The support that students from Middle School 244 receive from their teachers and counselors more than just surprise me. I would personally expect that level of compassion from a high school guidance counselor at the earliest. I believe it is that kind of support that will rebuild a school community, reshape students, and revitalize hope into not only the students but also the school’s faculty.
Seeing that the faculty of Middle School 244 takes the time to assess every students’ grades and compare it to each living circumstance and family situation surprises me also. It would seem natural to check on students when noticing failure, but with an increase of students, it would also seem like a waste of time after going through thirty or more, if
According to Gatto, "School are meant to tag the unfit-with poor grades, remedial placement, and other punishments" (37). As an example, schools let students who had poor grades throughout the year to pass the grade only by going to summer school. I have a friend whose dreams were shattered thanks to the system we have now. Andrea 's eleventh-grade year was very difficult for her because her mother died at the beginning of the school year. She struggled with depression, and after being in honor classes for the past three years, she started to struggle with her classes. When she reached twelfth grade because of her low performance in her junior year, she was put in medium level classes. She felt discouraged and she did only what she needed to do to graduate. One of the consequences was that she lost her opportunity to get a scholarship to a university that she always dreamed of going to. I want to ask the school board and teachers, why wait so long to bring attention to a student 's bad grades instead of warning your students at the start of their failing grades? The school system should focus on students like Andrea to provide counseling support to help them cope with their personal problems. Teachers should be working with the parents and those specific students to give them a wake-up call to help them get back on track as soon as
Stratford Caldecott’s “Remembering: Grammar-Mythos-Imagining the Real” is from his book Beauty in the Word, published in 2012. In this chapter, he argues that naming, as the beginning of grammar, is an integral part of our humanity. He goes on to connect grammar to the arts of remembering, tradition, and storytelling, as well as commenting on the danger of becoming too reliant on technology. Caldecott believes that grammar, and thereby Remembering, brings us into a greater community of human thought which transcends time; as a result, ‘Grammar’ is “the remembrance of Being” (Caldecott 59). This, he argues, is why it is so important to teach grammar; losing the art of grammar would mean losing our very humanity.
“When schools, parents, families, and communities work together to support learning, students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, stay in school longer, and enroll in higher level programs.” (Van Roeckel, 2008, p. 1) Deer Valley High School in Glendale, AZ is the first high school built in the Deer Valley Unified Scholl District, and with a population around 1800 students, the high school is one of the bigger schools in the state. It has a tradition of family on its’ campus, where there are still teachers teaching that were there when the school opened in 1980. A number of former students have become new teachers on campus and just about all the teachers’ children have attended and graduated from the campus. With a school like ours, there are many connections to the community around it and it is demonstrated by the programs that bring in parent and community to help with the development of our students. There are numerous booster clubs run on our campus to help support student achievement on the sports fields, a school to work programs to teach the students necessary skills in different areas of either nursing, sports medicine classes, and in the culinary arts classrooms, and funding to our school to help ensure all students graduate on time. There are many programs on our campus, but I will discuss four of the programs: baseball booster club, C2G program, “school-to-work”, and the special education program sponsored by Arrowhead Hospital. These programs are designed to improve the relationships between the campus and the people in the community, and give all students on campus every opportunity to succeed in their future.
While most people would agree that the situations adolescents have to deal with now are much more stressful and tempting than they have been in the past, not everyone knows how to deal with it. The stresses of families, friends, relationships, work, school, and extra-curricular activities leaves students with hardly any time to just relax and simply be a teenager. From all of the stress and lack of sleep, students’ emotional, spiritual, and physical health have begun to slowly deteriorate. While it is not always easy to minister to them, it is that much more important to reach out to the students who are hurting. They are crying out for help and love and attention but if it is not received, then the students are very likely to shut down emotionally from any adult advice or attention.
The compressive school programs are driven by student data and are based on academic, career, and personal/ social development. The programs are collaborating between the counselor, parents, and many other educators to create an environment that promotes student excellences (ASCA, 2016). A productive school counselor will focus on their skills, time and energy on direct and indirect services to all students. Therefore, to achieve those goals, the ASCA recommends that a school counselor should not have more than 250 students and that 80 percent or more of a counselor’s time in direct and indirect services. As a result, we will focus on the delivery of those services.
