The Agnon School
Our visit to the Agnon school was unlike any visit I have been on. The school was a lot different than any I had gone to in my life, it had very unique characteristics. One thing that really jumped out at me was how laid back the school itself seemed, whether it be the rules enforced, the way the teachers choose to educate their students, the open space throughout the whole building, and so on. The most interesting thing to me though was how the students address all of the teachers and administrators by their first names. I have never seen anything like that and it was interesting to hear young children get the attention of their teacher by saying their first name. I was always taught to call someone older than me by "Mr." or "Mrs." so it was just really interesting to see this not happen. The room I observed in was a second grade class where the children were really focusing on their reading skills. Each table was a different station and every fifteen or so minutes, they switched to a new activity. They were in groups of four or five kids, but something that struck me was that they rarely made any conversation with each other. All of the kids were very well behaved, but it seemed a little odd. They are so young and usually children at this age are excited and kind of rowdy, but these kids never even made a peep; I don't think the teacher ever had to discipline them one time. Hearing about how the school was private and was able to teach the curriculum any way they wanted was interesting. Ideally, I would want to teach in a private Catholic school, so it was cool to hear how truly open the possibilities are in the classroom. One last thing that really was new to me was how there was Hebrew written all throughout the school and how so many students were already able to speak and read it. Never have I been to an elementary school were a new language was taught and so stressed, but here, it was a vital part of their educational experience. It seems like the children that go to this school are being shaped into great students at such a young age, and that will help them in life as they grow older.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Post #10
Blog Post 10
Over the last ten weeks of this class, I have not only learned a lot about the concept of education, but also about myself. When I first started class, I was very unsure about my major. I had always had the idea of education in the back of my head, but I never really put serious thought into it. But between visiting schools in class, my own observations, our readings and discussions, and more I have found out that I am 99% sure that I want to continue on studying education. If I had not taken this class, I would probably still be in the dark, in regards to my major and what I wanted to do with my life. Something else I learned from being in this class is what it's like to not be a student in the classroom. Gaining the new perspective of a teacher was something that was good to do early on, so I can decide what good qualities to have are. Being a good teacher is something very difficult, but it is worth it when you watch your students succeed and thrive. To be a good teacher, the main aspect, in my opinion, is to be engaged with your classroom. You need to make it a community where everyone feels safe and comfortable to talk, take risks, and really just make the most of their education. We talked a lot about the classroom and what a good one looks like, reading essays, watching the video about Summerhill, observing physical classrooms on our visits. We talked controversial issues such as standardized testing, LGBTQ issues dealing with education, and more. This class really helped shape my ideas on these topics and opened my eyes to all of the different aspects of education.
Over the last ten weeks of this class, I have not only learned a lot about the concept of education, but also about myself. When I first started class, I was very unsure about my major. I had always had the idea of education in the back of my head, but I never really put serious thought into it. But between visiting schools in class, my own observations, our readings and discussions, and more I have found out that I am 99% sure that I want to continue on studying education. If I had not taken this class, I would probably still be in the dark, in regards to my major and what I wanted to do with my life. Something else I learned from being in this class is what it's like to not be a student in the classroom. Gaining the new perspective of a teacher was something that was good to do early on, so I can decide what good qualities to have are. Being a good teacher is something very difficult, but it is worth it when you watch your students succeed and thrive. To be a good teacher, the main aspect, in my opinion, is to be engaged with your classroom. You need to make it a community where everyone feels safe and comfortable to talk, take risks, and really just make the most of their education. We talked a lot about the classroom and what a good one looks like, reading essays, watching the video about Summerhill, observing physical classrooms on our visits. We talked controversial issues such as standardized testing, LGBTQ issues dealing with education, and more. This class really helped shape my ideas on these topics and opened my eyes to all of the different aspects of education.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Field Blog #3
Orange High School
Last Friday, I made another visit to Orange to do an observation. Again, the two classes I sat in on were the honors and the college prep sophomore history classes. It was Halloween, so all of the students were in their costumes and just having a good day. They had candy for each other, they took pictures on their phones to document the fun, and so on. I could just really see the strong bonds that were formed in the classroom. The teacher was again really friendly with the students, asking how they were doing that day, giving them candy, asking about their Halloween plans, and more. After they got the fun stuff out of the way, they got down to business and started their work. What they devoted the whole rest of the class period to was a DBQ, or a document based question. When I was a sophomore in high school taking AP U.S. History, we would do these assignments all the time. It was interesting to take the way I had done them in school and see how other places completed the same assignment. They went through the two different prompts they could choose from and really unpacked what it was asking. They then split into groups depending on who picked which prompt, and then discussed where they were going to go from there. A DBQ is a packet that consists first of one or two questions and then multiple, usually around ten, historical documents, which could be photographs, excerpts from speeches, political cartoons, or other pieces like these. The assignment is to answer the question in an essay format, incorporating some of the documents for evidence to back up the claim they are making. When they split into groups, they had to discuss which documents they tentatively chose to include when they actually form their essay. They all brought up reasons why they felt each document was or was not good for their specific question and they had a deep and insightful discussion. When they finished, they got back together as a main group and discussed with Mrs. Price about what they had just talked about. This class period was one similar to the one I experienced in high school, so it was interesting to be on the outside, not actually learning and being a student.
