Research Blog

I finished my annotated bibliography last night. One of the interesting sources I found was on the New Project website, which gave me some background information about why larger schools were started, and the smaller schools were closed. It actually had to do with Russia launching Sputnik into space, which I thought was really interesting. The educators and government here believed that we needed to compete with Russia and the only way to do that was "educationally," and they believed that a quality education could only come from larger school districts. The government, both locally and nationally, began closing the one-room school houses that made up 70% of the nation's school system and between 1940 and 1990, the number of schools decreased from 200,000 to 62,000. The number of schools with more than 1,000 students has doubled in the last ten years and most schools have considerably more than that with about 2,000 to 3,000 and up to 5,000. Some educators now, though, are beginning to believe that smaller schools really do provide a better education because they are better able to give individual attention to students, and studies have shown that small schools have lower dropout rates, discipline problems, and violence. That's about as far as I got in reading the article, but I skimmed through it and most of the information seems to be really good.

Another article I found, from the Rapid City Journal, said that Senator Tim Johnson was trying to pass a bill to provide bonuses to teachers who teach in small and isolated school districts. Most of these schools are so far removed that the schools have a difficult time retaining the teachers. This article was a little dated, from 2005, but I still thought the information was pretty good.

I plan on spending most of my weekend doing additional research and beginning to work on an outline and notecards. I also have to remember to set up a phone interview with Mr. Leighton next week.

Research Blog

Still working on my research. I'm finding some interesting information. I found an article by Deborah Verstegen saying that some lawmakers are beginning to believe that smaller school districts are a better investment than larger schools, but are still incredibly underfunded. She also points out that 51% of the nation's schools are in small towns or rural areas, so small school funding is an issue for all of us. It also goes on to tell how different states distribute school funds. There's a considerable amount of information here. Since I'm still working on my annotated bibliography, I do think I'll use this site as one of my sources.

Library Research Activity

1. teaching AND "virtual worlds "
teach* AND ("virtual worlds" or "virtual world")

2. (grow* or cultivate*) AND peanut*

3. (design* and test*) AND game*

This activity really helped me. I think knowing these search techniques will help me save time in my searches.

Assignment 2-Research Blog

I wasn't really sure when we were supposed to start these, I know we talked about them one day a little, but not very much, so we were probably supposed to start doing them then so I'm probably a little bit behind on it.

As far as my paper is going, I'm in the process of working on some background initial research. Some of it I think will be a great help; I found information on the state Department of Education website that I think will be important to my paper. And I want to take a closer look at some of the online encyclopedias that Rise talked about just as some of my initial research.

I'm also in the process of trying to set up an interview with the superintendent of my high school. Florence is one of the small schools suing the state for lack of funding, so if we can both work an interview into our busy schedules, first-hand information from him will be great.

Assignment 1-Research Topic

Possible Topic One-School funding in South Dakota

This topic is a huge issue in South Dakota now, especially with small schools like the one that I attended. Actually our school was just on the news last week as one of the schools fighting the state on the school funding issue. This issue will definitely impact my future as a teacher.

http://www.schoolfunding.info/states/sd/costingout_sd.php3
This article brings up valid points such as how many students there are in South Dakota, grades K-12, and how much each school has per each student. It points out that some districts recieve adequate funding, but 161 districts out of 170 are underfunded. Low teacher salaries are also stated as a problem. School districts are having trouble recruiting and retaining.

Research question: Why are some schools underfunded and what can be done to recruit and retain teachers in this state's small schools?

Possible Topic Two-Increasing Cost of Living Verses Frozen Salaries

The cost of living is going up everywhere. No one can deny that. But why aren't job salaries rising to keep up with the cost of living? Most people are being pinched tighter and tighter and somtimes may have to take drastic steps such as choosing between feeding their families and paying bills. South Dakota has a relatively low cost of living but the situation is the same. Real estate and land are also getting harder for people to buy. This applies to almost all jobs, not just teachers, although they face a tighter crunch since salaries are relatively low.

http://www.slate.com/id/2147256/
This site explains how the rising cost of living is going up but salaries are staying the same or dropping. In short, people are having a hard time keeping up with the rate of buying things that are necessary and paying bills. High gas prices, healthcare, food, and even general everyday items are going up in price. People are having a hard time keeping up, and some people have to choose between getting what they need to live and paying bills. This is also affecting businesses; people are starting to conserve money by not going out as much and cutting what they can.

Research Question: Why are prices going up and salaries not keeping up?

Possible Research Topics-Assignment 2

I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do my paper on. I have a whole list of topics in front of me, but none of them really, really spark my attention. The one right now that does is my major-English, and reading, my favorite hobby. If I could somehow do something with that, it would be an interesting paper. I love stuff like that, but in this case I'm just not sure yet how to turn that into a research paper. The other one that interests me somewhat is one of the topics listed under my "problems" section of topics-low teacher pay in South Dakota. That's a serious problem and something that concerns me and my future very much, but that topic may be too general and there may be too much info out there about it; I'm not sure how interesting I could make it. It would be a good topic though, if it wasn't too overdone. It's not something terrribly overdone, like abortion or eating disorders or a sport, so maybe it would work. I could definitely stay interested in it. This is a huge issue right now in this state, especially in small schools like the one I attended where they're having a hard time staying open and drawing new students and teachers, let alone raising teacher's pay rates to attract the best teachers. I could go back and interview my superintendent; he would be a great resource. I could do school funding in general and incorporate teacher salaries into that.