Chapter 14: Succeeding in Your Teacher Education Program--and Beyond

As I think about becoming a teacher I am becoming more concerned about public schools politics. I'm beginning to realize that schools are cutting programs that are really important, like gym, art, wood tech, and things that keep troubled and high risk kids in school. They are also cutting classes, basic classes, like standard English. This is a class that kids need. It's the class that keeps many kids out of special education rooms and in general education classrooms which is where they would benefit the most.
I am also concerned that public schools have become overly politically correct, worrying more about what the parents are going to say, or what the state will think, or what the financial contributors will find offensive then what is really best for the students. If you have a handful of kids who are struggling, and I mean barely making it through, in your CP English class you need to find a way to alter the curriculum for that group or place them in another class that can more fit their needs. In many public schools this would not be allowed because it would be accused that you are singling them out, but keeping them in a situation where they are not learning and are just being embarrassed is not going to help them in the long run.
1)Both of these concerns are Impact concerns. The concerns affected my teaching, but they also affect the students, and the state and school. Both of my concerns were focused on my students learning and succeeding.
2)The first concern would be classified as a Collaboration/Impact concern, and the second concern would be a Refocusing/Impact concern.

Chapter 13: Improving Teachers and Schools, and School Reform

Before I graduate I would like to be able to add many things to my resume. One of the biggest things is more in the area of field experience. I would really like my resume to show that I am passionate about what I desire to do for my profession, and that I am dedicated to not just the job, but the children involved.
In my first five years of teaching something that I could do that would help make my resume to become stronger would be to get a National Board Certification. This would be another way of proving that I am a highly qualified teacher, and am capable of the job I am applying for. I would also really like to work in my content area. In The Joy of Teaching they say that "Expert teachers know their subject matter...not only the basic facts...they have in-depth understanding." I feel that this would make a teachers resume stronger just because of the fact that it proves you know your stuff, and you have proved it already in at least one place.
I hope that in the future I can acquire at least a bachelors degree in elementary education. This is something that I want to do because I would like the freedom of being able to teach any of the public school ages, but this would also look good on a resume when applying for a job. It would show the dedication that I have for the profession of teaching, and would reiterate the fact that I'm serious about what I do. Something that the school might have that would help me do this would be a program that would help their teachers get certain college classes at a discount price, with the school paying for part and myself paying part, or a program where as long as I work at the school I could take a certain number of college courses per year and they would pick up the tab.

Chapter 7: Thinking about Teaching and Learning

In reading chapter 7 there were three things that I am thinking about incorporating into my teaching philosophy paper. One thing that I really liked in chapter 7 was when the book said " ...relates core values to human anatomy and gets at the heart and mind of values in action...the seven virtues attributed to respective body parts are respect (eyes and ears), integrity (mouth), compassion (heart), perseverance (stomach), cooperation (hands), initiative (feet), and positive mental attitudes (mind)." I think it was a good idea when the book said "There are defining moments in everyone's life; we tell stories about them...Stories provide us with ideas, actions, and tools for working toward goals." One thing in this chapter that I very much disagree with is when it said " Teacher-focused approaches to teaching, in which the teacher is master of the knowledge to be learned and is dispensing it to all students at a specified rate over a specified period of time, adhere to the essentialism school of philosophy..." I feel that teachers can learn as much from their students as the students can from the teacher. I do not believe in teachers being all knowing.

Chapter 6: Social Context of Schools

I created a brochure that I will use as a tool when teaching my students about bullying and hate crimes.

Here it is:

When Hate Spreads

By Shila Cook


When you bully, physically harm a person, make fun of a group of people, or threaten a person you are committing a hate crime of some kind. Bullying is defined as “The act of intimidating a weaker person to make them do something,” whereas Hate Crime is defined as “a crime that occurs when you target a victim because of their perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation.” The only difference is that a hate crime occurs because the person is a certain way, dresses a different way, is gay, is a female, is Mexican.
The following are example of specific types of bullying:

Sexuality Based Bullying:

An example of this is the Matthew Shepard story. Matthew was a gay man and in October 1998 he was murdered by two men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Matthew was tied to a fence where he was then beaten and left to die. He was found eight-teen hours later by a cyclist who thought he was a scarecrow at first. Matthew died four days after his attack.

~For more information about the Matthew Shepard story you can visit

www.matthewshepard.org

Racial Bullying:

An example of this is the James Byrd Jr. story. James was a forty-nine year old black man that was murdered in 1998 by two white men who are now waiting on death row. These two men, one of which was a Lawrence R. Baker, tied James to a pickup truck and dragging him behind it until he died. As if that was not enough in 2004 hate crimes continued for James Bryd Jr. Someone had scratched racial slurs into his headstone, which was then overturned.

