Hello I’m Ms. S, an 8th grade Language Arts teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. My students, unfortunately, have to deal with gangs, drugs and violence in their neighborhood and daily environment. I am in my 4th year at the same school and in the same position as when I started in 2007. I’m about to finish my Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an ESL endorsement and have benefited greatly from the courses. The program has pushed my thinking, even prompting a colleague and me to start this blog in order to bring forward different issues in education, more specifically issues that surround educational reform.
As a teacher at a school that currently has a performance rating of “low academic standing” and has an “on probation” status, educational reform greatly affects me and my students on a daily and yearly basis. Our blog will highlight questions that we each have, with some of my questions being: Should my school’s success be solely based on student standardized test scores from one particular day? Am I considered a “bad teacher” if I do not have a certain percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards on standardized tests? Should I be paid based on my student’s performance on theses high-stakes tests (merit pay)? These issues and ideas have become more relevant and important to me in the past few years and I have made it a point to become and stay more informed and aware. A lot of times I feel like I do not have a voice outside my classroom or school, so hopefully this blog will serve that purpose.
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| This is my classroom... |
Ms. S
Ms. S, Your classroom gives a true reflection of the commitment you have to making your learning environment as close to a home setting as possible. It looks like a warm and fuzzy place to relax and enjoy a good book from your classroom library. It would seem to invite more inspired learning when your students are comfortable. I wish my kids had had that kind of learning environment when they were in school.
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