Abbye Lopez

Intro to Problem

9-24-17

Curriculum

Background: When it comes to education, Arizona is ranked amongst the lowest

of the United States. In a report done in 2017 we are now ranked 43rd out of all the 50

states. This is not a good placement. When it comes to education our state is suffering

and falling farther and farther behind. There is a large amount of reasons as to why

Arizona lacks in this field but the one I would like to turn our attention too, and the one I

believe to have the largest effect is the states curriculum. All of our states test results are

showing that our children are getting an inadequate education. Since I am planning on

becoming a history teacher myself, I have decided to focus my idea on the history

curriculum. I believe that the students in high school do not comprehend the meaning of

history. The most important thing about learning history is to understand why these

events took place and the actions that lead up to certain events. It is important for the

students to be able to identify connections between events from all over the world in

order to be able to prevent these things from happening again. The current curriculum

doesnt implement these aspects. I think there needs to be some major changes. In the Az

curriculum there needs to be standards in regards to the students being able to do more

than define words and name off dates. They should be taught the significance of events

and what they meant. They should be able to draw connections between events that either

took place many years apart or even in different places around the world. History is more
than dates and names, its a way for us to learn from mistakes and prevent future events

from happening.

Stakeholders: In order to make any sort of difference or to change the curriculum,

it would be up to the members of Arizonas Department of Education. The most

important people would be the ones on the board. The people who make up the board of

education are the ones responsible for regulating the conduct of the public school system.

In order to start somewhere, I could contact any of the 11 members. These 11 members

are the men and women who create the standards for the entire public school system in

Arizona, that is why I would go straight to them in order to fix this problem. There are a

few problems that can occur though. I have read in several different places that it can be

difficult to get in touch with some of the board members. When on the departments

website, there is no way of contacting the members either. It provides us with their names

and that is all. I have tried several different websites as well and found it nearly

impossible to get any more information on them. This can be a major set back in solving

my problem.

After a little bit of research, I have notice there is a possibility of a few barriers.

The first one, as I mentioned before, getting in contact with these members. The second

one is that some people may not find the subject of history as important as math or

science. I have noticed that most of the surveys or tests done to prove how low our state

ranks are all done in either one of those subject but never history. I have also realized that

when trying to solve this problem, there may come a time when others have a different

opinion of why history is important. In the curriculum it mainly focuses on the fact of just

trying to have the students learn about how to define the events and when they took
place. To most this is what history means and the only importance of it, but for me and

other history teachers, its much more. This is going to be a large barrier. When or if I do

get in contact with the people who can actually make the changes I see necessary to the

curriculum, they might have a different opinion of what makes history important. They

may not see the lack of education the students are receiving from the curriculum they

have already made. This is a very important problem to be and one of the main reasons

that I have decided to come into this career field. I hope to someday be a person making

these major decisions and making sure the students of Arizona are no longer among the

bottom of the list.

Environmental Analysis

I am currently doing my Fall 2017 internship in the Peoria Unified School District

at Raymond S. Kelllis High School. The district vision is Every student, every day,

prepared to shape tomorrow. The school vision fits well into the same category as that of

the district. Raymond S. Kellis High School is a collaborative community that champion

COUGAR PRIDE values, high academic achievement, positive relationships, dedication

to citizenship, and enthusiasm for the future. Both the PUSD and the school believe

strongly in preparing their students for the future. They want their students leaving high

school with a positive outlook on life and to show every student their importance.

The school of RSK has some resources to help both the classroom and the school

to accomplish their mission. What I have noticed in my internship is that the teachers at

this school really care about their students. I always see teachers taking the time to work

one on one with their students to ensure they are getting the content they need to be

successful. The school also has a strategy called the FLEX schedule. Every Thursday the

high school has one hour set aside for students to get help in the classes they are

struggling in. One week the students must spend a hour in either a math or science

classroom and then the next week they must spend a hour in either history or English.

This FLEX schedule ensure that the students are getting the help they need and get high

academic achievement. The school also provides some classrooms with laptops. This

resource widens the students knowledge. They can expand their recourses beyond the

school walls and help create critical thinking. By the students being able to use a larger

amount of recourses they are more prepared for their future outside of the school. It gives

them more independence and room to grow as adults.

 With internal strengths there are also internal weaknesses. The down side about

this school is that it is Title I. This means the students dont have as many resources as

those from other schools. I have noticed that other schools have laptops or Ipads in every

classroom. At RSK only one teacher from each department has the laptop carts. This

hinders the students from being able to reach their full potential in accomplishing the

school vision of enthusiasm for the future. The students dont see all of the opportunities

learning provides and the wide range of sources outside of the schools walls. With low-

income schools it is harder for the students to see all that they are capable of.

Now lets take a look at some recourses in the community that can benefit the

school. Part of the school vision is to have the students dedicated to citizenship. There are

plenty recourses outside of the campus that can help with his idea. They can have

community service activities where the students get together and give back to the

community. Right next to the school campus is the Cardinal stadium, the students can

volunteer to help out at the games and even be on the clean up duty. This is a recourse

that other high schools do not have. It gives students the opportunity to create positive

relationships and develop a sense of community.

