The Road to Teach

Something that I really enjoyed about this video was the emphasis on the fact that learning can and should be made fun! It's definitely been a cultural belief that learning wasn't supposed to be fun. However, just because you're working hard and thinking critically doesn't mean it can't still be fun. I think you just have to make the content engaging and relevant for students. Also, as a teacher you can set the mood. If you're always happy and have a smile and are having fun, your students will too.

I also really liked the advice in the video of just being yourself. Students will respect a teacher who is genuine and who it just being themselves. Honestly I think if you just really truly care about your students they will see that and respect you. I think something to remember is that I love kids and they generally love me, so there's no reason to try too hard when connecting, rather I should just be myself. I need to be the upbeat, fun person that I am and let that radiate through the classroom.

Educational Philosophy Impact on Classroom

Classroom Organization- I believe in having a class where students are constantly getting up and moving around for different activities. To achieve this, I need a classroom setup that is least restrictive. Ideally I would like large tables for multiple students to sit at rather than individual desks. This is because I like group activities and discussions so these tables would be perfect. Additionally, they are perfect for moving around the classroom to use for things such as stations. I would love to have a nice big classroom allowing for plenty of room to move around, but ultimately I probably won't have much say in that.

Motivation- My aim to motivate my students is through real world application. I know a lot of students (including myself) want to know how this knowledge is going to every be helpful to them in life. If I can help my students to understand how what I'm teaching is going to be beneficial to them, I think they will certainly be more motivated.

Content Area- In Social Studies, I'm really looking for connections, especially connections to the present day. If we can't connect information from the past to the present day, then what's the point of learning about it? My goal in social studies is to make it relevant. I think a big part of this involves more than just looking at history, but also looking at current events, which I plan on being a big part of my classroom.

Assessment- I'm really not a big test person. I love debates and feel they are a great tool for students to work on their persuasive abilities. It's a great way for students to practice taking information and creating an opinion or thesis from that information (without writing a paper). Ungraded quizzes will also be a a regular occurrence in my classroom because I have to know where my students are at. And of course, open ended group projects will be a big form of assessment in my classroom where kids can really be creative.

Classroom Climate- I want my class to be upbeat and fun, never with a dull moment. I want lots of energy in my classroom and a lot of excitement. A lot of this will hopefully come from group activities and moving around the classroom. Of course a lot of it too has to come from my own excitement that I bring to the classroom that can hopefully rub off on students. I definitely want my class to be fun, one that students look forward to going to. Just because a class is fun does not mean there isn't enough learning going on, it just means the learning is going on in a fun and creative way.

Learning Focus- The learning focus will not be on specific facts, dates, and people. Rather the learning is going to be focused on big ideas and ideologies. On major decisions made and more importantly, the impact that these decisions had. Learning in my classroom will include lots of primary sources, and lots of thinking for yourselves. As a teacher it's not my job to tell students what their opinions should be, but rather to give them the tools to be able to form their own opinion. Too many history teachers try and teach that there is only one correct answer and only one correct way of thinking. Teachers tell you this certain person was good and this other person was bad just because I say so. I don't think that's right, rather I think it's my job to give students the information to make their own opinions and to help them along the way.

Technology Integration- Honestly technology integration should be student driven. My high school students are going to know about so many cool programs to use, and that's the point of having open ended group projects, where students can show off their creativity. They can create iBooks and comics and all sorts of cool products with the technology we have today.

Teacher & Leadership Style- I want learning to be student driven, but at the same time I certainly have to make it known that I'm in charge. It certainly doesn't always have to be a dictatorship, that's for sure, but an understanding that it can be in times where it has to be. I want to be a role model for my students, somebody who they can really look up to.

Team 1 ELL Reflection

I really enjoyed this presentation because of how we broke into small groups and participated in activities that made us feel like ELL learners. I thought there were some great examples used to confuse us and not give us all the information necessary just as an ELL learner may not be able to understand all the information needed to complete a task.
I also liked how after each station's activity was completed, we took a couple minutes to discuss what was difficult about our task and what we could do as future teachers to make tasks like those more accessible for ELL learners.
Overall I enjoyed how engaged we were in the presentation and the relevance that it brought to our futures as teachers.

Educational Issues: Alternative Schools

I really enjoyed this presentation, I didn't realize there were so many different types of alternative schools. I really enjoyed the video of that school in Vermont, I think a school like that would be very beneficial for many students out there. One of my favorite parts of the presentation was that they actually gave some schools in New England that are alternative schools which was cool to see.
I think another important point that the group brought up was that alternative schools are great, but they certainly are not for everybody. Some students are going to thrive best in public schools, and that's okay. I also enjoyed the activity where we got to design our own school for the student that we received.

