The importance of not only the first 5 minutes of the class, but the last 5 minutes are just as important!

So today Julia and Katie gave their presentation/ thematic lesson plan. It was a little bit messy and unclear but their idea and hearts were in the right place. The one thing that stood out to me was at the end when we gave feed back we talked about the importance of not only the first five minutes of class but also the last fives minutes of class. This struck me as something that was ever so obvious, but can be hard to plan for. It's like writing a paper and you have your thesis that lays down the the topic and what you will be talking about, and then you have your conclusion that wraps everything up and brings you back to the main idea of the paper. This is what we as educators should be doing in our class, now, I know one can't do this for all the classes, like everyday. BUT, I think it could be important to this once to three times per lesson. Maybe once the first day you do the lesson, so people are sure of whats going on and what to be exploring, another time towards the middle of the lesson and the one big conversation at the end of the lesson, this could even be considered your critique.

Something Aaron talks about a lot is staying away from talking about their feelings especially in a middle or highschool setting. They are already going through a lot and don't really feel comforitable talking about their feelings with their cohort, I mean that makes sense, not a lot of college students or adults really like talking about how they feel in front of big groups of people. So something to stay away from in that last 5 minutes of class would be saying something like " how do ya'll feel about that?" or "So what do you all think", instead ask them questions that lead back to the core elements you involved in the lesson and using that time as a motivator for the next time the students come to class.

Why am I only being trained to be a public teacher?

So I was out the other night, sitting at the bar minding my own business eating the best batch of Thai mussels, i've had, ever! I couldn't help but hear the conversation that was happening next to me, it was between a man, his girlfriend and their friend. They (mostly him) were talking about how his student teaching was going, and what the state wanted out of him when he was doing his elementary portion of S.T. I couldn't help but involve myself, so i swiveled my chair and jumped in, talking about the common core situation within classrooms and how it's all about the language of your lesson. He seemed to have agreed with me on this mater, and said that a lot of his mentor's lessons were already up to par, they just needed to reword the whole thing. We started talking about the differences between Europe and America and how abused teachers can feel. He then was telling me about his recent S.T situation and how he so fortunately got to work in a private school, Storm King School to be exact. I'll admit I was jealous, because when I talked to my S.T advisory about being placed in either a private school or a charter school I was told my chances were slim pick'ns. But he was saying how amazing it is and the amount of freedom the teachers have, and the information they are allowed to share, and the freedom of lesson plan structures and how the students like to learn, and are learning a lot. This is a high school class! Now I don't want to come off as a uneducated dumdum, I mean I know students will want to learn if you can capture their interest, but it's hard at times when you have a lot of things standing in your way, and to be honest a lot of the students I dealt with had already made up their minds on not wanting to be in the enviroment they were in, aka school. I mean if teachers had the freemdom to teach what they wanted to and they wanted to and were doing it right, there would be a lot more time for individual understanding of the students and what they need from you, compared to trying to figure out how to word a lesson so it fits into some standards.  He was also telling me about how being exposed to this private school, he's also being exposed to many other networking opportunities and shared a few sites with me. One being NAIS, this is a site for educators looking for alternative education jobs, whether it be charter, private, workshops, tutoring, etc. He also shared with me carney sandae, this is a site that is like a job searching networking site, it surveys what you have to offer, hands out your resume to other schools, and gives you information on how to find a job and where they are. You couldn't imagine how shocked I was that these sources are not being more widely spread for future educators, especially with everyone constantly telling you that there are no jobs out there. You also couldn't imagine how grateful I was for this information, I then noticed though that I had completely monopolized the conversation and his girlfriend was putting her jacket on, trying to escape the grasps of our teacher mumbo jumbo, not to mention the complete absence of the one friend. He was very nice though, and very happy to inform me to help with my future. His name was Chris and he was a history teacher in the making, and after his S.T. he is going to work with his cousin in the city at a charter school. We wished one another good luck, he told me to share the networking sites, and we went our different ways.

