Nature of Schools

Our schools are expecting changes by the year 2020. While the year 2020 sounds far away, in actuality it is only about 7 months away. We can see a lot of big changes coming to classrooms in these next few months. One of them is technology. As I myself have gone through school, the levels of technology in classrooms have gotten more advanced. I began kindergarten in the year 2001, where classrooms were not filled with technology. As I got further into elementary school, SMART Boards started to make their appearance. Now, almost every school district has chromebooks available for their students and technology innovation or collaboration rooms. By the year 2020, our students will have grown up with these technological skills and we should be using that as an asset. Even students think the technology is beneficial ( link to video ). In the next few years, our students are also going to gain a voice and choices in the matter of their education. Many students are active voices in their sch...

In every way, shape, and form, the goals that schools have are all important. When taking the poll, How Important are These Student Goals , it was hard to really separate and decipher which goal was more important from the other. It really depends on what the needs of that school are to identify which goals are most important. All of the listed 20 school goals have some sort of value, but different levels of importance depending on the school. For example, a high-needs low income school may not have getting the students prepared for college ranked as the most important goal. Maybe instead, their goal is getting these students ready to join the workforce or to learn how to become a productive member of society. The most important goals that I think all schools and districts can agree on are: 1. Develop strong self-concept and self-esteem in students 2. Educate students in avoiding social pitfalls: Unwanted pregnancy, AIDs, drugs, and alcoholism 3. To teach students work ethic: punctu...

In schools, we do the best we can to try to prepare our students for the society they live in. It is universally agreed that education is an important factor and should be going along with our changing world. Framework makers adapt to the changing times to education to fit the needs of the changing world. Schools in a way reflect the society we live in, even though many schools are reluctant to change. In a way, school is almost like a miniature society. We have our own set of rules, a hierarchy system, a 'governing body', and a social class system. Schools reflect how society changes politically, socially, and economically. It is simply reflected by the students. The students divide themselves into their own social class system. Students who are of similar social and economic status will typically come together into the same group of friends. The students carve out their own creations for how society should be, with the influence of education above it.

It can be tricky to bring a group of people together to make a decision on whether to open up a school or not. At the end of the day, the decision should be made based upon whats best for the students. In the case of the Escalante School, I am on the fence with if I support it or not. According to the board meeting, the goal of the school is for low-economic disadvantaged students of color. There are some positive ideas to support this charter school. One being that the school would be filled with vital tools and resources to help these students who are in need. While this school could provide useful resources to these struggling students and their families, there would be a few questions that I would have for board members on the real necessity for a school like this. Well, by creating this environment, wouldn't this be as if we are segregating these students? Why can't the board members and superintendents develop programs for them within the public school? I feel like there ...

Being someone who does not live in the state of California, it was difficult to wrap my head around the amount of money that state could spend on education. When giving my poll answers, it was difficult to choose between which choice was #1 or #2 when comparing educator training for new reading and math standards or additional dollars for lower performing schools. Of course, I know that extra money is put towards lower-performing schools in an effort to raise the school standards or to achieve better facilities and school-wide technology.  In terms of the lowest amount of funding, that was where I placed after school activities, even though the majority of pollers did not agree with me. I thought the schools were likely to cut costs in after-school activities. While I do not see the after-school activities as being any less value, they are just not programs that school board officials would try to save. If cuts were being made and it was between keeping a STEM program or cutting t...

Jonathan Kozol's article, Savage Inequalities  shows the horrifying reality behind schools in poverty stricken areas. One of the most horrific things about this article was all of the violence that these students were exposed to at such a young age. Some of these occurred within their own families or feet away from the school. Kozol describes these children as being "thin", but not in a flattering way. That means these students are not getting their proper nutrients. Not only is life outside of school hard enough, but the inside is not much better. There is sewage seeping throughout the school. There are even science classes with no science equipment. With these awful conditions, how can we expect our students to learn anything or to even attend school in the first place? It is almost as if no one living outside of this community is East St. Louis even cares  about what is happening to these students. Issac Saul's article directly calls out the problem with teacher ...

We all know how private schools get their funding, from tuition payments and donations. Private schools provide students with a great education. But, not all students are required to attend private school because not all students are entitled to a private education. However, every child is entitled to a free public school education. Every child getting a free education is great, but it leaves people wondering the age-old question of: "Who's gonna pay for that?" Here is a chart depicting where these public schools get their funding from. This funding mostly comes from property tax and sales tax, largely funded through state and local programs. Everything about that school from teacher/admin paychecks to the doors in front of the building are all funded through tax. Here is the problem we run into: If schools are run through property and income tax, then what about the schools in districts with a high poverty rate? Many of these schools get funding from the sales tax of...

In this day and age, our education system is certainly not the same system that was in place 100 years ago. There is the nation-wide debate that our school system is "regressing" and our students are getting "dumber and dumber year after year". These accusations are not entirely true. We are producing inventors everyday of incredible products. Our investment in science and math have made for environmentalists, entrepreneurs, and scientists. All of these things careers that our students have  are promoted through funding and student/school competition. The competition setting, while others may not agree with it, can foster students to strive to be the best, letting them reach high to access their full potential. While schools create scientists, the traditional school setting does not do a good job at providing vocational training for students. In my school district, students who were interested in vocational training could attend an off-campus program for that. But t...

Focus Questions: America's schools have a few goals in mind: -Vocational -Personal -Social, civic -Academic These goals all provide the student to be well-rounded It is hard to say which one of these school goals is most important to me. I would have to say the academic piece has to be the most important to me. The other three goals can all be learned through things outside of school. academics are really the one thing that needs to be learned in the school setting. Reform is defined as "an improvement to fix what is wrong" Change is defined as "to make or become different" There are many factors that would be influencers of change. One of those factors will always be the willingness to change or the desire to try something that has never been tried before. If you do not have these factors, then there really will be no change. School reform has become a top national priority because education is the core of our society. We are always looking for ways...

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1t81mPUHA2dB0fGDB05wcPuZgdho4mFVdW1v__CcX4bA/edit#slide=id.p . School: a place to find the best within yourself. The list could go on and on about what school is the place for. However, I like to think that school is where you discover what makes you who you are. It is a place where students are capable to achieve whatever they want to. They figure out what classes they like the best, what subjects they are good at, how they learn, and their interests outside of the classroom. School is the place where students learn how to become productive members of society.  It is a place where they learn social skills, compassion, cooperation, and where they make life long friends.

Essentialism is an educational philosophy that focuses on using hands-on interactive games to learn or recall material. Personally, as a student I LOVED these kinds of learning games. In reference to the video, nothing was better as a student then when you walked into class and saw the board set up for jeopardy. For students, these kinds of interactive learning games is what makes them engaged in the material. It promotes healthy competition, quick thinking, and recall of memory. Some disadvantages however, can be that the students get upset when they lose or gain a sense of aggressiveness towards their peers if an answer is incorrect. In the video, the students were engaged in a geography game to review for an upcoming test. These were appropriate topics for essentialism because it allowed for memorization. Much of geography is memorization. You are memorizing where states or countries are, how they are spelled, and who is living there. It is simple and an appropriate topic to use to...

Upon self-assessment, I learned what my educational philosophy really is. My philosophy follows the Behaviorism approach. Behaviorism  philosophy involves shaping our ideas by determination and forces in the environment. Learning occurs through reinforcing and responses to stimuli. I am not surprised that Behaviorism is my philosophy of education. Being that I teach special education students, a lot of my class is focused on repetition of skills and positive reinforcement. While Behaviorism was not the model I always intended on using, it is the method that works best with my class. In my class, reinforcing skills is essential to the student's understanding. Because they are in a 15:1 (self-contained) classroom, they need to be hit with the material from a view different angles in order to fully understand it. Here's a look at the history of the  Behaviorism Theory The philosophy that I like the best was Essentialism, which is the one I most associated with on my self-asse...

