Observation Report
Astor services for children and families is a preschool located in Bronx, N.Y. The school is conveniently located for majority of parents because the 5 line subway train is close by along with few MTA busses. The center is closed on national holidays during the school year along with vacations during the months February, April, June and December. Astor follows the Board of Education schedule in terms of holiday closings. P.S.15 serves children who are emotionally disturbed from ages three to five years old. The hours of operations are from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The organization is licensed by the department of Mental Health and Hygiene. . P.S.15 is funded by the state of New York; including the salaries for the teachers and the lunch for the children, clinicians and therapists are paid by Medicaid. Astor is not a mandated school for children ages 3-5, it is the choice of the parents to admit their child to this school. Upon my visit at P.S. 15, I found it to be a warm and friendly environment. The center has a clean and comfortable look with an adequate noise level. When students arrive in the morning, they are welcomed with open arms from staff and warm faces. The staff at this site is very caring and open to help students achieve. Here students are taught to brush their teeth, toilet training is available if a child needs it, and also positive behavior is taught here. Throughout the building there are gates and safe keeping of the building, such as fire extinguishers, fire exits, and appropriate toys for appropriate age groups. There are safety plans posted throughout the building in case of emergencies, there are also lock down procedures in the sc...
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...unch should be more flavorful and appealing to the children, increasing their appetites is not only what’s best for them but it will also help them be more focused. In doing so I think Astor should have their own cook to create more flavorful meals. Another issue that stood out to me was the fact that the children at P.S.15 spend a lot of time on the bus rides to and from school, many of which are on the buses for an hour to two hours a day five days a week going and coming to school. I do believe the director of the school should work on achieving a shorter bus route for those who live the farthest from the school. Finally, I believe all teacher assistants should be enrolled in school upon finishing their degrees. Many of the teacher assistants at P.S.15 have been there for 5-12 years, with this turnover rate, TA’s should be required to achieve more in school.
Changes need to be made in American school systems. In fact, once American schools are reformed it would make it easier for those who want to learn receive an education. In the essay, “Lets’ Really Reform Our Schools” by Anita Garland, Garland explains why schools need to be reformed. Garland claims that American schools are in trouble and that they are a disaster. Garland also mentions that we need to restructure our thinking about the whole purpose of going to school and what one should expect from students. To start off, attendance shouldn’t be mandatory and one must stop forcing everyone to attend school. Next, cafeteria lunch is always a big problems with students. Students are hyped up with all
In my view, system-wide, large-scale reform is needed to achieve the goal of "getting all young people as close as possible to their upper limits of learning potentialities" (Perrone, p. 15, 1991). This is crucial to ensure change because "trying to transform schools within the existing structure is a contradictory process" (Murphy, p. 38, 1991). The first step is to involve the traditionally voiceless at all decision-making levels to best determine what the needs of the least privileged are, if we are truly committed to providing opportunities that respond to children's needs. I specify, "opportunities" through funding based on my assumption and belief that money can improve education through attracting and keeping good teachers, reducing class sizes, establishing programs to respond to different needs, and maintaining healthy facilities and quality resources. Equitable funding, where all children have the chance to receive a high-quality education, is the first step towards education acting as the great equalizer in a country where oppression limits, dehumanizes, and disempowers in virtually every other life realm.
However, the problems inherent in the American school system are too complex to be solved purely by money. Without interested parties watching the consumption of money, resources are consumed unwisely. A new arm of the executive branch should not be formed to act as a school watchdog, at the least it seems this would unnecessarily complicate things. Instead, the solution lies in the activity of parents in the school carefully observing the condition of the building, classrooms, and teachers. Parents should be directly involved in the school and should provide the initial stimulus.Only afterwards should the govern...
First, with all the money that is being put into public education, it needs to be distributed evenly. If public schools had similar resources and capabilities, students wouldn’t need to travel far to get a good education and this would solve many problems. An example of this from the film is when a Mother is speaking about her child’s experience at an open discussion. She talks about how her student loves music and music is taught at a one public school and not the other. Money is being distributed unequally and kids are being taken of opportunities that they could have a passion for. Another aspect that I agree with is that for things to change for the better in the future, everyone needs to get involved. Kids in these unfortunate situations can only do so much to speak up for themselves but it will only get them so far. Most of the students aren’t even able to vote yet so it is important the country as a whole is aware of these problems and learn about how to help. Students from everywhere need to feel that they are valued so they have the chance to
Child welfare and family services: Policies and practices, USA: Parson Education Inc. Garbarino, J. (1992) The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secon Children and Families in the Social Environment, New York, NY: Walter De Gruyter, Inc. Walls, J. (2005). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary The Glass Castle, New York, NY: SCRIBNER.
