Talking Education

Blog 01

            “In order to succeed in this class, you need to throw away everything you thought you knew about teaching” were the only words carried out by many students after the first EDSE 150 class. Anyone would be shocked by those words coming from their teacher’s mouth, much of the 10 a.m. class was, and especially on the first day. How does anyone know if they still want to teach and remain in the class if they were just asked to throw away ideas of the future career out the window. As a student, this was considered the biggest, and weirdest, request. Looking back on the first week of this class, two official meetings and one project day, all lead to interesting gatherings. After being assigned a composition booklet, all students were informed to keep running tabs of resources given by teachers, students, and visitors.

            The technical “first day of classes” was considered a project day by the teacher posting a long to do list for everyone in the class to have complete and brought to class. Including creating a pinhole camera and lesson plan for the eclipse. These actives were very teacher-like since lesson plans are a part of being a teacher. Well, after attending class the past week it has become known to all students that lesson planning is rather unnecessary considering whichever school hires us will have their own scheduling plan anyways. However, the rest of the to do list consisted of creating, accessing, and posting on a variety of online resources and social accounts ranging from YouTube to Facebook. One of the most interesting online resources we acquired is called Voki. Voki is described as “…an educational tool that allows users to create their very own talking character” (About Voki, n.d.). The description mentions that students can record themselves talking, students can create as many characters as needed, students can share Vokis for group presentations, and students can post their Vokis to online classrooms for everyone to listen to and learn from.

 

Blog 02

            My biggest takeaway from Sir. Ken Robinson’s TED Talk about Changing Education  Paradigm is that as standardized tests increase, so does the number of children with ADHD.  I know that this is not the main topic of Sir. Robinson’s talk but I find it interesting to note that schools handle a large number of standardized test for each grade. From ISTEP to the Pre-SAT and Pre-ACT to the real SAT and ACT. Not to mention some college course entry exams for courses such as math or foreign language. Sir. Robinson noted that our society is medicating children to focus on boring lessons, while also providing many more interesting distractions such as iPhones, video games, and advertisements (Robinson, 2010). This is an interesting concept since it shows that the medication for ADHD works, the children focus, just not on what society wants them to focus on and that is school work and lessons.

            The subject of diversity versus creativity was a common topic with my teachers in high school. They liked to promote creativity while controlling our diversity. Since creativity is defined as “the process of having original ideas that have value” it is not the same thing as divergent thinking (Robinson, 2010). Divergent thinking is taking a problem and changing the dynamics of it to provide more answered than what was originally thought. As Ken Robinson explains, these two types of thinking are not the same and they tend to be measured differently in the schools for the children. In the 21st century creative thinking and divergent thinking are what keeps the world and the economy spinning. As people find new creative ways to do things, or invent new products to achieve things they then sell those things off and make money on the people buying. Without creative thinkers and without divergent ways of thinking it can hinder the world’s economy and product production.

 

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Blog 03

            The purpose of the test that I created to cover the four videos of Education’s history was a little less difficult to create than it was to actually take. Meaning that with this exercise I prefer to be the test giver, not the test receiver. However, the purpose of my test was to remind the test taker of important information that the videos covered. I think that is the point of any test, to challenge the taker to acknowledge certain points of information that the teacher, school, or state, requires them to remember. My test is no exception. I am asking the test taker to remember certain facts and events that crossed the video about the history of education.

            Just to check that I was on the correct thought process of why schools are required to test students, I did what any sensible individual would do. I Googled my question. I was taken to Thought.Co.com to an article that explained the six main reasons as to why schools test students on the knowledge they have learned. Melissa Kelly explains that schools test for six different reasons; to assess what students have learned, to know student strengths and weaknesses, to determine recipients of awards and recognition, to gain college credit, to provide a way to recognize a teacher/school's effectiveness, and to judge a student's merit for an Internship Program or college (Kelly, 2017, para. 2). Now my test was not on as large a scale as most since mine was only given to three individuals rather than a whole class or entire country. Unlike the SAT, ACT, unit tests, other large standardized tests, my test does not measure student recognition, college credit, teacher effectiveness, or student merit.

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Blog 04

            Think of this, a brown paper bag, stapled on the top, and filled with something, was placed on your desk without explanation. “You may feel your bag,” says Dr. Susan Johnson signaling the start of the class frantically feeling the bag and the silent crunches of the paper in our hands. After about a minute the nice woman would tell us to put the bags down and write down anything we found or think we found in our composition books. She would call out other pre-service teachers to explain what they were doing or how they were coming to conclusions about the objects they suspected where in the bag. One person was dropping his bag onto the table, while another was shaking her bag around wildly to listen for items.