Bright Futures Article

I spent last summer working at a summer camp and had ten middle schools boys in my cabin all summer. From this experience I know how difficult middle schoolers can be, but I also know that middle school is a critical time for maturing and for growing. If our middle schools are not doing a good job, students will not be ready for high school, which is setting students up to fail.
What I really like from this article is the emphasis on making cross subject and real world connections. I like how it allows students to connect to their communities and to work on real world projects.
Another big part of middle school has nothing to do with the school work itself but rather the school environment, and that is the maturation process for these students. I just think it's so important for teachers to build relationships with these students and to help them with their struggles, even the ones outside of their school work. It's just such an important time for these kids and middle school teachers have to be there for these kids to help in any ways possible. These kids will not be ready for high school and then the real world if we don't.

8 Philosophies

Essentialism- Essentialists basically believe in teaching the things they see as being essential to a student's success in the real world. Subject matters that these would include are reading, writing, history, and language. Essentialists believe that mastering these skills are very important in the real world. Lectures, memorizing, and tests are the main teaching strategies that essentialist teachers use.

Behaviorism- Behaviorism is all about student behavior and how the teacher can promote good student behavior in the classroom. In this philosophy, the teacher's job is to promote a positive learning environment where the students can learn and be successful. Positive reinforcement is a big part of a behavioralist approach.

Perenialism- This philosophy looks heavily at the past and the great works of the past. This philosophy could be used a lot in a literature class, math classes, and obviously history classes. A big point in this philosophy is getting students to understand how and why these classics are still relevant and why these ideas haven't changed over time.

Positivism: This philosophy looks a lot at students actually gathering evidence for themselves and using that evidence to come to decisions and conclusions. A big part of this is for students to gain the ability to be able to analyze different things and to be able to come to conclusions about these things. A lot of it has to do with observation.

Progressivism- This incorporates a lot of the scientific method. Much like positivism, this philosophy encourages students to think for themselves. In this philosophy, teachers don't give their students the answers, but rather give them the tools to be able to find the answers themselves. This philosophy is obviously very student centered.

Humanism: This philosophy puts a lot of the focus on the individual, and the relationships that students build. In humanism, students have a say in their school work. Perhaps what book they are going to read, or how they are going to present their understandings. A lot of this philosophy has to do with students sharing their opinions as well as their goals.

Constructivism- Constructivism involves a lot of hands on work for the students and a lot of critical thinking for the students. Student do a lot of questioning in this philosophy, especially questioning their understandings or beliefs. A lot of this happens with class activities where students get the opportunity to share out to the class.

Reconsturcionsim- This philosophy deals a lot with the world around the students. It looks a lot at current social issues and what some potential solutions may be. Students are really encourage to work on their problem solving skills in reconstuctionsim.

My philosophy on teaching I believe most closely falls under reconstrucionsim becuase I believe that as a social studies teacher the most important things for students to understand is what's going on around them. Yes, we learn from history, but we can't learn from history if we can't connect events from the past to things that are happening today. More socially aware and socially active students is what my goal is to accomplish as a teacher.

4 Philosophies

The Idealist approach to education is looking at major accomplishments throughout history and looking at major leaders as role models (or as people to not be like). As a future history teacher, teaching through the idealist philosophy would involve presenting students with major historical events, creations, and people. Those three topics would drive most of the class in an idealist approach. You would want to go over things such as why was this event important, why was this person so significant to history, and how do these things model human nature (the goods and the bads). A big thing for the teacher to pass on to the students is cultural heritage and where and who that comes from.

The Realism approach tends to look a lot more at the scientific approach to education. For history, that would mean not only looking at what happened in the past, but how we know these things happened. A great thing to do with students in the Realism approach would be to look at primary documents. The students can use these documents to come to their own conclusion of what actually happened. Does it line up with what our textbooks tell us? Why or why not? Realism also consists of careful assessment of students knowledge, meaning that assessment would most likely be contained to testing and papers.

The Pragmatism approach looks at the changing reality and at the world as it is now. In history, you would want to relate historical events, people, etc to the present. The point of history is knowing what worked and what didn’t work in the past, so using Pragmatism would involve relating events from the past to what is going on in our world right now. Then, using this knowledge, attempting to come to a solution to the problems we face now.

The Existentialism approach looks a lot less at content and a lot more at the students themselves. Existentialism says that we can’t predict the students, so to me that means we shouldn’t be planning things out for the future like tests because we don’t know how these students are going to react because we don’t know them well enough yet. A lot of this approach is centered around you getting to know your students, and your students getting to know each other. This approach says that students need to learn about themselves, really learn who they are.

The approach that really sticks out to me is Pragmatism because I feel that approach lines up the best with what I want to do as a teacher. I really believe that the point of understanding history is to help us make decisions in the present. So as a teacher my main goal is to link historical events to current events. I don’t just want my history students to be able to recite things that happened in the past, I want them to understand why those things were important and how we can use that knowledge to our advantage today. To me, history is about a lot more than just memorizing dates and facts, and that’s what the Pragmatism approach does.