Teach Reflection

TEACH is a documentary that follows three university students in their personal quest to determine what role in education they might have in their futures. Their road trip consisted of interviewing educators in the field from California to Washington D.C. Along their journey, they all confronted negative stereotypes about teachers and entering in the field of education across the United States. I found this documentary really inspiring because most educators had very hopeful comments to say about education. This documentary reaffirmed my desire to make a difference in the world, and what a huge impact I can have on student's lives. Many teachers that were interviewed said they wake up each day excited to come to work. Many comments made by educational leaders in this video aligned with my personal philosophy of education, so I was throughly engaged throughout the whole documentary.

It was really inspiring to hear about educators who at my age did not know how or what they wanted to do, until they got into the field of education. I hope that I resemble the values such as teaching with enthusiasm, which was touched upon in TEACH. I also think it would be really interesting to travel across the country interviewing influential educators to grasp the current educational field and write some sort of report of the state of education in America.

Bright Futures Reflection

Bright futures is a framework designed for middle school students to help develop academic, personal, and social potential through academic instruction. Bright futures bases their researched-based framework off of twelve practices that educators can integrate within their own classrooms.

The Core Principles Include:

• Students have access to curriculum that is relevant, challenging, integrative, and exploratory and is organized and executed to maximize accessibility for all students.

• Teachers use research-based instructional practices in their classrooms that are effective in increasing the learning and achievement of young adolescents.

• Teachers in all content areas use teaching and learning practices anchored in 21st century literacies. 

• Students have access to one-to-one computing technology integrated throughout the curriculum, allowing them to acquire the critical thinking skills related to information, media, and technology.

• All middle level students experience learning opportunities that emphasize creativity and innovation.

• School leaders, using a collaborative and democratic leadership model, focus on establishing an environment that supports the learning needs of young adolescents.

• Faculty, administration, and students collaboratively build a safe and caring climate that nurtures the individual while creating a sense of community where everyone is valued.

• Students benefit from organizational structures within the middle grades that maximize the sense of community, support meaningful relationships, and optimize curriculum delivery.

• Students have access to a co-curricular program that encourages all students to participate, develop skills, be a member of a team or activity, and simply have fun.

• Teachers' professional development is an ongoing process that is embedded into the daily life of the school.

• Parents are actively involved in the life of the school and their child’s education.

• Teachers, administrators, and staff who are responsible for the education of young adolescents are knowledgeable about their developmental needs and appreciate them for their uniqueness.

Middle level educators in the state of Maine are requested to follow these principles within their classroom everyday. I think these are useful practices that should also be included to the high school level of education as well. Middle school presents an interesting time to every child's life and educational experience. With these principles, educators can ease the constant flux and transition that is taking place everyday to their own students. Being aware of these issues and inventing proactive solutions to them will not only increase the educational experience of middle school students in Maine, but help them bring these values with them to high school, and hopefully towards their post-secondary education. These principles, if enacted properly among educators, educational staff, and students will in turn add value to out society.

Educational Issues: Integrated Curriculums

Integrated curriculums are a progressive approach to education in today's society. With integrated curriculum, students are taught all subjects through an overarching theme uniting them together. For example, students who learn through integrated curriculums about the subject poverty in America can gain multiple lenses for viewing the issue. Poverty in America is not only relevant, but can be discussed through the contents of math, science, English, social studies, and health. Students who participate in integrated curriculums might be under the impression that they have a lesser workload than traditional students because they are working on one issue through multiple different subjects.

Integrated curriculums offer students just as much incentive to learn as traditional curriculums; however, it is crucial for teachers to plan together. Typically, in schools that have integrated curriculums, a collaborative work time is allotted to teacher so they can plan units and lessons together. Having this collaboration among educators brings a unique twist to traditional education. Educators are all in one room bringing their own expertise to a particular subject, and working together on assignments and assessments collaboratively to put forth the best product for student comprehension.

The exercise of creating our own integrated units during this presentation allowed for the audience tor really understand and practice the planning that goes into working for a school with an integrated curriculum. It would be interesting to assess data and compare schools with integrated curriculum to traditional non-integrated schools to see which provides a more successful learning environment and academic success to students.

Educational Issues: Gender and Cultural Issues

Cultural and gender issues present another obstacle for some students who are dealing with these types of problems outside or in school. Students need to be represented as equals, and oftentimes that is not the case in the classroom or in today’s society. Often, teachers have gender and racial biases and their students fall victim to an unfair, close-minded educator. Interventions that can be taken to combat this problem in education is having an open discussion regarding race and gender issues with students class to make sure students understand and respect each others differences. Another intervention teachers can take is educating themselves on the inequalities our society still faces, and trying not to replicate them inside the classroom. A teacher who is aware and tries to combat their own prejudges and biases will most likely benefit from deeper student-teacher connections and relationships.

