Things
you need to succeed in today’s job world:
1. Education
2. Credentials
and Honors
3. Experience
4. Evidence of
exemplar work
5. Evidence of
expertise
6. Ability to
train and lead
Here
are two people’s bios for conferences below:
“How
to manage your money” turned into “National Income Tax and Sales Tax Laws”
Carissa
Berglund worked for Richfield Bank and Trust as a Customer Service
Representative, Insurance Data Manager and as an Information Director. She later grew to work for M&I Bank
out of Milwaukee. While there she
worked with several businesses, both large and small, accumulating records and
information to help them prosper.
Most recently, Ms. Berglund founded a tax-exempt business educating young
adults on fiscal responsibility. She
developed her own tax plan and works closely with TurboTax and many retail
establishments to set budget goals and pay appropriate taxes. She also worked for schools gaining
expertise in Excel
spreadsheets. She is a National
Board Certified Teacher and a graduate student at Elon University.
“How
and what to teach” turned into “National Content Standards for K-12”
David Coleman is a Founding Partner
of Student Achievement Partners, a non-profit organization that assembles
leading thinkers and researchers to design actions to substantially improve
student achievement. Most recently, Mr. Coleman and Jason Zimba of Student Achievement
Partners played a lead role in developing the Common Core State Standards in math
and literacy. Mr. Coleman and Jason Zimba also founded the Grow Network –
acquired by McGr aw-Hill in 2005 – with the mission of making assessment
results truly useful to teachers, school leaders, parents, and students.
Mr. Coleman spent five years at McKinsey & Company, where his work
focused on health care, financial institutions, and pro bono service to
education. He is a Rhodes Scholar and a graduate of Yale University,
Oxford University, and Cambridge University.
Both
are full of a lot of BS, but what I would like to gain is what do the actual
successes have to do with what they are touting.
Let’s
see how they stack up for the top 6 things for success:
I
was a math major in college, so I know all about numbers, figures and data (1).
I attend a private university that
is highly ranked for my masters. I
am also a National Board Certified Teacher in high school mathematics which
means that I am smart and good at what I do…which let’s be honest, is
everything I touch (2). I worked at a bank for two years,
part-time in the summer counts as real work, right (3)? I have done my own taxes for 5 years,
without any audits or hiccups, thank you 1040EZ and Turbo Tax (4). I have a mortgage, a car payment and
multiple, non-maxed out or paid off credit cards, so I know about budgets (5). I understand APR and percentages and
have bought things “same as cash” and not. So I realize where people could get
confused (6).
I
believe the national economic crisis is devastating and because of the six
points I listed I believe that I have the knowledge and knowhow on how to fix
it. I will be outlining national
standards for banks and credit cards to follow, as well as creating state tax
laws at a national standard. I
will provide incentives for states that adopt my budget ideas, such as provide
them with financial money to educate the public and open new institutions.
Now
I don’t know about you, but my Dads are freaking out right now. While I swear they are my biggest fans
(either, step or bio, they both love me-seriously who wouldn’t) I do know that
they would prefer me to stay far away from their savings accounts. I feel the same way as you may about me
running your banks, when “you” (the collective, societal “you”) talk about how
education should be. Just because
I pay taxes doesn’t mean I’m a tax expert, just because you went to school,
doesn’t make you a public school genius.
Did
you know that 45 states have adopted new standards for their literacy and math
standards? Aligning the curriculum
nationally is a hope to streamline education and focus on “career and college”
readiness to make our students applicable to a global market. There are content changes for NC, for
example graphs move from 7th grade math to 6th grade
math, and instead of teaching whole novel texts to a class, discussion goes
more in depth into passages. There
are also mind shifts, such as fluency and focus. The more fluent you are with calculations and reading the
better you will be at binomial expansion and Shakespeare. There is also a need to narrow the focus
on what you teach to standards, and dig deep for standards, not skim the
water. While fluency helps focus,
there is also a fundamental need for utilizing the resources that surround us. If a calculator helps, use it. If spell check helps, use it. The school I will be working at in
Bahrain has adopted the AERO Standards which for high school are the same as
Common Core. This is a HUGE
benefit for me when I come back.
Sounds
like I really like the idea of these national standards right? Well I am an excellent bull
shitter. Remember my fiscally
responsible self? Let me show you
the parallels for David Coleman, co-author
and lead “architect” of the new Common Core State Standards.
David
Coleman graduated from Yale with a degree in literature, so he knows all about
literacy (1). While there he
worked with underprivileged youth tutoring them afterschool, which is obviously
the same as teaching them full time (3).
From Yale he became a Rhodes Scholar for classical literature and
founded an educational assessment group, so he must be good at everything he
does too (2). His educational
businesses did well and while the school he is on the board of did not excel,
they didn’t have any scandals either (4).
He has founded a group called Student Achievement Parntership which
focuses on assessments and their outcomes, so he knows about testing (5). He also realizes that our students are
not pusehed hard enough for complex texts and need more rigor; which he can
define rigor and complex so he knows what he is talking about (6).
Therefore
this man has decided to partner with a bunch of people who obviously know
more than I do to rewrite education, similar to me revamping state tax and
money laws. You can see the list
of people at Achievethecore.org
where the word “taught” is only mentioned 4 times and the word “teacher(s)” is
only mentioned 10 times, only one of which references K-12 teaching, for an 11
person biography.
Its
not that the standards are a bad idea.
Its not that David Coleman et al are uninformed know-it-alls. It is the fact that states were paid
money to adopt these standards that were not teacher created, or reviewed. Get in the trenches. Teach, 30 kids for 6 hours a day and be
their educator, parent and disciplinarian. Teach 100 students for 5 hours a day and deal with their
hormones, hard content and parents giving up. One thing I have learned this year is that teachers need
advocates. The principal quickly
forgets what it was like to be in the classroom when they deal with discipline
all day long. The central office
doesn’t look into the children’s faces when they make policies they expect the
teachers to enforce. The creators
of the Common Core State Standards have not witnessed a teacher struggle to
teach a class, not because of their desire, or the students, but because of
time, pressure and assessments. You
cannot fix education with new standards and focus. It sounds great in theory, however, having witnessed the
initial impact of the CCSS, I can tell you, the mindset isn’t with the
teachers, because it is “another change” brought on my philosophers not
teachers. The mindset isn’t with
principals because their teachers are overwhelmed and now they must keep
transforming their school, continue their current professional development and
incur new ones. Central office
hasn’t adopted the change because they are concerned with how it will be
assessed. The same way I am not a
financial wizard, just because I can write an awesome biography for myself as
one, David Coleman et al are not educational gurus, just because they studied
it. Put it into action, get in the
classrooms, put your money (literally) where your mouth is, and show us how it’s
done. Until then, do not speak
rhetoric and philosophies that you cannot support.
**Note: Does not reflect my ability to teach the CCSS-I am looking forward to being in the classroom again
**Double Note: PD talk does not reflect my system alone, but rather the collective system...was always told I over-generalize
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