Blogs

__**Bridging Differences Blogs**__

**First Quarter**  “Highest goal of learning is not some external reward, but the enormous satisfaction of learning”, I think this is a great way to explain why learning is important. Kids should be excited to learn and should think it is fun to learn new things. Teachers need to learn how to capture students attentions so they want to learn. Deborah writes “learning is unstoppable—the trick is how to turn it to some “subject matter’”. I think this is very true. Students have the capability to learn anything they want to learn. Teachers need to figure out ways to turn fun activities into subject matter so that students like learning.
 * Blog from Oct. 15th**

I think it is important that teachers believe what they are teaching. I also believe they should agree with what they are teaching. Deborah writes, “I just don't believe that if you were a classroom teacher you'd agree to follow someone's curriculum if you didn't agree with it”. I think that a teacher who agrees with the curriculum will give their students a better performance in teaching the materials. This will help the student know and learn the information in an easier manor.
 * Blog from Oct. 22nd**

I agree that all students should have the same benefits of education. I agree that schools who aren’t considered to be the best schools should get the same education as the best schools do. I also really liked the quote by John Dewey that Diane added. John Dewey wrote, “what the best and wisest parent wants for his own child is what the community should want for all its children”. I think all children should have the same opportunities even though they might not be able to afford them. I do think parents should be more involved and concerned about the appearance of the school their child is attending. Parents are a big part of the school community. They should want the best for their child and work hard to give them the best education they can possibly have.
 * Blog from Oct. 27th**

Gerald Bracey and Ted Sizer both died. I think that is hard for Deborah and I feel bad for her. Ted Sizer she knew for a long time and she considered him a mentor and a colleague. I think it would be very hard to deal with a death of someone that close to you. I think it was very respectable of Deborah to write to Ted even though he is no longer alive. She wrote that we would use the wisdom of his character and his ideas to help us face the challenges that will soon be faces.
 * Blog from Oct. 29th**


 * Second Quarter **


 * Blog from Dec. 4th**

Deborah write about her hero. I think it's nice to read that someone has a hero. I believe every person should have a role model/hero that they look up to and strive to be like. This helps a person want to be better than what they are which is important.


 * Blog From Dec. 10th**

The Obama and Duncan Launch NCLB 2.0 that Diane wrote to Deborah, was very interesting. The U.S. Department of Education is planning to spend $3.5 billion to turn around failing schools. The interesting part about this is that the plan is to reopen the schools with new teachers and principals. My question is why can't they do something with the teachers and principals they already have? All the people who are employed with the low achieving schools will be jobless. This is good news for teachers that need jobs, but wouldn't be good for the teachers being fired. I think the plan is an interesting way to look at things because there are 4 things the districts could do, none of them being very positive and letting people keep their jobs.

As much as America has always been portrayed as intelligent, we have also been known to be greedy. It is scary that now these two characteristics are being combined. Some schools are paying its students as motivation to do well academically, which I think is wrong. Students should be able to motivate themselves both in the classroom and in life and shouldn’t need a bribe to do so. If all the students prior to now were able to do fine and studied all on their own initiative, why can’t we and the future students do the same? This is ridiculous and embarrassing for the country of America; what is this world coming to that we need money to motivate us in everything?
 * Blog from Jan. 7th **

**Blog from Jan. 19th** I can’t decide whether or not I believe student’s tests should evaluate a teacher’s performance. There are two sides: One side is that some students just don’t care if they fail. So if a student fail’s and doesn’t try at all, this will put a negative evaluation on the teacher. The other side is that some teachers are kept in their school districts that really don’t know how to teach. There could be a teacher that has students that are failing because they simply can’t teach. Then when the regents’ tests come around, all the students do well because there is such a high curve on many tests. This makes the teacher look good even though all year the students were doing very poorly.

**Third Quarter**


 * Blog from Mar. 4th**

I think it's interesting how intelligent young kids really are. If they heard another language they wouldn't understand it, but they would be able to pick up on it. I think this is so interesting. I think kids should be taught as much as possible while they are young. Patricia Kuhl explains that once kids are around 7, learning becomes harder for them. They wouldn't be able to pick up on different languages even though don't know the language, like they would when they were under 7. I believe children should learn more than one language when they are under 7 years old because it is easier for them to learn the language. Children start learning different languages in school when they are around 12. This makes learning the new language harder because their brain has changed.