Friday, December 14, 2007
Blog F- Still interested?
Taking the EDU 125 and the SED125 classes hasn’t changed my mind at all. I know I want to teach children. I chose this major because I know how much a teacher can influence their students. I want to make sure that each child is getting positively influenced. I learned more about the “behind-the-scene” things such as money, testing, certifications, but it doesn’t change my mind. I thought coming into the teaching program that I would be making around $26,000 a year, come to find out it is $30,000. I just thinking shaping children’s minds is so important, and I have things I want the future generations to acknowledge. In SED 125, Dr. Grace Denison made me realize that it wasn’t going to be all about building gingerbread houses during the Holidays or dressing up to learn about the medieval times. I learned that there are some difficult tasks, but I am willing to get involved and get my hands dirty if necessary. She told us a lot of the bad names she had been called, but she was always sure to remind us that those things didn’t matter. It was the times when a student finally got what you were trying to teach them. Those are the moments I want to experience, even if it means facing things like NCLB and students with disabilities. Now that I know those things ahead of time, the best thing I can do is to be completely knowledgeable of the matter and put forth my best efforts. During EDU 125 I learned a lot more about diversity which is what I had thought most about. I also learned about the history of education which was very interesting and a shamed that I never knew anything about it ahead of time. EDU 125 opened my eyes up; it allowed me to see that each teacher doesn’t have to do things the exact way. There are many different philosophies of education and then they can be combined. Taking these classes made me more excited to get into a classroom more so than scared me off. I’m stickin’ to it!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Blog e: Diversity
Diversity is woven in society today. I think it is very important for people to understand diversity and what it really means. Diversity is when there are differences among people but they are still able to join together for a common goal whether it is for a job or school. There are different forms of diversity in which could be: culture, race, language, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or even gender. As you can see diversity is at large in schools as well as many other places.
When I went to school there wasn’t a lot of visible diversity. I remember maybe five people that I could see as a different culture or race than me. My brother’s best friend while growing up was Lucas Barren. He was black. So what? He played football with us, and ate dinner together; we never viewed him as different. My best friend was Meaghan. We ate chips and dip until our noses oozed creamy French onion dip. Her family lived in, what society would call, poverty. Personally I haven’t noticed the characteristic in my self were I see the differences in others.
As a teacher, I think it is very important for student to understand that just because another may look different or act different, every person deserves the same respect and politeness that the student would want for them. As far as teaching diversity, I think it is important for children to realize there are people who are different from their families. I also want them to understand that it is completely fine. I want to try to incorporate a little diversity when studying social studies that way students won’t feel weird about talking about other people. We’ll learn about countries, and the way they live.
I would love the opportunity to teach diverse students. It would help others grown as individuals, realizing that just because people are a little different from what one might be used to, doesn’t mean they’re bad people. When I watched “Freedom Writer’s” , my first impression was that it was not going to be fun, but as you continue to watch the movie , the kids grow to trust and love their teacher. I want that feeling for any student I have. I realize things may start off a bit tough but that’s want helps teachers to grow as well as students.
Wherever I teach, I hope the students are ready to learn, and ready for a challenge, because no matter what sexual orientation, race, socioeconomic status, and religion he/she may have, I will teach each student fairly and equally.
When I went to school there wasn’t a lot of visible diversity. I remember maybe five people that I could see as a different culture or race than me. My brother’s best friend while growing up was Lucas Barren. He was black. So what? He played football with us, and ate dinner together; we never viewed him as different. My best friend was Meaghan. We ate chips and dip until our noses oozed creamy French onion dip. Her family lived in, what society would call, poverty. Personally I haven’t noticed the characteristic in my self were I see the differences in others.
As a teacher, I think it is very important for student to understand that just because another may look different or act different, every person deserves the same respect and politeness that the student would want for them. As far as teaching diversity, I think it is important for children to realize there are people who are different from their families. I also want them to understand that it is completely fine. I want to try to incorporate a little diversity when studying social studies that way students won’t feel weird about talking about other people. We’ll learn about countries, and the way they live.
I would love the opportunity to teach diverse students. It would help others grown as individuals, realizing that just because people are a little different from what one might be used to, doesn’t mean they’re bad people. When I watched “Freedom Writer’s” , my first impression was that it was not going to be fun, but as you continue to watch the movie , the kids grow to trust and love their teacher. I want that feeling for any student I have. I realize things may start off a bit tough but that’s want helps teachers to grow as well as students.
