Chapter 15

Chapter 15:
What does it mean to be a professional?
A profession renders a unique, definite, and essential service to society. It relies on intellectual skills in the performance of its service. It entails along period of specialized training. Enjoys of considerable degree of autonomy and decision making authority. A profession requires its members to accept personal responsibility for their actions and decisions. A profession has a code of ethics that sets out the acceptable standards of conducts for its own members.
There are three levels of teachers professionalism:
1. Imitative- Maintenance teacher. 2. Meditative Teacher. 3. Generative-Creative Teacher.
Two Associations" NBPTS and NEA. The NBPTS has been working to recognize and provide greater support to superior teacher, those on level three.
Five Characteristics of NBPTS:
-They support experience teachers, teachers with a baccalaureate or advance degree.
-“Taking the boards” is completely voluntary.
-"Taking the boards” involves submitting oneself to a set of examinations and assessments in particular areas or subject matters .
-These assessments are not typical paper-and-pencil tests.
-Primary control of the NBPTS is in the hands of a sixty-three-person board of directors.
The NEA.
 Their goal has been to "elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching and to promote the cause of education in the United States".  It was established in 1994, it has become the largest nonunion teacher association in the United States leads a coalition of 300,000 teachers in all fifty states.

Chapter 14: What can the new teacher expect?

A new teacher thinks that teaching would not be a shock because school is a familiar setting. However, it is different to be a student that to be a teacher. Now the teacher have to develop lesson plans and manage the classroom. Some teachers experience the same stress that someone that move to a different culture would experience. The first year of a new teacher is critical because due to cultural shock and disappointment a large number of teachers leave the profession. It is important to understand that as a new teacher there is a lot to learn and should reach to other teachers for mentoring. These teachers went through the same feelings that you are feeling now. Principals and administrators will also help the new teacher succeed.
Teachers needs to keep some distance between them and the students. They are students and not friends.
The relationship between parents and the teacher is very important. They need to work together to help the student succeed in school.
New teachers will get evaluations throughout the year, and the new teacher needs to take this evaluations seriously and improve in the items that are point out as a weakness.
Finally,  new teachers needs to take care of their health. Stress will make their defenses go down and that will make them sick.   

Chapter 13: What are your job options in education?

          There is a demand for teachers all over of the United States. As a new teacher there is always a concern about getting a job after graduation. I am optimist that I will find a job as a teacher, however, I need to be prepare to a possible relocation because sometimes the demand is not in the same town or even in the same state. The good news is the projection of teachers retiring in the next few years. The bad news is that too many teachers leave the profession because of bad working conditions, lack of mentoring and unhappiness with the school environment. 
          Pay has always been a concern for someone wanting to enter the education field and it was known that if you wanted to teach it is because your love for your job not the monetary compensation.
          This chapter will help me to get organized and prepare materials to obtain a teaching position. Also in this chapter is discussed what other jobs can a teacher obtain outside of education.Our skills, such as planning and decision making, working under pressure and conducting performance evaluations, make some employers eager to hire us and joint their team.

Chapter 12: Educational Reform

I like the example in the book where about the captain that hears that an iceberg is ahead and he needs to decide when to turn the wheel, and how American schools have heard the message about reform and they are beginning to turn the wheel to change the course. Teachers used to teach students to raise their self-esteem and to subject matter, now with the competency tests, teachers are teaching to the test and they are under stress to meet the goal.
We should emphasize the performance assessment to assess the student knowledge and critical thinking and mix it up with multiple-choice. In 2002, the No Child Left Behind was signed to revised elementary and secondary education and the main goal is to close the gap between students who perform well and student who do not. Some educators show enthusiasm towards the program because it provides extra funding for school districts with poor children, others are critic of it because of several issues, such as an unrealistic goal of 100%  achievement by 2013-14.
There is no doubt that teachers have to be front and center to any academic reform. There are high expectation on teachers and their performance. There are teachers competency testing to assess the teacher's knowledge. Teacher have to have an incentive for being a teacher and in recent years there have been an increase in salary and an initiative for career ladders without leaving the classrooms.
Some parents choose to home school their children because they do not agree with school curriculum, safety and for religious reasons.
There are mixed feelings about the school choices. There are charter schools, magnet schools and vouchers and they vary by state.
School reform is ongoing issue in America, and the role of a teacher is critical to overcome obstacles and to provide excellent education to the students.

