final blog

What I found most significant from this course is that students have many alternative ways of learning. Just because a student does not do well on writting tests it does not make them stupid. The purpose of school for today’s students is no longer focused solely towards testing and ranking students on written work and tests, but to apply real life settings into student’s lives in order to improve their future lives. The goal of education is not to have students just be book smart by showing they can read and retain information and do well on a written test. Today’s students are motivated by a different force and that drive is to do well in life and earn a comfortable wage that can support themselves and one day a family. Young students are driven by what interests them but it is important for students to feel a sense of accomplishment and to feel good about themselve. This was a fun class and changed some of my previous views of education.

Education is a pyramid

Education is like building a pyramid. The most important part of a pyramid is the foundation. Without a foundation there is nothing for the pyramid to build up on. With education it is important that while students are young and new into school to be educated with a solid foundation. Creativity, social skills, basic reading, writing and arithimatic skills. These are the skills that give us as students and as educators the base to build up on. Students cannot be taught learning the upper parts of the pyramid they must first learn the basics which would be the bottom of the pyramid then as more knowledge is gained more can be added to the top of the pyramid. Learning is a step by step process just like building a pyramid, you start at the bottom and work your way to the top. At the end of the process you have a glorious pyramid but the end of the education process you would form a knowledgable and indepent student.

Religion in Public Schools

Our belief system in the United States is that parents are the ones who should guide their child into what religion, if any they want them exposed to. Public schools must be careful not to lead in anyone direction when religion comes up. Manadatory prayer, Bible readings or other religous activities supported by public schools are fundamental violations of the right of conscience. Public school students have the right to pray in their own fashion as long as its not disruptive. Schools may teach about religion as a part of objective instruction but public schools must not sponsor religious worship. These jobs belong to Americas houses of worship (churches, temples, etc.)

Religion is not to be taught in the United States but it can be referenced in a lesson plan. The key that schools must remain nuetral and not promote one religion or belief over another. Public schools are not permitted to worship, but that does not mean that the schools must be a religion free zone. Groups have broke out and campaigns have begun to try to reverse the boards nationwide pushing to change the carriculum in favor of religious doctrines. Battles have been going on over the nation. Advocates of creationism are amongst the most active in this area. Religious Right organizations, are seeking to drive evolution out of the classroom and replace it with their interpretations of the Bible. Should be interesting to see what the next move is but I think that religion should remain as a lesson reference in order not to object any belief system.

Vocational-Technical Schools

I like the idea of vocational technical schools because it teaches skills to prepare training for specific trades and technical employment. Vocational schools are ideal for students who want to immediately join the work force out of high school. Vocational classes teach technical skills the help to prepare students to get job training for either a specific job or technical employment. Here students are not grouped based on performance. Some schools have even chose to drop the Vocational in the name and replace it with technical.

These classes use to be offered in regular high schools but abolished years ago. Then for some time there was a program where students from my high school could take acouple of vocational classes but even this program was dropped. I think the idea of vocational schools should be spread and used in all schools. Learning technical skills allows a new method of learning and a new set of skills. Having these courses could potentially inspire a student towards a particular career path. These are skilled being learned that could also be used in everyday life. Imagine having your car die on the side of the road and having the ability to make it run long enough to make it to a gas station. Or having a plumbing problem that you could have a do it yourself fix or simply cooking dinner at night for yourself or a family. I feel like students now days are missing out on these resourceful skills.

In 1983, a jewish family escaped capture from the Nazi's and fled Germany with their first son Eric; who later passed in a sleigh accident shortly before Howards birth. While Gardener grew up neither of these events were discussed, but was the reason why Howard was never allowed to participate in sports and physical activities, which drove Howard to the books. Howard began as a student at Harvard in 1961. At the time he was studying history but with some influence he changed his major to social relations and again to focus on cognitive psychology. He went on to complete his PHD and continued working at Harvard. Which is where he began to work on his "Project Zero" which focused on the study of artistic thought and creativity in the arts, along with humanistic and scientific disciplines.

Howard believed that there were multiple intelligences for different types of people. Gardner believed that in each individual person the lied various levels of intelligence making each person unigue. Gardners the intelligences he observed were linguistic, logic-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Gardners theory is that intelligence does not sufficiently cover the wide variety of human abilities. Gardners belief basically says that one student may be good at spelling another good at multiplication, this does not make one student smarter than the other. This theory considers one student strong in one area and another students strength lies in another area. I think Gardners beliefs stand for an equal opportunity for all students to express who they are and what they are good at.

Social justice is about being a good citizen. Everybody deserves a fair chance and belong as an active member of a caring and learning community. Social justice education pays attention to the resources that individuals, families, and communities are based on. Social Justice is an active and caring learning community. Students learn to solve and resolve, collaborate and create, develop their intellectual and social skills to become engaged memebers of thier communities. It is important to honor students heritage and values. There are several different hertiages that all deserve to be repsected. I spoke with a European woman today who said her kids were not adapting well to the new environment. She had a very poor attitude about things her and just called people stuck up. her problem was she refused to accept the new culture and could not adapt to fit it to her lifestyle. It is important for teachers to encourage the participation of all students and not to be judgemental of their views. It is important to honor and respect differences just because you may not agree with a certain point does not mean it should be shot down. Students should feel confident to be able to address issues that affect their lives. Teachers need to help connect their desired with hope and possibility. Students should be able to rely on teachers for emotional and academic support. Its important for students to understand they need to further educate themselves to be successful, they should not be afraid to continue with education. School now puts an emphasis on developing critical thinking using instruction and inquiry. Students must be able to understand how to go about asking questions and examine real life problems. Students must begin at a young age to learn to consider solutions that are practical. This gives students a sense of pride and power. Social Justice guides students toward a sense of power and personal discovery to make changes for themselves and their futures, in the world in which they live.

What alternative sports programs are there for students with disabilities?

The development of fundamental movement and sports skills are just as important to children with disabilities as to ones without them. As the fundamental movement skills develop they form a base for more complex skills that children may or may not be able to use in recreational activities and daily living. Students with disabilities and poorly developed motor skills often cannot participate in physical activities. Some are by choice, others are excluded by their peers, but most lack the capability of being able to function properly physically and mentally. This inactivity can negatively affect a developing child in several ways, especially their physical health. Children with disabilities rarely get the opportunity to get out and get some exercise.
As a requirement senior year of high school I needed to complete forty-eight hours of community service to be eligible graduate. This is how came across becoming an involved volunteer for the Special Olympics Golf Program. Two days a week I met with a group of volunteers at Mt Hood golf course in Melrose. We worked with and guided a group of roughly fifteen to twenty athletes on a weekly basis. We started off each day showing them how to stretch out properly and then gradually moved into teaching basic golf skills. At the end of the summer their hard work paid off, Mt Hood hosts an annual Special Olympics Golf Tournament with an award ceremony and banquet afterwards, several other groups in surrounding areas all come together to participate in the tournament.

The Special Olympics did more than just get me my community service to graduate but it showed me the importance of giving people with disabilities the chance to be part of an organized physical activity. It was also crucial to their health that they got out and able to get some exercise, these are athletes that without this program would not get the opportunity to be part of organized sports events or pretty much any type of physical exercise. These athletes had desires to be able to be involved in something where they did not feel like an outsider. Twice a week these athletes would look forward to coming to their golf lessons, you may think some of them cannot comprehend and take it all in but the warm greetings and eager smiles showed their excitement to be apart of something. It was important that they got these couple hours a week to be involved in an organized activity where they felt like they belonged and did not feel like an outsider. This gave them a regular activity that they were a part of and it was rewarding to be there to guide them along the way. I feel like schools all over should support organizations like the Special Olympics. This would encourage people with disabilities to be able to compete and enjoy themselves in something fun, that’s considered a normal activity, that otherwise they would not of be able to be a part of. The exercise and feeling of involvement allows these kids to forget about their disabilities even if it’s just for a second and get out and enjoy some physical activity. It is a great opportunity for a disabled person to get a chance to participate in an organized program such as this something that they would other wise not get a chance to be a part of.

http://www.specialolympicsma.org/north/local_programs.htm