week 4

Quotes and comments from Buchmann Article

“You must think, not what you know, but what they do not know; not what you find hard, but what they will find hard; then, after putting yourself inside their minds, obstinate or puzzled, groping or mistaken as they are, explain what they need to learn… In general a shift of concern from self to others comes more from acknowledging ‘this is the kind of work I am doing’ than from stating ‘this is how I feel’ or ‘this is how I do things.’

This seems pretty difficult! It is such common sense though; so plainly written yet it comes as a surprise to me. Someone was joking with me once and said, “Oh, you just want to be a teacher because you’re controlling and now you’ll have a whole classroom of children to control.” But, based on the above a successful teacher would be doing just the opposite. They are not controlling a group but guiding them in selfless concern. What’s shocking but not a surprise is the following comment from the reading:

“A three-year study of fourteen fifth-grade classrooms examining curriculum and learning in science concluded that teachers’ reliance on personal beliefs and teaching styles hindered student learning.”

It’s too bad that research and observation have been done enough to note these circumstances. Like any other profession, I’m sure there are days that teachers would like to just do the bare minimum. Obviously we all need some sort of balance in our lives. I personally have not received these negative comments that my classmates are referring to. I was excited when I decided this was the right time to go back to school and I’m excited now when I tell people that’s what I’m doing.

I have been working since college for a textile design company in Seattle. When I told my immediate boss that my husband and I decided I am going to go back to school, she informed me that the owner of the company is not very nice to people once he knows they are going to quit. I told the VP but I asked her to tell the owner so she could put it in better words and help support my decision. He ignored me for a few months and now, six months later, has he at least acknowledged to me, that I am leaving the company soon. He told me I should quit going back to school and come back and work full time. Not once did he say he was happy for me or support as I made this next step in my life. I did not consider myself much of an asset to the company, but even if I am, he should have at least acknowledged that I would not be there full time anymore.

Reflection

I have always wanted to be a teacher in the back of my mind, and it just took time to decide when was appropriate to quit work and go back to school. But, I am mainly leaving my job now because I’m getting tired of it not being challenging and there is no potential for growth within the company. I know teaching will be time consuming and challenging, so that part is covered, but I’m wondering what I’m going to think of the “no-growth within the company” aspect. Maybe since each year will be a different group of students that will create enough diversity and change to detract from that issue. I obviously won’t know until I’m in that situation. At this point, I have been thinking more and more about the student teaching and getting a bit nervous. We are only 4 weeks into the program so I’m sure there’s time to learn more about that actually part of teaching.

Volunteers in the classroom

Overall, I am still excited about the program but disappointed to hear others are receiving negative comments. Teachers who work with young children are so involved in that child’s life. As I work on this reflection process I try to go back and remember what I can from elementary school. I was very close with my teachers, as were my classmates I’m assuming, but how was our teacher able to make us all feel like we were important?

Maybe all the parent-involvement provided more adults available to work with the students. I know some teachers who are very against parent involvement. They don’t want parents telling them how to teach or contributing too much input. As long as there are clear guidelines and expectations, I think it would be good to have parent involvement in the classroom. I always looked forward to the days my mom or dad was going to come to class. I can see how this could be a bad thing, but with clear expectations and organization, it could and should go smoothly as long as everyone remembers their role and expectations while helping out in the classroom.

If some teacher's don't like parents to be involved in the classroom, then why don't they use outside volunteers as you commented last week?

Ayers-

I am pretty impressed that this boy decided to do all this for his coming-of-age celebration. His mentality and comments seem very mature for a boy of that age. I cannot remember things I did for my birthday as a child besides family dinners and one birthday party I had with friends, but I can’t remember my age. He has taken a very spiritual and enlightening approach to himself. I know Ayers said he seems motivated about doing this because it involves himself, but I don’t know many kids who would decide to do this for their thirteenth birthday instead of a pool party with friends or something like that.

week 3

I had never even thought about keeping a journal while I teach. Looking back as a child, I never regularly wrote in a diary or journal but hopefully those habits have changed. I liked this chapter of Ayers because he spent a little bit of time with more constructive examples and suggestions. Using the parents as a resource to provide advice about teaching their child is an excellent idea. At my elementary school there were always at least three parents in the classroom every day. They were able to facilitate small groups and provide the extra attention some kids needed.

The story Ayers tells about his son Chesa is pretty interesting. It’s amazing that Chesa had such a patient and intuitive teacher to help him with his individual needs. It would be difficult to be the teacher in the situation, because what if the parents get angry about his teaching methods? What if they get upset that he is making their child do labor and chores around the classroom? Besides adapting to each student’s need, finding a comfortable place between guardian and instructor seems difficult as well. Besides overbearing parents, the teacher I was working with last year had trouble getting any sort of response from the parents. Some would never show up for the parent-teacher conference and others were very protective of the children and didn’t want to hear anything this teacher had to tell them about their child’s behavior.

I was watching a bunch of speeches this weekend from Hillary and Barack on early childhood education. I always think about students who have trouble learning in elementary school and end up behind because their peers are learning the material quicker or respond better to that specific teaching method. I never thought about the kids who start kindergarten already behind. It’s always hard to start from behind and play catch up especially at such a young age. I have a niece in preschool now and she just turned three. One of her teachers actually thought she just turned four. At such a young age, one year of development makes a huge difference. When I saw her a few months ago, she could find the blocks to spell my name and count up to 30 by herself. Someone in the Wednesday class during the bio was talking about their nephew or niece (I can’t remember) who is in Kindergarten now and can count to thirty. I didn’t want to tell him my niece is two years younger and can already do that. My parents are very well off and I guess can afford her pre-school were other families may not be so fortunate. So, there kids who are not stupid, just don’t have that early education and therefore seem behind when they arrive in kindergarten.

I haven’t done a ton of research on the top, so I strictly trust the Politian’s on this one. Hillary was saying that 50% of a person vocabulary is developed by the age of five. Both Hillary and Barack were saying that by increasing pre-kindergarten education and exposing young children to as much art, culture and diversity their overall path in school would be more production and thus more successful. I haven’t been keeping up with any of the candidate’s debates and I do not listen to enough news or current events for all of this to seem very interesting to me. They had a very good point. Why aren’t more money and resources spent on early childhood education? Instead of higher income getting schools have more funds, and lower income schools getting more funds due to title 1, what about the middle class families who may or may not be able to afford special such programs. It shouldn’t be a privilege but a necessity for young children.

Can Elementary Education be a Career?
Elementary education is not less than a full career. In high school and college, teachers are there to provide structure, a source for answers and to facilitate work. They are teaching you information that you would not be able to learn if you didn’t have the foundation of elementary school. Every teacher is dynamic, but elementary educators are teaching more than just math and science. Children are impressionable and learn from the adults around them. During the week, a child will probably spend more time with the teacher than they will awake at home with their parents. By the time a student gets to high school or college they are more independent learners. Teachers facilitate a bit more instead of working so closely and individually with each student.

week 2

Jonathan Kozol- Savage Inequalities

On page 54 & 55 Kozol talks about the tax brackets for wealthy and low income families. How frustrating. Not only related to education, I just don’t see where all the money goes. It seems so apparent that this school and these children need a lot of help.


The section that states, “…poor children and particularly black children should not be allowed to hear too much about these matters. If they learn how much less they are getting than rich children, we are told, this knowledge may induce them to regard themselves as ‘victims’… and may them undermine their capability to profit from whatever opportunities may actually exist” (57). This comment is crazy. I’m sure some children would feel this way. But everyone reacts differently to things. Maybe get more people aware and involved in this equality would provoke more protest and change from within. If people live their lives never questioning reality, then there will be no interest or intent to change things regardless of the financial situation. I can see how this could happen with some children. I agree with Kozol when he says, “it’s a waste of time to worry whether we should tell them something they could tell to us” (57). Children are smart, they very aware of what’s is being said and not said.


Children’s crayons were rationed? Aren’t crayons like 50 cents a box? I know it is not up to the teachers, but at this point, the teachers and faculty could chip in and buy some supplies or send letters out to get donations for such items. I must have missed where New Trier High School is located. I am assuming near Chicago. Why can’t the governor redistribute funds? I can see where the parent’s of New Trier are saying something like, “it’s our tax money. We want it to go to our children’s schools”. School is not 100% funded by the parents so there has to be a way to provide more opportunities for schools in Chicago.


I do like Kozol’s passage when he quotes John Coons. He argues, “Even accepting, he continues, ’that you get less for your money with poor children, this doesn’t mean such children haven’t the right to equal schools’. True, he says, ’equal opportunity across the board’ will not automatically ‘produce equality’ in school performance” (77). Obviously there is more involved in a rebuilding process. Some of these kids could do more than just cosmetics if they were given the support and opportunities starting from an early age. Some of the statistics previously mentioned in the chapter are pretty intriguing. I’m not sure what I think about statistics because it implies too many assumptions and generalizations.


