Humanism: As a Humanist, I believe in humanity and compassion. This theory is focused upon rationality and reality. The primary focus of this was to respect individuals and to create a compassionate environment. This can be used in a manner related to religion or knowledge. The idea is that the role of the individual is to promote wide spread human welfare.
Perennialism: The notion of the universal. It is dependent upon culture, yet does not necessarily require direct recognition. This has been the foundation of Hinduism, and it is believed that all individuals model some form of this theory, regardless of whether they are aware.
Essentialism: These are considered essential ideas that all must live by. In education, learning consists of traditional learning styles and subjects, with limited room for discussion or open ended topics. The subjects of essentialism are generally math, literature, science and history.
Behaviorism: This theory states that environment controls behavior, thus behavior is maintainable and manageable by the teacher.
Positivism: This theory states that all knowledge is based in positive evidence and reinforcement. This is generally applied in science.
Progressivism: Here we begin to enter the theory that humans are social animals. Students are encouraged to work in pairs and to develop their thinking with peers. Students are permitted to build upon one another.
Reconstructionism: Again, socialization is highly encouraged. Students are encouraged to build upon one another and is aimed at creating a better society.
Constructivism: This theory suggests that individuals learn through experience. This theory has been debated.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Personal Reflection
During elementary school, I’m sure that my parents expected that I would receive a basic foundation of knowledge, yet I believe that their primary concern was based upon my socialization. My parents have always believed that learning will not be successful without first gaining friends with whom to share these experiences.
During middle school, my teachers really seemed much more focused upon conveying information than upon deeper learning. We were placed in houses, yet there was no real feeling of community between students and certainly no team teaching. While I did experience caring teachers, I believe that many of these teachers struggled to balance the amount of information they were asked to convey and the ever changing needs of young adolescents. At this age, my parents were focused upon classes that would help me to succeed while in high school. I had a strong friend group in middle school, thus they worried much more about my academics than whether I was maintaining friends. I think that I became much more invested in friends and peer acceptance during middle school than I did academics. While I cared about how I performed in school, I was very nervous about being accepted by my peers. While in seventh grade, I broke my ankle in the middle of winter and was terrified of going to school in a cast and crutches. Sure enough, during the first week with crutches, I slipped and fell in the hall in front of my entire grade. While this is something I would absolutely laugh at now, I was mortified at the time. School itself definitely took a back seat for me during this time of my life, and I do not think I was able to focus upon academic over social until high school.
Our teachers expected far more of us in high school, which was great for me. The teachers slowly scaffolded our lessons to ensure that we were becoming more independent within our learning, thus working our way from fully guided learning to more individualized learning. While standards were important, I do not remember this seeming forced, but that teachers instead built interesting books into the curriculum that touched upon the standards while still keeping us engaged. I worked much harder in high school than in middle school. I think the added responsibility of a job and a sport, as well as the process of applying to college, helped me to academically prioritize. I think that the primary concern of the business world at the high school level worked to ensure that all students went to college. I received infinite packets from colleges, as well as advertisements for college preparation assistance and exams. Another funny thing that was very over emphasized was all things dormitory. Every store had the latest dorm resources, and of course everyone needed the greatest accessories for their future dorms.
In elementary school, we had one primary teacher and one reading teacher. As elementary school went on, we also had a separate teacher for math. Early on, we were able to experience transitions during the school day, which I think greatly helped me in middle school. The middle school day was composed of about seven classes, and I do not think they shifted the order of the classes much during the week. We had core teachers within the house, and then other teachers that we rotated through for classes such as art and music. In high school, we had block scheduling, thus the same four classes a day for an entire semester. I absolutely loved this system as it helped me to stay on track and definitely prepared me for four classes a semester at the college level. I took mostly college, or mid-level, classes while in high school, with all honors English classes and one honors history class. I also took advanced placement English my senior year, which I would regard as my least favorite class while in high school. The teacher was entirely centered on content, with no focus on individual needs. The teachers that helped me the most were those that cared about the individual needs of students and worked to understand learning styles. I really enjoyed classes that offered a lot of freedom, thus I think my favorite class while in high school was creative writing my junior year. The teacher was wonderful and made sure that we were able to enter the community as often as possible to gain inspiration in our writing. In middle school, socioeconomic level was incredibly evident. For the first time, we were placed in a school with kids from all over the city as opposed to merely in our neighborhood, and this had a large influence on student interaction. In high school, this was far less notable, yet we became more racially diverse.
I decided that I wanted to teach secondary education while in high school. As of sophomore year, I did not know what I wanted to do in the future, yet the more I worked with a particular English teacher, the more convinced I was that this was what I wanted to do. My sophomore English teacher, Mrs. Welch, had a great way of reaching every student and creating fun, interactive lessons for each idea we learned. Although I initially believed that I wanted to teach high school, my experiences while working at summer camp quickly changed my mind and I chose to apply as an early education major. However, this soon changed upon entering college under early education. As much as I loved working with young children, I needed the challenge of working around busy, sometimes disinterested high school students. Despite how back and forth I was for the first few years of choosing a career, I have loved my experience as a secondary education major and I am anxious to begin teaching. The only thing that I would change about my decision would have been to add special education on to my degree early in the program. However, this is a certification that I may gain in time, and I am thrilled to have the background knowledge and capability achieved as a secondary education person.
