High school Is about 1.5 Billion dollars in debt as of 2010. The teachers at the school are above average. Like most High schools you have the great ones, and the not so great ones. The school has a great diversity of classes that promote creativity. From numerous Musical, acting and vocal classes to A full on automotive class. With materials from 2 overhead lifts to emission removal ducts (captures the exhaust of a car and vents it to the outside). The school, receives it’s funds through the district, and some donations by wealthy parents. The problem with the school is their long term budget. Currently The school is one of the top ten in America’s public schools.(Us news & Newsweek magazine) Clark County school district is just over 1.5 billion dollars in debt and digging. They recognize this but have not created a plan to even slow the rate of debt

    North Kitsap High School and the North Kitsap School district is a different story. The district (as far as I currently know) Is just little under the debt line compared to Coronado.
The dilemma with this school is how they choose to spend their budget.
It is well known in many jobs,(like Hospitals) the employee that has been working there longer, usually gets better pay then someone who just started.
North Kitsap High School, (unlike Coronado) realizes that they are in debt, so naturally the next step is to find a solution. The problem with their solution school is how they decide to cut their budget. The school has been recently firing the older, and more experienced teachers. This allows them to hire the younger, cheaper teachers to fill these slots or in certain cases “Long-term substitutes”. The older the teacher, does not constitute that they are a better teacher. Yet the selected teachers have been some of the best that the school has seen. For example, At north there used to be a teacher called Mr.Saint-carol or Mr.S. He was a favorite teacher, and a mentor among many students. He really knew his subject of video production/flash animation and brought in his own equipment for the class to use since the school has a tight budget. The school on the other hand just saw a teacher who got paid more than one next door. So they fired him and took the next door photography teacher, (who knew very little about anything but photography) and paid her what she made the year before to teach all three class's. This resulted in less classes in all three subjects while the students now receive a much lower amount of information from these classes.

    I understand that the school has to reduce their spending to avoid the debt, but their are other ways in which to do so.
 The first step would to stop excess spending. In the last two year north has purchased Four Flat screen TV's, and Two very large Doormat's for the entrance to the commons (with the school's logo).  Two are posted very high on a wall in the commons/lunch room. One is out side the main office, and the third is located in a small area in the technology building. The purpose of these are to put images from sport events and announcements. In reality they are hardly watched, except for someone who is bored out of their mind and decided to stare up into the ceiling. If the TV's were put above the cafeteria doors ( on the wall to the left) they could have a practical use. The TV's would be able to show, not only the prices (you can't find out until at the register) but the menu. This would make it much easier for the students, along with the faculty having to change what is written on a small white board every day.
 I know that the TV in the technology building is never looked at, even during the passing period. The reason is because one day I decided to reach up and turn the TV off. Until the very last week of school not a single person decided to turn it back on.

    One of the biggest ways this school could save money is though their lights. Normally any building will leave exterior lights on for security purposes. North (located in a very low crime rate town) keeps every light on, from the display board outside to the hallways/classrooms. Yes, they also keep the TV's running. Their electricity bill would be substantially lower if they kept the non vital lights and TV's off.

    This process has happened with teachers from all subjects. Now I understand that some will deem video production as invaluable as some of the other subjects. This firing of teachers has also happened in the math department. So students don't learn as much as they would have if the previous teacher was there. Math, which Jamie Escalante in the movie Stand and Deliver Was called "The great Equalizer" is going to be what the students are now behind in.

    If Clark County School district (Coronado's school district) Decided to at least slow the ever increasing rate of debt They might be able to focus more on their students. This would allow them to remove some of the bad quality teacher (See “What Makes a good Teacher” in February's blog)

    What could north do?
If the school reduced their spending On doormat's for doors that don't lead outside, Poorly utilized TV's and thousands on electricity. Then they would have more funds available for quality teachers. So the students could learn more, and not only do better the tests, but prepare them better for life


    Both of these schools Seem to have a problem. The problem for schools is when do not put the children’s education first. Quality educators is what makes the students learn. Like in the movie Waiting for ‘Superman' A young girl has the choice to go to a well built school with green grass. The family decides to try for the magnet school, because of their teachers. In Stand and Deliver Mr.Escalante was an inspirational teacher is a run down neighborhood. The main focus of schools and school districts should be to put the students before the facility. If schools changes how they approached the budget, It would solve some of the problems given to students in K-12 Education.

The Biggest challenge.

What seems to be the biggest challenge facing K-12 Students?

