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.

Empowerment

I connected best with story #137, the one about Charlie. I think that especially in middle school classrooms, you will always find students who need someone to talk to about what's going on in their lives. While reading this book, I was torn between rallying for these students who obviously have issues in their lives, and wondering how things like this even come up in class? I don't remember any other student in my own middle and high school classes ever just having a random outburst that was actually caused by a crack-addict mom or a dad behind bars. I keep thinking that things like this just don't happen in Maine. I'm happy that I haven't experienced it, but it's also frustrating because I haven't experienced it.

My Phil

If I had to put each of the four philisophies in order from most to least important (to me) they would look like this:
1. Pragmatism
2. Existentialism
3. Realism
4. Idealism

As percents:
1. Pragmatism 65%
2. Existentialism 20%
3. Realism 12%
4. Idealism 3%

Those percentages will probably seem way off once we've discussed this a little more. I do remember feel a definite pull towards pragmatism. I actually started getting a worried when I was reading about realism and idealism because they didn't seem like me at all. I think pragmatism is the closest to my school of thought because I believe that skills are more important than facts and figures. That whole "teach a man to fish" saying really holds true for me. As a student myself, I'm completely aware that I'm not very intelligent, but I have the kind of intelligence that tells me how to find out and figure out the things I need in order to get through life. I am an expert google-er. I think everyone should be. You wouldn't think that it's necessarily a skill, but when you are looking for something on the web and it's not there, I'll be able to find it. Pragmatists seems like people who live day-to-day. There is no point in the looking towards the future or the past; there is only how you're going to deal with today.

I chose existentialism second. I would love to spend all day giving students advice and talking about their problems, unfortunately, society dictates that I teach them English instead. An existential society seems to only be able to exist if everyone is participating. It would be very hard to let go of material values if no one else was.


POST CLASS
After the lengthy discussions we had in class, and also the quiz we took, I can understand why I came out as a total existential. I think it's one thing to think like an existential but another thing altogether to teach like one. I don't think I would ever really be free to teach in an existential way because we continue to live in an idealist, realist, and pragmatist society, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I'm sure by the time I come out of student teacher, my views will have toned down some, due in part to the teaching environment--the other people I am working with--and in part to rigid state standards and teaching structures. While I was reading the chapter from our textbook on existentialism, I think subconsciously I stayed away from it because there is a certain stigma attached to a person who finds no meaning in life.

Multicultural

Your presentation was super duper. At the beginning, I was hoping that we would do more than one activity, but the first half hour–when you three were talking–was actually really interesting. It's obvious (I hope!) to most students going into the teaching profession, that being aware of differences in students and ourselves is a basic but powerful way of getting to know how students and learning the best way to educate them. I would have been interested to talk more about the labels that we assign different groups of people and why we feel the need to label. I think that labels, in a big picture kind of way, are silly, but that it's inevitable that they will be used; we should learn the appropriate labels and the ones that are most comfortable for our students.

Your activity at the end was really fun. I generally don't enjoy being left out of the loop (like not knowing what my forehead says) but it was funny and really interesting to hear how other people described certain words or occupations or stereotypes. It seems like it would be a good activity for a high school classroom. It might open a can of worms, but it could also ease tension in the class or educate students about their peers.

Well Done.

Rejuventation

I felt really let down by this section. It wasn't as "rejuvenating" as I would have hoped. That being said, my favorite story was #127 about Manie who gets teased in class and likes to draw. I found it encouraging that his teacher was willing to go with him to the Holocaust Memorial and convinced his parents to let him out of Canada, but at was really the end that got me. When Manie was in the boxcar and talked about his family and how they were racist, I can't imagine what his teacher was thinking. He/she was probably completely shocked that they didn't know that about Manie or his family. I definitely want to teach tolerance in my classroom, but where is the line when it comes to stepping on family beliefs?

1980-2002

I found the information on alternative schools to be really interesting. It makes me wonder why there aren't more alternative schools in the country and Maine specifically. I was never asked about going to an alternative school when I was younger. I don't even think my parents knew that alternative schools existed. I think this idea of competition would work a lot better if there was actual competition in the area.
I like the idea of comparing schools to businesses. It makes sense, and the bottom line for schools would be test scores. There are a few flaws with that plan though. I never gave a crap about the standardized tests that I took in school. They didn't count towards my grade in the classes I was taken. I didn't get a prize for doing well. There was really no incentive for trying my hardest. My teachers told us to do our best, obviously, but that had little effect. Maybe if they had explained what the test scores meant as far as money for the school, we would have tried to do better on them.

