Chapter 6: Social Context of Schools

I created a Brochure to help my kids with bullying on their looks.

Chapter 4: Schools as the Workplace for Students and Teachers

In the Building a School activity, Brittany, Jake, and I created a school where we discussed who would be taught, the purpose of our school, how the purpose would be carried out, and who’s in control of the school. After reading Chapter four in The Joy of Teaching by Gene E. Hall, Linda F. Quinn, and Donna M. Gollnick, there are four key things that were talked about that can be related to the school that we created.
The first key is the staff and organization of a school. The school we created, while is more of a hands on school, it has the typical school where you have the same staff. We would have a principal and a vice principal, along with teachers. Our school would probably be organized in a way that is in a rotating schedule. A rotating schedule is a very good way to keep your school organized and running smoothly. This is a little different from the book, but it still our own way of running things.
The second key is the relationships of schools to school districts and the state. Our school (in my opinion) is more of a private school of sorts. It probably wouldn’t be involved in a school district because the parents pay to bring their kids to the school to get the hands on learning experience their child wishes to receive. Although we aren’t part of a school district and don’t have a superintendent we do have a policy for our school. They are empowering policies, which leave open means for achieving the desired end result. The State plays a bigger role in the relationship with our school, where they provide us with help with money, and help us set the rates at which our tuition should be.
The third key is the role of the federal government in public schools. If the school was a public school there are many ways in which the government is involved in the schools. Through the tenth, first, and fourteenth amendments. It is also involved through the new No Child Left Behind Act. Because of these things the way that we teach has to reach certain requirements. Sometimes it’s hard to do because we use a creative way to teach our students, but we are able to meet the requirements.
The fourth key is how are schools paid for? When they are public schools, taxes pay for your school and all of the things in it. But when you have a private school the way it is paid for is through the tuition the parents pay for their child to go to the school. So since I believe that our school would qualify as a private school we are paid for through the student’s parents.

Chapter 14: Succeeding in Your Teacher Education Program--and Beyond

My concerns for teaching have to deal with parents who have no care about their kid’s future and don’t care about their actions in school, and their lack of work in my classroom. Another concern of mine is having the inability to reach out and get through to every student, especially those who need saving. I also am concerned with the level of violence in the schools, about the possibilities of bomb threats, fires, and guns being brought into the school.
My area of concern through the concern model is mainly through two factors in the model, unconcerned and impact. Unconcerned mainly because I am more worried about having to deal with parents of the student rather than teaching the student, and impact because I’m more concerned with getting through to the students and being protective of them through the lack of security present in the schools.

The stage that I am at with the stages of concern is probably at a level one or two. These are informational and personal, so I’m not so concerned about it that I will change everything I do to make sure my concerns never happen, but I am aware of what I’m concerned with.

Chapter 13: Improving Teachers and Schools, and School Reform

From just looking at my resume, I already have quite a few experiences that show that I have done some things that have to do with teaching. Such as being a camp counselor at the YMCA, and helping first graders with their learning. By the end of my career here at UMF I would like to add some more things to my resume. I know that I will be able to add student teaching to my resume for my application process to become a teacher. As of right now I will also be able to add and office job to my resume, since what I do here at UMF for work - study is an office assistant position. Ultimately by the end of my senior year here I hope to have things on my resume that show I have experience in the field of teaching.

I have been told a number of times that the first five years of your teaching are very difficult, and that you have to really work at what you’re doing. By the end of my fifth year of teaching I really want to have my resume look like I have advanced and broadened my knowledge in education. I hope to have gotten my masters by the end of my first five years teaching. Along with my masters I would also like to be qualified to teach k-12, and also be certified to teach English as well at the high school level.

Familes and Communities

On the list of things talked about in Chapter 3 Families and Communities in The Joy of Teaching by Gene E. Hall, Linda F. Quinn, and Donna M. Gollnick, I chose number six; Teachers cannot promote a religion in their classroom or any school activity. The first amendment requires the separation of church and state, however it doesn’t specifically say what to do about the church and education. Just because the First Amendment says there has to be separation between church and state, the public schools and religion do not have to be completely separated. Some people say that religion is a legitimate discipline that can be taught in public schools. In the text it says, “The fine line in teaching religion is to ensure that students are not forces to practice a specific religion as part of the class. Courses that indoctrinate or try to convert students to a specific religion are illegal. Public schools can neither promote not inhibit a religion. They must be religiously neutral, but protect the religions liberty of students. Teachers have a right to their own religious convictions. However, they cannot proselytize or promote their religion in the classroom.” (106). I believe this to be true because while the teacher can have whatever belief they want, they should not be able to promote their beliefs in the classroom. Everyone is entitled to his or her own system of beliefs. The Supreme Court has also ruled things having to do with religion in schools such as prayer in school, and the teaching of creationism, as not suitable to be taught in school because it interferes a little bit too much with the separation of religion from school.

Chapter 5: The History of Schools in the United States

Summary - There have been a lot of educational shifts in the past 300 years. Many of which have been covered in our textbook, The Joy of Teaching by Gene E. Hall, Linda F. Quinn, and Donna M. Gollnick. One of the first debates that was talked about in schooling was whether or not they should have compulsory attendance in the schools. Another big debate was brought to the attention by Horace Mann who said “It [the common school] is a free school system, it knows no distinction or rich and poor…it throws open its doors and spreads the table of its bounty for all the children of the state…Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the equalizer of the conditions of men, the great balance wheel of the same machinery.” His debate was that everyone should get the same education despite the social class of the child, which then in turn had people evaluating splitting the children up, not by class, but by age group. The topic of what should be taught in the school system was in the past a very big controversy, and in some ways today still is, there have been a lot of court cases discussing what should and shouldn’t be taught in the public school system. The last debate (and possibly the most important) to discuss is the desegregation in the public schools; that caused such a controversy for so many years.

Description - Compulsory attendance is defined as the required attendance at school until an age set by state legislatures. Since the constitution does not cover how the education system should be handled, they made the tenth amendment which said “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively of to the people” through the tenth amendment it was determined that the states define the required attendance, but generally it’s the same age for all states. Horace Mann had the vision of education being the common school that has the same curriculum for all of the students, despite their economic condition. However he envisioned this in the 1830s, because in the present day curriculum is influenced by local cultures and beliefs. What should be taught in the classroom has always been hard to define, but in the 1950’s the National Defense Education Act was greatly concerned with the lack of quality in the things that were taught in public schools. So they decided that a part of education had to be with the students learning better skills in science and math, because of the way the world has been advancing technologically since the 50’s.

Chapter 2: Today's Students

In the text The Joy of Teaching by authors Gene E. Hall, Linda F. Quinn, and Donna M. Gollnick, a section of chapter 2 discusses how the socioeconomic status (SES) affects students. Generally there are three types of classes in America, Low – Income, Middle Class, and Upper Middle Class. Education for the low – income children is sometimes hard, but is never denied because of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act that “requires school districts to provide transportation for homeless students to stay in their schools of origin if their parents request it”. However they are less likely to graduate and attend college. Students of middle class family’s usually have high expectations from their parents, they are expected to attend college or receive training after they graduate from high school. The only difference between the middle class and the upper middle class is that the upper middle class has enough money to possibly provide their children with tutors if they are not receiving the grades expected of them, or possibly send them to a private school to get what they see as better schooling.