Voices

I was impressed with how thorough this overview of educational philosophies was. It was organized in a way that made sense--it could have been grouped by most common attributes or by categories like "existentialism" and "pragmatism" but the choice to make it a timeline was a good one, I think. That way, not only do we get to see what the prevailing educational ideas of a certain time were, but we can see how they grow and change over the centuries. I was also interested to see some of the teachers on this list--Jesus and Native Americans particularly. I didn't apply any of their teaching strategies to my own philosophy, but I was interested to read about their values from an educational perspective. It seems the authors spent some time rooting around through passages in the bible and researching Native American social structure in order to write a pretty comprehensive and concise summary of their educational beliefs. It made the summaries of the other great thinkers seem more informed, as well.

As for my personal favorites, I think that in order of their greatest help to my personal philosophy, it would have to be Piaget, Counts, Froebel, and Aquinas.

I liked Piaget's pragmatic approach to student learning, and his belief that content of a higher level of thinking should be introduced when the student is intellectually mature enough to get the most from it. His emphasis on cooperation also falls in line with my own ideas, though i don't think it is quite as essential to the "real exchange of thought and discussion" as he might.

Counts' idealization of the teaching profession is an important idea. I liked how earnest he is in his belief that teaching has the most direct effect on mankind. As teachers we are responsible for educating future generations, who will be responsible for making the decisions that shape future societies. I think that this can be considered the most important profession of all.

Froebel is like me in that he rejects the idea of a child being able to be "shaped or bent" or starting off with a blank slate. His introduction of early childhood teaching tools and activities stem from a belief that every child has their own unique talent, something that I agree with. the quote "In play a child reveals his own original power" is one that I can really get behind. It emphasizes my belief that students all have unique qualities, but they must exercise them in order to bring them to the surface.

Aquinas' ideas on character development made an impression on me, especially the importance he places on giving students the opportunities to make good choices. I believe that each student has the "potential for knowledge" of Aquinas' vision, but that it must come from their interactions within their lives. I also appreciated the idea that if one "accustoms" students to being virtuous, they will remain virtuous throughout their lives. I think this idea is a little lofty and foolishly optimistic, but it is a hopeful idea nonetheless. Being a good role model to your students would be a good way to work this into your classroom without acting as though you know what it takes to be virtuous (hint: no one does.) There are some glimpses of the idealistic "teacher knows the truth" attitude in Aquinas' philosophies, however, and I am not sure I agree with everything he stands for.

Personal Philosophy Reflection

Classroom Organization
I'm not sure how much say I will have in the physical placement of things in my class, but I really don't think it matters much beyond moving the desks into either groups or a circle, depending on the activity. I find rows of seats to be intimidating, and I have a gut feeling that, while it might help keep students from peering over at their friends' work without being seen, it doesn't keep them any more motivated or engaged. Other than that, I think I will position my personal work space somewhere in one of the corners of the classroom so that I can counsel students during class time without making them sit or stand up in everyone's plain view.

Motivation
This is a tough area for every teacher. For the most part, I feel as though every rationale I've made up on all of my lesson plans just isn't good enough. I feel as though I'm trying to arrive at an elusive "right" answer that I can use as a retort to every rationale prompt, but it is the same "right" answer that has plagued the pedagogies of countless teachers and educational philosophers throughout history. What keeps a student motivated? Personally, I think that all examples depend on the student's interest in the subject. This is not always easy to achieve, but if you can help a student not just relate to the subject, but to gain an active personal interest in it, you will hold their attention for as long as you can keep feeding them more information about it.

Discipline
The punishment should fit the crime, and there are always exceptions to rules. A teacher's judgment can be the most prominent thing that a student experiences, and if it is handled the wrong way, the teacher will be made an immediate enemy of that student, undoing however many weeks or months of respect has been gained. I think that the administration's disciplinary actions should be utilized as a last resort, when something that can't be resolved at the moment or in class needs further attention. Then again, what do I know? My ideas on this are guaranteed to change after I student teach with my at-risk students.

Assessment
Formative and Summative assessment are great tools in theory, but I have a feeling that they don't gauge the learning of the class all that well. Maybe with an 80% success rate, 90% if your assessment is good. By good, I don't necessarily mean thorough, but intuitive. How can you tell that your students have been absorbing all of that stuff you made up for the last four weeks? Will a multiple choice test tell you, or just make it so that you can keep some numbers in a book of your students' names? I think that any assessment that gauges your students on both how many skills they have retained and to what extent they can apply those skills is good assessment. It's not so easy to create assessment that does all of that, though.