As teachers who are just starting out, we often say the phrase "When I become a teacher......." with our grand plan that we almost never stick to. Like the video, some teachers end up not fulfilling the promises or plans they made when they themselves first said "When I become a teacher...". I know for myself, I had so many different ideas that would end up turning out to be almost impractical. For example, If there was a due date of an assignment, I was not going to accept any late work and it would be given an automatic zero. In the position I have now, if I did that almost all of my students would be failing! Not to discredit them, but we as new or young teachers often start our careers with the philosophy that everything in our classroom is going to be perfect. After we as teachers start to get into the grove of our teaching and learn our students and our school community, we can start to develop our own philosophy. Our philosophy should be centered around the...

Everything has to start somewhere. The American education system was not always the way it is today. The Only for Teachers Timeline is an interesting insight into an understanding of who the education system was geared towards. As I had mentioned in the previous blog post, our education executives teach to the times. In the colonial period, our education is focused on religious teachings. If we taught the same things in colonial times as we did now, school districts would be under fire for religious intolerance. Like all professions, we as educators must adapt to change. Doctors do not do the same procedures they did 100 years ago, just as teachers cannot teach the same lessons over and over again for their whole careers. Like our founding fathers and mothers of education, we must teach our students to be avid members of society, therefore we need to prepare them for the world that they are going into. The When Did it Happen timeline was a perfect example of how we adapted to our chang...

From the very birth of European colonization, there was some kind of education system put in place. The schools dating back to this time gave a sense of religious devotion and taught the scholarly skills. Our American education system has followed the same cycle for all of our critical time periods. We have just experienced some of these changes in different ways. The phrase "history repeats it self" is such a true statement, as can be seen through our education system. It is a cycle of a great "rebirth" or "awakening" that ends with some sort of crisis to reform whatever wrong doings there have been in the system. Now how does this cycle relate to our school system? Because our society is ever-changing, school's have to adapt to that change.  During colonial times, our education system focused on religion and the teachings of God. During the Revolutionary period, our young founding fathers were instituting the ideas of government and democracy. In...

Our American School System has a variety of strengths and weaknesses. Strengths: Focused on the needs of the student Develops programs to assist students of all capacities Schools are moving forward and keeping up with the technology times We are teaching our students problem solving skills Huge amounts of funding for schools in STEM programs Foster teamwork and creative skills Weaknesses: We do not teach students enough (real world skills) Teachers are underpaid Students are not focused on their emotional intelligence  Notion that we are institutionalizing our students Standardized testing  Knowing is not enough  In a way, my feelings are similarly aligned with the public opinion of schools. I think in education, everyone is so fixated on standards and complying to the state. If we give students a broader range of room to explore their own interests, then we can facilitate a more constructive learning environment where the students will not feel s...

1. Being a teacher comes with various advantages and disadvantages. Certain advantages are the daily and yearly schedule. Not only is it great to have summers off to focus on planning and professional development for a new year, but many schools get out anywhere between 2-3:30, allowing for teachers to have the whole afternoon to run errands or get things done. More benefits include getting to work with wonderful kids and seeing them grow personally and academically. Disadvantages can include lack of respect towards our hard work, lack of support from parents and/or administration, and lack of motivation from students. 2. Some complaints from teachers today are low pay and the heavy workload that comes with the job (hours spent doing work after school). Many teachers today are satisfied with the jobs they have through cooperation from some great parents and administrators. 3. Teaching is 100% a profession. Just like any other profession, we attend school for 5+ years, even earnin...

As a first year classroom teacher myself, I found this video extremely relatable. Many of the answers that the teachers gave to these questions share almost the exact same views as I do. Q: What do you enjoy the most about teaching? Like the other teachers, I like the everyday challenge of what each student has to bring to the table. The students are all incredible to work with. It really is amazing to see them progress throughout the school year, especially the students who work so hard to get to where they want to go. It is an extremely fulfilling profession that brings learning experiences and challenges to myself. Q: What made you want to be a teacher/what do you teach? I knew I really wanted to be a teacher when I was in 7th grade. I had an incredible 7th grade social studies teacher, who made me fall in love with the profession. I am now teaching 11th and 12th graders. Even though the middle grades are my favorite, I absolutely love the position that I am in right now. Q:...