Technology Conference/Presentation!!

The wiki was incredibly helpful because I would like to use technology, but I can never remember what a site or program is called. The conference style was very cute and relevant. The videos were both a good opening and good closing, especially since videos are TECHNOLOGY! The video at the end pointed out how quickly technology both grows and changes.

I really liked how interactive/hands-on this "presentation" was. I am definitely keeping my certificate for either my portfolio (or my wall at home just so I can feel informed).

The 8 Theories

Essentialism is a theory in which a person in any community/culture should have the same basic knowledge. However, this common information is subject to change. The instruction is teacher-based. Essentialism is more about gaining and developing basic skills to live productively in the world. So, learning what is "essential" to life (which differs from culture to culture). The student's role is the learner and the goal is to give the student the skills and knowledge to become a good citizen. There is not a lot of room for individualism in essentialist theory. The ideas of this theory mostly come from idealism and realism.

Behaviorism says that a person's behavior is directly related to the environment of the person and is not genetic. What this means is that a teacher can essentially control the behaviors of the students in the classroom. The teacher needs to make sure that the environment in which the students are expected to learn in will produce positive and desired behaviors from the students. Use of the scientific method is held high for a behaviorist. Organization is stressed. The teacher is expected to use both positive reinforces and negative reinforces to control the behavior of students. The cause of the problems of students is not a concern. Rather, the focus is on correcting the behavior NOW. This theory comes from realism.

Positivists only accept facts that can be observed and measured. All reality can be explained through science, basically. Ideas concerning the mind and/or spirit are rejected for this reason. Direct instruction is a teaching method that is used by a positivist. The teacher tells the students exactly what they should know and be able to do. Knowledge is the same for all of the students. Students should strengthen their skills concerning the scientific method. Testing is valued.

*Progressivism says that learning is based on questions and that ideas should be constantly tested through experimentation. Even though this theory favors the scientific method, it allows for the students to have their own individual beliefs. The stress is upon how to think rather than what to think. A curriculum that is flexible is important to a progressivist because the theory emphasizes the importance of questioning and testing ideas. A school should try to improve a society. Both the teacher and the student should be permitted the freedom to decide on how the class is conducted.

Humanism focuses on making students better people. It also says that students should not be treated as objects to be measured and that education should start with the individual. Students are encouraged to make their own choices. A humanist tries to not give their opinions to students so that the student is not persuaded one way or another and makes his/her own individual choices. The classroom should be a place where both the teacher and student share their ideas together. Since each student is unique, the education of each student should be unique in some way.

Constructivism emphasizes learning through hands-on activity. Lecturing is seen as ineffective because the students need to discover knowledge on their own. Instruction should be varied and should allow students to learn somewhat on their own (by that, I mean in their own individual ways).

Perennialists say that since facts can/are changing that these cannot be the most important things for students to learn. Reasoning and principals should be taught rather than facts (because "facts" can change). Education of any sort should start with the human (so, in science learn about humans before things like technology or machines). Ideas that have lasted over the centuries are valued. The teacher is meant to teach the student how to think and reason. The classical subjects should be taught and classical texts should be used.

Reconstructivism says that the world is constantly evolving and changing and that people must do this as well. The multiple intelligences theory came from reconstructivism (cool!). Both the teacher and the student should be part of the learning process.

It is so difficult to limit myself to two philosophies to relate to. I feel that I can relate to almost any of these philosophies in some way. I feel that I relate most to progressivism. A teacher needs to be incredibly flexible in order to help his/her students to learn. There will be times when an activity will fail horribly for one class even though the prior class loved it and benefited from it. Organization is a great skill to have, however, a teacher is almost like an improvisational actor. The teacher and the student should have a say in how the class is held, but the teacher should still have control and authority over the classroom. It is important to help students learn how to think, infer, and problem solve rather than give them information or facts that they need to memorize for a test.

Humanism is another theory that I feel I agree with. Students are individuals with individual minds and spirits; they are not a name on the attendance sheet or a C+ in the grade book. Because students are different, each will learn in different ways. Ideas should be shared in the classroom and everyone should be encouraged to speak or share in some way. Teachers should not give personal opinions on matters too quickly or bluntly because this very well might alter the way that a student is thinking and push them in one direction or another (in one way to please the teacher, or in another because they want to "rebel" against the teacher). I do think that there are certain skills or activities in the classroom that all of the students should participate in and that there is some benefit from having universality in the classroom, but there should be some kind of customization for each student.

Empowerment

Personally, I think that "problem" students exist because teachers did not care enough to try to find out why these students behaved in "bad" ways. The stories in this last chapter showed how students can become empowered if one of his or her teachers had only showed an interest or care. I am married to one of the biggest trouble makers in Maine. My husband had many family issues which I will not describe for his own privacy, but had a teacher or anyone tried to find out why he behaved in the ways that he had, he may not have acted out in the ways that he had. He was told that he was the only student in Maine to have a high school give money to an alternative school to basically take him off their hands.

