Solving the Puzzle

In my opinion, the process of teaching in a school setting can be linked to the idea of completing a puzzle. This is because there are many different types of students that an instructor will encounter within their classrooms, just as there are many different shapes and sizes of pieces in a puzzle. This idea can also be related to the purpose of a puzzle, which is to connect its various pieces in order to produce a larger image. Much like this idea, the students that an instructor may meet in their profession may have various learning needs, such as disabilities and contrasting styles of learning, which may impact their performance in the classroom. However, the instructor must accommodate each of these needs in order for her students to be able to adequately complete their schoolwork. Therefore, much like the puzzle is completed at the end of the process of making it, the ideal result of the process of classroom instruction is that each student is connected to the academic material through the good quality of the instruction that the educator gives and the various pedagogical methods that are included in her lessons.

Over the period of the semester, I have realize that the process of schooling is more successful if it caters to students as individuals rather than students as a larger group. I have seen many posts in the blogs and discussion posts of the other students in this class that espouse similar ideas, such as those that discussed the integration of children with various learning differences into general educational programs, and how certain students who they have met in their formative schooling may have been more successful within a more individualized school atmosphere due to their various challenges in life. Also, I have discovered that there are many different forms of classroom instruction that deviate from the traditional school, but are very successful in regards to instructing children in academic knowledge. I agree with the ideological beliefs that these methods of instruction are based in due to their recognition of the failure of the public school system to provide students with varying forms of instruction that will both increase their interest in academic knowledge and allow them to learn in ways that provide them with the most comfort in the school setting. Finally, I now know that teachers have more responsibility to provide their students with a decent academic experience than students do to actually learn, as the latter group is essentially unable to succeed within the classroom if the former group cannot provide them material in a manner that they can access, such as if the teacher fails to support a certain learning style that a student may have.

 

Image From:

 

BUSD - Toyon Elementary School - Classroom Environment

Social Justice within a Secondary Education Setting

Because this is an education course, the question that I had concerned how I could make my future students more aware of social justice within a secondary school environment. Through my reading more about how I could do this, I found a curriculum that employs political comic strips as a tool to encourage discussion about various social justice situations. For example, there are lessons that include strips about the prejudicial views that some may have towards minorities and homosexual individuals, and there are also lessons about the sexism that takes place within our society. In my opinion, employing these strips as tools for instruction about social justice is a very unique and valuable way to help students learn about how to be more inclusive of those who are different from themselves. This is because the humor and art that is included within the comic strips allow the students to enjoy the lessons more than if they were simply being lectured, and the strips also encourage discussion among themselves and with their teachers about social and societal issues.

One weakness that I could see about including social justice within secondary lessons is that it could provoke arguments and conflicts within the classroom setting due to the sensitive nature of the issues that social justice is involved with. Also, these situations could happen due to the diverse nature of the students in a classroom, which may result in their having differing views about certain issues. However, I feel that these potential consequences are unimportant, as each student that I have will become an adult who has to live in a diverse world. For this reason, these students need to learn how to discuss societal issues with different groups of people without engaging in negative interactions, which I feel the comic strip curriculum for lessons about social justice encourages greatly (McNergney & McNergney, 134).



Works Cited:

Image From: Student Journalism - The Value Of School Newspapers - By Holly Epstein Ojalvo

McNergney, Joanne M. & Robert F. McNergney. Education: The Practice and Profession of Teaching. 6th Ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009. Print.

Using Editorial Cartoons to Teach Social Justice - Teaching Tolerance

The Cloud Forest School: A Further Exploration Of This Program

During Module 9, I was very interested in learning about the Cloud Forest School, which is located in Costa Rica. Because this is a school that is centered around broadening the views that students have for the various characteristics of the outdoors, I wanted to focus on this school for my journal entry about environmental education. One of the aspects of this school that I found to be the most intriguing was that the educators wanted to help the students care for the outside world and have an interest in ensuring its safety from harm. Although this school is not in the United States, I feel that this message is especially important here due to our being so focused on our own lives and goals that we do not often think about the damage that can potentially take place in the forests, rivers and other non-residential and non-commercial locations of this country. Therefore, I feel that a school such as the Cloud Forest School would be good in more rural areas of this country, where students can learn about mathematics and reading while still forming a concern for their surroundings.

The second message that this school offered and that I thought was intriguing was that this school hopes to teach the children who attend it how to cope a world that is centered around businesses in relation to the needs of the outside world. This interested me because of the fact that, when these children become adults, they will probably be employed by businesses, and these businesses may or may not be considerate of the outside world that surrounds them. The Cloud Forest School most likely prepares students for this future by teaching them to advocate for the outside world through telling their employers about its rights and needs. I thus feel that these types of schools have excellent curricula due to their focus on the connection between the realities of adulthood employment and the importance of the outside world.

