Goodbye to EDU 100

Education is like a room full of doors. Behind each door contains a different way to teach and to experience learning. Throughout our careers as teachers, we must open each of these doors so we ourselves can learn the best ways to teach our students. There are many approaches and philosophies to teaching that may take years to try out, but all of them are available to us.

What I have learned from this Education class is that teaching can happen anywhere. It can happen in a traditional classroom or outside in our own environment. Learning can take place in the woods or in our own backyards, like in Environmental schools, or in classrooms where students are more hands-on, like in Montessori schools, or in schools where learning derives from the child's own questions and thoughts, like in Homeschooling or Unschooling.  Also, behind each of those doors is a way to accommodate all students, whether they are gifted, disabled, or if they are just learning to speak English.  With the help of IEPs and advanced placement classes, students with disabilities and giftedness can be accommodated. Also, with mainstreaming, all students can be brought together in one classroom as they would in real life.  Lastly, from this class I learned the different kinds of philosophies and the one I that I would be most successful using, which is Cognitivism.  Although I do not plan on teaching, I can take this information with me in my own profession.  Learning about the different kinds of schools were especially eye-opening for me.  Because of that lesson, I have become more involved with the homeschooling community in Peabody.  I have reached out to them and offered the Peabody Institute Library as a place for them to meet, and I have also offered any materials that we have here as supplies for their learning activities.

This has been the first class that I have blogged in and the first that relied a lot on the posts and comments of other students.  I have really enjoyed this type of communication with my classmates, especially because we are an online class and would have never been able to communicate otherwise. It is nice getting feedback by our classmates and being able to see other perspectives than our own. By reading blog posts and other assignment posts, I always took something new away from every assignment, something that I didn't notice during my own reading. Overall, I was happy to post online with my classmates each week.

Social Justice & Bullying

This week in our EDU class, we have been discussing social justice, public policy, and legal issues, and how all of these go hand in hand in the education system. So, what is social justice? BusinessDictionary.com defines social justice as "the fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice." 

This definition got me thinking further into the problem of bullying and how bad bullying can affect people of all ages, especially children in schools. Children can be bullied for all kinds of reasons: because of their weight, height, race, sexual orientation, social status, etc.  Nels Ericson of the U.S. Department of Justice writes "Addressing the Problem of Juvenile Bullying, "Bullying is the set of repeated acts that cause physical or emotional harm.  There are three different types of bullying: physical bullying, verbal bullying, and psychological bullying. Physical bullying consists of hitting, kicking, pushing, stealing, ruining a person’s belongings, or forcing someone to do something he or she is unwilling to do.  Verbal bullying consists of name calling, teasing, and insulting.  Psychological bullying consists of spreading lies or rumors and manipulating social relationships."  Another form of bullying that as perhaps become the most popular among students is cyberbullying. Stopbullying.com defines cyberbullying as bullying that takes place online or with other electronic technology through e-mail, text messages, social networking sites, videos, etc.

What are the effects of bullying? 
- kids are more likely to become depressed and anxious
- they may struggle in school or not show up to school
- they are more likely to carry weapons, get into fights, and use drugs
- they have trouble making friends and having relationships with classmates
- they suffer humiliation, insecurity, and lack of self-esteem
(retrieved from Boston.com and U.S Department of Justice)

With all of these forms of bullying, what have schools done to help prevent this from happening? Is it their responsibility to step in? The answer is yes, absolutely.  In fact, the state of Massachusetts passed a new law in May of 2010 that requires schools to institute an anti-bullying curriculum, investigate acts of bullying, and report cases to law enforcement officials. The bill covers areas such as stalking and harassment, and it states that teachers, cafeteria staff, janitorial staff, etc., must report any incidents of bullying.  It also says that teachers must notify parents of the students who are involved in the bullying, and it requires teachers from both public and private schools to include anti-bullying in their curriculum. I hope that schools across the country can implement anti-bullying laws to help prevent this horrible problem.
.https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SepSchool/conversations/messages/26894

Environmental Education

This week in class, we learned a lot about other types of education, like place based education and environmental education. I found a particular interest in environmental education because it is something I would have loved in my own schooling.  “Environmental education is a process that allows individuals to explore environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment. As a result, individuals develop a deeper understanding of environmental issues and have the skills to make informed and responsible decisions” (www2.epa.gov).