I need to always try to place myself in the position of the "troubled" or "problem" students in order to empower them. If I do not believe in them or support them, they will not do either of these things for themselves. The story about Leslie coming out by publishing a poem was powerful. Leslie knew that she was gay and was comfortable with this for herself, yet she could not take the next step by admitting this to her peers and essentially the school board. I thought it was a little strange that the teacher claimed to be confronting sexual politics herself, but I guess she was involved since she was pushing Leslie to publish her poem under her real name.

I understand that I am not always going to reach every student who needs it. But, if I at least try and put in the effort, then I have not completely lost. Even a little effort might make a student rethink their behaviors or life goals because someone is taking an interest and concern in their lives.

I now just realized that sometimes by trying to do what we think is right, we may be a little intrusive with students. When I was in middle school I did not eat lunch at school. Growing up in Pennsylvania, my family and I were accustomed to eating big breakfasts and big dinners. I did not get hungry at school, so I didn't eat. My Dad knew of this and didn't think it was a big deal. When I moved to Caribou, I was bothered on a daily basis about why I was not eating at school. I understand that they were worried about me (eating disorders are common in middle school girls), but I told them that I ate a big breakfast and did not like to eat at school. It made me feel ill. They harassed me to the point that I had to tell my Dad about it, and he wrote a letter to my principal about the matter. I was no longer bothered.

Remembering this makes me realize that although I might think a student has an issue or needs help, I might very well be jumping to conclusions. I need to listen to my students and trust his/her words until I see other signs of something wrong before reacting to a situation.

Multicultural Issues and Diversity

It would be ignorant for any person, especially an educator, to say that multicultural issues are not relevant or important in the classroom. Even in an area where there is little to no diversity, a teacher should create a multicultural classroom. I think that the group did a great job of expresses just how important this is. A teacher should get to know ALL of their students in order to be able to help them become successful learners, and by doing this a teacher will also learn about the culture of each of their students.

One statistic that I would like to find more information on it the statistic concerning the wage gap between men and women. Where did this statistic come from? How did they find this percentage? I feel that the reason for this gap MIGHT be that the jobs that are taken by more men than women might pay more. For example, there are not a lot of women who would want to work with septic tanks or plumbing. Dirty jobs generally pay fairly well (the garbage/waste business, in some areas, actually pays a LOT). So, maybe this statistic seems so incredible is for a reason like this.

The activity at the end of the presentation, I thought, was very successful. It shows how common ethnic slurs are, because we all knew most of the words and did not have an incredibly difficult time figuring out which card was on our head. I think a game like this might be okay in a high school setting with the right group of students, however I am not sure if I would use it with every group of students. Younger students might go home and tell their parents all of the nice ethnic slurs they learned at school and I would get a phone call (or ten).

I would have liked to see more examples of how to make a classroom a multicultural classroom, but I understand that the group only had so much time to present.

Good job, ladies! :) Thank you for sharing with us!

The 4 Philosophies

In idealism, ideas or concepts are the essence of all that is worth knowing. This philosophy stresses spirituality. The spiritual world is eternal and perfect. Our senses only pick up the imperfect representation of the spiritual world. The power of reasoning is stressed. What is strange to me is that this theory does not value the scientific method, which to me seems to be based on reasoning through observation. Lecture, discussion, and imitation are methods that idealism supports. Knowledge is not created, but it is discovered. Learning is best achieved through speaking/dialogue and a teacher should question a students beliefs.

Reality, knowledge, and value are independent of the mind in realism. Ideas are not the ultimate reality, which is what idealists believe. The realist thinks that the use of the scientific method and our sense are important. The goal of education is the advancement of problem solving or rationality. Experiment and observation are ways to gain knowledge. Realists think that tests of a student's knowledge are beneficial. THe realist also acknowledges that ideas can change.

Pragmatism is a philosophy in which there are no unchanging ideas (like idealism) or universal laws. Knowledge is something that is gained by a learner interacting with the environment in a way in which both are changed by the experience. There is no absolute truth. The realist also thinks that values do not work in all situations and supports the act of problem solving.

Existentialism is the thought that real reality is within each individual. So, reality is different for each person (I think this is what the book's definition was trying to say). Science is good, but it is also limited. Tests are seen as not important. There is a huge stress on individualism and the importance of each person creating their own self, reality, and values.

