While reading about Horace Mann in “The American School” text, Ch. 4 – The Ideology and Politics of the Common School, I found myself supporting “his advocacy of moral education in the schools…instruction in piety, justice, benevolence, frugality, chastity, moderation, and temperance.” Mann considered these to be basic moral doctrines of Christianity and called for the presence and use of the Bible, the source of these doctrines. With the exception of piety, I assume in the 21st century, most people would not consider or think of these doctrines as sourced from the Bible, but just as “good things to do.” But do we even teach or reflect upon such things in public schools today? Are there adequate opportunities to teach and promote such values in public schools today? Should there be classes that specifically teach morals? Will teaching moral education today be considered as religious education as it was in the early and mid 1800’s?
I’m in support of moral education in the schools today, because I have witnessed students being malicious to others, stealing from others - including from me; students belittling others (clothing, hair, looks), not caring for the personal property of others, the school and sometimes their own. Some students (even the “nice” ones) have committed very mean and harmful pranks on their peers. I support moral education in light of my experience teaching world history to 7th graders.
I was thrilled to teach 7th grade world history. As new civilizations and cultures were introduced so were the religious beliefs and practices of these cultures. I began the unit with a 2 part writing prompt: 1) what purpose does religion serve in our world or why does religion exist and 2) If you follow a religion, how does this affect what you do in your life? I must confess I was personally stunned when a student asked me, “What do you mean why does religion exist? I don’t know! What is it supposed to do!?!” I was even more surprised to discover only 5 of the 22 students stated they followed a religion.
As I now reflect back on the vague, uncertain, and limited responses to these writing prompts, they support the “lack of positive ethical action” to a previous writing prompt about returning a lost backpack containing $20,000. Only 2 of the students said they would make an effort to find the owner of the backpack. Of the remaining 17 students, only 2 said they would give a portion of the $20K away to the needy. Realizing this survey of responses is minute, I pondered how these responses would correlate with a larger population sample. Would there be any significant difference?
Would the responses to the religion writing prompts or the lost backpack prompt be different if moral education was a required course in public schools? What do you think?
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
How to reverse 8 years of low expectations?
This is a question for teachers, administrators, pre-service colleagues - actually anyone. The following negative experience provides the background that raises the question, “How to reverse 8 years of low expectations?”
Two years ago, I was a substitute teacher at an urban K-8 school located in a poor to working class neighborhood. The 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes are single gender. The Social Studies teacher left a quiz for his 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. The same quiz was used for all students. The teacher’s instructions were: (1) students were not allowed to use textbooks and (2) students were allowed to use notes. The quiz assessed students’ knowledge of powers and responsibilities of the three levels of government (Federal, State, or Local). The quiz contained 25 multiple choice questions and 25 (fill in blank) types of power and responsibilities and the students’ must (a) indicate which level of government applied and (b) state the reason. The 6th grade boys were most studious about completing the quiz. The 7th and 8th grade boys grumbled a bit; a few did not have their notebooks or notes; some complained about not being able to use the textbook. The 7th grade girls were chatty and some were slow in starting the quiz. The 8th grade girls (about 13 girls in the class) complained about having to take a quiz while the teacher was out. Most did not have notes. Three girls asked to get their notes from their lockers. Two students had just returned from suspension. Several girls were angry that textbooks could not be used. One girl (Sara) boldly stated, “Well I don’t care, I’m going to use the book”, and proceeds to get the textbook. I reminded her of the teacher’s rules and she was offended and rebellious. I stated that if she used the textbook, her quiz would not be graded. She continued using the textbook; yet she did not turn in her quiz. Only three girls turned in partially completed quizzes. The remaining ten chose not to take the quiz. The overall tone of this group was utter apathy. The “I don’t care mindset” resonated loudly with these girls.
I was truly disturbed by this event, 1) mainly by the students lack of concern/care about turning in their quizzes, 2) Sara's lack of regard for following teacher instructions, 3) the teacher providing the same quiz for 3 different grade levels?
My question is as an 8th grade teacher, what can I do to help erase 8 years of low expectations some of these students repeatedly experienced from teachers, administrators, families and peers?
What can I do in the one year of schooling I'll have with them to motivate and encourage and change their thinking and perceptions going forward into high school?
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Who are today's students? (Reading & Group Response)
6-29-11 Classroom Blog
"Deficit Thinking" was a new phrase for me. However, upon further reading I discovered it's actually a phrase with a meaning that's long been prevalent and holding pervasive assumptions. Deficit thinking can be interpreted in educational terms as believing that students behave poorly and underachieve academically as a result of weak or neglected family support and/or, ineffective/patronizing/incompetent teachers.
As a new teacher, I reflected on my own effectiveness as a middle school teacher and my competence at managing 7th and 8th grade students in the classroom. I wish I could say with great confidence that I was effective in their learning and competent in classroom management. My heart and head desire is to connect with my students in their learning and to be able to reason with them as it relates to appropriate classroom behavior. Classroom management was a great challenge for me. My goal was and still is to have a similar experience like Mr. McIntyre at Shaker High School. For his entire 30+ years of teaching, he never sent any student to the office for disruptive classroom behavior. What is the key to this successful type of classroom management?
