Chapter 6: Social Context of Schools

I created a template for a classroom contract against low language towards other people. It is located at www.nctmjosh.wikispaces.com. The areas of the page are left blank because I believe that in order for the students to really own the rules they have to be the ones to come up with them. We will have a brainstorming session in class to establish the guidelines for the contract. Once we have agreed on a good set of rules, all of the students will sign the bottom of the contract. The scale of the paper is off; this activity would be done with a large piece of poster paper that can be hung on the wall.

Chapter 5: The History of Schools in the United States

The curriculum taught in schools has evolved over the last 300 years to meet the needs of society. At the end of the nineteenth century America was becoming industrialized; this created a lot of jobs that immigrant workers would come to the country to get. The school system was focused on preparing the children of the immigrants to be ready to work in assembly line type situations. The schools were trying to control people by controlling what they learned. This style continued until some educators decided that learning should be done by way of group work and activities instead of lectures. The thought was the children would learn to be a useful part of society and have higher moral character. During the cold war there was a strong focus on math and science, supported by government funding, the goal of the school system was to create future scientists that would keep America ahead of the Soviets. In the 1990's, in order to include all demographics in the curriculum, National Standards of what will be taught were introduced that make all sectors of society represented in the material covered in schools.

The curriculum of schools has never been a black and white subject; there have always been debates about the right things to focus on. When the colonists first came to America they attempted to force the Native Americans in the school system in order to teach them the ways of the Anglo Saxons. The American Indians, of course, fought against the forced change of life and were moved from their homes to lands farther west. After the Mexican-American war there were many Mexicans living in the United States that were promised citizenship, but the government made them attend schools before they would grant the citizenship. The problem was that they also made laws that made all instruction to be done in English and even made it forbidden to speak Spanish in schools. This forced the Mexicans to attend private or Catholic schools in order to receive bilingual instruction until the government finally created programs for English Language Learners.

How do I start thinking like a teacher?

The most important part of thinking like a teacher is to understand that the children come first. Thoughts cannot be based on what "I" want to do, they need to be what is best for the students. Everyone has their own reason to want to be a teacher and that naturally will influence what kind of teacher they will be; but in order to think like a good teacher the thoughts that influence their actions need to be based on the reasons the students are in school. It is not easy for me to always think of other people first, so I will struggle at times to do the right thing as a teacher. I think that being aware of your shortcomings and understanding what can be done to overcome them will go along way in thinking like a teacher. No one should want to be the teacher that already knows everything. I think in class we could practice more assignments that aren't focused on what we think but more on how will a child or class respond in a certain situation. Instead of responding about what we think about subjects in the chapters of "The Joy of Teaching" maybe we can try to see how the students would be affected by certain subjects. In general the biggest part of thinking like a teacher for me is to remember that there are more important minds in the class than my own.

•Which theories and historical influences should most impact the schools we'd like to have?

Of all the historical influences in the public school systems over the years I think the most important one to continue forward is the mindset after Sputnik I. America was determined to be smarter than the Soviets in Math and Science so the government provided funding for schools to have the materials and curriculum needed to create a better program. There is no need to specify the subjects to those two areas anymore, and we are not in a race against the Soviets anymore either, but the thought process is a good one. We want to be a smarter country so we need to educate our students. The rest of the world is slowly catching up and overtaking American in terms of engineering and education. To continue to be a world power we cannot let our schools fall further behind. The competitive edge has been removed from the American school system, we are now trying to get every child to be able to pass a standardized test. We need to get back into the mindset that made the United States great to begin with, we need to want to be the best and be willing to put in the time and money to achieve that in schools. Going forward in this class I would like to see how much money is spent on "regular" curriculum compared to how much is spent on programs connected to "no child left behind".

