No Teacher Left Behind Act
KEEPING OUR TEACHERS UPDATED ON EDUCATION
How would you suggest we, as a nation, provide consistent learning opportunities for teachers and ensure that they are not left behind in learning about new techniques and strategies?
We can readily read about the No Child Left Behind Act and all the procedures that are in place to ensure that students are successful and do not fall behind academically. But rarely do you hear of how we forget about our teachers and the opportunities they need to in order to bring new learning procedures and strategies to their classrooms so they and their classroom techniques stay current and effective.
I feel that it is important that we keep our teachers up to date on current and effective classroom strategies and techniques in order to provide an accurate education for our children. In order to have effective teachers we need to make sure that they have constant access to educational sessions to learn about new developments in the teaching field, workshops, and other training opportunities to help them become more knowledgeable and improved for the ability to teach said techniques. These types of opportunities are suppose to be offered by the school system in which they teach, but sometimes due to funding it is impossible to keep up a hundred percent on proper updates.
Should all teachers across the country use certain practices?
I do not know if I believe that each teacher across the country should use the same practices. We need to understand that just as we can look at each other and see differences, each of us are different in how we teach, learn, and exist in everyday life. How can we possibly expect our teachers to use the same practices and yet still understand that at the same time we have to understand each student is different and we must adhere to their needs to be able to help them understand what is being taught? I do not believe that is possible nor do I believe that one teacher may practice their lessons one way and be as successful as another teacher teaching said lesson in the same manner. Someone is always going to do it better than the one before, therefore each teacher needs to be able to do so in their own ability and what works best for them and what is best for their students.
Should there be a consistent standard for all teachers to meet, just as students must pass high stakes tests? If so, what would be the standard?
Across the board there should definitely be a consistent college standard for all teachers to meet in order to teach. Once a teacher meets that college standard it is up to them if they wish to supersede the general standards for their own benefit, but there is definitely a point that each teacher should reach in order to be able to teach a student and the community and its school administration to feel good about said teacher influencing their students. (Of course each state does have its own “laws” of what those standards should be. IE – Some states a teacher must have a license in some licenses are not required.)
Lastly, share your thoughts on how well teachers are being prepared to master the NETS-T standards in their classrooms.
Reference:
Newman, R. (2013) Teaching & Learning: Connecting the Dots. BridgePoint Ed. Inc. San Diego, CA.