I thought the presentation on Gender and Cultural Issues was very informative. The informational quiz about current statistics really allowed for personal reflection on how I personally will combat these issues in my own classroom, and school environment when I am an educator. Being aware of my own biases can really help not only myself, but my students. If I am a teacher and modeling respect for all cultures and genders, hopefully my students will as well.

Educational Issue: Alternative Schools

Alternative schools can include many different pathways to a traditional education setting that may not be successful for all students. Alternative schools are not for ever student, although they do offer many individualized and collaborative environments to fully engage students. Some types of alternative schools include charter schools, religious schools, and schools that incorporate one focus such as naturist or artists. An example, Mountain School based in Vermont allows students to connect with nature through engaging in agricultural activities such as growing food and maintaining the environment of the school. In the video, the students discuss how their hands on approach allows for a break in the way regarding their traditional educational setting.

Alternative schools could also include students with disabilities, or emotional/social disabilities. Teenagers with emotional stresses and disabilities make up 20% of all students currently enrolled in the education system. Students who are not thriving in the a traditional setting of public education may thrive in a non-traditional alternative school.

Throughout the presentation, I saw myself teaching at an alternative school. I think the non-traditional approach to education is refreshing, and the ability to reach all students through the diversity of teaching styles and applications of demonstrating understanding.

Personal Philosophy Impact

My philosophy of education will impact my classroom in a number of ways, from assessment, classroom organization, content area, to classroom climate, learning focuses, technology integration and teaching styles, all factors of my classroom will be impacted by student-centered learning. Starting with classroom organization, it will be essential to the success of my students so it is imperative to establish a system for lesson and curriculum development. My philosophy states I need to be prepared to set an example for student success. In doing so, lessons will be well thought-out and planned over. I will probably over-plan for my lessons just to make sure students are getting the most out of the allotted time they are in my four walls. Physical classroom set up will follow the same precedent of being organized. There will be labels for everything, encouraging class mottos, and samples of student work on the wall. Actual arrangement of furniture in my classroom will depend of what activities are set for the day.

Social studies provides such as interesting lens for students to think critically about the society they are in and the world around them. Learning focuses will be found within the content, but also include many social skills. Using educational philosophy inspiration from the theorist John Dewey, who believed that education’s purpose was to educate the whole student to in turn benefit society. Using social studies, and the teaching tolerance anti-bias framework, students will be able to use their critical thinking skills in order to make sense of and critique their surroundings. Assessment in my classroom will take form in multiple ways using the UDL method. UDL requires multiple means of expression, which means that students should have various ways to demonstrate their understanding. In my classroom, this can be achieved by giving students choice in how they convey their content understanding.

I want my classroom climate to be built upon respect, specifically students that respect themselves, each other, their environment, and myself. I think respect is an important aspect of being successful in school and out of school. I also want my students to feel safe when they are in my classroom. When students feel safe to be themselves, they will form deeper connections with their peers, and with the classroom climate, they will get respect in return. Motivation among students will be crucial to their success. I want to serve as a motivating cheerleader to students when they need an extra boost of encouragement. I also want to establish a classroom culture in which students are supportive of one another, in turn motivating each other much like I was motivated by my peers when I was a student. By leading by example, being a support for my student, and using differentiated instruction, I will accommodate for students learning styles and model good leadership skills that they can observe and duplicate if they so choose.

"Voices" Reflection

These are the following quotes that I pulled from the "History and Philosophy of Education" packet:

Erasmus: "The purpose of education was to enlighten the youth and thus improve the civil state"

Pestalozzi: "He believed that children were made up of head, heart, hand, body, feelings, and intellect, thus introducing the concept of educating the "whole child" long before the twentieth-century."

Jefferson: "Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty."

Dewey: "Education must be democratic, providing students with free and intelligent choice between alternatives and engaging them in meaningful interactions with their environment - the subject matter, the teachers, and peers."

I really found most of the student-centered philosophies really engaging to read. Historical perspectives are really fascinating to me, and was mainly the reason I included Thomas Jefferson's philosophy of education. I could imagine teaching this to my own students as a reflective practice to get them thinking about what their education means to them. Imagine, after learning about Jefferson, and Washington, students build some sort of respect for their moral and sense of self. The person that they are portrayed to be throughout historical texts, they really are personified as historical leaders and heros. Then imagine students understanding what education means to them, these noble leaders they have learned about not too long ago, that would be pretty powerful.

Mostly, when I was looking for quotes to incorporate into my education philosophy paper, I wanted to get quotes that embodied the perfectionist side of student-center learning, because that is my ideal model. If I am able to articulate that throughout my paper I will consider myself successful in determining my own philosophy and using other's to support my argument.