To be a superior teacher, I feel that the individual must be highly aware of her students and forever working to build upon prior knowledge to establish a deeper understanding of the material. I feel that coverage is long gone, and instead we as teachers must focus far more on creating an in-depth awareness that will remain with students for years to come. Superior teachers truly do need to care about the health and happiness of their students, both in and outside the classroom. Teachers must of course know the content they intend to teach, and be able to reapply this content to create interesting, engaging lessons for the students. To implement these qualities into my own teaching, I will need to know each student as well as the preferred intelligence and learning style of the student. After taking middle level education, I am positive that team teaching is necessary to create the best learning environment for my students. Through team teaching, we will be able to integrate a number of lessons throughout the course of the day, and create an interesting, lasting learning experience.
My personal goals as a teacher are to always continue growing and learning as an individual. In the past three years of my degree program, I have learned more than I ever thought possible, and I have found myself constantly challenged and engaged. Being an education major has been an absolutely wonderful experience for me, and I know that teaching in the field will offer me a continued experience of challenge and interest. I know that I will be able to help students achieve this experience within my classroom, thus I can not wait to begin teaching. My experience in our middle level teams has taught me a great deal about integrating curriculum, and I know that I will take this away with me into the teaching profession. This has proved to be such a strong teaching tool that I am anxious to use this with my own team members in my future teaching career. An interesting thing that I think I will bring to the field is my experience in special education. Working in home with a child with Cerebral Palsy has vastly broadened my perspective on education. While working in home, I am constantly exposed to the family’s expectations for their child, which I believe is essential in any teaching environment. I hope to be able to reapply this for my general education students as well as my special education students. I strongly believe in inclusion, thus I know that I will be able to provide an equal learning experience to all of my students, and hopefully will be capable of modifying my lessons to benefit those students who have a more difficult time in the main-stream classroom.
My primary fear is that my lessons are interesting to me, yet I do not necessarily know that they are interesting to my students. I think that this will need to be something that develops in time to ensure that all students are actively engaged. I am also concerned about reaching all of my students. I am sure that I will experience many students who come from difficult backgrounds and have limited interest learning about literature written by the standard “dead white guys,” thus I hope to be able to build in fun materials that meet the standards but are far less traditional.
In reading “The History and Philosophy of Education, Voices of Educational Pioneers” article, I felt that I connected to many of the philosophers. I found it interesting how many philosophers based education in morality and citizenship, yet morality truly is a necessary topic in education. If students are taught how to act as moral citizens, they are likely to carry forward these ideas into adulthood. Similarly, I love that so many of the philosophers incorporated family into learning. With community support, students can grow in all aspects of their lives, and success is bound to be greater than if they are merely learning at school. The philosophers were able to incorporate the multiple intelligences into student learning, and thus students were given all opportunities to learn and succeed in the community and beyond. This method continues to thrive in our teaching careers, and tailoring to student needs is a high priority in teaching practices. Additionally, we as future teachers are taught to consider the student above the material, and to respect the student’s background and learning styles. I highly believe in this style of teaching, and cannot imagine teaching students with the belief that they are “blank slates,” but instead teaching with the recognition that every student has a past that influences their learning. This idea is perpetrated through many of the philosophers presented in this article.
I loved how interchangeable learning and morality became throughout the course of this article. I do not agree with Confucius’s idea of the teacher as the transmitter of information, with students expected to merely take initiative and learn the material. However, I strongly believe in Confucius’s idea that, “learning and morality [are] inseparable” (Murphy 1). Many of the philosophers perpetrated this idea that morality is at the center of learning, and thus teachers and families must help students to become moral beings. Aristotle continued this theory in his belief that the human being is a rational animal, yet needs to learn to act in a rational manner in all scenarios. Aristotle states, “We are the sum of our actions... And therefore our habits make all the difference” (Murphy 3), indicating that we as individuals must monitor our actions to insure that we are acting in a reasonable manner.
Similarly, I loved how frequently the multiple intelligences were incorporated into the teaching styles of these philosophers. While they were not labeled in this way, there are frequent references to integrating multiple learning styles. Sappho believed that the whole body was necessary in order to learn, thus she insured that students exercised both their intellectual and physical development. Quintillion believed that it was necessary to motivate students with engaging lessons and to foster learning through respect and varied methods. Similarly, Jesus used a wide array of teaching strategies to help his followers and disciples to learn. It is interesting how large of an impact he had upon modern teaching, as many of his methods are still present in schools, “lecture, reading from texts (scripture), storytelling, illustration, parallel sayings (repetition), and silence (wait time). His interactive methods included: conversation, discussion forum, question-answer, and panel (answer-question). His activity methods were: object lesson, dramatics, demonstration, laboratory, and topical research” (Murphy 5). While of course many of these methods have changed over the centuries, it is interesting to see the continuance of many of these strategies. In offering a variety of ways that students may learn, these philosophers insured that the multiple intelligences were engaged and that each student was able to learn. Along these lines, Augustine preaches a comfortable classroom environment in order to ensure a positive learning scenario.
