Final Presentation

Here is a link to my final presentation. My feed adress is http://feeds.feedburner.com/cookcaylan

Final tutoring paper

Today was a great day. After two weeks of uncertainty (due to me being sick and the office not doing their job) I am happy that this experience is finally over. If I am going to be honest I really did not like tutoring, for a whole host of reasons. every week I was anxious from the time I got into the school until the time I left. This anxiety was solely based on my intense fear of the kids. The day before I tutored I would spend most of the night worrying about what I was going to wear or stressing over whether or not the kids would see my pimple, I felt like I was back in middle school the second my foot stepped inside the classroom. I know from this experience that in no way shape or form do I want to teach middle school. 

I did get a boost of confidence from my students this week that I think would have been helpful if I had received it earlier in the semester. This week we were covering the antebellum period directly leading up to the civil war. This is my absolute favorite area of study, so I came into the lesson with a great deal of confidence. Due to scheduling around 8th grade standardized tests the class times were mixed up and I stayed for two of the hours. After the first class Mr. Jones asked if I wanted to lead the next lecture over the top 10 reasons that lead to the civil war. I was nervous but took the opportunity to get up in front of the students and really teach something that I was passionate about. At the end of the hour the same little girl that called me ugly the first week told the class that she thought I was smarter than Mr. Jones. However inappropriate the comment was it really showed me the change that I had made. They kids went from picking me apart based on my appearance to viewing me as an intelligent helpful tutor in their class. 

I am glad to have had the experience working with urban schools. I don’t know if this is the environment that I will choose for my career but it was great to see teachers that are working really hard for what they believe in. I can’t wait to see what is in store for me next year 

final paper

            This blog serves as my final cumulative posting for Te 302. The goal of this paper is to look at exactly what I have learned about myself as a teacher over the course of this semester. I will examine this learning specifically as it relates to fours areas; who am I as a teacher, what kind of literacy  I want to foster in my classroom, how to motivate students, and what do I want from schools. I am drawing upon several facets of my development throughout this course, including; previous knowledge and ideas about education, past writings (Tozer, Orenstein, Brophy, and Labree), and my experience as a tutor inside an urban classroom. The combination of all three has helped to shape my initial transformation from student to

educator.

 From an early age I have always enjoyed learning and school, as I got into college I realized that I could turn this love of learning into a career. When I started the semester I possesed a whole host of ideas about the kind of teacher that I wanted to be, but ultimately I wanted to be the teacher who was able to get her students as excited about learning as I was. The way I was going to do this was through encouragement of outside reading, looking outside the box, and putting high expectations onto my students.  Taking this course has opened my eyes to see how much more goes into education in addition to molding your students into excited educated young people. Te 302 has been a transformation by placing us on the opposite side of the desk. In the educational philosophies article Ornstein divides education into four different types of philosophies. The type of teacher I want to strive to be is under the concept of pragmatism. A pragmatist defines education as “an experiment process- a method of dealing with problems that arise as people interact with their world.” (Ornstein, 395) A pragmatic teacher avoids being the dominate head of their students and encourages students to look to outside factors while building a diverse social and educational community with their peers to solve problems. Understanding that this is my goal does not mean that this is where I am at right now. The most important idea I learned about teaching is the concept that not every student has the initial will or want to learn. As educators we need to always be looking for new ways to motivate and inspire our students, but many times this needs to be put on the back burner for the better interest of the students. In the reading, Time Management, Weinstein points out exactly how much time is being wasted inside the classroom due to outside factors. This loss of ALT (actual learning time) contributes to a loss of nearly half of the time students spend in an hour long class. This idea was made very apparent during my time at Kiley Middle School,* where my teacher was not afforded the time to build an educational community. Mr. Jones* main focus was to get through the material with little or no interruption. As a new teacher getting through the required material by using time management will be my foremost goal.