I think the Biggest change for students in K-12 education would be The school's funding.
Fiscal cuts have been affecting schools for a long time. The problem is when Teacher decide to either invest badly, or cut programs that promote creativity.

GIlyard & NEA

Children, arts, and Du Bois Is an article about a school that is closing some of it's after school humanities classes. I found that this article will be helpful for me in unit #3. It appears that when budget cuts come around, Their first choice to cut, are the classes that help inspire creativity. As opposed to the creative suppressing type classes of math and science. I agree with The quote Gillyard provided us with. In Du Bois's own words;

 "Not only a gaining of some practical meant more that it meant before. A step higher on Mount Parnassus is not only to be calculated inches of ground covered but even more by ht immeasurable broader and more beautiful horizon stretching beyond."

 The second article was about the banning of Mexican-American studies program. The classes were banned by politicians stating that the course will "promote the overthrow of the government." The public had an outcry on the class being removed and the books being put on a shelf. The article discusses how a lack in the budget is one of the causes for the the removal of this class. Dolores Huerta even gave a speech about this topic, and at one time declared "Republicans hate Latino's"
These tow articles will help me with my Unit 3 paper because they both provide valuable information about some of the problems in K-12 Education. And the problems that these changes provide.

Paper #3 brain storming/Rough draft

Paper #3 will discuss what idea, addition or chance to K-12 education will better deal with the problems of student behavior and success.

Thesis: So what is one thing that could be changed or added to help improve education.
 In such a diverse and complex system of education, If ___ was Changed/Added it would help the overall success of students in K-12 education.

Budgeting, The school's budget and how they choose to spend the budget.
For any government funded organization Budgets are tight. The main problem I see for schools is how they choose to spend their budget. There are different budgets for different schools, but some also spend differently. For example I will compare two different schools. North Kitsap High school in Washington, and Coronado High school in Nevada.  North Kitsap High School is located in Poulsbo, Washington with about 1,300 students. Coronado High school is located in Henderson, Nevada with about 3,500 students. The problem is how they choose to spend the budget, for both the district and the school level. Both schools have a problem with their spending budget. Coronado has a problem at the district level, North at a school level.

Coronado High school Is about1.5 Billion dollars in dept as of 2010. The teachers at the school are great, and they have a great diversity of classes. In the music/preforming arts department they have multiple band, orchestra, stings,choir, tech theater and theater classes. On the other end of the school is a full on automotive class. With 4 bays and 2 overhead lifts, along with things from air supply to emission removal ducts. The school, though has a lot of funds through the district's budget and some of the more wealthy parents of the school. The problem with the school is with how the district spend their money, They are 1.5 billion dollars in debt and digging. They haven't changed their budget to even slow the process.

North Kitsap high school district, as far as I know was just a little under the debt line.
The problem with the the school is how they choose to spend their budget.
It is well known in many jobs, the employee that has been working there longer, usually gets better pay then someone just joining.
North Kitsap High School, (unlike Coronado) realizes that they are in dept, so like anyone with a brain, they decided to fix the problem. The problem with the school is how they decide to cut their budget. The school has been recently firing the older, and more experienced teachers or "long term-substitutes" This allows them to hire the younger, cheaper teachers to fill these slots.  Yes, just because a teacher has been there a while does not mean they are a good teacher. The selected teachers have been the best that the school has seen though. For example, At North there used to be a teacher called Mr.Saintcharol, Or Mr.S. He was a favorite teacher, and a mentor to many students. He really knew his subject of video production/flash animation and often brought in his own equipment for the class to use. The school on the other hand just saw a teacher who got paid a certain amount. So they fired him and took the next door photography, (who knew very little about the subject) and paid her what she made the year before to teach all three class's. This resulted in less photography, flash animation and video production classes. The students now receive a much lower amount of information from this class.

I understand that they have to reduce their spending to avoid the debt, but their are other ways in which to do so.
 The first step would to stop excess spending. In the last two year North has purchases Four Flat screen TV's, and Two very large Doormat's for the entrance to the commons (with the school's logo).  Two are posted high on a wall in the commons/lunch room. One is out side the main office, and the third is located in a small area in the technology building. The purpose of these are to put images from sport events and announcements. In reality they are hardly watched, except for some one who is bored out of their mind in the lunch room.  If the TV's were put above the cafeteria doors ( on the wall to the left) they could have a practical use. The TV's would be able to show, not only the prices (you can't find out until at the register) but the menu. This would make it much easier for the students, along with the faculty having to change what is written on a small white board every day. 
 I know that the TV in the technology building is never looked at, even during the passing period. The reason is because one day I decided to reach up and turn the TV off. Until the very last week of school not a single person decided to turn it back on.

