Social Justice in the Classroom

                How can social injustices in our schools be improved? Teaching for Social Justice is defined as “an educational philosophy designed to promote socioeconomic equality in the learning environment and instill these values in students.” Public schools must provide necessary assistance for minority and low-income children. Students of all backgrounds should be gives the same chances and must be treated equally. There are several steps that we could take to boost student’s achievements like; open enrollment, empowerment schools, and banning school districts from using seniority to determine job situations. These are just a few of the steps that we could take to make our schools socially just.

          “The importance of a good education cannot be overemphasized.” There are several places all over the country that are providing social justice academics, which is great. It is important that we as teachers make sure that every student is given the same chances, that we must be patient, and show all students that they can do anything that they put their minds to.

2012 Election

As Election Day comes closer, we the voters must take a variety of things into consideration before making our final decisions on who we will vote for. We should reflect the debates, which were very important because we were able to see where each candidate stood when it came to certain topics. Education was a major topic that was discussed. I believe that is important to know where each of the candidates stands on this topic because education is so important.

Obama and Romney both want “greater scrutiny of teacher effectiveness. Both champion privately run, but publicly funded K-12 charter schools as well as higher academic standards. Both want more high school and college graduates and a more competitive workforce.” With all of these things aside there are some major differences in each of the candidates’ views on some other very important topics concerning education.

 Obama

-He has given states freedom from the sanctions of the No Child Left Behind education law

- Increased funding for Head Start, which is a 46-year-old federal early childhood education program and has pushed to reform it.

- He plans to expand the federal government’s role in granting college loans

- He wants to increase financial aid to community colleges

 Romney

 -Supports the Bush-era-law and wants to “reinvigorate” it

-Thinks that Head Start is more of a “social experience that is not preparing children for school.”

-Wants to refocus Pell Grant dollars on students who need them the most. This was taken that he was going to cut the program so that fewer students would be able to get a loan.

-Wants to reauthorize the education platform “A Chance for Every Child”

 Those are just a few of the differences that the two candidates feel about the topic of education. When it comes to voting for the Senator and Congress, each person will follow in their parties’ line. For example it Warren wins for Senate she will follow in what President Obama believes, and if Brown and Romney win then Brown will follow in what Romney believes. After hearing what each candidate had to say, on Friday the NEA had decided to endorse President Obama re-election bid.  The union’s president, Dennis Van Roekel said; “It is time to stand strong for what we believe in and what is right for students and families, schools and the nation. President Barack Obama has proven he deserves a second term.”

Election time can be a confusing and stressful time because we are trying to decide who will be the best person to be our President. It is hard to tell who is telling the truth and who is just telling us what we want to hear to get our vote. Our jobs are to take everything that is said into account and decide who we think will make the better president.

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How to Use Behaviorism in a Classroom?

Behaviorism was developed by John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. They said that “the core belief of behaviorism is that behavior is influenced by our environment and can be modified through conditioning and reinforcement.” They also said that behavior is something that is learned and it can be tweaked to make teaching and being in the classroom a positive experience and enjoyable place. Since the 1960’s behaviorism has played a major role in mainstream and special education classes. B.F. Skinner said that there are five ways to help students with their obstacles of learning.

1. Give the students immediate feedback.

2. Break down the task at hand into small steps.

3. Repeat the directions as many times as needed.

4. Work from the easiest task to the hardest.

5. Give positive reinforcement.

Skinner says that by following these guidelines teachers will be able to help their students to accomplish the work that must get done. If all teachers follow these rules then their students will be more confident and will feel successful in everything that they do. I completely agree with this method of teaching. I know that in my case when I get positive feedback from a teacher, or I do well on a test, that I feel amazing and that I am capable of doing anything. As teachers we must make sure that we are always giving our students positive feedback on the work that they are doing.  We must make sure that we explain things that a child is struggling with as many times as needed to ensure that we have successful students and a successful classroom.

 

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Inclusion in the classroom: Pro's and Con's

"Inclusion in education is an approach to educating students with special educational needs." These students with special needs spend the majority of their time with non-disabled students. There is a debate however, on whether inclusion in the classroom is a benefit to all of the students in a particular classroom, or if inclusion could potentially be a way of lowering the cost of education to students with special needs. I will go through some of the Pro’s and Con’s of inclusion in the classroom to figure out where I stand on this subject.


Pro’s:

- It is less expensive to include children with special needs into a regular classroom

- Special needs children learn how to better interact with other students

- Individual attention is provided to students with special needs

- Children without special needs get the chance to learn more about diversity and how to accept differences in people


Con’s

- The education of students without special needs could potentially suffer

- To become a teacher you would need more education to teach children with special needs

- Students with special needs may not get as much out of the work as if they were working one on one with a specialist because a teacher may be moving to quickly

- Inclusion is not always a guaranteed success


In my opinion I think that inclusion is a positive idea, and even though there are some con’s to this, I feel that the positives outweigh the negatives. I think that when becoming a teacher we should take a few extra courses that specialize in working with students who have special needs. By having inclusion classrooms, this gives the students who have special needs time to be around kids without a special need, which prepares these students for the real world. I think that there should be aids at hand to be able to further explain anything that is not understood or if explained to fast by the regular teacher. Of course there are some situations where seclusion is necessary for part of the day, but even with that said I feel that inclusion in the classroom is the best idea.
                                             
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Is Mainstreaming a good idea?