Now I know we are being trained to be contemporary art teachers in public schools, and it's harder to be trained for a public school because of all these standards and regulations that we have to deal with., but I don't think once any of my professors have said theres an option of charter or public, I've heard traveling abroad or workshops, but I'm wondering what everyone's stigma is about private or charter. I also wish there was a note taker for NAEA meetings, this way you can get the information without being there, because some of us have jobs and can't be there for these meetings. I mean I could see this information being bounced around in these meetings and not making their way to the majority of us.

Transgender teachers! ahhhh tolerance, equality, knowledge!

So I was sitting here thinking to myself... are transgender folks allowed to be teachers... I mean of course yes, but does it happen often and are they protected from hatred from parents and administration. With that thought I went straight to google and typed in "transvestite teachers" and came across this great website, exposing bigoted point of views on this subject. I understand that our society lays a heavy blanket of responsibility on teachers to be a good role model of society, but does sexuality choices have to be considered a bad trait of character, and if so what are we saying to our children? "Hey Billy, you like to wear dress's, you can never be a teacher, hell, you can never be a good citizen." Now I know of course this isn't the case all over, but being an educator one may come across such situations.

While I was researching more on this subject I came across a great, positive article about a male teacher making the transition over summer break to become the gender that they have felt more suiting. The support given to this teacher has been very inspiring to me, it also reminded me of my field work this semseter. I got a chance to see tolerance of all sorts be practiced, there were signs and stickers spread throughout the whole school on sexual tolerance, and a lot of gay couples holding hands just like the rest of the high school couples. I mean, when I went to high school, I was lucky to be in a small, mostly tolerant school, where there were not any hate crimes against those of different sexual orientations, but I do know it exists. The next article I talk about I think will allow the reader to really see the differences between Europe and USA.

Here's another article about a teacher in California. The information I find interesting in this article is the fact that the school protected the teachers right to privacy. This is comforting to me that this is apart of teachers rights. Something I've noticed with field work is that students are constantly asking questions about your life, and if you live in the same town as the school you work at, you see students all the time and their family. This can put you in weird positions, just like stated in the first paragraph, society really expects you to be the best role model to our future. It reminds me of a story a professor told me once, about when she was working in an elementary school and lived in the same town as she worked. One night she decided her and girl friends were going to go out drinking, so they all got dressed up in the Friday hot dresses, and go out to drink and dance. While the night ended they were heading back home and the D.D that was driving got pulled over for some reason. The cop that pulled them over was one of her students father, and she was dressed to the nines in heels and a short skirt. She said she was mortified, and the policemen was uncomfortable, and it's all just so vulnerable. So to know the school and government understands how vulnerable our lives become, it's nice to know we have a right to keep some aspects of our lives secret. The one thing that bothers me about this article in particular though, is that that teacher didn't want his students to know what was going on. I mean this seems like a good opportunity to display her good role modeling and practice communication and honesty. Show courage and comfort in his decisions, and to prove that what is happening is not wrong.

op! just found a great debate on this subject. Love when the Andrea talks about school being for the children! Of course it's for the children, that's why we should be honest and truthful about all types of people, and show that everyone deserves to do a good job at what they love doing. Allison says repeatably that we should no discriminate people for what they look or what they do outside of their jobs, but by how they preform their job. This to me is perfect, can I severly mentally ill person do their job so well to the point they are the favorite teacher within the school (Like the article about the teacher in Essex). This debate was discussed two years ago, so I'm interested to know whats going on now with this situation.

So it seems that it's still the same, but becoming more tolerant. There seems to be a good mix between teachers AND student teachers being fired or forced out of some schools, but not all. I still feel it has to do with the district and/or state. I did find this great scientific article about how having a transgender teacher within a school, you are exposing and teaching the students about tolerance and equality. What a surprise...

using the body as a tool to learn and constantly having an eye on the class.

So yesterday Justin and Victoria did a lesson on the body using it as an example of symmetry. When we walked into the classroom the first thing you noticed was the dishevelment of the classroom. Tables were located all around the walls of class, leaving the center floor open and empty. Once their lesson began, we were instructed to count off my two, and then to stand in two lines (ones on the left, twos on the right). We then looked at the person standing across from us and claimed them as our partner. The ones were then instructed to strike a pose any pose, of course the students did silly ones, then the twos had to mirror this pose. We were then instructed to all face the teacher in these poses, and were informed that were making symmetry. It was such a great way to display this vocabulary word, as well as get our blood pumping and our brains moving. The only thing was I felt that it could have been focused more on, because right after that definition we were informed to sit at our tables, I felt this could have been a great opportunity to talk more about the body being symmetrical, and asymmetry. Though I really love this idea of intensely involving the students in their learning process, by using them physically as a tool of learning.

