Great class today. You know its a great class when there are just as many questions as answers! Thank you for allowing my soap box moment. Although we got slightly down the road, OK maybe all the way around the bend :), we addressed some of the core tensions many will experience and a few self-care mechanisms all teachers need. I firmly believe that much more than the material we are covering, it is your development as healthy, critically thinking, self-reflective, passionately dedicated human beings that will impact your future students the most. As Parker Palmer says, "we teach who we are." While you will all look very different from each other in the classroom, it is my belief that you will advocate for the good of your students, whatever that looks like, if you yourself have the tools, confidence and support to do so. I feel privileged to get to be a part of building all three!
You are also getting to experience first hand many of the learning strategies/stages spoken of in our readings. You are constructing knowledge by combining readings with past and present experiences. You are learning through both the process (conversation, reading, blogging) as well as the products (papers, posters, role plays). Art imitates life as real and relevant questions are explored. Your questions take on new life when they can change the focus of our conversations. As a result, your participation both individually and collectively profoundly impacts the whole class experience. The concepts you are learning are being scaffolded by requiring a time of reflection (your Take on a Voice paper), allowing for social interaction (making your cheat sheet) and experiencing a little ZPD thanks to both the support of team mates and the dedication of challengers. The classroom is becoming a place where risk is more the norm than the exception. After all, we're all in this together...
I know that many of you are in that odd but necessary state of disequilibrium where clarity comes and goes. This process is invaluable as we make all this information our own. Just think, with all of this thrashing around in theory you are beginning to create a real teaching philosophy. A flexible ever transforming one to be sure, but a framework to give your teaching a foundation in principle and heart. What are you becoming passionate about ED561?
Your next blog prompt is wide open. What is on your mind, shaping your thinking. guiding your inquiry? By the way, your thoughts could span across readings and even the other classes you are taking. I don't believe that we in Child Development have cornered the market on interesting food for thought!!
Enjoy,
I look forward to Wed.!
Zalika
I had an interesting discussion with a group of friends recently. I was talking about some of the things in the milestone reading that we had, which brought up this conversation. The friend I was talking to has a daughter who is almost 5, and doesn’t attend any type of schooling.
ReplyDeleteIn the social development section (for most ages above the age of 1-2) there seems to generally be mention of something regarding the child’s relationship with other children. Whether it be just the presence of other children, or playing with other children, there is an influence by other children.
The child in question however, attends no school, or day care. The mother mentioned that the child basically “hangs out around adults all day”. This made us wonder what types of pros and cons there could be for this girl. For example one girl wondered if maybe the child would have a wider range of vocabulary than other children her age? Another girl felt that the girl would probably be more observant. It seemed the people I talked to saw more pros than cons to this situation, whereas I seemed to think that there would almost be a lack of childhood for this girl. I feel that it is important that children get to play with children their own age rather than just with adults.
I’m curious as to how others feel ☺
hi anne!
ReplyDeletejust a quick response...I agree! Children are not "little adults." They have their own worlds and lenses and stages they need to move through. If a child doesn't have the chance to just be a "kid," how will they know how to share or negotiate or play when they finally do enter school?
Great point!
ReplyDeleteI also agree! Children must have the chance to experience childhood, or they might end up like a famous 50 year old washed up pop star who just died of a heart attack!
As for myself there are a million questions going through my mind right now! I am enjoying
.....MOST of the readings in all of our classes,
but we all know there is a big difference between what we read in books, and what actually
happens('.')!
An ideal school for me would be one where we could incorperate the ideas of Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky, so the activity we did on monday helped me because
we got a chance to awnser some of the tough questions we will most likely be dealing with in the near future. The big thought going through my mind now is "How much of our own style of teaching will we actually be able to do?" What i mean by that is as Zalika said, we as teachers will always have our own ideas about what should, and should not be done in the classroom, and will the parents and the Administration always
agree with what we do?
To sum this up, like all of you I am just very excited to get into the classroom and see what does and does not work! I am curious to some of the questions the rest of you have about being in the classroom!
I have already enjoyed the short 1 and 1/2 weeks
we have been here, and meeting all of you('.')!
