How my philosophy will impact my classroom

My philosophy on education involves being very flexible, relaxed, and to be there to facilitate learning for my students through helping them create their own experiences. I want learning to be hands on, real world application so that learning is not see as a pointless thing to them. Classroom Organization is a huge part of making an open environment and allowing the kids to work the best. In my class It will be very open to seating, it will not be assigned but some days might include a horseshoe shape, some might include small groups of desk, but 99% of the time the desk will be together for them to learn from one another, because that is the best way to learn from each other. I will have basic rules of respect for myself and the other students, but the students are also able to suggest anything to add to that, as long as there is a mutual respect for myself and other classmates.  My room will always be an open door policy for kids to come in and do work or get help. Motivation is a huge factor in the classroom, not only do I want my students to be motivated, I want to be motivated everyday to come in and have the best class. I will instill this into my students by allowing them to really study what they want, and be completely involved in that process. They will have the freedom to discover whatever they would like into a unit. I want them to make real world connections, have fun and make they're learning a good experience. Content Area will be standard every year for categories, such as nutrition, exercise physiology, stress, alcohol and drug abuse, sex ed, family relationships and learning styles. But within each of these unit it is wide open to interpretation by the students, they can take each unit as far as they would like, I am completely open to allowing them to think outside the box, and doing things like an agriculture project for nutrition. Assessments will be mostly a presentation or hands on activity that shows that they were able to take the content knowledge and apply it to the real world and they know what they are talking about. Assessments will also be determined after the students pick what they would like to do, only because things can be varied a lot. Classroom Climate goes along with my classroom organization and motivation for my students. I will have open doors at all time, and they are allowed to come to me for anything, I want everyone participating and saying ideas out loud so that it sparks something amongst them. Learning Focus will include anything they want, and I will fit it to a standard, if they are really interested in a  topic I will try to integrate it and not tell the students that we don't have enough time to do. Technology integration These students will have grown up with technology so they already know how to use it, I will always incorporate some sort of technology but also be conscious of who has internet at home to do assignments. Teacher and Leadership Style As a person in general as well as a teacher, I am very Type A and have strong leadership abilities. I do not like being a follower, I have to at least put my ideas out there, and facilitate in some way. I take directions well but avoid roles in which Im a sheep following along the rest. Im a very hands on, go get them person and expect my students to do the same for their learning, if they want to learn something they need to take the initiive to go out and do it and I will help every step of the way. I believe highly in teaching them life lessons, because school should be coordinated with the outside world as much as possible.  

ELL Presentation

The ELL presentation was very well done. You can tell they really took time to figure out how to get us submerged, and see what it was like to be an ELL as well as take the opportunity to capitalize on that and show us how to teach to those specific people. I really like how instead of just speaking at us and having us watch a slide show or a movie, they broke us down into small groups and taught us that way. I really enjoyed all the hands on learning opportunities and that is what allowed me to really learn about how to teach an ELL student. I obviously know what an ELL student is, so for them to jump right into the next level and show us how to teach to them, and what it feels like to be one, really got my attention more then any other presentation. They did a very good job at each section explaining, and loved every single one of the activities and learned a lot, that I can use in my futures classrooms!

Voices

After reading through all the different philosophies on education I really think it narrowed me in on exactly what my philosophy of education is. I really discovered that I had the most relatability to the early philosophies of education, my first being Confucius’. I agreed with the statement that instruction should be conversation with one another and that students should be motivated and active learners. I also like the fact that moral principles were made up to guide education. Augustine’s was the next philosophy that I really connected to. He stated that “a teacher should teach like a father teaches his son, not to impart knowledge, but helping the child to understand words, signs, and concepts”. He also stated that teachers should figure out what knowledge a child already and that they should build upon that.

My favorite thing from Aquinas’ Philosophy was that she identified the important role of family, in an early education of children. Not only is early education important, so isn’t the role of the family all along in education. To go along with that Philosophy Christine stated that physical education should be in the model of the Roman training for the young, and civic responsibility and morality in the youth by exposing them to the lessons of history and the examples of famous people. There were really no philosophies I agreed with in the present except for Tyler’s and that was because he stated that the purpose of school was to help children learn and develop problem solving skills that would help them be citizens actively engaged.

With all of these bits and pieces combined, I really think it describes who I am as a person as well as an educator.

Teaching hope: EMPOWERMENT

The first story I chose which I think is important for everyone is story 137. This talks about how this one kid named Charlie was being severely picked on by his peers. They were calling him an "idiot, loser, or freak". His father was in prison and his mother abandoned him. He was out crying to attention and doing stupid things and earning himself suspensions. This teacher decided to start a reading/writing program with journals. Just like every other journal writing story in this book, once people were able to listen to Charlie's side of his story, they were able to relate to him more, and instead of being a freak, or a loser he was not relatable to people and they no longer called him those names.