Classroom Climate
I need my students to respect me, but it should be a mutual respect. I want to have a class where discussions are encouraged and frequent, where no student feels as though they will be corrected in a way that insults their ideas or their intelligence. No one should feel outcast or on a different level of ability, and I have to make sure that my demeanor and action plans reflect the kind of atmosphere where a classroom like that can flourish.

Learning Focus
Since I think that knowledge is the most important thing you can gain to enrich your life, I am going to try and make the goal of learning in my classes about practical application. I will have my work cut out for me making rationale statements, but I think that thing is useless which isn't going to enhance my students' understanding of the world that they are going to be thrust into.

Technology Integration
There should be a healthy balance of technology integration in the classroom. If it can't be easily done with typical methods of student creation and planning, then I am all for it. I am not on board with substituting every class activity with a technological equivalent, particularly if the technological avenue requires more work or setup and nets little payoff to the students' learning. For creative projects and blog participation, however, I will be relying heavily on technology.

Teacher and Leadership Style.
As I have said in my Classroom Climate section, I want my class to be a comfortable place for anyone to ask questions without feeling like they are going to be judged or ridiculed for their input. In order to get to this level of trust and respect in my class, I am going to have to work hard to model this attitude. In this case, "work hard" means "pay attention to what I'm doing and saying" since one bad classroom experience or decisive action can outweigh the benefits of five good experiences or actions. In order to best prepare for the mindset I'll have to be in, I will make the professional distance from my students apparent, while still being someone they can feel comfortable coming to for help, academically or otherwise. I want my students to feel valued as people first, then as students.

Bright Futures

It's interesting to see how schools go about reforming themselves. This is a pretty lengthy and detailed fleshing out of the middle school's most problematic practices, and every issue was tackled head-on. I can't begin to imagine how long it took all of the faculty to do the research and compile these guidelines, but it is clear that there was a great deal of thought put into the document. All the same, I think that while the sheer volume of research and planning holds a lot of water, it came across as a little bit romanticized. Knox is pretty much aligning itself eye-to-eye with NCLB's standards. That's not at all a bad thing, of course. NCLB's 12 core standards are very ambitious and they address problem areas that need to be addressed, but aside from the usual 6 steps of "phasing out" in every rationale, I don't think that the school explained exactly how they were going to implement their new standards--of course, if I just overlooked that part, that might be an indication that they need a little bit more attention to the particulars of school-wide application. Also, describing ideal scenarios in every rationale for pages does a good job of painting a mental picture for the aspiring school reform hopeful, but at the end of the day it accomplishes little in the field of practical application.

Educational Issue: Assessment

I liked how much emphasis was put on the issue of standardized testing in this presentation. We often get a chance to become naysayers in our classes, but it was good to see the problem areas spelled out in so many different ways for us. Also, I liked how the focus on standardized tests didn't come solely from a position of negativity--there were enough examples of why the tests could be successful to make the criticism fair and balanced (though of course everyone knows that standardized tests are the devil).

The videos you showed in class were informative, especially the second one, in which the keynote speaker gave some interesting perspectives on his reasons for teaching outside of standardized assessment. The brief sample we saw of that video made me want to watch the rest of it and broaden my knowledge of assessment strategies.

Your strongest point was that the right assessment is the difference between students merely learning the "answer" and not the "process" or content. The points your group made to support the importance of students learning more than simple, concrete answers were clearly outlined and well presented. Good work!

Educational Issue: Technology Integration

You guys did an awesome job bringing all of these new resources to our attention--and in such an efficient way! Anyone else might have just plowed through all of the links in front of the whole class, but I think that your decision to split us up and show us links in groups was a great strategy. Your presentation was comprehensive and fun and you did a great job getting everyone's attention the whole time. I don't think Grace would have let you guys use almost the whole class for your presentation if it wasn't going extremely well, so you should be proud of yourselves!

Teaching Hope: Empowerment

This chapter read differently than the others--it seems like the authors were able to summarize many of the lessons of the previous chapters with their concerns about their students graduating. I wonder if all 150 teachers had to write 6 testimonies, and then the best from those categories were chosen?

