Diversity in Schools

Today the group that I was in had a few discussions that really got me thinking.  We talked a lot about diversity in race and socioeconomic status.  We also talked about private vs. public schools and how we found that in certain areas, the wealthier parents will send their children to private schools to avoid the diversity that exists in the public schools.  During these discussions, I was particularly interested in a conversation about the cost of college tuition.  We talked about how it is unfair in our country that a higher education is so expensive and there are many people who are unable to afford this opportunity.  Yes, there are loans to take out, but people know that they will be paying these back for many years after college and this could be discouraging for them to want to go when they could start working and making money after high school.  Also, some people whose family does not have much money, can not find a cosigner to be approved for them to take out loans.  Then, we talked about how many times people in other countries are able to go to college for free since they encourage everyone to go and they want everyone to have an equal chance.  It is so important to have a minimum of a Bachelor's degree now so I think that with such a high amount of people attending college, the cost should be much lower.  I know that there are many other factors that go into this, but I really do think it is sad that so many people do not get the opportunity to go to college due to the high tuition rates.  We also touched on that many people are just born into a certain lifestyle, whether it be upper/middle/lower class.  I think it just bothers me that there are some people who do not value all that they have or have been given when there are so many people who work so hard and never even get close to what they have.  I would consider myself neither rich nor poor, but I have seen both very deserving lower class people and ungrateful upper class people.  I know that this is something that will always exist but this is what was on my mind after our discussion today.


Since I mostly talked about diversity in SES, I decided to think about this aspect as a future teacher.  I went to a school where I really did not see much poverty, but I realize that I will definitely encounter this in my career.  In our group, we talked a lot about how everyone has certain biases and prejudices, but we must not ever let them be seen in our classrooms.  It is most important as a teacher to treat everyone equally and make everyone feel comfortable and safe at school.  I feel that if I notice students who are not as fortunate as others, that I would want to encourage them even more and to really be there for them.  I know it cannot be easy to pay attention in school when there is so many other problems going on in their lives, but this just means that we need to be ready to face these issues as a teacher and to be aware of our student's backgrounds so that we can keep them on track and not let them give up on education.

Debates vs. Arguments (Writing Circle Reflection 1)

Today in my group's writing circle, we discussed everyone's blogs and critiqued them, but we also got into a few other discussions.  I feel that because my post was not much of an opinion on a topic, but rather just stating my reasons to become a teacher and why I chose the prop that I had for class last week, I did not receive many critiques.  Rather, people basically said that they enjoyed reading it and then everyone shared a brief summary of why they had decided to become teachers themselves.  Courtney had also mentioned that she liked the perspective that I had on math and how there are often more than one way to solve math problems.  I decided that I will need to come up with some deeper thoughts for my next blog so that it can create more of a discussion in my writing circle that it had today. 

Since this was about all of the feedback that I received today, I decided to talk a little about one of the discussions that we had during our writing circle today.  One discussion that we had came from Courtney's blog that had to do with two opposing parties and an argument that she had experienced personally.  During this conversation, we talked about the differences between and argument, in which people are fighting and not respecting one another's feelings, and a debate, in which people choose a side but are more respectful of one another.  I thought that this was an important discussion since people often get carried away with their side of a situation and forget to consider the other person's rights to have their own veiwpoint.  This is an important aspect in this class and is an important concept to be aware of in any situation.  As we talked about this, I reflected on times where I have been in a debate and tiems when I had been in an argument.  I realized as I thought about this that all of my memories of arguments gave me a bad feeling.  From this discussion, I decided that I will be more thoughtful about where other's may be coming from when I do not agree with what they are saying. 

Reasons for Teaching

Today I am going to focus my blog on the reasons that I have decided to teach.  Although I found today's readings and class discussions to be interesting, I found that I related more to the readings from "Educational Foundations" that we had for Thursday last week.  As I read the experiences that other teachers had with the students in their classroom, it got me thinking a lot about why I chose this career and why I think that it is the best fit for me.   The “Death at an Early Age” section of the reading really stood out to me as I thought about the type of teacher I want to be.  It angered me to read about the art teacher who treated Steven so poorly and made me question why someone like this would ever want to become a teacher in the first place.  This idea led me to think about my own experiences and it was also what helped me decide what to choose for a prop.  When I was just beginning school, I remember doing well in all of the subjects except math.  I really struggled with my basic math facts and disliked that math was all about numbers.  The teacher I had for kindergarten was a tough, unsympathetic woman that seemed to be the opposite of what you would expect for a kindergarten teacher.  As I grew up and had some of the best teachers in math, I realized that I was actually pretty good at it and really enjoyed solving the problems.  This was why I chose a calculator as my prop.  It is funny now to think that the subject I once despised is now the subject that I will be teaching my future students.   I think another reason why I liked math so much as I was growing up was because there was always more than one way to solve a problem in math, even if you were told to do it a certain way.   This tied into my group’s discussion today about the common system of education.  We talked about how education is often focused on what to learn rather than how to learn.  I think it is very important that students learn to think for themselves and I believe that it should be completely acceptable if a child solves the problem a different way than is asked of them in class.

Web Log 1

WebLog 1: CLASS SURVEY
Personal information
1. Jenna Rezac, Strongsville,OH, jrezac15@jcu.edu
2. Jenna
3. middle childhood math/science
undergraduate degree:human development and family science 
4. I enjoy spending time with my family, boyfriend, and friends.  I like hanging out at my pool in the summer with friends.  I also enjoy going to concerts and Cleveland sports events in my free time.
Learning Style and more:
5. For me to feel comfortable taking intellectual and creative risks in a classroom, I would need to feel like people are respecting my opinions even if theirs are different. I would need to feel comfortable with the students and teacher in the classroom.  I would hope that if someone were to disagree with my any of my points, that they would do it in a respectful way.
6. I am always prepared for class by doing any papers, homework, or projects that were assigned. I make sure to attend class unless I have a valid excuse. I participate in class when I have something that I believe will make a contribution to the discussion. I learn well by working in groups or by doing activities that go along with the material.  If I am having trouble understanding something, I make sure to keep trying until I get it. Many times, I will also ask someone who does understand for help.
7.I learn best by working with others.  I get easily distracted when a teacher just lectures the whole class.
Education Past and Present
8. A memory that I have as a student is about a teacher that I had in elementary school.  This teacher was always my favorite and was extremely helpful whenever I struggled with anything. This teacher influenced me to become a teacher myself so that I could be a positive role model for my future students.  Another memory I have is about a professor that I had in college.  This professor only read the powerpoints and did not interact with the class.  I could not focus with this type of teaching and had to spend time out of class teaching myself the material.  This experience encouraged me to always have activities and other interesting ways to teach in my classroom.
9. Some issues that affect me as a future teacher are the lack of jobs or the difficulty of finding a job, the lack of resources in some schools, and the negative attitude that many people have towards teachers. Another issue that is often talked about in class, is that of standardized testing. 
10. 1) group projects and activities  2)important topics for all teachers (teaching styles, history of teaching, etc.) 3) friendly and respectful to one another 4)busy work that is not useful and very time consuming
About Dr. Shutkin:11. What do you think is the most important thing for us to get out of the class?