Promising Futures

Promising Futures

I liked the book, it was an easy read and even easier to agree with. I thought the snapshots were fluff and not something we will see every day in our teaching. Promising Futures is laid out by fifteen steps and I was wondering if every school that becomes or is a promising future school adheres to those steps, or do they get to adjust if necessary? The Maine Learning Results and the Maine standards for curriculum can be rolled into these steps quite easily; I am assuming that they were intending it to be that way. It only makes sense to do it that way because of NCLB and schools being held to meeting the standards. Implementing a step plan that is easy to follow and is almost ideal in how a school can achieve its goals would make it much easier.
I am not sure how I feel about “study hall or not” some students do actually benefit from it. There are those students that are mature enough to know how to use time wisely. I was not one of those students however I did use my study hall to socialize some which was and is an important aspect of education. We seem to forget that some people need others to relate to and a free period during the school day may be the only place some students get to do that. Taking that away from some students may cause more behavioral and academic problems for them. I would like to see the teachers become more involved with the students in developing what would work best for each school. It may be that some students have a game or social period and others have a work or tutor period.
I feel that there are going to be more promising future schools in the near future (funny). I feel that they are necessary and fit in well with the current trends of collaboration and curriculum integration. I am going to refer back to this book often in my teaching career. It has good information and good ideas that I can use, and it gives a quicker understanding of the principles set by the Maine Education Commission.