January 23

Today, we did a writing into the day about a comic showing that in 1969, parents blamed their children for bad grades, while today parents blame the teacher.  After writing into the day, we talked about what makes a "good" post and comment on the blog.

A "good" post:

• Thoughtful
• Flows
• Asks questions
• Detailed and shows his/her thought process
• Explains what he/she thought about

A "good" comment:

• In depth reflection of the post
• Relating to the post by making personal connections
• Talking about his/her own research questions
• Elaborating on the post's topic
• Answering the post's questions
• Asking questions
• Constructive criticism (exploring the author's strengths and/or weaknesses in writing)
• Giving fresh ideas

From there, we talked about the writing into the day and branched into other thoughts about school.  Below are some of ideas people had:

• Teachers used to be right and now teachers are blamed
• Are teachers as good as they were in the past?
• Students used to be more responsible for themselves.
• Parents pushed their children more in the past
• Students are not as motivated to learning independently and rely more on the teacher for learning now
• Parents are looking for someone to blame. They are too busy at work to see whether their children are actually doing their schoolwork, so they blame the teacher.
• The standards are higher today.  Students learn things much younger now.
• Learning at school is the teacher's responsibility, but at home, it is the parents' responsibility
• Teachers used to be like parents away from home.  They could physically punish students.
• Parents think their kids are perfect.  There is little to no discipline.  The kids are not taught responsibility.
• Religion played a bigger role back then.
• There is more social communication (like Twitter) now so parents and students are more distracted.
• The parents might not have had a good education so they blame all teachers now.
• Parents want to be their child's friend so there is no more discipline.
• People in the US are less grateful for education now.
• Teachers are passing students now because they don't want to get fired.
• Schools want to look better so they pass students.  They want to look better than schools in other countries.
• It's so hard to fail now.
• Maybe the student in the first picture grew up to the parent in the second.  Because he hated being in that situation, he doesn't want to put his kid through that too.
• Is educational training as good now?
• Teachers are younger than they used to be.
• There are classroom management classes that education majors have to pass.
• We have a culture of laziness and entitlement now.
• The basics of education is the same.  Only culture has changed.
• People expect more out of their students.  They need to go to school, have a job, be involved in sports or clubs and keep up with the growing technology.
• There is so much change happening so quickly now.

Do High Schools Prepare a Student for College?

• In some schools, students have to do college assignments like annotated bibliographies, inquiry projects and research papers.
• Tracking is an issue.  If students in regular tracks cannot take AP classes, they won't be prepared for college.
• Tech education classes in high schools can prepare students for a career instead of college.
• High school is about busy work.  College is about actually learning.
• Because high school and college are completely different settings, there is no way to prepare for college.
• There is a culture shock when entering college.
• Some high schools don't use the Internet as much (or at all) so students are not prepared to use the Internet for classes at college.
• In high school, teachers used to say that college was scary.
• In some schools, teachers and classes are hard.  The expectations and assignments are more challenging (requiring deeper thinking and higher learning), like they are in college.
• Private schools prepare students for college because they have classes set up like those in college.
• Schools (K-12) can be completely different and have completely different cultures even if they are in the same city.  Preparation entirely depends on the school the student attends.
• College isn't for everyone.
• The higher paying jobs need college degrees.
• Even jobs like receptionist positions need college degrees now.
• In some private schools, students live at the school in dorms, so life is very much like life at college.
• The social change seems to be the biggest change.  People don't talk to each other as much.

Homework:

Write a post about the conversation we had in class.  What were/are you thinking about?

(Note: You do not need to do the reading listed on the daily calendar yet.  We will move that reading to Monday's homework.)