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.