Carrie’s TEBlog

Here is a podcast of my presentation. The feed address for my podcast is http://feeds.feedburner.com/CarriesTeblog

            Throughout my readings for my TE 302 class, I have begun to reshape some of my beliefs about teaching and strengthen my existing ideas. The perfect way to describe my ideas of teaching would fall under the pragmatism philosophy (Ornstein, 2000). I believe in problem solving in any learning experience and using the scientific method to solve life problems. As a teacher I would focus my classrooms around students experimenting with different methods and using their own knowledge and skills to grow and learn. I would consider my classroom as an exploration of math and life situations involving math. Each problem would be addressed in new manners opening students’ minds to new processes of gaining information and applying it. I think the true way to learn is to be able to face new problems with many different skills and ideas and adapt them accordingly. Classrooms should be broadening horizons and showing students how to use their own skills to do so.

            An important topic in education I have discovered through this class is literacy. It is a tool that without people could not make it anywhere in today’s society. As a teacher, I would be applying literacy in math terms. I have learned that this is a valid concept, and literacy is applicable to all situations not simply English courses. I agree with Lankshear and Knobel when they stress literacy as being a social process and practice. It makes sense that every situation requires literacy in different forms. So, I must look for the best way to teach literacy in math to a wide range of different levels of students. I must discover ways to use my students’ different primary D/discourses and develop them into a secondary D/discourse, which is math in my case (Lankshear, 2003). Math is something that is all together different in language and so forth then any other subject; therefore, I must discover ways to bring math to a level that students will be able to make connections with. Here I think the best way would be to discover first what my students’ background is in math. Every student will have different understandings of math, so I must decide whether to teach defensively or challenge myself (McNeil, 1986). I think defensive teaching is the easy and lazy way out. I think good teachers challenge all students and incorporate all of their students learning abilities into the curriculum. I do not know as of yet exactly how to go about doing this; however, I think students will gain the most from a curriculum that challenges them and builds off their knowledge. After I can get a feel of where my students’ math literacy is, I will need to try different methods of incorporating that into my teaching styles. Literacy is different for every person, so I need to be able to relate all my material in different forms. I think the key is teachers need to be well rounded. I want to understand many different learning patterns and D/discourses, so I can incorporate each one into the classroom.

            Even if I can reach every student on their level, I still need ways to motivate them to learn math. The main thing I have gathered from the readings is to help students set goals and fit assignments and lesson plans to meet individual needs (Brophy, 2004). Math is a subject where it is hard to stay motivated if you do not have the skill. Many people feel that math is too hard, so they simply give up. These are students I will have to adjust lesson plans for and help set up realistic goals. For these students, I think a great way to help them would be to allow them see why they are struggling. If they can discover their own mistakes, they will learn how to correct them and look for them on their own. The key to math is evaluating what is working and what is not. Students who struggle need to be able to learn how to problem solve. Success comes from adapting the information you know into a new form to accomplish a new problem. Thus by guiding students to finding their strengths and weaknesses in math, I think I can help students grow to problem solve on their own. Not everyone has to be a math genius, and I would never stress that as a teacher. I simply want to give them skills to do problems on their own and learn to workout solutions. Another type of student I will face will be students who do not feel math is important. For these students I will need to stress fully they do not need to be math geniuses but need to learn the problem solving skills math offers. This is an important job teachers have trying to connect school to real life. I think math is something that connects directly to real life. Math is all about problem solving and learning how to solve different types of real life problems. Everyone uses math in their daily lives without realizing. The idea to help motivate the students who do not see math as important then is to show them how math can be applied to many problems they face in their lives. I need to make math more then simply solving problems from a book. I need to show students processes they can take away from math and provide real life applications. It is all about making math more of an experiment then simply a routine. The process is more important then getting a good enough solution.