I thought it was wonderful that so many of these philosophers focused upon respecting the individual in addition to the student’s intellect. Augustine valued what the student already knew, and worked to gauge teaching around this. He viewed teaching as a conversation occurring between Socrates believed that it was necessary for teachers to ask questions of the students without censoring what they heard, and also believed “that knowledge could not be transmitted from a teacher to the students, but that the student had to discover the knowledge that / was within them” (Murphy 2-3). This is a point that I absolutely connect with. I would never view myself as a transmitter of knowledge to my students, and I instead always intend to assist my students to think on a deeper level, and question everything within the classroom. I thought it was interesting that Socrates really initiated higher order thinking and learning, as this is truly how I intend to teach my students. I feel that some of the most valuable learning occurs when students are permitted to explore the topic in a manner that relates to their interests and background knowledge, thus I find this particular method to be especially essential. Augustine considered the student’s previous knowledge and experiences, and believed that the teacher should act as a parent to his students, as opposed to merely striving to impart knowledge on the student.
Something that I did have a difficult time with throughout the course of this article was education for the sake of religion. While I know that the philosophers focused upon this because it was essential to the time frame, I am equally opposed to this due to my own time frame. Growing up with the mentality of separation of church and state, I have a difficult time viewing religion as related to education, and have no intention of building religion into my curriculum. However, many of these philosophers viewed education as a means of achieving the “heavenly city” (Murphy 5). I found it interesting that although Jesus taught scriptures, he also taught many other topics and ideas. The scripture was a method of teaching of morality, rather than morality a method of achieving a religious fate. Another idea that I opposed was that of the teacher as expert, thus transmitting information to students. While I know that the teacher must become an expert of the subject he or she teaches, I feel that it would be very difficult to create a comfortable classroom environment if the teacher’s primary concern was to be transmitter of information. Students should be able to explore the topics with the teacher in an open discussion, rather than being asked to merely retain information. I hope that as a teacher I will be an expert on my subject matter, yet that the possibility to grow and develop ideas will occur with my students. I very much disagreed with Aquinas’s philosophy of “Teaching (doctrina) consists of communicating to others a truth mediated before hand. It is assisting someone else to come to know or understand something that you know. The professor has to first discover the truth himself and then communicate his finding to others” (Murphy 7). We can not expect to merely transmit information, but instead we should work to build a common understanding of the subject which we teach. Along these lines, I vastly disagreed with Charlemagne and Alcuin’s philosophies of education, as there was a heightened stress upon accuracy. I want my students to be accurate when presenting information, yet I again believe that exploration of a topic is restricted if the primary focus is upon accuracy. Students should be encouraged to explore and to make mistakes in working through a topic. I certainly make mistakes on a daily basis, yet fear of this would stop me in any setting from presenting my ideas.
Hildegard’s theory that education is an active exercise proves that we must not rely upon the information of the past to sustain us. In this manner, it is evident that there is no right or wrong answer as these answers are ever changing and we as individuals are ever developing, “she saw education as more active, as a forum for the human mind to discover and have new perceptions of art, divine truth, and culture” (Murphy 6). Similarly, I highly supported Luther’s philosophy that we must move away from creating fear in our students, and instead nurture learning in a caring environment. He suggested using competitions and bodily exercise as learning is a natural activity, and thus students are far more likely to learn when they are able to engage the entirety of their being in their learning.
As a teacher, I intend to teach language arts in a manner that will help students to recognize moral and social ideas, while at the same time questioning their own beliefs on each topic. Morals and ethics are a large part of the English curriculum, thus I want to teach novels, poetry, and various other texts which force students to question what is ethical and what is not. In my English Methods class, I wrote a unit exposing students to dystopian texts and ideas. I created lessons which permitted students to play with these ideas, and that helped them to place themselves in the scenario of living in a dystopian society. After exposure to these texts, students had the opportunity to create their own societal norms and expectations, and to explore the concept of living in an oppressive, dystopian society. As a teacher, I would like my students to have as much exposure to such lessons as possible as they assist students to consider their own beliefs and why oppressive societies are negative or detrimental. In teaching lessons of this sort, I would like to incorporate social studies into my units. Integrating across lessons is essential, thus helping students to recognize the problems occurrent in history will help to ensure that students question the practices of each society, while at the same viewing the literature written to explore each topic. Literature provides a cultural lens that must be investigated, as it shows the way cultures respond to individual incidents. I would like students to go forth in the world and work to change the problems they recognize, whether in small methods such as refraining from acting in these ways themselves, or in large scale methods in which they try to help others to move beyond these practices.
I will teach with a classroom open to growth and exploration. I do not want students to feel that they must restrict what they say in the classroom for their knowledge to be valued, yet I do want each student to be conscience of their peers and speak respectfully. I will not tolerate disrespect in my classroom as it breeds tension and makes students feel as that they are not welcome to speak in their own classroom. I will treat my students with respect and ask that they treat me and their peers in the same way. I do not believe that I could ever be a teacher who stands in front of the class and lectures. While there are certainly times when brief lectures are necessary, I want my students involved in the conversation at all times, and I will work to ensure that students have many opportunities to speak to the class and to their peers about the subject matter. After exploring the multiple intelligences, I do not think that I could design a lesson without considering these intelligences.
I want students to have as many opportunities for learning as possible, thus I will work to build in each intelligence to all lessons. Howard Gardner statement’s summarizes much of my philosophy, and highlights the significance of incorporating the multiple intelligences,
“I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place. Knowledge is not the same as morality, but we need to understand if we are to avoid past mistakes and move in productive directions. An important part of that understanding is knowing who we are and what we can do... Ultimately, we must synthesize our understandings for ourselves. The performance of understanding that matters are the ones we carry out as human beings in an imperfect world which we can affect for good or for ill” (Gardner 1999).