Wherever I teach, I hope the students are ready to learn, and ready for a challenge, because no matter what sexual orientation, race, socioeconomic status, and religion he/she may have, I will teach each student fairly and equally.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Blog C: Influential Educators-Jean Piaget and B. F. Skinner
Jean Piaget-
He was born on August 9, 1896 in Switzerland. He was a precocious child and became very interested in Biology (Indiana, 2007, para. 6). He earned his Ph.D. in Natural Sciences at the University of Neuchatel in 1918. He was best known for his development of his theory of cognitive development and his “genetic epistemology”. We became a school teacher, and realized on test most children seemed to get the same questions wrong. Each child seemed to making the same sorts of mistakes. This caught Piaget’s attention, and he began his theory that a young child’s thought process is essentially different from adults’. He believed there to be four development stages: 1) Sensorimotor stage- from birth to age 2 children would experience the world through movement and senses and learn object stability, 2) Preoperational stage: from ages 2 to 7- gaining of motor skills, 3) Concrete operational stage: from ages 7 to 11, children begin to think logically about concrete events, 4) Formal operational stage: from the age of 11 on: the development of abstract reasoning (Wikipedia, 2007, para. 5). His theory actually changed the education of Europe and America; it became a more “child-centered” approach.
Resources on Jean Piaget:
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/piaget.shtml
http://www.crystalinks.com/piaget.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget
Piaget & Education by David W. Jardine
B. F. Skinner-
B. F. Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in a small town in Pennsylvania. He was energetic, explorative, and loved school as a child. His brother died when he was 16 from a cerebral aneurysm (Webspace, 2006, para. 1-2). He went to school at Hamilton College in NY wanting to become a writer. After graduating, he stayed at his parents’ house and tried to become a fiction writer, but that only showed him how little experience he had. He noticed himself becoming more interested I the people around him and what they were doing, so he decided to go to Harvard University to study psychology. While in college he was very successful: invented the operant conditioning chamber and cumulative recorder, developed the rate of response as a critical dependant variable in psychological research, and developed a method of experimental research bases on data. He received him Ph.D. in psychology in 1931 and began teaching at University of Minnesota and later at Indiana University where he was the chair of the psychology department.
Resources on B. F. Skinner:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhskin.html http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/skinner.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner
B. F. Skinner- A Life By Daniel W. Bjork
He was born on August 9, 1896 in Switzerland. He was a precocious child and became very interested in Biology (Indiana, 2007, para. 6). He earned his Ph.D. in Natural Sciences at the University of Neuchatel in 1918. He was best known for his development of his theory of cognitive development and his “genetic epistemology”. We became a school teacher, and realized on test most children seemed to get the same questions wrong. Each child seemed to making the same sorts of mistakes. This caught Piaget’s attention, and he began his theory that a young child’s thought process is essentially different from adults’. He believed there to be four development stages: 1) Sensorimotor stage- from birth to age 2 children would experience the world through movement and senses and learn object stability, 2) Preoperational stage: from ages 2 to 7- gaining of motor skills, 3) Concrete operational stage: from ages 7 to 11, children begin to think logically about concrete events, 4) Formal operational stage: from the age of 11 on: the development of abstract reasoning (Wikipedia, 2007, para. 5). His theory actually changed the education of Europe and America; it became a more “child-centered” approach.
Resources on Jean Piaget:
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/piaget.shtml
http://www.crystalinks.com/piaget.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget
Piaget & Education by David W. Jardine
B. F. Skinner-
B. F. Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in a small town in Pennsylvania. He was energetic, explorative, and loved school as a child. His brother died when he was 16 from a cerebral aneurysm (Webspace, 2006, para. 1-2). He went to school at Hamilton College in NY wanting to become a writer. After graduating, he stayed at his parents’ house and tried to become a fiction writer, but that only showed him how little experience he had. He noticed himself becoming more interested I the people around him and what they were doing, so he decided to go to Harvard University to study psychology. While in college he was very successful: invented the operant conditioning chamber and cumulative recorder, developed the rate of response as a critical dependant variable in psychological research, and developed a method of experimental research bases on data. He received him Ph.D. in psychology in 1931 and began teaching at University of Minnesota and later at Indiana University where he was the chair of the psychology department.
