Archive for February, 2007

Advanced Placement Tests Are Leaving Some Behind . . .

{ February 13, 2007 @ 2:26 am } · { Uncategorized }
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“More high schools across the nation are offering Advanced Placement courses to help students get into college and get ready for its academic rigors. In the process, however, many minority students who often need help most urgently are missing out”

I really think that even though we try very hard for things not to be biased in life, they really are. I think that even though we try to not be prejudice about things we are. I do no think that we give minorities a chance to be all that they can be. I really think that America tries to be the best that it can be and give everyone an equal chance to be all that they can be but this does just not always happen. This really is the case with how things are in schools today, I do not think that the minority children are given a chance to succeed and be considered for things that top students are up for such as AP classes. They are not given the chance to even try to be in these classes like most other students. I think that we have stereotypes of what patients that these students can live up to. We think that just because they look the way that they look on the outside we know what learning potential they have and this is just not the case. I think we, as teachers need to push each and every student in our school to be the best that they can be no matter what they look like or where they come from. In this article it is proven that minorities are not strongly represented in these AP classes. But it is shown that when they are in these classes they do well in them and take the final test and also do well on that. This just goes to show that if these students are given a chance they can live up to top expectations. There are statistics from all over our country that show that we are not giving these minority students enough of a chance to be part of these AP classes. I think that if we did give them a chance they would show us that they too like other students can do well in these classes, learn a lot and perform well on these tests to get a ahead and prepare for college. All in all I really think that we need to give each and every student in our schools and equal chance to take part in these AP classes and help each and every student to live of to their top potential.

The article . . .Advanced Placement Tests Are Leaving Some Behind

A ‘Rebellious Daughter’ to Lead Harvard . . . very interesting

{ February 13, 2007 @ 1:39 am } · { Uncategorized }
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I would never in a million years have believed that a woman would become president of Harvard University. Harvard University is a one of or may be the top University of the world and up until this point men have been thought of as the most knowledgeable, educated and experienced people to handle top positions like this. This article talks about Dr. Catharine Faust, the women who is to become the new president of Harvard University. Catharine came from Virginia’s “horse land” and was told that the one thing that she was meant to do in life was become a rich mans wife, and that this world that we live in is a mans world and the sooner that learned this the better off she would be. After hearing these things she continued to live her life to defy them. She did many things in her life that most women do not think that they will ever be able to do, she finished college, got her masters, got her doctorate, became a professor and now is becoming the president of Harvard University, wich seems to have come to sort of a surprise to even her . ..

“One of the things that I think characterizes my generation — that characterizes me, anyway, and others of my generation — is that I’ve always been surprised by how my life turned out,” Dr. Faust said in an interview Sunday at Loeb House just after the university announced that she would become its 28th president, effective July 1. “I’ve always done more than I ever thought I would. Becoming a professor — I never would have imagined that. Writing books — I never would have imagined that. Getting a Ph.D. — I’m not sure I would even have imagined that. I’ve lived my life a step at a time. Things sort of happened.”

After reading this article it really made me think a lot about who really is suppose to be going to the top of things. Why does everyone in this world have a big misconception of what kind of people are suppose to be at the top of this world that we live it. Why is it so un-real that a woman is the President of such a prestigious University? Why does the world think so lowly of women and think that men are the only people that can handle positions like these. Why do we have so many ideas about who is suppose to be in which positions in life? I think that we put way to many stereotypes of what kind of people can be the smart and important. I think that the do this at all levels of things which students in school, with people in regular jobs and in situations like this. I think that we as humans need to keep our minds clear and give everyone a chance to be the best that they can be and get to the top position that they can get to.

The article . . . A ‘Rebellious Daughter’ to Lead Harvard

A love of learning . . .

{ February 13, 2007 @ 12:50 am } · { Uncategorized }
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When you where in grade school were you a lover of going to school? I think that I had more of a yearning for learning than a love for actually going to school. I only wanted to learn about the things that I was interested in. I would really not say that I wanted to be in school and learn about everything that you learn about in school. And after reading this article I can see that I really should be in the love for school and learning category and I really feel that I am not. I am not saying that these statistics are wrong but I am saying that they are just statistics and they are not true and every situation. This article that I read stated that the children that most love school are

“Asians and the children of parents who are married, make the most money, have abandoned academic degrees and live in the suburbs of the Northeast”

It is also stated that these students are the ones that like school and to do their school work the most and are most interested in the work that they do.