            Education is something that everyone has different feelings about. So many conflicting goals exist in education that teachers have a tough time focusing on the main importance of helping students grow. I have seen how political the educational system has become (Labaree, 1997). People believe schools are set up to produce productive members of society. The problem is that when teachers focus on performance of their students and simply racking up their credentials, they forget about what I think is the most important part of education, growth and experience. I truly believe education is for giving students the chance to discover who they are and form an identity. They should be encouraged to grow and challenge themselves. Yes, we need productive members of society. However, I think if education focused more on learning processes and individual growth, they would accomplish this goal without so much politics. Who decides what a productive member of society is? Since there is no simple answer to this, it does not make sense to be a set goal. Education is meant to be a good, so to speak, that the students can receive through their own experiences. I think telling someone this is what is expected of you only creates huge problems. No one knows someone else’s potential without testing it. Education is that process of challenging and strengthening of one’s potential. As a teacher, my main focus would be my students own growth.

            I can not say exactly how I will accomplish all of my ideas as a teacher. Some of them sound idealistic and way more complicated then I can fathom. I do however know that as a teacher I will always try to create an environment where students are encouraged to experiment with learning. I want to give students a chance to discover that math is not simply out of a book, but a skill that can help them better their lives. I think teachers are meant to guide students to learn what they are capable of doing in life. Passion is something I have for math, which I believe makes me more then ready to teach math. Being an expert is great, but having the desire to pass on the knowledge makes a great teacher. Since math is something that I know does not come easy even to those who are great at it, teaching it will be a challenge. Yet, if I can focus more on the root of mathematical process and problem solving, then I believe I will be successful. Knowledge is knowing that things change and being able to adapt to that change. Math is about adapting knowledge to solve different problems throughout life. As a teacher, I hope that I can give my students the ability to adapt processes they know to grow and change with the world.

Bibliography
Brophy, J. (2004). Motivating Students to Learn (2nd Ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Labaree, D. F. (1997). Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals. American Educational Research Journal, 34, 39-81.
Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2003). New Literacies. New York: Open University Press.
McNeil, L. M. (1986). Contradictions of Control. Boston: Routledge.
Ornstein, A. C. & Levine, D. U. (2000). Foundations of Education (7th Ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Rob brings up some interesting things in his response to the Labaree article. He notices why a goal of education would be Democratic Equality. All schools are different and get different benefits. Along with that not every teacher is the same. This is why I had said to some extent education should be unified. I think if there was a more unified guideline for education, people would have more equal opportunities and all of problems may be fixed. Basically if everyone knows what is expected and has a set idea of what education is, then it would be easier to fulfill the requirements. I know this seems very idealistic, but I think it could really help. I liked what Rob said about Social Efficacy. No one truly can say when he or she is in middle school or even in high school what he or she wants to be. How can they know if they have not experienced different things? I think that is part of what education does. It shows students all the different possibilities that they have. Students need to be encouraged to explore, not to be narrow-minded. Why would a goal of education be to keep society the way it is, when I thought a goal of education was to encourage social change? It seems contradictory to me.

After reading the article “Colleges Awash in Applications,” I was intrigued by the number of students applying to colleges. Since so many graduating seniors are applying to college, the number of accepted students at many colleges is going down. More and more seniors are being denied access to many colleges. They claim it is because there is an increase in the number of students graduating from high school, but perhaps there is more to it. Maybe since the bar has been raised as to what kind of education you need to get certain jobs in the US. Like we discussed in class, a college degree has now become the deciding factor for many jobs. More people actually want to go to college, so it is harder to get in. I think another interesting thing the article said was that experts were telling seniors to go to colleges not because of their rankings but because they offered the classes and degrees they wanted. Wow now does that make sense. Why would you just go to a school because of the name if they did not offer a good program in what you wanted to go into? I think it is so silly how many people value reputations more then the opportunity to get a good education. I came to State because of the education program. I did not even apply to Michigan because I knew their education program can not offer what State’s can. People told me to apply to Michigan just simply because it was Michigan. That makes no sense to me at all. Schools are good in certain areas. If you want the best education possible go to schools that fit your needs. If someone applies for a job and all they have is that they went to some prestigious school but no real skills in the job they are applying for, they will not get the job. I see many people who got to prestigious schools that can not get a job because there degrees really mean nothing except that they went to a good school. Education is what you make it. That is how I feel.