Ryan
First of all, I really liked when Zalika said that we should have "purposeful goals and flexible roads." I have come to realize that it isn't the specific instruction that occurs in the classroom that is important, but instead that what is done in the classroom should in some way reflect the big ideas that the students are needing to learn and absorb.
ReplyDeleteI feel I have gotten to learn so much information in the past week and a half. First, I am glad that we aren't expected to remember it all and second, I am having a hard time figuring out what exactly I want to pick as what I am most passionate about. Currently, I am passionate about being an advocate for the children in my future classroom. What does that exactly look like, I'm not entirely sure. But I do feel as if we are getting the tools to be one. For example, learning how to talk to parents in addition to learning about theorists and our social structure so we can have strong backing to our arguments will be a valuable asset. I am curious to know what everyone else is passionate about so far.
Also, like Ryan, I am wondering about what will work and not work in my classroom. How am I going restrain myself from telling students answers when I know that the best way to learn is being engaged and coming up with it themselves? How will I find a school with a philosophy similar to my personal one? How am I going to use what I learn to be the most effective teacher possible? How am I going to help make much needed changes to our educational/social system? These are questions that I don't expect any of you to answer for me, but if you do know them, then please feel free to share them with me! These questions just pop into my head while in class and at home so I thought I would share.
See you all tomorrow! Oh and Cohort 3 rocks, thanks for being such a supportive group!
Michelle
Good points Ryan. I wonder the same thing. I have some other questions and thoughts I would like to bring up: I first would like to mention, that in the article "Developmental Milestones", it briefly discusses how the different domains of development all affect each other, but it does not go into much explanation on specifically how.
ReplyDeleteI take particular interest in this because of sensory processing issues my 2-year-old son has. His occupational therapist gave me a pyramid diagram displaying the components of the central nervous system and how for the later developmental processes to take place, all of the pieces that form the foundation need to be there. I will bring a copy for everyone to have tomorrow, because I think it would be useful for us as teachers to be aware of the elements of the central nervous system that need to be in place in order for the rest of cognition to be in order.
I also would like to express how I feel about how children dress when they go to school and how it can affect their readiness to learn. Why is it that in so many other countries, children wear uniforms to school? Is the retail industry and capitalism tied into this? Imagine if students did not go shopping to buy the latest trends and back-to-school clothing? I believe that children would be less distracted in getting caught up with fashion and socio-economic status. Students can blend in more as a whole and do not have to think about what they'll wear to school every day. For example, who might be more ready to learn: a boy wearing a basketball shirt to class or a boy dressed in a nice pair of slacks and a shirt with a collar? Maybe I am a little old school.
Also, I wonder what would happen in junior high if boys and girls were separated into different classes. Would the girls tend to perform better in school and soar more in areas of math and science? This is just some food for thought. If anyone has any ideas, please share.
Before commenting, I wanted to respond briefly to Kathleen's comment about boys and girls being separated into different classes. I don't really know how I feel about that and I'm not familiar at all with the research. I went to a women's college and for me it was definitely a positive experience to be in an all-woman environment. Women tend to be more open, confident and express themselves more freely when there aren't any men around. Although, I don't necessarily know if separating girls and boys in the classroom at this age would be effective. To make a reference back to Zaher's class today, separating girls and boys in the classroom would do nothing to address the larger systemic issues and so maybe wouldn't make a significant difference in outcomes and achievement. I think Vygotsky may also argue that much learning can be done in the classroom through the interaction of children from different genders, races and cultures.
ReplyDeleteGetting back to my own comment, the thing I've found most interesting in the last week and a half is all of the connections I've been seeing between the four courses that we're taking. I've seen a couple of themes running through many of them. Some examples:
1. The importance of focusing on the "big ideas" and not getting bogged down in memorization of the small details. We've talked a lot about this in Kip's class and I can see a connection to what Zalika was saying on Monday about having firm goals and flexible paths.
2. Child centered, hands on teaching. This seems to be a common thread that runs through all of the courses and really makes a lot of sense when you read the major child development theorist.
It's been really exciting for me to start making these connections and it's definitely helping me to begin to formulate my own personal philosophy about teaching and learning. Does anybody have anything they'd add to this list?