            But this lesson taught us about Inquiry-based learning and how to engage all the senses in the classroom. According to an article on Edutopia.org “Inquiry-based learning, if front-loaded well, generates such excitement in students that neurons begin to fire, curiosity is triggered, and students can’t wait to become experts in answering their own questions” (Wolpert-Gawron, 2016, para 5). Instead of being straightforward about informing the topic, teachers are encouraged to encourage the students into finding the material and being active in the lessons. Part of this weekend’s homework is to create a 20-minute lesson about our book B list, and our instructor specifically said “Engage me” and “If I don’t get to build something then I will be upset.” This is a signal that our lessons should incorporate the idea of inquiry-based learning and having the students be involved heavily.

 

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Blog 05

            My group and I did what is referred to as the five E’s lesson plan for Amanda Ripley’s book; The smartest kids in the world and how they got that way (Appendix A). As described it is “the 5 E's describes a phase of learning, and each phase begins with the letter "E": Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate” (The 5 E’s, 2002, para.2). Our group had three activities to represent the three countries covered by Amanda Ripley; Poland and Finland, and South Korea and America. In her book, Ripley talks about the adventures of three American students as they are submerged into three different countries’ cultures and school systems (Ripley, 2014). To demonstrate the differences between the three countries, my group and I had three activities; coloring, reading, and a small test. The test stood for South Korea’s harsh schooling, the reading stood for America’s mixed schooling, and Poland (combined Finland) had coloring which stood for the laidback schooling.

            I believe that Compton and Faust would find our lesson plan to be nicely set and organized. However, it could have been better organized as far as teacher communication and the activities could have been better linked together since all three activities focused on the same subject but not the same core purpose. The subject that my fellow pre-service teacher picked was the history of decorative masks, an article involving images, a coloring experience of a mask, and a reading packet with test over the history of masks. The Compton and Heeter documentary; Two Million Minutes, covers the differences of three schools located in India, America, and China. The documentary’s main message is that “The rigorous in-school and extracurricular experiences of Indian and Chinese students is rougher than an American education system” (Compton & Heeter, 2008). Now the countries compared in this documentary and in my group’s lesson plan are not entirely the same, Finland and India, but it covers the same base that America slacks compared to other countries. I believe that Compton and Heeter would enjoy our lesson due to the simple nature of how it was presented to the class.

            The Compton and Faust documentary; The Finland Phenomenon would have a slightly different view on my lesson plan than Compton and Heeter. Since our lesson plan was partially focused on exemplifying Finland’s education system, it would be okay when compared to Compton and Faust’s documentary. Compton and Faust had the mission of reviewing and explaining why Finland is so highly ranked on the national education scale (Compton & Faust, 2011). Obviously, Compton and Faust would not agree to the test portion since it was considered strict and performance based. When it comes to the article that we had group “America” read, I believe that Compton and Faust would be okay, but not fully happy with the use of an article since it doesn’t allow for much creative response. For the coloring activity, since it represented Finland and Poland, Compton and Faust would support the creative boost that was brought into the lesson.

 

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Blog 06

            Kyle Schwartz begins her book, I Wish My Teachers Knew: How one question can change everything for our kids, by explaining her backstory in elementary school. At the beginning of this book Schwartz describes herself as the student that is constantly getting into trouble with the teacher and other students. She writes “I don’t think she (the teacher) even bothered with the hassle of erasing my name because “Kyle S.” was consistently on the board (Schwartz, 2016, pg. 6). She later explains that, as a child, she responded to students in a hostile manner which created problems for her within the classroom and school. This leads to what Schwartz wanted her teacher to know, that she did not desire to be the “bad” student of her classroom. On page eight, Schwartz refers to a cycle she participateds in daily. “I misbehaved, got in trouble, acted like I did not care, and secretly hated myself” (Schwartz, 2016, pg. 8). She obviously desired to be anything but what she was viewed as, anything but the bad student. This was important to her because as she went through elementary school hating how she acted in class and how she was to her classmates.

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Blog 07

            To begin week seven the Career Center came to visit and talk more about the use, creation, and importance of a resume in the work area. A resume is a written compilation of your education, work experience, credentials, and accomplishments (Doyle, 2017, para 1). As my AP English teacher would call them, “a summary of the education that has prepared you for the job that being applied.” The Career Center representative and the co-facilitators had each student bring in his or her resume to be critiqued to create a better resume for future job possibilities. The co-facilitator in my group stressed that their freshman year and current job resumes are completely different looking when it comes to the list of experiences and skills written in each.