I will offer students opportunities to move during lessons and will provide clay or something else that students can play with during class discussions. I know that this is something that would have benefited my learning, as I am easily distracted when I must merely sit and listen throughout a class period, thus I want students to have this opportunity for success. I will write on the board the things that are said during discussions, or provide links and websites that allow students to explore each topic to ensure that verbal and visual listeners are able to benefit from the class discussions. I would like to play music during classes to help my musical students, and whenever possible, I would like this music to be built into the lesson in some way or another. I was very lucky during my practicum experience to have a mentor teacher who believed in the value of music in the classroom, thus I was able to play music and explore lyrics with my students on multiple occasions. Students were able to watch music videos, listen to the song and decide what they thought the lyrics meant during these lessons. At this point in time, I do not think that I would ask my students to dissect lyrics as I did with my practicum students, as this becomes excessively tedious. Instead, I would ask them to consider the parts of the song that they found significant or interesting, and perhaps explore this part of the song with peers and share their thoughts with the class. While I absolutely think their is value in exploring lyrics, I personally am tired of dissecting poetry, and this practice is no better. I will be sure to incorporate logical exploration of the text by asking students how various ideas tie into the “real” world, and how they find these ideas significant. To explore with the naturalists, we will discuss location of specific topics and the way that these topics affect the natural environment. Students will have opportunities to explore topics on their own, and they will also be able to work in groups to build a deeper understanding of the topic.
I intend to teach all students in my classroom. I hope to make all students feel comfortable and safe in my classroom, and I will consider the needs of each child. In the past few years, inclusion has become so essential to my teaching philosophy due to my own experiences. I would never be comfortable with the knowledge that students were being segregated into the resource room or the functional life skills room rather than integrated into my classroom. Clearly there will be times when students will go to these rooms to obtain extra help, yet I would like to do as much for my students directly in the classroom as possible. All of my lessons will be accommodated to meet the needs of each student. Accommodating my practicum lessons for my special education class, Educating the Exceptional Learner, has taught me that this can be a difficult process, yet that it is far easier and very rewarding when the case of each student accommodated is present. By reading Cases in Special Education, I was able to identify the needs of each student and work to create lessons that would benefit each individual. After working with a child with special needs, it is impossible not to recognize the necessity of community involvement and integration. Recognizing his role in the community helps me to understand just how essential integration is, and I will work hard to fulfill this goal on a daily basis. This semester has enabled me to volunteer at Mount Blue Middle School’s resource room a few times, where I have been able to attend an integrated class with a few students. I am eager to get back into the classroom and hopefully work toward student integration. For the past few years I have assumed that I would go on to obtain a special education certification, but now I am convinced that it might be more valuable to teach main streamed classrooms, and work to integrate my classroom as frequently as possible. I am between my options, as teaching special education would enable me to work with administrators and get my students involved in the main stream classroom, yet working in the main stream classroom would enable me to integrate all students into my classroom. Either way, inclusion is a major objective in my future teaching career.
I think community involvement is an essential aspect of all classrooms. Regardless of the grade level I teach, I would like to build community volunteering into my lessons. Many students at my high school were given the opportunity to volunteer during my senior year as part of an English class, and I intend to involve my students in frequent community orientation. This will not only enable students to give back to their communities, but it will also offer students the opportunity to experience future job fields and perhaps decide upon a career path. With this built into my curriculum, students will have an abundance of incentive to go forth and volunteer.
In my ideal classroom, students will be organized in a horseshoe with room to move around the back of the room. The center will be empty, and this will likely be where I stand much of the time. I will have a desk in the front of the room, but not as part of the circle as I do not intend to teach from my desk, but instead to work there when students are working. I would like to have at least two book shelves filled with the books we will read as a class and choice books, which students will have time to read for ten minutes at the beginning of every class. We will have at least one white board, and ideally a smart board. Along the walls, I will display completed student work. Regardless of whether I teach middle school or high school, students deserve to have their work featured as this shows that I care about what they are working on, rather than merely handing back their hard work. I hope to have many windows in my classroom to ensure plenty of natural light during the day. Again, regardless of whether I teach middle or high school, I would like to have arts and craft supplies throughout the classroom so that students may create drafts, and also so students will have something to draw with during discussions. I absolutely support coloring or drawing during whole class discussions, as this activates another portion of the brain and helps students to stay focused. Similarly, I will have clay available to play with during class discussions. Students will be encouraged to use laptops during class, and many lessons will include technology. With this in mind, I will have a laptop port in my room so that students may charge their computers at the end of the day.
I think that in terms of discipline I fall somewhere between an interactionist and a noninterventionist. I want students to have control in my classroom, yet I am not completely prepared to give up all control. I think that it is necessary to maintain a balance between the teacher and the students to ensure that work is completed and students stay on task. This does not mean that I intend to follow a traditional learning model in which I stand in front of my students and lecture, as I think that I can mediate fun, engaging lessons. Maybe in time I will grow to the comfort zone of providing my students with more control than I have, yet I think this requires all individuals to become comfortable in the classroom before this can occur. When students monitor themselves successfully, I will take a step back and only step in when necessary. In looking at the continuum, I definitely fall into the category of noninterventionist, as I believe in visually looking on, questioning, and non-directive statements, yet I believe that the teacher and student should be equals in the classroom and should establish disciplinary grounds together. At this point in time, I feel that I know little about classroom management, yet with knowledge of my students and their past learning history, I will be able to gauge necessary disciplinary actions. I will work to establish a climate of comfort and respect, and remind students when they are not maintaining these objectives.
