Blog Post 8: Planning A Teaching Experience and "Building Bridges"

Since my Major is Early Childhood Education I had to think of something interesting that a first grade teacher would and could teach. A lot of different things to teach came to mind, but one stuck out. A thing that I would be able to teach young children about is doing simple addition and subtraction because that age is when you first start learning about the basics Math, and all the other core subjects. In chapter four when Bill Ayers is talking about "building bridges" I believe he is talking about building a personal relationship with a teacher, the work that they are teaching, and their students. The bridge is connected between the three things because all of these combined can lead to great success in and outside of the classroom for both the teacher and student. If a teacher is able to build a bridge with themselves and students through math it can lead to a much better environment in the classroom which in turn will make the teacher earn respect for the students and vice versa. Another positive aspect about building bridges through simple addition and subtraction with students is that maybe they can really start to enjoy it. Then, it becomes something they enjoy more and more each year as they continue on with their education. Finally, they find a major with math in it because of the healthy bridge that was built with them and the subject as early as first grade.

If I am to teach this kind of math to young students there are many things one must keep in mind. First, I'd need to realize that not all of these students are going to get it right away because this can be their first introduction to any kind of math in their life. You need to go in to teaching every subject with an open-mind because you don't know what these kids know and don't know. If I were to assume that my students just know how to do everything I as the teacher would be setting most if not all of them up for failure. I need to realize it is going to take time and we all learn at a different pace. Another important thing I would have to do is explain all the different ways to solve a problem and how to get the answers. You could tell them there is calculators, but if they use them they may not learn it as easy as the other students. Also, you have to show them how to "carry" a number for an addition problem such as "18+17." Finally, you would have to tell them to practice it a lot and try it on their own time. There are many factors that go into teaching something and building bridges, but these are the main things for this type of teaching experience to young children. It is very important for teachers to build bridges with students because at the end of the day it is only a positive experience for both sides and can lead to great success in the future.

Blog Post 6: PostIt Notes

While I was reading Chapter 8 of "Educational Foundations" I stumbled upon a very interesting section. The chapter was titled "The Banking Concept of Education" and it was written by Paulo Freire. Throughout most of the chapter the author talks about how Teachers do all the talking and get to control the whole class while the students just sit there and listen and take notes. He says things such as "the teacher teaches and the students are taught" and "the teacher thinks and the students are thought about" and finally, "the teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects." There are many others but these were the one's that stuck out. Well, in my opinion I do not necessarily think the author is completely correct. In fact I think a classroom is divided equally. Now sure teachers can give detentions and they are the one's who make the rules, but usually in my past experience students were never considered just "objects." The only people who were considered "objects" by teachers were the students who did not care to be in the classroom so the teachers would have to ignore those students or even kick them out for being disruptive. Usually, that did not happen but in some cases it did. Now, you have the other kids, the kids who actually wish to gain knowledge and be in school. This group of kids should not be considered "objects" because most of the time these kids were apart of the lesson. Most of the teachers I had would not consider these students objects at all. This group was able to give input on the lecture and be heard by the teacher and the rest of the class. Students taught the teachers new stuff and instead of the teachers teaching they were actually the one's who listened and paid attention to the pupils. These kids do not deserve a special title, but they also do not deserved to be referred to as "objects."

Blog Post 5: Rofes

In his book A Radical Rethinking of Sexuality and Schooling Eric Rofe's talks about how hard it was for him to grow up as a homosexual. He presents many details from his childhood of how hard it was for him in grade school and high school and even adult life. The schools that I have attended have not shown much prejudice towards homosexual students, instead they have embraced the way they are. At my high we only had one openly gay student and everyone was very accepting and friendly to him honestly, he was one of the more popular students because of his bravery. In his book Rofe's considers childhood a "negative" part of life. I personally do not agree with this at all. Childhood should be one of the happiest and greatest times of your life. It is one of the only times you can have an open imagination and enjoy everything. It seems like enjoying his childhood and having fun was not something he really took part in but rather hated it. If I am teaching at a school in four years I hope it is the school where I went to as a child. I believe the school will still be very similar to the way it was nearly 10 years ago when I attended the school. The kids are still hopefully happy, funny, outgoing young boys and girls just like it was for me and the rest of my classmates because elementary school was a great and exciting experience for all of our young minds. Currently I am doing my observation hours at the same elementary school I went to and not many things have really changed. It seems as if they do most of the same work we did. Have the same schedule we did. Also, they act the same way that we did. Hopefully, these things continue and I am able to earn a job at this dream school because it would be a dream come true to have that kind of dream job.

Field Blog 1: Mayfield Middle School

Going into Mayfield Middle School for the first time I walked in with a question to think about while I was examining the class. The question was how do students in Middle School act now compared to when I was there? The answer I received was not the answer I expected. I noticed many things from my visit of this school. The first thing I noticed is that the students at this particular Middle School seemed more calm and settle compared to how my class acted when we were in Middle School. Another thing I noticed is the teacher whose class I was examining used something called a "marble system" he didn't explain it to us, but from the looks of it when students act well they get marbles and their score on the board goes up. If the students act up and talk when they are not supposed to they lose marbles and a possible prize is lost as well. I feel like this was the teachers way of getting his students to act mature and appropriate. If they can do that they are rewarded. The technique this teacher used was smart. One final thing that happened was the students received their test scores back from a previous test they had just taken. If the students got over an 88% on the test they were rewarded and had their name put on a special board. However, if they received a score lower than 88% nothing happened they were just told to do better and try harder next time. In conclusion, after sitting in on a 7th grade science class I have figured out many new things about what goes on inside a Middle School classroom. However, I still think that Middle School is not the place that I want to be teaching at in the future.