How Can Diversity in the Classroom Help Me be a Better Teacher

Diversity in the classroom can help me be a better teacher by forcing me to put extra effort into my plans. In class we touched briefly on the subject of learning disabilities and English Language Learners during the debates of chapter 3. I think the biggest thing to know about diversity is that it will not only come in the form of ethnicity but also in the style and level of learners that are in the class. To be a great teacher I will need to be able to reach all the students in the class and help them learn no matter what differences they may have. Having a diverse class will make me a better teacher for future students that might have the same ways of learning. I fear there are a lot of older teachers in the system now that can only teach in one style (or maybe only choose to teach in one style) when all children cannot learn effectively in the same styles. I would like to learn more about the different intelligences in this class so I can know more ways to cater to the alternate styles.

How Can I Be Successful At UMF

In order to be successful at UMF I need to continue to attend school. I have referred to UMF as my "White Whale" for many years now. In 1999 I was a freshman here and stopped attending classes when soccer season ended. Looking back that was one of the best worst decisions I have ever made. Academically leaving college made no sense, but in the context of life skills it was exactly what I needed. I joined the Air Force where I became a supervisor and learned how to operate with integrity and discipline. When I finished my six year enlistment I returned to UMF to once again try to become a teacher. I was only able to stay for two weeks due to my financial situation, an unfortunate side effect of being in the real world for the last six years. So I got a job at a three man company that we grew into a six franchise, twenty employee business. When the bottom dropped out of the economy I once again turned to my "White Whale". I have been driving to Farmington since my sister started at UMF in 1992, by the time I get my degree, twenty years will have passed and the road into town looks exactly the same. My struggle with success at UMF has nothing to do with academics, I need to resist the urge to stop living on one income. Making ends meet for my family will be a struggle while I am in school but the true success will be felt when I get my degree and the rest of our lives can be spent as two teachers from UMF.

How Do I Become A Teacher

The steps to become a teacher are pretty clear to me at this time. There was a homework assignment in this class that was obviously designed to help us learn the formal process of becoming a teacher. After looking up the test requirements and the "highly qualified" requirements for homework, and then talking about what we found in class, I feel confident that I know how to become a teacher in Maine. There was a short time when I was confused about the Principals in Learning Test because I had never heard of it. The in-class discussion taught me that graduating from UMF will take the place of that test and provide everything needed to get the initial Maine teaching certificate. There really is not much else to cover on this topic in class, my suggestion or concern might be to have an interview section. I know when I was hiring employees the people who were comfortable in an interview situation looked head and shoulders better than the nervous people. It is unfortunate to think a good teacher could get passed over because they do not know how to interview. However most students are freshman and really the answers that would be given in an interview will change a lot in the next four years.

Chapter 4: Schools as the Workplace for Students and Teachers

The compare and contrast topics in this chapter were not talked about by my team so the answers about our Culinary Institute are only mine and will probably vary from Roger, Heath, and Shane.

1. The staff and organization of American public schools and the Culinary Institute vary in terms of responsibilities however the staff shares some similarities. In the American schools the principal is responsible for hiring and supervising the teachers, in the Culinary Institute the board of directors carries out those tasks. The department chairs in the American schools are the same as the members of the board in the Culinary Institute. The different members of the board are the top instructors of their fields, like just like the heads of the department are the top teachers in a certain academic field. The difference being the chairs meet to talk to with the principal and the board members meet as an equal group.
2. There are very few, if any, similarities of a public school's relationship with the state and the Culinary Institutes' relationship with the state government. In the public school system the state governor, the superintendent, and the school board can all make policies that impact the daily operation of the school. Only the board of directors can make those decisions at the Culinary Institute. Public schools receive funding from the state government every year in a budget but the Culinary Institute is a private school that gets no state funding. One of the only similarities may be that the public schools have to deal with the states health laws and the Culinary Institute also has to deal with those laws since it is running a public restaurant.
3. While the state government offered a couple similarities between the public schools and the Culinary Institute, there are even fewer similarities between the Institute and the federal government. The laws that protect teachers from termination or dictate curriculum like "No Child Left Behind" are not in effect at the Culinary Institute. Being a private entity allows us the freedom to come up with our own "laws". When a teacher is hired they sign a waiver/agreement that states they are a right to work employee which means the institute can terminate them for any reason not based on discrimination. There is no tenure at the Institute. There is also no way for the federal government to decide what is taught at the Institute or to dictate that all students must pass through the system. We became a private entity to make sure we afforded ourselves these freedoms that can make it so a school is offering an education instead of finding ways to avoid the red tape.
4. When it comes to schools generating money that is where it hurts to be a private entity. Part of dealing with the policies made by government for a public school is that compliance ensures that schools will receive their part of the taxed money. Income taxes, property taxes, and lottery taxes all add money for the government to distribute to the public schools. At the Culinary Institute the school makes money by the tuition cost to the students and by operating the public restaurant. There are even situations that arise where corporations hire our students and staff to cater an event for them, all the money from those events goes back to the Institute to help with the budget. While receiving money from the government is nice (and necessary) for public schools, the board of directors at the Culinary Institute have decided that the freedom of being private outweighs the funding that could be provided.

