Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Final Remarks
I would just like to say I actually liked doing this blogging because it was nice to read the opinions of others and discuss the various issues that came up in class and in the content throughout the course. I feel like I am a lot more aware of everything that goes along with teaching and in the school, and I hope that I can do as much as possible to make the schools I work in better places, and the students more successful. What I have become the most more aware of now is hidden curriculum, whether it be in the process or the content that we are using in the classroom. I hope to be very conscious of it when I'm teaching in my practicum this coming semester, and hope not to instil any biases of any sort in my students, or put beliefs in their head that they shouldn't be thinking! I hope everyone has a great christmas and good luck during your practicums and future teaching!
Failure Models
Today in class we finished up the course by talking about different failure models. The first I'm going to discuss is the psychological deprivation model. This model says that students failure is caused by poor home environment which includes not enough or lack of nourishment, poor role models if any, no books or literacy exposure, etc. I think that yes some of these things might have an effect on a student. For example if a student is hungry they aren't going to have much energy and will be constantly thinking about food and probably not feel well. This is what breakfast programs were created for, to give these students a boost in the morning. But I mean, just because a kid has a bad role model at home or doesn't have books to read at home, doesn't mean he or she is doomed to be a failure in school. That is where the teacher comes in. It is the teachers job to help these students and all students to achieve in school, become literate, and do the best that they can do. Perhaps students can take books out from the library and bring them home. The teacher can have meetings with the parents or guardians and figure out what they can do in order to give the best chance of success to their child. It definitely isn't impossible and failure should not by any means be based on what home life is like, even though it might pose a challenge.
We also talked about the need for achievement which I believe was in the same model. We talked about the example of kids in the class shooting a basketball into a garbage can, and those who went right up to it, or those who had a need for achievement and would continually move backwards and try and get it in. I don't think those with a lack of need for achievement are doomed to fail. All students should want to achieve because with no motivation they will find it harder to be successful and achieve. But again this is something as teachers that we can help our students to overcome. Sometimes the easy route is the best way, like the students who stood right by the basket.
When we looked at the cultural deprivation model, we talked about "black language" as well as stereotyping. Saying that certain cultures are destined to fail I think is absolutely ridiculous. If you go by stereotypes and think that that is what all people of that culture are like, that is what you are going to look for and what you will expect of those students. There is nothing wrong with having one's own culture and having certain believes and perhaps speaking in a different dialect than others or having a different language. Like we talked about with Italians in Toronto, they were set up to fail because their first language was italian, they didn't know much english, and were taught in english. So what do you expect? When changed to half and half the students did much better. We as teachers need to try and accomodate and incorporate our students' cultures and backgrounds as much as possible to make them feel comfortable, a part of the classroom community, and to allow them to succeed in the best way possible.
We then looked at the reproduction model which says that class society reproduces itself. Therefore the values of your parents will be passed on to you, and you are destined to do the work that your parents do. Therefore if your parents work at a grocery store, no need for you to try in school to be anything better than that because you are going to work in the grocery store too. I don't think this is true at all especially in todays society. I think that everyone is becoming more independent and seeing what success they can achieve. School really is the gateway to the future therefore we need to open up as many doors as possible for our students and let them know the world is theirs if they want it. You don't have to do what your parents do because that's the way things have been for the past 50 years.
Finally, the administrative model talks about money and government funding. It is unfortunate that some people can't afford school therefore settle for less. There is a lot of money out there if you go looking for it. The road doesn't stop if at one moment in time you don't have enough money.
All in all I don't like these models and I don't think any one person is doomed to fail for any set out reason. Teachers can do a million things to overcome any difficulties children have, and allow them to achieve and succeed in school. A challenging student is another learning opportunity that we should embrace to allow us to become better educators for the people of the future. Even though some students might be seen as "doomed to fail", this is NOT the case!
We also talked about the need for achievement which I believe was in the same model. We talked about the example of kids in the class shooting a basketball into a garbage can, and those who went right up to it, or those who had a need for achievement and would continually move backwards and try and get it in. I don't think those with a lack of need for achievement are doomed to fail. All students should want to achieve because with no motivation they will find it harder to be successful and achieve. But again this is something as teachers that we can help our students to overcome. Sometimes the easy route is the best way, like the students who stood right by the basket.
When we looked at the cultural deprivation model, we talked about "black language" as well as stereotyping. Saying that certain cultures are destined to fail I think is absolutely ridiculous. If you go by stereotypes and think that that is what all people of that culture are like, that is what you are going to look for and what you will expect of those students. There is nothing wrong with having one's own culture and having certain believes and perhaps speaking in a different dialect than others or having a different language. Like we talked about with Italians in Toronto, they were set up to fail because their first language was italian, they didn't know much english, and were taught in english. So what do you expect? When changed to half and half the students did much better. We as teachers need to try and accomodate and incorporate our students' cultures and backgrounds as much as possible to make them feel comfortable, a part of the classroom community, and to allow them to succeed in the best way possible.
