No Child Left Behind/Charter Schools

Hello!

Excellent job on your presentation. I learn a lot about NCLB that I didn't know before. If fact, everything I know about NLCB, I probably learn from your presentation. The charter school presentation was good too. I enjoyed your activity where we got to create our own schools. It really sucks that charter schools aren't more popular in Maine. I like how you linked charter schools to the educational philosophy that we learned about. I agree with your assessment of existentialists being most likely to approve of charter schools.

Nice job you guys.

Classroom Impact

Prepare a reflection about how your philosophy of education will impact your classroom?

1) Classroom Organization
I would prefer my classroom to be organized in groups of desks or tables that seat at least four students. Children are social creatures, and when you separate them, you’re only making it harder on yourself; they will find some way to interact with their peers with or without your permission. Having desks in groups is also convenient for when you’re doing group work, also an excellent idea.

2) Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is probably the best route for students, but extrinsic motivation will probably be necessary for special circumstances. There’s nothing wrong with a couple bonus points once in awhile. With well thought out lessons that include engaging activities, motivation will naturally occur.

3) Discipline
Middle and high school students are at a sensitive age where they can’t separate personal and academic criticism. If you tell them to please be quiet because others are trying to finish their work, it’s very likely they’ll avoid eye contact with you for the rest of period and sneak out of the classroom at the end of the period, thinking that you have some personal vendetta against them. So, while discipline is certainly effective at controlling a class, it’s not cure-all if you want to students to respect and like you. I would prefer to communicate with students rather than discipline them. Clear communication should be able to bring about the same results as discipline. If students know exactly what you expect from them, they will already know when they’ve crossed a line. A simple conversation should clear up any future problems. If your class rules/guidelines are relevant, and you enforce them, you shouldn’t have discipline problems. It all comes down to respect—for their environment, teachers and peers.

4) Assessment
Assessment is a necessary evil; on one hand, it’s needed to track your students’ progress or lack of progress, on the other hand, it promotes competition and stress within your classroom. Assessment doesn’t need to be arbitrary; it doesn’t need to be tedious; it doesn’t need to be mediocre. We can discover what students have learned about a subject without making them take a test. Authentic assessment is used to test a student’s knowledge of the core information they’ve been taught. The format of an authentic assessment will match the material that is being assessment. The nice thing about authentic assessment is that it can only be used to test authentic information. If you want to know whether or not your students remember the date of each battle fought in the US, you might want to skip over the assessment and head right to the multiple choice test...good luck with that.







5) Classroom Climate
When I close my eyes and think about my future students:
They are a curious bunch–always asking questions
They talk a lot–not necessarily about schoolwork–but I don’t mind
They give me lots of high-fives
They help classmates who are confused or behind
They don’t use derogatory words–ever
They complain when I make them write on paper instead of typing
Students will always be popping in just to say hi or drop off some make-up work

6) Learning Focus
While under contract by any school, I will certainly adhere to all state and national guidelines for school curriculum. My next concern would be to incorporate all mandatory readings and writing activities deemed appropriate by the school I’m employed by. Besides that I would just try my best to make things interesting.

Now, if I had free reign over my classroom curriculum, I would look through national core standards and combine them with my state’s standards to find the common ground. From the new set of standards, I would absolutely weed out any of the unnecessary or useless ones, and that’s where I would begin my curriculum planning. If I can’t explain to a student a realistic reasons for needing to know something, it gets tossed. My lessons would be skill–not fact–based. The goal of every lesson, every unit would be to help my students become well-rounded individuals, capable of making intelligent decisions regarding their life and their future. Individual lessons would combine essential core standard elements with relevant and interesting topics, engaging activities, and authentic, creative assessments.

7) Technology Integration
Yes.

8) Teacher and Leadership Style
I don’t know.

Promising Futures

I like that the first core standard of Promising Futures is “a safe, respectful and caring environment.” Without a positive learning environment, students can’t be expected to reach higher levels of learning. They just can’t. I think our classrooms have a long way to go before they can be considered safe, respectful and caring learning environments, and it takes more than daily homeroom.

Assessment

Hello!

