Philosophical Classroom Impact

My personal philosophy of education is going to impact my classroom in many ways.

1) Classroom Organization

As an idealistic teacher, my classroom would have a very organized agenda for every day. Although my class might not ~appear~ organized to a passer-by, group activities, discussions and free-work periods would all be worked into the class period and timed so that I can ensure that I can fit everything I want to teach into the period.

2) Motivation

I am a firm believer in the Socratic method, and I feel that the main source of motivation in my classroom will be that I will be engaging my students by asking them questions and leading them into class discussions that will encourage them to ask questions and explore the content on their own terms. Although I am a firm believer in structure, I will also allow students choice for their assignments and projects so that they will be able to bring their own experiences and interests into the classroom.

3) Discipline

I believe in structure for a classroom, but also in collaboration. One of the first things that I will do with my students will be to hold a discussion about class rules and have them discuss what rules are important to them and propose ramifications for rule-breaking. This will give students ownership over classroom rules and also reinforce my own classroom authority, as the students will have chosen the ramifications themselves and this could encourage students 'policing' each other for rule-breaking.

4) Assessment

Although I am idealistic and very old-fashioned in many respects, I feel that assessment is one area in which I will stray from the traditional forms of assessment. Most of the assessment in my classroom I hope to be individualized, having students create their own assessment contracts (such as picking two journals out of four to be graded). I feel that this, like discipline, will give students ownership over their own grades and create an open conversation between myself and students about what they need help with and where their strengths are.

5) Classroom Climate

Due to a classroom arrangement that will focus on collaboration and discussion, I will encourage a classroom climate where all questions are acceptable and students can feel free to ask questions, and even take discussions in their own directions (within reason). Rules about classroom discussions will also be created by my students, to give them ownership over their own discussion rules and encourage self-policing and a more understanding environment.

6) Technology Integration

I feel that the classics and lecture have their place in the classroom, but I also feel that I would not be teaching my students to be well-rounded citizens of the 21st century without bringing in technology. I feel that technology can be used to do many of the classic classroom activities, such as book-reports and portfolios, but with the added bonus of teaching students about a technological resource that they can use in the real-world.

7) Learning Focus

As a believer in structured classrooms, I feel that with a solid agenda and time restraints even the best of class discussions and group-work periods can be kept into focus. Especially when a class period agenda is posted on the board at the beginning of class, students will know what to expect from their time spent in my classroom and will remain more focused.

8) Teacher and Leadership Style

I feel that I am very Confucian in my beliefs about the role of the teacher in the classroom. While I believe that Socratic questioning and discussion are a vital part of learning, I personally feel that my role in the classroom is that of a 'transmitter of knowledge', someone to whom my students can go to for clarification.

Voices

I absolutely loved this article!! I found that reading all of the different educational views not only opened my eyes to the many varieties of educational philosophies but also validated some of my own personal beliefs and strategies that I use in the classroom. As incredible as it may seem, I never knew what the term 'Socratic Method of Questioning" was before reading this article. Although I had heard the term many times, even in reference to my own lesson plans, I never knew what it actually was. After reading about it I realized that this method is one of my favorite go-to teaching tools, and a part of my teaching that I am very, very passionate about. By asking a student leading questions, the student follows their own train of thoughts to discoveries and questions that I want them to have and ask. In this way, I feel that students are very engaged in their learning, because instead of regurgitating information for students I am answering their questions and validating their ideas and thoughts.

Very similar to Socrates is Confucius, who felt that education should be practical AND moral. I feel that students should always be learning lessons not only about content and facts but also about the human condition, and I feel that my job as an educator is to build my students not only as masters of English language and literature, but also as human beings and citizens of the world. I also enjoyed that even though Confucius' instruction 'consisted of conversation and dialogue', he still felt that the true role of the teacher was to be a 'transmitter of knowledge'. I feel that old-school as this idea is, it is something that I feel is very much a part of my own philosophy and need not follow the teacher-at-front-of-rows-of-students stereotype.

I was also very surprised to see Jesus in this article, but once I read the description of his teachings I found that I connected a lot with his teaching style as well. I feel that by using stories, parallels, and forums in conjunction with Socratic questioning and classroom dialogue students are less likely to fall behind, as these methods help to differentiate instruction and make lessons more accessible to students who might otherwise fall behind on larger concepts.

