GOODBYE EDU 100!

Education is like baking cookies. There are a lot of factors that affect it, such as the quality of the teacher, the size of classes, and willingness of the student to learn, these things are like the temperature of the oven, what kind of cookie sheet you use, and how long you put them in the oven. There are many areas of study, such as Mathematics, English, Science, History, Art, Music, and much more, including basic skills we learn as children. These things are like the ingredients in the recipe. You have to be careful not to put too much of one ingredient in the recipe, or not to forget one. You also need to understand that each ingredient is equally important to the outcome of the cookies, or students. There are also many different kinds of cookies; different shapes, sizes, colors, flavors, and all with different ingredients. Similarly, every student is different and unique. Baking is an exact science, and something you need to put great effort into, to get the perfect outcome you desire. Many would say teaching is the same thing.
Over the course of the semester, I learned a lot about education, and myself. A few of these things stand out as most important. First, I learned that teachers have a lot more obstacles to surpass than I was aware of. I knew they'd always faced problems that made their job tough, but I never really realized just how many they had. Second, I learned that each state has much different legislation regarding education regarding many important issues such as special education, religion in schools, discipline in schools, extra curricular activites, and race. The third thing I learned through this course is that my decision to teach infant/toddler and preschool is the best decision I could have made, and I'm completely happy with it. I was originally and Elementary Education major, and over the summer I began working at a day care center in Salem. I absolutely love it, and realized that I work better with these younger children. Then, when we had to observe for this class, I realized the great differences between elementary classrooms and day care classrooms, and it became even clearer that I was meant to work with younger kids. My decision to be a teacher has never changed, but my choice of age groups of my students has, and that is in part due to this class.
I think the blog assignments were really beneficial in this course. They have allowed us to take different topics relevant to education and not only research them, but also write our opinions about them. We were able to see a lot of different perspectives about a lot of different topics. Although some of those perspectives and opinions may be different from our own, they are still beneficial to us, and help us learn more about the topics.

Missed Blog: Election

       The 2012 Election was one that would greatly affect our country in many ways. One of the subjects that candidates talked about in depth was education. Both Obama and Romney have their own platforms on the subject. Here are their main points and objectives.

       Mitt Romney – Romney wants to restrict education to the local and state levels. This means no federal interference in education, which in turn means no federal money. Federal money is used for Pell Grants, and Loans for many college students. Romney is also very focused on hire the best and brightest teachers, but doesn’t have an action plan on how to make such great teachers that he demands. Romney also wanted to eliminate the Department of Education, when he ran for senate in ’94.

       Barack Obama – Obama has already exempt many states from some of the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. He wants to grant more federal aid to students, and to teaching programs at colleges across the country. He wants more vigorous teacher preparation programs, and strives to improve the quality of future teachers. His wife also has a platform for bringing healthier food into schools, and getting kids to stay active and exercise often. Shortly before the election the NEA, or National Education Association, came out saying that they supported and endorsed Barack Obama, and his platform.

       From this information it’s clear to me that Barack Obama has more realistic goals when it comes to education in the United States, and has already taken action to reach them. Over the past year he’s already exempt some states from some provisions of the NCLB Act. Additionally, he is more focused on finding the root of the problem in the education system, and fixing it from there, before he moves forward, rather than ignoring it and starting from here. 

Missed Blog: Why Teach?

        

       Teachers are underpaid. Teachers have to bring their work home with them. Teachers deal with large groups of young children all day, every day. Teachers often need to buy their own supplies for their classroom. Teachers are often overworked. These are all reasons why  being a teacher can be hard at times.

        I’m a teacher at a daycare center.  I make minimum wage and work 40+ hours a week. I spend my entire day with children under the age of 3. I always end up buying things like markers, glue, construction paper, and sometimes even baby wipes and diapers when my boss doesn’t buy them for us. It’s stressful and really hard sometimes. But through my experience I’ve realized some amazing things about being a teacher, that outweigh all those negative things, and make it all worth it.

