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This week we talked about a few really revelant topics to schools, teachers and coaches today. Recruiting, illegal use of prescription medications, charter schools, merit pay. I think recruiting is the biggest current issue in high schools. Offering "scholarships" or stealing players from other schools to make sports teams better raises ethical issues. Those coaches may be from outside the school but as teachers and teacher sponsors for these teams and schools i think we need to look at what is best for the students and not necessarily the team or a particular team. I think that the loopholes that people have found have to be closed up and it they will have to continually be closed when people find new ones. I liked the idea that came up in class of having to play in the tier that your school size dictates that you should so you cant play up and recruit players from outside district. Kids should go to their local school unless that school is under performing in academics or another school offers a specific program that they want to attend, Sports shouldn't be a reason to move schools.  I think prescription medication is a topic that may soon come to high schools kids may feel pressure to get assignments done and take things that will help them do that. I think we as teachers must work with parents to educate them ourselves and students on the legality of these issues as well as the dangers and try and prohibit the use or sale on school property and hope the parents do the same at home. Charter schools is another interesting subject and i think as i said above if your local school isn't offering programs that you think are good enough for your child then you have to do whatever you can to get them the best education so i don't really have a problem with students going there. I think the problem lies in if the charter schools aren't being run properly are just money making machines and aren't providing the education they promise or the process for getting in isn't transparent and fair.  The final topic was merit pay which ties into charter schools who only employ "good" teachers and get rid of ones that don't fit at their school.  I think merit pay is a good idea in principle only employ the good teachers and not the ones that are not providing a good stimulating environment for their students. The only problem is how do you subjectively grade teachers? student evaluations? student tests? parent evaluations? administration evaluations? how do you account for socioeconomic conditions in a classroom or under performing or over performing kids? this idea only works in principle i believe but is something that may happen sooner than later