           The Career Center representative also mentioned two really nice resources when it comes to writing resumes, University of Iowa’s Career Center, and the 2018 Job Search Handbook For Educators. Firstly the University of Iowa Career Center website offers resume examples and goes through items that should be included in order to have a better looking resumes. The website includes information in the following categories “Getting Started, Writing Bullet Points, Sample Resumes, Uploading Your Resume to HireaHawk.com, and Curriculum Vitae (CV) Information” (Pomerantz Career Center, (n.d.), para1). Each section lists examples or gives advice as to how the reader can create a well written and organized resume. The information on this site is similar to that listed in the handbook given to the class by the Career Center.

            The handbook was given to us in week six, but since it was also covered on the Monday of week seven it was worth mentioning again. The introduction to the handbook begins with a short letter to the Teacher Candidate saying “The 2018 Job Search Handbook for Educators will serve as a resource for you to ultimately land your dream teaching position” (2018 Job Search Handbook for Educators (52nd ed.). (2017). Pg 1). During the class on Monday the representative from the Career Center had the class focus on pages 10 to 13 which hold the resume examples and advice for resume building. It seems to me that the skill of building a resume was never really covered or deemed important by high school educators. Yet it also seems that resume building is something a college student should know.

 

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Blog 08

            The movie “Including Samuel” is about a young boy with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is defined as “neurological disorder caused by a non-progressive brain injury or malformation that occurs while the child’s brain is under development” (Stern, (n.d.), para 1). Samuel’s father, Dan Habib, goes through his family’s life and shows how they include Samuel in all aspects of their family life.  Through this movie we learn about individuals with disabilities and the struggles they have in life along with learning about inclusion in the classroom. Samuel’s teacher actually stated that including Samuel in classroom activities that way he can enjoy school, has made her a better teacher in whole (Habib, 2007). Which is what our week in the Basics of Secondary Education 150 has surrounded. By expanding our class activities to include those with disabilities we develop problem solving skills and skills of inclusion.

            Another individual included in the movie is Alana Malfy. Her mother was told that she would never walk or talk and would be institutionalized (Habib, 2007). Alana has Down Syndrome and yet she attends the public high school Pembroke Academy in New Hampshire. Throughout Alana’s introduction she states that “she wants people to be her friend and if they are not trying to be her friend then there is no reason to call anyone names” (Habib, 2007). As a teacher the best way to help include Alana would be to help her make friends. By including Alana in the classroom setting it would help encourage other students to engage with and become friends with Alana themselves. The name calling would stop and she would feel more included in the classroom and school.

            Nathan Orellana is a young boy with autism and a stubborn mother. The school wanted his mother to place Nathan in an alternate classroom separate from the rest of his grade. She stated that “He would come home with bad habits that he picked up in the classroom” (Habib, 2007). Eventually she switched schools altogether and Nathan was placed in a better school that focused on inclusion and helping Nathan to be a better student. As a teacher the main goal is to be inclusive in all form of the classroom. There is no reason to exclude a student due to a disability or extra need for that student. As a teacher that is the main thing to remember in and out of the classroom.

 

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Blog 09

            What is interesting about our class time was not that my classmates and myself found the truth, not that we will never be be "model teachers," but that our original ideas were called hegemonic assumptions. Hegemonic assumptions are assumptions that we think are in our own best interests but that actually work against us in the long term” (Teaching, Reflection and Hegemony, 2010). Here’s how these assumptions might look: when white, middle-class people of privilege start thinking we understand what it’s like to live in poverty because we spend one afternoon every Christmas volunteering at an inner-city soup kitchen, we’re making a hegemonic assumptions.

            Once you start looking, it’s easy to find other examples of hegemonic assumptions at work throughout society including education, business, health care, religious organizations and the media. “The hegemony of the popular kids over the other students means that they determine what is and is not cool” (Thomas, 2015, para 1). In a way this is an exact template for what was asked of the class over the week. “What is and is not a teacher, student, American…” the list goes on and on. The class as a whole believe that a typical American is a white middle-aged man that has a beautiful wife, small family, college education, steady job, interesting hobbies, and two-story house. By doing this we counted 95% of the class as non-Americans since, out of all the students, only four were male. With our assumption of a model American the class ruled out most of itself in the first step.

           When asked what the typical teacher is to be like the class responded with organized, neat, prepared, graceful, and may other adjectives. By doing so we not only eliminated our own teacher but also ourselves when asked to list one thing we were not on that list. I am hardly prepared, mostly organized, and never graceful. The same happened when asked to describe a typical student; smart, neat, polite, talkative, and open. None of us current pre-service teachers were all of the items listed. For example, I tend to be less talkative in the class when I am the student. Every individual has characteristics that do not fit the mold of a typical anything. More often than not, the molds are broken and wonderful things result because of that.