Since I will be teaching at-risk students next semester, I found this section pretty interesting. Though I can assume that most of theses students in the book are at-risk, I don't think I saw it mentioned quite as much as I did in this chapter. These teachers really seem to lay it all on the line. I wonder how much of their all-or-none attitude is present during the scope of an entire year, or if it only seems dramatic because of the tone of the testimonies. If teaching classes lik this is so ridiculously demanding, I think to myself, how can I ever have what it takes to do it myself?

I bet if you come at it with an impossibly optimistic attitude, everything seems to weigh in the balance a lot more (I'm looking at you, entry 149) I don't yet have it in me to believe that every single student I ever teach is going to turn their lives around. Sure, if I am a good teacher they might have the ability to make a change, but if I start worrying that I can't affect their lives 100%, I feel as though I'll be setting myself up for failure.

This whole book really taught me a lot about what the at-risk students in this country are going through, but I think that it was most effective as a helpful collection of examples and counter-examples for the kind of teacher I want to be. I kept this in mind when I read every entry, and I found that I was assessing the teachers and their actions more than the students. Because really, though there were some truly unique students in the testimonies, the majority of them are all the same--or they are at least all in the same boat motivationally and academically. It is the role that the teacher takes on that requires close examination, and I feel that this is where the book is most helpful.

Theories Abstract

Perennialism
This teaching school of thought involves little student attention. Instead, the teacher is the center of the classroom, and it is considered his or her responsibility to imbibe the students with essential information. This theory borrows much from idealism in that it assumes that there are tried and true answers that need to be understood in order for students to be successful.
Essentialism
Every person has a core knowledge that is essential to their survival. Schools are expected to effectively convey these core skills to students so that they may become most productive. Under essentialism, there is less emphasis on underlying truths to information, and more focus on a strong understanding of "basic" skills.
Behaviorism
B.F. Skinner began this movement. True to his belief that an individual's behavior is determined by their environment, Behaviorism focuses on controlling stimuli in the classroom in order to most directly influence student behavior. Because of these areas of focus, Behaviorism is most closely linked to Realism.
Positivism
This educational theory throws out any approach to knowledge that does not rely on observable, measurable fact. Beliefs about the mind, the spirit, and consciousness are not validated, and all existence can be explained by known laws of science.
Progressivism
Developed from pragmatism, Progressivism restates that if an idea works well, it can be considered true, but takes it a step further by proposing that it should be tested for its ability to work. Developed by Dewey, the movement makes use of structured testing procedures like the scientific method to validate ideas, and learns from them by continuing to question those ideas.
Reconstructionism
This is a student-centered movement that views the classroom as a vehicle for social change. The agenda of a Reconstructionist classroom would be to include an awareness of controversial or dire social issues as often as possible, placing emphasis on the students' ability to shape the social status of their community and their world.
Humanism
Humanism believes that there is an innate good in every person, and that education should be concerned with enhancing that good within the individual person. This movement has little to do with group-oriented learning, instead maintaining a steady concern with the growth of the student as an individual. Humanism is related to Existentialism.
Constructivism
Students are encouraged to find their own frame of interest and to learn accordingly. The development of critical thinking takes precedence over memorization of specific facts. Teaching techniques involve a variety of activities which allow students to make their own connections to the answers they derive from the activities.

I find that Constructivism most appealed to me and my teaching strategies. Not only do I agree with the approach to student learning in this movement more than any other, it seemed the most forward-thinking and evenly distributed educational approach. Too many other movements like Behaviorism or Essentialism seem to rely on an absolute instruction method or mode of thought to be practically applied to a classroom without alienating the progress of some students. By contrast, Constructivism seems like the best way to reach out to every student, since it emphasizes the individual growth of every learner. It is also the most accommodating theory for planning lessons based on the interests or learning styles of a group of students. Since there is a clear emphasis placed on varying instruction and classroom activities, there ought to be enough ways of teaching information that every student can satisfactorily develop their own understanding and make their own connections.

A close section was Reconstructivism. I, too, think that the first step to social reform is the education of that society's population--so school would be the most direct way to influence the future. Since I'm not a social studies teacher, I think that I won't have as many opportunities to implement this kind of teaching theory in my class, but I do want to make my students as much a part of their community as possible. Discussion of current events and social issues are the best way of bringing the outside world to them, and since there would be no point in talking about it if I weren't going to try and get them to think of ways of affecting their society, this school of thought seems like it fits my intentions.