1. If President Obama called me on the phone and wanted to
know what five things I thought in response to the resignation of the Secretary
of Education, I said hello Mr. President it’s is an honor to hear your voiced
today. Thanks for considering my humble thoughts and ideas/ feedback on what
America needs to do for the sake of education, 1) stop school closures, and 2)
create mandatory parent /guardian-teacher conferences until students have
graduated high school. 3) Allow teachers to choose the curriculum that best
fits the students’ academic needs rather than having companies use their best
sales pitch, 4) compensate teachers and staff for all the work they do to
prepare for the 184 days they teach students, and 5) put an end to standardized
testing as a tool for academic success. Success can not be evaluated by
standardize test.
2. This book has been
an eye opener. Last school year I had the opportunity to see Diane Ravish speak
both in Sacramento and San Francisco, unfortunately I didn’t really know who
she was and didn't attend. It I would have read her book prior, I'd be in the
front row excited to hear her experiences. The opportunity came about because
I'd recently joined the executive board for my teacher's union. During our
workshops and conferences, I would hear her name mentioned quite a bit. I
finally looked her up and learned why she was an important and famous. Not
until I read her book this summer that I realized that being a teacher today is
much more than working with children at a school. First of all there is so much
history behind how we educate students today. There are lots of politics
involved. When teaches learn the history of education no matter what subject
you teach you become powerful. The sad thing is somehow students can be raised
in a system that creates them to be unaware & lost about the fact of life.
I feel powerful knowing that change can happen with Ravitch, her views were
different before and after she was emerged in what was happening at the high
levels of congresses, There she was able to see that private companies were
becoming really interested in education by trying to privatizing educations and
helping the government ultimately take the power away from teachers.
3. Given the current state of American education, as a
teacher I feel like I can educate my students on what’s really going on in
world regarding their future. I can incorporate more than just my subject
matter, but in fact create interdisciplinary lessons. At times it
seems like there is much to take on but in reality we have to learn to take one
step at a time. I really think it is important to make informed decisions starting
with yourself, your home, classroom, school district boards, local government,
state government and federal government concerning education. After reading all
the reading in this course I realized that it’s important to fight for equality
on every aspect of life. We are a nation at risk and until we get more people
on board with how things are currently being
done we will just have to support each other as educators. “United we
Stand” and “Divide we Fall”. I believe Public, Private, Charter schools are design to divide us as educators. I will
continue to believe in the public option as well as public education but in actuality, I believe the students are our future. I hope
others will join me in the crusade for educational reform at its best.
4. National Association in my subject area:
A) National Science Teacher Association: On their website they
have information about professional development, publications and recommended science
journal articles to read, Conference and institutes, how one can get involve
with social networks, educational support and more. On this site it also has
science catalog with one can purchase science material for class.
B) National Association of Biology Teachers: on their
website they have their mission statement and member benefits. There are also
tabs that include news and events, conferences and workshops, publication,
awards and opportunity as well as free teaching resources.
5. Over the next three years, if I could, I would
a) Visit the following places
·
Bay Area Bioscience Center in Berkeley, CA 510-874-1465
·
California Academy of Science in San Francisco,
CA 415-750-7141
·
Bay Area Discovery Museum in Marin, CA
415-487-4398
·
Lawrence Livermore Labs 925-424-0576
·
Life Lab 408-459-2001
b) Read the following books in my subject area
·
“The Beak of the Finch” by Jonathan Weiner
·
“The Double Helix” by James Watson
·
“Thinking about Life: The history and philosophy
of biology and other sciences”
by Paul S. Agutter & Deny N.
Wheatley
·
“ The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology
Watcher” by Lewis Thomas
·
“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan
c) Read the following Journals/ Articles
·
American Biology Teacher Vol 42 Issue 7
o
“Biology
education in the secondary schools of the United States”
by Paul de Hart Hurd
·
Journal of research in Science Teaching Vol 25
Issue 5:
o
“ Understanding and misconceptions of biology
concepts held by students
attending small high schools
and students attending large high schools”
by William D. Simpson &
Edmund A. Marek
d) Attend Conferences
·
April
10-12, 2013 in Marina Del Ray, CA: The Microtechnologies in Medicine and
Biology Conference
·
October 25-27, 2012 Sacramento, CA: California Agriculture
Classroom Conference
e) Place to see around the world
·
The Galapagos Island
·
Costa Rico’s Rainforest
·
Cite’ des Science Paris, France
·
Kobe Science Museum Kobe, Japan
·
The Natural History Museum London, England
