My presentation on my field hours

 

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Final Draft: Philosophy of Education

 

One of the most fundamental human conditions is the subjectivity of our experiences and how those experiences hence shape our sense of the objective world and lead us to connect with it.  Therefore as a consequence we come to create our own own thoughts, opinions, evaluations and even techniques when it comes to how we deal with the world and our professions. These statements are certainly true in my experience as a human and as an educator, and therefore have come to shape my views on teaching, education in general and my profession. With these beliefs that I hold, I can define my educational philosophy to be that of pragmatic rationalist combined with a touch of idealism. This is because I use the tools of reasons that I have gathered throughout my experiences and compliment them with a number of optimistic principles that are often overlooked in a changing world consumed by high speed and productivity.

            In my four years of experience as an educator both in underprivileged city districts and now working with moderate to affluent communities, I have come to learn students from all communities. These students, regardless of their socio economic and cultural standings, value and desire the same thing while at school: a good education, that is relevant to their lives.  While it is true that students from particular communities require different ways of learning and that resources may vary from place to place, It is the educator who is primarily in charge and capable to deliver the quality education regardless of circumstances. Therefore, the educator alone has the ability and the responsibility to create an environment that nurtures learning where and whenever he or she may be present. This I can attest to, and this I have been able to experience while working in various settings in New York.  As an educator, I have had the opportunity to establish a community of learners who have emerged creating a constant flow of ideas and excitement for the learning process.

Learning is a process that is multi-facetted and when different techniques are implemented, learning and higher order thinking will take place.  Since every student learns differently, and every student has the ability to do so, it is important for the educator to try various approaches to make the learning process accessible and easier for everyone.  Kids will then be able to use the tools they learn and develop good reasoning skills.  Cultivating reasoning and critical thinking skills should enable students to take in information more relevantly. For this, I incorporate technology into the classroom as a tool to both engage students as well as an instrument to challenge them. On the other hand, technology alone is an incredible resource which not only helps the educator, but most importantly at this point, it exposes students to multimedia information and complex activates that should be at the core of an effective educator. What this means is that technology is not longer a luxury, but a tool that our students should learn to master so they can have the skills to be successful in a globalized, technological world. It is therefore, not the sole responsibility of a “technology” teacher to teach the skills they will be required to have. Furthermore, implementing technological tools for various purposes and with various goals in mind should be the goal of an effective teacher: that is, using the various cognitive tools. Therefore, the teacher does not just simply “use the internet” or a computer in a lesson, but rather engages students into the curriculum by allowing students to use technology for information gathering, seeking, organization, integration and even to generate knowledge.

It is my belief that the instructor ha the responsibility to involve students and to address their needs in ways that will engage them, that will challenge them. This should be done through the evaluation of student’s intrinsic and extrinsic interest. As a rule of thumb, the implementation of various resources and differentiation will be at the core of maintaining students enged. There is no doubt that as a result my teaching practices will be changing, and will be developing in ways which I believe will be positive. While I am an idealist in a way, I will proceed cautiously, as I am aware of the trials that I will have to make with the coming changes and I will be obligated to see what works for me and what makes my pedagogy more effective. However, as research continuously shows that intrinsic interest are more powerful and influential, scholars suggest that teacher must make work relevant to students life in order to have students understand its purpose. While there was plenty of valuable information on positive practical practices, perhaps the most important to me were the findings on intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors. As the researchers explain, while the use of extrinsic motivation is widely used in schools, research shows that there is much higher degree of success when the teacher uses intrinsic motivating factors. With this research in mind I shall work to create more choice oriented projects and leave out the “extra credit” and rewards that only benefit few.

The implementation of various resources and differentiation will be at the core of the changes that I will be making this school year. I will seek to use many of the strategies that I was able to learn in class in order to better serve my students and allow them to successfully work together to not only work on what they are good at, but to also empower them to work on skills they lack. In order to do this, however, I will have to make drastic changes. This school year I will start by implementing a culture to develop and implement differentiated instruction in the classroom. As we can see in the article Valuing Differentiated Instruction by Angela Walker, “Choice is the one vital component of differentiated instruction” which will enhance students interest and interaction with the material.

