Effecting Change at School and District Levels

“Being a science education leader in today’s schools means looking beyond your own students and classroom and effecting change within the greater school and district arenas”.

 

               At my school, I do not feel empowered to take actions beyond my immediate classroom to ensure that all students at my school or district are experiencing high-quality science instruction.  Teachers at my school are micro-managed and we are not part of the leadership of the school.   We are fearful for our jobs and therefore our voices are silent. Our school is under tremendous changes in administration, curriculum standards, and evaluation procedures.  There are new Teacher requirements that mandate how we should be teaching in the classroom. No one is confident in this new method and therefore our effectiveness is reduced. Therefore when working with colleagues or other school/district staff we are not encouraged to implement any changes to improve the science or any other program at my school and district.  I feel very ineffective and limited as a teacher in today’s classroom.

                  My only impact, at the present time, is in within my immediate classroom and the effect that I can make on my students.  As an African-American female teacher I have had the opportunity to work in the corporate world.  I bring this knowledge to my minority students and counsel them on the true value of a high school diploma and how life would be very difficult. It allows them opportunities that they will not have without it.  It boils down to them living hourly or salaried.  The two lifestyles are dramatically different. 

                I joined the Education world 5 years ago when the economy hit rock-bottom and many software development jobs went overseas.  I always tell my students that it is good to have a back-up plan in life.  America needs a back-up plan and to realize that Teachers should be treated better in order to get the best results from America’s students.

         

 

 

 

What's America's next Sputnik moment?

What’s America’s next Sputnik Moment?

So what lessons does the original “Sputnik Moment” hold for the prospect of improving science education today?

America’s amazing response to Sputnik made us richer and stronger. But here’s why it would be almost impossible to duplicate that today.

Americans have gotten comfortable and lazy.  We are used to being the leader in all things and we feel that no one can touch us.  We need a “Sputnik Moment” to make us wake up and fight again.  But what will do it?

First, there has to be some sort of a threat that riles up the American people. It can be just a perceived threat, but the perception has to be based on something tangible. Second, there should be consensus about how to deal with the threat. Right away, the limitations of the Sputnik analogy should be clear.

There are plenty of threats that science could address: climate change, cyber-security, impending food and water shortages, among others. But none of these threats are tangible, at least not to those who would pass the budgets to deal with them. The threats—the prospects of crisis—lie in the future. There is nothing quite so dramatic as the beep of Sputnik overhead.

Obama was right that we need a “Sputnik Moment.” But, like the original, it will require a change in thinking, an expansion in the boundaries of what government can legitimately do. Or like the original, it may take a catastrophe—or the widespread perception of a catastrophe—to galvanize the change.

A Tsunami in a bottle perhaps?

Reference

Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Division of the Washington Post Company, Posted June 4, 2012,

            Can America Ever Have Another “Sputnik Moment”? By Fred Kaplan