I hope as a teacher to instill a sense of confidence and comfort in my students that they will carry into other classes as well as the rest of their lives. I want all students to feel included and valuable in and out of the classroom, and I will do all in my power to help them achieve this sense of place. All students will be included, and each individual learning style will be valued, while all lessons will be tailored to meet the needs of all students.
During middle school, my teachers really seemed much more focused upon conveying information than upon deeper learning. We were placed in houses, yet there was no real feeling of community between students and certainly no team teaching. While I did experience caring teachers, I believe that many of these teachers struggled to balance the amount of information they were asked to convey and the ever changing needs of young adolescents. At this age, my parents were focused upon classes that would help me to succeed while in high school. I had a strong friend group in middle school, thus they worried much more about my academics than whether I was maintaining friends. I think that I became much more invested in friends and peer acceptance during middle school than I did academics. While I cared about how I performed in school, I was very nervous about being accepted by my peers. While in seventh grade, I broke my ankle in the middle of winter and was terrified of going to school in a cast and crutches. Sure enough, during the first week with crutches, I slipped and fell in the hall in front of my entire grade. While this is something I would absolutely laugh at now, I was mortified at the time. School itself definitely took a back seat for me during this time of my life, and I do not think I was able to focus upon academic over social until high school.
Our teachers expected far more of us in high school, which was great for me. The teachers slowly scaffolded our lessons to ensure that we were becoming more independent within our learning, thus working our way from fully guided learning to more individualized learning. While standards were important, I do not remember this seeming forced, but that teachers instead built interesting books into the curriculum that touched upon the standards while still keeping us engaged. I worked much harder in high school than in middle school. I think the added responsibility of a job and a sport, as well as the process of applying to college, helped me to academically prioritize. I think that the primary concern of the business world at the high school level worked to ensure that all students went to college. I received infinite packets from colleges, as well as advertisements for college preparation assistance and exams. Another funny thing that was very over emphasized was all things dormitory. Every store had the latest dorm resources, and of course everyone needed the greatest accessories for their future dorms.
In elementary school, we had one primary teacher and one reading teacher. As elementary school went on, we also had a separate teacher for math. Early on, we were able to experience transitions during the school day, which I think greatly helped me in middle school. The middle school day was composed of about seven classes, and I do not think they shifted the order of the classes much during the week. We had core teachers within the house, and then other teachers that we rotated through for classes such as art and music. In high school, we had block scheduling, thus the same four classes a day for an entire semester. I absolutely loved this system as it helped me to stay on track and definitely prepared me for four classes a semester at the college level. I took mostly college, or mid-level, classes while in high school, with all honors English classes and one honors history class. I also took advanced placement English my senior year, which I would regard as my least favorite class while in high school. The teacher was entirely centered on content, with no focus on individual needs. The teachers that helped me the most were those that cared about the individual needs of students and worked to understand learning styles. I really enjoyed classes that offered a lot of freedom, thus I think my favorite class while in high school was creative writing my junior year. The teacher was wonderful and made sure that we were able to enter the community as often as possible to gain inspiration in our writing. In middle school, socioeconomic level was incredibly evident. For the first time, we were placed in a school with kids from all over the city as opposed to merely in our neighborhood, and this had a large influence on student interaction. In high school, this was far less notable, yet we became more racially diverse.
I decided that I wanted to teach secondary education while in high school. As of sophomore year, I did not know what I wanted to do in the future, yet the more I worked with a particular English teacher, the more convinced I was that this was what I wanted to do. My sophomore English teacher, Mrs. Welch, had a great way of reaching every student and creating fun, interactive lessons for each idea we learned. Although I initially believed that I wanted to teach high school, my experiences while working at summer camp quickly changed my mind and I chose to apply as an early education major. However, this soon changed upon entering college under early education. As much as I loved working with young children, I needed the challenge of working around busy, sometimes disinterested high school students. Despite how back and forth I was for the first few years of choosing a career, I have loved my experience as a secondary education major and I am anxious to begin teaching. The only thing that I would change about my decision would have been to add special education on to my degree early in the program. However, this is a certification that I may gain in time, and I am thrilled to have the background knowledge and capability achieved as a secondary education person.
To be a superior teacher, I feel that the individual must be highly aware of her students and forever working to build upon prior knowledge to establish a deeper understanding of the material. I feel that coverage is long gone, and instead we as teachers must focus far more on creating an in-depth awareness that will remain with students for years to come. Superior teachers truly do need to care about the health and happiness of their students, both in and outside the classroom. Teachers must of course know the content they intend to teach, and be able to reapply this content to create interesting, engaging lessons for the students. To implement these qualities into my own teaching, I will need to know each student as well as the preferred intelligence and learning style of the student. After taking middle level education, I am positive that team teaching is necessary to create the best learning environment for my students. Through team teaching, we will be able to integrate a number of lessons throughout the course of the day, and create an interesting, lasting learning experience.