Money will not solve or make this problem go away, no matter how many social workers are hired. Schools will succeed despite their financial circumstances if they have the basic components of motivated students, parent support, caring teachings, and strong central leadership. While this is the typical model of a suburban school system, Wilson High School proves that it can work anywhere. When ones thinks of urban public schools, overcrowded classes, underpaid teachers, and a lack of resources often come to mind. The fact is these problems can happen anywhere. While the environment at Kennedy could never be compared to the worst DC high school, the assumptions made against these schools are the same. By erasing these notions and confronting the problems one by one, we will be one step closer to reaching equal education for all.
I observed at St. Eve’s Learning Center location in their preschool room. The center has a naturalistic feel to the environment and all of the staff is friendly and welcoming. The classroom displayed best practices, modern theories and research, and followed expected standards set by their accreditations.
While learning does not end when school is out, neither does the need for good nutrition (“Benefits”, n.d.). Good nutrition is very beneficial to children, especially school age children. Not only does it provide nutritional benefits to help with their growth process, it also enhances their learning process. Senate Bill 89 (SB 89), passed in the 83rd regular session, ensure that low income children acquire free meals in the summer when school is not in session. Although, SB 89 ensures nutritious meals for children in the summer, the bill does not go far enough. The bill failed to take into account the following; transportation issues, the number of days the program operates weekly and the statutory requirement that only school districts with fifty percent (50%) or more of their students qualifying for the free and reduced lunch program are required to implement the program. Besides the above listed problems, the implementation of the bill faces a major barrier to participation and lack of awareness.
Imagine that you walk into a cafeteria and you see children in line to buy lunch. The lunch is burnt and cold. You see the kids who bought lunch sit down and start asking people for food, they say no. At the end of the lunch period the kids lunch trays still have all the food on them. The children are starving and a lot of food was wasted. You don’t want that right? I believe that our school should get a new lunch menu because many students do not like the food served, there are not many options, and there are many problems with the food.
Proper school funding is one of the keys to having a successful school. Americans believe that funding is the biggest problem in public schools. School improvements revolve around funding. There needs to be funding not only in the successful schools but also the schools that aren’t doing as well. In documentary, Waiting for Superman, it talks about how smaller class sizes will help students. Funding is what will help the smaller class sizes. State funding mechanisms are subject to intense political and economic scrutiny (Leonard). Studies have shown that funding is inversely related to accreditation levels (Leonard). School funding needs to be increased, but there must be accountability as well.
Ravitch, Diane. Viteritti, Joseph.A new vision for city schools. Public Interest. (122): 3- 16. 1996 Winter
Which is a great difference from 2009-2010. After reviewing the previous amount of money being spent on substitute teacher it ‘disturbing. The districts need to create a committee and put a plan in place to deal with the amount of absence a staff is allowed to have per school year. This money could and should be used to repair building and employee more qualified teacher, instead of keeping the teacher who abuse the substitute service.
Education is meant to be the key to a successful life. It is supposed to inspire great ideas, and prepare each and every generation for their future. However, school for today 's generation fails to meet those requirements. Every student knows education is important, but when school is not engaging or in some cases, even relevant, it makes learning difficult. Improving the school system is something educators attempt to accomplish every year. Despite their best efforts, there are numerous flaws students see, but adults overlook. There is a lack of diversity for students to learn, an overabundance of testing, and students’ voices are being ignored on how to create a more productive learning experience.
Most people don’t see public schools as an issue. Reading through these readings I see that unfortunately our schools are failing some of our students. When reading A Place Called School Goodlad states, “Jencks went so far as to conclude that school reform could do little to reduce the extent of cognitive inequality among students. And he saw differences in schools as irrelevant in explaining differences in attainment among individuals” (pg.5). Clearly it says in the reading how some schools are not prepared to teach students. All schools need to have “equal education for all” which means giving all students the same equal education they deserve no matter what race or color they are. Every single student should have the opportunity to know about all the resources there are available in a public school because there are a lot more than people may think. In relation to equal education having the proper and same attention from the teacher is also part of it not only how they are being treated. I hope to make a difference about this issue when I have my own classroom because I know that the slightest difference does make a
Based on these results it is easily seen that school representatives normally do not put a lot of thought into the food that they serve at schools. This should change, and soon.