As teachers, just as in any career field, it is always important to know who your boss is, who has influence on the decisions made upon you, and where to go if you want things changed. The ladder of influence and decision making for Education is long, with teachers and staff being close to the bottom. Above them are the principals and vice principals, who are superceded by the Superintendent. The Superintendent is influenced by the School Division and School Board, and on the top rung of the ladder is the Provincial Government.
It is important for teachers to see ourselves as a part of a large team of people, in which every member is doing their best to ensure that our students receive the best education available to them. Each and every member of this team has a very specific job; some are in charge of finance, others in charge of hiring, and some in charge of educating the students. None of these are more important than the others, and in fact each position relys on each other in order for it to exist. If there were no teachers to instruct the students, the curriculum would not have a purpose, and if there was no one in charge of hiring teachers, there would be no one for teachers to apply to in order to gain a job.
The Provincial Government is responsible for the Education Act, which states that teachers must attend all meetings called by the principal, and the curriculum. I believe this is important, as all the students from the Province of Manitoba should be recieving a similar education, so that they all possess the same skills and are at the same educational level when they attend the Provincial universities and colleges. Teachers are the people that can see first hand how the students are handling the curriculum, so they should be able to have a strong voice in case any alterations or revisions need to be made. Even though the curriculum and the Education Act supercede all factors of Education, each rung is given a responsibility that allows each School Division to differ and be a little unique. Each board is responsible for creating its own policy manual, and each division is responsible for making its procedures manual.
I believe that each teacher should have a voice on how money is being spent on teaching resources in their school, as they have first hand knowledge of the resources that can help their students learn to their potential. This information works its way up the ladder by being passed on to the principal, who reports it to the Superintendent, who brings it up with the School Division. Every person at each level of the Governance ladder has different experiences and knowledge, which will lead them to their own opinion. All these opinions must be valued, and points weighed, in order for the final decision to be made.
School Board members are elected officials, who take on the position of ambassadors for their community. These people are not teachers, but they are often the parents, grandparents, or neighbours of the students we are teaching. It is important for them to represent their ideas and opinions on what should be happening in our schools, as they bring in the community values perspective. I believe its nice to have someone not in the school community sitting on the school board, as they can have an "outside looking in" opinion on how our school is functioning. As teachers, we often only have one perspective of the school, and it is valuable to gain knowledge of another opinion.
Our system of Governance for Education is set up like a ladder, but we must remember that the sides of the ladder connecting the rungs extend from the very top to the very bottom. Just as these sides connect all the rungs together, every member in the Education ladder is also connected. Each of us has our own responsibilities, but it is important to share our thoughts and listen to those on the different rungs. Just as messages can be passed down the ladder, they can also be passed up. Every person in our Governance team has the best interests of one group in mind, our students, and it is important to put all our knowledge and opinions together to create the best learning experience for each and every one of them.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Show Me the Money!
Sometimes opposites really do attract. Take, for instance, my best friend Jessica. We both may seem like similar people, but there is one key difference that splits us right down the middle; our career choices. I love working with children, but Jessica doesn't seem to appreciate kids quite as much. Rather, she chose to obtain a different university degree, and now has a promising career at BDO. She's an accountant, and whenever she even mentions her work place, I feel a headache approaching. So, you can imagine my thoughts when I learned we were going to be discussing the finance aspect of education in our professional teacher course.
It's not the math part of finance that gives me a headache, as I actually really enjoy math and find it kind of fun. Rather, it's all the factors that weigh into every decision that has to be made. Truth is, being in charge of the financial aspect of a school division must be a rather strenuous job. Funds for education never seem to be enough to cover all the costs, so decisions are constantly being made on what to cut and what alterations to make, in order to balance the budget. Many of the decisions made are usually met by opposition, which is frustrating, because there is nothing that people actually want to cut from the budget. No one wants to see teachers get fired, extremely large class sizes, or Arts programs being cut, but it all comes down to the money.
One of our assignments in class was to act as a member of a school division who had to cut over 1 million dollars from the budget. Every aspect of the division was included in this budget, including buses, staff, support staff, cafeteria, librarians, etc. This was a very challenging process, as everyone had different opinions about what was more important in school, and what needed to remain. No one's opinion was wrong, however if we listened to everyone, we would only have been able to shave a few hundred dollars off the budget.
This lesson was very valuable for all of us prospective teachers, for our resources, salary, and job are affected by the finance aspect of education constantly. It is easy for us to request computers for our classroom, new books, and learning carpets, but we have to realize how tight the budget is. We can do our job to help save on smaller things, such as creating our own learning carpets out of a piece of leftover carpet from our renovations. It was good to be reminded that just because a school sends in a proposal for more money or a new building, does not mean they are going to recieve it. There is only so much money to be shared across the province, so many times schools are chosen over others, leaving them having to do the best with the resources they have for the time being. Any one of us could end up teaching in a school that is facing this exact situation, so it is good to be prepared for it.
