Monday, November 15, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Waiting For Superman Blog Post by Wes Fryer
This blog pot only made me want to see the film more. I think that he made some interesting points but the only way for me to know if I feel the same way about the film would be to see it. I would love to see it. I think that I agree with a lot of his educational philosophy so I think I would probably agree with his assessment of the movie.
For example, I agree that we need to be able to easily get rid of bad teachers. That is one thing that the lack of funding in our schools should force us to do. It should force us to, instead of getting rid of newly hired teachers get rid of teachers who are clearly ineffective or unprofessional. Those teachers should go first. Unfortunately, that isn't how it always works. I also think that a greater teacher turnover would be good for young teachers like me with new ideas. It would mean that teachers would have to keep up the newest educational ideas not because they need to for their certification but because they need to stay current and useful and effective as educators. Then it becomes necessary to keep one's job and not just one's profession.
It also ensures that students will have a good teacher every year because we will be getting rid of the bad teachers and getting new, better ones.
I hope I have a chance to see the movie because I want to see the scene where they talk about filling kids up with knowledge as if they are a bucket. His description wasn't totally clear and I think I would understand better if I saw the film.
Overall, it was well written and made me intrigued by the film.
For example, I agree that we need to be able to easily get rid of bad teachers. That is one thing that the lack of funding in our schools should force us to do. It should force us to, instead of getting rid of newly hired teachers get rid of teachers who are clearly ineffective or unprofessional. Those teachers should go first. Unfortunately, that isn't how it always works. I also think that a greater teacher turnover would be good for young teachers like me with new ideas. It would mean that teachers would have to keep up the newest educational ideas not because they need to for their certification but because they need to stay current and useful and effective as educators. Then it becomes necessary to keep one's job and not just one's profession.
It also ensures that students will have a good teacher every year because we will be getting rid of the bad teachers and getting new, better ones.
I hope I have a chance to see the movie because I want to see the scene where they talk about filling kids up with knowledge as if they are a bucket. His description wasn't totally clear and I think I would understand better if I saw the film.
Overall, it was well written and made me intrigued by the film.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
My Philosophy at Work in the Classroom
1) Classroom Organization:
I think that classroom organization will probably change a lot in my classroom depending on what we are doing each day. I like to put the desks in a circle if we are having a large up discussion, in small tab groups if we are doing a lot of group work, in rows if the students are doing presentations, or up against the wall if we are doing a lot of moving around. I also see my classroom being filled with a lot of stuff. I like to have books around. I will probably have a shelf somewhere in the room with books for students to borrow or look at in free time as well as a cupboard with art supplies and maybe props for when we do skits in class.
2) Motivation:
Students are the most motivated when they are interested in what they are doing. I see myself doing a lot of free choice assignments where students get to pick what they will work on. This is especially true about writing. I will probably do a lot of assignments where students will be required to write about themselves or about what they are interested in. There will also be a few rewards. Parties are fun and a great way to celebrate the success of the class. They are also an opportunity to bring in outside community members to broaden the view points in the classroom and bring the outside world in. Field trips and movies are both educational and rewarding. They give the students the illusion of a break from school but they are actually having a learning experience. But I think the most important thing in motivating students is having fun. I want to try to make every class fun. I know that is difficult but I think it is necessary in keeping students interested.
3) Discipline:
I hate detentions. Yes, lets punish students by making them sit quietly in a room after school doing their homework and not talking. That sounds like a great plan. Making doing homework a punishment is a bad idea. Not to mention, sitting in a room after school, doing nothing, not so bad. And many kids get detentions on purpose so they don’t have to go home or because their friends have them. I hate embarrassing students. I don’t think that teachers should demean a student ever. It is cruel and heartless. It also ruins classroom environment forever. I think that students punish themselves enough when they know we expected more from them and they didn’t meet those expectations. I think that if a student really needs to be disciplined the best way to do it is by telling them the truth, that they disappointed us. And if as a teacher I feel they still need to be disciplined I think manual labor is a good way to enforce a lesson. No one really likes chopping wood, cleaning desks, sweeping, washing floors and windows or helping the kitchen staff with their dishes.
