Final Blog

Premise of school course has opened my eyes to the practice of education. This course was supposed to be a last semester elective. However, I received more insight than I would have imagined. I always thought that teachers were given certain objectives, fulfilled them and the year was over. However, this course went into the strategies and philosophies of teaching. A teacher has such a strong influence in thousands of students throughout their careers. Teachers have so many issues that they have to deal with. Students, administration, parents, strategies and techniques to name a few. It takes a special individual to be able to effectively teach students the material and become a positive influence in someones life.

One of the aspects of this class that I have truly enjoyed is the blogging. I have never created a blog before and was never really interested. After this course I have realized that blogging is an extremely powerful tool. It is a forum where you can express your feelings on any topic. The best part is, it can be viewed by the whole public.

Another aspect of this class I truly enjoyed was observation. It is similar to a person analyzing a hockey game and they have played for a long time. As an observer you know what to look for. Before, if i looked in a classroom I would not think that much of it. Since my observation, when I look into a classroom I pick out certain things such as strategies used by teachers, rules, participation of students, interactions and other things. This course has opened my eyes to the professional side of teaching and I have a greater amount of respect for teachers and the great philosophers.

Educational Philosophy

The educational philosophy that I chose is realism. Realism can be defined as "a, b, and c and so on exist, and the fact that they exist and have properties such as F-ness, G-ness, and H-ness is (apart from mundane empirical dependencies of the sort sometimes encountered in everyday life) independent of anyone's beliefs, linguistic practices, conceptual schemes, and so on." The reason I chose this philosophy is because I believe that I am a realist.

My question is what role does realism play in education. After research I found out that realists rely heavily on teachers in education. Teachers should teach students the essentials and basic information on how to survive. Materials and subjects should be presented in an organized way. I believe that realism is an important philosophy in education and think the following quote explains realism.

"The whole point of education is to turn mirrors into windows"
Sydney Jay Harris (American Journalist)

Influential Figure in Education

Clara Hemphill has revolutionized the research of schools. It used to be the norm for a family to enroll their kid into the public school that they lived in. They may also move to another location in order to enroll their children into a school of their choice. Clara Hemphill is the founder of www.insideschools. org. This is an interactive websites that parents/guardians can go to research potential schools. The New York Times states, "The Website’s school profiles detail test scores, of course, but they also describe the culture of each school, giving prospective families insights on teaching styles, homework, and discipline. There are also policy papers, parent alerts, and nuts-and-bolts guides to school admissions, testing, and other education essentials. InsideSchools.org doesn’t pull punches; you’re as apt to read about barren science labs at a given school as you are to read about a great principal."

This is a new and innovative tool that gives parents the luxury of hearing first hand facts and reviews on the schools that their kids will be enrolling into. With all of the recent cut backs on education funding this website has become a useful place. Clara Hemphill has brought technology to the forefront when searching for quality educational institutions.

Are schools being equally funded?

"Nine years ago, a coalition of civil rights groups filed a class action lawsuit (Williams v. California) that documented the deplorable and even unsafe and unsanitary conditions in many of California’s schools that serve large numbers of students of color." The underlying cause for this is that the schools are being underfunded. This is a major issue throughout California over the past decade. The following article (http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/17/opinion/oe-makdisi17) shows that Governor Schwartzenegger is making extensive cuts in an already beleaguered systems.

The cuts are causing serious issues for school systems whom the majority of the enrolled students are of color. In 2001, their were not cuts being administered because the economy was in a much different state. These school systems are operating with outdated books, limited supplies and resources. The limited financial resources also creates cuts in the number of teachers and variety of classes offered. The question now is are schools being unequally funded?

It is a fact that schools are being unequally funded. Area demographics plays a major factor in this as well. More affluent areas have schools with up-to-date technologies, athletic facilities, equipment and infrastructure. Their is even a difference in the quality of teachers because they are able to pay more to faculty. States insert a certain amount of money back into it's cities education and it is not being equally funded. The opportunities to succeed and recieve a quality education are limited depending on location.

The inner city population are more diversified with different races and minorities. http://www.psk12.com/rating/USthreeRsphp/STATE_MA_level_High_CountyID_0_start_251.html.

This website shows the rankings of schools in Massachusetts. Schools that are private and are located in affluent areas are at the top of the list. Where as West Roxbury, Dorchester, Lawrence, and other high minority/low income cities are at the bottom. This is due to the fact that they do not have as many opportunities and the resources available to them. The difference leads back to schools being unequally funded by the state.

