Field Post3

When thinking about being a teacher I always question how comfortable or how strict I should be with the students. I kept this question in my mind as I observed an art teacher at Height High School. When entering the classroom, there was music playing from one of the student's phones and I could already tell how calm and comfortable the environment was. Most of the students were working independently on their art pieces while the teacher went from person to person asking if they needed any assistance. The students would raise their hand if they needed help and she would go to them immediately unless she was already helping another student. She did not seem very strict with the kids and even joked around with them. There was no need for her to be strict though because all of the students respected her and focused on their work. This made me ponder how she was able to gain so much respect from high schoolers? When talking to one of the students she was saying how she loved art and that everyone in this class was also very passionate about their work. This made me realize how when students are passionate about what they are learning, they will work hard. This makes it easier for the teacher to be more laid back and comfortable with the students. What i begin to question about this is how do teachers create this level of respect and working habits with students who are not passionate about the subject? I think it is very important to try to work towards making students passionate for the content teachers are required to teach, no matter the subject. This relates to how teachers can not rely on the banking method style of teaching. When using the banking method, it disinterests the students and causes them to lose passion for what they are learning. If teachers want their students to have respect and be comfortable or passionate in the classroom, they must teach in a way that will make the students interested in the content they are learning.

Blog Post 6

When reading about the "banking concept" of education, Freire defines it as when the the student extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the information given by the teachers. This raised a lot of questions and concerns for me as I read that. It made me wonder why this style of teaching ever came about, and made me question how to stop it. The "banking concept" is made so that the easier the students accept this style of teaching, the more of the student succeeds for that class. This style of learning limits the students thoughts and perspectives of what they are being asked to simply memorize for a short period of time. It does not give them any outside information and they are not able to ask questions like "why" when being taught this method. This style of teaching seems to harm the students more than help them. This is where the question comes in for how do we stop this method of teaching? There is a basic knowledge we have to give children when they are young, but as teachers we should still encourage outside thoughts and questions about what information we are teaching them. We cannot simply give them information to memorize for a test and then allow that information to become totally useless after the test. We should be teaching kids about the world and information that can help them succeed in the future. This brings up the problem of the law though. Educational laws require standards for what and how teachers should be teaching. Although teachers have to abide by these standards in order to teach, I believe there is a way to entwine the standards with a way of teaching that allows the students to think outside the box and raise unique and diverse questions about the context.

Blog Post 5

When I attended both middle school and elementary school there was never much talk on homophobia and heterosexism. When I went to Mentor High, it became apparent to me how these issues occurred in school. Since Mentor was a huge, public school there were many lesbian and gay students who were open about their sexuality. Walking through the halls, I would see girls kiss girls, and boys kiss boys. I knew there was a gay alliance club, but it was never promoted much. When I transferred schools my junior year, I transferred to a small, private school. When I transferred to Gilmour I received and email about a boy changing his gender and that Gilmour expected everyone to be accepting towards "her." Gilmour was very open to the idea of this sex change and was very responsible with handling the situation. There was no complaints or problems when she started to use the girls bathrooms and locker rooms which was very surprising to me. At Gilmour their gay and lesbian club spoke openly about what they stood for and would speak in front of the whole school during morning announcements. Gilmour had a very liberal approach and was very open to sexuality, and Mentor was too, but not as much. When taking liberal approaches this is very important to children because we need to teach children when they are young to be open to different perspectives on life or other people's lives, in order to reduce judgment. If we try to radically change a child's thinking, we force them into seeing one side of a perspective too much, without letting them have some of their own thoughts or views. I am very hopeful that wherever I teach in the future, that the school will be open to LGBT Alliance, so that all students feel welcomed and safe in school. 

Field Post 2

When visiting Shaker Heights Middle School, the first class I observed was a math class. The students were learning about probability, using the exemplar of rolling a dice. The teacher had them use mental math instead of calculators, then had them share and explain how they got their answers. Unlike some teachers, this teacher let the kids share wrong answers then have them verbally figure out where they went wrong in their process of thinking. She never gave the students the answer, but instead had them retrace their knowledge to get to the right answer by themselves. This showed me how teachers are not meant to give kids the "right" answer, but we are supposed to let them solve the problem in their own way, even if they fail the first few times.
The second class I visited was an English/Language Arts class. In the class the students all were provided a personal computer and were working on a paper. The teacher explained to me that they were writing stories on whatever they wanted to write about, but the goal was to go through all the steps of writing a paper. This teacher encouraged the kids to write about their interests and to be creative. When one of the girls was struggling, the teacher told her to continue writing even if it did not make sense. She said encouraged them to write down whatever ideas they had even if it was not grammatically correct. Again this teacher was more focused on the kids going through the process and being creative, despite the mistakes they were making.
Observing these two classes truly showed me how teachers need to encourage the kids to think on their own and to think outside of the box. If the teachers achieve this, then they can assist the student into using their own problem solving techniques to find the correct answer. Observing Shaker showed me how teachers should not limits the students problem solving by making them think that there is only one way to solve a problem, because in reality everyone can solve the same problem in a different way and still have the same outcome. I believe this is the bridge Shaker Middle School is trying to build; A bridge from telling the kids the right answer, to making the kids teach themselves different ways to solve the problem. This is a skill that overall will help the students later in life. Life is so complex that people need to know that there are several different perspectives of every problem in our world, and we must all be open to those different perspectives in order to solve the problems. This is similar to how Ayers uses the metaphor of "building bridges" such as the story he uses with the turtle. The teacher in that story encouraged the kids to think differently to figure out a way to make a physical bridge for the turtle. This symbolizes the transition of the kids building a bridge to a new way of thinking or solving problems. This can also be seen as a bridge of maturing, which ties in with the story of Zayd who was also "building a bridge" to adulthood or maturity. He approached this differently by going on a quest to seek adulthood. Overall, building bridges to maturity is a main theme written by Ayers and seen in the classrooms at Shaker Heights.

Blog post 4

Dear Senator Kenny Yuko,
It has been brought to my attention that the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio has found Ohio’s system of school finance to be unconstitutional, yet this system still remains. Many schools do not meet the criteria of a well-funded and well-supplied school. This is a major concern because this affects the performance of students. Many students who come from lower-income families and go to public schools that are considered unconstitutional, suffer from this unfairness. The unanimous court of Brown vs. Board of Education stated that "Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education." This goes to show how kids are denied a proper education due to their environment, and it is affecting them negatively. We cannot expect children to learn in schools that do not provide a proper learning environment.  A school that lacks proper health standards and building standards portray that education is not significant in our society. We cannot expect children to learn, or to be excited to learn when education is portrayed this way. How a building is structured can affect how a child learns. That is why I believe it is time to make a change. Instead of reiterating how schools in Ohio are not constitutional, it is time to put in a law to begin some action. We cannot keep waiting around for these schools to change on their own. It is time that we start by fixing what has been identified and give these schools and upgrade. We must show the children that schools are important and that their education is important. It is time to fix the structural parts of the buildings that we send children off to learn in. All children, despite where they live and what school they go to, deserve a safe and inspiring learning environment. I hope you take my argument into consideration when discussing the DeRolph IV decision, and begin to act on this decision of how Ohio's system of school finance being unconstitutional.

Thank you,
Ariel Smith