Hillary Clinton Does Luther

On April 22nd, Hillary Clinton came to Luther to speak about her political viewpoints and why she wants to be the next president. She raised many interesting issues about childcare, the war in Iraq, the national budget, and many other things. One of, what I think, the most important issues she raised was that of the No Child Left Behind legislation. Hillary acknowledged that the intent behind the legislation was good, but that it has been implemented horribly and has been underfunded. This is extremely important to me as a pre-service teacher because I am interested to see how she plans to change the program to actually benefit students and schools. Hillary also addressed the idea of technology in school, reaffirming my attitude that schools today are exactly the same as they were 50 years ago, but that the world is a completely different place today. Technology has a place in the classroom, and funding is needed to make the numerous possibilities a reality. I am interested to see what other ideas Hillary has about education and how she plans to implement them, should she be elected in 2008.

Philharmonia and Cantorei Concert

I just returned from seeing the Philharmonia and Cantorei concert this evening. Although I am not involved in music at Luther, and am in fact completely lacking musical talent, I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Knowing very little about music, as I stated previously, gives me a narrow spectrum through which I can look at the benefits of music, but from an "outsiders" perspective, music seemed very important to the people who performed. Although personally I couldn't care less about whether or not music classes are offered in today's schools, I could see tonight that for some people music is more than just a hobby. I do not know any statistics about the benefits of taking music classes, but I do know that I could see the passion for music in tonight's performers. I also know that Luther would be a completely different place, not necessarily in a bad way, but nonetheless, removing the music program from Luther would drastically change the dynamic of the school. There is also the danger that by the time my children are in college there will be no music classes offered if they are all cut at lower levels. Music classes are a touchy subject in education today, but I think that for certain people music is necessary and vital and should be preserved for them.

PUSH

This past weekend I attended a performance of the original dance show PUSH that was written by my friend Siri Carlson. In the show the dance chronicles the struggles of a writer who is experiencing writers block. This is important to me as a future educator because it indicates many things that I need to be aware of in my own classroom, namely pushing students too far. There is always a line between placing a sufficient amount of pressure, and too much pressure for success on students. Rather than be the antagonist in the situation, I would prefer for my students to strive to do well out of a desire to learn, not necessarily out of a desire to meet some previously prescribed standards. In the end, the writer was successful in overcoming her struggle. This is significant because I feel that it represents the superiority of a students will and drive over that of the teacher.

Babel

This past weekend I had the opportunity to watch the movie Babel. It was a very interesting and inspiring movie, not to mention thought provoking. I think that it could be a great tool to use in a classroom to incite meaningful discussions. The content and subject matter were most definitely for older audiences, like late high school age, so I certainly won't be showing the video to my elementary age students anytime soon!

The movie raised a lot of important issues about tolerance of diversity and presented it in a way that is interesting. I think it would have a significant effect on students and the way that they perceive the world. It would affect the way that they think about diversity within their own lives. It brought to the forefront diversity issues such as deafness, socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, and racial prejudices. It also showed people in authority, police officers, mistreating citizens. There is a potential to have an entire lesson about diversity centered around this movie.

I think that Babel is one of those movies that everyone should see because it truly will change the way that people think about race and diversity.

Ethnic Arts Festival

This past weekend I attended the Ethnic Arts Festival on campus. I thought it was very interesting, but I thought that last year was better. I was unable to attend the night performances, but I did get to see the booth displays in the afternoon. I think that event such as this are important in education because it shows students the fun and interesting things about other nations in a short amount of time. The one downside was that, as far as Luther goes, attendance was not mandatory. Also, the fair was basically what you want to make of it. If you stop and ask questions at the booths and actually take time to look at things you can learn a lot, but it is also easy, not to mention tempting, to pass each booth by with a short glance and end up learning nothing.

As important as I think the Ethnic Arts Fair was, I also feel like it is one of those "Little C's", that it is something fun for students, but that it's about the equivalent of having a Taco Tuesday in class.