            When we first started the section on literacy, my definition was the ability to read and write. Upon further examinationI realized how many facets and categories there are involving a person being literate. We looked at two important articles on literacy from Tozer and Lankshear. Lankshear’s article explains how differing types of secondary Discourse leads to multiple types of literacy beyond reading and writing. “According to Gee, then, since there are multiple secondary Discourses, and since literacy and being literate are defined in terms of controlling secondary language uses, there are multiple –indeed, many- literacies and ways of being literate.” (Lanshear, 13)   Examples of the types of literacies he is referring to include; computer literacy, mechanical literacy, and social literacy. As an educator it is important to understand that not all of your students will have an academic career. With that in mind I still think it is important to encourage and strive for all of your students towards becoming functionally literate. Throughout my tutoring I was horrified at the level of literacy my students were at. Many of the students I tutored could not read the text to decipherer the information in order to complete homework assignments. As teachers this should be our number one priority. Tozer refers to this as functional literacy, “the ability of an individual to use reading, writing, and computational skills in everyday life situations.” (Tozer, 253) Putting these two ideas together I have concluded that no, not all students will go off to college and it is important for teachers to allow students to explore different types of literacy; priority should still be focused on educating students (at the very basic level) to be functionally literate.

            Motivation is something I didn’t think too much about before entering this class, however now it is something I know is vital to classroom success. How do we motivate the unmotivated or alienated students? This idea is what I want to focus on in the future as an educator and now as a student. Working at Kiley has opened my eyes to how hard it is to teach when none of the students make connections with the material. Keeping students excited and ready to learn seemed to be the biggest struggle I witnessed inside the classroom. As mentioned earlier nearly half of class time is wasted on outside factors, a great deal of which I think is due to lack of motivation from the students. Brophy discusses what he feels is the main determinate in a students motivation, “Apathy, not discouragement, is the ultimate motivational problem facing teachers.” (Brophy, 307) In his article Socializing the Uninterested or Alienated Student Brophy points out that most students value learning and would like to be successful however many do not see the value or ultimate use in the work they are doing. The main idea I took from the section on motivation was; teachings kids’ self-actualization and making the shift from alienated to active learner by instilling the idea that school is not about learning facts, but rather about realizing their human potential. Motivation comes from tying not only the bigger picture to the lesson, but making it relevant to each student’s individual agendas. Building on this idea, a teacher needs to be flexible, take feed back received from students to improve classroom involvement. If students see their suggestions being taken they will see their teacher taking an active role in their education which encourages them to continue taking an active role in their own education.  

            As future educator we should be dissecting the institution of school and how it affects the greater society. Before entering into schools we need to have an idea of what our expectations are for schools and how that relates to the kind of teacher we want to be. Going back to the first section (who am I as a teacher) I noted that I felt my convictions of teaching followed the pragmatic philosophy. As a pragmatist I would want my school to focus on what Labree refers to as democratic equality over social mobility and social efficacy. Democratic equality according to Labree is “the perspective of the citizen, from which education is seen as a pubic good, designed to prepare people for political roles. (Labree, 42) “Therefore schools must promote both effective citizens and relative equality.” The success of a school to promote democratic equality is contingent on three factors; citizenship training, equal training, and equal access. What these three ideas are promoting is the idea that everyone in America regardless of race, gender, and socio-economic status should be given the opportunity to be a useful member of society. The institution of school should not prevent any student from being successful in whatever career they choose. Democratic equality looks down on the ways that schools attempts to separate the masses to fill certain economic quotas. Programs like tracking, while seemingly successful, often victimize minority and poor communities, while promoting the self-fulfilling prophecy. Schools should not follow economic trends, because everyone under a democratic society should be afforded the opportunity to be educated equally. The only real thing I want from schools is that they give every child equal opportunity to succeed in whatever they desire.

            The majority of changes that occurred in my ideas about teaching stemmed from my experience at Kiley. I was raised in a wealthy school system in the company of parents who valued education. This idea of school was all I had to draw conclusions about schools and education. After being a part of the urban school system I see how student’s needs are drastically different when educational opportunities are unequal. I know that as I progress in the college of Ed my ideas and values about becoming an educator with develop and mature. I am excited about the things am I learning and will continue you learning. This class was a great start in my development as an educator.

Bibliography
 

Brophy, J. (2004). Socializing uninterested or alienated students. In Motivating students to learn (2nd ed., pp. 307-334). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
 

Labaree, D. F. (1997). Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals. American Educational Research Journal, 34, 39-81. 
 