Group 3: Alternative Schools Presentation

Group 3 gave a presentation over alternative schools in New England. I first off want to start by saying that I really enjoyed the fact that they kept this local, so that we could see where some alternative schools were located near us. I had no idea how close some of these schools were to me, and love the idea that surround them. I learned a lot about the different types of alternative schools and all of the different things that it can include such as animals, therapies, outdoor gardening. After learning about it, I really realized that this is what I would of liked to do when I was in school.
I did really enjoy the activities that we did, the only thing I would suggest if you had to do it again, is to show how alternative schools can be different, maybe make those activities in groups or doing something unique as an example of how it could be used in the classroom. Other then that, I really enjoyed the variety and loved all the examples that you gave us to go by!

Bright Futures

Before even beginning to read Bright Futures I thought it was going to be similar to standards and just make it harder for teachers to teach what they already have. After reading this article I found that this can be a very helpful guideline in directing kids to where they need to go in school, and what they need to learn. In this article they actually give a "standard" but it includes a MLTI, or MLR standard and they include this with a more elaborate explanation. They also provide an in class example and different goals for each section. It gives examples of how to tie one concept to another, like the internet with their history standards and how these standards that have been proposed can be up lifted to get kids to the point that they need to learn. This makes kids, make more connections across disciplines and subjects as well as allow kids to connect to their community, school and understand some basic concepts in life, that a normal curriculum may not provide for them. Throughout all of this, it is ultimately trying to make a whole, well rounded student.

Team 1: Poverty Presentation

After listening to and doing team one's activities it was clear that they set a high bar for what we needed to do, as well as how important this issue really was. I loved all the different activities that they gave us to do, especially the hands on activity of having us put money, where we would spend it. The only thing I didn't like about this activity of someone that maybe could be improved upon if it was done again, would be a little bit more realistic numbers, and if we were told in the beginning that we could use other resources. I think it would be really beneficial to have someone search online, housing options, and heating help that you can obtain from resources online and in the state. I think trying to find these resources would really add to the challenges of poverty and make it an even better lesson. I think this lesson really hit the big points about poverty and would be a great lesson to teach to all teachers.

Four Philosophies

Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, Existentialism are the 4 different types of philosophies that a teacher can live and teach by in their classroom. An Idealism approach gives more importance to thoughts, feelings ideals and values than to the child and his activities. They firmly hold that curriculum should be concerned with the whole humanity and its experience. A Realism Approach suggests that teachers focus on teaching their students the scientific method of problem solving and the teachers are considered to hold all the knowledge. Pragmatism's curriculum is based on problem solving according the scientific method and values are situational or relative and the student ha more say. In existentialism it is based on classroom and dialogue in which stimulates awareness that each person creates a self-concept through significant choices; the values are based on human free-will.


 When looking at these four philosophies I noticed that Idealism and Realism were a very concrete type of teacher and reminded me of the old fashion teachers that did not allow for a lot of variance. When reading about Pragmatism and Existentialism, I noticed that they two philosophies were more of the common day teacher, and where we are trying to go. I was also instantly drawn to these two types of teaching, because I felt like it was describing me in a nutshell. After taking a survey about which type of philosophy best fits us, I found out I am an even mix of both pragmatism, as well as existentialism. I think that these two fit me the best because of the fact that I am a very kinesthetic learner and love doing things hands on, and let kids try new things, and work with others. So I think my background and the way I learn, directly correlates with the way I will teach. Pragmatism is all about learning from the environment  which I think every school should implement anyway because it is one of the most critical things we may ever learn as we live in this world. To go along with environment, existentialism allows students choice, and responsibility. Both of these work in hand in hand, and can clearly see now why I got even scores on both of them.

