NCLB and Charter Schools

NCLB and charter schools were topics I did not know much about before this presentation. I had definitely heard of them before but usually only in a negative context. I had often wondered if so many people thought they were no good why the laws had been passed at all. The group explained both very well and I feel like I know have a clear understanding of both. Now that I feel relatively informed I can make an opinion about each. I think that NCLB had some good points like the accountability for schools, a standardized form of showing achievement nationwide, it has the proper backing to be enforced. What I do not like about it is that it takes funding away from schools if their scores drop, it holds all students (ELL and disabled students included) to the same standards, it places an unhealthy amount of importance on a standardized test, and treats schools like a business. Margo made the situation perfectly clear when she did the demonstration with the candy representing funding. I also like the news report video that showed the condition and need for space for charter schools in California. There really was not enough room for all the students and in one particular shot right behind the fence a brand new public school was just built. I think the group did a wonderful job.

Classroom Philosophy in Action

My classroom will be organized with moveable desks so that presentations, individual work, small group work, and discussions in a circle were all possible. Most of what my students do will be either individual or group tasks they do at their own pace. Whole class discussion and presentation of material will start or wrap up a particular topic.
I would like students to have intrinsic motivation. That is the only motivation worth having I believe. I honestly wouldn’t know how to motivate a student extrinsically in high school. I don’t think there is anything I can offer a student that will help them more in life than how to discover knowledge on his or her own. As a teacher I think that if I gain the student’s trust then I get his respect. Maybe then I can model desirable qualities and guide a student on his journey to achievement.
Students will inevitably misbehave when that happens a teacher should be prepared. Any sort of minor infraction will warrant a reminder of the rules the class has made for themselves. If moving students to different desks will help, I will do that. Any sort of dress code, fighting, or tardiness I will refer to the school policy for disciplinary action. For perpetual or reoccurring disturbance in my class I will have the student write up a plan of action with the student, his or her parents, and I signing it so the expectations are clear for everyone.
There are three kinds of assessment pre assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment. I plan on using all three in every unit. They each have a specific and very important purpose. I want to know what previous knowledge my students possess so I can tie the new knowledge with the old knowledge and help them build connections. This is also important to create a common experience. Not all students in the class will have taken all the same classes. Formative assessment is any form of feed back to the students so they know how they are doing. Summative is the end product to demonstrate what the student knows and this of course is the goal of assessment in the first place.
As with any teacher the ultimate goal is to offer my students a physically and emotionally safe environment where students feel free to express their ideas, form or change opinions, and discuss controversial topics. That said I want the climate of my classroom to be fun and not too serious. I hope my students feel pushed but not pressured to succeed.
I know in my first few years I will be student focused. This is where my role as a teacher is the facilitator of learning. I will choose whether students work cooperatively or independently, what assignments they will do, and offer them the information to learn. Eventually once I get more comfortable with the classroom management part of teaching and keeping students on task I want to switch to learner focused. In that type of teaching the students have more control over what they learn about. They can choose topics of interest, how assignments are to be completed and when, and keep track of their own progress. The responsibility of their learning is completely on them where as in the student centered classroom the teacher and student share responsibility.
Technology is such an important part of educating students for the future. I want to use technology as much as possible. I think anything that can be done in the classroom can be done also on the computer. Depending on the resources available to me it will take me some time figuring out how to incorporate it into everything. I know my students will know of different programs they like personally and if I can figure out a way to use them in class I will try to. Technology will change, that is guaranteed, this means I have to be willing to change with it. This is actually what is exciting about education for me, I love change. I can’t wait until someone makes what I already know how to do better.
In my history methods class we had to decide what kind of teacher we were. A few examples were coach, performer, evangelist, and some that I can’t remember. I decided that I was an evangelist; I want to convert my students to be independent thinkers. I think the relationship between student and teacher will be different for me depending on the grade I end up teaching. If I teach 6th grade I will have equal student and teacher control. I have to keep in mind that these students are still kids and they need the guidance I should provide. However on the opposite end of the spectrum if I taught seniors I would give them an acceptable level of autonomy and choice. I do not feel like I need to micromanage a classroom in order to be in control of the class.

