Going Green!

Last week, I was able to attend the Paideia Texts and Issues Lecture Series. The theme is "Going Green: Sustaining a Just and Healthy Society". The lecture was given by professor Claude Mertzenich, and was entitled "Green Chemistry". The lecture focused mostly on the green initiative, about how "going green" has become a popular plan, with a range of social, economic, as well as political goals. On the chemistry side, Professor Mertzenich explained various technologies that chemists have been working on in order to help protect our environment, like learning to disinfect water with hydrogen peroxide instead of chlorine, or finding ways to help plants absorb nutrients in a healthy way.
The main concept that I took from this lecture, as a future teacher, is that life on Earth is precious. We are constantly gaining knowledge, and even though I will be out of school, I can still be learning everyday. As a teacher, I have an opportunity to promote awareness of "going green", and can effectively encourage students to take that initiative as well. I can incorporate many of these worthwhile environmental concepts into my classroom, and effectively help build a "green community" for future generations.

"High Stakes Community Schools" Debate

During this week for our Monday night lecture, our classes performed a mock debate. each of our discussion groups posed as a different viewpoint concerning the plans of the bipartisan act entitled No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In this certain case, our groups were presented with the various laws and new requirements that would be implemented into the education system and into the curriculum at the "High stakes Community Schools". After reflecting upon this debate, I noted a few key concepts concerning NCLB. This program affects many different subjects: teachers, a wide array of students, parents, community members, and business owners, just to name a few. The laws can have many idealistic outcomes, but can put a damper on many of these groups of people, especially low achieving students. NCLB is also a program that has many considerable outcomes, but also is far from perfect, one example being the requirement to keep students' grades in reflection of a bell shaped curve. Honestly, I think that our education system needs some serious attention and help, especially to be competitive, but I also find high value in many other social learning aspects that are not necessarily testable, but nonetheless important. As a future teacher, I must be aware of the future of NCLB, and learn to try and work with the system, but also voice my concern in order to make the program more efficient as well as applicable to my students.

Here's a link to more information on NCLB!
http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml