Amy's 3rd week blog

I liked Nora Fleming's "Beyond School" blog through blogs.edweek.org.  Her blog provides statistics and other information about current school programs being funded from various sponsors.  Fleming writes about how much funding is being supplied for things like "Think Together" and "At Higher Achievement" and how these programs seem to be working. I like how she gives this information and her knowledge of education in a precise, logical manner without being too dry to her readers.  She also supplies many other links to other reports in her blogs which I found to be helpful.  Her blog might be a positive source for professional connections in one's teaching career. 
I think it is important to include positive information when it comes to national education because most of the statistics can be so disheartening.  Matt Miller's article, "First, Kill All the School Boards," was full of sad but true statistics about American schooling and funding for education.  He writes, "Half of black and latino students in the U.S. don't graduate on time (or ever) from high school."  That right there was enough to bum me out for the rest of my own school year. But also enough for me to want to be a part of a system that can change that.  Miller knows that eliminating school boards would be beneficial but difficult since "...school boards are in effect, accountable to no one" but at "we can at least limit their role."  He suggests that the U.S. have one set of national standards which I can agree with for progress purposes.  If each state has different standards, how are we to gauge educational progress as a whole country? His 'solutions' or starts to sollutions have merit and are not unfathomable.  They just demand a lot of hard work with changing an entire system ( that clearly is not working to its full potential).  Fleming's blog and Miller's article, amongst other things, made me realize that I am politically UNaware and need to educate myself more on these national issues.  I fully intend on doing so, by the way, fellow bloggers.            

Amy's 2nd blog

My personal philosophies come from my past, and from all that I've been through and experienced. I believe people are inherently good. I believe there is more good in this world than evil.  I'm thankful for the upbringing I've had. Therefore, I am excited to teach in a way that reflects this. The golden rule has never escaped me, no matter what life has presented to me-which has not always been sunshine and lolly pops. That being said, my philosophy of education is evolving.  I see it now in its early development stage. I expect it to change with the more I learn and the more experiences I gain.  I've never written a personal philosophy of education before. I grew up in a small town. Went to college in a huge and diverse city.  I never had to think about teaching mulitculturally until I became involved as a tutor at the literary services of Wisconsin.  I taught English as a second language to primarily native Spanish speakers.  I used the first 15 minutes of each session as a get-to-know-you conversation.  It allowed me and the student to relax, get acquainted, and grasp where our language skills were at.  Difference is apparent and instead of ignoring it, it should be embraced and addressed in an open way.  It can be terrifying.  I know I was incredibly intimidated with my limited amount of Spanish speaking skills but I moved forward.  I was honest about my skill level and the students were honest if they understood me or not.  If not, I took another approach.  Those tutoring sessions were incredibly challenging but so rewarding because I felt like they operated solely on respect.
I liked how in Perkin's and Gomez's article and through "Linnea's story", she explains how she tried to take a 'colorblind approach to instruction,' but then went on to say how this created more tensions within her classroom.  It also hindered her performace as a teacher and almost ruined her relationship with her student, Plumer.  Instead of accepting her inexperience within a diverse setting, she feared to address it in a positive way.  This story's honesty acknowledges the importance of how knowing one's self is vital to one's career, especially as a teacher.
I believe teaching is situational.  Many believe they are to teach to a class as a whole.  The students are individuals which as teachers I believe are not to lose sight of. Getting to know these individuals is key to know who you are dealing with and how to get your point across. A good teacher was always someone who made me feel like I mattered as an individual and whom expressed care as to whether I grasped the content presented to me.
I believe education should be built on interest. And I know that it helps when teaching that we're interested to. While tutoring, I would ask students what they wanted to work on for that session. I understand that most teachers don't have this kind of freedom for their classrooms but even asking them and giving them a choice, relieves tension. I believe education and teaching are about respect; respect for one's self and others' ability. Education is at the same time, a personal experience.  There is sense of ownership to it which is important because it's linked with self pride.     
    If I tie myself to beliefs that i deem positive, and project them to students, I won't fail myself.  For example, I believe reading to children is positive and beneficial to their development. It was my favorite thing when I was little so is there projection here, yes, but to a beneficial point.  Can we argue that in this example, there is harm or ill intent even if it stems from my personal experiences?  How else do we grow as individuals if not from learning from experience?  Acknowledging inexperience, fears within, strengths, weaknesses, differences makes for a solid base of furthering education and exploring openness to change for one's philosophy of such. 

Educators were those who instilled a desire within me to learn. This is not an easy task and even at a young age, i appreciated this more than other things from my teachers. I'm trying to decide whether it was a fear of failing or an actual desire to be smarter that was my main motivation as a young learner.  Perhaps it was both.  Before I realized this truth and knew it as such, my very first teachers were my parents. My first school was my home.  Home life to me was what was real and school was this other thing- this pretend place i had to go to, get through, and someday, I would be gone from.  I loved learning new things but did not enjoy the act of sitting in class for eight hours a day.I believe school is not for the right place for everyone but I also believe it is such an important part of life and growing as a person.  It wasn't until after high school that i started getting into the whole school thing.  College prepared me to excel in my pursuit of knowledge within a subject that I loved.  When I was dictating my class schedule, paying for it on my own, learning what I wanted to learn, and studying what interested me, then my education became my own-something that I felt I was in charge of and belonged to me personally.  Because of these emotions, I felt like a better student because I knew how hard I was trying to succeed.  My college years helped me to appreciate all the 'hard teachers' that I had in high school because I realized they helped to prepare me for 'the real world'. I have come to realize that there is so much more to the term, the definition, and the reality of education itself than preparation, although i believe that has a part to play. Interaction and socialization (from birth on) are also important factors into how one learns and grows. John Dewey's article expressed such emphasis on school as a social institution which I can agree with. School becomes a home away from home, so to speak.  It is where we form friendships and learn how to work with others that are so different from ourselves with such different backgrounds- it helps to gain perspective and think outside of our individual situations.  I will strive, as a teacher, to help students learn to accept and appreciate others' differences and hopefully through this hope, guide them in a way to trust themselves and take ownership of all they want out of their education.