I feel like I could fit into most of these categories of thought at least a little bit. I am a very spiritual person, so I feel that I may very well be more of an idealist than a realist. I do not like using tests in a way to see of how much "knowledge" a student has. I much rather see this "knowledge" expressed somehow, whether it be through a discussion, an essay, or a visual project. I might be an existentialist, too, because I feel very strongly about person/creative freedom and expression. I am the person who is constantly saying, "I thought this was America," when I am told that I cannot say, write, or create something. Thought I am not a scientist, I do not dismiss science all together. However, I feel that science really is limited and that there is much more to life and reality than physical or sensual facts.

Rejuvination

This chapter was a little lighter than the previous ones I have read in the book. There seemed to be a little "hope" in this chapter, which was a relief. The story about the teacher who was punched in the head stood out to me the most, I think. One of my fears as a teacher is (believe it or not) being physically assaulted. My husband and I would like to move out West, and I have no idea what the schools are like on that side of the country. Assault can occur anywhere, though. As a woman (who is not much taller than 5 feet, I might add), I might be seen as vulnerable by a person with negative intentions. Silly as it sounds, I do more upper body work when I go to the gym than anything else. I understand that I am fairly short and as a woman most men will be stronger than me. Because of this, I want to make sure that if a situation should ever occur involving physical violence, that I might be able to take care of myself.

Young people might be some of the angriest people there are, but who can blame them? High school and middle school can be terrible for some kids even without hormones and puberty being involved. Violence is always a possibility in a situation of anger and I hope to be able to both protect myself and stop a student from making a mistake in a moment of anger.

Episode 4

I am not sure how I feel about charter schools. The impression that I got from the episode is that anyone could open a charter school and any one could work at one. To me, this is unacceptable. A school could be opened with the wrong intentions in mind (profit). I understand that there are benefits to having a charter school because the school could save more money and therefore have the money available to buy more resources and materials for the students, but again the people who are either running the school or are just working at it might have the wrong intentions.

School Choice, on the other hand, I feel is a great idea and I feel that it should be available everywhere. If there is school choice offered and students leave a school for another, the board of the school that is losing students knows that they need to make a change to their schools. A school with a poor program or teachers will more than likely loose students and this is a signal that the school board must start evaluating their resources, their staff, and their techniques.

The Nation at Risk

In 1983, The Nation at Risk was published/released. The Nation at Risk pointed out how poor the education system was in America at the time and it emphasized the importance of improving the education system in America. The article included a list of statistics related to the weakness of education in the United States. One of the more astonishing statistics that the article pointed out was that 23 million Americans were illiterate at the time. Other countries were beginning to catch up with the United States and in order for the United States to not fall behind (let alone remain “number one”) education needed to be taken more seriously and an educational reform was needed. Twenty-five years later a report was released showing that it is uncertain whether the education system has seen significant improvement since The Nation at Risk was published

I understand why there is some criticism that The Nation at Risk was too “harsh.” At the same time, the article seemed more like tough love to me. There were, and still are, problems with education in America and it should be taken seriously. Different methods should be experimented with. Teachers must be certain that they are sending their students positive messages about school. The teachers are not the only factor, however. Students might be losing their drive to succeed due to other reasons. Young Americans should be shown that education is important and why education is important to not only themselves but their families and communities.

Episode 1

It was very interesting to me to learn that some of the same issues that are around today have been popping up since public schools first began. The issue of "separation of church and state" was already a topic for debate. Prayer books were used in schools and the Bible was taught. There were plenty of people that thought this wasn't a good idea back then, but it was done any way. Some schools still insist on teaching creationism and some private schools still read from the Bible.

Although it did not surprise me, there was no education offered to slaves. At first, only 5% of blacks were literate, but this turned into 50% which really shocked me, but in a good way. It was nice to see that blacks were already fighting for equal educational oppertunities for their children. The city of Boston was sued because a little black girl was not allowed to go to school there. It's sad to that it took so long for the Civil Rights Movement and Act to happen since America is supposed to welcome everyone with open arms.

Women teachers were cheaper and this is why they were hired more frequently than men. I wonder if this is why there are more women teachers than men teachers today? Some of my best teachers were men, actually, and I have noticed more and more men within the teaching profession (especially high school). I would love to see an equal distribution of men and women teachers and I wonder what the statistics are like right now.

A quote I liked from this episode was, "School is the little world that preps kids for the larger world of life." I feel that this sentence is very true. I have always thought that teaching is one of the most important jobs there is because it is at the younger ages that people are most impressionable. I feel like a teacher can either make or break a student as a learner. It's intimidating going into the teaching profession, but I feel so strongly about it that I have to at least try. Even if I slip the first year and try some methods that prove unsuccessful, I hope that my students see how willing I am to help them. I have noticed from my Assistant Manager position that people will work harder for you if you show that you care about both the people and the work that is being done. I have a great crew because I am always willing to help each and every one of them and I have a strong work ethic. I think that students respect a teacher who works hard much more than a teacher who seems to be lazy and slack off.