Last Friday, I made another visit to Orange to do an observation. Again, the two classes I sat in on were the honors and the college prep sophomore history classes. It was Halloween, so all of the students were in their costumes and just having a good day. They had candy for each other, they took pictures on their phones to document the fun, and so on. I could just really see the strong bonds that were formed in the classroom. The teacher was again really friendly with the students, asking how they were doing that day, giving them candy, asking about their Halloween plans, and more. After they got the fun stuff out of the way, they got down to business and started their work. What they devoted the whole rest of the class period to was a DBQ, or a document based question. When I was a sophomore in high school taking AP U.S. History, we would do these assignments all the time. It was interesting to take the way I had done them in school and see how other places completed the same assignment. They went through the two different prompts they could choose from and really unpacked what it was asking. They then split into groups depending on who picked which prompt, and then discussed where they were going to go from there. A DBQ is a packet that consists first of one or two questions and then multiple, usually around ten, historical documents, which could be photographs, excerpts from speeches, political cartoons, or other pieces like these. The assignment is to answer the question in an essay format, incorporating some of the documents for evidence to back up the claim they are making. When they split into groups, they had to discuss which documents they tentatively chose to include when they actually form their essay. They all brought up reasons why they felt each document was or was not good for their specific question and they had a deep and insightful discussion. When they finished, they got back together as a main group and discussed with Mrs. Price about what they had just talked about. This class period was one similar to the one I experienced in high school, so it was interesting to be on the outside, not actually learning and being a student.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Post #9
Blog Post 9
A lot of things go into making a school a good environment and many people have differing opinions on the topic. I personally feel it has to do a lot with the relationships that are formed in the school; teacher and student, student and student, teacher and teacher, and so on. The schools can have all these rules and regulations that make it better, but without the relationships that are so strong, the school will not be a good one. Some things that should be included in the school besides strong bonds are a good curriculum, extracurricular activities, lots of school pride, and just an overall positive attitude. A good school is one that combines the necessity to learn with ways and methods that engage the students and make them eager to learn. If a student is not fully engaged in what they are learning, they will fall away and not want to become even more educated, which can hurt them in the long run. A good school needs teachers and administrators who work as hard as they can for their students and want nothing but the best for them. Another big thing that is a controversial topic in the world of education today is standardized testing. I believe a good school would not institute them because they make students seem like cookie-cutter molds.They put everyone on the same level and test them on basic standards, that some students are not able to meet or students that are far above that level. A last interesting idea that I feel would go into a good school is making classes optional to go to. It makes the school a lot more like college and puts the responsibility on the student, which I have found to be a lot more successful. They should not be allowed to just skip out on every single class every day, but giving them the option makes them think more of how they should want to go and learn. These are just a few things I believe go in to making a good school, even though I could talk about this forever. Schools require a lot of work to be successful, but it is worth it in the long run.
A lot of things go into making a school a good environment and many people have differing opinions on the topic. I personally feel it has to do a lot with the relationships that are formed in the school; teacher and student, student and student, teacher and teacher, and so on. The schools can have all these rules and regulations that make it better, but without the relationships that are so strong, the school will not be a good one. Some things that should be included in the school besides strong bonds are a good curriculum, extracurricular activities, lots of school pride, and just an overall positive attitude. A good school is one that combines the necessity to learn with ways and methods that engage the students and make them eager to learn. If a student is not fully engaged in what they are learning, they will fall away and not want to become even more educated, which can hurt them in the long run. A good school needs teachers and administrators who work as hard as they can for their students and want nothing but the best for them. Another big thing that is a controversial topic in the world of education today is standardized testing. I believe a good school would not institute them because they make students seem like cookie-cutter molds.They put everyone on the same level and test them on basic standards, that some students are not able to meet or students that are far above that level. A last interesting idea that I feel would go into a good school is making classes optional to go to. It makes the school a lot more like college and puts the responsibility on the student, which I have found to be a lot more successful. They should not be allowed to just skip out on every single class every day, but giving them the option makes them think more of how they should want to go and learn. These are just a few things I believe go in to making a good school, even though I could talk about this forever. Schools require a lot of work to be successful, but it is worth it in the long run.
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