Week 3- School Leadership

"Keeping a team of teachers and students together for two or three years provides opportunities for teachers to establish sustained relationships with students and parents" (AMLE).

This week's readings had full of information on how principals become an important role in any school. I find principals interesting but yet a role who can hide two sides. School principals have a huge responsibility to create a positive learning environment and create a welcoming culture. First, I believe that no matter what organization you work for, it is really hard to change the culture of that place. A new principal won't change the culture of the school that has been run for many years by another principal. It takes years to develop relationships with your staff, teachers, students, and administrators. Just like the quote above says it keeps several years for you to adapt to a school. 

Although school principals have a huge responsibility, I want to talk about the other side of the coin. Principals have a lot of power in terms of school. They have so much power that it leads to abuse of power. According to the Washington Post, in 2019 CPS has open more than 458 cases of sexual assault in 2019. Principals and higher administration have a lot of power that control teachers and students. There are many cases of principals abusing their power to keep information from leaking out of the school and the district. I believe that a principal's personality can tell a lot about how a school is run and the culture the school has. If as a teacher you don't like or feel comfortable with a principal it is a clear indication that the school is not the right fit. The article mentions that principals are like managers, they will see what's best for the school (how it is supposed to) but in reality, it is what is best for their budgets. I respect every position in any industry including schools but if there is a good side to something there is always a bad side but can't be ignored and get informed on because money, power, and temptation is always out there. 

Link to the article about cases on sexual assaults in schools (including principals):  https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/01/07/report-chicago-schools-watchdog-reviewed-sexual-assault-allegations-fiscal-year-host-other-alleged-misdeeds/ 

Week 2- Constructive Feedback

"Educators should recognize students' efforts and supports their developing work ethic...descriptive feedback that addresses not only the quality of their current work but how to improve or move to the next step" (AMLE).

This week's reading was full of tips on how to adapt the curriculum and the culture of our classroom to improve middle school students' education and knowledge. The quote above generated a lot of questions in my head on giving students feedback. I believe that one of the major goals of middle school is to prepare students for that transition into high school. Students in middle school might not see the importance of passing a class in middle school but once they get to high school everything changes in terms of passing a class. You don't pass a class = no credit = retake or fall behind on credits. I understand that educators should recognize the effort that students make but we all have a student who doesn't turn in any work. Why should the student receive credit for no work at all? The district I work with has a grading system of a 1-4. Students receive a credit of 1 even if they don't turn any work. I love constructive feedback and that's what I want to give my students, feedback that they can reflect and build upon. The reading also mentions that the curriculum should have high expectations, have relevant activities with the room of exploration and creativity. Although, we must also include formative and summative assessments to have data to improve our planning, we must hold students responsible for their effort and their grades. 

This chart talks about the difference between Assessment and Evaluation. The AMLE book mentions several of these differences and this is something that educators must consider to distinguish between assessment and evaluation.  

WEEK 1 - The changing world

"Too many children lack adequate supervision in their out-of-school hours. Without responsible adult role models, unhealthy situations exist when young adolescents live in an environment rife with temptations" (AMLE, pp.8).

This is a quote that I have strong opinions about it because in the book it talks about young adolescents being tempted with unhealthy choices like drugs, alcohol, sex, and more. I believe that even though we have a lot of digital tools nowadays there is a lot of information and real-life experiences that teachers should share with students. The temptation is stronger when there is lack of information. We can tell students not to do drugs because it is bad for their health but it is more valuable and powerful when they see and hear a person that overcome drug abuse. We all know at least one person that uses or is addicted to drugs (if not, you are lying), but we never share it with students. Why doesn't the business standards or curriculum have at least a section where we teach students about money laundering, falsification of a check, fraud, scams, and more illegal business concepts that surround all of us. If we don't share this information with students they do not have that powerful knowledge and that is when the TEMPTATION comes in. One of the most important things I have learned so far is that students (or even us as adult students) we won't remember much what we read on textbooks. Students might remember parts of the textbook for a quiz or test but after that, it is all gone or at least a large percentage of it. Students will remember more an activity or a life story than words in a textbook. As teachers, we need to show students the consequences of unhealthy choices, if we don't temptation will win. Temptation is everywhere but if we give students the knowledge they will think it twice and might resist temptation.