My personal goals as a teacher are to always continue growing and learning as an individual. In the past three years of my degree program, I have learned more than I ever thought possible, and I have found myself constantly challenged and engaged. Being an education major has been an absolutely wonderful experience for me, and I know that teaching in the field will offer me a continued experience of challenge and interest. I know that I will be able to help students achieve this experience within my classroom, thus I can not wait to begin teaching. My experience in our middle level teams has taught me a great deal about integrating curriculum, and I know that I will take this away with me into the teaching profession. This has proved to be such a strong teaching tool that I am anxious to use this with my own team members in my future teaching career. An interesting thing that I think I will bring to the field is my experience in special education. Working in home with a child with Cerebral Palsy has vastly broadened my perspective on education. While working in home, I am constantly exposed to the family’s expectations for their child, which I believe is essential in any teaching environment. I hope to be able to reapply this for my general education students as well as my special education students. I strongly believe in inclusion, thus I know that I will be able to provide an equal learning experience to all of my students, and hopefully will be capable of modifying my lessons to benefit those students who have a more difficult time in the main-stream classroom.
My primary fear is that my lessons are interesting to me, yet I do not necessarily know that they are interesting to my students. I think that this will need to be something that develops in time to ensure that all students are actively engaged. I am also concerned about reaching all of my students. I am sure that I will experience many students who come from difficult backgrounds and have limited interest learning about literature written by the standard “dead white guys,” thus I hope to be able to build in fun materials that meet the standards but are far less traditional.
In reading “The History and Philosophy of Education, Voices of Educational Pioneers” article, I felt that I connected to many of the philosophers. I found it interesting how many philosophers based education in morality and citizenship, yet morality truly is a necessary topic in education. If students are taught how to act as moral citizens, they are likely to carry forward these ideas into adulthood. Similarly, I love that so many of the philosophers incorporated family into learning. With community support, students can grow in all aspects of their lives, and success is bound to be greater than if they are merely learning at school. The philosophers were able to incorporate the multiple intelligences into student learning, and thus students were given all opportunities to learn and succeed in the community and beyond. This method continues to thrive in our teaching careers, and tailoring to student needs is a high priority in teaching practices. Additionally, we as future teachers are taught to consider the student above the material, and to respect the student’s background and learning styles. I highly believe in this style of teaching, and cannot imagine teaching students with the belief that they are “blank slates,” but instead teaching with the recognition that every student has a past that influences their learning. This idea is perpetrated through many of the philosophers presented in this article.
I loved how interchangeable learning and morality became throughout the course of this article. I do not agree with Confucius’s idea of the teacher as the transmitter of information, with students expected to merely take initiative and learn the material. However, I strongly believe in Confucius’s idea that, “learning and morality [are] inseparable” (Murphy 1). Many of the philosophers perpetrated this idea that morality is at the center of learning, and thus teachers and families must help students to become moral beings. Aristotle continued this theory in his belief that the human being is a rational animal, yet needs to learn to act in a rational manner in all scenarios. Aristotle states, “We are the sum of our actions... And therefore our habits make all the difference” (Murphy 3), indicating that we as individuals must monitor our actions to insure that we are acting in a reasonable manner.
Similarly, I loved how frequently the multiple intelligences were incorporated into the teaching styles of these philosophers. While they were not labeled in this way, there are frequent references to integrating multiple learning styles. Sappho believed that the whole body was necessary in order to learn, thus she insured that students exercised both their intellectual and physical development. Quintillion believed that it was necessary to motivate students with engaging lessons and to foster learning through respect and varied methods. Similarly, Jesus used a wide array of teaching strategies to help his followers and disciples to learn. It is interesting how large of an impact he had upon modern teaching, as many of his methods are still present in schools, “lecture, reading from texts (scripture), storytelling, illustration, parallel sayings (repetition), and silence (wait time). His interactive methods included: conversation, discussion forum, question-answer, and panel (answer-question). His activity methods were: object lesson, dramatics, demonstration, laboratory, and topical research” (Murphy 5). While of course many of these methods have changed over the centuries, it is interesting to see the continuance of many of these strategies. In offering a variety of ways that students may learn, these philosophers insured that the multiple intelligences were engaged and that each student was able to learn. Along these lines, Augustine preaches a comfortable classroom environment in order to ensure a positive learning scenario.
I thought it was wonderful that so many of these philosophers focused upon respecting the individual in addition to the student’s intellect. Augustine valued what the student already knew, and worked to gauge teaching around this. He viewed teaching as a conversation occurring between Socrates believed that it was necessary for teachers to ask questions of the students without censoring what they heard, and also believed “that knowledge could not be transmitted from a teacher to the students, but that the student had to discover the knowledge that / was within them” (Murphy 2-3). This is a point that I absolutely connect with. I would never view myself as a transmitter of knowledge to my students, and I instead always intend to assist my students to think on a deeper level, and question everything within the classroom. I thought it was interesting that Socrates really initiated higher order thinking and learning, as this is truly how I intend to teach my students. I feel that some of the most valuable learning occurs when students are permitted to explore the topic in a manner that relates to their interests and background knowledge, thus I find this particular method to be especially essential. Augustine considered the student’s previous knowledge and experiences, and believed that the teacher should act as a parent to his students, as opposed to merely striving to impart knowledge on the student.