Perhaps one element of this success is the concept of “Bubbles” as described by Alex in class today. Kids love watching bubbles float in the air – adults can be distracted by them too. The Bubbles concept reminds teachers to be mindful of the fact that students get distracted, there are things going on in their lives that cause great distraction. We are all occasionally distracted by one thing or another – inside or outside the classroom: family matters at home, tense relationships with friends, personal illness, peer pressure, thunderstorms and lightening or a parade passing by the school. Being mindful of distractions allows the teacher flexibility to use such occasions as teachable life application moments.
"Deficit Thinking" was a new phrase for me. However, upon further reading I discovered it's actually a phrase with a meaning that's long been prevalent and holding pervasive assumptions. Deficit thinking can be interpreted in educational terms as believing that students behave poorly and underachieve academically as a result of weak or neglected family support and/or, ineffective/patronizing/incompetent teachers.
As a new teacher, I reflected on my own effectiveness as a middle school teacher and my competence at managing 7th and 8th grade students in the classroom. I wish I could say with great confidence that I was effective in their learning and competent in classroom management. My heart and head desire is to connect with my students in their learning and to be able to reason with them as it relates to appropriate classroom behavior. Classroom management was a great challenge for me. My goal was and still is to have a similar experience like Mr. McIntyre at Shaker High School. For his entire 30+ years of teaching, he never sent any student to the office for disruptive classroom behavior. What is the key to this successful type of classroom management?
Perhaps one element of this success is the concept of “Bubbles” as described by Alex in class today. Kids love watching bubbles float in the air – adults can be distracted by them too. The Bubbles concept reminds teachers to be mindful of the fact that students get distracted, there are things going on in their lives that cause great distraction. We are all occasionally distracted by one thing or another – inside or outside the classroom: family matters at home, tense relationships with friends, personal illness, peer pressure, thunderstorms and lightening or a parade passing by the school. Being mindful of distractions allows the teacher flexibility to use such occasions as teachable life application moments.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Hi! My name is Carmilla Driscal, I live in Cleveland. I prefer to be called Carmilla or Carm. My email address is cdriscal11@jcu.edu. I completed my student teaching December 2010. I was fortunate to get a Long-Term substitute position with Cleveland in January, teaching middle school math and social studies (my licensed areas). This current Foundations of Education course is my last class for completing my Master's in Education. I'm so excited.
I'm excited and very anxious at the same time because unfortunately my mother has been hospitalized with pneumonia while trying to recover from a broken hip (a very slow process). So I'm in the middle of being a primary caregiver, for my mom and my two sons' ages 14 and 10. I do have a great sister who is also helping with my mother.
So along with learning about the foundations of education and recent research on education, I'm learning about the pros and cons of the medicare system.
I have always enjoyed teaching in some capacity, yet my profession before pursuing education was as an accountant for over 20 years. I have a tendency to be detailed oriented and have a "thing" for numbers and patterns. However, I'm a people person, many who know me state that I'm a very patient person (sometimes to a fault). I'm very much interested in the lives of most people I meet and my own self-perception is that I'm an encourager especially to young people. This is one of the main reasons I pursued teaching middle school.
Since middle school students are at a point where physical, intellectual, and mental changes are most transparent whether rapid or gradual, it's definitely a period of time that requires patience and understanding from an adult that's consistently engaged with them. I have discovered that each day I must remind myself of this.
I'm also reminded that like the middle schoolers, even mature adults need to have a sense of security when participating in intellectual and creative risks in the classroom. This security comes from both one's own self-esteem and the openess or willingness of the educator to allow for risk-taking. For me, I'm comfortable doing this if I truly believe that what I say or do will matter or make a difference by causing one to reflect, analyze, support with more detail/experience or raise awareness.
I'm excited and very anxious at the same time because unfortunately my mother has been hospitalized with pneumonia while trying to recover from a broken hip (a very slow process). So I'm in the middle of being a primary caregiver, for my mom and my two sons' ages 14 and 10. I do have a great sister who is also helping with my mother.
So along with learning about the foundations of education and recent research on education, I'm learning about the pros and cons of the medicare system.
I have always enjoyed teaching in some capacity, yet my profession before pursuing education was as an accountant for over 20 years. I have a tendency to be detailed oriented and have a "thing" for numbers and patterns. However, I'm a people person, many who know me state that I'm a very patient person (sometimes to a fault). I'm very much interested in the lives of most people I meet and my own self-perception is that I'm an encourager especially to young people. This is one of the main reasons I pursued teaching middle school.
Since middle school students are at a point where physical, intellectual, and mental changes are most transparent whether rapid or gradual, it's definitely a period of time that requires patience and understanding from an adult that's consistently engaged with them. I have discovered that each day I must remind myself of this.
I'm also reminded that like the middle schoolers, even mature adults need to have a sense of security when participating in intellectual and creative risks in the classroom. This security comes from both one's own self-esteem and the openess or willingness of the educator to allow for risk-taking. For me, I'm comfortable doing this if I truly believe that what I say or do will matter or make a difference by causing one to reflect, analyze, support with more detail/experience or raise awareness.
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