~For more on James Boyd Jr.’s story please visit

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/b/james_jr_byrd/index.html

Religious Bullying:

An example of this was the recent genocide of the Jewish population during the era of Nazi Germany that spanned from 1933 to 1945. During this time there were mass killings of Jews in work camps (concentration camps), gas chambers, execution style, and from ill treatment. There were about 5.6 million Jewish casualties during this span of twelve years.

Chapter 4: Schools as the Workplace for Students and Teachers

Staff and Organization:
Our school would hire teachers that are caring, willing and inspirational as well as a principal and vice principal who want to be involved with students. Ideally we would like a high teacher to student ratio as well in our school. In the Joy of Teaching they have a superintendent, a school board, but they do not talk about the importance of teachers that are qualified and passionate. Something that Joy of Teaching talks about that we didn't was about block scheduling as a way of organizing the day.

School District Relationship with the State
Ours would have a board that would consist of administration, teachers, and a some parents ( 40% - 40% - 20%), which would converse with the state and visa versa, whereas in the Joy of Teaching they say that the state has the responsibility for ensuring the education of its citizens .

Role of Federal Government
Our school would be Federally funded. In contrast the Joy of Teaching explains that the Federal Government makes decisions using the Supreme Court for example the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, and the Legislation makes decisions as well. An example of one of their decisions would be NCLB which is No Child Left Behind.

How Schools are Paid for
S.L. District 16 would have funding from the state as well as federal sources and the Joy of Teaching has these sources as well as from taxes (Property and Income tax).

Which theories and historical influences should most impact the schools we'd like to have?

The theories schools have could impact me because of many different things. When I was making my ideal school with my group I began to find the things that I really care about. I want a group of teachers that care about their students, a group of people that want to be there. I also want a school in which the school puts their students first, and a school where all the children can feel safe and comfortable. I would like a principal and vice principal who get involved in the school. I wonder though if these questions are appropriate to ask in an interview or if I should find a parent who is willing to answer them for me?

How can I use knowledge of the learner to be a better teacher?

I feel like the most useful chapter that we have done, in relevance to this question, is chapter 2. This was the chapter about today's students. The students with disabilities, different economic status's, gender, religion, English language learners, and racial differences. This answers this question most because it shows us all the different situations that might present themselves to us as teachers, and when we can recognize these differences we can help alter lesson plans and make the situation better all around. Will all of the differences we've learned about I still don't know how to handle and understand different types of parents. I feel that understanding the parents is an essential piece to understanding and helping the learner.

How can I be successful at UMF?

I don't feel like we have spent very much time on this topic. I feel like we've spent much more time on the other three questions, but just by having to have these blogs in at least one hour earlier than class starts really makes us all use our time management skills. It also makes us plan out our days similarly to the way a teacher would have to, but what would be the key thing to being successful? Would it be time management, organization, attendance?

How do I become a teacher?

I have learned more about how to become a teacher through out blog entries. There are a couple of reasons for this. One I am beginning to learn how to use technology to its fullest, and with the way kids are attached to technology this could be a very useful, if not mandatory, skill. The other reason for this is that each chapter that we have to blog about has something that we will need, and by blogging it the information will be there until we need it. The one thing I would like to know more about is what goes into a good lesson plan. The reason for this question is because I have an anxiety that I will just freeze or have too much time left after I've done what I felt would take up the allotted time.

Chapter 5: The History of Schools in the United States

During the Purtian times school was required for well-to-do children with the purpose of preparing them for high end jobs (like political positions), and the average people had to go to school for one reason; they had to be able to read, and obey, the law of God. As the 1800's rolled around people began to realize that their wealth relied on everyone else, like a chain reaction, so they began to invest in public schools. In the 1830's the idea of mixing social classes came to light with the hope of instilling wealthy family morals into poor children in a hope to improve their economic status. Then around 1850 Elementary Schools began to be based on grades which then led to High School, which were before the higher education school that only the wealthy could afford. Finally in 1910 Jr./Middle Schools became popular simply out of necessity, for the Elementary Schools were becoming overcrowded.
In the Plessy v. Ferguson Homer Plessy, a mixed black and white man, refused to sit in the back of a train because he claimed that it deprived him of his 14th amendment rights. the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed saying that "Separate but equal" facilities were okay. In Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Briggs v. Elliott, Gebhart v. Belton, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, and Bolling v. Sharpe were all cases that had to do with desegregating public schools. Bolling v. Sharpe eventually made the federal government declare that they could not segregate their schools. Another case is Mendez v. Westminster which occurred in the 1940 which ended up with the decision to allow a Mexican American girl attend a white school.

Things I Need to Know

I read about four important things that UMF Secondary Education majors should know, and these are those things:

• The Praxis 1 tests us on fundamental education that consists of a math section, reading section, and writing section, whereas the Praxis II assesses our knowledge on our content area.
• When changing any given major to Secondary/Middle Education there is a deadline of October 1st for the next spring semester and March 1st for the next fall semester.
• To take Practicum I have to have a 2.0 gpa, I have to pass all three Praxis 1 tests, I have to have completed ENG 100 with a C or better and I have to have completed EDU 101/SED 101 with a C or better.
• For Practicum I have to have a laptop that fills certain requirements such as: video output, sound input, and screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or greater.

