Disciplinary Lenses
What is one specific way that your content research thus far has caused you to re-think and idea, or question, or caused you to challenge assumptions that you had previously not considered-or-even pushed you further in your thinking?
My content research has been focusing on teaching/creating a culture in my classroom to help my students develop the core life skill of academic resilience. I have always thought that by putting students in a safe but rigorous environment they will grow more resilient. After this past school year I have realized that there is more to creating resilience and perseverance than originally thought. Through research I have found that resilience is determined by the environment but is influenced is by many factors other than school safety and academic rigor.
I have found that students will become more resilient if they develop six different motivation factors. These factors are: self-belief, learning focus, academic identity (the value of schooling), persistence, academic planning and study management. Resilience is a personality trait that is directly linked to motivation. The factors previously listed boost academic and personal motivation. All the factors also involve building academic, social and cultural identities.
It can be noted that these personality factors are cultivated through classroom, home and social environment. Due to this I now know I have to develop a strong enough curriculum that gives my students the skills to counter whatever resilience “guzzlers” they encounter outside of my classroom, at home or in their social circles. My curriculum also has to be powerful enough to help reverse many years of possible psychological damage my students have endured from bad teachers, unstable home lives or the cruelty of adolescence life. I have picked a very difficult project that I do not know if I can accomplish. I want to continue though because developing a curriculum to promote resilience, will improve my teaching because I will be teaching my students the social, moral and personality skills needed in order to succeed in college, in the workforce and as a member of society.
The Death and Life of the Great American School System
How do you think the Common Core standards might fit in this narrative of school reform?
I think the Common Core standards partially fit the Ravitch narrative for school reform. The Common Core standards are a drastic improvement from the testing culture that has developed in our school system. The Common Core standards are also interdisciplinary and encourage making deep connections between concepts. The new standards encourage thinking and give students flexibility.
Ravitch actually does not agree with the common core standards. According to her blog: “Such standards, I believe, should be voluntary, not imposed by the federal government; before implemented widely, they should be thoroughly tested to see how they work in real classrooms; and they should be free of any mandates that tell teachers how to teach because there are many ways to be a good teacher, not just one” (http://dianeravitch.net/2013/02/26/why-i-cannot-support-the-common-core-standards/). The problem is that the standards are not voluntary and they still dictate what a teacher should teach. Ravitch argues for complete freedom of choice in what to teach. She also believes that the standards should be tested first instead of being taught “cold turkey.”
I feel that the common core standards do not fit into Ravitch’s argument because the new standards do nothing about how to educate teachers. The downfall to the standards is that it requires a new type of teacher. In order for these standards to be taught well, a teacher needs to have a degree in the field they are teaching. The standards also should make us rethink how we teach elementary school and what we should require of multiple subject teachers to know. The common core standards are going to push the way teachers teach, what teachers know and what teachers should know. I feel that Ravitch would also disapprove because we have now established a ambitious set of standards that will be harder to teach because of what we require our teachers to know. The government is now putting the burden on the teacher again. This is no change from what was required from the original standards.
In Chapter 9, Ravitch says critics argue that schools would improve if unions ceased to exist. What argument does she present based on available research? What do you think?
Schools would improve at first, but then as usual, the school will be run like a business, teachers will not have job security and as a result the lack of unions will create a similar cut throat political environment that exists today in education. The lack of unions will create a culture like it is presently: where we will only look out for ourselves and not for the interests of our students.
Here is an example. For two years I worked at a catholic school in Hayward. I was not unionized. I made $28,000 a year and had an awful healthcare plan. I did not qualify for a pension unless I taught at the school for 7 years. The pension would have only be at 40% income where other pension plans cover about 80%. I taught 6 different classes and one elective at 4 different grade levels. I was the only science teacher. While I was a new gun-ho teacher, other teachers in the school had been teaching at this school for many years. I would sit in faculty meetings and hear about how state regulations were the reason why two of the teachers refused to go on recess duty. I watched one teacher manipulate my principal into creating a meaningless class so that she could get an extra hour prep each day. At one point my school was so broke that they couldn't get substitutes and that when a teacher went out on disability I was teaching two classes in one period. I would teach 15 minutes in one classroom while my principal watched my other class and then I would switch. Teachers were awful to each other and did not work together. I even saw our parish life director call a newly married, pregnant teacher into his office and berate her for not getting married in the church and would not let her get communion at the next school mass. He then proceeded to tell her students that he gave communion to murderers and that Christ forgives everyone. These school policies created a hostile, counter-productive and toxic work atmosphere. This environment destroyed school culture and took away from the education experience of my students. This culture existed because there was no union to protect the rights of the teachers.
Like everything in our world today, the whole realm of unions is polarized. I feel that unions are part of the ruining of education in the state BUT we should not get rid of them and instead reform them. For years teachers have been treated like the butt of the professional society. Our government does not prioritize education but the success of our society and economy is rooted in it. Violence, collapsing economies, and a lack of cultural cohesiveness is due to the failures of our education system. Teachers and unions have been saying this for years, but their voice has not been heard. We do not get paid enough and have a hard time trying to have a comfortable life that most of society gets to enjoy. Due to this, unions, tired of not being heard, have become a selfish adult interest groups... and they have every right to be.
I do not like unions because they limit teacher productivity and protect bad teachers. This being said, I do not blame them for what they have become. This year I was not unionized. As a result I worked 16 hour days, period subbed without compensation and saw my school close. This year was the first time in my career where I had the vague notion that I wanted to be part of a union because for the first three years of my teaching career I was taken advantage of.
I will become part of the union when unions decide that they want to be in the political middle again. I would like to be in a spot where my union gets me better pay and benefits, but encourages me to work harder. I do not want to be in a union where in which my campus rep tells me to leave because its not in our collective bargaining agreement to stay past 3:45 PM (this happened to my sister repeatedly over her teaching career). I also want the government to realize the importance of our education system and so that unions feel they can stand-up for teachers and the children that we serve.
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