Present Vs. Past

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

October 1 2013

Impacts Of Poor Funds

The State Board Of Education has named a vast amount of schools around the counties which are categorized as the worst achieving schools. The schools are claimed to be “bad” schools due to the poor test scores on Government tests used to make money. The reason for the poor test scores isn't necessarily that the teachers aren't proper educators, or that the students are not capable of exceeding using what they are taught at school, but the fact that plenty of schools have very little to use. Numerous schools use outdated textbooks, have very old equipment if any, they can't afford to provide the materials or technology that is needed by the students. Poor funding in schools that are located in low income districts matters because it makes it difficult for these requirements of resources to be met, thus having the students fall behind or not have the information they need, causing the students to struggle and enjoy school less.

Schools that don't have funds for class materials risk the students education and ability to succeed in school. Boards Of Education may underestimate the issue as something that doesn't have much to do with the achievement of students, but in reality its more than important to have resources available for the students to study, or do homework and projects. The subjects change over time, and new information is included in textbooks, a math book from ten years ago can have different strategies than a newer generation of that same math book, which would be more useful for the tests because the students would be up to date with the information. In the book “Savage Inequalities” by Jonathan Kozol, students that live in rundown poor districts are forced to use what they have, which is not even close to what they need, “We have no textbooks yet. Im using my old textbook from the seventh grade.” (pg. 105), these are situations that cannot  be tolerated in schools. Till this present day school districts don't receive the funds they need to have enough new textbooks required by all students, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary in Compton, Ca. has 7 different grades from preschool to fifth grade and only one small library with very little books to offer. The amount of books compared to the amount of students is not near enough the amount that is needed. Both the schools in the book and King Elementary are in need of help in order to keep the students well educated in the correct manner, this affects the time it takes for the students to learn, they fall behind and are then placed in lower classes because they cant meet the expectations of the school boards of education.

The lack of materials in a school leads to more conservative actions that arent too beneficial for the students. The possibility that classes get cut from school is very likely to occur, leaving more money to “improve” the school in its weak areas. The problem with cutting these classes is that school loses a lot of its uniqueness since all that would be left to offer are basic classes like math, English and science, there would be no electives. The issue being that these elective classes aren't considered of much importance and are simply taken away leaving the students with no other knowledge, they have no way to express an unrevealed talent without these classes, “Many public schools are facing a stark  lack of resources, not only for arts classes but for other activities too. Over time, arts have been pushed lower and lower on the list of importance with regards to public schooling.” (Lack of Resources), just like in the book, none of the poor public schools offered any extracurricular classes except those that were in the suburbs and had money to afford these classes. I believe when a student doesn't have the option to choose from many different classes other than the standard subjects like Math and English, they get bored and don't really enjoy school, they have nothing to explore or use to relieve stress from classes. On a different note, if they did have these classes available with funds, then the students would be more enthusiastic about school, even if its only for one class, as long as they have something to look forward to and chase their dreams.

Funds towards schools will always be a great deal for the students, there is always something that is needed in schools, some more than others. Rather than putting schools down and categorizing how bad a school is, help should be provided in order to prevent more schools from being “low achievers” and also a consideration should be taken on whether the materials available are good enough for the students to use. Though there have been quite a lot of improvements in schools, there are still problems from the past that have stuck around to this present day and affect our school districts possibilities to fund for more books, libraries, computers, etc. We all need to join as a nation and settle these inequalities together rather than competing for the top, we all can achieve with the right actions.

Segregation In Schools

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

September 26 2013

Segregation In Schools

            Being separated apart from others because you are different than the rest is an intolerable situation that many people face. Till this day segregation still exists, especially in schools, not by race but by academic performance compared to the rest of the students that attend a school. When students are not at the proficiency that they are expected to be at, they are sent to a different school often called “continuation school” which is meant to help a student catch up, the problem with this is that when a school is filled with students of poor academic proficiency the chances of improving are very slim. In a class there needs to be a variety of academic skills, in order to challenge one another and motivate to try harder, separating all the less proficient students from the rest of the school doesn’t really help in improving the way that they perform. Segregating students will never help them achieve in life, it’s not fair that students have to be sent to a lower school simply because they aren’t at the level that everyone else is at, this is the chance that schools have to get more involved with students and offer more help instead of just getting rid of the student and making a lower school full of more segregated students sink deeper in the school district. Many parents with highly educated children also try to keep out students with low academic achievements by insisting to the board of education that only kids of some level of knowledgeable potential should be allowed in the classes, Jonathan Kozol mentions in his book, “The city is noted, had refused to build a new school for the project children when they were the only children in the neighborhood. Now that a new school has been built, they find themselves excluded.” (Kozol 74), the lower level students are never given a chance, so therefore they can never improve or advance in life if they always get excluded. The major problem is that these kids are not being helped to reach what they are capable of, and their hopes are dragged down which makes them skeptical about what they can achieve. Schools should really begin to take action for their students instead of sending them off to other schools that are going nowhere.

