Mr. Hopkins On Schools

1) What do you feel your impact is on the student body?
Hopkins: "I instill a strong work ethic along with the desire for campus beautification and deep thinking."
2)Do you think the school spends it's money wisely?
H: "Does our school have money? If they do it's not being spent on my class."
3) Do you think there is any way the school can be improved and why?
H: "We need to hire some better looking teachers." He really believes that better looking teacher woud help the students focus and wat to show up to class more. Also it would improve teacher comraderie.
4) Do you think the school should be stricter with grad requirements?
H: "Grad requirements are strict enough but the qualifications for valedicotorian are a joke. Thinks students should be required to take classes that classify as someind kind of job training t prepare them for the real world.
5) Do you think seniority is a good criteria for cutting teachers?
H: "You have to start somewhere and that is the right place to or else older teachers would be fired so that they could afford to hire more young teachers because teachers with more tenure do make more."
6) How do you feel about "No Child Left Behind"?
H: "Political bullshit. It works fine for states lie Idaho where you don't have students of various cultures with so many different languages but in states like California and Florida where the cultures are are coming in by the crayon box it is horrible. You can't expect teachers to be able to teach these students all the same things at the same ace because half of them haven't learned and lived wth the language yet. The coastal states just cannot hang.
7) How should a teacher be evaluated?
H: "Well you can't evaluate them based on student performance because there are too many variables. Maybe based on their participation on campus and interaction with the students. But i think the jumping through the hoop, dog and pony show we have now is fine."
8) Do you think money is the answer to improving schools?
H: "Money is a start because when it comes to funds for materials and course offerings we need it. They need to bring back tracking."
9) Do you think the amount of students in the classroom positively/negatively affects the students learning ability?
H: "Without question, the fewer students there are in a classroom, the greater amount of attention the kids will get. The student-teacher ratio is a big deal."
10) Do you think that standardized testing reflects on you as a teacher?
H: "I believe teachers CAN have an effect on CST scores if the students are given a reason to care about them. If there is no buy-in for the students you won't get their full effort. If the students now this test has nothing to do with their college, future or grade or that they are getting no reward then they won't do ther best on standardized tests.

None of these answers are changed or exaggerated, it was a pleasure for me to interview Mr. Hopkins.