Monday Moanin Thoughts #84 Just Asking?

Welcome to the final October Monday Moanin of 2013. For today’s blog , I am posing 5 questions about education. Consider using them at staff meetings, PTSA gatherings, and among colleagues. They will provide a fine opportunity for discussion and reflection.

1. If teaching is an important profession, why is the trend across the country to reduce both their pay and benefits?
2. Is education reform preparing today’s learner for the 21st century?  20th? 19th?
3. Why is the reform movement focusing on test scores, instead of looking at the elephant in the room, poverty?
4. Why do we look at data by comparing last years students scores to this years students scores?
5. Are the learners at your school doing more work or more learning?
   

Quote of the week:

” Our most effective teachers show that great teaching is leadership…In every highly effective classroom, we find a teacher who, like any great leader, rallies team members (in this case, students and their families) around an ambitious vision of success. We find a teacher who plans purposefully and executes effectively to make sure students reach that vision, even as that teacher also continues to learn and improve. Farr