Resources on B. F. Skinner:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhskin.html http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/skinner.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner
B. F. Skinner- A Life By Daniel W. Bjork
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Post B- A Step Closer to Equality
In the early 1950’s a young girl, Linda Brown, had to walk a mile to go to her all black elementary school even though there was a white school seven blocks away. Her father, Oliver, wanted to get her out of the railroad switch board path to her school, and enroll her in the all white school. After trying this he realized that the principal wasn’t going to allow this. Oliver went immediately to the NAACP and asked for help. It seemed he had come to them at just the right time; other black parents were interested in pursuing the same task. In 1951, the NAACP requested an order to forbid segregation of Topeka, KA public schools.
In June, Dr. Hugh W. Speer testified stating that the segregated schools were not supplying equal curriculum's because 90% of the national society population is white. He said “the curriculum cannot be equal under segregation.” The BOE defended that segregated school simply prepared the colored children to live in an environment that is segregated as well in their adulthood. The court felt obligated to agree with the BOE. Brown and NAACP appealed in October. Their case was joined by Delaware (Belton v. Gebhert), South Carolina (Briggs v. Elliot), Virginia (Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County), and Washington, DC (Bolling v. C. Melvin Sharpe). The court heard the case on December 9, 1952, but didn’t reach a verdict. On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” ruling and replaced it with a favor of the plaintiffs and required the desegregation of schools across America.
The public schools today are still desegregated. White and Black students are able go to which ever school they please for the most part. Even though they are able to go to the same schools, doesn't mean that the black students are treated completely equal. Discrimination is still prominent. In Jena, LA a students asked if he was allowed to sit under the "Whites only tree". The next day three nooses hung in that tree. There is still a lot of hatred within our states.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Post a- My Lessons Learned
When I was a little girl, I always wanted the ideal relationship shared between a father and his beautiful little girl. Unfortunately, my dad worked a lot. He always had to go to New York, Georgia, Connecticut, or Chicago to make sure his workers weren’t “screwing everything up”. I tried to get my dad’s attention: fishing, snowmobiling, doing things he liked. That didn’t seem to be working, so I think I tried something a little more on rebellious. I started “hanging out with the wrong crowd”. All my friends wore baggy jeans --this applies to the girls as well as the guys--, wore dark make-up, and hung out at the REC Center until it closed. I was right; I started getting more attention from my dad. It just wasn’t the kind I wanted. He told me that people associate who you hang out with to your own personality. Basically he was saying if they were doing something bad, everyone thought I was too. I stood my ground and continuously disagreed with him, “Just because they’re smoking pot doesn’t mean I am!” Well needless to say, the people I was “befriending” got caught at school with drugs. Once they were found guilty, I was called down to the office and was questioned. I honestly didn’t realize that people did assume I was doing what they were. I learned that day that not only is it important to pick friends with some self respect, but that society does hold an image on cliques. I slowing stopped returning there calls, stopped hanging out at the REC, and began to flourish in a new group of friends.
Adventure has always been a huge interest in my life. My brother and I used to get our bathing suits on and adventure into the backyard known as the Mud pits. We dressed each with clay designs, and soon transform into “The Mud Monsters” to try to scare our mother. I used to find the tallest trees, usually pine trees, and climb as far up as I could. I loved the sense of excitement and something new. In 2003, my freshman year in high school, I was offered a trip to Australia and New Zealand with the Maine People to People Student Ambassador Program. I was so thrilled at first. I called all m friends, did tons of research, and assumed my parents would pay for the trip. I was wrong. After nine months of fund raising I eventually earned $6,000 to make the trip fees. As the time neared to go on our trip, the P2P group (as we all used to nickname it) started meeting and having little homework assignments. When it came down to actually filling out the forms, and placing my signature down next to my parents, I nearly backed out. I told them I didn’t want to go. It was stupid; I don’t know any one going! I didn’t care I was going to have to give all that money back: basically I through a little childish act because I didn’t know anyone. I wasn’t about to go to a continent fourteen hours away from the west coast of my own country with absolutely no one I knew. After talking to my parents they basically said, “Too bad! You’re going and you’re going to have fun!” The day of the trip, I was so hateful toward my parent; how could they be so mean to send me away for a summer with absolutely no one? Again, needless to say my parents were right. I went on the trip, and met some of the most important people of my life. I learned that being shy is overrated. I still have a really hard time over coming that part of me, but once I do, I’m tons of fun. It really isn’t worth missing out on climbing the Sydney Bridge just because I’m shy.