 

Consequence Of No Emotional Connection

Max Serna
Ms. Williams
English 1A
September 13, 2013

Consequence Of No Emotional Connection          

When teachers don't have that emotional connection with students, they risk having more high school drop outs and less successful students. The students need a certain amount of help from the teachers in order to succeed. The student alone cant figure out what to do, they don't know how to learn with no help, its up to the teacher to be connected with them in order to teach the class properly, where a student can feel comfortable when asking for extra help. If there is a lack of communication in a class the students wont feel like they can seek help in the class and most likely wont seek for help outside of school causing them to fall behind or pick up bad habits like not doing homework because they don't understand the material. Help is always needed by students, no matter how independent they are in class, and a teacher should make sure the class feels safe to ask for it by knowing how to be connected with the students.
A similar issue to not obtaining help is that the students wont learn in class, they will not know whats going on once they start to fall behind. A teacher needs to keep in mind that kids are sometimes afraid of asking questions because they don't want to feel dumb, which is why the teacher should know how to speak to the students in order to have them know they can ask the teacher anything they need help on. When the students see that the teacher doesn't connect with them in such a way, they wont ask questions and they wont learn in class and will struggle with work, leading them into failure. A child that doesn't learn in school and fails a class will then feel like they should just give up, they don't think they can make it anymore and their state of mind begins to change causing bigger problems like not even trying anymore or cutting class and accepting failure as a choice.
Once a student begins to accept failure in school everything goes downfall. The biggest issue with failing is that students will drop out of school without even trying to redeem themselves from the failures, they see that its a lot of work to complete to get back on track and prefer to stop where they are and quit. Teachers need to be cautious of the possibilities of students dropping out of high school, because they can be the ones to prevent it as well as cause it. If a teacher focuses on having a great emotional connection, they can change a failing students mind, and help them achieve more in school and possibly push them to go further, as a teacher they should never settle for a failing student, because when a student fails the teacher fails as well, they didn't help enough to prevent from that student from failing. There are students who do things for attention, like cause trouble or fail on purpose because they don't have anyone who will talk to them and be a role model, in which case a teacher would be the excellent person to deal with those types of students by showing her or she cares about the success of those students by being emotionally connected with them.

Libraries Gone Out Of Date

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

September 08 2013

Libraries Gone Out Of Date

Libraries have never been the same since technology has been improving, more and more resources online lead to less visits to a local library for information on people, or for school assignments. Education has taken a big step away from using old fashioned research at libraries due to the fact that there are so many computer labs available for students to use, and all the free wifi areas like starbucks that allow students or anyone conducting research to use at no cost. Part of the reason that I believe libraries have gone out of date in educations is because people don't really have time to go to a public library and actually take time to gather books with information, instead they can go on a search browser like Google and have a chunk of information from different web sites. Using technology is way more convenient as well because the majority of kids have laptops or smartphones that are capable of being used literally anywhere so they can easily look up information rather than heading towards the library. Research may be easier but it also has its downfalls, information online isn't always correct, and some websites also allow for users to change and add their own information as well which could be a problem because the information would be inaccurate. We tend to depend too much on technology to give us the answers instead of doing the research ourselves and obtaining information the right way, and actually learn from what we research. The way technology is rising we use less things in school such as libraries, notebooks, etc. its all digital technology now, its crippling our capabilities of doing such things on our own.

Teacher Interaction

Max Serna                                                                                                                   Serna 1

M. Williams

English 1A

09 September 2013

Teacher Interaction

    There are many dreams, and goals that are never chased by students because of how society discourages them, they don't think they are supposed to be different and explore all the different paths they can take.  The Passion Project movie is a film that was created by college students who were scared of what to do because they felt like they were expected to be whatever it was the media said they should be.  Out of the many ideas that theses students had about how they could possibly avoid these issues from happening, one stood out to me about how teachers should interact with the students and try to really connect with them and motivate them as well.  After a little research, I found some interesting connections between an online article, and the Passion Project movie.  Teachers who begin to build connections with students starting pre-school tend to help build good habits of communication with future teachers as they feel safe knowing they can speak to an adult that wont judge them or not believe them.  According to the Passion Project, students found it hard to understand the material that was being covered in class, there were not enough explanations or thorough enough to understand with a simple lesson.  With that communications being built at early ages, students can feel free to be confident enough to ask and not be afraid to stay and speak to the teacher one on one.  When teachers actually communicate with the students, they build a bond that makes the student want to be in school, and actually want to look forward to studying and exploring new knowledge that can possibly help them figure out what they want to be when they are older and not drop out or give up on themselves, "Teachers who experience close relationships with students reported that their students were less likely to avoid school, appeared more self-directed, more cooperative, and more engaged in learning (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Klem & Connell, 2004).", the teachers can get to know the student and then do their best to help a student build his dream and get an idea of what he/she wants to make of themselves instead of struggling and feeling like they are on their own to sink or swim.  These types of communications can be extremely benefiting for students all ages, and grades.  The more they can communicate with teachers, the easier it is for them to ask questions and also learn to overcome a fear of failure and keep going instead of giving up,
“Central to this theory is that students with close relationships with their teachers view their teacher as a "secure base" from which to explore the classroom environment. In practice, students with this "secure base" feel safe when making mistakes and feel more comfortable accepting the academic challenges necessary for learning  (Bowlby 1969).”, the students learn how to strive, not just fail once and think they cant make it in life, from failure comes success in the long run.  I personally believe that with the connection of student to teacher, a student will find it less stressing to decide what they want to be or what path to take as there are infinite amounts to choose from.

http://www.apa.org/education/k12/relationships.aspx