Learner Centered

This article focused on the idea of giving the students in your classroom so degree of responsibility in the classroom. The ideas provided included: giving them choices about different types of assessments, coming up with their own classroom rules, and allowing them options as to where they would like to work. By doing this, the teacher is giving the student some of the responsibility for their own learning practices; this idea is important because when students are involved more with decisions in their education, than it will give them ownership and responsibility and they tend to reach higher and farther because they WANT to. Another important piece of this article is the idea that the students in turn must accept the consequences of their actions and the decisions that they make.

I think that the idea of a learner-centered classroom is very important; a lot of these ideas are things that I had already thought of, but I didn't realize that this was a specific "type" of classroom environment. I think that it will be very effective and will prevent a lot of problems and lack of motivation.

Abstract and reflection on how philosophies of education will impact classrooms

My philosophy of education is a mix of a couple of different schools of thought. I agree with the humanist view, that instructional content should be based on the students abilities, interests, and needs. Humanists view education as being important to not force students to learn, and they encourage students to make their own choices about their own individual learning.

I also agree with the Progressivism view. This philosophy believes that learning occurs through various questioning and experimentation by the individual learner. This view also values experience as the basis for all knowledge. Progressivism viewers believe that schools should prepare students for change, focusing on how to think instead of what to think.

I think that my personal philosophy on education would also be closely aligned with existentialism. What I like about this philosophy is that the students learn to take responsibility for their actions, as well as the results. I believe that this is especially useful in the realm of social sciences, where we learn why people act the way they do, and why the world is the way that it is. Purpose and different people's ideas create the much diversities that are found in the world; when the students create their own personal views on the world, they can apply those views to other situations as well.

My philosophy of education will impact my classroom in several different areas. In classroom organization, I think that the class will work best when they learn from each other, and this could include a lot of group work as well as learning through different activities and presentations. I think that the students should be able to experiment with different ideas without having to worry about being made fun of or other peers thinking that they are stupid.

For motivating my students, I feel that students should have input into what the curriculum is so that they have an interest in their learning. By teaching students what they are interested in and what they want to learn about (such as current events and things that are happening in their lives in the area of Social Science) than students will be motivated to learn and will be more apt to do the work.

Discipline presents a separate sort of challenge as a teacher. In aligning with my educational philosophy, I believe that the students should have a say in what the discipline structure of the classroom is. I think that it would be a good idea for the entire class to come up with a list of classroom rules and regulations on the first day so that it is a team effort rather than me seeming like I am the only one deciding what the rules are. I also believe that their should be a system of rewards and consequences, with the consequence being the reward being taken away.

Assessment aligns with motivation. Students should be able to decide from a variety of different types of assessments, from a list that they can choose their own learning style or educational preference from. While the amount of effort and knowledge for each project needs to be equal, the presentation and method of the assessment should be up for the student to decide. When the student has a say in the type of assessment they want to do, then the student will be more willing to do it, and will probably learn more from it.

Classroom climate aligns a lot with my view of classroom organization. I hope that the climate of my classroom is very democratic, with me not being the one to delegate all of the knowledge to let them sort through. I also feel that students should be able to learn from each other, through group activities and presentation. I want my classroom climate to be warm and accepting to new ideas, thought and the different diversities of every student background that is present in the classroom. By learning from each other, different experiences can be related to and other people can learn from other people's experiences.

Learning focus should concentrate on stuff that is relevant to the student's lives, and should be individualized to meet each students' interests. I think that in the area of social science, this may be easier to do than in other subjects. I think that learning can involve relevant stuff, such as the important ideas behind being a citizen of the United States and understanding how their government works and why the United States does the things that it does.

Teacher styles should involve a variety of different instructional methods in order to reach a variety of different learning styles. I think that teachers should incorportate as many of the different learning styles as they can into each lesson, including artistic, musical, spatial, kinestethic, lingual or math-based. Teachers should try to interest the students through a variety of different ways, and by having the students experience what they are learning about.

Leadership styles should be more democratic than authoritarian. Superintendents and other school leaders should get as much input from everyone in the school (including the students) to make decisions. There is no reason why the students shouldn't have a say in what rules and policies are adopted by school leaders.

Alternative Schools

The first part of this presentation was on charter schools. Charter schools are innovative and "outside-of-the-box" teaching that usually centers around some type of theme or program, such as performing arts or math and sciences. It was very interesting going onto the different charter school websites and looking at the different information. I think that it would be interesting to teach at a charter school, and I really like the idea that students are the center of educational structuring and that there are less students per teacher than a normal public school; less student numbers allows for complete student-centered approaches toward topics, and the faculty being able to do things that might not be able to get done in a public school. I could see there being funding issues as well as difficulties in students transferring or moving to other school districts from one of these schools.

Another type of alternative school is religious schools. This was much more common in the early part of the 1900's, when religion was a steadfast part of education and was a vital part of the curriculum. One religious school in Maine is Catherine McAuley High School, which is a Catholic school.

Another type of alternative schools are Expeditionary Learning Schools- Outward Bound. These schools focus on smaller school settings, goal setting, and looping in grades 9 and 10. One of these schools is Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine.

Another school that Katie Rose talked about was the Summer Hill school, which is an independent holistic private boarding school in England. Basically, it is a completely democratic society where the students are allowed to do how they choose and be completely free as long as their actions do not harm anyone else's rights. They have laws that protect the rights of the other people around them; they are not even required to attend lessons. The students who graduated from the school are usually very independent and free thinking.

Discipline

This educational issue was on discipline. There are several different types of discipline strategies. Assertive Discipline is the most common form of discipline in public schools today.This strategy is based on a set of teacher made rules and standards and the teacher is in complete control. Teacher Effectiveness Training distinguishes between teacher-owned and student-owned problems, and can often play a huge role in the effectiveness of the teacher's discipline strategies. I liked the idea of Student Team Learning, which focuses more on instructional rather than disciplinary strategies. Good discipline skills involve having a classroom where students remain on task, behave responsibly, and show good human relations. One interesting piece of this issue was that Corporal Punishment is still legal in twenty-one states.