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.

Episode 4

Riley Chickering

Episode 4

A lot of Episode 4 was about how our country is not doing as well as other countries when it comes to education. Our response was standardized testing, and a lot of it. Students in America these days have to take a standardized test once a year from third to eighth grade. Then on top of that, one standardized test called the SAT's has a huge impact on where we can and can't go to college. I just think it's crazy that we leave so much riding on these standardized tests, it's really not fair. I also really liked the question that Jordan brought up about why these standardized tests have to be timed. I mean if what we care about is that students can come up with the correct answer, why do we care how long it takes them to do so? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

The idea that I did like from the video was the inner city schools that specialized in different activities. I feel like that helps students to feel comfortable in their schools and maybe to even have some extra motivation. I just think it's a really cool idea to allow students to do what they love while in school.

Episode 1 Reflection

Riley Chickering

Episode 1 Reflection

I thought episode 1 that covered 1800-1900 was very interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is the fact that during that time the average amount of time that a child was in school was 82 days. I just think that's a crazy number considering that we now go to school for 13 years, 17 if you include college. I don't really understand what the point of going for 82 days is, I mean how much can you learn in 82 days?

Another point I found very interesting was that public school was for the wealthy almost exclusively. If you had money, you got to go to school for a longer time and get a better education. If you didn't have a lot of money, well you were just out of luck. It made me realize just how lucky we are in today's society to have everyone receive a free public education.

The third point that I found interesting was the fact that African Americans weren't allowed access to public education. That's not terribly surprising to me, but what was interesting was the fact that they also got in huge trouble if they were even found with a textbook.

Honestly I'm just really glad that we are where we are today with our education programs.

Story of School Part 3

Riley Chickering

Story of School Part 3

This video really dives into the issue of seperate but equal. It looks at how children of minority during this time were afforded the opportunity to go to public schools, but they were all minority schools which had very limited funding. This makes me think about todays education as well because I think that even though our schools aren't segregated, they really are because you still see a lot of seperation between white and black neighborhoods. I looked it up and found a stat that says most black children go to schools where there are less than 30% white students, meaning that they still basically go to all black schools. I think it's definitely an interesting problem but I'm not really sure how you solve it when no laws are actually being broken. 

The Story of School Part II

Riley Chickering
February 6, 2017
Dr Grace

The Story of School Part II

In the early days of public education in the United States (1900-1950) there was definitely a central focus on the caucasian students. Students that were of African American, Mexican, or any other descent were told to focus on a trade rather than to aspire to further their education with college. These students were outright told that they were not smart enough to go to college and that they needed to focus on developing their skills in a trade such as carpentry. I certainly found this to be extremely sad and find myself wondering what the motive was. Did the educators during this time truly believe that people who are not caucasian are inherently less intelligent? Or was there an alternative motive to keeping non whites out of college? 

Another problem the schools faced was the issue of language. There was a growing amount of children in America who couldn't speak English, and yet America kept pushing and pushing for English only in the classrooms. Children were actually punished for speaking any language other than English in the classroom. But how are the kids supposed to learn when you're teaching them in a language they don't know?  It's a tough situation for sure but I don't think the American education system handled it the right way. While I understand as a teacher if you only speak English and you have a student who only speak Spanish, it's going to be incredibly difficult for you to teach them English. At the same time though, you have to understand that if you're trying to teach them complex things in a language they barely know, that's just not going to work.