My Blogging Experience

When this semester started and I was told that I had to do a weekly blog on readings that were assigned for the week, I thought it was going to be very time consuming and to be honest, I wasn't real excited to have to do this each week. As we have gone through the semester and we continue to have our weekly blogs, I have started to like them. Having to blog on readings from the week has made me be able to reflect a lot more on what I have read and for the information to really sink in. I believe there are many positives to a blog. I know a lot of people who do it to destress or get their feelings out somewhere for others to read about them. I am not a person who does those things but I do like posting my feelings about books that I have read and so on. For me, there are a few negatives as well. I am not a fan of having to these kinds of things because I usually forget. I was able to remember throughout this semester but I really didn't see the point in doing what we were doing.

Even though these blogs have been a positive experience for me, I will more than likely not continue to blog. I don't have time and I don't really like putting things on the internet for others to see. There are a lot of positives to blogging and also some negative. These are merely my feelings about blogs and doing them throughout the semester.

American Education from No Child Left Behind to Common Core State Standards

Throughout this part of the semester we have learned a lot about No Child Left Behind and also, the new Common Core State Standards. There are many things about No Child Left Behind that were not good for the American educational system. Diane Ravitch was a huge advocate for No Child Left Behind until she found out about all the horrible things that started happening. It just wasn't fair how they were scoring schools and how they were shutting down schools. What we have now is the Common Core State Standards and they are supposed to make things better. I know some people who really like it but also some people who do not like it at all. I haven't been in it enough to really make an opinion about it.

Diane Ravitch is a great person to hear from as well considering she was all for No Child Left Behind and now she does not support it at all. She said it created mass demoralization. I really like this terminology for that. She is such an educated person in this area. I really enjoyed listening to her. She says that testing is a good thing if it is used in the right way. This is so true! NCLB was all for testing testing testing. I think that tests are good but they do need to be given in the right way. We need to start teaching our children so that they can be educated about everything when they go out in the real world. I do not feel as though modern children are not prepared for the real world and that is something that is starting to be a bad thing.

American Education: 1980-2000

Education in the years 1980-2000 was getting to the place that education is in this day. It was really interesting to read about how the government wanted education to be but how it actually was, was very different from what they wanted or imagined. The government wanted the schools to be geared more towards the vocational side of things. The education system wasn't going to change but no one was really going to do anything about it.

What was really interesting about this part in the book was all the schools that they were forming in Harlem in New York. This school district was one of the lowest scoring in the state. Someone had a great idea of making a whole bunch of different schools within the district. I really liked how they made the different schools and the children were able to choose which schools they went to, they weren't forced to go to a certain school. This made the scores at the schools go up and the district wasn't at the bottom any more. I think that if we were to do something more like this now, children would be more apt to stay in school and actually enjoy going to school.

Sometimes I wonder why our school system is how it is. What would happen if we were to change something and not go with the norm. Would the children in  the school systems be more able to succeed? Would children want to go to school and be willing to learn?

American Education 1950-1980

As I was reading Part 3 "Separate and Unequal", it really made me think about a few things. I really liked reading about this section and it really opened my eyes. I never thought that "Separate but Equal" was at all equal. How could it be equal when all the other ethnic groups were being discriminated against and being segregated from all the white people? It was not equal, not even one bit. Even though my skin color is white, I would like to think that I would have been friends with the colored people. One of my best friends is colored and I have never judged him for having a different color of skin. I find it really hard to believe that these people were discriminated against. It makes me really sad to think that the white people thought that they were dumb and didn't want to put them in certain classes because they were a different color. There were a few colored families that fought this and tries to put their children in these colored schools. The parents didn't think it was fair to make their children walk two miles to school when there was a white school just around the corner. There was a part of the book that mention something about the colored children were scared to go to the white school. Why would someone want to go somewhere where they aren't accepted or even wanted? I agree with this. When schools were desegregated, the white children didn't treat the black children well at all. The teachers that were black were let go. Even though things were being desegregated, blacks were still being discriminated against. It makes me so sad to read about how horrible they were treated. People were fighting for their American rights and they were being punished for that. I love to hear about the people who triumphed over all this evil. That, even though all the odds were against them, they were still able to succeed and make a wonderful life for themselves and their families.

American Education between 1900-1950

Education between 1900-1950 was very different than that of the century before. There were many immigrants coming into the United States. They were all being able to go to school but there weren't any things in the school system that would accommodate all the immigrant children. One of the most important things for the immigrants was their holidays and the American school system wasn't doing anything that would bring the holidays from the countries of these people. The school system was "Americanizing" them. Some think this was a good idea. I don't think it is a good idea to have to make people get rid of their culture, they need something to remind them about their culture. The immigrants weren't really looked at as people who should be here. They didn't know English and they were expected to learn things in school in English. The school system should be able to accommodate all the children in their system.

When the school system was being started, there was only an Elementary school. Starting in the 1900's they were forming Middle and High schools for students who wanted to further their education. They were also changing the curriculum and all the children were having to take IQ tests to see where they would test to put them in certain places. I believe that people have the right to choose what they want to do, not let a test determine what they do for the rest of their lives. There were some kids that wanted to work in the factories than go to school. I believe that some didn't think they were good enough to go to school.

American Education in 1770-1900

The school system from 1770-1900 was very much different than what it is now. There wasn't much need for schools back then because of all the industries and the agriculture. Most of the families wanted their children to work so there wasn't much need for going to school. For those who did go to school though, there was a huge bias against gender, race, and religion. As for gender, boys were favored more. There was only one religion taught in school, it was Protestant. Many people didn't like that though because they complained and took religion out of school. That was the start of the separation of church and state. They started taking things out of the textbooks also that some people didn't like. As people started moving out west, there was a great need for more teachers and women started moving out west to fill that need. The women did not know what to expect when they went west but it was definitely a lot different from anything that they had ever seen before. The education system was starting to feminize and people were getting the education they needed. There was a man named Horace Mann who went around inspecting schools and there were many that were not safe at all for the children to be in. The seats were bad on the bodies and there were holes in the walls letting in any kind of weather. The schools we have now are much different than the "common" schools of that time period.

What is my teaching approach?

As I read the book "Approaches to Teaching" By Fenstermacher, I have been able to really get a good look at the three approaches to teaching; the Executive Approach, the Facilitator Approach, and the Liberationist Approach. I believe that I will combine these approaches when I am teaching. I do not think that one person can use only one approach to teaching and that classroom will run smoothly. There are certain activities and lessons that will be done that will need to be taught in different ways. Would you teach an art lesson using the Executive Approach? No. I think that you can start out that way when giving the instructions and directions of the lesson but I think that you will use the Facilitator Approach when doing something like this. You will be there to help the students if they need it but an art project should not be something that you tell your students how to do. This needs to be something that comes out of their brains and onto their paper. For me, I will use the Executive Approach the most but I will definitely incorporate the other two approaches periodically. I know that some of them don't really work well with others. You really wouldn't be able to be an Executive and a Liberationist. Those two are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The Executive and the Facilitator would work really well together and also the Facilitator and the Liberationsist would work good together.

The Executive Approach fits me because that is how I work. I need structure and for there to be a routine. I do not like it when things change and when things are wishy washy. Some people call me OCD or anal but it's just they way that I am. I cannot help that. I will run my classroom like this because it is how I work but I also believe that my students would really appreciate there being some sort of routine so they always know what to expect when they come into the classroom.