Turning Points Chaper 9: Involving Parents and Communities Synthesis

I can't count the number of times when I have talked about how important it is to get parents involved in the students classwork. This chapter was a great resource for us because it gave a lot of examples on how to get parents and the community into the class. I really liked when the authors talked about getting parents that were ELL into the classroom by making the environment a safer one for them. I could ask parents of different backgrounds to come in and talk with my students about what they have learned and relate it to what we are learning. I know as a science teacher, I want to get as many professionals as I can to come in and talk with my students. If I can get people to come in and talk about how chemistry is important in their job, students will see how applicable the material we are learning is to the world outside of school.

Turning Points Chapter 9: Involving Parents and Communities Synthesis

Abstract:
In our education classes, we have heard over and over again how we need to get parents and the community involved in the classroom and with the students lives. This chapter talks about how we can incorporate parents and the community into our schools. In order to bring parents into the school and their childrens' academics, the authors gave four key ideas: 1. Establishing continuity between home and school. 2. Monitoring students' school work and their school "careers". 3. Creating opportunities outside the school for safe, engaging exploration. 4. Improving the school through on-site parental involvement. Using these four steps, teachers and parents can begin to have the discussions necessary for students success in the classroom and the world. Parents of all back grounds will be encouraged to come in and help with their special skills.

Synthesis:
As a whole, we have decided that involving parents into the classroom and into their childrens' academic lives can help students' progress through school. Not only will they do better in their classes, but they're more willing to go to class and find the material more interesting. Yet there were some concerns when it came to parents who had opposite philosophies of the teachers and administration. When we have parents and community members who want the school to change in a different direction, it can be more of a problem than a solution. There is a balancing act that we as teachers and administrators have to walk, because we want parents to become part of their childrens' academic life, but we don't want them to slow it down either.

Turning Points Chapter 8: A Safe and Healthy School Environment

As we have moved through the semester, I have heard time and time again, how important it is to keep the classroom and the school a safe environment for kids to express the emotions in middle school. Emotions guide students at the middle school level and it is extremely important to make sure that the classroom is a safe place for them. Another important factor in students learning is whether they are healthy and happy. It is important to have students moving around and and doing things that will keep them healthy, including physical and health education and maybe some "controversial" school ideas such as meditation. This is a really interesting chapter and one that I would like to use to help students academically by taking care of their emotional health and their physical help.

Turning Points Chapter 4: Designing Instruction to Improve Teaching and Learing

This chapter seemed like a review of practicum which was definitely a nice review. The WHERETOS and how to teach to the whole class. This is a good reference chapter to use when I'm discussing how to teach to the whole class and it is important to do the backward design. One of the most interesting parts of the chapter was the idea of tracking. I can't count the number of times that we have talked about tracking and why it is bad. Of course I agree with that it is bad because it can quickly segregate the school based on race and social economic status. This was a nice find because we have talked about why tracking is bad, but here is a nice reference in writing.

Turn Points Chapter 3: Curriculum and Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning

Chapter 3 was focused on the standards, backwards design model and assessment and how they interact to make a better learning environment. The backwards design model is important because you can tailor your lesson to the specific standard that you have in mind. Using the standards as a starting point can be good for teachers to incorporate the standards and devising good lessons. Assessment can be easily intertwined into the backwards design model and also the standards. The three of these are important for teachers at any level because it gives a good frame work for putting the essentials into the lessons. I definitely want to use all three ideas, standards, backwards design model and assessment to make my lessons as powerful as I can.

Turning Points Chapter 6: Organizing Relationships for Learning

This chapter talked about the structures of middle schools and the teams that make up the middle school. One idea that caught my interest was the idea of breaking large schools up so they are more attuned to the students and not the masses. The size of the teams is also a very important for optimal interaction between the students and the teachers. One method which makes a lot of sense to be, is the idea of looping, so the students will have teachers for a longer period of time than just one year. This can really help the students get to know the teacher and open up to them. When a student is forced to work with new teachers every year, it can really effect how the student interacts with the teachers.

Turning Points Chapter 2: Turning Points 2000: A design for Improving MIddle Grades Education

The first chapter was about the original Turning Points report and this second chapter was all about the Turning Points 2000 report. The chapter went in-depth about the recommendations and the design process behind the report and why it was chosen for educators for reforming the middle education system. There were seven recommendations by the report, which outlined the ideas that would be needed for middle education to succeed. The authors stressed the importance of the intertwining of the ideas. This is important because success includes all of these recommendations, not just one.

Turning Points Chapter 1: Turning Points A Decade Later

The first chapter was about the turning points report and how the report was converted into the book. This chapter also talked about the different reasons for its creation and the steps that were taken to create the report. This chapter was not about a particular part of the report, but about the whole document as a whole and how it has affected middle education. The document was written by educators and those who feel responsible for middle education. It also outlined what’s to come in the rest of the book. This report is the introduction into the report that precedes it, the Turning Points 2000 report.