 

"Multicultural education encompasses theories and practices that strive to promote equitable access and rigorous academic achievement for students from all diverse groups, so that they can work toward social change." There are five approaches to multicultural education; Teaching The Exceptional and Culturally Different, Human Relations, Single-Group Studies, Multicultural Approach, and Education That is Multicultural and Social Reconstructionist. Each of these strategies are used by teachers to make the learning environment a more positive one for all students.

When it comes to Teaching the Culturally Different mainstreaming (p.52) is “an approach that attempts to assimilate students of different races, low-income students, and special education students into a single classroom, a sort of real-world approach." With this said do people think mainstreaming is a good idea? In certain cases I feel that is it a positive idea because the kids are allowed to see that everyone is different and this gives the students a chance to be able to accept all different backgrounds. In cases where immigrants are involved, these students do not use English as their first language which can create a problem in a regular classroom. For the kids who struggle with speaking English I feel that they should do all work in a separate room so that they are getting the specific help that they need in order to succeed. During lunch and recess all kids should be mainstreamed together, to get to know each other. In the case of special needs I feel that depending on the disability or emotional issue the child is having, mainstreaming is a good thing. At the school I am observing at for my field work they have separate classes for the kids with social and emotional issues. Some of these kids have severe issues and because of their regular outbursts they have to be in a different classroom. At different points throughout the day the kids are mainstreamed into the general education class, which gives them time to be around other kids and experience a different setting. I think this is something very positive. With these few examples of different situations I think that we can see that in certain settings mainstreaming is a good thing, but in some it is not the best for the student.

 

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Nutritious Lunches

 

 What can we do about the obesity problem that is occurring today? Children in America are becoming more and more overweight as the years go by, which puts them at risk for severe health problems. There has been an overwhelming concern about the obesity epidemic, so schools are taking measures into their own hands. Over the last few years congress has made sure that schools offer healthy choices for kids like vegies, whole grains, and non-fat or low-fat milk products.

  Since the 1970’s the percent of over overweight or obese children had increased significantly. According to our text book; the percentage of obese children in preschool has doubled, and tripled for children ages 6-11! The government has estimated that about 9 million kids six and over are obese. These numbers are very scary, considering what health risks come with being obese. Cardiovascular Disease, high cholesterol and blood pressure, and diabetes are just to name a few of the very serious diseases that can come with being obese.

  Recently the first lady, Michelle Obama announced that there will be “Less salt and fat. More whole grains, fruit, veggies, and low-fat dairy. This is what kids can expect in the school lunchrooms.” Obama went on to talk about the changes that will be made to the lunch menus. Pizza will still be a choice but it has to be accompanied by two servings of veggies. French fries have always been a staple of the school cafeteria lunch menu, and will continue to be, but they will have less salt on them. The USDA says that elementary school aged kids should been consuming between 550-60 calories at lunch, “which is about one-third of daily recommended calories.” The USDA also is trying to get schools to “partner with local farms” to serve more fresh fruits and veggies. I think that this is such a positive thing that is being done and it’s great that people are taking charge to help fix this serious problem.  It is our jobs as teachers to make sure we work with parents to help to change the eating habits children have to help guarantee a healthier future.

 

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Why Teach!?

Why do you want to become a teacher? No matter what profession someone decides to get into, one must ask them-selves, Why do I want to do this? In my own experience with trying to decide what I want to do for my career, I had to make a list of pros and cons for each potential possibility. At a certain point I wanted to explore the teaching field and did a lot of researching. I found there were a variety of wonderful aspects in teaching, and some not so fabulous things.

Some Positives:
- Always being able to communicate with people and there never being a dull moment because you are surrounded by so many children.
- The feeling of fulfillment because you are making such a huge impact on a classroom full of children. We as teachers will instill knowledge in our future students that they will take with them and have forever.
-This job is very rewarding because teachers have the ability to make their students feel special and help them to learn something new every day.
-We the teachers become more knowledgeable from everyday experiences in the classroom. “The more you teach others, the more you know afterwards". We learn from our students just like they learn from us!

Some Negatives:
-Teaching can cause a lot of stress. Working with people can always be difficult. When you are working with a class of 20 kids plus dealing parents there is bound to be conflicts which leads to stress.
-Teaching can be very tiring. Throughout each lesson/class teachers have to repeat themselves a lot which can get tedious. Teachers must have a lot of patience.
-A teacher’s salary may not be high enough for what you want to be making.

After reviewing some of the positives and negatives of being a teacher you must decide which outweighs the other. In my situation I decided teaching was not the route for me, not because of the stress, or because it can be tiring, or that the pay can be lower than wanted, but because the school setting just was not the right environment for me. I love working with children and I want to make a difference in their lives, just in a different way.

                                       Where I found my information