A couple of weeks ago we got problems in our school. Some of the pupils had sabotaged the toilets, so it made it impossible to use them or made them so disgusting that no one wanted to go inside. We can all imagine the difficulties and worries that this caused among the pupils during the week this were going on. The frustration was total. We tried to find out what was happening and who did it? And also of course ….why? Many teachers thought that there were more conflicts among pupils, noisier and that the environment in corridors and common places in school had become worse than before. Someone suggested cameras outside the lavatories. Finally, we came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to discuss this matter in all classes and to try to make them understand the consequeses. In some school they think it´s necessary to put up cameras to make the environment in school more secure and in an attempt to decrease all the damage.
In fact, I can understand that they have to use cameras in schools, as a short- term solution just to try to stop the emergency problems. It´s a hard and rough climate in many schools nowadays, especially in bigger cities. Stuff reductions and increasing grants make the situation even worse. There are lots of pupils who are afraid of moving from one place to another in their school and that´s a huge problem so …..of course something has to be done. In some schools there are places which are difficult to overview. Many people might think that a camera is better than nothing if a pupil feel more secure. It can be the cheapest alternative and an easy way to solve difficult problems.
Nevertheless I believe there must be other ways of solving these problems. I don´t like the idea of using cameras for supervision in school because we can´t replace human beings with a camera. I believe we need more adults in schools today and not only teachers. In our school we used to have a woman working in our cafeteria earlier but she is now replaced by pupils. She was very important for the pupils in many different ways. She also kept an eye on them and they knew it. There were always a lot of teachers sitting among the children at the café and it was nice and quiet. Now it´ has changed and the atmosphere is not the same at all.
Cameras in public places are becoming more common than ever. I accept it and also believe they are good in many cases but when it comes to cameras in our Swedish schools I say: No thanks!
söndag 26 april 2009
tisdag 14 april 2009
Towards the top?
During the last few years we´ve got reports constantly that tell us that Swedish student´s results are not in the top on the lists comparing with other countries in Europe. It seems to be very important to have the best students and our politicians have tried to analyze the causes of the low results. They sometimes talk about that the Swedish pupils’ don´t have enough demands in school and that makes affects on the knowledge. Now there will be changes, when schools can give written reports to parents from first grade, national tests in third grade and earlier grades. The expectations of these measures are high.
One affect would be that grades in 6th grade will motivate pupils to perform better. I believe it´s true that many children will do the very best and that the grades will be important because of this. This will also make it important to let the pupils and also their parents familiar with the goals. Maybe it´s easier to understand and talk about the goals when they get grades earlier.
The parental support will be determined for many children if they will pass or not. The new reform seems to make parents more participated in school than before. We know that parents are able to push and give their children support if they are interested and have enough time to help them with homework and so on. On the other hand we know that all children don´t have this support and sometimes parents want to help their children but circumstances don´t make it easy for them to do it.
Will all pupils be winners at the end with the new reform? Everyone wants to succeed but unfortunately we know that everyone can´t. In our schools there are lots of pupils with difficulties and how about them? Will they be the losers? I suppose we want children to believe in themselves and don´t give up. If schools can´t give support to all these children we will fail in our ambitions to get a better school.
To summarize my thoughts about all this, I think it´s important to find pupils with special needs as early as possible and much can be done, if we do it in early ages. Therefore, I believe in all these early tests and I think it´s good if we involve parents from start. The parental support is something useful. Many years ago I didn´t believed at all in early grades but I have changed my mind and have come to the conclusion that grades is something clear that both pupils and parents understand. From my point of view we could have taken small steps and it would have been enough with grades for Swedish, English and mathematic in 6th grade.
During the last few years we´ve got reports constantly that tell us that Swedish student´s results are not in the top on the lists comparing with other countries in Europe. It seems to be very important to have the best students and our politicians have tried to analyze the causes of the low results. They sometimes talk about that the Swedish pupils’ don´t have enough demands in school and that makes affects on the knowledge. Now there will be changes, when schools can give written reports to parents from first grade, national tests in third grade and earlier grades. The expectations of these measures are high.