After reading Labaree I completely saw how the educational system was set up the way he said it was. I never realized that there were such concrete goals in education. I see though now how it is set up to try to achieve democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility. It just amazes me how much education is political and so forth, I just never really saw it. I do see how these are conflicting. I have always thought that the school system was failing because there are so many different views and goals inside it. Everyone has their own agenda and school is the perfect place to force it upon impressionable minds. School is to get people ready to go into society, so different people and locations are going to feel that this requires different things. I think a great idea would be to make education more uniform. I know this is impossible, but it would solve so many issues I believe. Every school district is quite different from the next. This seems to be a problem to me. I think schools would be more effective if they were more uniform. I also found it interesting that he said the biggest problem was the dominance of the social mobility goal. This to me is so true. The problem is that schools have all these great theories and ideals, but outside in society they do not work. School systems need to focus on how they can change society and make the ideals workout. I thought it was interesting how he said that public schools are being called government schools. Education is so political it makes me sick. I think people need to realize education is meant to be for growth not politics. I guess I agree education should be a private good, but I do not plan to teach at a private school.

I agree with Amy that critical pedagogy and thinking are quite similar. I do believe that one cannot exist without the other. I think that a lot of critical pedagogy depends on the basis of critical thinking. Critical pedagogy is about taking critical thinking’s drive to find evidence and reasoning to explain the world and transforming it into action to change it. In general, I feel theories and philosophies all to some degree play of each other. Newer ones are fine tunings of older ones, while opposing philosophies define much of their beliefs on the opposite of the other. In general to have a true theory or philosophy, one must understand how the others work as well. Without knowledge of other existing ideas, there is no true basis for a belief. Critical thinking and pedagogy are describing the same main facts about the world; therefore, they are quite similar. If you got rid of one of the ideas it would simply fall into the other or be exposed over time. Philosophies grow from each other; it just takes someone to define a new one. People who are thinking about the world as described by both critical thinking and pedagogy, know both ideas and need both to support their own thoughts.

I listened to The Naked Scientists podcast. It was interesting and fun. Basically it is just “naked” science being discussed by scientists. Pretty much anyone can call with any science questions, and they discuss them. Also, they discuss recent events in science. It was interesting because they had different scientists with different perspectives discussing exciting topics. It is fast pace and definitely for people who enjoy science and know about it. However, it is just fun to listen to because you can pick up on some interesting facts. They even have students who are in elementary school helping them, so it tries to appeal to all ages. I think if teachers could find things like this discussing the same topics they are in class; they could use it as an outside tool for learning. It would give students other view points and encourage them to research the topic more. I think using podcasts would be a great tool to use for promoting critical pedagogy or thinking. In class teachers can only present so much about certain topics, but if students could on their own time listen to podcasts they would be immersed more in the topic. It may increase interest in a topic and help students understand it better. It gives more sides of the topics to help students think critically and begin to learn to research their world. Also I think it would help teachers grow by listening to the podcasts. They could learn recent facts that perhaps might help bring the subject more alive to the students. Also I think by listening to podcasts, teachers are bettering themselves as teachers. Subjects are constantly changing because the world is constantly changing. By staying caught up with the new information teachers are staying well rounded and knowledgeable. If students are interested in new information, then teachers can offer the podcasts they listen to. I think this would help teachers build credit and a relationship with the student. I definitely could see podcasting becoming a major part of school and learning in the future.