Chapter 11: My Role

I would like to be an academic advisor. I am not sure in what governing role would this fall under because this position should be look up from different levels of governing roles. My goal is to be able to help students to have a clear idea of what careers and classes are available to them to succeed in life. I see a lot of students in college that are wandering around the campus with no clue of where the classes are taking them. Academic advising is more that just telling a student what classes are available the following semester, it is to plan their college career and how that degree will help them in the real world. I believe that this kind of advising  is not only for college students it should start in the schools to help the students think of their future from a early age.

Chapter 10: Year 2020

Our schools have been through a great number of changes throughout the history of this country. In coming years we will continue to evolve to make it a better place for our students, teachers and administrators. In the year 2020, technology will be a major factor in our classrooms. Right now, technology is important, however, technology will advance so much that will be essential to our classrooms. Books will be electronic copies and few hard copies will be available. Technology will continue to improve safety in our schools to stop the cases of violence happening around the country. The buildings will continue to improve and teachers will continue to educate themselves to better meet the needs of the students in this changing world. The teachers will always be important in schools and will never be replace in our classrooms.

Chapter 9: Reflection

      There are four branches of philosophy that are related to the work of a teacher: metaphysics, epistemology, axiology, and logic. In Metaphysics, the curriculum of a school represents what the community believes is most worth knowing.  Epistemology questions, How so you know that? It can be controversial because of people beliefs of the origin of mankind. In Axiology teachers assist students to become good people. In logic, the primary task of the school is to help students to think clearly and communicate logically. There are two types: deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. In deductive reasoning, the teacher presents a proposition and then illustrates it with a series of particulars. In inductive reasoning a general proposition is induced, for example, the water is essential to plant growth.
     There are subject-centered philosophies and child-center philosophies. In the subject-centered stress the importance of subject matter in education. There are two school of thought, Perennialism from Plato and Essentialism, an American philosophy. In the child-centered philosophy they look first at the learner not the curriculum. There are two schools of thought: Romanticism from the writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Progressivism drawing ideas from Rousseau and John Dewey.  
   

Chapter 8 Reflection

Chapter 8 discusses the ethics and the law that a teacher encounters at school. In ethics the teacher has a personal code of ethics, what is right or wrong to do. In the book is mentioned the story of Marilyn and her dilemma with a fellow teacher and the ethics of spying on her as her principal wanted. As a teacher, I will encounter ethical situations everyday which it means doing the job that it needs to be done. We need to be good role models for the students and create a safe a trust climate in our classrooms. We do not have an universal code of ethics like other professions do but there are some published codes at national level and state level to help the teachers.
         In law, teachers used to be in loco parentis, they were in place of the parents and they have a leeway in the treatment of the student.. In recent decades that have changed and teachers have to understand that students are individuals with rights. Teachers have rights too. The due process protects teacher individuals rights without due process of the law.
        Liability means blame, however, a teacher although responsible for the well being of the students cannot control what a student will do at all times. As a teacher we have to follow some precautions to prevent any student injuries, some of them are: anticipate danger, provide proper supervision, establish rules and warn the students to minimize the chances of getting hurt.
    We have the legal obligation to report suspected child abuse and we do not have to be certain.
     Teachers as role models should be aware of their impact in the community, how they behave with members of the community and the students.
    Religion is a touchy subject. We cannot impose any religion to any person but it is good that school allow students and faculty to assemble in their grounds to express their religion on their own time.
   Finally, the Buckley amendment states that federal funds will be denied to a school if it prevents the parents from review their children academic records.  

