It's Not Goodbye, It's See You Later...

Before I took Premise of the School, I thought of education as a fairly simple institution that followed a standard set of criteria. However, after taking this class this semester, I now think of education as an iceberg, a lot of people only see the small part that's on top, but underneath, there is really so much more.
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Although there are many things that I learned during the semester, there are some particular things that will stay with me as I move forward with my goals. The assignment that was most informative to me, was our blog posts about "hot topics" in schools. This was such a great way for us all to learn about things that are currently important conflicts in our schools. What I loved most though, was how pretty much every person picked a different topic. I chose Gender Biasing as my topic because I felt it was something that is a major problem in our schools today. I felt like this assignment taught me a lot, but it was great because I was the one who was teaching!

One thing that I will take with me from this class, and use in my future as a teacher, is the idea of equality in the classroom. I had the privlege of observing in a first grade classroom this semester and I was reminded numerous times throughout my experience of just how important equality is, not just for the students, but also for the teachers. Coincidentally, on one of our first blog posts, we had to discuss "Why Teach?" and this was one of the points that I touched upon. I believe that in order to have a successful classroom, everyone must be treated as equals and unfortunately this isn't always the case. I loved receiving all of the feedback from my classmates about my blog posts and I think that the two posts I mentioned above had a great impact.

I feel as if my classmates played a great role in my "education" this semester. As this was an online course, there was a lot of freedom and independence that one might not necessarily experience in a normal class. However, I believe that we all helped each other by explaining what we read, having discussions, and helping each other when we didn't understand. I really enjoyed reading some of my classmates' blogs each week, as we all had different ideas when it came to our posts. I really enjoyed taking this class and liked how it was set up, the blog allowed us to use our creativity as a learning tool.

John Dewey

There are many people that can be thanked for the success of education. However, there are specific people who are recognized in the field of education, who have helped shape the society of education due to their theories. John Dewey was one of the most popular educational theorists, and I agreed with a lot of his theories and philosophies.

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John Dewey, born in 1859, believed that students should learn by being involved in real-life scenarios, tasks and challenges. For instance, he belived that math could be taught by learning about the different proportions used while cooking; history could be learned by experiencing how people lived, ect. What Dewey was most known for, was his ability to suggest these activities that captured the lesson of what he was currently teaching his students. Dewey had a profound effect on progressive education. Progressive education was a movement that began in the late nineteenth century, focusing on learning by doing -- working with hands, strong emphasis on critical thinking and problem solving.

Dewey also wrote a number of books, including Democracy and Education, Logic, and Experience and Education. However, these were only his major works, he wrote many others. I firmly believe that Dewey's theories on education were and still are beneficial to students today. Vocational schools are the best example of how Dewey's theories are still used today. Many students learn better by working with their hands, rather than sitting in a classroom all day being taught out of a book. I firmly believe that this option, to learn though doing, should be available to all students everywhere. I think that this is the most beneficial way of learning, as many things that are taught, need to be experienced in order to learn them properly.

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Separation of Church and School?

I'm sure we're all familiar with the phrase "separation of church and state." However, in the past decades, religion in schools has been a definite hot topic, even leading to legal matters in some states. Religion has been and will always be an extremely controversial topic, no matter the situation; people will always have opposing views. ( And they should! That's what makes us all individuals!) I decided to focus on religion as a legal issue in the schools today because it is definitely something that needs to be addressed.

Senator Phillip A. Hart (Michigan): "I'm a Catholic and I hope a devout one, but I think that the public school classroom is no place for me to try and impose my world formula for prayer on children who don't share it, and for that very reason, I don't want my children in a public school classroom to be exposed to someone else's religion or formula." source


Coming back to the idea of separation of church and state, this has a tremendous role on a lot of government institutions in the world, but most importantly in public schools. hools. "In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that religious instruction in public school was unconstitutional. In 1963, it ruled that mandatory reading of Bible verses or prayers are similarly unconstitutional."source. "However, that same 1st Amendment gives students the right that they may engage in many forms of non-disruptive personal religious expression, including the wearing of religious clothing and jewelry. They can pray (individually or in student-led groups) on the school bus, at the flagpole, before lunch, in the corridors, in the classroom before and after lessons, at sports events, etc. They can talk freely about religion to other students outside of class. They can distribute religious literature. If there are any student-led clubs in the school, they have the right to organize student-led Bible prayer clubs. Teachers are not allowed to teach any religion as truth. However, they can teach about religion, as long as they meet certain requirements. Finally, public schools cannot require students to recite prayers from a specific religion each morning." source
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All in all, in my opinion, religion should not be taught in public schools. Of course it must be taught when it comes to the history of the world and country because religion played a tremendous role in the development of our society. At this point, and with our generations, religion is becoming a more personal choice, instead of a "requirement" from society as it used to be years ago. With our world not focusing as much on religion as it used to, our lesson plans should help teach our students about things that are affecting our society today, as there are many other factors besides relion. After all, what are private, religious schools for?

