September 24, 2013

Counts Democracy:
I enjoyed this article. It kind of went on and on and on in the beginning. What I got out of this article was that internal structures of Democracy are weak. But people cannot be sensitive when our democratic was are attacked because we live in a growing and changing society. In education we need to develop good habits, ideas, values, outlooks, and things to be loyal to. It is important to teach our students to be competent and adequate with everything they do. In a democracy we need to let children grow physically, intellectually, and morally. Education needs to teach equality, brotherhood, dignity, and worth. This all seems like common sense but these are all really powerful words to describe a solid democratic system.

Video:

• Republicans quickly noticed government corruption
• Progressive Reform needed an honest government 
• Populist party favored an income tax
• Theodore Roosevelt was a great President because he said what the people were only thinking
• Business' were not fair
• Natural resources were being used too much, over developed
• 50 wild life sanctuaries
• 5 national parks
• Americans are optimistic! 
• War made America focus less on reforming and more on the war

September 19, 2013

NOT MY REAL REFLECTION...just brain storming

Lab School Practicum
I spent the day in Room 128 with Mrs. Scherr and I really enjoyed the time I got to spend there! I was assigned to one and only one classroom so it was strange that I was not more interactive with the class. I did have the opportunity to talk to some students and a little bit with Mrs. Scherr, but not as much as I would have liked to.

• The class was kindergarten and first grade
• The activities were structured but there was still a lot of freedom
• 1st activity in the morning was to take a picture of something and then write out the word and Mrs. Sherr was expecting them to do this on their own.
• There was a daily schedule and it was right in front of the room for everyone to see
• Mrs. Sherr spent a lot of time redirecting students
• Mrs. Sherr sat and listned to students ideas and told the student how great of an idea it was

September 17, 2013

NOT MY REAL REFLECTION...just brain storming

Today we started our Laramie practicums. I went to the Snowy Range Academy. I really like how this charter school was set up. The principal was very knowledgable and the school was very aesthetically pleasing.

• I love that the library is in the middle of everything and very open
• I like the core KNOWLEDGE way of teaching
• The classrooms are very tall, cool in temperature, and very bright

I spent most of my time in Mrs. Jacobsons' (name?) classroom. She was teaching 1st grade, and was doing an awesome job. She was teaching reading and writing. The 1st graders were very smart and had very good classroom skills. A little boy name Nolan came up to me and said: "Hello my name is Nolan, we are working on spelling and welcome to 1st grade" MELTED MY HEART! And he shook my hand. 

September 12, 2013

There was no class today. My group and I met up to discuss what we still needed to accomplish for our project.

September 10th, 2013

Chapter 1:
Thomas Jefferson said the power of reason would reveal principles of natural law and the human experience through research, scientific method, and data collection and analysis!

Mann:
There are two classes of man: one that toils and earns and the other that seizes and enjoys life. Horace Mann believed that unless education was equally dispersed between rich and poor any body of men will be permanently poor. Rich can learn from poor and the poor can learn from the rich in more ways than one.


Tyack Democracy:
Public schools were to be seen as an institution managed by public authorities with instruction by publicly selected teachers that would take place in a public school house.

• One rural school house to serve many

In the beginning politicians tried to run and corrupt schools. At this point parents chose the best school for their child. 

Video:
I did not realize the Einstein had dropped out of school at 16, that is impressive! Horace Mann was a very important man when it came to education. In 1837 he was the secretary of Education of Massachusetts. He held teaching conventions and visited every school. Horace Mann would bring all classes of children together for a common learning experience. Eventually, other schools followed in the amazing revolution.

September 5th, 2013

The readings this week talked a lot about Thomas Jefferson and how he created the idea of education for every one.

"Old Deluder Satan"
The Puritans thought that people must be literate so they can read the bible. It was believed that Satan himself would keep people from knowing the scriptures, that is why literacy was important to the Puritans.  Literacy was taught to the children by the family. Eventually it became that there were schools in each county and the teachers were paid by parents or masters of the children. The adults would pay as much as they could without "breaking the bank". All that was taught was reading and writing. That is all that was needed to be a faithful and good Puritan, but this literacy was considered state mandated.

"Jefferson"
I really liked Jefferson's quote: "The best forms of anything turn into tyranny". And this is as much true today as it was back in his time. This was a very long reading but I did take out some important ideas:

• 3 people were elected for Aldermen  (teachers? duh.)
• States would be divided into counties for school, every child would attend
• "Everyone has the same capacity to acquire knowledge"
• Poor or wealthy
• Female or male

"Thomas Jefferson on the Importance of Education"

I always think it is cool when people dress up and recreate famous people's accomplishments, speeches, or what they stood for. In this video I learned that North Carolina was the first University, and the University of Virginia was second. Thomas Jefferson wanted to create schools of Law & Policy, Medicine, Modern Language, and Literature. This was quite ambitious and his peers quickly disagreed and retaliated. Too create all these schools would cost way too much money, and this is still an argument even TODAY. Education was too difficult to make a priority BUT Thomas Jefferson made it his duty to make sure everyone from the poor to women to get to go to school. 

August 29, 2013

"Chapter 2"
Again, this was an easy read. Not that it was short, but in the sense I could sit down and actually pay attention after a long day. What really stuck out in my mind was the idea of essentialism and idealism. Essentialism being the role as a teacher in delivering a basic body of knowledge that every student should know to become a productive member of society. And the idealism meaning the reality that exists primarily within our own minds. How do we as teachers separate the two? How do we get students to think that it is ok to have our own idea of reality but to be accepting of others realities? I am looking forward to the challenge of teaching my students how to be a productive member of society WITHOUT pushing my values and my ideas onto them.

"Allegory of The Cave"
I had to read this a couple different times, because each time I learned something new and saw a different way to interpret the story

"For how could they see anything but the shadows, if they were never allowed to move their heads"

The way I interpreted this was from a parents view point, I am not a mother but I have a little chihuahua that I am very protective over. If I don't EVER let her walk to the park without her leash on, how can we build trust? How can a mother let their kids make mistakes and hopefully learn from them if she never lets them go out with friends? In class we made some really great points:

• ** Humans by nature are flawed, our purpose is to get closer to perfection **
• This was my favorite thing said and I think about it every day
• Who's definition of perfect to we base off of?
• How do we teach the ones that want to stay in the cave/leave the cave?
• This will be a career long challenge and there will be ways that work and ways that do not

"Toffler on Future of Education"

I enjoyed reading this article, especially knowing all of this was said and written many years ago. It is impressive how much of this is still true and how much is ideal but not real. In a way, when he said "Public school system is designed to produce a workforce for an economy that will not be there" made me angry. Maybe this is true for older students but from the perspective of a kindergarten teacher or even younger, how can I possibly train them for the real world when they are so young? As irritating as it is, I completely agree that by the time a kindergarten class graduates high school things will be outdated.