Week 10 - Anthology Ch 21, 22 & 23

“That teacher training programs in the United States have long been dominated by a behavioristic orientation and emphasis on mastering subject areas and methods of teaching is well documented.” (Anthology P. 199)

I think that if someone wants to be a teacher they should want to open up students mind and help them expand. To take a behaviorism approach is essentially demanding that the student do what you ask without question. I can remember this ideal very clearly from my elementary days, and I hated every last one of those teachers. In my elementary experience I disliked most of my teachers except for two of them. The reasons I liked them is clear now, they were the only ones that took a power-with approach (unless of course we got WAY out of line) and it I wanted to learn. I hope to be a teacher that has a power-with approach.

“The notion that students come from different histories and embody different experiences, linguistic practices, cultures and talents is strategically ignored within the logic of accountability of management pedagogy theory” (Anthology P. 201)

HELLO, we can’t ignore who the student is before we teach them….we need to learn about them, see what they know, see what unique perspectives each student brings to the table. Not everyone grew up in America, not everyone grew up the way the teacher, or principle for that matter. Who’s to say that a bunch of experts should dictate what needs to be learned. I believe that the learning should be specific to the area in which the school is located, then us surrounding areas as a point of reference so that students become well rounded, and not brought back to basics.

“They must work to create the conditions that give students the opportunity to become citizens who have the knowledge and courage to struggle in order to make despair unconvincing and hope practical” (Anthology P. 204)

 Teachers are currently in an interesting position; the powers above are dictating what they teach, how they teach, and why they teach it. This point of power needs to be shifted to the teachers, to the ones who know best, to the ones who have many years of schooling so that they can make a difference. I believe that teachers know what needs to be done, but their hands are always tied by money and other incentives. Teachers need a more wide open approach, a more transformative approach. If we want the students to become participating citizens who are educated to help make a difference then we (school systems) can’t keep jamming the students with useless data.

“Any kid of teaching requires toughness. You have to have firm convictions about a whole lot of stuff that you are not, in fact, always sure about.” (Anthology P. 205)

Back in the day I considered teaching before I chose not to and to get a degree in computers…then I chose to ultimately become a teacher. The point of me telling you that is because what I feared I lacked the most was the ability to “have firm convictions”. This was also my fear when I started my first coaching experience but I soon realized that it falls on the relationship that you have between you and your class (or team in this case). It was interesting because the kids had many questions and I didn’t have many answerers (all their questions were legit questions that I had too) but I promised I would find out and we were able to move on. I think what had a lot to do with that is I never took a top-down approach with my team always approached it eye-to-eye (power-with) and I think that’s where I got a lot of slack for not knowing. So to get back to the word tough, you need to have a thick skin because the answer will not always be right there for you. This especially in tech ed, I am sure that I will have plenty of questions from students that I can’t answer off the top of my head instead of freaking out and feeling like I failed my class, I would simply take a little extra time to find that student or class the answer and we can use it as a teaching/learning moment.

“To be able to think critically or analytically does not mean to criticize. It means to look at messages and materials through different lenses and from many perspectives; it means to be able to recognize propaganda regardless of its origin; it means to be able to ‘detect crap’ It means to pull apart materials, sort them, question them, reorganize them mentally, and then synthesize the pieces into coherent understanding and whole.” (Anthology P.211)

I picked this quote but I wish I didn’t have to respond to it….it does a really good job of describing what critical anything is. I specifically like the “look at messages and material through different lenses” this is referring to the diversity and how we as future teachers need to recognize that. We need to put on the lens that our students see through every day. I had a teacher all use the term “hats” when he was talking about it he was referring to the “hat” a parent wears compared to that “hat” that you wear. It speaks to the same thing, we can’t ignore where the student came from, we need to embrace and understand it. By doing this, applying lenses we can open up many doors into the students.