4) Assessment:
I believe assessing students learning all the time. I think that formative assessment is the best way to find out how students are doing in the classroom and adjust the lesson as needed. It is fairly easy too. As for summative assessments, I think that these should be creative projects or papers that address real world issues or problems. These help students see why they are learning the things I am teaching them because they have real world applications and not just importance in school. I don’t believe in standardized tests or doing five paragraph essays over and over again. Yes, I want my students to be able to take a test because that is often important in order to get into college or get a job. And Yes, I want my students to be able to write essays because that is one important way that we communicate our ideas about books to others. However, I don’t think that standardized testing or five paragraph essays are the only ways to assess learning. And I certainly don’t think that they always show what a student knows. There are other ways of assessing that are more effective.
5) Technology Integration:
Technology is great. I have no problem using technology in the classroom but only when it is the best way to teach something. I think that some teachers try to use technology in their classroom because they have been told that they need to. I think that there are appropriate times to use it. I think technology is all around us and it is important for students to be exposed to it because it will be important in college and in the work place. People who can use technology often succeed above people who can’t because it has become such an important part of our everyday lives. Therefore it is important for teachers to know how to use it and to find appropriate uses for it in their classrooms.
6) Learning Focus:
Learning should be about the student. It is a teacher’s job to inspire students to want to learn about themselves and the world around them. Then it is the teacher’s job to guide the students in asking questions and finding resources that give them answers to those questions. Learning should be about critical thinking skills, students’ interests and self discovery. This is what will make lifelong learners out of my students.
7) Teacher and Leadership Style:
A teacher should be a role model and a guide in the learning process. I am here to help students ask questions and get the answers. I am not here to lecture or impose my own ideas onto them. I am here to help them create their own ideas. I am not a dictator in the classroom. I am someone who wants to help them do well and learn what they want to learn. There might be some extra underlying stuff that I teach them about English without them realizing I am doing it but for the most part it is about their own learning.
I think that classroom organization will probably change a lot in my classroom depending on what we are doing each day. I like to put the desks in a circle if we are having a large up discussion, in small tab groups if we are doing a lot of group work, in rows if the students are doing presentations, or up against the wall if we are doing a lot of moving around. I also see my classroom being filled with a lot of stuff. I like to have books around. I will probably have a shelf somewhere in the room with books for students to borrow or look at in free time as well as a cupboard with art supplies and maybe props for when we do skits in class.
2) Motivation:
Students are the most motivated when they are interested in what they are doing. I see myself doing a lot of free choice assignments where students get to pick what they will work on. This is especially true about writing. I will probably do a lot of assignments where students will be required to write about themselves or about what they are interested in. There will also be a few rewards. Parties are fun and a great way to celebrate the success of the class. They are also an opportunity to bring in outside community members to broaden the view points in the classroom and bring the outside world in. Field trips and movies are both educational and rewarding. They give the students the illusion of a break from school but they are actually having a learning experience. But I think the most important thing in motivating students is having fun. I want to try to make every class fun. I know that is difficult but I think it is necessary in keeping students interested.
3) Discipline:
I hate detentions. Yes, lets punish students by making them sit quietly in a room after school doing their homework and not talking. That sounds like a great plan. Making doing homework a punishment is a bad idea. Not to mention, sitting in a room after school, doing nothing, not so bad. And many kids get detentions on purpose so they don’t have to go home or because their friends have them. I hate embarrassing students. I don’t think that teachers should demean a student ever. It is cruel and heartless. It also ruins classroom environment forever. I think that students punish themselves enough when they know we expected more from them and they didn’t meet those expectations. I think that if a student really needs to be disciplined the best way to do it is by telling them the truth, that they disappointed us. And if as a teacher I feel they still need to be disciplined I think manual labor is a good way to enforce a lesson. No one really likes chopping wood, cleaning desks, sweeping, washing floors and windows or helping the kitchen staff with their dishes.