Sweet presentation. I haven't read your paper yet, but what we just did in class was really cool. Even though it seems like we talk about standardized testing every semester, you put a nice spin on it. The activities were my favorite part of the presentation. The second activity, on the white board, might even be something I'd consider doing with my students. I think it's important to discuss expectations about testing with students and to let them know that we, as teachers, are generally not very supportive of testing.

Anyway, super job.

Jen

Voices

I started getting worried while reading this, I didn't connect fully with most of the contributors of education. I agreed with parts of philosophies from Socrates, Washington, Dewey, and Tyler. I was most interested in Piaget's philosophy.

I appreciated Socrate's method of discussion and his insistence on allowing students to figure out things for themselves with very little lead from teachers. Discussions are a major, although overlooked, part of classroom activities, and Socrate's philosophy highlights how teachers are only there to help students to learn by themselves.

Although Washington's section in our reading was small, I found myself agreeing with his motto, "hand, head, and heart." I think it represents a well-balanced curriculum and therefore a well-balanced student. It's a nice compromise between working for the student and working for society.

Dewey's "cooperative learning" contribution to education is impressive. I'm not sure how they even ran a class without group work before.

Tyler created teacher-workshops. That's cool. I agree with his thoughts about teacher evaluation. It's impossible to learn from your mistakes if you're not even aware of them or willing to reflect on your actions.

I think Piaget's philosophy represents my own philosophy the best. I believe that a class curriculum needs to reflect the social/emotional/intellectual development of students; this is particularly important in English because there are so many books read by middle school students that need to wait until they're in high school. I can't tell you have many books I read in high school that I didn't fully understand until I was in college. The issues becomes whether to tone down the curriculum to fit the students' abilities or to just wait until they're old enough; take Christopher Columbus, Native Americans, Shakespeare etc., we get watered-down versions when we're younger and the truth when we're older.
I also liked Piaget purpose for schooling—to think, to discover, and create. He's not caught up in society's idea of a perfect education or the nation's idea, he wants students to learn the best they can for their own purposes, and after that has been accomplished, the societal benefits will naturally follow.

Discipline/CM

Hi Guys!

Nice job on your presentation. It was interesting to hear about the different discipline/teaching styles that there are. I'm glad that we discussed the difference between discipline and punishment. As I'm reading through your paper, I'm trying to figure out what kind of classroom management person I am. It's hard to say because I've never really managed a classroom and also because I think that I would need to take it situation-by-situation.

Your presentation was good, but I hoped for more interaction between students. You did bring a lot of new information to the table.

Educational Theories

A

Teacher-Centered

Perennialism focuses on learning core principles. Students study concepts that are “everlasting”. Similar to essentialism. Usually teacher-centered. Could be considered skill, not fact, based. Learn skills that will help humankind. Essentialism is an education based on very core values. It is very linear and very singular; there is one way to do everything. The student is very busy but very passive, if that’s even possible. Behaviorism focuses on nurture more than nature; a good and healthy classroom setup is imperative. In addition, behaviorists believe in positive and negative reinforcements to add students’ learning. Positivism is based on fact. Everything seems very scientific, measurable, and objective. Students learn, recite, relearn, and recite. Practice practice practice. Reconstructionism is an educational system that lets politicians live vicariously through teachers and students. The goal of this philosophy is to change society. If we can affect how students think about the world, then we can affect the future of the world. A reconstructionists classroom would be diverse or welcome diversity. It seems similar to perennialism, but the person online said that they are complete opposites. Both seem to have very grandiose ideas about changing the world.

Student-Centered

Progressivism deals with questioning as a way of learning. Students and teachers work together to create a curriculum that will interest everyone. Humanists believe that educational systems have turned students into number. They want students to be individuals and treated as such. The curriculum is fluid and created by students. Generally considered alternative. Constructivism emphasizes hands-on learning. Students learn through solving problems. Skill, not fact, based.


R
I'm down with the constructionism, but it's a little too scatterbrained for me, and it would be hard to get around state guidelines for curriculum. I can't find anything I dislike with a progressive school environment. Humanists are also a little too scatterbrained.

I think that I would enjoyed working with students to develop a curriculum, but that I wouldn't want students to have full control over it. There may be times when they bring up something and as a class we go with it, but I wouldn't structure (or not structure) my class that way.