Thinking as a teacher would, I asked myself, “How would I be able to get kids interested in about environmental education at such a young age?” What kinds of activities could they do on their own that could get them thinking about helping the environment? During this week’s Pinterest assignment, I searched “Environmental education” and found a great pin that gives a science experiment on how oil spills can harm animals. In this experiment, the children use liquid soap, water, corn oil, and vegetable oil to see which liquid changes the look and feel of the feather.  Also, they determine which liquid absorbs in the feather and is repelled by it. Once the feather is cleaned with the toothbrush and soap, they can then see if the feather is restored to its natural state.  All of their results are written down and they come to a conclusion at the end. This is a great experiment that is simple enough do with kids, while still being a very important issue in the environment to learn about. In fact, it something that I would find fun to do myself.

Educational Philosophies

This week in our class, we have learned a lot about the different philosophies that are adopted in education. Through our exercises, I had already discovered which kind of philosophy that I could see myself using in my own class, and when were asked to a self assessment on our educational philosophies, my results were, in fact, exactly what I expected them to be.

As I expected, I found the highest result in Cognitivism and Constructivism.  In the Cognitivism philosophy, "the learner actively constructs his or her own understandings of reality through acting upon and reflecting on experiences in the world. When a new object, or experience does not fit the learner's present knowing structures, a conflict is provoked that requires an active quest to restore a balance.  Teachers facilitate environmental conditions and mediate experiences to support student learning." I really like the idea that students learn from their own experiences. Let's face it, sitting in a classroom isn't all there is to the world beyond our childhood and teenage years.  They will not always have someone in front of them teaching and guiding them. Students need to take learning in their own hands by figuring out what types of information will motivate them to solve problems and enhance their overall experience.  I scored lowest on the philosophies of perennialism, essentialism, information processing, and behaviorism. To me, all of these philosophies are still focusing on styles of teachers that once worked, but are no longer always successful. These philosophies value a traditional style of teaching that we have learned does not work for every student.

I found that this tool was a fun way to see if my own philosophy for teaching fell under a pre-existing. While I think this tool is also very useful, I think the best way to determine your preferred philosophy is by trying it in the classroom.  As new teachers, it is going to take us years to improve our curriculum and teaching styles, but the best way to do that is to experiment with these philosophies to see which ones work the best for our students.  Although I scored highest in Cognitivism, I may find out that this approach is not successful in my classroom. It may take trying several different philosophies and seeing the results of those philosophies before determining which one I find the best.

Gifted and Talented Students

This week our class focused our discussion on students with disabilities, ULD, and talented and gifted students. While our readings were full of information on the ways to teach students with disabilities and how successful ULDs are, I was left a bit curious about how gifted and talented students are accommodated. How is a student identified as being gifted or talented? What kinds of activities and programs can they participate in ? How many gifted or talented students are there currently in the U.S.?

While researching this topic, I came across the website NSGT.org (National Society for Gifted and Talented Students).  Not only does this website define gifted students, but it also provides educational resources, such as programs and organizations that gifted students can join and additional information on how to identify gifted children.  NSGT explains that gifted children are defined as children who use talent to achieve at remarkably high levels in areas of their lives (academic, artistic, athletic, and social). These students achieve or have the potential to achieve at levels way above their peers.
The website states that there are "approximately three million gifted and talented children in grades K-12 nationwide, of whom only perhaps a quarter have been identified and receive support." The first step in helping these students achieve their highest level of success is by first identifying them.

How do you identify a gifted child?
While there are no nation-wide or sate-wide standards for identification, school districts decide which students are considered gifted with the use of philosophy, resources, and their own definition of giftedness.

What are signs/characteristics of gifted children?

1. Gifted students are often perfectionist and idealistic.
2. Gifted students may experience heightened sensitivity to their own expectations and those of others.
3. Gifted students are asynchronous.
4. Some gifted students are “mappers” (sequential learners), while others are “leapers” (spatial learners).
5. Gifted students may be so far ahead of their chronological age mates that they know half the curriculum before the school year begins!
6. Gifted children are problem solvers.
7. Gifted students often think abstractly and with such complexity that they may need help with concrete study and test-taking skills.
8. Gifted students who do well in school may define success as getting an “A” and failure as any grade less than an “A”.

Gifted students generally have unusual talent in one or occasionally two of these areas: Creative Thinking, General Intellectual Ability, Specific  Academic Ability, Leadership, Psychomotor, and Visual/Performing Arts.

What kinds of programs can gifted students participate in outside of their normal schooling?Programs known as SIG programs are offered to gifted students. These programs combine academics with social, cultural and recreational opportunities. Both summer and online programs are available. The online courses "offer students curriculum beyond what is offered during the school day, are wide ranging in potential interest areas for individualized learning, and engage students in hands-on learning while applying school content through speaking, writing, researching, analyzing, reasoning and questioning."

