Letter to President Obama

President Obama,

I have been a teachers assistant in North Carolina for twelve years. I also have two children in the school system that I work for. I believe the No Child Left Behind law, which was supported by George W. Bush during his presidency, should be put to rest. I agree that teachers must be "highly qualified" before working in a school setting. Furthermore, if teachers are not highly qualified that state should step in to give those teachers training and classes that will make them qualified in their area of teaching. I'm sure it probably has more good points, however, from the information I have gathered and from hearing the point of view from others, I am convinced that this law is doing more harm than good. It is not fair to label schools as "underperforming" when their adequate yearly progress does not meet the nations standards for two years in a row. Parents are allowed to move their children to so called "successful"schools if their school is underperforming. What happens if all parents jump on the bandwagon to remove their children. What will happen to all the great teachers that put their heart and soul into their jobs? "Successful" schools should not be based on test results. I believe that all children deserve the best education possible, but there needs to be a better way of reaching these schools. Shutting them down is not the answer. There are teacher shortages and over crowded classrooms today. Is the nation willing to close teacher positions and over crowd all of the successful schools, due to students moving to those schools. All schools can be successful if they are given the right focus, this is what the nation should be working towards.

Sincerely,
Kimberly High
Teacher's Assistant

Name Calling

Being a teacher assistant in Kindergarten, I deal with name calling often. However, my students are at the age where the insults are not really nasty words yet. If I were to hear a student call another student a racist name I would quickly respond. These words are offensive because no person can choose the color of their skin and they should not be judged by that. Racial names could insult whites, blacks, etc. As the teacher, I should let the student know that we are all created equal, that one person or one race is no better than the other. I would tell the student that calling someone a name is very hurtful to that person. I would also add that we should treat others the way we want to be treated. I think I would respond the same way for any situation of name calling, whether the student was apart of the group or not. Name calling is always hurtful.

As an educator, I would feel uncomfortable with a Spanish speaking family. In my classroom, we are dealing with this situation. This child is a ESL student, this was discussed in Chapter 2, page 70. The mother speaks only Spanish. The only communication we have with her is through the children and our ESL person. It would be my concern that if a student was doing poorly in class, that the student would not translate that to their parents. I do not speak Spanish, so this would be an issue for me. It would be my responsibility, through my school, to get a translator who spoke Spanish to relay messages from school to the home.

Goals for Schools

I remember in elementary and middle school being taught good citizenship. You were responsible for your actions. If you misbehaved you were taken to the principal's office immediately. Back then if you got in trouble at school, you were in double trouble when you got home. I believe many of these school goals were met when I was in school. I am a productive citizen today because of teachers who knew goals like teaching self-control and punctuality were important.

I do not have any personal knowledge of various types of schools other than the traditional school setting. However, I know a couple of children who have been home schooled. This is just my opinion, but I believe children who are home schooled do not get the socialization skills they need to interact in the real world. They need interaction more than just mom at the dinner table explaining a math problem. To my knowledge, many of these children are not on grade level.

When I become a teacher, I will make sure my students will be held accountable for their actions and show good citizenship in my classroom. They will learn to cooperate and respect all classmates, even though some may be different from themselves. My students will learn to be responsible for their actions and the decisions they choose to make. The real world has real consequences for those that are irresponsible. It is our job as teachers to teach our students responsibility.