Standardized Testing

This presentation was on standardized testing. It began with a brief history. The reason for standardize testing in the beginning was to categorize students. I liked how this group had half of the class answer a multiple choice test about the beginning of their presentation and the other half draw a concept or web map. These are both two different types of assessment testing our class’s knowledge of the information in the presentation. It really showed the difference between the two. I also liked how we brain stormed collaboratively at each table the pros/cons of standardized testing and examples of good and bad assessment. Overall it was well done and even though I didn’t learn many new things the concepts and information became much clearer to me after this presentation.
A suggestion would to be to let us know what the plan is for the presentation at the beginning of the class. I was lost at first when you guys handed us the concept map and the rubric. I didn’t understand its purpose. However you tied it together nicely and I understood the point being made by the end.

Promising Futures

This was a document prepared by the commission of secondary education highlighting the present conditions in Maine, clearly stating future goals, and offering an extensive and detailed list of proposed changes to work towards meeting those goals. Granted this document was written in 1998, it still has validity today. The ten core principles of the commission were: 1. a safe, respectful, and caring environment, 2. high universal expectations with a variety of learning opportunities, 3.understanding and actions based on assessment date, 4. teacher practice which values and builds upon the contributions and needs of each learner, 5. equitable and democratic practice, 6. coherence among mission, goals, actions, and outcomes. The biggest problem outlined repeatedly in the document was that every aspect of school life should be coordinated with the same goal and that goal should be to exceed the standard. The standard is outlined in the NCLB for each subject. The school structure, schedule, assignments, and assessments should teach students the necessary knowledge and skills outlined in the standards. Suggestions for teachers such as keeping the same students with a teacher throughout high school, lessening the quantity of students each teacher is responsible for, and adding professional development days or workshops for teachers. The final key is that for a school to attempt a change any sort of change all teachers, staff, administration, and even the community have to be on board.

I think a lot of what was written for suggestions in this report has basis in recent research and information about how students learn best. A lot of books that I have read in practicum and in other education classes at Farmington have said a lot of similar things. This report was written 12 years ago, I wonder if information was collected today from the schools in Maine what the report would say.

The History and Philosophy of Education ‘voices’

After reading this article I felt like it had taken me through the evolution of the philosophy of education throughout time. Many philosophers believed in lofty ideals such as free education for the poor, the blacks, and even women. This is a reality today in the United States. I connected with pieces of nine different philosophers’ ideas about education. I will briefly mention the parts of the philosophies that I agreed with and will incorporate into my own. Quintilian believed in no corporal punishment of students and for information that was age appropriate for students. Augustine thought that teachers should build on the students’ previous knowledge. The teacher is a role model who treats the students fairly and compassionately. Aquinas believed that the purpose of education was to help the student develop their intellect and understand how to use their power of choice and freewill. Students learn through discovery: of themselves, the world, and life’s purpose, which is ultimately their own happiness. The one thing I took from Erasmus’s philosophy was the use of excellent examples to correctly and vividly explain concepts. Comenius thought that parents played a critical role in character formation. Teachers ought to encourage and be kind to students, offer them individual attention when possible, and share a non-coercive atmosphere. Also teachers should be paid more considering all they do. Pestalozzi thought learning should be catered to the interests and for the motivation of students. Motivation should not from punishment and fear. Teacher and student relationships should be caring with teachers taking into consideration the emotional and social developmental needs of students. Pestalozzi said, “The teacher is like a gardener helping the child to unfold.” Dewey believed that there is no reason and it is impractical to break up subjects into separate areas such as math, science, social studies, and English. Real life application and also the best way to learn is through thematic/interdisciplinary units. Tyler considered students’ problem-solving skills a priority and he thought modeling for them a democratic society in the classroom helped the students learn. He advocated summer in-service workshops for professional development and educational evaluation for teachers and the system. Freire believed the purpose of education is for freedom and that discussing the issues of social class, gender, and race are the task of education to create informed citizens and tolerant people.

I picked these beliefs of these 9 philosophers because each one had something different to add that I believed in. I am not a person that can be sold whole heartedly into an ideology of any kind be it a philosophical, political, or religious. There are elements that I like and agree with where as other parts I think are garbage and have no relevance to me. So by taking bits and parts I can make it my own and create my own individual philosophy of education.

Chapter 5: Building an Educational Philosophy in a Changing World.

