Two Changes in Fort Zumwalt

There are two big changes taking place in the Fort Zumwalt School District.  

The first has to do with lunches.  If you buy a lunch at school, be prepared to get lots of beans.  Because of Mrs. Obama's push towards healthy eating, kids in the Fort Zumwalt School District can expect to see more beans at each lunch.  What's for lunch on the first day of school?  Three-Bean Salad.

Also, Fort Zumwalt is no longer going to handle student teachers the way they have in the past.  They are now being called Co-Teachers and the classroom teacher will have to remain in the classroom with the student teacher to the end of his/her assignment. 

This is better for kids in my opinion but doesn't do any favors for the student teacher.  Because, at this point student teachers will never get a chance to plan a full days worth of lessons and teach a class full of students by themselves.  So when they do graduate and get that first teaching job, they are headed into a situation where they have absolutely no real teaching experience.

I'm going to call around to other districts to see who is implementing this policy.  Fort Zumwalt is never the first kid on the block to implement something new.  They have always waited to allow other school districts to try things out before they dip their toe in the water so to speak.

I would like to add that the only proven way to increase student learning is to lower the student teacher ratio.  This means tax payers are going to have to pay more taxes and Fort Zumwalt is going to have to hire more teachers.

I used to think that having 22 kids in my room was great.  However, after teaching classes with just 15 students, I saw how much they improved because there was more of me to go around.