This website was extremely helpful in my search to find more answers about gifted students.  Our education system has worked hard to accommodate the needs of student with disabilities, and I would love to see that gifted and talented students also get the same kind of attention and accommodation that they, too, deserve.

Sexual Orientation in Education

While reading this week's topic of "The Richness of Classroom Cultures," I had found an interest in learning more about the perspective of sexual orientation in schools.  The National Education Association writes, "sexual orientation is an identity based on whether someone is attracted to people of a sex different than their own, the same sex, or both sexes (i.e., heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual). Gender identity is a person's internal sense of being male, female, or somewhere else along the gender spectrum.  Transgender is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from their biological or the sex they were assigned at birth."  How are homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, and transgender students treated differently in school? What struggles do they face? In Education: The Practice and Profession of Teaching, McNergney writes, "feelings of isolation and "otherness" are increased for gay and lesbian students by the prejudices and harassment they face from other students and sometimes from teachers as well" (51).  On www.violencepreventionworks.com, Jane Reise discusses bullying towards homosexual students.  She writes, "verbal bullying is the most frequent form of bullying experienced by both boys and girls.  Often, even among young students, this form of bullying can involve negative language that is sexual in nature." She lists several negative impacts of this kind of bullying:

• Bullying and harassment can have negative effects on the development and mental health of GLBTQ students, such as extreme anxiety and depression, relationship problems, low self-esteem, substance abuse, and thoughts of suicide. These students are also at much greater risk of physical assault than other children and youth.

• Students who had experienced anti-gay harassment are four times more likely than non-harassed youth to be threatened with or injured by a weapon.

• Twenty-two percent of GLBTQ students had skipped school in the last month for safety concerns and are three times more likely to drop out of school.

• GLBTQ students are also at risk for not getting the support they need when they are being bullied due to their perceptions that adults at school may have intolerant attitudes or may not provide confidential help in which to deal with their situation. Four out of five GLBTQ students say they know of no supportive adult at school.

• GLBTQ students are two to three times as likely to commit suicide as heterosexual students and may account for a startling 30 percent of all completed youth suicides. These students are also more likely to experience suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts than other students.

As a community, how can we prevent harassment of GLBT students?  The National Education Association lists several ways:

• Educate yourself about facts vs. myths surrounding GLBT people, especially the facts related to health and safety of GLBT students Find ways to support your GLBT students and colleagues
• Prevent bullying and harassment of GLBT students and colleagues through programs, training, and events  
• Advocate for staff development on GLBT issues, diversity, safe schools and social justice in your school
• Establish policies, rights, benefits and protections that support GLBT students and employees
• Partner with parents, guardians and community organizations to address GLBT issues in schools or in the community
• Stay in close communication with your administration, your building representative, your Uniserv director, and your local and state affiliate offices

As a potential future educator, I would have no tolerance for bullying or harassment toward GLBT students. I have several friends and colleagues that are gay, and I have seen first hand how harassment has affected them.  My classroom would be a safe and welcoming environment where students could be themselves judgement free.

Columbus Day: A Celebration of Ignorance

Growing up, we've repeated the famous line "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."  This is probably because there's no way to form a rhyme from "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus slaughtered Native Americans."  Why, for years, have we been celebrating Columbus' arrival to America without really knowing how he did ot or who suffered in the midst of all his glory?  One of the most importance things I have learned from a college class here at Salem State is to consider all sides of a story. Before getting into all the facts about Christopher Columbus and the Native Americans, I want to present Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story. In 2009, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie spoke for TED on “The Danger of The Single Story.”  In her speech, she reveals that only hearing one story about a people or a nation leads to ignorance, and she explains the importance of hearing multiple stories.  She says, "Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story, and to start with, "secondly."  Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have and entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story."

The only way for students to fully understand the history behind Columbus Day is to teach them all sides of the story.  This means that teachers need to re-educate themselves on this topic, as said by Bob Peterson is his article, "Columbus and Native Issue in the Elementary Classroom".  Peterson includes several exercises to get students thinking about Native American and the stereotypes associated with them and the Columbus Day holiday.  He begins his teaching of this holiday by asking the students to write down what they know about Native Americans. This is so the class can get all the stereotypes out in the open and then discuss the problems with assuming that Native Americans live and dress a certain way.  He also suggests using analogies that relate to the student's lives.  For example, he writes, "Give examples such as a coach having a stereotype about girls: that they can't play baseball well" (36).  These seem like very successful activities, and I would use them to teach my own students.