The statistics in the article stated that . . . “Among racial and ethnic groups, non-Hispanic white parents were most likely to say their children never like school, while Asian parents, followed by Hispanic parents, were most likely to say their children like it often. The children of parents who were separated, divorced or widowed were most likely to never like school. Children whose parent worked part-time generally like school most often. Those growing up in rural areas like it less often.”

Another topic that was talked about in the article is the statistics about the most prominent students that take part in Gifted and Talented programs in schools. They are very much the same students that like to go to school. I really think that there is a strong correlation between liking to go to school and doing well in it. I think that this correlation is the same in many things in life. If you like to do something you are going to put more effort into and they’re for you are going to do better at it. I am not saying that everyone who loves to go to school and tries hard at it is going to be at the top of their class, but I think that might do the best work up to their own potential. All in all I found this article to be pretty interesting, it made me really think about the students that we have in our grade schools today, is there a trend to the good and the bad of them all and are there reasons that the students are the way that they are?

The article . . . A love of learning

Gifted Programs . . .

{ February 1, 2007 @ 3:56 am } · { Uncategorized }
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I really think that it is a shame that children that want to get a better education and go to special gifted and talented schools are given such a hard time to do so. I really wish that every school on earth was a good school that gave children the best education that they could get. I really think that in every school there should be programs to push children to go farther and do better than the average student does. But if there does have to be these separate schools where children that are “gifted” go to learn than I really do not think that they should be given such a hard time when trying to get in.

“A new admissions process for highly coveted gifted-and-talented programs in the New York City elementary schools has been riddled with glitches, including last-minute notice of entrance exam dates in some areas, fraying the nerves of parents already frazzled about finding schools for their children.”

If they are gifted and they meet the requirements to get into the school then they should be able to go. From what I read in this article students are given little time to prepare for the tests that they have to take to get into these schools. This is a really big problem. Students should be given plenty of time to prepare for the test so that they can do their bests and really have a good chance to show what good students they are. There are tons of students that want to get into these school and tons of parents that want their students to get into these school and I think that everyone should be given a far and equal chance of doing so.

I am so glad that we have schools like this for the more gifted students. These school give children good educations and push their students to do their bests. If every school was like this in America than think of the future that we would have. We would be turning out very educated and good people into the world. This would be a very good thing.

The article . . . In Testing for Gifted Programs, a Few Knots

“The Incredibles” . . . is this how things should be?

{ February 1, 2007 @ 3:28 am } · { Uncategorized }
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After looking very hard for a topic that I wanted to look into more for this class I thought that I found it, looking for stories about what going on with the under-privileged students of the world, but what I did not know was that this is a very hard topic to find information or stories about. So I think that I am going to start looking into a different topic. I found an article on the incredible students of our world. The students that are talked about in this article are students the have moved on from high school to college and thought that their high school courses were actually harder. This seems like it might be something that interests me a lot.

It is said in the article that “Our students find college not as challenging,” says Temba Maqubela, and that the following student was not challenged at all “Jeff Zhou, a freshman at M.I.T., for example, would appear to have a killer schedule, with philosophy, physics, chemistry and multivariable calculus. But Mr. Zhou, a lanky water polo player from Buffalo, N.Y., dressed in baggy jeans, a natty black and white zip top and leather flip-flops, sinks into a chair in M.I.T.’s student center and looks sheepish as he pulls his orange spiral chemistry notebook from his backpack. In two weeks, he has taken only four pages of notes. “Most of the material so far,” he says, “for me has been review.”

Students like this one are just getting so ahead of things in high school that when they get to college the first two years are a breeze, nothing that they can not handle. Do I think that this is wrong, no not really? I do however think that this really says something about American universities today. I think sometimes students that need an extra challenge in school really do not get this in college, nothing in college is really individualized and so there for these students get left with little challenge to do the work.
The article goes on to state that most students that are going into college today are very ill prepared. Most of the time students are not being given the education that they should be getting and they are not learning the things that they should be learning. On the other hand the students on the top end of the spectrum are getting brighter and brighter each and every year. The students that are at the top and really know there stuff and get smarter and smarter each and every year. I am not sure really what to say about this other than I do agree that this is happening, people in general are getting smarter and smarter all the time and there is really no proven reason why, but it is true. This article ended with thoughts about pushing these students to explore other unexplored areas, areas that they have never ever thought of looking into before and I really agree with this. If these exceptional children are bored with their normal academic areas that they excel in, than have them explore and look into other less charted areas for them. Have them see how far they can go in learning about new and different things; this will make them more learned and better people all around. All in all I really think that this article really opened my eyes to a whole new side of things in education, students not being challenged enough is not something I usually think about when think about education as a whole and I really think that it must be an area that is looked into more.

The article . . . The Incredibles