I was working in a second grade classroom in Edmonds and the teacher’s comments regarding one student had a similar effect on me. I caught a student cheating on her spelling test. I told the girl to focus on her own test and just sound it out and do the best she could. She didn’t stop cheating so I told the teacher. The teacher ripped the test out of the girls hand, told her she was cheating in front of the class and to stay in during recess. I felt so uncomfortable watching all of this. Later on the day during quiet reading time, the teacher told me that if that students reading and test scores didn’t improve by the end of third grade she was never going to make it to college. She made it sound like there was no hope for this young 7 year old. I still have a hard time with this. She has been a teacher for over twenty years. Maybe she just knows the signs, but to me this means, is that this girl was not learning from that teaching method. I didn’t notice the teacher or aid ever spend additional time with this girl or try any alternative teaching method. I was a slow reader in elementary school and in turn did not enjoy reading in Junior High or High school. That doesn’t mean I did bad for the rest of my schooling.


Girls, Worms and Body Image- Lyman


I really enjoyed reading this article. Although Rhonda was still on her diet during the week, the teacher was starting to make some progress with the kids. I stopped for a moment to think about what I would have done in this situation. I know I was far from those feelings when I was a kid. I was not concerned with my image or have those insecurities until high school. I wore sweat or stretch pants all the time, had bushy hair and I uni-brow until about 9th grade. At this point in my life, without any real teaching experiences, I would not have been able to lead this activity as their teacher did. She seemed so patient with them. I want to learn more about what she said when she was trying to explain the difference between fact and stereotype. I’m not sure what I would have said to a group of 2nd and 3rd graders. It would have been difficult to explain it in a way that they would understand (which is probably why the teacher said she was having such difficulty with the task).


I always have wondered how the curriculum is determined. I am assuming some guidelines have been given to the teacher but I’m surprised that she has the flexibility to decide she wants to spend a few days on a topic like this. Do the parents have the authority to tell the school they don’t want their child participating in such an exercise? This is an activity that I hope she revisits and explores a bit more. There is a lot of potential to really push her students a bit on this topic.

week 1

First off- I don't know how to double space. So, this is a single-spaced blog.

Thoughts after meeting classmates and first week of class- I wouldn’t say that I’m usually a nervous person, but I feel like I possess a different emotion than everyone in the class. I am looking forward to pursuing a career in education but I am not so openly excited or inspired as it seems my peers are. I am more limited in expressing myself in the early stages of a relationship. I do not want to throw it all on the table, tell my life story and have a new best friend during the first week of school. I am hesitant to use the word “reserved”, because once we are familiar I am right out wild and crazy. Maybe “cautious” is a better word.
Feelings about chapter one myths- The myths discussed in Chapter one of To Teach really peaked my interested. Ayers stated the myths but seemed to partially agree with them in some of his descriptions. For an entry level teacher, management and organization seems essential to stay grounded, however this is his Myth 1. I have been a coach for about 5 years and when I first started I assessed the player’s ability, made a plan as to what I was expected to cover and what I felt we needed to really work on, and we went from there. Still now, I go to practice with a plan for the day. I like organized chaos but it still involves management. Ayers explanation of why Myth 1 is an actually myth doesn’t seem to clearly explain it for me.
What’s wrong with myth 5?- Good Teachers Begin With the Curriculum They are Given and Find Clever Ways to Enhance It. It seems like a teacher has been given some expectations as to what they are supposed to teach but they are able to adjust the material to their student’s needs and interests. I need more evidence to convince me that these are myths. Myth 4 states that: Good Teachers Always Know the Material. Shouldn’t a teacher know the material? Looking back at my education, I went to teachers for direction and stability; I would have been so disappointed if I knew at the time that my teachers didn’t always know the material. I looked up to them as a body of knowledge and wisdom.
Myth 8 is not really a myth; Students today are Different than ever before. Children today really are different. I grew up in an age when technology was booming. We surpassed our teacher’s technical ability at a very early grade. With the way our society is going, this generation has more pressure to stay in control and more desire for a quick efficient lifestyle. Kids are now on the go with overbooked day planners and attention duration issues. I’m not saying all kids have ADHD but overall our society is always going going going. I think to teach and keep the attention of today’s children requires more tact than before. With blogs, myspace, facebook, etc. educators need to stay more on top of interests and technology in order to keep up with this generation.

Myspace- Should teachers and administration be able to use a myspace or facebook account against a student? My aunt is the principal of a local high school and they suspended a student based on gang references on his myspace account. They did not have any proof or evidence he was related to the gang besides some comments on his page. I have heard employers check websites before accepting a potential new hire. Is that obstruction of privacy or free information since the individual posted the data online? When is it crossing the line?
I have always thought about this topic. Really, if a person has private information, why publicize it and why not just block your site from people who are not your friends? I have a myspace and a facebook but I am cautious about what I post or gets posted because I know other people are going to have access to my site. That seems like common sense.

This being the first journal entry, first week in the class, and first week in the program there is a lot of unknowns and new beginnings. I will continue to initially observe a lot as I like to do. We will see what this next week brings.