Differentiated instruction will require me to check for understanding and assessing students’ critical thinking skills through methods that are not conventional in an education world focused on standardized tests. Therefore I must be able to incorporate new ways to truly assess student’s abilities in ways standard test fail. In the article Differentiated Assessment by Kristin Bittel, and Darrek Hernandez we get a clear picture of some of the methods that are effective when assessing students for varied skills. I was able to take many important points from this article and will seek to implement a variety of opportunities for students to show knowledge of content through various ways. The author’s research was able to provide a good basis for students to start by, and a guide on how students will be encouraged to work harder if they are given a choice and a decision on what they want to do, and what grad they would like to aim for.

It is my belief that the educator must aim high when it comes to using standards, as these are the primary tools that allow educators to purposefully plan for students success.  Therefore, An effective instructor must work aligning curriculum with expectation using common core standards for skills, state standards for curriculum and ISTE standards for technology implementation. As a professional, it is my duty to analyze, understand and implement the standards in ways that are appropriate for students and that adequately fit into their abilities. By doing this, students get to aim for a common goal, and are able to reach it with the appropriate tools and tasks which are suitable developmentally.

            Overall, my action plan for this year will seek to implement a number of strategies that come from various sources but that ultimately seek one common thing: to get our students from one intellectual place into another. This school year I will look forward to incorporate a number of changes that will make my classroom a place of student interaction, of plenty of questioning, and a place that harbors an atmosphere of trust, participation, and growth. I will seek to assess my students through methods that will truly allow understanding of my students’ abilities and needs. Using the research form class resources, I will seek forward to implementing a number of methods and strategies that will not only make me a better professional, but also encourage my students to grow as life learners.

My lesson presentation

Powerpoint Presentation.

Click here to view Powerpoint presentation.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19NDJXWjlqP8Ocl3v9L1bkLf52mESK4aD4soDhwouHYs/edit?usp=sharing

NYTIMES Lesson through the ISTE standard chart

 

Click here to download directly from this site

Click here to download from Google Drive

     I found a lesson that I thought was creative, engaging, and thought provoking. However, when it came down to the use of technology, and putting it through the ISTE standard chart “lens”, it failed to meet many of the standards. This however, does not make it any less effective or interesting, but it certainly gives the educator a better understanding of what she/he is doing and how the standards are being covered.

Minecraft: a great tool for Social Studies teachers.

    Click here to see assignment in Google Drive    

     Click here to seeassignment in Dropbox   

A reflection on the film Waiting for Superman

 

Waiting for an authentic answer: a reflection on the film Waiting for Superman

         The film manages to successfully show some of the economical problems of our education system and bring into perspective our costly system and the flaws that it carries when compared to the rest of the world.  It shows the sad reality of tenure in education and how it has come to affect the ability of school administrators and policy makers to rid bad teachers from the system. However, it fails to show tenure as a system that protects good teachers from bad situations, but portrays it as a policy that is institutionalized and protected by the “big union bosses”. While it is true that the process of tenure is often abused and protects ineffective teachers from due process, the film in a way demonizes tenure in a pretty clear way. As a solution, the director seems to push for Michelle Rhee’s agenda of eliminating tenure and offering better pay to teachers who perform well. The director does not show evidence to support how this would make education better, the film makes the assumption that this would encourage teachers to work harder and it would reward those that are already performing well. This of course assumes as well that teachers perform well because of their work, and not because of the quality of students that the educators teach to. Guggenheim therefore goes on to track on the premise that teachers alone are solely responsible for students’ performance and scores, when in fact about 60 percent of student’s achievements are explained by non-school factors (Ravitch, 2010).  The film completely underestimates the issues that significantly affect the health and learning opportunities of children in poor communities, and that limit what schools can accomplish in such communities (Berliner, 2009). Common problems such as Low birth weight, non-generically influences on children, inadequate dental, medical and vision care, food insecurity, environmental pollutants, family relations and even neighborhood characteristics are simply disregarded in the film. Instead, we are convinced that any human is capable of achieving the impossible, by using metaphors through Charles Yeager’s U.S. air Force accomplishment of breaking “the impossible” by breaking the sound barrier. While the story is inspiring and admirable, it does not offer a concrete and or methodical way to encourages students about the value of education. While it may inspire a few people on a personal level, there are far too many problems and issues with students of low-income families to even consider thinking about reaching "The impossible" (this is not to say that such students do not want to or can reach success). Therefore, from such perspective, Guggenheim’s premise seems counter intuitive to what most research suggests: that poverty (which includes having insurance), childhood illness and injury do affect school performance (Berliner, 2009). The film also takes the complete assumption that teachers in poverty stricken areas are to solely assume blame for school failures and that poverty alone is not a problem to be concerned about (Dutro, 2011).

            Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman does not include one successful public school, public school teacher or even an administrator. It fails to pinpoint the number of failing charter schools and does not include any teachers of administrators from any failing charter.  It also fails to explain that the CREDO studies have previously shown that only 17 percent of charter schools were superior to a matched traditional public school; 37 percent were worse than public schools; and the remaining 46 percent had academic gains no different from that of a similar public school (Ravitch, 2010). The documentary only focuses on an elite number of charter schools to establish its premise that charters are better than public school. Of course, this follows the argument that almost all public schools in the United States are falling our students or that they are in the edge of doing so. With that said, the focus on charter schools is blinded by the fact that they receive students from families that show a lot of interest and dedication, and that they must compete to enter into these school. It therefore is quite rational to deduce that such families are going to value an opportunity to be in such a school, therefore putting pressure on the students to perform. Nothing is said about the fact that these charter schools have the absolute right to kick out any student who does not perform well (something a public school can not legally ever do). Something not mentioned on the film was how charters are funded. As an example, one of the charter schools presented, The Harlem Children’s Zone, received up to 100 million dollars in funding from private sources, including the Bill Gates foundation (Dutro, 2011).  Therefore, all the charter schools presented were and are are not only well funded; are occupied of students who have families that support them; the schools have the right to choose and keep and kick out students registered though the “lottery”; but also these schools are capable of maintaining en environment and staff that are well encouraged to work with students who go to school with a positive attitude. How is this not a recipe for success?  We may ask. However, the reality of turning our countrywide school system into anything that resembles the successful charter school system is unreal and unsustainable, especially when we take into consideration the vast amount of problems and needs that children in urban, low income communities, face continuously.

            The film Waiting for Superman, makes many claims about the state of the U.S. education which are true and which certainly alarm people who are not aware that we face a major problem in rapid moving world of global competition. While it is true that we are lagging behind other nations, and that the United States is failing to address the issue in a comprehensible and systematic way, the film presents a number of answer or conclusions that are irrelevant, inconsistent and unrealistic. The film is based on a number of premises that are assumed, unsupported by research, and fail to give a reasonable solution to helping students who come from poor neighborhoods and who face real day to day economical, psychological and even family issues. The film instead relies on supporting the idea that by getting rid of the tenure process, firing the bottom 5-10 percent of ineffective teachers, opening up charter schools that use a private school model, and paying high achieving teachers more money will fix our school system. While it is clear that the documentary alters viewer emotions by presenting real life people whose lives are devoted to give their children a better future, it fails to give a real world and holistic solution to the many problems that we face today. It is therefore reasonable to say that the film is biased for the privatization of schools, and will fire up support from those individuals who believe that public school should be run and saved through a capitalistic, “corporate America” style that will keep it free from the monstrous Unions that are responsible for the failure of our children. 

Works Cited

Berliner, D. (2009). Policy and potential: Out-of-school factors and school success.    Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education 

                      Policy      Research Unit. Retrieved September 28, 2014           from
http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/poverty-and-potential.

Dutro, E. (2011) Review of waiting for superman. National education policy center.          University of Colorado. Retrieved September 28, 2014
                                                        http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-waiting-superman




Guggenheim, D., Kimball, B., Chilcott, L., Strickland, B., Canada, G., Rhee, M., Weingarten, R., ... Paramount Home Entertainment (Firm). (2011). Waiting

            for "Superman". Hollywood, Calif: Paramount Home Entertainment.