They based their lesson on the fantastic artists Judith Braun (the artist above) and had us practice her techniques on a smaller scale. It was a lot fun working in this technique, we got dirty, had freedom of figural or abstract imagery, and really got to explore something that may not be explore enough, our body and how it works while making art. After the lesson we discussed how this relates to our brains and the way we process making art. This is another aspect of teaching art that I find really interesting and would like to keep in the back of my mind when I'm creating my lessons.

Something that came up from this lesson was the idea of having an eye on yoru class as a whole, because middle school and high school students will constantly be trying to pull the wool over your eyes and escape the classroom. Something I thought about doing to assure your classroom stay with you, is doing the attendance at the end of the class. Another thing we discussed is putting attractive sounding bells on your door and always closing your door for class. We also talked about positioning your body when speaking to individual students so that you can see the whole classroom constantly. It's sometimes overwhelming thinking about all the aspects of being a teacher and the dynamic of everything you have to do to create a safe environment and a productive class.

Classroom Rules and ideas to adapt

When I have a classroom I would really like to create an environment where students feel comfortable and empowered to learn. I believe one of the ways this can be achieved is through creating a common ground together as a team. The way I'd execute this is by having the class on the first few weeks come together as a whole and to create rules together. There of course would already be a few rules like no cellphones in class, respect, tolerance, no bullying, etc.etc. Besides that I'd really like to encourage the students to practice democracy by opening the floor up to the students to allow them to self motivate a comfortable environment for learning.

A topic I'd really like to scaffold during this rule making process would be the idea of failure and finding comfort within it, as a tool of education. I would really like to have a sculpture class, and a large factor in sculpture is experimenting and exploring what a material can do for you and how it will help you convey your voice. With this in mind I find that this kind of medium and environment can really create a great base for finding comfort in failure and learning from it.

I also would like to make a rule of not turning anything down, like advice wise. This I believe will help the student practice adaptation, open-mindedness, and for the students are going to art school, the idea of acknowledging that they don't know everything and should listen to others. This was something I found typically challenging when I went to art school at first, thinking that being an artist was all about artistic expression, and how could anyone else educate me on myself better then myself... but that's not the reality of art all the time, theres a bigger challenge for artists to step outside of themselves, experiment and allow control to be lost.

Something else I'd really like to practice within my classroom is the idea of research and concept behind art. Learning about the world is important to survival and adaptation and art can be a great tool and buffer for this to be practiced. I'd really like to include a small research aspect to all of my lessons. This would coexist with the common core issues schools are having as well as a great practice into the hard, tedious, torturous world of college. I feel a big part of my job as a art educator within a high school environment is to prepare these students for college and how serious it can be if you commit, allow and respect the mentality and philosophy one gains in college.

Finally I'd really like to add appropriate and constructive feed back on others art work during critiques. I don't believe that enough art educators teach students the importance of giving and receiving criticism on their art, as well as practice an environment where this is possible. This I believe can expose students to how they can adapt others ideas to this, how they can vocalize and communicate what they are thinking in a constructive, honest manner. This I believe can be practiced if the environment is appropriate and the students feel safe.

An outline and reasons why I think Charter Schools are important to offer.

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Charter schools (an innovative public school) are better for some children’s character development and all around future compared to private, home and public schools.

1. Charter schools tend to have a higher level of dedication to the students individual needs.

1. Most charter schools have a topic that they specialize in, allowing students who are interested in that subject to have full attention on the subject.

1. Subjects vary from art of different forms such as music, painting and writing, to math, to agriculture.(McGrath)

1. An example of an art charter school would be the Albemarle County Public School in Charlottesville, VA (Albermarle).
2. Another example of an art charter schools would be the Bart Art Charter School in Berkshire county Mass, which was just identified as a “High growth school in English language arts and math(Bowen).

