"Educational Foundations" by Alan S. Canestrari and Bruce A. Marlowe Chapters 21, 22, and 23

Chapter 21 Page 198

“The message appears to be that teachers do not count when it comes to critically examining the nature and process of educational reform.”

Teachers should be number one when it comes to educational reform.  I feel as though they should have most of the say because they are the ones actually teaching the children and have to deal with all the standards, rules, and regulations the administration throws on them.  They know how their students learn the best, not the CEOs.  Why aren’t they able to have a say in anything and when they are, they’re being pushed under the bus?  Is it because everyone’s afraid to hear the truth?  Teachers have been to college and were educated to become a teacher and even go back to school to further their education.  Why “not count” the only people that know most about education and have experienced everything talked about first hand?

Chapter 21 Page 203

“With this perspective in mind, I want to conclude that teachers should become transformative intellectuals if they are to subscribe to a view of pedagogy that believes in educating students to be active, critical citizens.”

Teachers should want their students to be involved in something more than reading, writing, and math.  They should take what the students need to learn in class and turn it into something more.  In her book “Black Ant and Buddhists” Mary Cowhey, a transformative teacher, talks about how her first grade class had made pies to bring to a homeless shelter for Thanksgiving.  The day the students were going to bring the homeless shelter the pies, it snowed outside and school was canceled.  Mary Cowhey didn’t think much of it because it was snowing out, what could she do, force her 6 year old students outside on a snow day to deliver pies?  Lo and behold, the first graders themselves forced their parents to call Mary Cowhey because they really, really wanted to deliver these pies to the homeless shelter regardless of the snow day.  It’s just amazing to me that Mary Cowhey had made such an impact to her students that they still were determined to deliver those pies!  Can you imagine what our schools would look like if every classroom in our nation had the same type of inspiration?

Chapter 22 Page 206

“The culture of privacy has been ripped apart—for reasons both good and bad.  Thus, the kind of quiet, behind-closed-doors resistance that flourished during my earliest years is more problematic.  Today, the standardized curriculums and lesson plans which were always part of the traditional public schools—even when ignored—are being republished and reissued, in even greater detail.  The old regime has been reinstalled, plus.”

When you watch movies or television shows, it seems that teachers in the classroom play the game by their own rules, they get to call their own shots.  In reality, it’s not quite like that at all.  Teachers seem to have very little privacy in their classroom, especially with others coming in to constantly observe even how they teach their lessons.  It can be both stressful and time consuming, thinking of that “perfect” lesson for one’s observation, and that’s if the observation is planned and not a surprise one!  It seems like teachers are constantly being judged and practically having to always walk on their tip toes.  I’m sure there are many pros and cons to having more privacy in a classroom as well as there are many pros and cons to the way things are today.  Can you imagine how you would run your classroom today if the rules and regulations were the same as many years ago?

Chapter 22 Page 206

“In Head Start I was told teaching the names of numbers, letters, and colors was what we’d be tested on in June; but I figured if we did modestly well at that I could spend 90 percent of my time exploring more important stuff like the properties of real life.”

It seems that there are quite a few teachers out there that simply teach what’s going to be tested and nothing more.  There is so much more to learn in school than just what’s going to be on the test.  A teacher should want to go above and beyond to teach more than what’s going to be on the test because they know that these students will need more than that in life.  Children will even learn the material they need to know for the test better when it’s connected with important real life situations.  Would you rather sit in a classroom to constantly go over color names or would you want to actually do something with those colors, explore them, and make something?  Wouldn’t you want to take those colors and turn them into something huge, a better learning experience for the classroom?

Chapter 23 Page 210

“He sent Jenni to the library for a day so he could “teach” the students the necessary information to pass the test—information he was sure they had missed because they had not been involved in the traditional rote/recovery mode of instruction and evaluation.”

These students, for the past 4 weeks, were practically living in the time period where the Civil War had occurred thanks to their student teacher.  The students were unsure of their student teacher’s tactics at first because they had never done anything of the sort before, but they exceeded both their own and her expectations.   Yet, the actual classroom teacher wasn’t convinced that they learned anything great enough for the test at least so he took it upon himself to “teach” what she had missed.  This teacher, John, didn’t even give Jenni, the student teacher, a chance.  He’s so caught up in his ways of teaching that he can’t see any other way but his own.  Teaching has changed a lot from the early years until today both with how teachers are being trained and the school systems themselves.  Teachers who have been teaching for quite some time should be reintroduced to some things and take classes to see what’s new and proof that the “what’s new” actually works.  Do you think that even with proof, these teachers will change their minds on their teaching ways?

Chapter 23 Page 211

“Without thinking teachers, we do not have thinking schools.  Without thinking schools, we do not have thinking students or future citizens who can think.”

Teachers need to be able to think for themselves.  They should know what mandates they believe in for a classroom and be able to express that in the classroom.  They shouldn’t need to lean on the higher powers for support, they should lean on themselves.  They need to be able to think and know what thinking is because if they can’t, how will their students think?  Going above and beyond is hard work, yes, but if you’re not willing to do it, then why be a teacher?