Education is Like a Recipe

Education is much like a recipe, there are certain directions and ingredients that help guide you along the way until you end up with a final product. Education, like a recipe can be modified, offer various versions, share it, fine tuned, and use substitutions if a problem arises.

http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/27673741.png

When following a recipe, one must pay careful attention to the measurements of specific ingredients, as each one takes on a specific task in the recipe. Similar to following a recipe, a teacher must be able to use all of the correct ingredients in order to have their finished product. Just like every recipe, every student is different, and as the "chef" in this equation, the teacher must be able and willing to work with whatever type of recipe and ingredients are thrown their way.

Today, education has taken on many roles, more than it had years ago, and it is important that each learning environment be suited for any child, regardless of their ingredients. Just like following a recipe, only to find out that you used the last of the vegetable oil, sometimes teachers need to improvise or use a substitute in order to make the situation work.

Like education, a recipe calls for specific things that will work together to give you a final product, similar to how teachers incorporate lessons that have already been taught into lessons that are being taught. A recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation is also symbolic of a teacher that comes from a family of teachers and has particular factors they want to include in their career.

Although education can be defined in numerous ways and compared to multiple things, I think that my description of education as recipe is pretty on key. Although each educational experience is different, so aren't recipes; it takes many different ingredients, (peers, teachers, interests, styles of teaching, lessons being taught, ect) to make an education.

What are Schools Doing to Prevent Gender Biasing?

This week, we learned all about the richness of classroom cultures. Until I started to read this chapter in our books, I didn't realize just how diverse a classroom could be, not to sound stupid, but I had never taken some things into consideration. So our assignment was to pick a hot topic in the chapter and ask a question that we are interested in, so you guessed it, my question is, "What are schools doing to prevent gender biasing?" I chose this as my question because during my high school years I met some of the best friends who were gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered. Although my school was extremely accepting, not everyone is, so I want to know what preventive measures schools are taking in order to provide a safe environment for these students.

According to http://www.glsen.org, there are four ways in which schools can help to prevent gender bullying and harassment; 1) Adopt a comprehensive anti-bullying policy, 2) Require staff trainings, 3) Support student efforts, and 4) Institute age-appropriate, inclusive curricula. All of these are great ways to ensure students that they won't be harrassed or bullied based on their gender or sexual orientation. Three of these stood out to me in a different way, for example, adopting a comprehensive anti-bullying policy. What they mean by this is incorporating sexual orientation into the group of categories that defines bullying. While I was in school, I never recall seeing sexual orientation as one of the groups, but I am so glad that it is finally included. Supporting student efforts is also a great way for teachers to help ensure a zero-tolderance policy when it comes to bullying. This is also a great way for teachers to build positive relationships with their students! Whether it is being an adviser to a Gay-Straight Alliance Club, supporting ally week, or partaking in the day of silence, teachers are students most valuable resources. Number four, institute age-appropriate, inclusive curricula was the one that stood out most to me because I had never really thought of it like this. Obviously, students need to be taught at an extremely young age that bullying is unacceptable, and I believe that teachers are the ones who aid most in this. However, trying to explain to a 6-year-old why they shouldn't use a certain word because it is offensive to some, isn't the easiest thing to do. As teachers, we need to be able to help young children both learn AND understand why bad things are bad, not just tell them they are bad.


