This story is hands down my absolute favorite. Being an education major and coming from an urban community it touched everything that I want to change when I become a teacher. I wanted to take each and everyone of those kids and tell them that they can succeed and the help them do it. Like that school is somewhere I would love to work. I like the challenge of finding that one thing a child is good at and making them realize it and perfect it.
So many teachers take the easy road and teach in suburban schools are just ignore the kids that seem to be a bit difficult, I am the exact opposite. I actually help out in a middle school here in Bloomfield and the teacher I am helping out told me that she can tell I like being with the "bad" kids. I don't know why that is but there is nothing better than seeing a kid who puts no effort into school but because you gave them that extra little push the reach the stars!
Kozol just made me feel like I was in the school with him. I felt was though I could sit down with one of those kids and help each and everyone of them out even if it meant that I would be there for years. He told the story of a school that otherwise would never be noticed. He went in there to see what was so bad about the school and he came out realizing that the only bad thing is the surroundings. These kids are so talented and with the right help they would be able to all go to college and reach their dreams. Their teachers believe in them and have been able to show them the light no its time for their community to do the same. I would love to look up this school and see that they have changed and are now the top of the school district. These are not only book smart, they are also street smart, creative, and see the world in a way I would never have seen it.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
"What High School Can Be" by Theodore Sizer
From the title of this reading you would think that they are going to tell you what a perfect high school would be like. They didn't do this because like Sizer said there is no such thing as a perfect high school. Each school has different students, different community, and in a different environment. There is no way every single high school can be exactly the same and meet the needs of every single one their students. The only similarity they need to have is that they should try their best to help their students be successful. I always see it as educating our future, this is the generation that is going to be taking care of when we can't take care of ourselves anymore.
I absolutely loved the two stories about the different high schools. It showed two very different sides of how secondary education is perceived. The story of the high school all star is something that I can see definitely happening and probably happened in my high school. People don't bother a good athlete with academics because they already have their ticket into college. As long as they're not a disturbance and get enough work done they can just sit there and look pretty. The girl in the urban school system who is on her fifth year but has realized that she needs to get work done is another scenario that is common in my high school. It talked about blaming the teachers for not getting the students involved and not having that student teacher relationship that's necessary. Its not always the teachers fault, many do what they can with what they are given.
When Sizer said that administration and policy makers have no clue what adolescence are going through, I couldn't help but agree. This is something that I have been learning since I have been learning about education and building my future as a teacher. These people are making are all the rules but keep messing up because they have no clue what the children seriously need, all they know are statistics. Sizer was able to come up with nine common principles of the coalition of essential schools because he went and shadowed students so he know first hand what students need. All nine of these principles are very important and if they could be implemented in a way that fits the school our high schools would be top notch. I especially loved the one where he talks about the tone of the school. People would normally look right over this but environment and how the students feel totally correlates with how well they do. It has been psychologically proven that you have to feel safe before you can do anything else whether its build a relationship, learn something new, or just grow as a person.
I absolutely loved the two stories about the different high schools. It showed two very different sides of how secondary education is perceived. The story of the high school all star is something that I can see definitely happening and probably happened in my high school. People don't bother a good athlete with academics because they already have their ticket into college. As long as they're not a disturbance and get enough work done they can just sit there and look pretty. The girl in the urban school system who is on her fifth year but has realized that she needs to get work done is another scenario that is common in my high school. It talked about blaming the teachers for not getting the students involved and not having that student teacher relationship that's necessary. Its not always the teachers fault, many do what they can with what they are given.
When Sizer said that administration and policy makers have no clue what adolescence are going through, I couldn't help but agree. This is something that I have been learning since I have been learning about education and building my future as a teacher. These people are making are all the rules but keep messing up because they have no clue what the children seriously need, all they know are statistics. Sizer was able to come up with nine common principles of the coalition of essential schools because he went and shadowed students so he know first hand what students need. All nine of these principles are very important and if they could be implemented in a way that fits the school our high schools would be top notch. I especially loved the one where he talks about the tone of the school. People would normally look right over this but environment and how the students feel totally correlates with how well they do. It has been psychologically proven that you have to feel safe before you can do anything else whether its build a relationship, learn something new, or just grow as a person.