"Nation at Risk"

Abstract
"Nation at Risk" is a document written in 1983 that came as a wake-up calls to most American citizens. It outlined the nation progress (very little) in education and also its downfalls (a lot). Standardized test scores were going down. The literacy rate was going down. Students were graduating high school, they just weren't learning anything. "Nation at Risk" put all of the statistics in a tidy little package for parents and politicians and students and workers and every US citizen to read (if they could). It was a no nonsense document. Meant to scare the crap out of a nation, which is exactly what it did.

Reflection
Oh, this sounds eerily familiar to what we've been hearing lately about our current education system. I really enjoyed reading "Nation at Risk". I think the language used was perfect. I little lecture, a little statement, a little demanding. It was like a slap on the face. Getting in trouble by our parents and us as readers just bowing our heads in shame. But...I wasn't alive when this came out. If someone had written it yesterday, I would still bow my head in shame. But what do we do? As a pre-professional, I can't imagine one teachers not doing everything within their power to make sure kids are learning. How do you teach better when you're teaching the best you can? Is more money from the government really going to help? Maybe it will lower our class size, hire more teachers, and buy more books. But then what? "Nation at Risk" is oddly vague about its plan to revitalize education. It says "you're not doing good enough. do better!" but how?

I also thought that this quote was pretty fantastic:

The people of the United States need to know that individuals in our society who do not possess the levels of skill, literacy, and training essential to this new era will be effectively disenfranchised, not simply from the material rewards that accompany competent performance, but also from the chance to participate fully in our national life.

What exactly does this mean? Are we going to kill off all of the illiterate people in the country?

-1900

I can understand why education should be paid for by its "users". In many ways, education is a privilege, and those who want the privilege should have to pay for it. On the other hand, if we don't work together in this country, there's no way we will make any progress as a nation. If people had to pay for their own education, obviously only the rich ones would go to school. Let's say we all had enough money to pay for school, there would also be families who had more money and could get a better education.

Once again, I can't help but recognize that these events didn't take place that long ago. Somehow, in our childhood history classes, we were about history, but our teachers failed to mention the fact that we were history. Maybe you need to be a little older to realize it. But this is the first year of my life that the historical timeline of the US is really becoming clear to me. I don't know. It's scary to think that how the world is right now, isn't going to be the world it is in 10 years. But it's also scary to think about it staying this way forever.

Disillusionment

The entry that I found more interesting and had the strongest reaction to was the one about the Teacher of the Year. It's hard not to take things personal in a workplace when everything feels so personal. I can only imagine how that teacher felt knowing that they were voted as Teacher of the Year, the teacher who was actually making a difference in the students' lives, only to be fired the next day. How does that make any sense? I understand that to be an effective teacher, your students don't necessarily have to like you, but I'd like to think that it sure does help. I don't think it's right that they gave this teacher an award while knowing they would be fired; I would have lied and just given it to someone else. It's like movies where the guy sleeps with the girl one last time before he breaks up with her. Or vise versa on the sexes. It's ridiculous and an economic depression is no reason to treat people like crap.

Engagement

I was most interested in entry #48, which deals with journal writing. I have always been a little on the fence about journal writing. On one hand, the students get practice writing for fun, about anything they want, and they're usually not graded for punctuation or grammar, but on the other hand, I think students will use the opportunity to try and impress the teacher with their worst experiences or all the problems they have in life. Isn't journal writing just begging for information about illegal, unethical or unhealthy decisions that our students are making? Don't get me wrong, I want to know about my students, but I don't want to have to be their teacher AND their parent AND their counselor. It's not that I don't want to help them, but I don't feel qualified to diagnose their problems, and I don't want to have to break their trust. I will though. I will assign journals because my kids will have problems, and if I don't hear about them, if I don't champion for their future healthy life, maybe no one will.

1950-1980

This section of the "School" video was quite interesting. Even though I was already aware of a lot of the larger parts in history, like desegregation, I didn't know the smaller things, like the 30,000 black teachers who were displaced. Over 60 years of legalized segregation, that's unbelievable. Like someone mentioned in class on Tuesday, 60 years isn't really so long, but when you're in the history, when it's 60 years that you have to wait, that's when it feels like forever. I'd like to think that segregation will never happen again in my lifetime, that people would never be so cruel, but I cant be sure. It's obviously that Maine still has a long way to go.