In another article, titled "We Have No Reason to Celebrate An Invasion," Suzan Shown Harjo, a director of Morning Star, an indigenous peoples' rights organization, is interviewed on the the topic of Columbus Day.  In this article, her feelings are similar to Bob Peterson.  She writes, "As Native American peoples in this red quarter of Mother Earth, we have no reason to celebrate an invasion that caused the demise of so many of our people and is still causing destruction today" (12). However, she understands that there are two sides to the story of Christopher Columbus.  When she is asked "What should be the goal and perspective of teachers when telling their elementary and high schools students about Columbus?", she replies, "Explaining the unpleasant truths about Columbus does not take away from the fact he was able to lurch over to these shores in three little boats.  In fact, it gives the story of Columbus more dimension. It also makes it easier for kids in school to accept not only Columbus but other things" (13).  Her views on this topic are ones that I fully agree with. She accepts  Christopher Columbus' were in no way heroic when it came to invading and murdering the Native American people, but she also accepts that Columbus' journey was impressive and worth noting.  As a teacher, I would teach the story of Columbus just as Harjo explains it.  Children need to know the truth behind every story, and that means taking the good with the bad.  

In my eyes, being a librarian is like being a teacher.  I'm not someone who simply checks books in and out; I do a lot more.  I recommend my favorite books and series to kids, teens, and adults and I show people where and how to find books.  I teach skills that I have required through school to patrons in my programs or during the hours I’m at my desk. I help kids with homework, projects, and (my favorite) English papers.  Sometimes I consider myself a free tutor.   I always want to do more and be more as a librarian. I want people of all ages to be able to walk through the door and find the help that they need for whatever is they are looking for.  I want them to walk out of here knowing that they are welcomed back anytime.  Just under a year ago, a woman in her 50s came to the library to fill out an online application and resume for a nursing position she was applying for.  The resume and the application were pages and pages long, and with little background knowledge on computers, she was completely lost as to how to even bring up the application from her email.  For an hour and a half I sat with her to help her fill it out.  She was so thankful and appreciative that she told our Assistant Director what wonderful librarians we are and how they couldn’t have done it without us.  This is the type of thing that makes me feel like I’m making a difference as a librarian.

Why Teach?

Recently, we've been asked to answer the question "Why Teach?"  This question can be answered in a number of ways.  Through our class readings, I've come across answers such as, "I've wanted to teach since I was a little kid," "Teaching has always been in my family, so I want to teach, too," and "I'm always working with kids, so I know I could relate to them as a teacher."  Let's be honest, teachers don't decide to teach for the money.  From what I've already known and what I've learned through the article, "Are you sick of highly-paid teachers?," teachers today make less than a third of what they should.  So, why teach? Although I've decided not to teach, there are plenty of reasons why the idea of teaching someday sits in the back of my mind.  For me, there is no better feeling in the world than to see a child look up at me and tell me with excitement that they understand something that I've taught them.  Although situations like this one haven't happened in the classroom, but in my own personal life, the feeling is still exactly the same.

While researching this question, I came across this picture of a quotation.  Brad Henry writes, "A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning."  In one sentence, Brad summarizes the best parts of teaching.  As educators, we want to inspire students to be creative, to find an interest in learning, and to succeed in whatever they do in their lives.  Knowing that I could be the reason why a child walks into a classroom excited to learn is a feeling that I believe makes teachers so special.  It sets them apart from any other professional.

Intro to me!

Hey everyone!

My name is Morgan and I'm a senior at Salem State University.  I'm studying English as a major and Educational Studies as a minor, and I'm only a few months from graduating!  Since my sophomore year at Peabody High School, English has been my favorite subject and finally after my first year of college, I made it my major. My passion throughout most of my college career has been to teach high school, and I've taken several Education courses at SSU, as well as observed many high school classrooms of different levels.  However, within the past year and a half, I've worked at the Peabody Institute Library and plan on going to the University of Rhode Island to get my Masters in Library Science instead of continuing with teaching.  Although I will not be in a classroom setting, I will still be able to teach children but in a different atmosphere.  At the library, I have the freedom to teach kids anything from how to do to crafts to how to navigate around Microsoft programs.  The best part about my job is that I still get a sense of fulfillment when it comes to teaching children and teens as teachers do in a classroom.  I can't wait to continue on with this career!