Throughout our class discussion, one point was brought up that I was rather intrigued by. This was the idea of carrying forward extra funds if a surplus was available, in order to save up for big projects down the road. I believe that it is good to try to save money in some areas, with instruction being an exception. The children in our school system today should be our priority, and our job as educators is to provide them with the best education we are able. If this means hiring a few more teachers to create smaller classes, or just getting the best resources for them, we owe it to our students to do so.
Learning about finance was beneficial for me as a teacher, as it helped gain an understanding of where all the money goes in Education. Working for the school division in this area is not a career I would enjoy having, so kudos to all you like my friend Jessica, who enjoy working with budgets and numbers. I recognize all the hardwork you have to do, and after just one class of cutting budgets, I am so glad I just have to worry about teaching the children.
It's not the math part of finance that gives me a headache, as I actually really enjoy math and find it kind of fun. Rather, it's all the factors that weigh into every decision that has to be made. Truth is, being in charge of the financial aspect of a school division must be a rather strenuous job. Funds for education never seem to be enough to cover all the costs, so decisions are constantly being made on what to cut and what alterations to make, in order to balance the budget. Many of the decisions made are usually met by opposition, which is frustrating, because there is nothing that people actually want to cut from the budget. No one wants to see teachers get fired, extremely large class sizes, or Arts programs being cut, but it all comes down to the money.
One of our assignments in class was to act as a member of a school division who had to cut over 1 million dollars from the budget. Every aspect of the division was included in this budget, including buses, staff, support staff, cafeteria, librarians, etc. This was a very challenging process, as everyone had different opinions about what was more important in school, and what needed to remain. No one's opinion was wrong, however if we listened to everyone, we would only have been able to shave a few hundred dollars off the budget.
This lesson was very valuable for all of us prospective teachers, for our resources, salary, and job are affected by the finance aspect of education constantly. It is easy for us to request computers for our classroom, new books, and learning carpets, but we have to realize how tight the budget is. We can do our job to help save on smaller things, such as creating our own learning carpets out of a piece of leftover carpet from our renovations. It was good to be reminded that just because a school sends in a proposal for more money or a new building, does not mean they are going to recieve it. There is only so much money to be shared across the province, so many times schools are chosen over others, leaving them having to do the best with the resources they have for the time being. Any one of us could end up teaching in a school that is facing this exact situation, so it is good to be prepared for it.
Throughout our class discussion, one point was brought up that I was rather intrigued by. This was the idea of carrying forward extra funds if a surplus was available, in order to save up for big projects down the road. I believe that it is good to try to save money in some areas, with instruction being an exception. The children in our school system today should be our priority, and our job as educators is to provide them with the best education we are able. If this means hiring a few more teachers to create smaller classes, or just getting the best resources for them, we owe it to our students to do so.
Learning about finance was beneficial for me as a teacher, as it helped gain an understanding of where all the money goes in Education. Working for the school division in this area is not a career I would enjoy having, so kudos to all you like my friend Jessica, who enjoy working with budgets and numbers. I recognize all the hardwork you have to do, and after just one class of cutting budgets, I am so glad I just have to worry about teaching the children.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
What Has Lead Us to Become the Teachers and Students We Are Today? - History of Education
"Only once we possess a strong knowledge of our history, are we able to better understand the present and make alterations to prepare ourselves for the future".
Being a teacher, we are a part of something much larger than our classroom or our school; we are part of the educational system of Canada. Every child under the age of eighteen is required to obtain an education, and except for a few cases, they will be receiving this knowledge from us. Knowing the history of the educational system allows us to develop a greater understanding of the policies, principals, and teaching methods that are present in today's schools.
Canada is a fairly new country that was created by many cultures of immigrants, and this has lead us to become the beautiful mosaic which we are. With each of these groups of immigrants came their values, beliefs, religion, and educational tradition. Over a few classes we were introduced to the educational traditions of French, English, Scottish, and the First Nations people.
The religious component of the French and English traditions played a strong role in our countries school system for a long time, and in some places it still exists. When I was attending Manitou Elementary School the prodestant religion was a small part of our daily routine, however it still did exist within the school. Every morning after singing O Canada, we would recite The Lord's Prayer and listen to our principal read us a passage from the Bible. When education began in the prairies, instruction was primarily religious. Catholic religion came first and then the Prodestant religion followed. In today's public schools, many different religions exist, so schools have begun eliminating all religions from their classrooms, in order to prevent offending anybody and their beliefs.
