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Questions about Education

1.  Where is the state of education heading?
2.  What are your concerns?
3.  If you could say your 'piece' what would you say?
4.  What suggestions do you have to make things work?


These are the questions that need to be answered.


1.  I am worried that education is heading to be all online.  I worry because my children have different learning styles.  One might do okay with online classes because she is willing to learn on her own.  She is self-motivated.  My son is not.  He will procrastinate until the cows come home and then would do the bare bone minimum to get by.  Lucky for me, my online teacher is very supportive and willing to help if needed.  Would this be the case in all classes?


2.  My concerns are with class size.  In the Meridian School District, they said they would have to raise the minimum class size to 25.  If they had a class that is popular, they would need 50 students to make it two classes.  So potentially, there could be 49 students in one class.  What about an advanced class that does not have enough students to make 25?  These students would be punished because they were advanced.  
Another concern is giving every student a computer.  I don't know about everyone else but we have lost, replaced, done without game boys, video games, I-pods, cell phones and e-readers because my children are hooligans. They "forget" where they placed something, they "accidentally" take it in the bathroom and it fell in the shower, toilet or on the ground.  Who is responsible for the upkeep and taking care of computers.  Who will pay for the filters?  My home computer has filters, will the school one also have the same blocks that are at our home?


3.  If I could say my 'piece' I would say that we need to focus on the children and not make this political.  Think about how you would want your children to be taught and if you could have the best scenario, how would it work.  I would say, you don't have to have a million choices.  You don't have to please everyone, the majority is okay.  I would say, we need parents in the schools.  Make the time.  Come have lunch with your child, bring pizza for your child and their friends.  Meet your kids teachers.  Show up for parent teacher conference.  Think about the issues and vote that way.


4.  My suggestion would be to look at what is working and expand on that.  Make changes a little at a time and effectively.  Don't come in and throw everything out because some are not doing well.  Don't be afraid of change but don't just change to change.

Idaho News

The Idaho News story about the cuts that will have to happen make my blood boil.  I work for the Meridian School District and get scared, worried and annoyed.  I worry if I will have a job.  I worry about voicing my opinion because it has come back to haunt me by someone mailing my personal opinion out in a group e-mail and I get into trouble because of it.  I am scared to think about by cutting 14 days of school it would equal a year of school in someone's school career.  How do you make up for that?  I worry about more kids in a classroom.  How can you learn with 49 kids in a class?  I worry about the pay to play in sports and extracurricular.  I know if I paid for my child to "play" and they were bench sitters, I would want my money back.  I worry that teachers will not have their heart in teaching if they are worried about when the next shoe is going to drop.  I know the money has to be found somewhere but cuts are scary!

Collective Bargaining/Unionization

After reading the article about collective bargaining and unionization , I was concerned for the teachers in my state.  I felt that they were getting punished to change a program by the State Department of Education.  I don't like the word tenure and don't believe that is what teachers have now in Idaho.  Is it called rolling contracts?  I have seen poor teachers but feel that the good outweigh the bad.  There needs to be a way that teachers get their needs met.  It is kind of like the at home saying, "If Momma 'aint happy, noone is happy."  This is teachers as well.  They deserve to be paid what they are worth.  Why do we not value education?  Why do we make teachers the bad guys?

Rhode Island Teachers Fired

Rhode Island Teachers Fired-  This was the article that I read.  I am concerned with the lack of value of education.  Reading this article, I was torn with the lack of willingness to work out problems between the school superintendent and the teacher's union.  The school district employees were asked to work 25 minutes more a day, do some tutoring before and after school and eat lunch once a week with students.  To me, in this economic age, was not too much to ask.  I do think that instead of firing them, the superintendent could have asked them to come up with other solutions.  The teachers needed to take some responsibility for the students not excelling.  This was the worst performing high school in the district with numerous students failing all their classes.    The teachers were offered a small pay increase to meet the additional job tasks.  They are already making three times the average city income.  I really believe that teachers and administrators need to work together to figure out what is best for our children because they need to be the priority.

Ways to be safe online

Since we are going to be using online resources in our classroom, I wanted to go over some guidelines.  These will help you be safe while you are doing your homework.  I encourage you to share these with your parents so you will be safe at home and they will understand my rules while you are doing work for this class.  


This video explains a little bit about why we need to be careful when working online.

Some online tips!

1.  Do not share your password with anyone except your parents.
2.  If something you see makes you uncomfortable, tell an adult right away.
3.  Remember, not everything you read on the internet is true.  
4. When you are online, what you do is up to you.  
5. Don't do anything that you don't want to do.
6.  Never agree to meet someone you met on the internet without your parent's permission.
7.  Any information you share about yourself can be seen by anyone who is online.
8.  Don't do things online that you wouldn't do in real life.
9.  Treat others the way you would like to be treated. 

Please remember that it is not that we are trying to control you or that we don't trust you.  We want to protect you from the weird things out there.

Classroom Expectations

Welcome to week #2!

I just wanted to give you a little bit more of where I come from.  I went to college at Southern Utah University.  I got married, had kids and then decided that being an accountant wasn't what I really wanted to do with my life.  So 20 years later, I decided to finish my bachelor's degree ( really start over) in Education.  My goal is to eventually become a librarian. 

If you need to contact me for any reason, please call or text me at  (208) 440- 3580 or e-mail me at lovestoread@gmail.com.

My classroom expectations are really simple.

1.  Respect each other.  We treat others the way we would like to be treated.
2.  Do your best.  
3.  Communicate.  I am not a mind reader and do not know if there are extraordinary circumstances.  I will help in whatever way I can.
4. A reading book is always to be brought to class.  If you finish your work, then you will have something to do.

I love parents to come into our class.  Please share your profession and talents so that we may use you in our classroom.

Thanks again and talk to you next week.

Mrs. Peterson