A Nation at Risk

A nation at risk I think entails what most of my philosophy about education as well as life. In the two articles titled "A Nation at Risk" and "25 years after A Nation at Risk" they explain that in 1983 most kids were illiterate, and we were competing with other nations, because we were falling behind in all standardized tests. In 2004 after the no child left behind act came out, we have spent almost double on each child and have seen absolutely no improvement, if anything we have seen a decline. I'm going to go out on a rant now, but in my opinion at least 50% of this problem has nothing to do with school but with home life. I  believe that most problems in life and in school, stem from the home life. I do not think parents spend as much time with kids anymore because they expect the school to do it, and the schools just don't have enough time in a day. There was a point when parents pushed their kids to go to school, and do their work and make sure they excelled. It then turned to parents not being home because of work, and leaving kids with babysitters, etc. I don't care if you spend a million dollars per pupil, there is not enough time in a day to teach the kids all they need to know, as well as prepare them for standardized tests. I believe that there needs to be more integrated curriculum, so that kids can learn multiple things from a subject at one time, in order to not repeat the same thing over and over again. Another huge problem now, is discipline. So many kids get kicked out of school or detention. In the early 1900's kids just didn't dare to mess up because they got hit.. there needs to be some sort of in between because right now, education as well as the rest of the world has just lost everything and gotten way out of hand, where simple things like respect, schooling, and attitude are just not longer a thing.

Teaching Hope: REJUVENATION

For my first entry I chose to read and write about story 115. In this story kids from California, were pen paling to other kids in West Virginia. It started out as just two people talking to each other about everyday things, and it turned into really personally letters being signed with love, and your friend. These letters also wrote very personal in nature as well. These kids were starting to open up about their lives, things that are very personal, such as not meeting their dad, or their  parents dying, or opening up about their gender. These kids were not finding common experiences with one another to connect with. Not only have they connected with the person, they are now going to be visiting that person and school. This will open these kids up to other cultures and experiences around them. I think that this is an awesome way to show kids that they are not alone, or also that there is so much more out there in the world.
I was also intrigued by story 113 as this was about reading journal articles out loud of children who had wrote them, but to stay anonymous about who's it was. She read several articles out loud about how their parents were addicts, or their friend has died or living in poverty. Once these were all read the kids were amazed at the fact that all of that had happened in their class with the people, and everyone else wanted theirs read as well. This created a culture where, everyone could talk about their feelings outloud without having to even say their own name.

Episode 1 Reflection

Episode 1 talked about the years 1770-1890 and included all of the laws that took place to shape education. Schools are where people learned the meaning of democracy and practiced it. This episode covered a large range of education, but while watching this episode my mind started to think. What disappoints me in this day in age, is the fact that students feel forced to go to school and to college, because everything in converging and saying that you need a college education. Many people are going as far as saying if you do not go to school you are "uneducated" and "dumb" I have a HUGE issue with this. Some of the smartest people I know have grown up with their own business working hard to make a living and honestly there is nothing better then a person going out and doing something, instead of being taught. I think the kids now are robots and do not think or do things by themselves. I hate the push the media, the government and everyone else is doing towards education, I do believe that education is important but believe in tech schools, and doing that specific job, because experience is always better. I wish that we would go back and inherit some of the things that we lost. The fact that boys got 10 licks for making fun of a girl.. now public shaming is accepted. Things were just not tolerated then, no leniency. Kids now are always disrespecting others, think they are so smart when in fact I think we are raising a dumb generation. Mixing the present, with some of the things from the past, may be our past option looking forward.

Episode 3 Reflection

There was one particular thing that stuck out to me in this episode, the Civil Rights Act was passed and then the legislature saw that black kids were staying in city schools that these schools were poor and didn't have a lot of resources. White kids were moving out of the city to a better more funded school. By everyone doing this, it made almost its own segregation again. So the legislature decided to bus kids from in the city out to the suburbs and vice versa. With this happening, white families were paying a lot of money for their good school, for their kids to go to, only to have other kids come in. I find this appalling. Many people will probably disagree with me but to pay money for something you want, and have somebody else come in and use it, its crazy. I would like to compare this act, to the inclusion laws for disability students in classrooms. This tells the amount of inclusion that should happen in a classroom, before it comes intrusive to the other students, I believe that changing the students schools like that from city to suburb, was maybe helping one party in my example the kids with disabilities, and hurting the regular students. This would not be able to work, if the parents are able to afford a better school then they should be allowed to go to that school, and black kids could still go to it. It is not fair to try and get the under dogs up a level, but having to bring the people on top down a notch, work from the bottom and bring everyone up with you.