One thing that I truly enjoyed about this article is that it did not simply present the type of teachers that the current educational theorists would call correct or on-par with current research; it gave a taste of many, many different types of teachers from ones that I completely disagreed with on every count to ones that I can only aspire to be like.

Discipline

I think that this presentation was my favorite thus far, because it gave us all opportunities to work in groups and collaborate about actual teaching situations. I thought it was really interesting how we differed so greatly when it came to discipline, especially how for the most part I have found that UMF students usually are in complete agreement with each other on nearly all issues due to our identical educations and viewpoints. I thought the skits were very helpful and fun, while still enabling us to think about how difficult certain situations are. I also really enjoyed the books that they handed out, and as someone who collects old textbooks I thought it was so interesting to see how advice on discipline has changed over the years.

School 1800-1900

One of the things that struck me most about this episode of "School" was that the issue of segregation and women's school rights were addressed almost 100 years before Brown vs. the Board of Education or Prop 9. I feel that most Americans and even educators assume that education for minorities and equal rights for women were simply a non-issue until Brown vs. Board and Prop 9, and it was extremely eye-opening and shocking to see how long the struggle for free and equal education was being fought for before any true steps were taken.

I also thought that it was very cool to see where the 'traditional' American school experience came from. The image of desks all in a row, teachers dictating information to students and students coming up to the blackboard to answer questions are as American as apple pie and football. Although we universally reject these practices now as archaic and outdated, I found it very interesting to see how it came about, and how different early visionaries who tried to change these ways were attacked as though they were enemies to America. Although Americans are for the most part a bit resistant to educational change, I am at least thankful that our visionaries have opportunities now to share their ideas or even start charter schools to educate students.

School 1980-Present

I found this episode to be one of the most interesting so far, mostly because it dealt with a lot of issues that I had heard about before but didn't really understand like charter schools, independently funded schools, and specialty schools. I think that specialty schools are a very good idea, but my main issue with such schools is that students will be boxed in to what they are going to do in the future from the very get-go without having an opportunity to branch out and discover interests that they may not even have known that they had. I really liked the idea that charter schools are given an opportunity to succeed and are shut down if they do not meet up to expectations, but I was a little disturbed by the idea of what this would do to students attending the school at the time of this probationary period. Independently funded schools seemed like a really good idea in theory, but I think that such schools would be opening the majority of schools up to the same sort of rivalries and recruiting tactics that NFL football teams practice with their different owners and product funds. I think that all of these school ideas have potential to really help the US educational system, but I think that it would take a lot of legislation, boundaries and laws to make them totally feasible for the betterment of students nationwide.

Multi-Cultural

I thought that this presentation was a really amazing look at some of the most hot-button topics in our schools today. I felt that it was a little scary to hear discussions about teaching religion and sexuality in the classroom, only because I personally associate such conversations in the classroom with the word LAWSUIT. I totally agreed with the class consensus which was that to teach school in a true multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-sexual fashion it would require entire district, school and curriculum overhaul. Although I believe that these changes would be more than worth it, I think that it is something that I would love to see mandated at the highest levels, so that a timeline and an overall plan for the entire country would encourage all schools to begin the process. I think that if only one school or only one district chose to teach in this way, that it would be incendiary and cause some very real issues. I worry that such a suggestion is a little too reminiscent of the NCLB mandates, but I believe that if a multi-cultural education mandate WAS instated, that the issues of NCLB would be taken care of due to the differentiated instruction and relevant information that would be taught.

Promising Futures

I found it really nice to read an article that was specifically about Maine schools and Maine issues for a change. Although I do not know where my educational career is going to lead me in the short run due to the military, I hope to end up in Maine eventually and went to Maine schools myself. I thought that the description of Maine schools as "academically focused but rarely exciting or challenging" was pretty dead on. In the Maine schools I have seen, there are often very good teachers who know their material very well but just don't have the 'teacher training' necessary to differentiate learning for both suffering students and advanced students.

I also thought that the core principles in the article were very progressive and positive. I especially liked the one that emphasized ACTION in response to assessment data. I think that too many Maine schools since NCLB put a lot of emphasis on assessment data and standardized testing without actually creating action plans from administration on down to individual teachers. I feel that too often lofty plans are made to improve schools without encouraging teachers to meet with each other and collaborate together about how to best teach students. I feel that this belief along with the encouragement to teach using differentiated instruction are what made this article so valuable. Although a lot of the information was a lot of the same educational suggestions we have been learning here at UMF for years, it was very cool to read about it in a scholarly article that was specifically aimed towards our state.