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2003). The ‘New literacy studies’ and the study of new literacies. In New literacies (pp. 1-49). New York: Open University Press.
Ornstein, A. C., and Levine, D. U. (2000). Philosophical roots of education. In Foundations of education (7^th ed., pp. 388-420). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company
Tozer, S. E., & Willis, A. I. (1995). Liberty and literacy today: Contemporary perspectives. In S. E. Tozer, P. C. Violas & G. B. Senese (Eds.), School and society: Historical and contemporary perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 247-264). New York: McGraw
Weinstein, C. S. (2003). Secondary Classroom Management: Lessons from research and practice (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill

personal comment on Amanda’s blog

I really got some great insight from reading Amanda’s blog on the Labree reading. I too took a look at the section on democratic equality in schools. It is something that I feel should be of great importance to the institution of education in order for society to truly become socially equal. However like Amanda I know that this is not always a possibility due to a whole host of outside factors; funding, motivation, and socioeconomic statues. From reading this blog I can see the contradiction in equal schooling versus individual’s goals. Not everyone wants to be academically equal to one another and as a school system we should facilitate that want. This idea is explained was made clear to me through social efficiency, but I did not know the proper way to explain all of these idea down at one time. This idea that not all children want or will develop at an equal academic rate is a struggle to me coming from and academic family and having my core peer group all working towards a college degree. As an educator I need to keep these ideas in mind and work towards the most affective education for each of my students. Amanda’s blog really aided me in shaping my own idea about these two concepts and how they counteract with one another. When a school can facilitate learning that is equal to all students’ regardless of political biases and standardized tests then I believe education will be equal.

vouchers for schools

School vouchers; are they useful or destructive? This article takes no stance on either side but poses a great argument for both. Recently in the state of Washington urban city children have received the newest idea in increasing minority education, school vouchers. In districts where over half the children are below their required age appropriate reading level a change needs to be made. For some students this change came in the form of school vouchers. With these vouchers students can now attend private and charter schools on tax payer’s dimes. These new schools now give students the academic experience they would have never received in their old urban schools.

Many of the parents are praising this idea, claiming that they are certain that their child would have never known their potential if it had not been for this new voucher system. Patricia William, a single mother, said that at first she liked her son Fransoir’s public school, John Quincy Adams Elementary School, a tall sprawling building in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Teachers seemed good, but overwhelmed. It was other parents, not teachers, Ms. William said, who told her that Fransoir was hyperactive. “I was not getting quality information from them on time,” she said. “For some reason, it was not working.” From this new system Fransoir’s ADHD is under control and he is learning on an equal level with his peers. With success stories like this it is easy to see how this new system can truly benefit many of our minority and low income families.

On the flip side of this argument are the teachers and administrators, many of whom totally oppose this new voucher system. Marsha Parker, the principal of Turner Elementary school is quoted as saying, “vouchers and charters is a way of raping the public schools of students and resources.” Many educators feel that if students start fleeing the urban school system then many of the necessary changes that need to be made will never happen. Already schools are seeing a huge number of students leaving their districts. One school is being forced to merge with another jut to stay afloat

podcast blogging

On my very first podcast I had a couple of technology problems and it took forever, but I finally figured it out and this experience proved to be fun and exciting. The podcast that I listened to was titled Nauset Public Schools: Technology Monthly, by Kathleen Schrock. This podcast was a monthly rap up of the technology that they were implementing in their school system with the aide of technology workshops. When the podcast first began I felt that this was going to be a very informative segment about how technology is making the classroom easier for the teachers. I figured that they would be discussing webpage’s, blogs, and podcasts, things that we have been learning and trying to implement into our learning as we go through this teaching process. Instead what I heard was how easy it was to do their checking or how great the digital camera workshop was. One woman was really excited about her new knowledge of GPS, because her husband and her could now catch bigger and better fish. They only teachers that even spoke of the usefulness of technology in their classrooms were the technology teachers. All of this great technology is never going to be useful unless the school as a whole is on board. Even though these teachers were excited about the new technology they had implemented into their lives. It really seemed like these teacher weren’t realizing how all this technology could be useful to them inside their classroom. I am very grateful for all of the technology that I have been introduced to in this Te 302 class. I have always been very resistant to technology and computers and with the help of this class I have found how unbelievably helpful technology can really be. I hope that as I progress in my teaching education that I can use all of the tools and knowledge I have gotten from this class into my curriculum and throughout my teaching career.  

political equality

Though out history the institution of education has made great strides towards equality for all students regardless of race, gender, physical or mental abilities, and socio-economic status. As an avid reader and equal rights activist I am up to speed with the political strides and legislatures that have been put into action to allow schools to become more diverse and better integrated. From brown vs. the board of education to the no child left behind act, there is evidence that our government has made equal education a priority at some point or another. In this article Labree breaks up the idea of democratic equality into three sections; citizenship training, equal treatment and equal access. In comparison to the school district I grew up in Kiley middle school* is a far cry from equal. In this blog I will use my experiences inside an urban middle school to see how equal schools really are.