If schools throughout the nation work hard at these four "goals" to elimate gender bullying completely, students will no longer live in fear while at school. When I was in high school, there were a few teachers who were openly gay, and they were some of the school's favorites; I think that can be summed up as many students had respect for the fact that these teachers fully embraced who they were. During one year of high school, the day of silence had the most people partaking than they ever had before. There will always be an exception to the rule when it comes to schools who are making big strides forward, as there will be schools who still have this as an ongoing issue. However, it is up to us as teachers to make it stop and create an equal learning environment for everyone!

http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/library/record/2418.html?state=&type=antibullying
http://www.westfield.ma.edu/center/images/bullyProofTeens175px.jpg
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Poafo8EaS2MC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=gender+bullying+in+schools&ots=OgUiJSf7Wc&sig=53SRzfakEl7wOpgZliKOvcsK9qw#v=onepage&q=gender%20bullying%20in%20schools&f=false

What are Schools Doing About Bullying?

What are schools doing about bullying? That's the question I chose to ask this week. After much research, I found a lot of interesting websites and articles that told me what schools are and aren't doing about bullying, and some of the statistics that come with it.

Some of the statistics, although disturbing, were quite interesting:

-About 56% of students have witnessed some type of bullying while present at school.
- 15% of the student population that doesn't show up to school blame it on the fear of being bullied in school.
-A giant 71% of students report bullying as an "ongoing" issue.
- 1 out of every 10 students drop out of school due to bullying.
-There are about 282,000 students that are allegedly attacked each month in high schools throughout the nation.

So, what are teachers and administrations in schools around the nation doing to prevent bullying? How are they ensuring their students that they won't become victims to bullying? Where can students go for support? There are so many questions...and answers...when it comes to this topic that is so "hot" throughout our nation.

There are many websites and support groups for victims of bullying, both physical and cyber. Www.stopbullying.gov is a great website to go to for information about ways on how to stop bullying and how educators have recognized this as a disease throughout school systems nationwide. On this website, there are links for both, "How do I get help?" and "Recognize the Warning Signs." Both of this were very informational from more than one perspective. It's refreshing to see how much schools have already taken action against this awful monster.

Another website that can serve as a support system to students who are being bullied is, http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/problems/bullies.html. Here, students can learn the difference between regular bullying and cyberbullying, articles regarding school violence, and q&a's about talking to adults about bullying. I found this website to be extremely informational as well.

As for me, bullying will never be tolerated in my classroom. Fortunately, having worked with kids for so long, I feel like I can recognize bullying and unacceptable behavior fairly easily. I can honestly say that I'm not entirely sure how I would handle a bullying situation, I know that I would remove the children from one another and deal with the "bully" at a higher administrative level. I think that we all know where I stand on this topic, it's absolutely unacceptable. Everyone needs to be accepted equally and everything else will fall into place, right now there's just too much resistance. But, I firmly believe that if we all work together, we can end bullying for good.

Sources:
http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-statistics-2010.html
http://www.stopbullying.gov/index.html
http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/problems/bullies.html

Why Teach?

Why teach? It's such an important question, yet there's such a vast array of answers. To me, teachers teach to impact their students, to have a positive affect on their education and their experience. Although this is a very general question to the teacher population, after some research, there seemed to be a very common theme amongst them. No matter what type of classroom setting one is in, all teachers strive to be the best they can be, not only for their students, but for themselves. An important topic that has come up in very recent years is equality in the classroom. So much has changed since our generation was in elementary school, but it's hard to see that difference when people aren't willing to be accepting. It holds true, with most education professionals, that if at least ONE child is influenced or impacted in a positive way, our goal has been reached. These children are our future, and we are the ones responsible for teaching them wrong from right. Along with the lessons of acceptance and equality, teachers also teach in order to grow and advance personally and professionally. This is such an important aspect of teaching because it truly helps teachers reach their fullest potential. Although most teachers have an experience or person that they attach to why they became a teacher, the main idea and goal of teachers today is to impact their students positively in a equal classroom environment. I chose this image because I felt it really showed just how much we need to be aware of both inside and outside of the classroom. Obviously the student wasn't taught about diversity and how to deal with nothing being the same. So, why do you teach?

http://teach.gov/why-teach/make-impact

Me!

Hey everyone, my name is Staci, I'm a senior at SSU, majoring in Sociology with a concentration in Child Studies. I'm really excited to finally be taking some classes that pertain to my major, and education is right up my alley. Although I do not want to directly teach in a classroom, I want to work with kids and help change their lives. I had an amazing experience with my education and I want to be able to share that with others. When I'm not at school or studying, I enjoy hanging out with my family, friends, and boyfriend. I really enjoy watching sports and just having a good time. I'm a pretty simple person and I look forward to sharing things with you on my blog!