Episode 2 Reflection

This episode reflects back on schools from the early 1900's to 1945. It discusses issues such as the "Gary Plan" which was implemented back in the early 1900's, and taught students hands on learning, and you work before you play. These students were trained to go out into the industrial world and get a job, such as an oil mechanic, as well as how to have good hygiene and manners; all the necessary things to life. These times are better known for the americanization of students, where students were not allowed to speak their own language, schools were mixed aged, and everyone must go to school and learn from the same curriculum, if you do not learn english that you do not make it. This type of schooling is more or less "Survival of the fittest".  After this era in the 1920's-1940's kids were being more spoon fed with information and they started testing for IQ's which automatically placed you into  an industrial route, or a college route.
There are some certain parts of this that I greatly agree with, and wish that it was still implemented now. I think that when all the immigrants came over to America, it was a crazy time to try and find jobs, and try to teach when there were such a vast array of languages and customs from before. Honestly you cannot teach to all of them... without hindering everyone else's education. These immigrants came to America because it was a better place and they LOVED this country, so they worked hard at learning english, and becoming an American was something to be so proud of. Somewhere in the mix after this, in the 50's people decided that they didn't have to become an American anymore, they could speak whatever language and that people were to conform to them. Honestly I do not believe in getting rid of other languages, but if you come to this country, or if you leave to go to another you should have to learn the native language to live and learn, and then speak your language when you can, not to completely lose it. When other people come into this country, make them learn english, but also maybe have them teach us and our kids, their native language that way everyone is winning in this situation.

Generations Article

We now live in a time where there are 4 different generations trying to get along together and work. Every one of these generations has their own experience and work ethics. There are the veterans, the baby boomers, gen x as well as gen y, in that order goes from oldest to youngest. From my own experience I have witnessed this first hand, where I am a multi-tasking go go go type of person, and the veterans and baby boomers are one thing at a time, and cannot handle doing more than that. It gets very frustrating because each generation is so different. I think that the past 100 years’ things have changed so drastically and there are strict time frames in which people did a lot of work advanced this planet and then something new came along. This is all about technology and emerging things and that’s why it is making such a different between everyone.

            This difference even starts back with family structure and education. Were families used to sit down for a meal with one another, and a college education was almost un heard of. Everyone just went to work, shut up and did as they were told. Now everyone has a opinion of how they should do things and the career path you take, but that does happen without a college education and the cost of that has gone out of this world. Family structures are broken and pieced back together. With different backgrounds, different ways of growing up and views on the world this makes it extremely hard to work with a person like this, but it happens everywhere, and will definitely happen with teachers and the way they teach.

Diversity Article

There is an ever-impeding problem of trying to balance diversity and uniformity all at once in the classroom. For years and years teachers everywhere state how they are changing education and students are getting better and better, yet the mold for education has changed in over 50 years. If people have changed in the past 50 years, how come the education of teaching these people has not? Diversity if the big part of this, we are trying to fit every class and every kid into mold. Instead we should see what the kid thrives at best and teach them to that style. “Students who do not learn through whatever the current "best approach" happens to be are too often labeled "disabled" because their way of learning does not respond to that particular method”. (John Hopkins, Diversity) This is also happening with behaviors where kids may have “ADD” which is only because they are not allowed to use their hands which is their learning style in the classroom. Some of these sort of things can all be avoided with just learning what each child’s learning style is and teaching to that to help them achieve.

There are 4 different examples of learning styles as described in the john Hopkins article being, Cognition: How Do I Know? Conceptualization: How Do I Think? Affect: How Do I Decide? And Behavior: How Do I Act? These 4 categories explain the differences in ways that people can perceive, think, feel and behave. This along with multiple intelligences can ultimately create a classroom that can reach each student because you will be able to understand them. The most successful teachers are the ones that can bring in vary contexts, and cultures into a classroom to get students looking and working from all angles, with this they will become the student you never thought they could be.

Teaching Hope: DISILLUSIONMENT

Without reading anymore of this chapter, the 76th excerpt sums up my teaching goals in one small segment. In this story there is a boy who works hard in all his classes, has set goals for life, and like his family before him wants to be a mechanic, because of his love for muscle cars. This student works hard, yet cannot pass a world-civics exam, or the rest of the standardized tests. In his line of work he does not need a civics test to prove he do mechanics, nor does he need english or other subjects. A student like this should be in a trade school working on what he wants to do in life, rather than be put through all these classes that he will never use, and find use for. Our society tries to get every student “college” ready because that's what we want for every student. Well I can tell you, that some kids can get a trade, not go to college and make as good of money  if not better than students who did go to college.

I am so sick of the stigma that everyone needs to go to college, and everyone playing into it, by going thousands of dollar in debt, for a job that 10 years ago was an entry level job. Our country has made this push for everyone to go to college, because of money and that is the only reason why. If a child wants to be a mechanic and they know that for sure, let them go to a trade school, and learn that, it's better than trying to push them through school where they struggle and don't get their diploma. Now they are left with no diploma, and no trade. They have nothing, and that is the type of person who brings this country in the opposite direction of the push everyone is making.Not a person with a trade who does not go to college. Everyone needs to stop forming this country into something it’s not and driving it to the breaking point, where you will need a doctorate soon to work at McDonalds..