BLOG POST 6

For homework, we were assigned to read chapter 8 of the book, Educational Foundations. While we were reading, we were told to put post it notes in sections of the book that interested us, caused us to have questions, or areas where we were confused. When I was reading, I put a post it note on page 104 for the first paragraph. The section is about how teachers make students into “receptacles” who memorize information and regurgitate it. I put a sticky note there because I agreed with the idea. I think that teachers sometimes just teach to the test or relay information. They do not care if you understand it, they just want you to do well on the test.

I brought that up in class when we were broken up into different groups. My partners agreed with me. We both felt like many teachers just stand and lecture and expect students to spit back the information. To me, that is not what learning is. Yes, there needs to be some lecture but there should also be discussion. There should also be application of the material so students can see what the know and apply the material before they take an exam on it. This seems to be a problem in college because there are so many lecture classes and for some classes, the only hands on application or discussion is when students are taking an exam.  Education is not just depositing information, but reflecting on the information and drawing new conclusions or asking questions.

Blogpost 5

Rofes believes that there needs to be more changes done for the LGBT community to be accepted. There are liberal and radical approaches, and liberal approaches are more common. The problem though is that liberal approaches do not bring radical change. It is true that liberal approaches are more common. Many high schools have GSA’s and support systems for students. There are also many websites, support centers, and programs for LGBT people. Rofes thinks that there needs to be more education for the people against LGBT people. Those people are the problem. LGBT people are not causing any problems.

My junior year of high school, students at my high school tried to create a GSA. The students who were trying to create the club were all close friends and they told me about all the backlash the principal gave them about the GSA. In the end, the principal allowed the GSA to be formed. Unfortunately, my senior year, seven of the eight founder of the club graduated and the person left in charge of the club stopped caring about it. They only held one meeting the entire school year. A reason the GSA was not a priority was because the president my senior year was not LGBT and did not feel any discrimination. I think that no matter what, people should care about the hardships LGBT people go through. They may not be public, but problems still happen.

When I in vision the school that I will be teaching in, I think of a school that is very accepting of students. I would hope that the staff and faculty were open minded and supportive of all students regardless of race, sexual identity, or identity. I would want to be a teacher that was welcoming to all and a safe haven to all students. I would listen to students’ problems and support them. I would also have a zero tolerance for bullying of any kind.

Field Post 2

This past week, we attended Shaker Heights Middle School. I went to two science classrooms. One was a seventh grade class and the other was an eighth grade class. When I was in the seventh grade class, the students were learning about energy transfers. The students were split up into table groups. Each table had boys and two girls except one table had 3 boys and two girls. The students were working on a worksheet that forced the kids to communicate with each other to find the answers. The teacher walked around the room and allowed the kids to struggle a little bit before he helped them, so the kids would at least attempt the worksheet before giving up. In the eighth grade class, the teacher was leading a community circle. During this time, students get to talk about a specific question to the entire class and build a greater sense of community. The teacher allowed everyone to speak and only let one child speak at a time. In order to ensure that only one child spoke at a time, she passed around a talking stick and made the rule that only the person holding the stick could talk.

What Ayers means by building bridges, is that students need to make connections and grow as a person due to those connections. In all of Ayers examples, the bridge built helps the child learn and grow. In the eighth grade science class, the student built bridges between each other because they all got to express their opinion. The students were able to feel closer as a class and gain more of a community in the room.

Blog Post 4

Dear Representative Marlene Anielski,

In my Education 100 class at John Carroll University, we are learning the basics of education. What we have been told is that since 1997, Ohio's system of school finance has been found to be unconstitutional and still has not been changed. In our class, we watched a video about how poor the school buildings are for the students. Some kids have to walk through puddles of water in the hallway, and others have foundation that is cracked. All schools are being affected by the lack of funding. Suburbs and urban schools are affected. I am an alumni of Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School. Brecksville has the stereotype for being full of affluent people.  Brecksville recently got a new high school. You would think that the school would then have no problems. That is not the case. The school was built backwards, meaning the from of the school is now in the back. The school has mice and garden snakes in it. The school has orange water from rusty pipes. The school, back in November, had two floods in one week, but students had to stay in the school. During the floods, poop water was in the hallways, ceiling tiles were falling, and peoples lockers were ruined. People also had to walk outside in the rain to get to certain classes. All these problems are not even bad compared to the fact that the school is sinking. There is a gap in between the floor and the wall. There is also a crack in some of the walls that separates walls. Ohio needs to change their finances so that all schools are safer.
Thank you for your time,
Maddy McBride