4) Assessment:
I believe assessing students learning all the time. I think that formative assessment is the best way to find out how students are doing in the classroom and adjust the lesson as needed. It is fairly easy too. As for summative assessments, I think that these should be creative projects or papers that address real world issues or problems. These help students see why they are learning the things I am teaching them because they have real world applications and not just importance in school. I don’t believe in standardized tests or doing five paragraph essays over and over again. Yes, I want my students to be able to take a test because that is often important in order to get into college or get a job. And Yes, I want my students to be able to write essays because that is one important way that we communicate our ideas about books to others. However, I don’t think that standardized testing or five paragraph essays are the only ways to assess learning. And I certainly don’t think that they always show what a student knows. There are other ways of assessing that are more effective.
5) Technology Integration:
Technology is great. I have no problem using technology in the classroom but only when it is the best way to teach something. I think that some teachers try to use technology in their classroom because they have been told that they need to. I think that there are appropriate times to use it. I think technology is all around us and it is important for students to be exposed to it because it will be important in college and in the work place. People who can use technology often succeed above people who can’t because it has become such an important part of our everyday lives. Therefore it is important for teachers to know how to use it and to find appropriate uses for it in their classrooms.
6) Learning Focus:
Learning should be about the student. It is a teacher’s job to inspire students to want to learn about themselves and the world around them. Then it is the teacher’s job to guide the students in asking questions and finding resources that give them answers to those questions. Learning should be about critical thinking skills, students’ interests and self discovery. This is what will make lifelong learners out of my students.
7) Teacher and Leadership Style:
A teacher should be a role model and a guide in the learning process. I am here to help students ask questions and get the answers. I am not here to lecture or impose my own ideas onto them. I am here to help them create their own ideas. I am not a dictator in the classroom. I am someone who wants to help them do well and learn what they want to learn. There might be some extra underlying stuff that I teach them about English without them realizing I am doing it but for the most part it is about their own learning.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Technology
I liked the stations they did. I thought that they represented pretty well the types of things we might encounter in the schools. We will definitely have to deal with sharing limited amounts of technology in schools where there isn't a lot of money. I think that maybe there could have been a little bit more prompting over there but it was really good. The second station was a little bit more unrealistic cause I doubt that we will be allowed to go crazy and get whatever technologies we want. However, I think that it was a good exercise in getting us thinking about what kinds of technologies we could really use in our classrooms, how and why. It got me wishing I had all the money in the world because if I did I could do so much in my English classroom. The station with Mr. Peabody who hates technology was really fun. It was worthwhile to see how we would react to someone who hates technology. It was interesting to see that we would basically say, that's too bad and keep using the technology in our classroom.
Overall, I thought that the presentation was good. I liked that the focus wasn't on new technologies but rather on things that we will encounter in our classroom and how we might use them.
The only thing I might change would be to do the question and answer session at the end. I don't think that that activity really hooked us into the lesson. I was more interested once we started the stations. Other than that though, I thought the presentation was really good.
Overall, I thought that the presentation was good. I liked that the focus wasn't on new technologies but rather on things that we will encounter in our classroom and how we might use them.
The only thing I might change would be to do the question and answer session at the end. I don't think that that activity really hooked us into the lesson. I was more interested once we started the stations. Other than that though, I thought the presentation was really good.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Bright Futures
This article is about changes the author thinks should be made to middle schools in order to improve education. It asks for these changes to be made in middle schools because the author feels that middle school is a time when students are at a very unique stage in their development and that it is important to address that accordingly. This article gives credit to middle schools saying that they have implemented many changes that have made our students safer and saying that Maine as a whole is way ahead of where the country as a whole is because of the technology initiative. However, the article feels that students are not doing as well on the MEAS as they should be. Therefore the article is arguing for more changes in curriculum, instruction and assessment to be made.
