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.