We then looked at the reproduction model which says that class society reproduces itself. Therefore the values of your parents will be passed on to you, and you are destined to do the work that your parents do. Therefore if your parents work at a grocery store, no need for you to try in school to be anything better than that because you are going to work in the grocery store too. I don't think this is true at all especially in todays society. I think that everyone is becoming more independent and seeing what success they can achieve. School really is the gateway to the future therefore we need to open up as many doors as possible for our students and let them know the world is theirs if they want it. You don't have to do what your parents do because that's the way things have been for the past 50 years.
Finally, the administrative model talks about money and government funding. It is unfortunate that some people can't afford school therefore settle for less. There is a lot of money out there if you go looking for it. The road doesn't stop if at one moment in time you don't have enough money.
All in all I don't like these models and I don't think any one person is doomed to fail for any set out reason. Teachers can do a million things to overcome any difficulties children have, and allow them to achieve and succeed in school. A challenging student is another learning opportunity that we should embrace to allow us to become better educators for the people of the future. Even though some students might be seen as "doomed to fail", this is NOT the case!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Making a difference
We also talked today about teachers trying to go against the norms and making a difference, trying to change the system. I think it is definitely something difficult to do especially if you're the only teacher in your school trying to do it, but it's possible. We talked about the "loser classes" having teachers teach them like normal students which allows them to be successful. I don't think it is right at any point to give up on a student and teach them less, give them less opportunity, because they are seen as hopeless. Perhaps the right teacher hasn't been able to motivate them, they aren't being taught in their preferred learning style, or they never get to learn about things that interest them. If one teacher can change these things for those students, a whole new world can be opened up to them.
For my PSIII I am going to be teaching a grade 5/6 class where the students' reading abilities range from a grade 1-9 level. Am I going to give up on the students who are below level and give them ridiculously simple materials to read because they shouldn't be helped and pushed to learn? Absolutely not. I am going to help these students reach their full potential and try and help them grow as much as they can in the time that I am with them.
I hope after talking about this in class that we all go out there with really positive attitudes and don't take the easy way out of not helping, challenging, or caring for the students who need more help than others. If I was one of those students I would definitely want the help but maybe wouldn't be brave enough to say it out loud to the teacher. So we need to keep our eyes open, get to know our students, and do the best we can to help then learn, grow, and achieve!
For my PSIII I am going to be teaching a grade 5/6 class where the students' reading abilities range from a grade 1-9 level. Am I going to give up on the students who are below level and give them ridiculously simple materials to read because they shouldn't be helped and pushed to learn? Absolutely not. I am going to help these students reach their full potential and try and help them grow as much as they can in the time that I am with them.
I hope after talking about this in class that we all go out there with really positive attitudes and don't take the easy way out of not helping, challenging, or caring for the students who need more help than others. If I was one of those students I would definitely want the help but maybe wouldn't be brave enough to say it out loud to the teacher. So we need to keep our eyes open, get to know our students, and do the best we can to help then learn, grow, and achieve!
"The glass ceiling"
Today during the presentation we had a discussion about whether or not things have advanced or changed in the area of women and work. I think like people said, things have changed but there is still a lot more change that needs to happen. Why on earth do men get paid more for the same job a woman is doing and when they equal education? That makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm sure the woman is just as good at her job as the man is. Perhaps in some cases the man is better and in some cases the woman is better. But if the job is the exact same why should they be getting different salaries? Also there are still many jobs that are considered men's jobs and many that are considered women's jobs. We talked about how in schools, I would so more so elementary schools, the teachers are predominantly women. Adminstration positions are predominantly men all across the board. Why is this? Is elementary teaching seen too much as a "mom" job, hence it is womens work? Do men continue to take the dominant roles everywhere including schools? As a student I have always had male principals, and in both PSI and PSII I worked with male principals. However for my PSIII I will be working with a female principal so I am very interested to see what the dynamics are of the school and how she acts as principal. I for one wouldn't want an administrative position so I can't saw I would want to change the way things are going. But I don't see any reason as to why not a woman can't have an administrative position and be in a more powerful role. I also think men make great elementary school teachers so I don't know why there aren't more of them. When I went to school, for k-2 I had female teachers and 3-5 I had male teachers therefore I had a spread. I thought all of my teachers for the most part were great. The sex did not matter.