I feel that the school system of today's world has many similarities to that of the Scottish tradition, where the focus is on that of the whole child. Gender or class structures did not exist in this educational tradition, as in today's school system. Almost all kids attended school, similar to today's law that requires all students to be in school until the age of 18. The curriculum of the Scottish tradition included both science and art, rather than just the basics of the three R's. Today's schools include programs such as health, physical education, art, music, band, home ec. and shops to help develop all aspects of the child. This Scottish tradition was less religiously strict compared to the French and English traditions, which helped to solve some of the problems that religious differences were causing.
Even though we have many similairities to the Scottish tradition, I feel that our society could have been greatly benefited by incorporating some aspects of the education tradition of the First Nations people. Assimilation did irreparable damage to not only the culture of the First Nations people, but to all other cultures of Canada as well. First Nations people taught their children the things that they needed to live in their society: unity of all life, honourable conduct, family responsibility, individual responsibility, the importance of sharing, self-reliance, and survival skills. I believe there are many students that did not possess many of these skills today, even though they are the basics to being a contributing member of society. Each of these skills would be very beneficial for the students in today's school system to learn.
In our multicultural country, we have amalgamated many traditions together with the product being the school system we will currently teach in. It is great to reflect back on the many traditions that formed the base of our education tradition. It's really inspiring to see how far we've come from the days of class and gender separation in school and strict routines to our present system, where the learning abilities of each child are considered when we are educating our students to achieve their potential. There is a large variety of amazing schools, exceptional teachers, and brilliant instructing methods and material in our education system today, and all of these trace back to the beginnings of education from our founding countries.
Being a teacher, we are a part of something much larger than our classroom or our school; we are part of the educational system of Canada. Every child under the age of eighteen is required to obtain an education, and except for a few cases, they will be receiving this knowledge from us. Knowing the history of the educational system allows us to develop a greater understanding of the policies, principals, and teaching methods that are present in today's schools.
Canada is a fairly new country that was created by many cultures of immigrants, and this has lead us to become the beautiful mosaic which we are. With each of these groups of immigrants came their values, beliefs, religion, and educational tradition. Over a few classes we were introduced to the educational traditions of French, English, Scottish, and the First Nations people.
The religious component of the French and English traditions played a strong role in our countries school system for a long time, and in some places it still exists. When I was attending Manitou Elementary School the prodestant religion was a small part of our daily routine, however it still did exist within the school. Every morning after singing O Canada, we would recite The Lord's Prayer and listen to our principal read us a passage from the Bible. When education began in the prairies, instruction was primarily religious. Catholic religion came first and then the Prodestant religion followed. In today's public schools, many different religions exist, so schools have begun eliminating all religions from their classrooms, in order to prevent offending anybody and their beliefs.
I feel that the school system of today's world has many similarities to that of the Scottish tradition, where the focus is on that of the whole child. Gender or class structures did not exist in this educational tradition, as in today's school system. Almost all kids attended school, similar to today's law that requires all students to be in school until the age of 18. The curriculum of the Scottish tradition included both science and art, rather than just the basics of the three R's. Today's schools include programs such as health, physical education, art, music, band, home ec. and shops to help develop all aspects of the child. This Scottish tradition was less religiously strict compared to the French and English traditions, which helped to solve some of the problems that religious differences were causing.
Even though we have many similairities to the Scottish tradition, I feel that our society could have been greatly benefited by incorporating some aspects of the education tradition of the First Nations people. Assimilation did irreparable damage to not only the culture of the First Nations people, but to all other cultures of Canada as well. First Nations people taught their children the things that they needed to live in their society: unity of all life, honourable conduct, family responsibility, individual responsibility, the importance of sharing, self-reliance, and survival skills. I believe there are many students that did not possess many of these skills today, even though they are the basics to being a contributing member of society. Each of these skills would be very beneficial for the students in today's school system to learn.
In our multicultural country, we have amalgamated many traditions together with the product being the school system we will currently teach in. It is great to reflect back on the many traditions that formed the base of our education tradition. It's really inspiring to see how far we've come from the days of class and gender separation in school and strict routines to our present system, where the learning abilities of each child are considered when we are educating our students to achieve their potential. There is a large variety of amazing schools, exceptional teachers, and brilliant instructing methods and material in our education system today, and all of these trace back to the beginnings of education from our founding countries.
Miss. Clayton's Classroom website
Recently in our ICT course we were required to create a website that could be for future use in our classroom. I'll provide the link to my websitete, and if you have any ideas or alterations I could make, I would be happy to hear them!
Thanks!
http://missclaytonsclassroom.yolasite.com/
Thanks!
http://missclaytonsclassroom.yolasite.com/
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