Field Post 1

Descriptions	interpretations	Parking lot
Students were being taught about phonics, specifically the    -th sound	Children are struggling speaking those words.	Children who are younger struggle with pronunciations and need to learn what sound those letters make
The students are practicing spelling by having the teacher say the word.	They do not know which word to spell. If there are 3 forms of the word there, their and they’re
The teacher has a stop light for behavior	Some kids are misbehaving badly	Some of the kids I thought were misbehaving were not listed as in the bad zone
There was a woman who walked in and focused on one child	She is helping the kid who is struggling in the class	I have witnessed in my old school that specialized help means the child is behind
Students were pushing chairs and calling names	The kids were bullying the other child	The boy who was pushing the chair and calling names was in  the red zone meaning he was in trouble. I am presuming he is causing this.
Students are reading to themselves	Students are not comprehending	The teacher says they are not doing it, but from what I saw, they were.
The students read out loud as a group but you could only hear a couple voices	The students are still struggling with reading	They are in second grade so I do not know what level they need to be reading at.

My Reflection:

This past Thursday, we visited Noble Elementary School. It was very interesting. I am from a suburban public high school and I have little experience with urban schools. Observing the class opened my eyes to a whole world outside what I perceived as school. When we walked into the school, we had to have our licenses for identification. My old elementary school was very lenient. To enter the school, you just had to sign in. We listened to the principal of the school describe the school and give us information about the school. We then went and observed classes. Chloe and I observed a second grade class. Being in this class helped me realize that I do not want to be an elementary teacher. I do not have the patience needed to teach phonics and teach kids how to read. A special kind of person is needed and I am not that person.  I also observed a teacher giving special attention to a boy. He seemed to be struggling paying attention and with basic reading. I also know that I could not be that kind of a teacher because even more patience is needed. I know that teachers need to be patient, but I would rather teach harder concepts. I also enjoy science more than teaching others how to read. We went back to the principal and learned that Noble Elementary School is a focus school and has to pay $5,000 dollars to families who send their children to private schools in the district. I think that that is wrong and the school should not be forced to do that. I also learned that there is a third grade reading guarantee. This means that in order to move to 4^th grade, you have to pass a reading test. I think that stresses teachers out but it is a good rule. This makes sure everyone can read.

Blog Post 3

One question that I came across during my reading of, To Teach,  was, ”Should schools start diagnosing children with different disorders?”  I think that there is some good and bad that can come out of the spike in the diagnosing of disorders. Some children really do have a disorder such as ADHD or a learning deficiency. Those children need to be able to have special attention and accommodations made for them. I do think that we diagnose kids too willingly. When people are questioning if there is something wrong with a kid, they think the worst. They believe the kid has a disorder. I have witnessed this when I worked at a daycare. The teachers and workers would always diagnose the children with disorders. If a child acted out just once, they would say the kid has some disorder. The problem is that sometimes kids are just being kids. They have to learn from mistakes. There's an idea that if students do not fit in a box, then they are broken or messed up. That is not true. Everyone is different, and teachers need to realize that. Kids have lives outside of school. Those lives could be affecting their performance. Before we say a child has a disorder, we have to listen and talk to the children more to understand their home life. Teachers need to be understanding of each student and not expect each kid to be perfect all the time.

Why Teach?

My family is full of teachers. My dad is a high school English teacher, my aunt is a middle school English teacher, and my cousin is a fourth grade teacher. Teaching is in my blood. I want to become a teacher so I can help students understand the world and inspire them. I really enjoy biology, math and science, and I would like to help kids enjoy those subjects too. The best teacher I ever had was my sophomore biology teacher. He made biology interesting and fun. He covered great amounts of material, but it never got boring. He assigned lots of homework and projects but it never felt like busy work. I enjoyed the discussions we had on the ethics of biology and on the biological world. He inspires me to be a teacher. I want to inspire kids just how he inspire me.

In Chapter 3 of the book, Educational Foundations, there were ten questions asked and discussed. The most important question to me was, “What do you know that you can teach to or share with your students?” I think that the answers to this question really explains what you can do. My answer to this question is that I can understand people from different backgrounds and be equals with that person. I can share my past experiences to teach others how to be respectful. In today’s world, learning to be respectful is extremely important, but hard to learn. Hopefully, I could change that.  

Another question that was asked was what age do you want to work with. I want to teach high schoolers because I want to go more in depth on discussions. I do not have the patience to teach second graders the rock cycle for a month.