Organizing Schools for Improvement, Lessons from Chicago Post 2

Within our last group chat, we were all able to be present, and all caught up on the material. The conversations were great, and we topics touched upon full of information to share with each other. The info we shared came from chapter 3 and 4 we are doing 2 chapters week in order to successfully complete the book before the due date. We discussed the need for a principle within the school system. Why it is so detrimental that schools have a good principle and a good leader make good teachers which makes good students. Within the chapters, the faculty and principles were continually being changed and shifted which seemed to play a role in why the school system in Chicago was failing. Shifting power from the board to the principle and having good parents creating change as well creates a great formula for improvement. As mentioned in the book teachers are the key to which a students mind can be transformed into a learning machine. Which brought up one of the key topics discussed later in class as a whole when comparing other books within the book club where other book discussed getting rid of teachers altogether and moving on to computing. Where there is less of a margin of error and at the same time, students can learn to better grasp technology moving on with their studies. While the concept seems fine in practice, it's tough for students to sometimes do everything on a computer and studies have shown that that personal connection with a teacher makes the difference when it comes to taking in information. You can throw a textbook full of knowledge at a kid have him read it and hope he performs well, but the key word is hope. Teaching at a slow pace and taking into account your students what they need help with and making sure everyone is moving at the same speed. Curriculums are like a map to a course put that in a computer, and it will never stray from that path but there's no guarantee that everyone will learn but sometimes as a teacher, you need to change things up for the better of the class, and that's why teachers are so important to schools. As well as curriculums which the books touches upon shortly where principles and boards struggled to decide if every school should be following the same curriculum. Where in my personal opinion they should and shouldn't where all kids should be learning the same thing but all learning in different ways.