Cloud Forest School Homepage

Cloud Forest School - Mission

Cloud Forest School - Our Philosophy

Image From: Cloud Forest School Homepage

The Banking Method vs. The Waldorf Method

As I researched the renowned educator Rudolf Steiner and his Waldorf method to education, I quickly recognized that Steiner would almost definitely not subscribe to the Banking method of education. According to Freire, the Banking method discourages creativity, discussion and educational discovery within the classroom, as the primary purpose of education would be for the "teacher (to) teach and the students (to be) taught." (Freire, 2). However, the Waldorf method revolves more around the information and inquiries that the students provide in each classroom rather than the information that the teacher imparts. This is done through multiple methods, such as storytelling, participating in plays and creative writing. Steiner claims that through providing a more active and participation-centered alternative to the traditional educational process, children will begin to develop a desire to consistently build on their academic knowledge, which is something that Freire claims that is missing in the Banking method due to the needs and role of the teacher having priority in this method.

Although I agree with the general idea that surrounds the beliefs of Steiner and of the Waldorf method, which is that students will learn more if they are more active participants within their education, I take issue with the beliefs that this system has regarding computers, televisions and other forms of industrial advancements that have altered our ways of living over time. In the Waldorf method, these types of tools are heavily discouraged within classrooms due to their allegedly preventing students from experiencing exposure to nature and the aspects of life that do not involve said tools. However, I feel that if students do not have experience with computers (as well as other advancements) during their childhoods, they will be unready for a country that is built on these tools. I thus feel that students can benefit from an education that provides lessons that are built around various educational methods, but are also sensitive to the industrial demands that children will face as they grow into adults.

High-tech vs. No-tech - The Federation of Rudolf Steiner Waldorf Schools in New Zealand

Paulo Freire - The "Banking" Concept Of Education (Please Log In To Canvas In Order To Access)

Why Waldorf Works - About Rudolf Steiner

Why Waldorf Works - What Is Waldorf Education?

My Results For The Educational Philosophy Self-Assessment And What They Mean To Me

When I took the Educational Philosophy Self-Assessment, the results indicated that I would likely be a humanistic and progressive educator within my classroom, as these were the two categories that I had the highest results in. I highly agree with this analysis of my pedagogical beliefs, as I feel that education should be primarily focused on the progress of my students rather than on standardized examinations and meeting academic standards. For example, the humanistic viewpoint states that children should be in academic settings that recognize their various academic, cognitive and biological characteristics as important, as this will allow them to feel valued as people rather than as students. I completely agree with this belief because students will feel unmotivated to attend classes if they do not feel that their teachers care about them as individuals. Also, the progressive viewpoint consists of the idea that students should learn about what will help them in their pursuits and what they care about rather than what is required of them by academic standards. I agree with this opinion because, ultimately, students who attend college will receive degrees in topics that appeal to them, and not in the subjects that they dislike and have difficulty with. For these reasons, the results of my  survey perfectly explain my beliefs regarding pedagogical practices, as both these beliefs and the Progressive and Humanistic viewpoints revolve around the accomplishments of the students rather than those of the teachers, schools, and school districts.

The Survey That I Took (Only Accessible Through Canvas)

Descriptions Of Each Pedagogical Viewpoint (Only Accessible Through Canvas)

Image Taken From: "Language Teachers Use Visual Cues To Engage Students" - An Article For The Columbus Dispatch Which Journalist Charlie Boss Wrote

Is Mainstreaming Gifted Children Appropriate?

There are various issues, as well as positive outcomes, of allowing gifted children to be educated in the same classroom as their peers of average intelligence. For example, children who are members of the latter group can learn from their more advanced peers both intellectually and emotionally, as they can both receive assistance from them with their schoolwork and discover how to relate and befriend to children of various abilities, strengths and weaknesses through their interacting with them within the classroom. However, a common issue with the mainstreaming of gifted children is that they will not be exposed to the same academic rigor as the other children due to their previous knowledge of their material that is provided to them. Because of this, various modifications need to be made to the work that these children receive in order to receive the benefits of the mainstream classroom while still receiving schoolwork that will allow them to further develop their knowledge.

I hold this opinion because there was a gifted student in my middle school who was in my classes. While in seventh grade, she was taking high school Algebra courses and studying high school vocabulary. She would also assist us with our schoolwork and provide us with interesting ideas within classroom discussions, which we greatly appreciated due to our thinking in a more typical perspective. Despite this, some students were resentful of her due to the high grades that she regularly received, and which these students were often unable to have. However, I do not feel that this would have justified removing her from the classroom and placing her in a program that is exclusively for gifted teenagers, as this would have caused her to feel different from her peers and excluded from a typical school experience.

Challenging Gifted Students

Picture from: Top 10 Education Policies To Make American Schools Unbeatable

The Role That Gender Bias Plays In The American Classroom

In the third chapter of the Education: The Practice and Profession Of Teaching textbook, McNergney & McNergney discuss the topic of gender bias in elementary school classes. I was intrigued by this topic because I wanted to know about how to treat each of my students with equality and fairness, and also about the mistakes that teachers make about the matter so that I do not repeat them in my classroom. When I searched for resources online about gender bias, I found the essay Gender Bias In Teaching which Kathryn Scantlebury wrote. Through this essay, I was exposed to an elaboration of the points discussed by McNergney & McNergney, such as how the reason why female children are less likely to perform well in mathematics classes is due to the belief of many educators that females are not mentally inclined towards this subject, which results in their having less expectations for this population. This helped me to understand why male children perform well in this subject. This phenomenon is mostly due to many teachers encouraging them to pursue mathematics classes in formative education and to pursue vocations that require large amounts of mathematics, which is often not the case with female children. Therefore, it is likely a self-fulfilling prophecy that results in female children struggling with mathematics, as they are not given as much encouragement in this subject as their male counterparts.