            

Chapter 7: At what grade level did you first encounter computers, CD-ROMs, computer games, or the Internet at school or in your classroom?

Unfortunately, in my school years I never encounter the use of the computer. It was after high school when on my own enrolled myself to a computer class on MS-DOS. I thought it was very hard for me because we had to program some programs in the computer and it was challenging. After that, a few years went by and my next encounter with computers was when I started to work for a retail company. That experience was less dramatic and the computer was user friendly. I did not have a computer in the house until I was in my twenties. Now I use it at home, work and school. I am not a computer savvy, however, the use of a computer for me is extremely important in my life.

Chapter 6: What makes a teacher effective?

    The single most important characteristic of an effective teacher is classroom management. A teacher has to create a learning environment and be the manager in the classroom. A teacher can be knowledgeable on a subject and lecture about it but that does not make him/her an effective teacher, because he needs to gain the students attention and maintain them engaged with the lesson. A teacher has to be prepared with materials, resources and activities to enhance the students learning. I was once in a class where the professor was very knowledgeable about the topic but the students in his classroom where talking all the time, sleeping or working on something else. It was stressful for the students that wanted to learn because he did not manage the classroom. I was also in a classroom where the teacher had the whole day filled with lesson plans and activities and the experience was very positive. I like the definition of classroom management in the book, "actions taken to create and maintain a learning environment conductive to successful instruction."

Chapter 5: What is Taught?

             Strategies of differentiated instruction.
       I did not experienced any of the strategies of differentiated instruction. The students can benefit of the strategies because we have diversity in our schools and different types of learners. Traditionally, the teacher would lecture and the student would listen and try to retained all the information they can. With the strategies such as the stations or problem solving, the students would participate in the lessons and work in groups and by themselves rather than be a passive learner. As a teacher, we have to utilize the resources available to us and come out of the comfort zone to ensure the success of our students.   

Chapter 4: Social Challenges

          Chapter 4: Social Challenges

 Drug and Alcohol Abuse:

          Drug and alcohol abuse is a major problem among students of all ages. I would recommend to openly talk about these problems with the students. One strategy can be talk about the risk of using drugs and alcohol, how it will affect them personally if the consume them. It can also be beneficial to play a movie or documentary to get the point across. Police officers are involved to help the kids stay away from any substance, invite them to come to the classroom to talk to the students. Find out what programs are offered in the area to bring people in to communicate and teach the students about the abuses of drugs and alcohol. Always listen and be aware of the students changes of mood and performance at school.

Multiple Intelligences Menu

          I feel I am strongest in the visual area of the Howard Gardner multiple intelligence. I can communicate better with charts, maps, or graphs to get my lesson or point of view across the audience. I used to work for a company training their managers and my classes consisted in lecture, videos, power points, graphs, games, etc.. and my audience was very receptive to the lessons. I think that when you can learn a lesson with any type of visual instrument the lesson stays with you longer and the time is more enjoyable.

Common Practice in our Schools

       A common practice that I would like to change in our schools is the standardized tests. Some kids are terrified at tests and they become so nervous that they cannot perform well. I do not believe these tests are a true depiction of the student's ability and quality. Teacher also feel the pain because they are not teachers anymore, they are completely focus on the tests. Everything you hear in the classroom is "remember, if you see a question like this on the test you should answer like this.." It does not matter if the students are intelligent or have common sense what it matters is that they answer the questions correctly on that test. Teachers need to teach what is required for that particular level and be responsible for their classes. They need to help the students that are getting behind and support them throughout the year. 

Characteristics of a good teacher

My teacher commanded the classroom from the moment he entered the room. He did not have to be a dictator or raise his voice to gain the respect of the students. It was clear when it was time to learn or to joke. His passion for History and his good communication skills made it easy to fall in love with the subject. I learned a lot about History. I could imagine the stories and the places like I was there. He was fair and firm and he did not give us any break, we needed to do our work and meet the dateline. One of his best qualities was his diversity while teaching. He used different ways to present the lesson to reach everyone, like power points, movies, pictures and lectures.