Students And The Parents example essay topic

After reading through the curriculum documents, I have one question that continues to nag at me. In each subject of the documents, it discusses three very important roles, the teacher's, the students, and the parents. My questions are this: How much depends on these roles being met? In many households today, parents do not take an active role in their children's learning. How is the teacher to enforce that parents are meeting their end of the agreement? I know from my own experience when working in a "tougher" school, the parents that you wanted to meet with the most, never showed up for teacher meetings.

Strands- Areas of the curriculum: Arts, Language, Science, French, Physical Education, Social Studies, and Mathematics are broken down to describe specific focus areas within these subjects. An example is Language is broken into: writing; reading, and oral and visual communication. Achievement levels- This is the evaluation area of the curriculum. The achievement levels are broken up into four smaller categories of achievement. Overall expectations- This is a more general expectation. It is what the student is expected to have learned and acquired by the end of the school year.

Specific expectation- This describes the overall expectations in much greater details. It breaks the overall expectations down and specifically describes what the learning expectations are for that subject, age division and strand. 1. By the end of Grade 6, students will: make predictions while reading a story or novel, using various clues. A) The curriculum document- Language B) Grade level- 6 C) The strand for all documents (also the topic for the Science and Technology document) - Reading D) The expectation (overall or specific) - Specific 2. By the end of Grade 4, students will: organize and develop ideas using paragraphs (e.g. - to tell a story).

A) The curriculum document- Language B) Grade level- 4 C) The strand for all documents (also the topic for the Science and Technology document) - Writing D) The expectation (overall or specific) - Overall 3. By the end of Grade 5, students will describe changes they observe in the properties of materials when the materials interact with each other (e. g., when paints are mixed; when water is combined with gelatine); A) The curriculum document- Science and Techonolgy B) Grade level- 5 C) The strand for all documents (also the topic for the Science and Technology document) - Matter and Materials D) The expectation (overall or specific) - Specific Expectation 4. By the end of Grade 5, students will: pose and solve problems applying a patterning strategy (e. g., what effect will doubling the first number have on the pattern? ); A) The curriculum document- Mathematics B) Grade level- 5 C) The strand for all documents (also the topic for the Science and Technology document) - Patterning and Algebra D) The expectation (overall or specific) - Specific Expectation 5.

By the end of Grade 4, students will: describe the distinguishing physical features of regions with the provinces and territories; A) The curriculum document- Social Studies B) Grade level- 4 C) The strand for all documents (also the topic for the Science and Technology document) - Canada and World Connections, The Provinces and Territories of Canada D) The expectation (overall or specific) - Overall Expectations 6. By the end of Grade 5, students will: describe the increasing importance of personal hygiene following puberty; A) The curriculum document- Health and Physical Education B) Grade level- 5 C) The strand for all documents (also the topic for the Science and Technology document) - Healthy Living, Growth and Development. D) The expectation (overall or specific) - Specific Expectation 7. By the end of Grade 6, students will: create dance pieces, using a variety of techniques; A) The curriculum document- Arts- Drama and Dance B) Grade level- 6 C) The strand for all documents (also the topic for the Science and Technology document) - Drama and Dance, Creative Work D) The expectation (overall or specific) Specific Expectation 8. By the end of Grade 4, students will: recognize that specific pitches may be represented by notes placed on a staff; A) The curriculum document- Arts B) Grade level- 4 C) The strand for all documents (also the topic for the Science and Technology document) - Music, Knowledge of Elements D) The expectation (overall or specific) Specific Expectations 9. By the end of Grade 5, students will: describe the connection between an element of design and a specific artistic purpose, using appropriate vocabulary (e. g., the artist has used soft colours and circular shapes to emphasize the loving relationship between the mother and child).

A) The curriculum document- The Arts B) Grade level- 5 C) The strand for all documents (also the topic for the Science and Technology document) Visual Arts, Critical Thinking D) The expectation (overall or specific) Specific Expectation Module 4-3 Activity: AERODYNAMIC DRAG RACE Curriculum Document: Science and Technology Grade level: 6 Overall Expectations: Demonstrate an understanding of the properties of air (e. g., air and other gases have mass) and explain how these can be applied to the principles of flight; Specific Expectations: Understanding Basic Concepts: -demonstrate and explain how the shape of a surface over which air flows affects the role of lift (Bernoulli's principle) in overcoming gravity (e. g., changing the shape of airplane wings affects the air flow around them); -demonstrate and describe methods used to alter drag in flying devices (e. g., flaps on a jet aircraft's wings); -explain the importance of minimizing the mass of an object when designing devices to overcome the force of the earth's gravity Developing Skills of Inquiry, Design, and Communication -design and create a device that uses pneumatic power to move another object The Students strengths and Needs: Although I do believe it is important to know some things about your students and their backgrounds (both educational and personal) I sometimes wonder if pointing out their strengths and areas of need is a bit unfair to them, both in IEPs and their personal background in OSRs. I am not really sure where to draw the line, but sometimes I feel that we are attaching a stigma to the students, one that follows them throughout their years in school and well into life. By centering them out, we are making them feel very different than the other students, which has an impact on them. Students can feel a mix of emotions, one being that they are not as bright as others in the class and that is why they require more help than others.

