C4T #2

For my second C4T, I was assigned to read Joe Bower's blog. Joe Bower teaches in Alberta, Canada and his plan is to challenge traditional schooling while exploring progressive forms of education.

My Favourite Excerpt from Reign of Error

Summary:

In My Favourite Excerpt from Reign of Error Joe Bower demonstrates why the reform era won’t work in education. He also offers solutions to help with the problems, which are based off his experience and evidence. In Joe's blog, he explains that students who come from a background full of resources have an advantage in school. The resources that Joe is referring to is having a helpful family and being able to live a healthy lifestyle. He says that we must do whatever is necessary to extend the same advantages to every child who does not have the proper resources to help them through school. Joe believes that no matter what type of household a child comes from everyone should receive the same chances for a good life. In "My Favourite Excerpt from Reign of Error Joe suggest ways to improve the lives of the younger people and ways to create a stronger society. In order to create a better society, Joe Bower suggests that pregnant mothers should make sure they receive proper nutrition and see a doctor often because a healthy baby is a happy baby. It is important to take care of a baby even though they are in the womb because the child could be affected later on in their life. Secondly, he suggests enrolling children in pre-kindergarten classes to help build their social skills. In the blog Joe includes different types of stresses and the importance of establishing programs and goals to close the poverty and segregation gap in education. According to Joe society is what creates strategies and goals to help close the gap and create equal opportunity for our students.

My comment:
My name is Shakeya Andrews and I am a student in edm 310 at the University of South Alabama. My blog can be found Shakeya Andrews

I have really been informed by reading your blog. You’re right there is an educational gap in the school system and it all starts with the type of resources that are available to students. You stated that "mothers should receive good nutritution and go to the doctor often while pregnant." This statement was interesting to me because parents create the foundations for our students. When parents fail to create a healthy environment for our students it makes it harder for educators and future educators to close that educational gap. As I prepare to embark on this educational journey I look forward to seeing the educational gap close and more parent involvement.

Education Excellence Requires Equity

Summary: Education excellence requires equity explains how the rich and poor class are contributing to students success. The first video is called "Actual Distribution of Wealth in the U.S" and it shows how wealth is distributed and it classified the poor, middle class, and the wealthier people.It is said that the top 1% of the country has all of the wealth. The video shows that there is not much of a difference between the poor and the middle class. Also, the richer students seem to do well compared to the other classes. The second video which is called "For Richer for Poorer" is a tale of two Schools that explains how Canadians and Albertans schools are different from each other. Some schools in these areas receive more funding than others creating a better environment and closing the opportunity gap for each student in Canada. Patrick Airlie School is a public school that is much more different than Webber Academy which is the number one school in Calgary. Webber Academy is a private school with more resources for students to use. Even though Webber is a private school it is funded by the government and it provides students with a solid food program and nice labs for students to use. Joe wrote this blog to show the poverty gap and his goal is to lift people out of poverty and creating more opportunities for students.Read Education Excellence Requires Equity

My comment:
My name is Shakeya Andrews and I am a student in edm 310 at the University of South Alabama. My blog can be found atShakeya Andrews Watching the first video is sad because it is not fair that the economic equity isn’t divided into equal portions. Like the old saying says “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.” Why is it that we have students living in the same country living in towns less than 15 miles away, but their schools are different and the opportunities that they are provided with are different? I agree we need to get our students out of the poverty gap. Find me on Twitter @educating_1

Gary Stager on Progressive Education

My Comment: My namne is Shakeya Andrews and I am a student in edm 310 at the University of South Alabama. My blog can be found at Shakeya Andrews I found your point “Parents and teachers should do everything possible to help kids get through high school without hating it” to be interesting. Parents and teachers have the biggest job when it comes to keeping students motivated. I’ve seen some parents that have had to help their kids get through elementary school without hating it. The workload that students are expected to handle is a lot now. It breaks my heart to see kids struggling in school because they know that they are not meeting the standards in the classroom and they begin to shut down. How would help get your students through high school without hating it? Find me on Twitter @educating_1

 Summary: In Joe Bower’s blog Progressive Education he lists some of the principles of progressive education, which was originally written by Gary Stager. There are three principles that Joe mentioned that I thought were interesting. 1. Strong progressive public schools are the bedrock of our democracy 2. Parents and teachers should do everything possible to help kids get through high school without hating it. It is important that educators and future educators know what our students need to help them be successful and how we can make that happen. Parents play a vital role in our children’s lives. Where the teacher is lacking in knowledge the parent should be a dependable resource for students to turn to. However, that is not always the case for children in our society not. Joe also stated that “The best thing schools can do is prepare kids to solve problems that school has not even anticipated.