One of the biggest ways the school could save money is though their lights. Normally any building will leave exterior lights on for security purposes. North (located in a very low crime rate town) keeps every light on, from the display board outside to the hallways/classrooms. Yes they also keep the TV's running. Their electricity bill would be substantially lower if they kept the non vital lights and TV's off.

This process has happened with teacher from all subjects. Now I understand that some will deem video production as valuable as some of the other subjects. This firing of teachers has also happened in the math department. So students don't learn as much as they would have if the previous teacher was there. Math, which Jamie Escalate in the movie Stand and Deliver Was called "The great Equalizer" is going to be what the students are now behind in.

Both of these schools Seem to have a problem with there budgets. What can they do?

If Clark County School district (Coronado's school district) Decided to at least slow the ever increasing rate of dept. They might be able to focus more on their students.

What could North do?
If the school reduced their spending On doormat's for doors that don't lead outside, Poorly utilized TV's and thousands on electricity. Then they would have more funds available for quality teachers. So the students could learn more, and not only do better the tests, but prepare them better for life

Reactions to John Gatto.

Reactions to John Gatto's "Against School"
John Gatto brings up some important points in "against school: How public education Cripples our kids, and why"

John, (a former school teacher) Brings us some interesting points on his views of public education.
He talks about boredom, and how boredom is found among both students and teachers. Mr.Gatto brings up how he feels that Modern education places boundaries on the kids. That schools seem to reduce the creativity and individualism in the students. He helps with this quote,

"The obligation to amuse and instruct myself again, that if I was entirely my own, and people who didn't know that were childish people."

 He brings up different innovators and successful people like Lincoln, Jefferson, George Washington and Franklin. He talks about how these great people didn't achieve their success through a pubic school. At the end Gatto appears to have some hint of not completely hating  public schools. He recognizes that he doesn't fully understand what the problem is, so he has a hard time proposing what a solution could be.

WS Sections, 48 & 49

 WS section 48 and 49 relate to paper #2 by classification and compare/contrast.
Classification allows the author to the audience the traits that the teacher's posses. Such as how Ms.Watson is a mentor, a friend and an ally. This classification also allows the reader to understand better which students are in which class at which school.

Comparison/Contrast allows the author to describe what the teachers have in common, and what is different. This section really helped me in understanding how to use this correctly in my paper.

Different Roles

Define the roles of Mr.Escalante, Ms.Watson, Jack McFarland, Sister MPH played.
(Disciplinarian, mentor, friend, ally, therapist)

Mr.Escalante was a mentor.
He dedicated most of his day to teaching, and helping his students succeed. He even went to a personal level to help some of the students really succeed. An example would be when he visits ana's parent's restaurant. He tries to persuade her dad to let Ana into the calculus class. He defends his students even when he is borderline threaten in front of his class he just stand up and said:

" [to Chuco and Company] I am *El Cyclone,* from... Bolivia. One-man gang. This classroom is *my* domain. Don't give me no gas, or I'll jump on your face and tattoo your chromosomes.."

Jack MacFarland was a Mentor and a friend.
Mr.MacFarland spent many hours of his day working with mike. He helped rose with his education and eventually helped him with a chance at getting into a college. They worked from His apartment, all the way to "Consume(ing) my English teacher's library."

 Sister MPH was a Disciplinarian.
 She only focused on two things, Punishing the bad and teaching the good.
Sister MPH appeared to only teach to the good kids who were seated at the front of the school. The rest of the students or "Brownies" as they were called. Most of the time would receive some sort of punishment.

Ms.Watson was a mentor, a friend and an ally.
She helped numerous students open their eyes.
Ms.Watson went against the current and spread a philosophy that was different from the mindset of the perfect family. Like Joan, who Ms.Watson helped her in giving her an application for the law school. Ms.Watson also get invited into the girl's group whom most teacher's don't get into.

I just wanna be average Part II

Mr.Escalante and Mr.McFarland are two similar teachers who inspired their students.
Mr.Escalante was able to take a student like Ana, who was able to change her path into a much higher school of education, as opposed to just working in her father's restaurant. Much Like how Mr.MacFarland was able to help Mike rose go from wishing he could go to college, to actually getting accepted by a college. Mr.MacFarland taught his students with all types of poetry and writings, as mike said "The man immersed us in language."
Both teachers had desire to see there students excel, and wanted to help them in any way they could.

Waiting for Superman notes.