One affect would be that grades in 6th grade will motivate pupils to perform better. I believe it´s true that many children will do the very best and that the grades will be important because of this. This will also make it important to let the pupils and also their parents familiar with the goals. Maybe it´s easier to understand and talk about the goals when they get grades earlier.
The parental support will be determined for many children if they will pass or not. The new reform seems to make parents more participated in school than before. We know that parents are able to push and give their children support if they are interested and have enough time to help them with homework and so on. On the other hand we know that all children don´t have this support and sometimes parents want to help their children but circumstances don´t make it easy for them to do it.
Will all pupils be winners at the end with the new reform? Everyone wants to succeed but unfortunately we know that everyone can´t. In our schools there are lots of pupils with difficulties and how about them? Will they be the losers? I suppose we want children to believe in themselves and don´t give up. If schools can´t give support to all these children we will fail in our ambitions to get a better school.
To summarize my thoughts about all this, I think it´s important to find pupils with special needs as early as possible and much can be done, if we do it in early ages. Therefore, I believe in all these early tests and I think it´s good if we involve parents from start. The parental support is something useful. Many years ago I didn´t believed at all in early grades but I have changed my mind and have come to the conclusion that grades is something clear that both pupils and parents understand. From my point of view we could have taken small steps and it would have been enough with grades for Swedish, English and mathematic in 6th grade.
onsdag 1 april 2009
Blog #3 What a beautiful world!!?
The climate change has already become a part of our daily lives. We can see the consequences all over the world today. On TV we frequently get rapports from different counties with extreme weather. I found it hard to watch all the people who fled from the flames in Australia some month ago. The fears in their eyes said more that thousand words. The hurricanes are stronger than before. Cloudburst and following floods appears quite often. We can see the effects when the Polar Ice is melting down. When thinking of how badly we treat our common world, it´s easy to get depressed. Sometimes it feels like we have lost the game already, especially when a catastrophe is close to us. But we can´t just close our eyes and give up.
We all have a responsibility for the future and have to think of what kind of world we want to give to the next generation. It’s quite obvious that our lifestyle has had and still has bad effects on our environment. All choices we make have some kind of effects, good or bad and if we make more good choices, we can change things in a better direction. Small steps are better and no steps. At the same time we must be aware of that all people doesn´t live under the same condition. Many people around the world are homeless, starving or are in the middle of a conflict. For all these people life can be a matter of just surviving and thinking of environment and stuff like that for them is secondary. They don’t have any choices at all.
Finally, I must say that I believe in humanity and I don´t think we have lost the game yet although the world have just woken up. It’s good to see that great efforts are made every day. Politicians and statesmen make decisions to decrease the discharges all over the world. In the meantime I´ll do the best I can and I will try to influence people around me, because I will never give up hope for a better world.
The climate change has already become a part of our daily lives. We can see the consequences all over the world today. On TV we frequently get rapports from different counties with extreme weather. I found it hard to watch all the people who fled from the flames in Australia some month ago. The fears in their eyes said more that thousand words. The hurricanes are stronger than before. Cloudburst and following floods appears quite often. We can see the effects when the Polar Ice is melting down. When thinking of how badly we treat our common world, it´s easy to get depressed. Sometimes it feels like we have lost the game already, especially when a catastrophe is close to us. But we can´t just close our eyes and give up.
We all have a responsibility for the future and have to think of what kind of world we want to give to the next generation. It’s quite obvious that our lifestyle has had and still has bad effects on our environment. All choices we make have some kind of effects, good or bad and if we make more good choices, we can change things in a better direction. Small steps are better and no steps. At the same time we must be aware of that all people doesn´t live under the same condition. Many people around the world are homeless, starving or are in the middle of a conflict. For all these people life can be a matter of just surviving and thinking of environment and stuff like that for them is secondary. They don’t have any choices at all.
Finally, I must say that I believe in humanity and I don´t think we have lost the game yet although the world have just woken up. It’s good to see that great efforts are made every day. Politicians and statesmen make decisions to decrease the discharges all over the world. In the meantime I´ll do the best I can and I will try to influence people around me, because I will never give up hope for a better world.
Prenumerera på:
Kommentarer (Atom)