Comments on: Job Insecurity

By: Katharina

Katharina — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:25:49 +0000

Hi! Another not-a-teacher-and-no-kids-reader here who didn’t mean to freak you out.
And if I was Obama, I’d call you asap.
Never give up.

By: Ms. H

Ms. H — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:53:04 +0000

I think there is a LOT to be said for giving students choices. We’re so busy running around thinking we know what’s best that we all miss out by failing to ask the kid what they want. As much effort as a teacher expends to motivate a student, at the end of the day it all comes down to the student making a choice to be motivated and/or engaged. I see this play out with ELL students. There are some students who put every last effort into learning English — they are constantly exercising their speaking/listening skills, looking up words, staying afterschool for tutoring — all in an attempt to improve their English. These would be the students jumping at the chance for Option 1.

The Option 2 students who haven’t yet had the Gotta-Master-English Epiphany are no less deserving of an opportunity to learn English, but we need to design/deliver their instruction in such a way that we prioritize their learning of English above all of the “great works of Literature” that are challenging enough for native speakers, much less someone who struggles to form a simple past-tense sentence.

Maybe my blue-collar roots go a bit deeper than I thought, but I struggle to see what good it does us, as a society, to tick off all of the “classics” that we cover in high school English classes when we are producing citizens that can’t read, comprehend, and coherently respond to newspaper articles about civic concerns. Yes, we need to have a “cultural canon”…but at what cost?

Oh, and If he (they) call….can you please patch me in? Please? Because I would super-fat-puffy-heart LOVE to dogpaddle around in that thinktank.

By: angie

angie — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:48:48 +0000

Hang in there, Kelly! I’ve been reading you long enough to know that you land on your feet. Things are tough all over, and only the strong will survive. And you’re genuine. That’s got to count for something, too, right?

By: Mocha Momma

Mocha Momma — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:13:21 +0000

So, Ms. H, I have a question:

What if we took those ELL students and gave them a choice? Here, students, you may:

1) stay in this course which is accelerated and take another course (or go to tutoring) to help support you here so that you may get into that Tier-1 university

2) go into a course that will be an average-weighted course for ELL students where instruction is differentiated to support your learning.

Worthwhile and beneficial for ELL students, yes or no?

Also, when will Obama call me so I can think tank all this stuff? Or Arne Duncan? Either phone call I will take.

By: Caffeinated Librarian

Caffeinated Librarian — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:34:35 +0000

Not to add to the misery, but have you seen this? Bad times all over. I know it's been said but I've seen nothing like it in my lifetime.