In conclusion, schools being unequally funded has become a major hot topic in education. No matter where the schools are located, everyone should have the same resources available to them to succeed. However, this is not the case and is due to the face that schools are not being equally funded.

Education to Health

I decided to compare education to health. Diet and exercise are major factors in what type of health issues/problems a person develops throughout their life. From the day you are born the type of diet and exercise affects your health. A person that does not monitor negative habits such as; eating unhealthy foods, consuming more calories than needed, using drugs, abusing alcohol, not exercising daily, will be more likely to develop serious health issues. A lot of people have health issues that are from family genes, however they can be monitored by dieting and exercising daily.

Education for a person begins from the day they are born. There are a number of outside forces that can affect the level of education a person gets. Parenting as a newborn (being read to and learning how to communicate and speak). The effectiveness of teachers from K-12. Role-models in life. Friends that are made. Activities that a person is involved in (sports, music, art, language, etc). The amount of effort that a person gives back into learning (studying and reading). All of the above mentioned factors affect the quality of education that a person receives.

I compared education to health because I believe that they are similar in the fact that many variables affect both greatly. Education can be positively or negatively affected depending on the influences and experiences in a persons life. This is similar to health where it can be positively or negatively affected depending on the diet and exercise.

The fascinating aspect is that the level of health and education are constantly changing for better or for worse.

*Dieting does not mean losing weight (ie weight watchers). A diet is a healthy amount of food consumed that relates to their body type.

Inclusion in the Classroom

Inclusion in the classroom is a controversial subject with regard to learning. It tampers with social values and the feeling of individuality. Inclusion in the classroom is the commitment by the school to meet all the learning needs of a student to maximize the education given. It is a way of combining all students into one classroom instead of outcasting children with disabilities. This brings a sense of equality and belonging. Many questions follow this topic; do we value our children equally? Are their different levels of inclusion? What are the pros and cons of inclusion? Inclusion is at the forefront of education because people are torn over it.

Before viewing the pros and cons of this subject, I think it is crucial we decipher what exactly are the levels of inclusion? If one would want full inclusion, than that would be extremely difficult because some individuals are so disabled that they may become a distraction to the rest of the class. I am not being facetious with that comment, however, I have worked with disabled children before and if you are trying to teach a class of thirty children it may be difficult. Partial inclusion is when a certain level of disability is allowed into the classroom and other higher level of disabled children will get the individual attention.

There are many pros and cons when it comes to inclusion. Many of the supporters for inclusion look at the ineffectiveness of seperating disabled children from the norm. The following link (http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues43/support_for_inclusion.html) shows that the numbers do not lie. Here are some quick facts:

-43 percent of students in special education do not graduate;
-youth with disabilities have a significantly higher likelihood of being arrested than their non- disabled peers (12 percent versus 8 percent);
-only 13.4 percent of youth with disabilities are living independently two years after leaving high school (compared to 33.2 percent of their non-disabled peers); and
-less than half of all youth with disabilities are employed after having been out of school one to two years.

These statistics show that noninclusion of students at the moment are not raking in the numbers one would like to see. Supporters say that inclusion may improve learning for ALL students. Children will have the opportunity to learn and accept individual differences and help one another. On top of increased learnign potential, school districts can reduce costs by letting the teachers.

A major con with inclusion is the level of expertise and education that a teacher may have. Being able to teach a person with disability is far off from teaching history. There is a level of background that you need to have in order to teach successfully. People who are against inclusion note that teachers will not have the education level, resources, or support to have inclusion int he classroom. They also believe that children with disability will not get the individual care needed to be educated sucessfully.

My personal opinion is that full inclusion would never be able to work, however partial inclusion could be successful. Guidelines need to be made on what is "partial" and what is "full." Not every student with a disability needs to be excluded from a classroom. The word "disability" is vague and does not create any criteria. There are many students out their with "minor" disabilities that can and should be involved in a normal classroom. However, I believe the children with a "major" disability should have a trained and experienced professional assist them and give them the individual attention that they need.

First Blog Entry

Hello everyone,

This is my first blog entry! It is late due to work obligations. I am extremely excited to view everyones page. I have never thought of creating a blog, but this is very interesting and somewhat fun.

Talk to you soon!