I always listened to everyone talk about how important their family is to them, but I never really felt like family was that much of a big deal in my life. Yeah, I love my family, and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to them, but I didn’t think that was exactly the “importance” people were talking about. This past winter, probably in February, my boyfriend and I went to New Jersey to visit my dad while he was working; we wanted to go to New York and the Jersey Shore. When we came home from New York, we got a phone call from my dad’s step mother. My Grandpa Don was in the hospital, and they recommended coming home immediately if we wanted to see him before he passed. We didn’t even think twice. My clothes were no longer thrown all over the room, our portable bed was deflated and rolled up, and the trucks were packed up and ready to move within twenty minutes. We got to the hospital a little after midnight to find my grandfather was still alive but didn’t know who anyone was and wasn’t making any sense of anything. None of the doctors knew what was going on. He had all the signs of a stroke, but without having one. We stayed at the hospital for a week and a half. My ten-year-old sister, Rylee, stayed with our aunt so she could go to school, but I refused to leave the waiting room. The entire time I was there, I was only able to actually go see him once. It wasn’t because the doctors wanted him to rest, or my parents didn’t think I should see him in that condition; I just couldn’t… I knew that deep down he knew he had all of us there: my Grandma Sally, my Grandma Bulldog, Aunt Leslie, my two cousins, and my family- my mom, dad, my boyfriend and me. I feel like even though he wasn’t able to understand who we were or at least let us know he knew who we were, he still knew we loved him. I think if he felt like no one cared and loved him, he would have stop fighting. Family is important. Everyone just has a different reason why.
Adventure has always been a huge interest in my life. My brother and I used to get our bathing suits on and adventure into the backyard known as the Mud pits. We dressed each with clay designs, and soon transform into “The Mud Monsters” to try to scare our mother. I used to find the tallest trees, usually pine trees, and climb as far up as I could. I loved the sense of excitement and something new. In 2003, my freshman year in high school, I was offered a trip to Australia and New Zealand with the Maine People to People Student Ambassador Program. I was so thrilled at first. I called all m friends, did tons of research, and assumed my parents would pay for the trip. I was wrong. After nine months of fund raising I eventually earned $6,000 to make the trip fees. As the time neared to go on our trip, the P2P group (as we all used to nickname it) started meeting and having little homework assignments. When it came down to actually filling out the forms, and placing my signature down next to my parents, I nearly backed out. I told them I didn’t want to go. It was stupid; I don’t know any one going! I didn’t care I was going to have to give all that money back: basically I through a little childish act because I didn’t know anyone. I wasn’t about to go to a continent fourteen hours away from the west coast of my own country with absolutely no one I knew. After talking to my parents they basically said, “Too bad! You’re going and you’re going to have fun!” The day of the trip, I was so hateful toward my parent; how could they be so mean to send me away for a summer with absolutely no one? Again, needless to say my parents were right. I went on the trip, and met some of the most important people of my life. I learned that being shy is overrated. I still have a really hard time over coming that part of me, but once I do, I’m tons of fun. It really isn’t worth missing out on climbing the Sydney Bridge just because I’m shy.
I always listened to everyone talk about how important their family is to them, but I never really felt like family was that much of a big deal in my life. Yeah, I love my family, and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to them, but I didn’t think that was exactly the “importance” people were talking about. This past winter, probably in February, my boyfriend and I went to New Jersey to visit my dad while he was working; we wanted to go to New York and the Jersey Shore. When we came home from New York, we got a phone call from my dad’s step mother. My Grandpa Don was in the hospital, and they recommended coming home immediately if we wanted to see him before he passed. We didn’t even think twice. My clothes were no longer thrown all over the room, our portable bed was deflated and rolled up, and the trucks were packed up and ready to move within twenty minutes. We got to the hospital a little after midnight to find my grandfather was still alive but didn’t know who anyone was and wasn’t making any sense of anything. None of the doctors knew what was going on. He had all the signs of a stroke, but without having one. We stayed at the hospital for a week and a half. My ten-year-old sister, Rylee, stayed with our aunt so she could go to school, but I refused to leave the waiting room. The entire time I was there, I was only able to actually go see him once. It wasn’t because the doctors wanted him to rest, or my parents didn’t think I should see him in that condition; I just couldn’t… I knew that deep down he knew he had all of us there: my Grandma Sally, my Grandma Bulldog, Aunt Leslie, my two cousins, and my family- my mom, dad, my boyfriend and me. I feel like even though he wasn’t able to understand who we were or at least let us know he knew who we were, he still knew we loved him. I think if he felt like no one cared and loved him, he would have stop fighting. Family is important. Everyone just has a different reason why.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)