1. Children are hilarious. They do and say funny things all the time. There have been times when I’m just so stressed and overworked and burnt out that I just want to walk out, come home, and cry. But then, one of my kids will say something funny or do something silly and I’ll smile and regain my perspective.

2. Children care. When they see other kids get boo-boos, then come over and hug the child.  They always give us hugs. There have been times when I’ve had a rough day, and one of my kids will come over and sit on my lap, play with hair, and say ‘Miss Jenna, you’re my favorite teacher!”. It’s like they can tell how we feel, and it makes you feel so much better when things like that happen.

3. Parents do appreciate us. The parents of our kids send us Christmas card picture of their kids and stick little thank you notes in their child's lunch boxes for us when we do something extra for them. The days of the hurricane a few weeks ago, we stayed open while all the public school closed, and we even stayed open an hour later than usual, for parents who got stuck in traffic and couldn’t get there by 530. The next day, one of the mom’s came in with Dunkin Donuts gift cards for all of us. She said “After your long day yesterday, I figured you could all use some coffee.” 

4. People say laughter is the best medicine. I laugh all day at work. Whether it’s my kids or my co-workers, we’re always cracking up. Either the kids do or say something that makes us laugh, or we’re all just so overtired and overworked that we start doing and saying sill things ourselves. Either way, we’re always laughing and having fun.

5. It’s the most rewarding job in the world. Teaching can be a hard job, but it’s with out a doubt the most rewarding career I could imagine. When you struggle to teach a child something for a while, and then they finally understand it, and you can see it click with them, and you know it’s because of you, it’s the best feeling in the world.

Montessori Education.

   



       Maria Montessori, an Italian educator, developed an approach to education known as Montessori Education. This type of education emphasized freedom within limits, respect for children and their natural development, and independence. There are 5 main elements of the type of education. The first is mixed age classrooms, generally age 3 to 9. The seonc id the choice of activity students have, withing a set of options the teacher provides. The third is a "discover" model, where students work with materials in order to learn, instead of being given direct instruction. The fourth is uninterupted sets of time working. The last one is specialized educational material,which Moterssori developed.
       Montessori educartion is a model of education with respect to fundamental human development. There are two basic elements; children and adults enganging in self-construction through interaction with their environment, and children having an innate path of development. One of the key concepts of Montessori education is the child's freedom to choose what they learn about, from sets of options teachers provide. She believe that their choice to act freely and choose in a school environment would produce the best outcome in regards to education and development.
       Montessori belived that there were certain innate characterisrtics that we all shared; order, exploration, repetition, abstraction, self-preservation, communication, and orientation to the environment, to name a few. She thought that it was important to take these into consideration when creating a model for education.
       There are a variety of dirrent programs that favor Montessori Education. In Montessori Infant/Toddler Programs there are "nests", which are classrooms of a few children ranging from a few months old, to 15 months. The next step is classrooms called "Young Child Community", which have more children from ages 15 months to about 3. Montessori Preschool and Kindergarten classes are often reffered to as "Children's Houses". They have roughly 20-30 children, of mixed age groups between 3 and 6. Elementary Classrooms have varying amounts of students, and mix age groups between 6 and 9, and 9 and 12. Highschool Classrooms are frmo age 12 up.
       Overall, the Montesorri model of education is very open-minded, and allows the student a lot of freedom and choice in their own education. I really like this model of education. I think that if you give students a choice and let them choose what they want to do, they will be more open to learning. I know when I was in school I used to hate when teachers assigned specific books. I never read them. But when we had a choice of a few books, I could pick what I wanted to do, and I always did those assignments. I think this model of education allows children to feel like they have some control over that, and it makes them more apt to want to learn.


http://www.michaelolaf.net/1CW312MI.html
http://www.akgmag.com/article/The_Montessori_School_Philosophy.htm
http://www.nndb.com/people/189/000108862/