 

Blog 10

            The movie Waiting for Superman is entirely about bringing into light the public school system in America and how it has serious complications. Interviewing and exemplifying many different schools and families from all other the country and their journey into charter schools versus public schools. The scene most often referred to is the "Lottery" scene, in which a school has a legit lottery picking in order to admit a certain amount of students. Parents show up to claim a number for their child, and wait anxiously for that number to called and the acceptance of their child into the school. This scene held within the movie shows what schools have resorted to for an admission process due to the increase of parents attempting to place their students into schools other than the zoned public schools they live near.

            The lottery is both fair and unfair in equal ways; commonly seen as unfair due to the process that the lottery embodies. Each school that uses the lottery admission has a “Selection Day” where the numbers of the accepted students are drawn and broadcast for the parents (Birtel, Chilcott, & Guggenheim, 2010). Many may see this as unfair because there is no actual review of the student themselves, instead the schools randomly choose numbers and those accepted are from chance and nothing more. The student is not viewed as a person or for the abilities they hold within and outside the classroom setting. This lottery process may also be seen as fair since every student has an equal opportunity to be either accepted or denied by the school and its programs.

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Blog 11

            The quote used to title this section of the blog (“Shouldn’t They Earn It?") was taken from an article at ChalkBait who quoted a parent of in a meeting to discuss middle schooler in New York. The article talks about something my class has been discussing briefly throughout the past week, earning schools in New York and the accepts from the schools. After quoting Sophia Fofoana, a concerned mother of a child who attends Mott Hall II middle school, the article talks about how the school system is changing and “threatening the children’s hard work.” Chalkbait writer, Christina Veiga, describes the meeting by stating that “...over the years among parents who want to protect their selective schools from changes that they fear could make them less exclusive” (Veiga, 2017, para.4). New York has proven to be a difficult area for students to be accepted by schools, even middle schools as the argument shows. School systems are difficult to control and often the amount of students is too great for the amount of schools.

            As the parents worry about the lesser amount of opportunities their children in the Mott Hall II school may have in the future, other parents are worried about their children even having those opportunities of middle school to begin with. Not all students are given the same chances as others, some work harder and other work less, that is how life has been dealt to them overall. However, each student should be allowed the same if they are given even the slightest chance.

 

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Blog 12

            My List C book is titled “Multiplication is for white people”: Raising expectations for other people’s children by Lisa Delpit. The main point through this book is combating the idea of an “achievement gap at birth” between poor colored children and other children in schools. Delpit writes that “Indeed, the achievement gap should not be considered the gap between black children’s performance and white children’s performance- the latter of which can be considered only mediocre on an international scale- but rather between black children’s performance and these same children’s exponentially greater potential” (Delpit, 2012, p.5) This is the total of her book, that there is no gap between how students should performance based on where their ancestors are from or how they look outwardly. Using examples of many students, including her own daughter, to break stereotypes and bring to light the stupidity of how some students treated based on background information not truly relevant to the classroom or class.

            Three of the four students from the film Dropout Nation were of color, Marco being to exception and having a Hispanic background. Susan Ansell writes in an article for Education Week that “Among students, blacks and Hispanics are more likely to receive lower grades, score lower on standardized tests, drop out of high school, and they are less likely to enter and complete college than whites, who similarly score lower than Asians” (Ansell, 2017). The movie covered only four students that happened to be of Hispanic background or colored. Delpit covers data similar to this considering she exemplifies students that would drop out and fall into this category that Ansell writes about. Being a lower grade holder, lower test scores, and all the points that mark a student as a lower student. But Delpit believes that this happens but personal and individual choice of the student, not birth and background.

            Kyle Schwartz’s book I wish my teacher knew: How one question can change everything for our kids, talks about how to make a student feel more welcome and how to provide basic comforts for the student to do well in school. One thing Delpit covers is that some students may not complete schooling because of how they were raised or how they perceive school. If a student desires to be there, then they will be present at school. However, if they are similar to Sparkle from the movie, then they may not desire to come to school and they will eventually stop trying. Schwartz talks about welcoming students into the classes and making them feel apart of the community (Schwartz, 2016, chp. 1). This may help to decline the drop out rate, students being motivated by other students that attend school. A chain reaction could occur.

