Monday, November 28, 2016

Blog Post 10 & Proposal

After taking this course, I have realized that there are a lot of factors that determine the type of teacher you can be. The environment of your classroom, type of relationship with your students, and the politics of education all affect how great of a teacher we can be. Setting up your classroom in a specific manner can portray your teaching style. I’ve learned that the average desks in rows is not necessarily the best environment for a classroom. As teachers, we should have open space where the kids can all have a place to interact, move, and possibly perform experiments. In terms of relationships with students, I’ve learned that genuine relationships create more successes in the classroom. Teachers should be enthusiastic, caring, while still containing a certain boundary with the students. Teachers should have a certain level of comfortability with their students, but not too comfortable where it can become inappropriate. Politics also play a major role with how successful a teacher can be in the classroom. The banking concept causes teacher to just give information out, and the students must memorize them to pass the standardized tests. Educational standards set in politics force teachers to become dull with the material, and not have much room to make the curriculum interesting. Overall, this course has opened my eyes and made me realize that there is a lot that goes on in the world of being a teacher. It is not as simple as i originally imagined it would be, but everything I’ve learned has made being a teacher more of a meaningful and interesting experience. 
When imagining myself as a teacher, I imagine teaching curriculum that is meaningful and useful to the students I will be teaching to. I want to be able to teach kids about politics, history, our planet. I also want to teach the kids important communication skills and other crucial life skills such budgeting money. In reality though, our core curriculum keeps teachers from being able to spend time on all these useful skills. I believe that our core curriculum is more focused on students memorizing content that they will rarely remember later on in their lives. Core curriculum keeps the teachers from adding in lessons that they believe should be taught, due to the restricted focus on the core curriculum. There is too much focus on each student passing the core classes, instead of focusing on how the students are learning and applying what they’ve learned to their lives. Core curriculum should be more easily adjustable so that teachers can add in lessons that they believe are meaningful and useful. Students should be more interactive with their work instead of the core curriculum which causes the students to complete worksheets, quizzes, and tests. Students should be enthusiastic in the curriculum they are learning, instead of sitting and memorizing all of the core content that is thrown at them. There needs to be a change in the core curriculum if we want kids to succeed later in life and remember important content and skill that they should be taught in school.
When trying to remember what I have learned in both elementary and middle school, I struggle to remember anything that has been useful to me. I find it sad that when my boss gives me a check, I do not know how to cash it in myself. I do not even know how to write check, or balance a checkbook. I feel as if there were so many life skills that I was never taught, and it is disappointing that I was taught numerous varieties of content to memorize and be tested on. This is the problem with our core curriculum, it leads to students retaining the information taught only until they take the test on the content. After the test the students usually forget what they learn and begin memorizing new content for the next test. I can specifically remember being a student and telling myself to remember all the information just for the test, and then forget about it after. Education is supposed to expand the minds of humans, and not just for a short period of time. We need to be teaching the children issues of our world that will affect them when they are grown up in the future. We need to be teaching them about social changes and skills that help them grow up and succeed later on when they are adults. The issue of core curriculum can be greatly connected with the banking concept we learned in class. The restrictions of the core cause teachers to begin habits of banking habit. The banking concept consists of teachers giving content for students to retain and memorize, without having much interaction and outside thoughts about the content. One big question I have in mind is: Does core curriculum detrimental to student’s learning? Another big question I have is: How do we change the core curriculum. I want to research who in our country deals with the issues of education and how many people need to join and agree on reform. I want to know the importance of politics and the role of politics that will influence and help change the core curriculum. I also want to research the finances and economics that play a role in changing/altering the core curriculum. I believe that the core includes a lot of important content, but not as much life skills as there should be. There should also be more room and time for teachers to discuss diverse topics. The core curriculum should be flexible and teachers should have more of a say for what they want to include in the curriculum.  If teachers are being the ones teaching the content they should be allowed to include what they deem as useful to their students, especially since teachers are the ones who know their students the best. Teachers are with their students five days a week, several hours a day, so they know what will benefit their students best. The process teachers go through to become teachers should include courses where they can discuss the core curriculum and find ways to make it more meaningful and useful to the grade(s) they will be teaching. People need to understand that the core curriculum determines what we are teaching the children not only in the classroom, but also in life. There should be classes that teach the kids valuable life skills along with content that will be useful to their growing minds.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Field Placement1

For my field placement, I attended Hawken Lower School. I observed a second grade class taught by Mrs. Emma Ferek. When first entering the classroom the students were playing all playing a game. Mrs. Ferek explained that every morning once every student has arrived, she has them play a game. This was interesting to me because when I was in second grade I remember coming to school everyday and working on "bellwork" which consisted of problems that everyone had to complete on their own in silence. This teacher took a different approach and allows her students to exert their energy and get them excited for the school day. After the game was finished, she had all the students sit on a carpet in front of her while she read a book. The book focused on family which is what their unit was on that they were covering. After she read the book she had them work on a project which consisted of them making posters of their families with descriptions of each person in their family. This was also fascinating to me because I do not ever remember having a lesson on the importance of family. It was amazing to see the kind descriptions each student wrote about the members of their family. It was also fascinating to observe their artistic abilities. After working on their project, the students went to recess and Mrs. Ferek told me that they get two recesses. I believe having a sufficient amount of time for recess is so important for young children. Being cooped up in a classroom for too long can cause students to lose interest or become ancy. After this first observation, I realized the importance of having fun within the classroom and allowing the kids to exert their energy, along with teaching them valuable lessons such as the value of family.