Teaching Columbus Day and Thanksgiving

"In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...." I'm sure we've all learned this poem about Columbus, I know I have. When I was in elementary school I was taught that Columbus was brave explorer who sailed the world looking for new land, and when he found it in America, helped the Native Americans, and treated them with kindness and respect. This poem even says that. It says he rejoiced at the sight of the Native Americans. According to the article "We Have No Reason To Celebrate An Invasion", that wasn't the case. The article states that Columbus' invasion of American caused the Native Americans much demise, and still destroys they're people today. The Native Americans agree that Columbus did give them some useful things, such as horses, which they use to high military art, and beads, which they used to a high art as well. Despite those things, the Native Americans claim that Columbus is the reason they are the poorest people in America, have the highest teen suicide rate, and are ill-housed and in poor health. Obviously, this stuff isn't taught in schools. When I looked up lesson plans online I couldn't find any that taught these types of things. A few briefly states that the Europeans and Native Americans had opposing views some times. For the most part, they all told the same story, the one I remember learning in elementary school. I would teach Columbus Day in a way that showed both sides of this. I would obviously use age appropriate books and activities. 

When I was taught about Thanksgiving in elementary school we did many things. We made turkeys with outlines of our hands, made pilgrim hats out of construction paper, and put on plays about the first Thanksgiving; which showed pilgrims and Native Americans sitting at long tables, happily passing side dishes around, laughing and smiling together. A lot of the lessons plans I found online showed many similar activities. However, the article "Rethinking Thanksgiving" showed some new and interesting ways to teach about Thanksgiving. One idea that could be used to show the different sides and opinions of the pilgrims and Native Americans would be to read stories that explain how Native Americans may be offended by the celebrations and Thanksgiving. Some other ideas for new ways to teach Thanksgiving would be to have students research harvest festivals from different countries, and compare them, read stories, poems, ect. from Native American authors, and having students look for stereotypes of Native Americans in advertisements and bulletin boards. As a teacher, I would try to incorporate some of these ideas into teaching about Thanksgiving. 

Socially Just Curriculum

In the first article, the section about how textbooks and children's literature generally value the lives and standpoints of the most dominant groups. One of the examples was about Columbus, and how textbooks taught children that Columbus' goals and dreams, and his side of the story, but failed to show the Native American's side, and made it seem as thought they had no rights. I've seen this a lot in textbooks. When I was in high school we had to read a chapter about slavery for my history class. It was from the perspective of the slave owner, and told the stories from his side. It never told us the story from the slave's side, or perspective. I agree with this article and see how many times history lessons can disregard the lives and opinions of women, people of color, and working class individuals. History lessons also often teach students to see things from the side of the dominant group. I think that needs to change. The sides of the story that are not told in history books are just as important as the ones that are told. The side of the Native Americans in the story of Columbus is just as important as his side. The side of the slaves is just as important as the side of the owners. I think that textbooks and curriculum need to open up and share these sides with students more. If they did, it would not only be socially just, but if both side were presented to the students, it would allow them to form their own opinions about things that happened in history, and they wouldn't have to only see the opinion of the person who wrote the textbook or taught the lesson.

Existentialism

My topic for this week will be Existentialism.

What is it? 
Existentialism basically means that every person is the subject of their own reality, and no two realities are the same. Existentialists believe that in the importance of choice. People make their own choices in regards to who they will be and where their life will go. They also believe that we are free to make our own decisions regarding those things.

 What does it mean for education?

The goal of existentialist education is to develop individuals who exercise their freedom of choice and take responsibility for their actions. The students are encouraged the develop independence  self-discipline, set challenges, and solve problems. The teachers encourage students to philosophize about life and recognize and fulfill their personal freedom. The teaching methods most commonly used within existentialist education are discussion, analysis, and examination of choice making in the student's lives as well as the lives of others. The subjects studied through this type of education are Art, History, Social Studies, Literature, and Drama.

*I searched online to find information about my topic, but in all honestly, couldn't find anything helpful. None of really explained how it was put to use in a classroom; it all just summarized it and said that a lot of teachers use it. So, I got all of my information from our textbook, because it was the only source that went into any amount of depth about the subject.