Something that I did have a difficult time with throughout the course of this article was education for the sake of religion. While I know that the philosophers focused upon this because it was essential to the time frame, I am equally opposed to this due to my own time frame. Growing up with the mentality of separation of church and state, I have a difficult time viewing religion as related to education, and have no intention of building religion into my curriculum. However, many of these philosophers viewed education as a means of achieving the “heavenly city” (Murphy 5). I found it interesting that although Jesus taught scriptures, he also taught many other topics and ideas. The scripture was a method of teaching of morality, rather than morality a method of achieving a religious fate. Another idea that I opposed was that of the teacher as expert, thus transmitting information to students. While I know that the teacher must become an expert of the subject he or she teaches, I feel that it would be very difficult to create a comfortable classroom environment if the teacher’s primary concern was to be transmitter of information. Students should be able to explore the topics with the teacher in an open discussion, rather than being asked to merely retain information. I hope that as a teacher I will be an expert on my subject matter, yet that the possibility to grow and develop ideas will occur with my students. I very much disagreed with Aquinas’s philosophy of “Teaching (doctrina) consists of communicating to others a truth mediated before hand. It is assisting someone else to come to know or understand something that you know. The professor has to first discover the truth himself and then communicate his finding to others” (Murphy 7). We can not expect to merely transmit information, but instead we should work to build a common understanding of the subject which we teach. Along these lines, I vastly disagreed with Charlemagne and Alcuin’s philosophies of education, as there was a heightened stress upon accuracy. I want my students to be accurate when presenting information, yet I again believe that exploration of a topic is restricted if the primary focus is upon accuracy. Students should be encouraged to explore and to make mistakes in working through a topic. I certainly make mistakes on a daily basis, yet fear of this would stop me in any setting from presenting my ideas.
Hildegard’s theory that education is an active exercise proves that we must not rely upon the information of the past to sustain us. In this manner, it is evident that there is no right or wrong answer as these answers are ever changing and we as individuals are ever developing, “she saw education as more active, as a forum for the human mind to discover and have new perceptions of art, divine truth, and culture” (Murphy 6). Similarly, I highly supported Luther’s philosophy that we must move away from creating fear in our students, and instead nurture learning in a caring environment. He suggested using competitions and bodily exercise as learning is a natural activity, and thus students are far more likely to learn when they are able to engage the entirety of their being in their learning.
As a teacher, I intend to teach language arts in a manner that will help students to recognize moral and social ideas, while at the same time questioning their own beliefs on each topic. Morals and ethics are a large part of the English curriculum, thus I want to teach novels, poetry, and various other texts which force students to question what is ethical and what is not. In my English Methods class, I wrote a unit exposing students to dystopian texts and ideas. I created lessons which permitted students to play with these ideas, and that helped them to place themselves in the scenario of living in a dystopian society. After exposure to these texts, students had the opportunity to create their own societal norms and expectations, and to explore the concept of living in an oppressive, dystopian society. As a teacher, I would like my students to have as much exposure to such lessons as possible as they assist students to consider their own beliefs and why oppressive societies are negative or detrimental. In teaching lessons of this sort, I would like to incorporate social studies into my units. Integrating across lessons is essential, thus helping students to recognize the problems occurrent in history will help to ensure that students question the practices of each society, while at the same viewing the literature written to explore each topic. Literature provides a cultural lens that must be investigated, as it shows the way cultures respond to individual incidents. I would like students to go forth in the world and work to change the problems they recognize, whether in small methods such as refraining from acting in these ways themselves, or in large scale methods in which they try to help others to move beyond these practices.
I will teach with a classroom open to growth and exploration. I do not want students to feel that they must restrict what they say in the classroom for their knowledge to be valued, yet I do want each student to be conscience of their peers and speak respectfully. I will not tolerate disrespect in my classroom as it breeds tension and makes students feel as that they are not welcome to speak in their own classroom. I will treat my students with respect and ask that they treat me and their peers in the same way. I do not believe that I could ever be a teacher who stands in front of the class and lectures. While there are certainly times when brief lectures are necessary, I want my students involved in the conversation at all times, and I will work to ensure that students have many opportunities to speak to the class and to their peers about the subject matter. After exploring the multiple intelligences, I do not think that I could design a lesson without considering these intelligences.
I want students to have as many opportunities for learning as possible, thus I will work to build in each intelligence to all lessons. Howard Gardner statement’s summarizes much of my philosophy, and highlights the significance of incorporating the multiple intelligences,
“I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place. Knowledge is not the same as morality, but we need to understand if we are to avoid past mistakes and move in productive directions. An important part of that understanding is knowing who we are and what we can do... Ultimately, we must synthesize our understandings for ourselves. The performance of understanding that matters are the ones we carry out as human beings in an imperfect world which we can affect for good or for ill” (Gardner 1999).
