The Secondary School Movement

St Mark's Boys' Secondary School (converted) This secondary school was opened in 1897, and was closed after World War II when the Lakenham Secondary Modern schools were built. The building is now used for Youth Service offices, School Meals service, and school transport. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Public schooling was on its way to full development across all grades during the beginning of the nineteenth century. A great success in the public school movement of elementary schools was established by this time, as well as state supported universities. The issue was the gap in education between the two. This called for an increase in the accessibility to free and appropriated public secondary schools.
The first public secondary school was established in 1821, and it was called the English Classical School. This later became the Boy's High School, because it was an all boys school, but soon after similar schools arose for girls. By the end of the Civil War six thousand of these schools had spouted within the nation. The focus of these schools was either based upon general curriculum, or college preparation. Now many people were not in favor of these schools due to the fact taxes were raised in order to fund them. The Kalamazoo Michigan case though was one of many court cases that put an end to this idea, stating tax money could be used to fund schools. Also as the country moved from rural to urban, and agrarian to industrial a need for a higher education was increasing. This increased the popularity of secondary schools as well.
From this ides for furthering education secondary schools became a way of life, later sprouting the idea of Junior High Schools for individuals not quite ready to make the leap from elementary to High School. This is the basic evolution of secondary schools with the United States.

Exit Interview Possibilities

Q: The major problems facing education today is?
A: Well I would say that the overall problem that is affecting education today would be the current crisis brought on by low standardized tests scores. The main response from what I have noticed is to put more emphasis towards Math and English. This causes other subjects, including Physical Education to feel the after effects in a negative manner. I fell as though this lack in emphasis toward other subject areas other is no the answer. According to my philosophies I feel when other classroom subjects (Math, and English) are brought in to Physical Education it allows for that other information to be presented to students in a different modality. These reinforces what they are already taught, and allows for them to retain the information better.

Q: How would you facilitate collaboration between school and home?
A: This first week of classes when the school would have open house I would insist on meeting all of the parents of my students. During this time I would tell them about the Physical Education website that I have developed where everything a parent would want to know about the class would be held. I would constantly promote parental involvement in the many extra-curricular activities we would performing. I am a strong believer in community involvement within the schooling system.

Q: What would you do to improve students achievement?
A: Well first I would perform an authentic assessment to obtain a base measurement of my students within the three domains (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor). Using this baseline I would construct units developed to enhance the areas of concern. I would use teaching by invitation, and intratask variation so that all levels of achievement could benefit and progress throughout the unit.

The Answer, or the Problem?

Seal of New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This year New York State has implemented a new Annual Professional Performance Review. This does not eliminate the original standing APPR brought about in 100.2 of the Commissioner's regulations, but instead builds upon it.

This new APPR is based upon the fact that standardized test scores are not at their best, and in order to fix this problem the state wants change. They have decided to do this by making it mandatory for all classroom teachers, and school principals to be reviewed on their teaching methods/effectiveness. From what I have researched, this program was designed, and initiated quite quickly resulting in frustration from many professionals within the education/teaching community. This is because there are many unanswered question pertaining to this evaluation, and the impact it can have on a school district. 

Within the first few minutes of my research I have found a few un-discussed areas of this performance evaluation that I find quite alarming. This APPR is set in place to evaluate "classroom teachers, and principals." Individuals who are exempt from this evaluation are school attendance teacher, school counselor, school dental hygiene teacher, school nurse-teacher, school psychologist, and school social workers. So this makes me ask the question, "where does the school Physical Education Teacher fit into this new APPR? Their is nothing that I have read pertaining to this area thus far. Also what about teachers who teach inclusive classes? If they are evaluated on their overall ability to increase academic performance within a certain time period for an inclusive class they will most likely be considered ineffective. Inclusive students learn at a different pace, and different methods need to be taken in order to develop change in academic performance. A different standard needs to be put in place for this scenario in the evaluation of teachers.

These are just a few of the problems I have found while quickly learning about this new APPR. I am for teachers being held accountable for their actions, and am a strong believer in always developing your teaching methods to be a more effective teacher. I think though that this program was implemented too quickly, and many crucial areas of student development and learning were overlooked. 

Completed Rough Draft

The Impact of Concussions

        Each year it seems as though a new topic unveils itself within the area of health. This is especially so when the topic of health is interconnected with that of sports. Usually these ideas have to do with ways in which athletes can gain an edge on their competitor, or how new equipment has been designed to protect an athlete. The one topic that is usually under discussed is what happens when these programs and equipment fail, and the real impact that this can have on an individual’s life. As to why this information is “swept” away is unknown, but these thoughts and ideas need to be discussed in order to save the well being of individuals in the future. This particular area of injury within an athlete is probably the most overlooked, and under exaggerated injury that can occur. It effects close to 500,000 children up to the age of 14 each year, with 85 percent of them occurring within the realm of sport

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Paper: Beginning of Second Impact Syndrome

What happens though when an individual acquires multiple MTBI before the post concussive symptoms of the first MTBI have enough time to dissipate? This is called “second impact syndrome,” and as stated previously within this paper the severe consequence of death makes this occurrence quite a concern within the realm of sport.


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Rough Draft: Cumulative MTBI

So the severity of a MTBI has been discussed in great detail thus far in the aspect that it can alter a person’s life for the negative. The physiological effects, as well as the determining criteria have also been explained, but what are these effects that have been alluded to throughout this paper? Well a MTBI can have a profound effect on an individual’s cognitive functioning for up to thirty days. This though is just for an individual who has no previous history of MTBI. Those individuals that have in fact suffered the effects of multiple MTBI spread throughout a lifetime have a greater chance of complications.

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Conclusion of the Initial Assessment

When first making their way onto the field the individual performing the assessment should first make note of any life threatening injuries. The primary concern with any injury involving the head, especially a contact sport injury is whether or not the neck and spine have been damaged. Once this is determined that responder must then determine if immediate medical transportation is needed. If a MTBI is suspected a series of steps must be had.


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