As for diversification, the district i am currently employed by is both economically and ethnically diverse. It is actually easier for me to address diversity because my students can look around them and see that they all do not come from the same backgrounds yet they all have something to contribute to class. My subject area also makes is easy to address this aspect of education because I can incorporate literature from authors of various cultures and backgrounds to further explore these issues.

On another note, the great blog experiment is extremely successful. I am most impressed with how my students are commenting on each others’ responses and are offering each other support and constructive criticism. This is something that cannot be achieved in the classroom on a regular basis because there simply isn’t time for it. And the blog discussions invariably flow over into the classroom, generating even more interesting interaction among the students and putting the class into their hands. I am very happy with this idea and would be inerested in hearing from others who are using blogs in the classroom. I even suggested to a colleague who teaches creative writing and journalism that she consider using blogs in those classes because it’s an excellent platform for getting students to share writing.

Virginia claims to be at the forefront of technology intergration and I am glad for that. It is the future and the more positive experiences our children have with it the better prepared they will be for interacting in the digital world. I’m surprised whenever I attempt to use a webquest in class and my students seem stumped as to how to go about it. For the amount of time they spend on the internet, they seem to have gotten very little in the way of valuable tools out of it.
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While Virginia does not have the Regents exams as we know them in New York, they do have what they call Standard of Learning (SOL) exams. I am interested in learning more about these exams and how they affect the curriculum. For the English component, students must pass two End of Course exams, one in writing and one in Reading/Literature and Research. I’ve viewed samples of these and they seem to focus more on comprehension, grammar and elements of literature. It seems like it would be easier to integrate into daily lessons than New York’s Regents exams, which require an enormous amount of class time dedicated to “teaching the test.”

The structure of school districts came up not only in my job search but also in seeing how low the property taxes are in Virginia. Coming from Long Island where property taxes are outrageous I was shocked to find that we would be paying less than $1000 a year in taxes. Part of that is because of the way school districts are zoned in Virginia. Unlike Long Island where practically every town has its own district, in Virginia the districts are county-wide. This allows them to cut down on administrative costs and other costs associated with running the schools. I am still amazed by this and can’t wait to go to some of these job fairs to learn more about the school system in Virginia.