Nation At Risk Reflection

Reflection upon the Nation at Risk and 25 years later article brought many questions about how the American educational system can be improved. Throughout the first article, it depicts how American industry and companies’ move over sees, creating a globalized economy, which according to the author impacted our educational values and the system itself. The notion that school is not as important as it is in other countries was evident in both articles. The Nation at Risk posed these dire problems that our country is facing, only to follow up with more insult to injury by implying in the 25 Years Later article that nothing really had changed throughout time. I thought the tone of this article was very fearful of foreign interference within our own country, evermore so at a time where we should be collaborating with other countries, not competing with them.

In the article I noticed that since 1983 America has put may more focus on education and what the problem is. However, through the skyrocket of standardized tests controlling all education, I would argue that we have taken a step backwards. Standardize testing is used to measure unrealistic standards of schools today. How are you supposed to measure competency, and then measure a school’s worth when there are other factors that result in bad testing scores. I think if this country really wants to improve education to compete with other foreign countries, it needs to find more true ways of measuring the growth and knowledge of students around the United States.

Teaching Hope: Empowerment Reflection

The last section of Teaching Hope was just as its titled, full of empowering stories of educators and the difference they make in their student’s lives. An entry that really touched me was 150. A teacher is reflecting on her classroom and her students right after a graduation ceremony. A quote that really touched me, and that completely embodies my own teaching philosophy.

“So today, I am in an empty room. No more laughter, no more dancing, and no more hugs. But before my class experienced joy, we first had to make sense of the past. My students arrived already labeled. They believed the shorthand that others used to describe them. When I told them that they would get a clean slate just by walking into my room, they didn’t believe me, even though I could see that they wanted to believe. By the time they left, though, they had found their value and their worth. They left with goals, bigger dreams, and purpose, ready for life’s success.” (p. 356)

I want nothing more to than to embody this mentality with my students. At the end of the day, they are sitting in school because they want to be successful. If nothing more, I want to instill in every student, that with an education they can be successful. However, a term to being successful is believing in the potential you have. I want my students to know that I see their potential, as well as believe it for themselves.

Teaching Hope: Disillusionment Reflection

This chapter of Teaching Hope was filled with a lot of tough entries of students who are dealing with major conflicts and tragedies in their lives. An entry that inspired a reflection was 79. Throughout the entry, the teacher is having a hard time having her class calm down. Among the chaotic scene that is depicted as her classroom, the teacher approaches a sophomore-aged girl, sitting with her head down on her desk. Once the teacher brings the student out into the hallway to talk, she opens up about how she had been raped by her father, miscarried, and her mother didn’t believe her. Additionally, two of her friends had passed away in the same month. The teacher at the end of the entry reflects on how and when children’s innocence is lost.

This serves as an eye opener about what situations I might be dealing with as a future teacher. As long as my students know I will be in their corner, supporting them, I do not know how else to handle a situation like that, other than reporting it to child protective services. This entry made me also reflect on the absolute change that occurs throughout middle schools and high schools. With the technology-age, students are now maturing quicker, and losing their innocence at their own hand, or someone else’s. I guess you really don’t know how you would react in that situation until you are thrown into it, but it is helpful reading this text and seeing how different educators respond. This entry gives some sort of a path most traveled by teachers when responding to students and their own loss of innocence and heavy hearts.

Eight Educational Theories

Perennialism – Much like essentialism, perennials believe in studying the core or main ideas that exist throughout time. They believe that all information, using their ability to reason, remains constant.

Essentialism – The three characteristics that essentialism is comprised of is, a strong work ethic, teacher-lead instruction, and a base of core concepts that everyone should know. Essentialists are very structured and draw from both realism and idealism.

Behaviorism – Based off of psychologist B.F. Skinner theory of behaviorism, behaviorists conclude that the environment, and the reinforcements of behaviors determine student success.

Positivism – Classrooms that develop a positivism philosophy determine truth by what is observable and measureable, unlike realists and idealists. By focusing on clear and measureable information, students have clear expectations from the curriculum and the teacher.

Progressivism – Progressivism, a student-centered philosophy, educates students by highlighting how students should learn, not what students learn. Through experimentation, students will better society and remain open-minded once they graduate school.

Reconstructionism – Reconstructionism educational philosophy is built on the belief that education drives the betterment of society, and is essential to overthrowing oppression. Student learning develops into students taking action and protest against real-life problems such as hunger or poverty.

Humanism – Through the belief that everyone contains an innate goodness in them, the humanism philosophy was developed. Surrounded by the ideas that school is a place to further self-actualization and full autonomy, student motivation becomes intrinsic, and the teacher becomes a guide to student quest.

Constructivism – Hands-on and activity-based learning are elements observed in a constructivism classroom. Students investigate current social problems instead of a core foundation of knowledge. Students relationships with one another is expressed through constant respect for others ideas, work, and expressions.

Two theories that I feel best describe my philosophy of education are Progressivism and Constructivism because these two theories go hand in hand with social sciences, and both theories support the philosophy of Pragmatism. Education is much more meaningful when students take responsibility for their learning, and see real-world application for what they’re studying in school.