No Child Left Behind/ Charter Schools

I really enjoyed this presentation, I thought it was very informative and provided great insight to both of these topics. It was interesting to see this presentation and then I watched the movie Waiting for Superman, which talk a lot about charter schools and how the information you guys presented correlated to the information presented in the movie. I really enjoyed the activity at the end when we got to create our own charter school, it was fun and helpful. Great presentation!

Reflection on Philosophy of Education

There are obviously many topics surrounding teaching and how to go about teaching a few of which I have reflected on through this post:

Classroom Organization: Part of my philosophy of education is that the teacher models skills of which students are striving for. Here, classroom organization is a skill which I would like to model for my students. Having things set up in an organized manner will allow my students to not only work more efficiently but will also show them how being organized helps build more success. This begins with a syllabus, organized folders for each class, etc.

Motivation: Math is one of those topics that you either love or absolutely hate. And it all comes down to "how will I use this when I grow older." Motivation is one topic I feel very strongly about. It is absolutely essential for students to feel connected to each topic, real world application is the key. With real world application, students can directly connect to the math being taught which will then hopefully motivate them.

Discipline: After hearing the presentation on discipline, I began to understand the importance of the difference between discipline and punishment. Instead of going straight to punishment, it is important for students as well as everyone else, to learn from mistakes. Students are going to misbehave, I sure did, that is inevitable, how you handle that misbehavior as a teacher can make or break a student. Providing discipline can allow students to learn what they did wrong and the most important step about discipline is providing a plan developed by both the teacher and student, to improve on that misbehavior so it does not happen again in the future.

Assessment: Assessment is one of those key topics we all like to discuss and work on but it's one of the hardest things about teaching. I would like to provide assessment that my students can connect to, not assessment where they just go through the motions. If I can connect assessment and motivation together, hopefully that will build more success because students will be able to show their skills better.

Classroom Climate: I'm not really familiar with classroom climate, can we discuss this in more detail during class.

Learning Focus: Most teachers emphasize content as the primary learning focus. Although I do value content greatly in my class, I think the overall learning focus needs to be on those "teachable moments." What are students really going to get out of my class? They're not going to remember the quadratic formula besides a select few, they're going to learn how to work with a diverse group of people and how to effectively collaborate with those diverse people.

Technology Integration: As the 21st century continues to produce new computers, ipods, cell phones, etc. we as teachers need to adapt to this change. Integrating such technology can engage students to different topics. With that being said, I think it's important that we work towards implementing technology into our classroom but not using it as a crutch. We need to find a balance that works towards this integration, but not over using technology where that becomes the primary focus.

Teacher and Leadership Style: As mentioned previously, I believe teachers should provide a model for which students to follow. I think it's important for teachers to demonstrate life skills that students can learn from. One of the most important aspects of being a teacher is the idea that everyone is still a learner. If teachers can portray this concept then it will allow students to see their teacher on a more personable level instead of an authoritative figure.

Educational Research Reflection

Overall, I really enjoyed researching this topic, it's something that I need the most work on. This research topic really allowed me to delve into assessment and how to decipher what is good assessment and what is bad assessment. The class seemed to enjoy our presentation; they thought it was very useful and informative which is good to know. A few people said they felt unprepared for the Title IV assessment pieces, which I can understand; however obviously if we were really giving an assessment on a topic we wouldn't do it a month after presenting the information, so the students should be well prepared. It was just an example of two different assessment pieces and how one was more effective than the other. As a group, I think we could have worked better. Rachel F. did the standardized testing piece while Rachel L. and myself worked on the rest of the presentation. I feel as though we could have collaborated better to do an even present the information more effectively. We all contributed to the project, however it was sporadic and not well organized. I would say that would be the biggest lesson I learned from this project. A few questions stemming from this project are how do I do more engaging assessments for testing math skills without using tests. I want my students to feel more connected with the assessments and hopefully that will lead to more success.

Voices

After reading the "Voices" article of numerous educational philosophies of pioneers of education, there were only a few that I really connected with. Many of the philosophies had pieces which I adhered with and connected to, however Pestalozzi's philosophy and Herbart's Philosophy were the two I liked the most. Pestalozzi really emphasized motivation and interest of students. He believed learning was stimulated by what interested the student. This obviously makes sense, the student will connect with what interests them the most. With that being said, there are plenty of different interests that go around, so it's important to teach a variety of ways and materials to hit upon all interests.

According to Herbart's philosophy, the purpose of education was to develop a "moral insight" and to "strengthen character". I believe this is what we would call teaching teachable moments. I think that's important, sometimes it's necessary to drop the content and focus on what the student will benefit the most from. Fostering an environment which adheres to this philosophy will build a community of strong intellectual people.

There was a third educational philosophy which I connected with and that was Dewey's. I liked this one a lot because the idea of growth, or the reconstruction of experience was central to Dewey's philosophy. Reconstructing experiences can only be done by actually experiencing. To do so, Dewey believed hands-on activity was key. This is something I completely agree with; learning by doing is essential.