Colorful Websites

     In this century the quest for great knowledge, I stumbled upon a couple of websites that may be of assistance to educators.  The broad website: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/ offers different links to weekly online blogs, resources for open forums, and there is a subscription available.The website is open enough to navigate through without having to subscribe to it.
     Another one I stumbled upon is: http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/
Pat Hensley, offers different links to useful blogs, museum websites and strategies.  There is also information about the Council for Exceptional Children, great for educators entering Special Education.
    I liked Teacher Leaders Network ( http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/) because they bring up valid issues that are so relevant in our schools today. Directly from their blog: They are about:
" Engaging in daily discussions around practice and policy,
• Collaborating on action research and other projects for improved student learning,
• Sharing their content and pedagogical expertise with pre-service and in-service teachers, and
• Refining their policy insights and contributing their voices to the decisions that affect the students and communities they serve."
      I like the sense of community these websites offer. As educators we are stung with negative factors each day.  I feel like if we are able to discuss and release some of these issues, we can build positive environments in our own lives. 

Resilience is Key!

What is the Fundamental Purpose in Education?
     I think having purpose in what ever you do makes you successful in education.   It is through mimicking and practice that education becomes permanent. Thinking creatively of presenting a subject, education not only functions as a fundamental process, but is welcomed by the students in the learning process.  The fundamental purpose of education is to encompass a resilient spirit that one can grow, in means of diversity.  Therefore schooling is fundamental in growing an individual spiritually, mentally and physically.
     Is there a difference between schooling and education? I think there is a close marriage of the two, combined, borrowing different aspects of one another, school is where you go to be educated. Right?  Besides discoveries that are put before students such a math, science and language arts, there is also the realm of social education.  As a teacher our job is to focus on the content presented to our students, but an emphasis on the social realm has been horribly denied.  I think the fundamental purpose of education is to provide real life situations for our students that they can identify with and carry on with them through out their life.  It is our responsibility to take each individual under our wing and provide them with guidance of our already learned accomplishments.
     Is it up to us as educators to lay stagnant in the content we are providing? Absolutely not!  A fundamental process in learning is passion and purpose for the subject provided.  Positive attitudes and humor is infectious, creating a welcoming and open environment, students let their guard down to envelope enlightenment.  Learning should be a process where one is able to make mistakes, able to examine these mistakes and imprint proper proceedings in their mind.  It is with this tenacious spirit and resilience for discovery that makes learning a successful process.  No matter what obstacles and demands are put before a student, having a resilient personality grows the individual further beyond their counterparts who idle by waiting for success to happen to them.
      I think had I not had the trials put before me, I would have not had to learn the importance of resilience in my own life.  I think that realizing at a young age that learning and recognizing other individuals mistakes, have saved me from repeating the same kind of mistakes.

School of "ROCK"Y reality?

Wow, signing up for school so far has been a rocky adventure.  It seemed like I was riding on a dilapidated carousel running into road blocks and twisting and turning on a crooked avenue. Phew, can I just say, I'm glad that things are beginning to resolve themselves. 

In the reading this week I agree with the point of views of Kohn and Dewey on the psychology of teaching.  One thing that I didn’t agree with so much was the idea of sorting students into different categories like they way Kohn mentioned in his article.  While I may not necessarily agree with his view point, at times the schooling system does feel like a factory of sorts.  Like so many students who struggle with adapting and maintaining with their peers, quite often I see the affects of students who are placed in the wrong piles of “potatoes”. 

            An example of this would be my observations I have experienced in several special education classes I have substituted for in the last five years.  Now, I am by no means the expert of where a student should be placed at academically, but I often find that students who may be lacking or rather not progressing at a “typical” standard are placed along with other students who may be excelling at the subject matter but struggle with social and economic aspects that are largely grouped together. Another aspect of sorting our students on standardized test scores is that there is such a multitude of factors that may influence the way a student tests.  One student may have crapped out on standardized testing, but upon speaking with that student, one would discover that the student has no business in a special education class.  Or rather, a different kind of intervention class should be in place for instance, “How to take, and be successful at standardized testing”.  Well, my intentions are not to sound bitter, they are only to recognize that things are in need of desperate change. 

            In my opinion, I have realized that we have come to a point in our academic society that mediocre work is considered “excellent” work.  An example of this is, just over hearing a conversation between math instructors at our school during our lunch break, a fifty percent on a standardized test was considered “passing”.  Now, interesting as that may seem, one said, “fifty percent doesn’t count when you’re building the Hoover Dam...”.  Now, in seeing this happen in our own school, standards and expectations are affected by external factors.  This brings up the question, will students rise up to what ever expectations we set for them?  Dumbing it down and lowering our expectations of students is a huge disservice to our children.

            Dewey says, “I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.” Are we preparing our students for a future which grades identifies their very essence?  Upon discovering in my own experience, students who are able to identify with a subject presented, are much more apt in imprinting a permanent experience in their mind.  Dewey suggests that correlating the realities of life in education sparks interest and inquisitive learners as opposed to force fed subjects that students have no interest.  When a student is forced to learn something they are uninterested in, the final outcome is the succeeding at the process of getting the project done, rather than the subject matter presented.  Our responsibility as a teacher is to train the essential basics such as math, sciences and communication, but one other critical aspect as educators are the social aspects of life between individuals.