Now that I have discovered this information, I want to try my hardest to not judge my students as a result of their gender. I feel that this act is inappropriate for educators to partake in due to it resulting in them not considering each student as an individual, but instead as a member of a specific category. For example, in an elementary school classroom, I may have a certain percentage of male children in my class who are fluent readers, but another percentage of students who are not. These percentages do not indicate in any way a particular superiority or inferiority that male children have in contrast to female children, as the female children will be represented through similar percentages. Because of this, I do not plan on holding male children to a particular standard in any subject due to stereotypes about their gender, as one male child may have similar strengths and weaknesses to another female child.

Works Cited:

Gender Bias In Teaching

Image found on: SlezingerWorld

McNergney, Joanne M. & Robert F. McNergney. Education: The Practice and Profession of Teaching. 6th      Ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009. Print.

Does Early Intervention Truly Work?

The topic of this blog is one that is especially close to my heart, which is the topic of Early Intervention. However, before I go into detail concerning why I have such a close connection to this subject, I would like to discuss what it is and how certain people may feel about it. Early Intervention helps infants and toddlers with disabilities to learn the speaking, social and physical skills that they will need for success in school. Some people, such as myself, feel that Early Intervention is a great tool because it allows children with  the opportunity to discover, through the utilization of various educational techniques by their teachers, how to express their wants and needs in a more comprehensible way. However, other people say that these toddlers will learn how to perform these types and other types of daily activities on their own, making the necessity of Early Intervention unnecessary. Despite this, I know that Early Intervention can truly make a difference in the developing mind of a toddler, and this knowledge is from personal experience.

When I was diagnosed with autism when I was around 18 months old, my mother did not know what to do. She had little experience with children who had disabilities, but wanted to help me learn how to speak and interact with my family. She contacted my doctor, and the doctor referred me to a special Early Intervention program for students with autism. Through this program, I received music therapy, speech therapy and social groups that gradually helped me to learn how to talk to my family members and to play with other children. Although I agree with the opposition of these types of programs to the extent of my belief that I would have eventually spoken on my own, I do not believe that it would have happened as early as it did without the guidance of my Early Intervention teachers. As a result, I do not believe that it would be best for children with disabilities if their parents simply waited for them to improve, as these children would have no choice but to forfeit valuable interactions with the other people in their lives if this was to happen.

Is Early Intervention Important for Children with Autism?

What Factors Make Individuals Want To Teach?

One of the main reasons why individuals decide to pursue a career in education is because the need for qualified teachers is increasing significantly. This factor is very important because college students and recent college graduates may be concerned about the risk of their being unemployed upon finishing their career programs. Although this concept was not the deciding reason for my wanting to be a special education teacher, I have been told by my parents and family members that there is an especially high need for these kinds of teachers due to the increasing recognition of various learning disabilities that children may have. I do, however, understand how people may want to be educators for this reason, as this particular job provides individuals a sense of safety from the threat of losing work while still giving them the opportunity to have a professional career.

Another reason why individuals may desire to pursue this occupation is that teachers have the power to train their students to play instrumental roles in society. For example, elementary school teaches may teach hundreds (if not thousands) of students over the course of their careers. Through their work, they teach these students the essential mathematics and literary skills that they will need when they are adults. This results in students using these skills to assist them with their own careers. For example, students who I may have in my first days as a teacher may become important figures in society, such as the doctors who care for their fellow citizens when they are ill and the police officers who protect their cities from criminals. If I was to encounter a previous student who eventually had an esteemed career, I would feel a sense of pride of the work that I did in order to prepare this student for said career, and I would imagine that most teachers would experience similar feelings.

Ten Reasons To Teach

My Goals And What Interests Me About The Educational Process

Hello, readers!

My name is Nathan Hughes and I am a senior at Salem State University. My current major is English and my current minor is Educational Studies. However, when I graduate, I am planning on attending a graduate school in order to receive my master's degree in Special Education, as this is the career path that I wish to follow during my life. The reason why I want to be a teacher is because I enjoy helping children gradually increase their knowledge so that they are eventually able to pursue any career that they want to. Also, I decided when I was in high school to narrow my educational goals to teaching special education because of my own experience as a special education student during my formative years. Through the assistance that I received from my special education teachers, I was able to realize that they genuinely cared about helping me and other students learn and reach their complete potentials. Therefore, I feel that it is my responsibility to give back to the educational system that supported me by supporting students like me as a teacher.

The link I chose is a short explanation of special education for individuals who are unfamiliar with the concept and with how public schools support special education students. It is useful for this course because most, if not all, of the future elementary school teachers who are enrolled in it will have at least one special education student in their careers.

http://www.sfusd.edu/en/programs/special-education/parent-guide-details.html