C4T #3 Summary- Caren Carrillo

Caren Carrillo

My third teacher was Caren Carrillo. I commented on her posts "Grading Parents" and "A Teacher's Frightening Power."

****"Grading Parents" was posted on January 27th, 2011 in response to the article from CNN stating that parents should receive a grade. She writes a brief overview of what was in the article. Basically parents would get a grade of "Satisfactory," "Unsatisfactory," or "Needs Improvement." Parents would be graded on three things."1. A child should be at school on time, prepared to learn after a good night's sleep, and have eaten a meal. 2. A child should have the homework done and prepared for examinations. 3. There should be regular communication between the parent and teacher."

She stated that these are obvious things that should be upheld, but asks if they should really be regulated. She agreed with holding parents responsible for students tardiness, since students are usually not the ones driving themselves to school. 

She had many good points about regulating breakfast. She asked how we as teachers would know if students had eaten breakfast, "by smelling their breath?" Ha ha. She also made the point of determining what is considered a meal? Is a pop tart ok? Does it have to be a hot breakfast with several different things for breakfast. Most parents work, their is not always a stay at home parent who has time to cook breakfast. Also she made the good point that as a child, like myself, never wanted to eat breakfast at 6 a.m. before school. 

When it comes to a good night sleep, there is NO way to regulate a child's sleep. There is no way to force a child to fall asleep at an exact time, or make sure they sleep through the night, or make sure they dont have nightmares etc.

When it comes to homework, she agrees that homework should be completed. A parent can ask the child to do their homework, but they don't remember everything about every subject. Sometimes parents cannot help their children because they simply don't remember how to do it. She said it was rediculous to regulate a parent for not knowing or remembering how to do something. 

She also goes on to talk about the five bigger implications that are beyond grading including the fact that "attendance is mandatory, caring is not."

She uses posterous and it was not allowing me to post comments, but below is the comment I tried to leave for her on her blog.

****"Hey Ms.Carrillo,
My name is AnnMerritt and I'm a junior at the University of South Alabama, majoring in Secondary Education English/Language Arts. I was directed to your website by my EDM310 professor, Dr.Strange. I really enjoyed reading your blog. 

I could not agree more on the tardiness issue. Students under 16 years old, or without a drivers lisence or vehicle, should not be punished for tardiness. Like you said, "it wasn't you driving the mini-van."

I not only agreed with your breakfast comments, but was also fairly amused by them. I loved your comments about smelling the childrens breath in the morning, ha ha. I as well, NEVER ate breakfast growing up. I still hardly do. It's not that my parents didn't provide it for me, it's just that I was hungry at 6:30 a.m. I didn't get hungry until my break around 10 a.m. I also liked your point about working mothers and stay at home moms. Who is to judge a pop tart on the way out the door in the morning to a breakfast with eggs, bacon, grits, etc. 

I also agreed on your bit about communication. COmmunication should only happen when it is necesary. SOme teachers teach a hundred kids. How are they expected to communicate constantly with each one of them? It would not only be impossible, but ineffective. A blog for parents where the teacher posted what they were doing that week could be helpful, but every parent shouldn't have to write a response to every post.

Finally, I agree that there should be suggestions for parents. There should not be laws or requirements or grading for parents. Actually, it would make me want to be less involved with the school if I was getting graded. I would constantly fear getting a "bad grade" or a "bad mark" or be labled a "bad parent." I think the idea of grading parents is rediculous and would cause a lot, and I mean A LOT, of controversy among parents and the school board and teachers.

Thanks for your blog post! It was informative and entertaining. I will be posting I summary of what I read in your blog on  My Class Blog.  

Feel free to visit it anytime,

AnnMerritt"

****The second post I read was entitled "A Teacher's Frightening Power" posted on December 7th, 2010. In this blog she says that she does not think teachers should be held responsible alone for students progressing in school, but that teachers are extremely responsible for how students feel about school.

She goes on to say that she is a thinker. She is naturally curious and that she always questions information that's put in front of her. She then talks about her graduate level teacher and how she did not appreciate being questioned. She says that her teacher would use sarcasm to try and humiliate her and would sometimes send her home in tears.

She then asks the question "should she continue to ask questions and get rediculed or should she simply keep quite and make it through the last few weeks of class?" This is her second set of graduate classes, which she says and obviously shows, that she has a lot of drive and is a very motivated person.

She said that this experience made her really take a step back and question herself and if she has ever made a student feel that way. She said that her horrible experience has made it one of her top priorities to never make her students feel this way and to make them feel comfortable speaking and asking questions in the classroom.

****Once again, her site would not submit my comments, but this is what I tried to comment on her post.
Hey Ms. Carrillo,
      This is AnnMerritt Taylor again, I commented on your "Grading Parents" post last week. I could not agree more that teacher's do have a frightening power! Considering the fact that I am a student, it is something I experience on a daily basis. There are so many classes that I just sit quietly because the teacher is so harsh on people who speak up. In my classroom I will make sure to answer students in a way that makes them feel comfortable to speak up again. In classes where a teacher asks a question, and the teacher simply says No and moves on to the next student, can leave them feeling embarassed simply because they tried to speak up and were wrong. Teachers who say almost, or lets look at it this way, or answers that infer the answer was wrong but the teacher is willing to help the student find the right answers are far more effective. I think making students feel comfortable in the classroom is THE most important thing a teacher can do. I will be posting about what I read on your site and my comments on My Class Blog .
Feel free to visit it anytime,
AnnMerritt"