Things I need to know

I read about four important things that UMF Secondary Education majors should know.

• The Praxis page really did not impact me very much. I have already taken my Praxis I tests and passed them all. I took them on the computer in Portland and feel that style of test fit me well. Paper writing tests would be impacted poorly by my poor penmanship.
• The transfer major page made me worry a little bit. Last semester I talked with Kristin and Dr. Martin about the requirements to transfer majors and they told me the G.P.A. was 2.0. The goal for the fall was to get a 4.0 so it would counter my freshman year 11 years ago that had my G.P.A. grossly low. All my transfer classes from colleges while I was in the Air Force are applied to my credits but the G.P.A. does not count as far as UMF is concerned. I got the 4.0 last semester so I am now above a 2.0 but not 2.5. This means I am going to have to go sweet talk someone to let me in the major.
• The practicum page also concerned me about not being able to get in to the practicum the following semester you get accepted into the program. I am not a freshman and really can not afford to let too many semesters pass without knocking out the remaining required courses to get back into the world of work.
• The laptop requirement page makes sense to me as far as UMF wants to make sure all the teachers they pass to the schools of Maine are technically savvy. However living on one income means that laptop is going to be an expense that we did not anticipate, luckily it will not fall at the same time as winter oil bills.

Chapter 3: Families and Communities

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 10 percent of all kids in school are English Language Learners, therefore it is not a stretch to think that all students can become proficient in English. 70 percent of those English Language Learners can speak English with no difficulty. This leaves a very small amount of students that need to be brought up to a proficient level of English. Given the resources it is reasonable to believe the school system can raise a focus group 5 to 10 percent. There are programs for students whom English is a second language for as well as many bilingual programs available to help the children become effective. If schools were asked to get 5 percent more kids to know their multiplication tables, and they had extra classrooms designed for students having difficulty with the math, no one would think that was an unattainable goal. The process of learning English and becoming proficient in it will take time, so it is unreasonable to think a high school senior who has never spoken English before can transfer in and become proficient before graduation. There are exceptions to every rule. The goal for all students to become proficient in English is a goal for the American school system, a child who only spends his/her last year or two of school in our system is not a product of the system. There is no question that all students, given the resources, can become proficient in English as they progress through the education process.

Chapter 2: Today's Students

In chapter 2 of "The Joy of Teaching" the authors address the growing number of students in the school system that speak a language other than English in their homes. The increased number of English Language Learners is due to immigration from other parts of the world for a variety of reasons, the most common being political oppression, famine, or employment. While immigrants come from all over the world to be in America the biggest populations are from other North American countries and Asia. The education level of the immigrant children varies from very well educated to a child who has never attended school, however the American public school system draws no distinction and allows all children the right to be in school. The authors argue that students who are able to speak more than one language will have an advantage in the global economy. While the students may present a challenge to the teacher because of their lack of English speaking ability, that is in no way an indicator of their capacity to learn. English language learners should be taught like all other students whenever possible.