This can damage their self esteem, changing their whole school experience. An alternative feeling, is that they feel special. I think this most often occurs when children enjoy working with the teachers involved in the IEP. They like feeling like they have special privileges to leave class and have extra help.

The second problem that I see about only pointing out certain students strengths and weaknesses, is that other students in the class develop opinions of that IEP student. This causes problems because most of the time, the other students are unaware of what extra help is really being given and why, and just assume that it is because that student cannot achieve the same academic standards as the rest of the class. Many times this will lead to name calling and ostracizing. The last thing that is always on my mind, is that by having access to IEPs and OSRs that teachers develop biases to these students.

Sometimes teachers are swayed by the information in these documents. So even a student trying very hard to turn a new leaf, has his or her past constantly following them. Implementing and Monitoring: Although this seems in theory as a great idea, many teachers have such a heavy work load and so many students to consider for this program that it tends to seem more like a burden. I can easily see these as being rushed, pushed aside and not given the care or time that is outlined (not to anyone's fault, this just to seems to be another heap of work that is added to a teacher's already heavy load). It also requires a lot of meetings with various people, this takes up a lot of time for teachers, and I really can't imagine what happens to a teacher with more than one IEP in their class. I know when I was doing my practicum, I worked in a class that had 18 of 23 students with various learning disabilities.

New papers were also being added to the classroom teacher's mailbox with updates of arising learning problems in the class. I never even heard IEP uttered, so it might not have been an issue at that time, but it still was a lot for the classroom teacher and myself to take into consideration when designing lesson plans, assignments and activities, I can't imagine having to add meetings, and appointments into that equation. Reviewing and Updating One criteria that is outlined in this section is "breaking expectations down into smaller steps, if learning is proceeding at a slower rate than had been anticipated by the plan". What if the student is not able to fully achieve all the learning expectations that are outlined for their grade level?

What happens to them? Do you keep them back, or do you push them along, with hopes that another year of maturity might add in picking up the concepts faster? This seems to be a new idea that is quickly spreading through the education systems. Although the alternative of "failing" is something that is hard on students, I would imagine, feeling like the weakest student in the class, must be difficult as well.

My possible suggestions are summer schools junior students, or even extra classes set up in the evenings or Saturday. If weaker students were all placed together, with a few classroom teachers or smaller classes, this might give them both the extra confidence in class and help them to acquire the knowledge that they need to proceed to the next level. Hi Colleen, You got the "rigorous and demanding" comment as well! I think that these words were used for two reasons. One being so that parents, teachers, students and members of the community felt as though they were being given a much better curriculum than there was in the past. One that will help students develop into harder workers and better thinkers.

I also think that this vocabulary was used to emphasis, the importance of all of the components of the curriculum and force educators, parents and students to work harder in their general roles. I really disagreed with these comments, because it feels slightly like they are saying that the students have really not been working that hard over the past years, but are now going to "really" work! I am not sure exactly what that is saying about the education before this curriculum was developed, but it doesn't sound good! Jen Joanne, You have touched on a very interesting point. If students were failing or performing below average with the old curriculum, how is it better to introduce new concepts, that to me seem more advanced, to students at a younger age, if they weren't able to grasp them properly in the first place at the older age??

If the curriculum suggested slowly implementing these concepts with great exposure over the years, I would strongly support it. It just seems like they want more advanced concepts introduced at younger ages, and then move on to other concepts. I also am afraid what will happen without the OAC year. I felt that year was the year that everything came together.

Maybe by pushing it back one year, students will still see it as that, but I liked the way faster thinkers and learners had the opportunity to fast track through high school, while others could take it at a slower pace. But we were the only province that had OAC so may eb we need to learn from their examples? Thanks for all your well thought out comments and exceptional research! Jen Piotr, You have raised some very strong points. One that reminded me of an experience in South Korea. I was amazed at how much responsibility was placed on the homeroom teacher in Korea.

Not only did most of the discipline come from the homeroom teacher, but so did almost all of the punishments. In one case a student was caught stealing one evening. The police didn't take the student to his parents house, but called the homeroom teacher to come down and deal with the problem! That was just the way things were handled there.

The homeroom teacher would "take care" of the matter and then inform the parents of what actions were being taken! I really was in disbelief!! How can one person be responsible for so much?? It was one of the education systems that raised a lot of disbelief in me! On that note, I too feel that parents place a lot of expectations on the teacher. They are not well enough informed and usually are loaded with complaints to issues that they have little idea about.

I particularly feel that parents in the primary and junior levels, see the teacher's role more as a babysitter than as professional... This can be extremely frustrating. Having said that, there are some parents who you just wish would start their own parent classes, teaching others how to be a good active parent! Maybe one day!

Thanks Jen.