Charter Schools...

After watching the videos on charter schools, I’m fairly convinced that this method of teaching/education is much more effective than the standard public school method. Not only does this cater to the child’s individual needs more, but it was also very apparent that the kids in the video really enjoyed going to school. They are able to explore their passions, while still learning the information the teacher wants them to learn. They are assessed by standardized testing, but in a portfolio format. This seems more effective because it allows the teacher to see the overall progress of the student, rather than basing their progress off of one test.
One of the things that I saw in the video that I could use in my own classroom is situating the desks in a circle. This allows the students to feel important to the class, rather than just watching a teacher run the classroom. It makes the students feel more comfortable and makes conversation much easier. In the classroom of the charter schools, the students are encouraged to think abstractly and to form their own opinions. This is much harder to do in a standard classroom setting because the students can’t see each other’s faces, and the focus is on the teacher, as opposed to the students.
In class, we also discussed grade retention and bumping up children when they aren’t ready. Both are found to be ineffective and set the child up for a more difficult education experience. Rather than deciding to hold a child back, I think better methods are having summer school classes available as well as having smaller classes. If the teacher has a smaller class size, then they will be able to devote more attention to a struggling student. However, even though this is more effective, it is unlikely to happen due to school funding and budgeting 