Waiting for Superman:

The narr. starts of telling us how he made a documentary in the 90's about public schools, but 10 years later he goes against what he thought about public schools and took his kids to a private school.
The film shows us a few different kids who are a part of the public school system, and how they feel about school.
The narr. tells us about the no child left behind program, and what the average percent of proficiency that 8th graders have in different states.
A researcher from john Hopkins univ. claims that schools like Roosevelt have been called "drop out factory's"
A former student from a "drop out factory" tells how most of his classmates ended across the city in the jail.
The movie progresses with more scenes about worried parents and how they are concerned about their child's education.
We learn about policy's and paperwork imposed upon them from the teachers union and other systems.
The narr. tells us about the lottery system of charter schools, then we learn about Kipp schools, and the success rates of these schools.
The lottery system only allows a few students into the schools. The rest are left looking for education at a different school.
The movie portrayed a strong sense of bias throughout the whole movie, but it did give more of a macro sense of some of the problems faced in K-12 education vs. Chalk which focused on a smaller, more personal level.

The movie definitely raised some problems with K-12 education. Such as: The difference between the success rate of students with a good teacher vs. a "lemon" teacher. Another point it raised was the thoughts on the teachers union.
The main thing about this movie that gets me is the Bias. I understand this is a documentary, but it only showed one side. A majority of the students in this film were struggling family's with students who live in a poor side of town. The film only recognised the problems of the schools, but didn't provide any solutions. They expanded on the idea of charter schools and getting rid of the "Ten Year" rule. I found this theory interesting because a vast amount of schools that choose not use this policy or give it to a teacher. This movie did bring up some good questions about K-12 Education.

"Chalk" Notes

Notes of The movie Chalk:
Chalk is about a group of teachers and their different challenges and experiences that they faced though the course of a school year.

The movie starts off with an into to the different teachers, a history teacher whom just started teaching, a PE teacher who doesn't seem to have the full attention of the students, a assistant principle who just started and is finding her job challenging. A different history teacher who is motivated to teach and have the students learn. The 3rd year history teacher is striving to win the teacher of the year award. The teachers show how in some subjects, they struggle to keep the attention of their students. At one week before thanksgiving, some teachers seem to be having success in their teachings. The PE teacher for example is having a great success. The first year history teaches is not sharing that same success but over time he has Incorporated more humor into his classroom. This method seems to be working for his classroom so far. As the year progresses the teachers seem  to be doing better and better in class. Except for the first year history teacher who snapped at a kid when his cell phone went off. He confronts the mother of one of the students and ends up drinking wine with her. The assistant principle and the PE teacher start to have an argument about rules. The 3rd year history teacher is dedicated to win the teacher of the year award so much, that he sounds as if he is running for president. He is sent into a state of sadness and aggravated when his rival is declared the winner. On the other hand the First year history teacher starts to get the hang of teaching. He also wins the teacher's edition of the spelling bee and "spiting" out some rhymes.  Still after all the success he has found, he finds himself debating if he even wants to return next year to teach. The movie ends with the teachers telling us about the different lessons they learned.

The only question I am left with is the credditiability of this film. I don't feel that the students and the teachers would act in the mannor that they did if their really were cameras following them around all the time. I think that the wors thing about this movie was the camera angles. To put it short, If they actually used something besides a close up for every shot or an obstruction shot. I would have been able to pay more attention to the film.

Paper #2

     Mr. Davis and Mr. Escalante are two teacher whom both share the goal of creating smarter students.
They both want to see their students not only pass the class, but to excel from the standards. Mr. Escalante and Mr.Davis share some similar traits in their methods of teaching, these consist of control of their class, making the class entertaining, and their dedication to the class.

     One of the most challenging problems teachers find is having control of their class. Mr.Escalante has shown how controlling a class can be difficult, but also rewarding. When he first stepped into his class room the students were rude and did not want to listen. The school itself was is a low end of town with students whom was regarded as below average.   He was able to gain control of the class after slipping a few lines that seemed dot surprise the students such as:

  "Tough guys don't do math. Tough guys fry chicken for a living."