1900-1950

Sometimes I forget that the history we learn in school isn't actually that long ago. A hundred years seems like a long time to us, a bunch of twenty-somethings, but for our grandparents and great-grandparents it's pretty near the time when they were born or small children. I found myself being really impressed by the Work-Study-Play program, also known as the Gary Plan I believe. I have a hard time swallowing our current situations in school because it seems everyone has forgotten exactly who we have in the classroom–kids. Kids need to play, not sit down for eight hours a day until they turn 18. It was interesting to see when standardized testing came along. I think it's a necessary evil. You can't expect to know how well students are learning and what they're learning and how they compare to students in other states if you don't test them. Results like the ones we receive from SAT's and other tests are important. I bet if we lowered our standards or raised our scores, we (teachers and probably students) would be complaining about them less. There certainly is too much emphasis placed on doing well on these tests, but I still think there is value in having them. Questions arise about who decides what we teach our students. Lately, we teach according to what the students will be tested on. I wonder what would happen if we didn't do that.

Mixing and Managing Four Generations of Employees by Greg Hammill

Abstract
Hammill dissects the differences between the four major generations that current make up our workforce. Each generation acts in different ways from one another in similar situations. Hammill argues that many workforce problems could be avoided if employers took the time to figure out if the problems are generation related. For instance, Generation Y employees, born between 1980-2001, tend to communicate through technology instead of directly face-to-face or even on the phone. This can become an issue when someone from the Veteran generation, 1922-1945, is trying to get a hold of them for something work related. This day and age is unique in the way that there has never before been four generations of employees working side-by-side.

Reflection
I never realized that each generation could be grouped according to workforce traits, that's pretty neat. I'm not sure if I buy into the idea that our generational gaps are the reasons for so many issues at work. I think that good communication is good communication. Either you have it or you don't. Coming from a person born in Generation Y, I realize that I do prefer to use technology to communicate, but even email has it's own language for deciphering what people are really feeling. The traits were interesting nonetheless.

Challenges Reflection

My favorite section was number 21, the first one. There were a couple things that struck me. First, it was a good idea to bring the kids outside and I'm glad that the teacher thought of it. It must be really hard to have a classroom that traps in all the smells. Second, I don't think I've ever heard of a school having codes but then again, I guess this wasn't a normal school. I was disappointed that the student knew code blue but the teacher forgot. Although, that could be taken as a good sign, like maybe they didn't get codes called very often. The most important thing I took for the story was how, at the end, the student didn't say he was going to stop hurting himself. I think many teenagers are involved in high-risk behavior, and it must be extremely difficult to help them because none of them really want to help themselves. What do you do?

Anticipation Reflection

I connected best with #17. The section starts with a student asking "If you do it standing up, can the girl still get pregnant?" Moments like these are either what every new teacher hopes will happen, or hopes will never ever happen. On one hand, you have a chance to make a real difference in this kid's life. Because of how you answer this one question, they might finish high school, they might wait to have sex, they might have a conversation with their parents or significant other about having safe sex. If you don't answer the question or ignore it, you let a perfectly good moment to teach slip right through your fingers...but...you might not get any parent complaints, you might just have a talk with the Health teacher, or you might have some pregnant students and soon-to-be fathers.

Diversity, Learning Style and Culture by Pat Burke Guild

Read: Diversity Article, write abstract/reflection (2 paragraghs, 6 to 8 sentences in each paragraph, single space) and bring a digital copy to class.

Abstract
This article discusses the varies ways students learn and the varies ways teachers teach. Guild suggests that teachers must be most concerned with students' individual cultural background and specific and/or multiple learning styles, insisting that just knowing your students' learning style is not enough. Four styles are discussed in depth–cognition, conceptualization, affect and behavior. Public school systems seemed to have mainstreamed all learning types into a program that puts most students at a disadvantage. Students with non-Caucasian heritages are the most at risk in a mainstreamed instructional plan. The idea of nature vs. nurture is briefly talked about.

Reflection
After reading this article, and the chapter on Diversity from our textbook, I'm almost convinced that culture has such a large impact on education. I think that this article did a really crappy job of defining what a student's culture really is. Guild was mainly focused on race and ethnicity, which is only a small part of one's culture. I would love to get to know my students in a more meaningful way; I'm tired of the run-of-the-mill "getting to know you" index card. I think the best (and easiest) way to incorporate this in the classroom would be student-led lessons. They know their culture more than I do, they should be the teacher. In theory it sounds wonderful, but the reality is a bit more unrealistic.