I'm hoping that in other areas of work opposite roles than what the "norms" are are becoming more accepted. For example, male nurses, and females doing trades. Honestly what is wrong with that? A lot of male nurses I think get made fun of, and if a girl is doing a trade she is considered "manly" and tough and not feminine enough. I think these kind of things definitely need to get changed around especially nowadays when people are or should be more open minded. I loved taking wood class in high school and building a coffee table. I chose that over taking "girly" classes. So perhaps we need to push students more in high school to try new things or choose the option that people think is not for them because they just might like it. I talked about in my paper on hidden curriculum how boys are less likely to take cooking and sewing classes more so than girls are less likely to take shop classes. But shop classes are still dominated by male students. There were only a few girls in the wood classes I took for grades 9, 10 and 11. I don't think there were any boys in my foods 9 class. We need to take these ideas out of peoples heads as soon as possible so that they can explore their interests and not think their career opportunities are limited because of their sex.
I'm hoping that in other areas of work opposite roles than what the "norms" are are becoming more accepted. For example, male nurses, and females doing trades. Honestly what is wrong with that? A lot of male nurses I think get made fun of, and if a girl is doing a trade she is considered "manly" and tough and not feminine enough. I think these kind of things definitely need to get changed around especially nowadays when people are or should be more open minded. I loved taking wood class in high school and building a coffee table. I chose that over taking "girly" classes. So perhaps we need to push students more in high school to try new things or choose the option that people think is not for them because they just might like it. I talked about in my paper on hidden curriculum how boys are less likely to take cooking and sewing classes more so than girls are less likely to take shop classes. But shop classes are still dominated by male students. There were only a few girls in the wood classes I took for grades 9, 10 and 11. I don't think there were any boys in my foods 9 class. We need to take these ideas out of peoples heads as soon as possible so that they can explore their interests and not think their career opportunities are limited because of their sex.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
IQ
Today when we were talking about the problems with the Social Darwinism model of failure, we talked a lot about IQ and IQ tests. I think IQ tests are pretty ridiculous and I'm happy that we don't have to write any sort of test like that in order to get into university. We talked about how being book smart doesn't mean you are necessary smart in every situation. An IQ test might be and probably would be a test you would study for if you had to do it in school. Therefore you are memorizing a bunch of information that perhaps you haven't actually learnt or are not going to remember 10 minutes after writing the test. A written test can only test so much and doesn't test all areas of knowledge. Therefore an IQ score is a glimpse at a piece of someone's intelligence at that given moment in time. Some people aren't good at writing tests but are extremely smart. As already mentioned some are smarter in other areas that they test might not include. Some people might have a talent for memorization therefore can regergitate a bunch of information for the test but might not really know what they're talking about. There are so many factors that go into this that really don't make an IQ test reliable or valid.
We also discussed how you are then given a number which can decide your future or what classes you are able to take or not able to take. Based on everything I just said it most definitely not right to deny people the access to certain things because of one lousy test that most likely isn't even measuring properly a person's knowledge and intelligence. As noted in class with the problems of this model, what skills are defined as intelligence? Who gets to say what is most important? A scientist might think knowing how to conduct an experiment and getting results is intelligence, however a basketball player might think knowing how to get by an opponent and scoring a basket is intelligence. There are all sorts of different intelligences that people possess and an IQ test should not be able to tell someone they are stupid because they didn't do well enough on some test.
I think that is enough ranting about this topic! I obviously don't think very highly of IQ tests!
We also discussed how you are then given a number which can decide your future or what classes you are able to take or not able to take. Based on everything I just said it most definitely not right to deny people the access to certain things because of one lousy test that most likely isn't even measuring properly a person's knowledge and intelligence. As noted in class with the problems of this model, what skills are defined as intelligence? Who gets to say what is most important? A scientist might think knowing how to conduct an experiment and getting results is intelligence, however a basketball player might think knowing how to get by an opponent and scoring a basket is intelligence. There are all sorts of different intelligences that people possess and an IQ test should not be able to tell someone they are stupid because they didn't do well enough on some test.
I think that is enough ranting about this topic! I obviously don't think very highly of IQ tests!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Academic achievement vs teacher success
I think this is actually a very interesting topic. It is true as we discussed in class than many people miss the opportunity to become teachers because their GPA isn't high enough. However is there really any way to get around that? Teacher's definitely don't have to be geniuses and shouldn't be by any means like we also discussed because most people like that can't understand why other people don't get things as easily as they do therefore don't have patience for kids.
However if the faculty was to let just anyone in would that be a good idea? I'm sorry to say but I really don't think so. I think one of the things good grades show is that we are really determined and dedicated people trying to reach our goals. Yes for some people not much effort is put in and their academic talent comes naturally. However I would argue that this percentage of people is much much smaller than the percentage who actually have to put in a lot of effort. I for one could not get the grades I do without putting in effort; it would be a totally different story. Perhaps there should be some sort of interview process or other qualifications as well in order to get into the faculty and those with GPA's that are good but not great could still have a chance to get in based on their personality and other good qualities they would bring to the teaching profession. It is just a tough question all around. I definitely don't have the answer or a good solution as to what should be done for those who would make great teachers but don't have the grades. We do want teachers to be competent in their skill and knowledge therefore we shouldn't lower the bar too much I don't think. I don't know!!!