blog post 9

Ariel Smith
ED 100
Annotated Bibliography
November 14, 2016

Fair, Jean. "The Comparative Effectiveness of a Core and a Conventional Curriculum in Developing Social Concern. I." The School Review 62.5 (1954): 274-82. Web. Nov. 2016.
This scholarly journal explains what core curriculum and core classes are and why we have them. It goes into further depth explaining the objectives and content  of core curriculum. I am going to use this source to give background knowledge on core curriculum. This source also provides the importance of social conditions which I will utilize in my paper. This source gives me knowledge on the benefits of core classes, but also what core curriculum lacks in terms of social conditions. I will utilize this source to give a better understanding of what core curriculum consists of and why it exists.

Harap, Henry. "Improvement of the Core." The High School Journal 40.1 (1956): 32-37.
University of North Carolina Press. Web. Nov. 2016.
Henry Harap addresses the need to alter or change the core curriculum before it has detrimental effects on the student's learning abilities. He explains that the static nature of core curriculum does not allow the students to think for their own or address new questions. This source is based on observations of core classes in a variety of schools. This source will give my argument more of a backbone for why core curriculum needs to be adjustable and adaptive. I can utilize this source by explaining the negative effects that a static core curriculum has on students ability to learn more than what is provided by the core curriculum.

Mickelson, John M. "What Does Research Say about the Effectiveness of the Core Curriculum?" The School Review 65.2 (1957): 144-60. Web. Nov. 2016.
This source provides research and explanation on the effectiveness of core curriculum. This source defines what core is and explains the meaning and reason behind core classes. It also provides research on the extent that the core curriculum is used and what the students learn/gain from the core. I will use this source to explain the skills that the students gain from the core. I will also utilize this source to explain what the core lacks and what the students are missing in their education. This source also provides information on if the students gain the necessary social skills which I will address in my paper as a main concern for core curriculum.

Pittendrigh, Adele. "Reinventing the Core: Community, Dialogue, and Change." The Journal of
General Education 56.1 (2007): 34-56. Web. Nov. 2016.
This source directly explains why and how the core curriculum should be changed. It includes the importance of being able to be open to scrutiny and change in terms of the core curriculum. It provides the teachers perspectives on the core and offers ideas that can make the core more meaningful. These ideas include insisting more dialogue and a sense of community when teaching core content. I will use this source to explain options for how we can better the core curriculum to be more beneficial for the students. This source also provides specific proposals that have been made by scholars to change/reinvent the core curriculum.

Tibbetts, John W. "Crisis in the Core Curriculum." The Clearing House: A Journal of
Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas 33.6 (1959): 345-47. Web. Nov. 2016.
This scholarly journal refutes the idea of having core classes. John Tibbetts believes that the core has a lack of administration concern, preparation for qualified teachers, and static organization. I will use this source to explain more of the cons of our core curriculum. This source also provides insight on how core curriculum should be revised and open to scrutiny since education should be a learning experience. I will use this source to take a standpoint against having a static core curriculum. This source also provides information on how teachers are not prepared well enough to teach core curriculum, which I will address in my research paper.


Thursday, November 10, 2016

Blog Post 7

"What is greatness in teaching?" Guide

Being adaptive- In order to be a great teacher, you have to adapt how you teach for all students. Not every student learns the same way, which Ayers shows in chapter 7 when one student understood subtraction by a different teaching method than the other. It is crucial to have different tactics and styles when teaching, so you can adapt to every kids understanding of knowledge.

Be engaging/enthusiastic- This idea comes from the factor of being passionate about your work. Teachers have to keep the attention of a group a kids, while also teaching them the content they need to know. All kids have different attention spans, but by being enthusiastic and engaging teachers can make the students interested in what they are learning. When students are interested at learning they will pay attention, but not only that they will actually want to pay attention.

Self-reflecting- Teachers need to understand that they are going to make mistakes. The students are not the only ones growing in the classroom, teachers are constantly growing also. As a teacher, we must be able to criticize ourselves and being able to reflect on ourselves. We must not criticize ourselves to the points where we become timid, we must do it to a degree that allows us to be open to different styles and teachings. It is difficult to tell yourself that you are doing something wrong, but it is necessary if we want to grow and become a better teacher for our students.

Be open-minded- This idea can tie in with two other factors that I have listed. Being adaptive and self-reflecting requires teachers to be open-minded. Being open minded allows teachers to accept and think of new ideas or styles of teaching. Open-mindedness allows the teacher to be creative and change or alter their style of teaching.

Authenticity- Being authentic can be difficult when be the instructor of the classroom. Some teachers think that they have to implement a high degree of respect from the students and strictly only be their teacher. I believe it is important to have authentic and genuine relationships with the students. Teachers are with their students either more or as much as the students are with their family. Teachers should have friendly relationships and care about the students outside of the classroom. This should not be abused though by becoming their best friend and talking about inappropriate or too personal of subjects. Teachers must be there for their students and genuinely care for them, while maintaining a level of respect from the students.