Upcoming Observation of Arts High

I am really excited to observe the Arts High school this coming week. I have observed many classrooms before but I always have the fear that I am going to miss something important. After last week's class I now understand more of what I am supposed to look for. I do not remember ever learning before what it was specifically I should pay attention to. Now that I will be looking through a different lens than I have before, I am really excited to discover what I will find.

We were told to pay attention to not only the students, but to details that surround them. For example, if there is construction outside and it is very noisy or the temperature is too warm or too cold, these are things that can distract students and take away fro their learning experience. It is also important to pay attention to certain students’ behaviors and how they are dealt with. For example, if on student is sleeping or not paying attention, it is important to note the ways the teacher handles the situation. How does she or he relate to the students?

I will also be interested to see how the Arts school differs from other schools, especially ones in which do not particularly have a lot of arts programs. The whole environment and experience will be a new one in which I have not yet observed in, and I am really excited to get some questions answered.

Inquiry Project

Something really scary happened the other day. I was looking at the pictures on my wall and when I came across my calendar I noticed that it was already nearing the end of October. The semester is flying by and soon everyone will be finishing final exams and papers and will make their way home for a good month to regain mental consciousness. I am well aware (and fearful) of the fact that the next several weeks will be filled with papers, exams, projects, and other last minute assignments. With these thoughts in mind, I began thinking about the inquiry project for my Public Purpose of Education class. The first part of the project requires us to identify a question that is personally meaningful and will have an impact on individuals.

I have been running several questions through my head in which I can think about exploring for this project. Although I believe that I will gain more insight and have more ideas after some of the volunteer work I will begin, I have been tossing around two different questions. One question I might begin to explore is how can I as a teacher help break down walls that are a result of diversity in a classroom? Another question I might explore is if “No Child Left Behind” was set to improve education, why are so many urban schools still behind? How can this be changed?

I am unsure as to whether or not I will keep these questions for the project, but right now they are my rough draft ideas. I hope to figure out a key question that I really want to discover and that will deeply impact other individuals. I want to explore a question that will help give me a better understanding of who the students are, and what my role will be as a future teacher.

Parker: Who are our students?

Walter Parker points out numerous ideas in his Teaching Against Idiocy article. In his writing the term idiocy is defined as “concerned myopically with private things and unmindful of common things” (Parker, 1). One obvious essential question stood out to me as I read through this text. Who are our students? We have been discussing this question in class and we have come to many conclusions such as the fact that one of the reasons that teaching is so difficult is because of the major diversity among some students. Parker recognizes that schools are diverse because the students in them come from all different backgrounds. He takes this issue a little farther in his text, however, and claims, “When aimed at democratic ends and supported by the proper democratic conditions, the interaction in schools can help children enter the social consciousness of puberty and develop the habits of thinking and caring necessary for public life. They can learn tolerance, the respect, the sense of justice, and the knack for forging public privacy with others whether one likes them or not. If the right social and psychological conditions are present and are mobilized, students might even give birth to critical consciousness. This is the kind of thinking that enables them to cut through conventional wisdom and see a better way” (Parker, 4).

In other words, interaction among a diverse group of students helps them to understand more not only about each other, but about the things around them as well. Parker is pointing out that you can still hold on to your differences while learning and embracing the social, moral, and intellectual ideals that bring us together. This is especially important in school in order for students to learn to their greatest potential. To instill interaction amongst students, we must first understand that ideas such as virtues and social ideals are not innate, but are learned from others. We must be aware of the fact that the only way to have such qualities is to break the bonds that diversity limited us to.

The basis of....what?

I have studied many times in the past how schools were started, and what their standards were set on, and I have reviewed several times the fact that our school systems were originally built off of a religious and moral background. After reading Tyak's article and after our discussion in class however, some new issues in which I have never thought about before have crossed my mind. For starters, as stated previously, our school systems were based and started on religious standards. That being said, what are our school systems based on today? If religion had such an influence on the school systems in the beginning, what happens when that basis is gone? Let's face it, we're not even allowed to mention the name of God anymore in the classroom because of opposing beliefs.
I suppose we could settle on the fact that our schools now rely on the basis of morality, however can you have true morality without throwing in any kind of religious beliefs? I find that there isn't really one definition on what morals consist of. Many define them according to their own religious beliefs, or if they do not have specific religious beliefs than most seem to assume that morals consist of doing good for and helping others, along with being a good person. Being a good person seems a vague standard for our school systems to rely on, and I'm not quite sure how the materials used to teach would follow such a broad requirement. I would be interested to discover more about what it is exactly that public school systems in the U.S. are based upon.

Haiku

I read Tyak’s piece

I looked up “homogeneous”

I now feel smarter

Alright, so my haiku writing needs a little work. To be honest, I was quite proud when I wrote the final line. Not that my haiku is an incredible piece of literature, but it goes along with what I have had on my mind in regards to what we were talking about in our last class. When reading any document or piece of literature, it is important to pay attention to words that you may not know. After you locate words in which you are unsure of, it is important to look up the definition of the word to fully understand the context of what your reading.

I believe this is especially important for teachers to bear in mind. If a teacher is not going to spend the time to really understand what the context of the material is saying, how then can he or she effectively teach the material to his or her students? Or how can the teacher expect the students to put any effort into really understanding what they are reading? In order to effectively learn, it is important to put forth the effort.

There is also a sense of gratification when you are able to read through an article, and understand exactly what it is talking about. So just don't read, but define and make sure yo understand the meaning of the words in the text. By the way, the definition of the word "homogeneous" is defined as: the same kind or nature, or to be alike.