Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Would you send your own child to your school?
I have a colleague who has two children. One is in Kindergarten at our school and one is a baby. She is really struggling with what to do next year. So far, she has been lucky because her daughter has a great Kindergarten teacher and the class is pretty calm, but what about next year? She won't be able to hand pick her child's teacher each year. I always think about that myself. If I had children, would I send them to my school? My answer is "No" and "Yes." I say no because of all the chaos and lack of resources. I want my own children to have computers in their classrooms, music, art, dance, etc. My school has none of this or is limited. I also say no because of the violence all around (cops were called to the school TWICE today), the class time wasted dealing with discipline, etc. On the other hand, I say yes because I think there are some great teachers in my school that any child would be lucky to have. It is so dependent on the teacher. I always use this as a standard for myself. Would I put my own child in my class? Would I want my own child spending their day in MY classroom? I strive to make the answer YES because I know my student's parents must be thinking the same thing.
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2 comments:
Most definitely. I agree. I feel it's so important to make your classroom one that is fun, exciting, and full of learning. Full of learning that is engaging. This year I have put so much effort into my classroom- I spent an hour online finding thematic ideas for Halloween. I'm having the kids make paper mache pumpkins! I know it's quite a challenge with 5 and 6 year olds, but we'll see how it goes. I have many people that can come in and help. Then we're going to draw two pumpkins on a T chart that are different and write about how they are the same and how they are different. I'm making swamp juice (green kool-aid and gummy worms) and having them use their senses to describe it. It smells like... It tastes like...
Again, all that I'm thinking is, I would want my child to be in a classroom like mine. :)
peace in the classroom- can I tell you how excited I am to have found your blog- I hope you will post more! I am a mother of a 1st grader, and currently we are in the midwest. My husband and I have been contemplating a move to NYC, but the hesitation is what about schools? In December 2007 I got a great offer that would relocate us there, but we ended up turning it down because we didn't feel confident that we would have a plan for our 1st grader. I have been trying to read about NYC public schools, and I haven't come up with much. I have heard that there are some excellent ones, and then of course some that aren't a wonderful. Almost everything I can find on schools in NYC is about private schools. While we certainly make a nice living, paying $25k a year for private school isn't in our budget (on top of the cost of living in NYC.) I've always thought the school your child attends is important, but more importantly is what kind of learning happens at home. We read nightly, we do homework together, we don't expect that our 1st grader can get all that he needs in the classroom. Anyway, I look forward to reading more from your perspetive as a teacher.
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