Technology in the Classroom

I think that technology certainly does benefit education, when used in the right way. Technology is an irreplaceable tool for research. Most students nowadays know how to surf the internet, but it is important for teachers to show students how to get information from reliable sources. There is a lot of information on the internet that is incorrect and students need to be taught how to discriminate between factual information and non-factual information. There is also a lot of bias on the internet, so students need to be able to discern the biased articles from the impartial. All of these things that students have to be taught to look out for may seem like a bigger hassle than they are worth, but when used responsibly, the internet is a great tool to expose students to large amounts of information that they otherwise would have no access to.

The internet can also be dangerous for students, so I think it is also important to teach students how to protect themselves on the internet. There are a lot of predators out there, and as a teacher I certainly will be concerned for the safety and well being of my students.

I think that the promise of technology is its ability to expose students to whole new worlds while they are sitting in their classroom or home. Even things as simple as computer games that are academically relevant are important for teachers and students to utilize. The problems of technology are that it is often not used correctly, or not used to its full potential. Many teachers use technology only as a last resort or for lower levels of thinking, but I think that technology can be used to reinforce academic materials and classroom content. It is a good way to give students practice at their newly acquired skills.

Overall, I feel that technology in the classroom is instrumental to the learning process. People have worked very hard to develop these new technologies, and it is our job as teachers to show students how to use them. We are responsible for teaching children everything else, it would be irresponsible for the future generations of teachers to exclude technology from their classroom, because it is something that all of our students will encounter and it is not something that is going to disappear.

YouTube Video
Inclusion In Todays Schools
Starring Jenny Tracey and Laura Williams

Does Inclusion Work?

In my opinion, inclusion is a very important part of special and general education. There are many things that are beneficial about inclusion of special education students into a mainstream classroom, but just for the exceptional student, but for their normal learning peers as well. Social skills are imperative to living an independent life, and if an exceptional child is taught in a special education classroom all day everyday, they may not learn these necessary life skills. They need to have time with a large group of their peers so that they can practice the social skills that they are learning, and then need to be given the opportunity to live and interact with the general population.

Students in special education classes need to feel like they are included in the lives of their peers, they need to be given an opportunity to make friends. They need to feel like they are "normal" children. Keeping these exceptional students in a room away from their peers gives them the impression that they don't deserve to be with the "normal" kids.

Having exceptional students in a general classroom teachers tolerance and acceptance to not just the students, but to the teacher as well. In the world today, we all could use a little more patience for diverse populations, so why are we teaching our kids that it's ok to discriminate against special education students, that it's ok for us to put them in a separate room and keep them out of our "normal world"?

There have been many studies that have proven inclusion to be beneficial for all parties. The normal learning students can help the special education students when necessary. This increases the concept understanding of both parties, because if you can teach it to someone else you clearly know your stuff, and it never hurts to get another take on the material when you don't understand it.

The whole point of the IDEA legislation is to give equal opportunities to ALL students and I feel that inclusion is the best way to do this.

2/15/07

As a pre-service teacher, I am still not entirely sure what my exact educational philosophy will be, but I do already have beliefs about the purpose of teaching and what makes a good teacher. First of all, I think that the purpose of teaching is to prepare the next generation to run the world. They have to be taught all the knowledge we can give them, because children deserve nothing less. Through teaching I hope to show children what they are capable of and also instill in them a desire and love for learning. It is my sincere hope that I can make a difference in the lives of my students and that I will be able to help them see their true potential.

I decided to become a teacher because I have a strong passion and love for children. I love to see them light up when they finally understand a concept, and there is nothing as funny as the humor of a child. They can see through all of the walls that you put up, you can't pretend with them. Children know you and love you no matter what, there is nothing quite like the love of a child. I think that having a strong repertoire of teaching techniques and knowledge about the art of teaching is important, imperative in fact, but nothing is more important than a passion for young people and a desire to teach them. This is what makes a great teacher. Anyone can be a mediocre teacher, but only those with teaching in their heart can truly be exceptional.

The difference between school "work" and student "learning" is what the child accomplished. Work is just something for a student to do to take up time, at least in this context it seems to be nothing more than busywork. Student learning is the purpose behind teaching. Professionals should be driven to see as much student learning as possible. Student learning is the knowledge that a student actually gains, it is much more meaningful than school work. School work needs to be limited, and student learning needs to be emphasized.