These things have an impact on the college education because without all of the correct information my education could slack. For example, if I didn't pass all three Praxis 1 tests I will not be able to take Practicum which will effect my scheduling for the next four years, and if I didn't think it was going to effect me so drastically I might not worry about it so much. This information will aid me extremely in the next two years.

Chapter 3: Families and Communities

All students are capable of learning at high levels regardless of their family structure. Families are now very different with single parents, grandparents as guardians, and adoptive parents. The stress that different situations have on children, and students, do not effect their education according to Hall, Quinn, and Gollnick. In The Joy of Teaching it says "Although children are advantaged when they live with two caring and loving parents, living with two parents is not essential for success in school and life as shown by the number of successful professionals who were raised by a single parent." This supports the idea that students are able to do as well with "unconventional" types of families as they do in "conventional" families. Although poverty is more popular in families headed by single parents, and poverty does affect education, children in different family structures can, and do, succeed.

Chapter 2: Today's Students

Authors Gene E. Hall, Linda F. Quinn and Donna M. Gollnick, writers of The Joy of Teaching, state that values, lifestyle, and socialization are affected by the religion of students. The writers explain that more than 85 percent of the population belong to a religion, and because of this large percentage religion is going to be seen and dealt with in schools. Throughout the section "What are the Religions of Students?" many religions are brought up including: Christian, Agnostic, Evangelical, Amish, Hutterites, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Buddhism. Each religion has holidays and traditions that are solely their own, and schools, as well as teachers, should try to accommodate each appropriately. Hall, Quinn, and Gollnick make it clear that teachers should not allow their personal religious beliefs and practices to be shown in their classrooms to allow for and equal education for all students.

Chapter 1: Becoming a Teacher

Joyful

~ Teachers see students complete simple and complex tasks, learn new concepts, win a competition, and graduate.

This is joyful because it shows that you are getting through in a way that is new for the student involved. Seeing a kid graduate who would not have graduated without you could give a feeling that you helped change that students life in a way that will impact them for the rest of their lives.

~When you see a student making progress in your classroom.
When you see a student making progress it means that you are helping things click, helping them understand. For some students learning certain concepts is really difficult, or if you have a learning disabled kid in your class that has a tough time learning certain subjects it is very fullfilling to see them making progress.

~When you really make a difference in a students life.
I consider this joyful because every person remembers that one teacher that made a difference in their life. To be that teacher, the teacher that made a difference, would make me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile.


Not Joyful

~Teaching is demanding, requires leaders who can make multiple decisions during a school day, manage 20-40 students hour after hour.
This is not joyful because it can cause so much stress. It is also not good when you are trying to have a family or move or do anything that takes extended amounts of time.

~Have relatively little control over their work.
This is bad because you have no say in what goes on, even though it is directly related to you. Most schools have guidelines and criteria that they must follow which gives teachers little say in what they teach.

~Underpaid considering the talent and hard work.
This is not joyful because most of the teachers that I’ve known have put their hearts into their jobs and spent many long nights doing correcting and things. I understand that this is part of the job, but most jobs that are demanding in one way of another are paid well to cover the stress of the job.

One Teachers Experiment

On Wednesday I watched the Frontline video titled "A Class Divided". It was about one teachers experiment with her third grade class. She wanted to see if she could get her class to turn against each other because of their eye color. She wanted them to experience how it felt to be a Native American, or African American, or any other minority. She watched as her third grade class turned on each other because some of them were wearing collars.

This movie really showed me how easy it would be to instill hatred into a child, hatred that could turn into prejudices, which could change a country. It made me think about what could happen if every elementary school in the country taught all brown eyed children that they were better than all blue eyed children. Could it end up in a genocide like it did in Nazi Germany? It is not impossible. The experiment in this movie took place over a two day period and just in the first day there was violence, and these kids are only in the third grade. Just think about what could happen if they were grown adults.

Another thing that hit me in this movie was what happened on the first day, the day that blue eyed people were better than brown eyed people. At recess one of the brown eyed little girls cried, and one of the brown eyed little boys was almost in tears. There was so much hopelessness in the faces of the brown eyed children, and only after a few hours. I began to understand why the Jews stopped fighting and why the African Americans stopped fighting. They all felt like it was a hopeless situation. That no matter what they did it wouldn't help their situation.

I think that this exercise should take place in every third grade class in the country. Whether it is an all black school, all white school, catholic, or private school. If every school did this there would be so much more understanding, and I truly believe that children are our future, so what if we taught them not to hate. To show them how it feels to be on both sides. Our country could be a better place.

On the Way!!

This is my first blog ever and it just proves to me that I'm on my way!