Current educational policy and practice asserts that increased standardized student testing is the key to improving student learning and is the most appropriate means for holding individual schools and teachers accountable for student learning. Instead, it has become a tool solely for summarizing what students have learned and for ranking students and schools. The problem is standardized tests cannot provide the information about student achievement that teachers and students need day-to-day. Classroom assessment can provide this kind of information.
Over the course of the 21st century, there has been a steady decline in the rate of high school graduates. With such an important factor to the success of adolescents, school administrations have begun to take notice of such unacceptable findings. In this process they have attempted to understand the needs of our youth and the methods that give them the opportunity to become better readers, writers and overall students. To these young individuals, these years of development are pivotal to there success as adults. Educators must work together with the student to understand their individual forms of learning, not every student is the same and must be given the opportunity to learn no matter what the circumstance might be.
Theresa M. Letrello & Dorothy D. Miles (2003) The Transition from Middle School to High School:
The choices we make early in life have an enormous impact on our future. I have always known that I wanted to directly impact people’s lives and my personal experiences have set me on the school-counseling path. In the future, I would love to influence another generation of students to soar for their dreams.
At this time, I became a group leader in an after-school program for a 3rd-grade class. This was my first time working with children and as imagined, it was a tough transition. The students were Latino and African American, living in poverty stricken neighborhoods with a dysfunctional home life. The program focused on students who were at risk of retention. A large number of students were below average and had been recommended to receive extra academic support. As a result of my time spent working and learning with the students, I choose an educational path.
I cannot recall a more rewarding experience than helping facilitate a child’s education while enabling parent participation alike. These experiences have drawn me to my current position as an Educational Assistant where I am constantly interacting and establishing relationships with students, learning about their goals and aspirations. It is that same desire to empower our future students that has steered me towards a career as a school counselor. By enrolling in the Masters in counseling program, I aspire to develop methods and experience to become an effective, experienced, and adaptable school counselor that promotes self-awareness, allowing students to realize their full potential and impetus them towards a promising future. I want to learn skills that facilitate personal and career development, ensuring that our students grow accomplishing their goals and ambitions. To discover techniques that help students improve in all areas of academic achievement, establishing relationships with students and parents alike. By becoming a school counselor, I am determined to become an advocate for underserved youth. I aim to become an effective agent educational reform, providing support for students in the various institutions that may disempower
Don’t you think students should take standardized tests? To start with standardized tests make sure schools are doing good. It also helps students prepare for later on in school such as elementary school, middle school, high school, and even collage. Even though it takes a while to get the test results back it only takes about 2 days to test. If students didn't take standardized tests how would you know how much they have progressed through the year.It will also give you preperation for next year.Sometimes the time depends on how long the students take to test. It not only tells you how good kids are doing but how well the teachers are teaching. It also shows and helps to know what subjects students are struggling in and what they're succeeding
The stories and resilience I’ve seen and heard remind of the importance of civic engagement and leadership. I recognize that without the support of mentors such as Mr. Bravo, I would not be writing these words today. At age 22, I have returned to the community that shaped the individual I am today. My way of giving back for the opportunities I have had in life is by serving as a resource, mentor, and tutor to the youth in my community. I work closely with 11 at risk eight grade students at Carver Middle School, a school in South Los Angeles. My purpose in serving in this community is because my students deserve a quality education that will allow them to develop the skills to be civically engaged citizens. Therefore, building brave spaces for my students is crucial to me; because, I am aware of the importance of social and emotional support of one’s personal and professional development. I want my students to know that they matter and that they are not
My main vision encompassed providing administrators, teachers, students and parents with the resources necessary to achieve high levels of learning and academic performance. As one of the school leaders for a school with alternative setting, I believe that our over-aged and under-credited students can achieve and become prepared to enter in a post –secondary educational program
In the spring of 2007 Covenant Christian Academy lost funding and had to close its doors. This was when Justin was transitioning to 7th grade. So, Justin’s family had to send him to public school. Middle school is a hard transition regardless without the added stress of going from private school to public school. Justin was accustomed to small classes with children who loved and worshipped God. When Justin arrived at Granite Falls Middle School he was scared. He went through the halls of a new place with unfamiliar faces. Everyone had already formed into cliques and groups. The first person who showed an interest in becoming Just...