C4T Summary #2

High Expectations
By: Justin Tarte (@justintarte)

The first blog I commented on was titled "High Expectations". In this blog, Tarte discusses if teachers should hold high expectations for their students. He bring up the question, "Should we "standardize" high expectations and expect all students to follow the same set of expectations, or should we "personalize" the expectations to meet our students at their own individual levels and abilities?" Tarte gives a great example in his blog on what he means.

Imagine these two students:

Student A comes from a stable home with two educated parents who are able to provide 3 healthy meals a day, a nurturing academic environment to complete out of school assignments, and are vocal advocates for their child.

Student B comes from a broken home with one uneducated parent who is not able to provide 3 healthy meals a day, requires the child to babysit siblings while the parent works the night shift, and does not have the ability or knowledge to be a vocal advocate for their child.

- Is it fair to hold both these students to the same level of standardized high expectations, or should we personalize the expectations to meet the needs of each individual student at their current levels?

*If we personalize the expectations for each student, student B will get additional resources and leniency's that student A will not.

I really liked the example that Tarte used. It is a good example on the consequence of holding high expectations. Even though many people may disagree with me, I think that all teachers should have high expectations for their students. As a future teacher, I hope that with my support and contribution, students will be encouraged to want to succeed. I think setting high expectations for disadvantage or non-disadvantage is important and can help kids find out what they are capable of academically.



Administrator to administrator
By: Justin Tarte

The second blog I commented on was titled "Administrator to administrator". Tarte talks about how he and a colleague led an adminstrator learning session. They showed the many different adminstrators how having iPads can help benefit classrooms. They filmed students and teachers on the iPads at Poplar Bluff Jr. High School and posted the videos on the school website. They used their iPads to take pictures while doing class walk-throughs to help archive and share some of the great things going on at PBJHS.  It was a great way for parents and other schools to look in on what goes on during a day at the school. They also talked about how they a Facebook page dedicated to the each class. It was a way for students to interact about the particular class they were in. The last thing they discussed was a blog they creadted called professional admininstrator blog. This blog is only about stuff related to education. Also, Tarte and his colleague started a book club for teachers. I commented on how having a Facebook page for students to go to is really helpful. We have a Facebook page for our EDM 310 class. It is a great way for students to interact with each other and find answers to questions they might have. It is also a great way to post news and reminders on. I like the professional development blog that you and your colleagues made. It is nice that a teacher can have information that can help them in their classroom.