I feel like this school has more external challenges than it does opportunities. As I

said before this school is located in a low-income area. A major challenge that comes

with this is that most students most likely have jobs to help out at home. While having a

job the students are more stressed about getting hours than doing homework. The

students who are in this situation where the family needs them to work have larger

responsibilities and their minds are focused on anything but school. This affects the

schools motto of high academic achievement. This is normal for school who are located
in areas such as these and labeled as Title I schools. These students may not see the

relevance of content when they are worried about making money to help feed their little

siblings. Teachers may not know what the students life is like outside of the campus so

they may see the students as lazy and creating conflict between teacher and students. This

then effects the idea of helping the students create positive relationships. The schools and

teachers have to remember that when working in school in a low-income area, you are

going to have students from all different economic backgrounds. The teachers should be

able to acknowledge the external challenges and make them around.

Stakeholder Analysis

During my study in the education program, I have notice a few issues regarding

Arizonas school system. The problem that caught most of my attention was the

curriculum all teachers and schools have to follow. It seems to me that there is a lack of

relevance between the curriculum and the students lives. In order to make a difference on

this topic the members of Arizonas Board of Education need to be involved ultimately

because they are the ones who can implement the changes. These are the most important

stakeholders in this problem. Their role in this problem will be to listen to what problems

exist in the current curriculum and then create ways to update it for a better more efficient

curriculum. As many people know, Arizona is ranked 48 out of 50 states in education. By

changing the curriculum, the Board members will be able to help the state rise above that

and create a better education for our citizens. Our students will be better prepared for

their future and not left to drown once they graduate high school. These positive aspects

only happen if their solution to the problem is a success. The members have a lot to lose

if the changes to the curriculum make end up having a negative effect. If the students
start falling farther behind and Arizona slips lower on the list, the Board members are

who the public blames. They will be targeted as making a major mistake and some may

lose their jobs. They play a very important but also risky role in this educational problem.

The stakeholders who will play a bg role in implementing the changes will be the

teachers and administrators. These will be the people who are making sure the changes

are being taught to the students. The administrators will need to be assistants in creating

the solution as well. They are the ones who are in the schools and know what needs will

have to be met in order for their schools to still function properly. The administrators are

also the stakeholders who will be making sure the teachers are applying the new

curriculum. This turns us to the teacher's role. I believe these to be one of the most

important roles. Teachers are going to be responsible for relating their lessons to the new

standards. They will need to make sure the students are seeing the connections between

the content and their lives. The teachers are in charge of making sure the curriculum is

helping the students better prepare for their futures. Administrators and teacher have a lot

to gain from this situation. I would hope to believe that every teacher and administrator in

this career love students and want to make their lives better. They all went into this field

to change students lives and help them become better adults. What better way than to

better the curriculum and do just that. These groups of people will take pride in their

participation in helping these children frame their future and be better off than before.

They will gain satisfaction in knowing they made a difference in these students lives.

Last but not least, this problem affects the students the most. This is the group

who will either gain the most or lose the most in the situation. Students have always

complained about how school does nothing for them and that they will never need the
current content in their adult life. This is relatively true. Students in high school need less

algebra and chemistry and more lessons about taxes, debt, and other topics that we face

as adults. High school does not supply the students with a lot of strategies on how to

function in a career or how to be an adult. This problem will help them in big ways. They

will play a major role in regards to what the changes will be. They will participate in the

study of what the students needs are. They will participate in surveys to figure out how

we can help them. If the changes have a positive effect, the students will benefit in huge

ways. They will be better off than the generations before them. They will be better at

handling the reality of adulthood. They will not have to go through the rough patches

most of us had to encounter while making the transition from high school to adult life.

They are also the group who will lose the most if the changes fail. This will affect not

only their lives after school but their lives during school. We will be taking things away

from them. If the changes have a bad or no effect then all we did was make things worse

for the students. This is why this problem is difficult to manage. We never know what

can happen.

Reflection

The problem I decided to do my reflection on is the idea of Teacher- A Facilitator Not a

Dictator. I chose this problem because it is something we focus our entire college career

on. Making sure we as teachers are not the dictators in our classroom but the facilitators.

Teachers need to make sure that their students are engaged enough in the lesson that they

can just sit back and have the students steer their own learning. This presentation focuses

on the area of classroom management. The presentation provided research on classroom

management practices that both work and dont work. I thought that this was important
because a lot of the time we are shown what works but what doesnt work is left out. It is

vital to be showing us teachers the strategies that do not work because it saves us the time

of trying those strategies ourselves. In this professional development I saw interviews

from parents, students and also teachers. This gave us fellow teachers evidence of how

not only teachers are feeling about this idea but how the students and parents in our

classrooms will feel about it. It gives us a sense of comfort ability and confidence to try it

in our own classrooms. I found it interesting that in their research it shows that the

schools with zero tolerance policies actually have more behavioral problems. I think this

was a very good statistic to add to their presentation because it goes perfectly with the

topic of either being a facilitator or a dictator. Being a dictator in the classroom can

sometimes cause more problems. The students do not respond well when they are given a

zero tolerance or a dictator style of a classroom. I think that when I start looking in to

what I want in my classroom and how I want to form that first set of rules I will look at

this groups Teacher Checklist. This checklist shows what we should do if a behavior

problem occurs in our classroom. The first thing on the list and the one I believe I will be

using the most is to take three depth breaths. This gives any teacher and me the time to

think before yelling or causing a scene in the classroom. This is a piece of advice that all

teachers will need before stepping into their first classroom. This checklist will make sure

that I am not bullying any of my students as well. It is important that I realize that when a

student miss behaves it is very easy for me to say things that may harm that student. This

checklist is very useful and will be a strategy I use in the future.