     Over time Mr. Escalante was able to have full control of his former rowdy class. This important step allowed him to teach the students with a great measure of success. Mr.Davis also had a key skill to teaching in controlling his class. The school that Mr. John Davis taught at was is a more developed part of the world. Mr.Davis, like Mr.Escalante used his personality to keep control over his class room. He used more school appropriate remarks than Mr.Escalante, but he still made remarks. What impressed me the most was how Mr.Davis would be able to prevent students from talking in class without having to move them away from another. He would also preform actions that would reduce the amount of students leaving the class room. The school's policy required students to carry with them a bathroom pass to go to the restroom. Mr.Davis' bathroom pass was a pretty clay basket with a pink and blue handle. This discouraged students from using. One of his more discreet techniques was with the vending machines. Out side Mr.Davis' class room was a beverage vending machine. Students would ask to leave class or go to the bathroom so the could buy a drink. He used to put a piece of paper on the front of the machine that said "BROKEN" along with pulling the power plug from the wall. Both Mr.Escalante and Mr.Davis had a great measure of control in their class rooms.

     One of the most important ingredients for making a good teacher is humor. If you can get the class's attention they are more likely to succeed. John Davis and Jamie Escalante both demonstrated this key tool in their everyday teachings. The best way I have heard Mr. Davis is if you took the host of "Gardening with Cisco" and switched his coffee to decaf. His energy always went hand in hand with his humor and his teachings. When you sat down for class he would always be playing music during the passing periods and always had something to talk about. He was about 65 years old and every year, take a week off of school to go helicopter skiing. Mr.Escalante also shared a similar passion for making the class exciting. All though he did not demon straight the same energy level as Mr.Davis he would rather express it though his witty comments. An example is when he is boarder line threatened by a gang of kids as responds with:

"I am *El Cyclone,* from... Bolivia. One-man gang. This classroom is *my* domain. Don't give me no gas, or I'll jump on your face and tattoo your chromosomes... If the only thing you know how to do is add and subtract, you will only be prepared to do one thing: Pump gas."

Mr. Escalante and Mr. Davis both recognize how keeping the class entertaining is an important skill to have to help their students succeed.

     At the end of the day the main quality trait that a great teacher is their dedication to the class.
Mr.Escalante was an extremely dedicated to his class, and his teachings. He constantly went above the normal standards that the other teachers at his school provided. An example is when he decided to teach a summer math class. Normally a teacher will only teach a summer class if they need the extra money. Jamie Escalante taught a summer class to get his students ahead in math. During the hottest month of the class he taught a class inside a locker room that didn't have an any air conditioning available. He also went outside of the class room to help his students, not only in class but in life. Such as telling a student:

  "You only see the turn, you don't see the road ahead."

 Another great example is depicted Between Mr. Escalante and Mr. Delgato:

[Escalante is eating in the Delgado family's restaurant, speaking with them about Ana's decision to drop out of Garfield High] 
Mr.Escalante: She'll just get fat, waste her life away in your restaurant. You have to understand - she's a top student.
Mr.Delgado: I started washing dishes for a nickel an hour. Now I own this place. Did *I* waste *my* life? 
Jaime Escalante: I washed dishes, too, when I first came to this country. 
Mr. Delgado: Good! Why don't you put on an apron and give us a hand? 
Jaime Escalante: ...Ana could go to college, come back, and teach you how to run this place.

     The amount of dedication along with Mr. Escalante's knowledge of the class is almost unparalleled to any other teacher in the world. Mr.Davis did not go so far out of his boundary's to help students succeed, but he still all ways put some effort into it. He Teaches a variety of classes for different grades and subjects. The main courses he teaches is English 11, Creative writing and Film studies.
The Best example of Mr.Davis's dedication to his class would be his assignment turnaround rate. Mr.Davis would have a six page paper deadline on a Tuesday. Your entire class plus the other 3 English classes would all turn their papers in on the same day. He would literally have your paper read in depth, and corrected on every page and every punctuation mark and back on your desk within two days, for every one of his students. The only time he would take more than 4 days to correct an assignment was on the thirty page screenplay assignment for film studies. Now most educators think of film studies as a group of students sit in a classroom and the teacher just lets them watch movies all day. Mr. Davis held a different standard for Film Studies. You started with a bit of history of film then watch a movie, followed by a review in depth. Every two movie you would take a short test along with a list of 100 minimum word responses on the movies. During the film "Psycho" by Alfred Hitchcock Mr. Davis would tell you interesting facts about the movie along with subtle motif's such as the use of mirrors or the indications of birds. You would end the class with writing an original screen play that ended up with an average of twenty-five pages but must be over six thousand words long. A much more challenging class than just watching movies.

     Both Mr.Davis and Mr.Escalante are great examples of what a great teacher consists of.   They both came from different backgrounds, and taught in different schools. These great teachers both share the same goals. Although their methods of keeping their class's entertaining they still both do while keeping excellent control of their classes. Above all else both Mr.Escalante and Mr.Davis provide a prodigious amount of effort in dedication for their classes and students in helping them excel.