I will offer students opportunities to move during lessons and will provide clay or something else that students can play with during class discussions. I know that this is something that would have benefited my learning, as I am easily distracted when I must merely sit and listen throughout a class period, thus I want students to have this opportunity for success. I will write on the board the things that are said during discussions, or provide links and websites that allow students to explore each topic to ensure that verbal and visual listeners are able to benefit from the class discussions. I would like to play music during classes to help my musical students, and whenever possible, I would like this music to be built into the lesson in some way or another. I was very lucky during my practicum experience to have a mentor teacher who believed in the value of music in the classroom, thus I was able to play music and explore lyrics with my students on multiple occasions. Students were able to watch music videos, listen to the song and decide what they thought the lyrics meant during these lessons. At this point in time, I do not think that I would ask my students to dissect lyrics as I did with my practicum students, as this becomes excessively tedious. Instead, I would ask them to consider the parts of the song that they found significant or interesting, and perhaps explore this part of the song with peers and share their thoughts with the class. While I absolutely think their is value in exploring lyrics, I personally am tired of dissecting poetry, and this practice is no better. I will be sure to incorporate logical exploration of the text by asking students how various ideas tie into the “real” world, and how they find these ideas significant. To explore with the naturalists, we will discuss location of specific topics and the way that these topics affect the natural environment. Students will have opportunities to explore topics on their own, and they will also be able to work in groups to build a deeper understanding of the topic.
I intend to teach all students in my classroom. I hope to make all students feel comfortable and safe in my classroom, and I will consider the needs of each child. In the past few years, inclusion has become so essential to my teaching philosophy due to my own experiences. I would never be comfortable with the knowledge that students were being segregated into the resource room or the functional life skills room rather than integrated into my classroom. Clearly there will be times when students will go to these rooms to obtain extra help, yet I would like to do as much for my students directly in the classroom as possible. All of my lessons will be accommodated to meet the needs of each student. Accommodating my practicum lessons for my special education class, Educating the Exceptional Learner, has taught me that this can be a difficult process, yet that it is far easier and very rewarding when the case of each student accommodated is present. By reading Cases in Special Education, I was able to identify the needs of each student and work to create lessons that would benefit each individual. After working with a child with special needs, it is impossible not to recognize the necessity of community involvement and integration. Recognizing his role in the community helps me to understand just how essential integration is, and I will work hard to fulfill this goal on a daily basis. This semester has enabled me to volunteer at Mount Blue Middle School’s resource room a few times, where I have been able to attend an integrated class with a few students. I am eager to get back into the classroom and hopefully work toward student integration. For the past few years I have assumed that I would go on to obtain a special education certification, but now I am convinced that it might be more valuable to teach main streamed classrooms, and work to integrate my classroom as frequently as possible. I am between my options, as teaching special education would enable me to work with administrators and get my students involved in the main stream classroom, yet working in the main stream classroom would enable me to integrate all students into my classroom. Either way, inclusion is a major objective in my future teaching career.
I think community involvement is an essential aspect of all classrooms. Regardless of the grade level I teach, I would like to build community volunteering into my lessons. Many students at my high school were given the opportunity to volunteer during my senior year as part of an English class, and I intend to involve my students in frequent community orientation. This will not only enable students to give back to their communities, but it will also offer students the opportunity to experience future job fields and perhaps decide upon a career path. With this built into my curriculum, students will have an abundance of incentive to go forth and volunteer.
In my ideal classroom, students will be organized in a horseshoe with room to move around the back of the room. The center will be empty, and this will likely be where I stand much of the time. I will have a desk in the front of the room, but not as part of the circle as I do not intend to teach from my desk, but instead to work there when students are working. I would like to have at least two book shelves filled with the books we will read as a class and choice books, which students will have time to read for ten minutes at the beginning of every class. We will have at least one white board, and ideally a smart board. Along the walls, I will display completed student work. Regardless of whether I teach middle school or high school, students deserve to have their work featured as this shows that I care about what they are working on, rather than merely handing back their hard work. I hope to have many windows in my classroom to ensure plenty of natural light during the day. Again, regardless of whether I teach middle or high school, I would like to have arts and craft supplies throughout the classroom so that students may create drafts, and also so students will have something to draw with during discussions. I absolutely support coloring or drawing during whole class discussions, as this activates another portion of the brain and helps students to stay focused. Similarly, I will have clay available to play with during class discussions. Students will be encouraged to use laptops during class, and many lessons will include technology. With this in mind, I will have a laptop port in my room so that students may charge their computers at the end of the day.
I think that in terms of discipline I fall somewhere between an interactionist and a noninterventionist. I want students to have control in my classroom, yet I am not completely prepared to give up all control. I think that it is necessary to maintain a balance between the teacher and the students to ensure that work is completed and students stay on task. This does not mean that I intend to follow a traditional learning model in which I stand in front of my students and lecture, as I think that I can mediate fun, engaging lessons. Maybe in time I will grow to the comfort zone of providing my students with more control than I have, yet I think this requires all individuals to become comfortable in the classroom before this can occur. When students monitor themselves successfully, I will take a step back and only step in when necessary. In looking at the continuum, I definitely fall into the category of noninterventionist, as I believe in visually looking on, questioning, and non-directive statements, yet I believe that the teacher and student should be equals in the classroom and should establish disciplinary grounds together. At this point in time, I feel that I know little about classroom management, yet with knowledge of my students and their past learning history, I will be able to gauge necessary disciplinary actions. I will work to establish a climate of comfort and respect, and remind students when they are not maintaining these objectives.
I hope as a teacher to instill a sense of confidence and comfort in my students that they will carry into other classes as well as the rest of their lives. I want all students to feel included and valuable in and out of the classroom, and I will do all in my power to help them achieve this sense of place. All students will be included, and each individual learning style will be valued, while all lessons will be tailored to meet the needs of all students.
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