Big brother is watching you!

A couple of weeks before Christmas I visited one of my oldest friends, she lives in London. This is a city with many cameras watching over you, did it make me feel unpleasant? No, because I don´t have anything to hide.

In Sweden there is a big debate whether you should have cameras or not in public places. Our personal integrity is very important, sometimes more important than the security of the citizens. We do have surveillance cameras in this country, mostly in public places like the underground and shopping centers. I think this is good, people may feel more secure when they walk in public places, especially in the evening or at night time. If you don’t have anything to hide, the cameras should not be any problem.

Most of the cameras today save the materials that are filmed. After a couple of days this material is deleted if nothing especially was “caught on tape”. This is a good thing, the material is only supposed to be used to catch criminals or criminal acts. If the material is used in a wrong way, as surveillance of citizens, or that private persons can watch these films, this is wrong.

But this is not the only cameras you may get in contact with, high speed cameras is another one. This is one type of surveillance cameras I really like. They actually save lives! Drivers really slow down when they see a camera, a fine is not fun to get. But one thing that hit me this weekend when I was driving down to Skara, why do you need a sign a couple of hundreds meters before a camera as a warning? If someone is driving too fast, let the person get a fine and learn a lesson. Take away the warning signs.

My opinion is quite clear, I think we should have cameras as surveillance, but we must be really careful with them, not letting the wrong persons get hold of the information.

Grades

For this fourth blog we were supposed to write about grades, do we like them or not? I believe it is a complicated question, depending on who you ask. Teacher will think one thing, students another thing and parents a third thing.

I have worked as a teacher for almost ten years now, first in “lågstadiet” and now at “högstadiet”. I can see a big difference between the jobs when it comes to grades. In my job today I am used to grading students, but how it is done? But after giving it a real thought, I think we should have grades in school.

When you have grades you really ought to find a good way to grade students, today we use IG, G, VG and MVG. I believe the steps between the grades are way too big, students can´t accept a G, in their opinion that is a “bad” grade. VG or MVG is the only grade that counts. So a better scale for the grades is something that I would like.

How do teachers use the grades today? Very different I would say. Some just looks at the test results, some will look at the whole situation in school, but how are we supposed to do? I think it is important to have very concrete goals for the students, showing what it is that they are supposed to learn. When you give the students grades you look at the goals and compare, how far did you reach? This is what you discuss with your students when talking grades. You can´t just give grades looking at test results.

Most parents want to be a part of their children and their school-day. Grades can be a part of the communication between the home and the school. Although you have teacher-parent talk once every semester, there is things that can be forgotten. As I work at “högstadiet” I am having talks with my students and their parents regarding all subjects. This can be quite hard sometimes, I am their math and physics teacher, and now I must try to give accurate information from all their other teachers. I don´t say it can be done, but sometimes it is very hard. Grades can help at this time, showing were in the development the students are.

So I eventually, yes I think we should have grades, not only for the older student, but also for the younger ones. Giving them at a correct way and not only pointing out the difficulties, but as a primary goal to show what the students have achieved. Looking at what you can, and not what you can´t is a good for everyone.