This chapter was about the many teacher or student center education philosophies, classroom management options, and teachers’ role of change for society. The three philosophies that are teacher-centered are: essentialism, behaviorism, perennialism and positivism. Essentialism believes that there is a set of knowledge and skills that a person must acquire in order to be a functional member of a society. Behaviorism states that an individual’s actions are determined by the environment, so a teacher who subscribes to this theory would have their classroom set up in a specific way, with not a poster or chair in the wrong place. Perennialism says that there are specific knowledge and guiding principles that are equally relevant throughout time. Humans are rational beings therefore they must learn how to think and achieve cultural literacy. Positivism believes that every thing in the world can be explained by rules and laws of matter; any sort of spirituality has no place. Student-centered teaching philosophies are: progressivism, humanism, reconstructionism, and constructivism. Progressivism is propelled by students’ questions and these ideas should be tested by experiments. Humanism believes that humans are essentially good and focus should be on developing that in an individual and not on the group. Reconstructionism is about understanding social problems, learning in and about diversity and multicultural issues, and taking responsibility for the choice the students’ have in the future to improve injustices in the world. Constructivism is based on creating personal meaning and connection to material or information through activities and hands on situations. This uses real life applications as a main component of learning because there can be multiple solutions to contemporary problems. Also students choose to solve the problem that makes the most sense to their way of thinking, it is individualized. The chapter also presented different ways to set up a classroom, assess, motivate, and how much voice students are given. The last part was about a teacher’s role in society, whether a teacher should help students adapt to change, a teacher should be a catalyst in social change, or rationally mediate the tension between the individual and society.

I connected to reconstructionism and constructivism the most of all the philosophies. A main reason was that they were student centered. I liked the aspect of reconstructionism that deals with talking about social issues and multiculturalism in the class. I also want my students to understand that humans have a ability to destroy each other but they don’t and to be able to answer some of the big questions in life. I liked constructivism because I believe if a student has a personal connection to the material it will be remembered later. Students learn material through hands on experiences and simulations. I understand that the facts are important in history but I also know that it is a ‘social science.’ I want to balance the need to show that history is about people as a whole in society and with the need to recognize my students as individuals whose voice can be heard.

Classroom Discipline

The group with Jason, Cara, and Kirsten presented the issue of classroom discipline. Cara talked about the history. Originally classrooms were set up with students getting one on one attention with the teacher and the rest of the class was unsupervised. In order to keep the class on task fear tactics were used such as physical beatings for punishment if a student misbehaved. Corporal punishment was banned in most places in the United States by the 19th century. The next style of discipline was Bureaucratic. This style was very impersonal and teachers appointed students that were the best to be a ‘monitor’ and make sure the rest of the class behaved. Students were seated according to achievement so students could learn at an early age that achievers would make it in the world and those in the back would not. Humiliation tactics were used to keep students in line. Another style developed around the same time was soft-pedagogy. This style was very personal with the classroom functioning almost like a family. Students obey the teacher because of the guilt of disappointing the teacher. The teacher was seen as a parental figure capable of bestowing or withholding affection depending on the students’ behavior. The post-progressive movement saw the role of the teacher as an expert instead of a parental figure. Student teacher relationships turned into professional/client relationships. In this system students were either punished or rewarded immediately after the action. In this consumer society students and adults are used to instant gratification so schools decided to mirror that connection with discipline. How the students behave has a lot to do with what is expected of them by the teacher. Teachers’ styles fall along a continuum that starts with laissez-faire to authoritarian. A laissez-faire teacher is one that is very relaxed and simply gives off the vibe that he or she doesn’t care what the students do. An authoritarian teacher has everything the students do down to the minute and if students stray from the plan they are punished. I think the best way is to have structure but also allow students freedom with in reason. Students tend to invest more in the class if they feel they are a part of the process and are included in the decision making whenever possible. They then feel ownership of the class. This is called judicious discipline. Of course the best possible classroom management style is withitness. Withitness is when a teacher knows exactly what is going on in his or her classroom at all times. This is commonly referred to as having eyes in the back of one’s head. In this system a teacher can intervene before a situation because an issue.

I think that the group presented a lot of useful information. The history of discipline in classrooms was very interesting because I had always been under the impression that corporal punishment had been used as the standard method until modern day methods were introduced. In some places it still occurs but most places had banned it by the 19th century. I hope someday I might acquire withitness but obviously that takes time and practice.