All in all, we know that great academic achievement doesn't automatically equal a great teacher. If you don't have the people skills and everything else that goes along with a teacher, chances are you aren't going to make it all that far with just straight A's. The A's might bring you through at the top in university, but they won't automatically keep you at the top in the teaching profession.
However if the faculty was to let just anyone in would that be a good idea? I'm sorry to say but I really don't think so. I think one of the things good grades show is that we are really determined and dedicated people trying to reach our goals. Yes for some people not much effort is put in and their academic talent comes naturally. However I would argue that this percentage of people is much much smaller than the percentage who actually have to put in a lot of effort. I for one could not get the grades I do without putting in effort; it would be a totally different story. Perhaps there should be some sort of interview process or other qualifications as well in order to get into the faculty and those with GPA's that are good but not great could still have a chance to get in based on their personality and other good qualities they would bring to the teaching profession. It is just a tough question all around. I definitely don't have the answer or a good solution as to what should be done for those who would make great teachers but don't have the grades. We do want teachers to be competent in their skill and knowledge therefore we shouldn't lower the bar too much I don't think. I don't know!!!
All in all, we know that great academic achievement doesn't automatically equal a great teacher. If you don't have the people skills and everything else that goes along with a teacher, chances are you aren't going to make it all that far with just straight A's. The A's might bring you through at the top in university, but they won't automatically keep you at the top in the teaching profession.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Homework
After reading what a few people have to say about the idea of homework, I figured I would write about what I think about it! As university students our lives are basically homework because atleast for education classes, most assignments are not done in class. Therefore we are forced to do work outside of the classroom. However it is much different for elementary, middle school and high school kids. In elementary school in my experience not a ton of homework is given. Like Eric said I also had the math sheets or the spelling words to take home. I must say I also gave my students some math stuff to do at home in my PSI but it was only if they didn't get it finished in class. Thinking about it now this does seem like some sort of punishment. In my beliefs it should be a bit of a punishment for the students who were goofing off and not using their time wisely in class and you even say to them, "Would you rather do this at home on your own time" and they continue not to do their work. However some students simply need more time and aren't capable of doing their work in a short period of time.
I don't think homework is all that necessary in elementary school. Sometimes we do want our students to do bigger projects and the work ends up getting taken home. In which case a lot of parent work goes into the projects as well. It's a tough call with that because sometimes we don't want to give the kids tests but rather projects for them to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a certain area. However time just does not allow for this to happen in the classroom. What do we do about that? I'm not sure.
I think as kids get older especially in high school homework isn't a bad idea as it is something they will most definitely be doing once they reach college or university. I understand we also want kids to be able to have time to spend with their families and play sports and do other activities and school already takes up a large portion of their time. But I don't think it would hurt to give a bit of homework once and a while. I definitely don't think it should be a daily thing or a give students a big project over christmas break type of thing. However it helps them to extend their knowledge outside of the classroom. If we give them more meaningful homework assignments rather than do this worksheet maybe it wouldn't seem so much like homework. For example, science is all over the place, not just in the classroom. If studying weather have students watch the weather channel or put a bucket outside and see how many cm it rains on a rainy day. Have students do some reading every night no matter what the material is. Have students share something they learnt with their parents at the dinner table. It doesn't have to be complicating but we don't want students to only associate what they learn at school with school. It is important that they see value to this knowledge in their everyday lives!
I don't think homework is all that necessary in elementary school. Sometimes we do want our students to do bigger projects and the work ends up getting taken home. In which case a lot of parent work goes into the projects as well. It's a tough call with that because sometimes we don't want to give the kids tests but rather projects for them to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a certain area. However time just does not allow for this to happen in the classroom. What do we do about that? I'm not sure.
I think as kids get older especially in high school homework isn't a bad idea as it is something they will most definitely be doing once they reach college or university. I understand we also want kids to be able to have time to spend with their families and play sports and do other activities and school already takes up a large portion of their time. But I don't think it would hurt to give a bit of homework once and a while. I definitely don't think it should be a daily thing or a give students a big project over christmas break type of thing. However it helps them to extend their knowledge outside of the classroom. If we give them more meaningful homework assignments rather than do this worksheet maybe it wouldn't seem so much like homework. For example, science is all over the place, not just in the classroom. If studying weather have students watch the weather channel or put a bucket outside and see how many cm it rains on a rainy day. Have students do some reading every night no matter what the material is. Have students share something they learnt with their parents at the dinner table. It doesn't have to be complicating but we don't want students to only associate what they learn at school with school. It is important that they see value to this knowledge in their everyday lives!
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