As I was reading the article I was having a major, "well, duh" moment. The 12 core principles that the article is arguing we need to implement seem A) a little too broad and B) to be things we should already be doing. I liked that the article stated the list of principles and then went back and described each one. This meant that there was a much clearer picture in the end about what they were talking about than the vague statement gave. But I feel like overall, the 12 core principles of an effective middle school are things that as teachers we should be doing in all of our classrooms anyway. Yes, all of our teaching should be linked to the modern world, yes all of the curriculum and instruction should be multicultural and involve multiple areas of study, yes we should have projects that require students to seek and ask questions outside of the classroom, yes students should have a hand in deciding the curriculum and yes we need to always be looking at the new research and using what works and throwing out what doesn't. Maybe this is just me because of the program of study I have had here at UMF but I feel like every teacher should be doing these things and that many of them are common sense.
As I was reading the article I was having a major, "well, duh" moment. The 12 core principles that the article is arguing we need to implement seem A) a little too broad and B) to be things we should already be doing. I liked that the article stated the list of principles and then went back and described each one. This meant that there was a much clearer picture in the end about what they were talking about than the vague statement gave. But I feel like overall, the 12 core principles of an effective middle school are things that as teachers we should be doing in all of our classrooms anyway. Yes, all of our teaching should be linked to the modern world, yes all of the curriculum and instruction should be multicultural and involve multiple areas of study, yes we should have projects that require students to seek and ask questions outside of the classroom, yes students should have a hand in deciding the curriculum and yes we need to always be looking at the new research and using what works and throwing out what doesn't. Maybe this is just me because of the program of study I have had here at UMF but I feel like every teacher should be doing these things and that many of them are common sense.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Voices of Educational Pioneers
Socrates, Augustine, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Jefferson, Gallaudet, Dewey, and Piaget. I think that all students come to school with some preexisting knowledge. Therefore Socrates made sense to my philosophy. Socrates believed " the teacher's role was to draw the knowledge out of the student. He believed that knowledge could not be transmitted from a teacher to the students, but that the students had to discover the knowledge that was within them." In other words, students need to learn about themselves and the knowledge they have already obtained. Augustine built off this idea too. Augustine believed that "the teacher should take into consideration what his students already know and build on that, teaching using a dialogue format Augustine termed as 'soliloquia'; two voices talking instead of one, interaction of teacher and student seeking the truth." The truth being referenced here is one that the student believes in. Therefore it is the teachers job to illuminate the beliefs of the student, not impart their own beliefs. I think that teaching should be very student centered. Rousseau agrees. Rousseau believed that "instead of education being centered on what is taught (the subject matter), it should be centered on who is taught (the child)." Education should be about self learning. I also think that students should have a hand in deciding on what should be taught this helps motivate them to learn. In this way Pestalozzi makes sense to me. Pestalozzi believed that "learning had to be stimulated by the interests and motivation of the child, not by punishment and fear." Punishment and fear only increase a child's hatred of school. I also think that education has the ability to empower us and make us more than what we start out as. Jefferson thought the same. Jefferson believed "in the ability of higher education to bring the lower class up to a higher class. Education was the only hope to teach not only useful skills but to change attitudes, to improve morality, and to spread civilization." He also thought that education could open our eyes and make us think about what is wrong with our current way of think and how it can be improved. I also think that all children should be educated. This includes all ethnicities, religions, races, genders and abilities. Gallaudet felt this way about deaf children. Gallaudet believed "that deaf children could and should be educated." This idea though should apply to everyone. I think that there are connections to be made between my content area, English and all other aspects of life. I feel it important to show this to students so that their interest in reading and writing will be increased and because connections help us to understand more deeply. Dewey agreed that all studies should be linked. Dewey believed "students should be helped to see the relations of studies to one another and to the intellectual whole to which all belong." The second half of this statement is also important because it infers that there is a community in which the intellectual interact and that learning opens doors to that community to all people who learn. I think it is important for students to be able to interact with that community. But I think that learning can only happen when you are ready for it to happen. Piaget also stressed this. Piaget believed in the "need to individualize instruction in order to accommodate each child's readiness at different stages of development." We are all at different stages in our lives and teachers must know how to accommodate for this.
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