Moriah T's blog

Globalization & SLA

China Versus Iceland – Collapse

My Vision For School

The current system that high schools operate under teaches four years of major subjects and fewer years of "less important" subjects. According to Sir Ken Robinson, a respected speaker and author, the subjects that are more likely to be neglected are the arts, with math, science, and history taking priority. Besides the heinous neglect of the arts, there is also a flaw in the system. By trying to give kids a well-rounded education, we are actually hurting them. After around eighth or
ninth grade students have, ideally and hopefully, learned the skills and content necessary to begin a more specialized education. 

When students enter high school, they may not have firm goals and aspirations. In my ideal school, freshman year would be used to cover a variety of core subjects and do thorough career exploration so that students would have an idea of what they want to do with their lives. Once they know what they want to do, they can stop taking difficult classes that are unrelated. For instance, if one desires to be a history teacher, an advanced knowledge of physics and math are not necessary. Note the word advanced. By the end of freshman year, students should have finished all necessary courses. If students were able pick what subjects they were to study, they would have their own hierarchy of subjects according to their needs. If students needed help in any of the basics, they should receive it before they begin more specialized courses.

This may seem more like a college approach, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Students will be more engaged if they found the subjects more interesting; and they would be more involved in school. I know that having to study physics made
my entire school experience much less pleasant because I found the subject entirely painful. Students studying subjects that they enjoy would try harder, learn more, and experience greater success. This way kids would also be more prepared to begin studying their chosen majors in college. The biggest problem with this general plan is that it may affect standardized test scores. I am not implying that school should be completely freeform; there should be assessments and grades. 

In the work place people will never have to prove their competence by taking standardized tests. It is more likely that workers would have to produce results, and the school equivalent of that would be projects. It is hardly necessary to make
sure that students are able to memorize large quantities of information. It is more beneficial to make sure the students know how to process and use the information. Students could do projects that would measure the same things that a test would, but in a more useful manner.

There is a current hierarchy of subjects in high school, and it is unfair to those who do not enjoy the subjects that are valued by society. Students would be more involved and happier in school if, once they had learned the basics, they only had to study the subjects relevant to their lives. They would be evaluated on their learning through projects, which test their skills.
If this content design were combined with a comfortable setting and high quality teachers, it would form an amazing school that would to inspire students to be the best they can be.

History Benchmark

Dropout City

Dropout City

Big-city schools struggle with graduation rates

Toppo, Greg. “Big-city schools struggle with graduation rates” USA Today 20 June 2006. 27 Dec. 2008. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-06-20-dropout-rates_x.htm#grad>.

    The main focal point of the article is a graph with dropout rates, in this case, the probability that a person will graduate on time, for many cities in the United States, including Philadelphia. It is good to be able to compare Philadelphia to others cities and to see that Philadelphia is not among the worst. The different contributing factors for these cities could be studied and that may reveal something about what increases the dropout rate.

Unfulfilled Promise

Neild Curran, Ruth. “Unfulfilled Promise: The Dimensions and Characteristics of Philadelphia’s Dropout Crisis, 2000–2005” John Hopkins U, 2006.

Not-So-Simple Reasons for Dropout Rate

Hartocollis, Anemona. “Not-So-Simple Reasons for Dropout Rate.” New York Times 22 Mar. 2001. 22 Dec. 2008 <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01EED7163CF931A15750C0A9679C8B63>.

Child Trend Data Bank

“Child Trends.” High School Dropout Rates. 2003. Child Trend Data Bank. 27 Dec. 2008 <http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/indicators/1HighSchoolDropout.cfm>.

This source gives a good overview of the reasons why people drop out and what happens after they drop out. It splits up different groups based on ethnic background. In 2005, in the United States, people of Asian descent had the lowest dropout rate of any ethnic group at 3%, and people of Hispanic descent had the highest with 23%. The drop out rates for non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks were 12% and 21%. It was interesting to look at these statistics in the context of Philadelphia where a majority of the population is African American.

ILP

 What is your ILP (describe the organization/project)?

My ILP organization is Drexel University and the Drexel Writing Center. At Drexel University I take a college class a quarter for real college credit. At the Writing Center college students help us learn more about writing.

What have you done?

    I have taken three classes at Drexel and this is when most of my learning occurs. These classes covered topics such as art history, disease, and history. At the writing center we also wrote a letter to a senator about something that mattered to us. All in all I done a lot this year.

What have you learned?

-During my first class I learned all about diseases and how they shape history.
-In my second class I learned all about world history, which was also very interesting.
-The last class that I took was all about art history and symbolism and was by far my favorite. I also learned a lot about art and culture at the Drexel Writing Center.
    
What were your expectations for your ILP?
    
I did not have and expectations except that it would be hard.

How did these expectations meet with what you have accomplished?
    
The classes were hard at times but easy at others.

How does your ILP connect with your future career plans?

My ILP did not connect with my future career plans .

How does your ILP connect to learning at SLA?

My ILP does not connect to my learning al SLA.

How does your ILP connect/affect your ILP plans next year?
    
IT does not.

What are you taking with you from your ILP experience?

College Credit
What advice do you have for someone else completing a similar ILP so that they can have a positive experience?

-work really hard
-pay attention and take notes.
-ask questions

Reflective Blog #4

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Reflective #3

Animal Abuse Blog #6

Reflective Blog #2

Animal Abuse #4

     I decided to start my search of current events relating to animal abuse by scanning through headlines. These headlines cover a variety different topics relating to animal abuse, from “Arrest Made In Puppy Abuse ” to “Letter: Federal Law Would Fight Animal Abuse ,” but there are some trends. For instance, most of the cases seem to have to do with dogs and other common domestic animals. The other main topic was the beef recalls that have been happening lately, which I didn’t think was an animal abuse issue. Now, I do see that they can be and are related, so I decided to take a more in-depth look at some of the articles about the beef recall and slaughterhouses to see if there is a strong connection.

      The article I read was about the massive meat recalls in California, and it is more of an animal abuse issue than I expected. According to one an article from China View News on Febuary 20, 2008 the farm was not giving the animals proper veterinary care. Even more terrifying was another report by the same news site that stated, “The company had been under fire for animal cruelty involving crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.” Treating animals that way is not only cruel to them but also dangerous. However, it is good that the government does regulate slaughterhouses, even if its motivation is human protection. I really don’t know what will be in my next blog entry, so you’ll have to check back later.

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