First is the idea of citizenship training, this is the idea that “a high level of shared education is essential to a free, democratic society and to the fostering of a common culture.” However this idea of higher education is useless when half of the students in your class are unable to read the “higher education” material presented to them. How can school promote democratic unity if they are lacking essential resources like computers or even up to date textbooks while a school district 5 miles away just received wireless internet. If students don’t see themselves equal with outside schools they can’t see themselves working equally with them as adults.

Second political goal is the pursuit of equal treatment. The government has worked very hard to ensure legislatively that all students get an equal opportunity to public education. The equal opportunity to go to school is not the same as having equal education. Many of the teachers that I came into contact with at Kiley were new teachers or teachers that couldn’t find a job in their specific area of study. These teachers were forced here economically because they could not find a job anywhere else. They are frustrated and unhappy with the situation their in. That idea alone proves that not all schools are equal. Unhappy teachers make for an unhappy classroom, ultimately hurting the students and their education. There is no passion or drive to motivate these students, especially when these teachers are just trying to survive the year and get out.

The last political goal is equal access. This is the idea that all children should be given access to a higher education. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that meant high school. If we it were 1950 Kiley would have met this political goal. However with the changing times and the increase competitiveness, high school is not going to cut it for these kids. If they expect to be at an even playing field with their peers they are going to have to be educated for a college bound life. Yet I do not see any motivation by the school to push towards high education, this mainly has to do with the ses of the school. Education in Labree’s terms should not be affected by ses. These political goals were not put in place with a disclaimer that said unless your district is poor.

Nothing can be equal without the equal distribution of money. Until the government can figure out a way to do that there will always be inconstancies in education. 

Tutoring reflection

Unfortunately I had food posioning this past week and could not make it out to the school. Stay tuned for tutoring reflection #6.

keena

It really upsets me that you have had a bad experince and thats that. You have to look at the positives in all experiences. At first I hated my classroom, the way the class was ran, my teacher, but I didn’t want to just write my class off and chalk it up to a bad experice. I know that this experience is basically over for you but now use this as a tool in your next classroom. Not all of your experiences are going to be fun, but you can always learn from them. Take all the bad things you saw going on inside the classroom and use them to your advantage. You saw first hand what does not work and how that can affect the entire classroom enviroment. I’m sure you witnessed times when your ideas may have worked better than the teachers. AS we move further along in this program we will be given more opportunites where are ideas will be implemented, this is only the first stage. Whatever you do don’t walk away from this experience without learning something benefical for you and your teaching career.

tutroing reflection #5

This week I was lucky enough to be put into a totally new and different atmosphere. Mr. Jones was showing a movie for the entire class time so he prearranged for me to be in a science class with Mrs. Green for the hour. I haven’t taken a science class in three years, so I was a little apprehensive about how affective I could be in helping out the class. What I didn’t expect was how different the relationship is between teachers and students.

 I am so glad that my first experience working with a teacher has been a positive one. I never realized how affective my teacher is at reaching the students. The level of respect that he has compared to Mrs. Green was obvious within the first five minutes. She was repeating the same rules over and over again without any results. She never raised her voice, she never asserted any type of authority and the children played her the entire hour. I don’t understand how one woman can stand up in front of the class and keep her cool while being disrespected all hour. This relationship dwindled all the way down to me. Her relationship is so bad that she didn’t have the sense to introduce me to her students and many of the kids spent the hour looking back asking me what I was doing there. It really made my learning experience very difficult; due to the fact that I was too busy answering off beat questions. Kids are curious, when there is a new adult in the room they want to know who I am and what I am doing inside their classroom. I sat in the classroom observing her teaching style and for 10 minutes I helped one girl finish up her assignment. I was happy to leave the class and go back over to my students.

I really thought that I wasn’t comfortable with my student, but being away from them this week made me appreciate my situation and my class a lot more. I truly appreciate the environment that Mr. Jones had created for me inside of his classroom. He trusts my education and my abilities enough to work right along side him, instead of putting my in the corner until the last five minutes. Because of him I am more confidant in my abilities to work with kids and really see my work in progress. I am glad that I was given an opportunity to work with another teacher to see that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.