Ravitch, D. (2010). The Myth of Charter Schools. The New York Review of Books.          Retrieved September 28, 2014

http://216.78.200.159/RandD/Charter%20Schools/NAEP%20Flaws/Myth%20of%20Charter%20Schools%20-%20Ravitch.pdf

My Presentation on Vygotsky's Theories

You may click here to view full size

J. Lopez

9/11/14

EDPC 603

1st draft

One of the most fundamental human conditions is the subjectivity of our experiences and how those experiences hence shape our sense of the objective world and lead us to connect with it.  Therefore as a consequence we come to create our own own thoughts, opinions, evaluations and even techniques when it comes to how we deal with the world and our professions. These statements are certainly true in my experience as a human and as an educator, and thus have come to shape my views on teaching, my profession and education in general. With these beliefs in mind, I can define my educational philosophy to be that of pragmatic rationalist who lightly embraces idealist concepts. This is because I use the tools of reasons that I have gathered throughout my experiences and compliment them with a number of principles and premises that are often overlooked in a changing world consumed by high speed and productivity.

            In my four years of experience as an educator both in deprived city districts and now in communities moderate to affluent populations, I have come to learn students from very diverse populations. These students, regardless of their socio economic, religious and cultural standings, value and desire the same thing while at school: A good education and en environment that nurtures interests relevant to their lives.  While it is true that students from particular communities require different ways of learning and that resources may vary from place to place, It is the educator who is primarily in charge and capable to deliver the quality education regardless of circumstances. Therefore, the educator alone has the ability and the responsibility to create an environment that nurtures learning where and whenever he or she may be present. This I can attest to, and this I have been able to experience while working in various settings in New York.  As an educator, I have had the opportunity to establish a community of learners who have emerged creating a constant flow of ideas and excitement for the learning process.

Learning is a process that is multi-faceted and when different techniques are implemented, knowledge and higher order thinking will transpire.  Since every student single has the ability to learn, and every student has a particular way of learning, it is important for the educator to try various approaches to make the learning process accessible and successful for one and all.  As a rule of thumb, the implementation of various resources and differentiation should be at the core of every lesson to maintain student’s interest and thus engagement.  The most effective tool therefore has become the use of technological tools to enhance the learning experience and to make the job more effective for the instructor. Therefore, the reliance on new techniques, software and hardware has become more necessary and an obligation. It is therefore my conviction that an effective educator must be able to adopt and grow in this field.

 It is my belief that the instructor has the responsibility to involve students and to address their needs in ways that will engage them and challenge them. This therefore should be done through the evaluation of student’s intrinsic and extrinsic interest. What this means is that the educator must develop and provide opportunities for students to do general and individualized work, hence giving them the opportunity to work within their intrinsic motivators. Also, the use of technological resources such as video, images and audio equipment should be at the core of an effective teacher’s repertoire. It has been my experience that students of all backgrounds respond relatively well to work and assignments that are technology based.

Differentiated instruction will require the instructor to check for understanding and assessing students’ critical thinking skills through methods that are not conventional in an education domain that is currently focused on standardized tests. Therefore I must be able to incorporate new ways to truly assess student’s abilities in ways standard test fail. Students will be encouraged to work harder if they are given a choice and a decision on what they want to do, and what grad they would like to aim for. That is why I implement backward design in my planning, and use project based activities to evaluate students leaning thus truly genuinely assessing students learning and abilities.

            It is my conviction that every student can learn as long as they are in a place that harbors an atmosphere of trust, effort, and participation.  It is the responsibly of the instructor to motivate students and to get them interest in the learning process. Fortunately, methods for attainment success in the classroom have improved making it current educators additional effective with the use of technology and resources that are available nowadays in the most limited environments. My students therefore are assessed through methods that truly demonstrate their understanding and their abilities. As a motivated and optimistic educator, I try to stand as an example to my students by being a life learner who is motivated to improve my life and my students life. For this, I ensure to instill the importance of effort, individuality and self-expression through technology, literacy and arts.

Greetings!

My name is Jherlyn Lopez and I am currently in my first semester in NYIT. I am a Social Studies teacher, and I run our school's website (Subsite director), and I am  as well the the district's photographer.  Although history is what I graduated from, philosophy and fine arts have been my passion. When I am not traveling, I am enjoying life, gardening and spending time with my family.

The educator who has influenced me the most in life was my art teacher in High School. she introduced me to the world of art, and to many world wonders and dreams where I soon realized I was going to live. She inspired me like no one did and taught me that sharing is indeed caring. I owe much to her influence and hope to continue inspiring as she did.

       <Click here to view my dual language 6th grade Social Studies site>