            Multiplication is for White People is a book based on breaking stereotypes and informing the public that children of different backgrounds are capable of achieving the same things in life, some may take more work than others. The reason this book made its way into my education class was to make sure teachers are aware of this fact. That students from different backgrounds are capable of the same things. In an article posted online to Education Next there is an example of exactly what Delpit is writing against. Writer Thomas Dee begins his article on race connection with “...she saw a burly white male teacher telling a group of black teenagers that they were stupid and that they had better realize it” (Dee, 2017, para 1). Dee’s article covers the same message that Delpit writes about, that the idea of an achievement gap between students is not based on ethnic backgrounds but on personal choice and teacher relations.

 

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Blog 13

            A statement that people often use to paint the African American population is that more males are in jail than in the school system. People mostly believe this due to the fact that in 2010 President Obama mentioned the fact himself in a speech. According to an article by American Council of Education “By 2002, African-American males in college outnumbered those incarcerated. Moreover, because a large portion of postsecondary institutions did not begin counting students who enrolled after the fall semester until 2002, it is quite possible that even in 2000 more African-American males were in college than in prison or jail” (By the Numbers: More Black Men in Prison Than in College? Think Again, 2012, para. 3). Looking at the chart included below, the reader can see that the populations within do not reflect the misconception (Appendix A).

            The statement is no longer accurate considering that more African males are invested into the schooling system then in crime. Since this statement is incorrect the general public can no longer make valid accusations involving the crime rate and how African American males are the main contributor to said crime rate.

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Blog 14

            One of the many wicked problems that our class talked about this semester is the process of standardized tests and how they “evaluate” our students. These tests are everywhere in the school systems, for example a student needs either the SAT or ACT in order to apply for colleges. It is the equivalent to showcasing a student’s knowledge that they have gathered from the classroom. But what if the student has testing anxiety? An article on US National Library of Medicine states that “Studies have shown that students with low levels of test anxiety achieve higher scores on multiple choice question (MCQ) examinations than those with high anxiety levels” (Reteguiz, 2006, para 3). Overall this means that the possibility that a student can test well will decrease and may result in low scores. Personally I had to take the SAT more than once in order to achieve a score high enough to be accepted by all my college choices. Kiara Zalan writes that “It's not that I'm anti-standardized tests, but I am against standardizing minds and ignoring the fact that there are multiple paths to the same outcome and that engagement is an extremely important aspect of the equation” (Zalan, 2013, para 4). I think this describes perfectly how standardized tests can be seen as a problem. They marginalize the answers and do not allow the students to creatively show what they know, instead the tests make sure that students know a certain amount of certain subjects.

            The problem with solving Standardized tests is that there are many ways to solve it. As Rittel and Webber write “The information needed to understand the problem depends upon one’s idea for solving it” (Rittel, 1973, p.161). Any person can have a solution; different testing options, no testing options, substituted classes or standards, the list is as endless as the human mind can make it. Everyone must also consider the fact that there is no actual stopping point with wicked problems, since new problems stem from the solutions and lead to more problems. As Dilemmas in General Theory of Planning states “There are criteria that tell when the or a solution has been found” (Rittel, 1973, p.162). Since wicked problems are like the jungle, all the stems running together to create a large knot of problems entangled into one, it may be hard to tell where one problem stops and another begins. Also whether these solutions even work. The trickiest part is telling if a solution works.

Wicked solutions cannot be undone easily, if at all. “...after being implemented, will generate waves of consequences over an extended- virtually an unbound- period of time” (Rittel, 1973, p.163). Solutions are not something that can easily be implemented or taken away when it comes to social, meaning wicked, problems. It leaving traces even if the “solution” is taken away and replaced with another solution that everyone hopes helps or solves the problem. Sometimes a person can become so obsessed a wicked problem and go on a long journey of solving problem after problem of the wicked problem’s family tree. As step six states “It is a matter of judgement whether one should try to enlarge the available set or not” (Rittel, 1973, p.164). Since each problem is unique, yet connected, there is no definite way to solve the problem. They are not like court cases where the previous rule stands, each has to have a new set of steps and new solutions tested.

            To end wicked problems we jump back to the beginning. As I said, the problem is defined by an individual who wishes to solve the problem in whatever way they define it as. Just like that, the wicked problem is solved in whatever way the individual sees fit, or whatever way the individual says is solved. Step ten states that “The planner has no right to be wrong” (Rittel, 1973, p.166). The planner being the individual solving the problem, they are the person to state what is wrong and right when dealing with the situation they seem to see is the problem. If the president were to state that standardized tests were a problem, and after three years of testing solutions state that new standards are required for the country, than that is the solution he/she sees is correct.