Monday, November 15, 2010
"In the Beginning: The 1893 Report of the Committe of Ten" by Charles Eliot & "Creating the Comprehensive High School" by James B. Conant
Since I'm an education major this unit and both these readings are something I can relate to. While I was reading these selections I was constantly thinking this sounds just like our school system now. We are dealing with problems that were around more than one hundred years ago and then showed up again fifty years ago. This proves what my education professor was talking about in class, education always comes back full circle. Meaning that one day we will go back to teaching the basics and then sometime after that we will back to teaching to standards. It all depends on our goal at the time and what we believe is best for our students.
That is one things that has never changed. We have always wanted what is best for our students. At times the decisions we have made aren't working anymore which is why we keep changing and striving for the best. We make students take different languages because even back then we knew it was valuable. In the committee of ten it talks about how math and science are seen as the most important subjects and till this day they still are. Then it continues to talk about how the other subjects feel as though they don't get as much attention. This reminded me of the constant struggle that the arts and music programs have in public schools. They are always the first ones to get a budget cut, if only people knew how important it is to be a well rounded person. As an education major we do field work and I am placed at a middle school. The kids are so talented when it comes to music and art but they aren't encouraged. I was telling my mom this and she told me when Benjamin Franklin made education free he did its so that we could become better contributing members of the community. It wasn't just so that we could all be braniacs and super good at math.
"Creating a Comprehensive High School," talked about a lot of the problems we have now a days. Dealing with different learning styles and levels of intelligence. They then also had some good ideas, like not always grouping children and having a structured homeroom. While I was reading the requirements they needed to graduate from high school I felt as though I was reading my high school's requirements. Not much has changed which I believe is good. High school is all about learning the basics so that when you get into college you will have a foundation where you can then build your future on it. My favorite part by far was when they talked about their homeroom. I absolutely saw no importance in my homeroom especially since it was only like seven minutes and all we did was take attendance. I wish I had a homeroom like theirs, they had a purpose. Since students were grouped for all of their academic classes they wanted to students to learn how to socialize outside if their group and that what homeroom was for. Luckily my mom taught me at a young age to get along and make friends with everyone because everyone has their purpose in this world. That is what the homeroom was trying to show children.
It always blows my mind when it comes to learning about education and how we can make it better for other generations to come. As an education major I can't wait to be working with my coworkers on building a curriculum and voicing my opinion on what I think is important for students to learn.
That is one things that has never changed. We have always wanted what is best for our students. At times the decisions we have made aren't working anymore which is why we keep changing and striving for the best. We make students take different languages because even back then we knew it was valuable. In the committee of ten it talks about how math and science are seen as the most important subjects and till this day they still are. Then it continues to talk about how the other subjects feel as though they don't get as much attention. This reminded me of the constant struggle that the arts and music programs have in public schools. They are always the first ones to get a budget cut, if only people knew how important it is to be a well rounded person. As an education major we do field work and I am placed at a middle school. The kids are so talented when it comes to music and art but they aren't encouraged. I was telling my mom this and she told me when Benjamin Franklin made education free he did its so that we could become better contributing members of the community. It wasn't just so that we could all be braniacs and super good at math.
"Creating a Comprehensive High School," talked about a lot of the problems we have now a days. Dealing with different learning styles and levels of intelligence. They then also had some good ideas, like not always grouping children and having a structured homeroom. While I was reading the requirements they needed to graduate from high school I felt as though I was reading my high school's requirements. Not much has changed which I believe is good. High school is all about learning the basics so that when you get into college you will have a foundation where you can then build your future on it. My favorite part by far was when they talked about their homeroom. I absolutely saw no importance in my homeroom especially since it was only like seven minutes and all we did was take attendance. I wish I had a homeroom like theirs, they had a purpose. Since students were grouped for all of their academic classes they wanted to students to learn how to socialize outside if their group and that what homeroom was for. Luckily my mom taught me at a young age to get along and make friends with everyone because everyone has their purpose in this world. That is what the homeroom was trying to show children.
It always blows my mind when it comes to learning about education and how we can make it better for other generations to come. As an education major I can't wait to be working with my coworkers on building a curriculum and voicing my opinion on what I think is important for students to learn.
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