2. Charter schools also pay attention to students who have troubles in public schools with learning.

1. This follows the no child left behind rule (NCLBA).

1. The No child left behind act was created by President George Bush in 2001.
2. It makes it so that all students have to meet a certain education level to pass high school.

2. Most of the time it’s a requirement to have troubles with curriculum, socialization, or to learn in a different way compared to what normal public schooling offers.(Chen)

1. A different way compared to what normal public schooling teaches would be more hands on, or being in a smaller community of schooling.

2. Most students tend to have more educational, personal achievements after going to charter schools.

1. These students have more of a chance of achievement because, they are allowed to experiment and figure out what learning techniques help them, compared to being forced to do the same techniques as the “average” student understands.
2. Many charter high schools are breaking the mold by emphasizing rigorous academic standards and college preparedness.

1. Students who attend charter schools in Boston make significantly larger gains compared with students who attend traditional public schools (The center for Education Reforms).
2. High schools students who attend public charter schools in Chicago and Florida have higher graduation rates and a greater probability of attending college than their peers in traditional public school.

1. There is an increasing probability of graduation students by 7 to 15 percent, and an increase in the probably of the students enrolling in college by 8 to 10 percent (Zimmer).

3. A lot of students, who graduate from a charter school, go onto college more prepared of college compared to public schooling, because that’s part of their rigorous practices.

1. The Syracuse Academy of Science announces proudly that there main focus is to prepare their students for college math’s, science’s and technology (Syracuse Academy of Science Charter School).

3. All together these children help make a better community just being who they are and using the knowledge they’ve gained from being in a charter school.

1. These children are forced to be in the same learning room with children with social or learning problems.

1. This allows them to understand others disabilities and accept them for who they are.
2. This can conclude with no one being hurt or segregated for their problems.

2. They are also introduced to worldly and social problems on a regular basis.

1. The teaching then offers them different ways to go about their problems; academically, socially, politically, emotionally.

1. This could be by using art, science, or math. Whatever techniques their taught, they can then apply to their daily lives (perspective).
2. This allows different ways to approach problems, then maybe creating new, better ways to improve or approach problems (perspective).
3. This can then conclude to a more open mind of the students, and different opportunities for education to advance (Chen).
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Citation
   
   
    Abermarle county, Public Schools. "Albermarlt County Public Schools." Community Public Charter Schools-What's New. 12 Oct 2009. Community Public Charter School, Web. 22 Nov 2009. <http://schoolcenter.k12albemarle.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?section detailid=85911&showDetails=show>.
   Bowen, Julia. "BArt Students Grow More than Other Berkshire County Students in MCAS." http://www.bartcharter,org/images/MCASgrowth.pdf. 28 OCT 2009. Julia Bown, Executive Director, Web. 1 Dec 2009. <http://www.bartcharter.org/images/MCASgrowth.pdf>.
   Chen, Grace. "What is a Charter School?-Public School Review." Public School review. 04 Dec 2007. Public School Review LLC., Web. 24 Nov
   2009. <http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/3>.
   McGrath, Jim. "Green Charter Schools Network." Green Charter Schools Network. 2007. Web. 24 Nov 2009. <http://www.greencharterschools.org/>.
   Persepective charter, schools. "Perspectives Charter Schools Educationg students for college... preparing students for life." Persepectives Charter Schools-Hear our stories. 24 Oct 2009. Perspective Charter School, Web. 24 Nov 2009. <http://www.perspectivescs.org/contact-us>.
   "Syracuse Academy of Science Charter School. A college preparatory Jr./Sr. High School." Syracuse Academy of Science Charter school. 2002-2009. Syracuse Academy of Science CS., Web. 1 Dec 2009. <http://www.sascs.org/>.
   "The Center for Education Reform Boston Charter Schools." http://www.edreform.com/research/CER_BostonCharterStudy. 2008. The Center for Education Reform, Washing, DC, Web. 24 Nov 2009. <http://www.edreform.com/research/CER_BostonCharterStudy-mar08.pdf>.
   Zimmer, Ron. Charter Schools in Eight States: Effects on Achievement,
   Attainment, Integration and Competion. Rand
   Corporation, 2008. 160. Print.