3/27

While waiting in the classroom to tutor, I saw the teacher do something interesting. He shuts his door when the bell rings and locks it, so no one can get in after the bell. He then proceeds to give out instructions with some students waiting in the hall because they were tardy. After he determines who is present and has time, he lets the other kids in the classroom. I completely understand why he does this because he wants to encourage students to be one time. They miss part of class and get a detention after being late so many times. Also I think he values teaching students manners and other societal skills because he is trying to instill in them to be on time. Perhaps he is even trying to show that he will not put up with their behavior. He is probably trying to show them that rules are important and have consequences if broken. He may also believe it manages time by being able to start right at the beginning of the hour. If he allowed students to come in as they pleased he would be distracted and unable to accomplish much with people coming in late and causing distractions.

            There are problems with this method. It is probably to help minimize distractions and possibly manage classroom time. However, I can see how it does exactly the opposite of both of those. He has to put aside time to let them in and mark them down as tardy, which interrupts the flow of class. It probably also promotes socializing because he is no longer addressing the class. Then he has to regain control which has caused loss of classroom time. On top of that he also has to at some point, either on the students own time or during the class, explain to the tardy students anything they missed being in the hall. Being tardy is something that should be punished, but is it bad enough to have students miss learning or hearing instructions? Perhaps he thinks the students who are tardy do not value there class time. This is probably for the most part true. By having them wait outside though, the teacher is telling the students he does not care about their learning either. The students probably hold a lot of resentment towards him for this which results in the loss of respect. I think some of the students may even be feeling like it does not matter whether or not they get to class on time because he does not want them in the class. They have always met discipline, and it has not worked in the past, so why would it work now? I think the idea is good because it does help class start at the beginning and teaches students to be on time. Yet, it really does not help the students that do not care about class and are going to come late anyways. I think those students need a new approach. What I am unsure, but perhaps something that is different then constant punishment.

After reading “Critical Thinking and Critical Pedagogy,” I am a little unsure what I think about them. I think that they are good ideas which contain their own flaws. I truly liked critical pedagogy because it is more about taking action. It says that critical thinking is about finding a passion to search for reasons, truth, and understanding of the world, while critical pedagogy is about being able to interpret the world and willing to change it. To me, I think as teachers we should be teaching both but focusing on action. Someone who can only interpret the world and desires to do nothing more will not help society. Someone who desires to create change in power structures and so forth is what we need. As teachers we should be helping students see what is real, and how they can change it. I think this is a slightly hard thing to convey. Perhaps though if we promote using tools (i.e. books) that did not always promote one way of thinking, then we would begin to help uncover new things about the world for our students. Or if we can help students learn to explore and analyze things they are told, we can help them learn to question the world. I think with teaching we just need to instill in the students passion. They need to learn passion to get where they want to go no matter where it is. Perhaps by believing in a theory and truly living it will inspire others to want to believe in it as well. I think in general that is what teachers are, models for the students to learn from. If we believe in our students and that change can happen, then the students are way more likely to believe it too. I think critical thinking and critical pedagogy should be used as models for teachers to perform for their students.

Christopher had a great response to the Ornstein article; however, I have a slightly different opinion then he does on one of the topics. I do not believe there is one correct answer to every question. It is to cut and dry for me. I think that is why the world is constantly changing and why new research is discovered everyday. There are a billion different ways to look at a problem and to say that they all lead to one correct answer is hard for me to believe. I think every question has answers, but the answer depends on so many factors. I mean in math the empty set is both open and closed. Now these things are suppose to be cut and dry one way or the other, yet a set has both properties. I think it is too much of a simplification to say there is one correct answer to every question. The world is so complex, how can we expect there to be only one answer to all its problems. I do understand where Christopher is coming from with his idea. It makes sense for simple problems like he states, but it does not work for more theoretical problems or world wide problems. I think as teachers we should show students that there are some questions in this world that have different answers and the choice is up to them to decide what they think applies more for them. Yet, if we say everything in life has one answer, they will surely think we are crazy. I do think Christopher had some great points though.