Reflection #10

Philip Jackson created the term “Gatekeeper” to identify teachers. He used this term to describe how teacher interact in their classrooms. Teachers are usually the ones that control the class and decide who talks and when. Teacher are usually the ones that do all of the talking in a classroom. When you think of a classroom and a typical day, you think of a teacher lecturing, asking questions, and giving directions. Rarely through-ought this day, it engages students asking questions or students talking. Teachers ask on an average, 348 questions a day. It is rare for a student to ask a question. Why is this so? Students are so used to having to be silent through ought class periods. Some are afraid of looking “dumb” amongst their peers, or afraid of the teacher making them feel bad. Teachers usually ask questions and give students a couple of seconds to answer. If they do not answer within that time limit, the teacher moves on. The whole purpose of an education system is to get students intellectually involved in the lessons. However, this is a struggle when teachers have such a great power over the classroom. Even though the teacher having control over the classroom is a very important thing, it can affect the learning of the students if it is not done correctly. Sometimes teachers are caught up in their lectures and their talking and forget to engage students. In the usual “Pedagogical Cycle” which includes structure, questioning, responses to these questions from students, and reaction from the teachers, teachers create 85 percent of the verbal interactions. These daily classroom patterns do not encourage students to get involved in the lessons nor ask questions. Im sure we have all had instances where we are sitting in a classroom just listening to the teacher lecture. There are many times when we are confused about something that is being said or just simply we have a disagreement with the teacher. However, we do not raise our hands to ask a question or state our opinion. Why does this happen? Because we are so used to listening to our teachers and having them do all of the talking, that we are sometimes afraid to just simply ask a question. When Philip Jackson created the term “gatekeeper” for teachers, it was not with the intention to make teachers look bad. It just simply shows that teachers are usually the ones in control of their classrooms. They create their curriculums, lecture and ask questions. However, it is encouraged that teachers sometimes let students do a little bit more talking in classroom settings. Giving children the opportunity to talk, ask questions and participate in discussions definitely has a lot to do with their academic achievement. It gives them confidence and motivation in their education. 

Reflection #9

The articles, “The first schools” and “Ancient Egyptian Education” are an overview of exactly how schools were in ancient civilizations. They talk about cuneiform which was one of the first systems of writing. They used this writing system to former their education. Students had to write and copy textbooks. There were different kinds of scribes,  There was junior and high scribes, which are like our junior and high school students. There was also scribes that specialized in specific activities. In the first half of the second millennium BC, there were many tablets found with exercises and activities created by the actual students. The whole purpose of the Sumerian schools was to train students to scribe for the economic needs of the land. However, that expanded and soon studies were created in plants, animals, geography, math, writing, and so on. Many of the Sumerian professors depended on their salary for their daily living. Teachers were paid out of the students tuition fees.   Unlike education today, only the wealthy could afford it. Most students came from rich families. Most of the Sumerian students were males. Like our school system today, these schools had “principles” an “teachers”. The head of the school, which we would call the principle, they called the “School Father”. The students were called the “school son”. The assistant professors created the curriculum. They created tablets for the students to copy and made sure that they did so correctly. They also listened to the students recite their tablets. The curriculum in sumerian schools consisted of two sections; the first was semi-scientific and scholarly and the second was literary and creative. The first section was a basic overview and understanding of the Sumerian language. Making sure that the language was understood and mastered correctly. In the textbooks found there was a lot of writing about animals, cities, plants, minerals, and things of that sort, indicating zoological, botanical, and geographical studies. The second part of this curriculum consisted of copying and studying several literary works. Students copied tablets and the professors examined them to make sure they were correct. Teachers played a very big role in the students lives. They gave lectures and created most of the tablets students had to copy. They corrected students mistakes and faults and made sure that students understood the matter. I believe that teachers in Ancient Civilizations were a little bit more dedicated than teachers today. They probably enjoyed their jobs more that teachers today simply by the fact that students appreciated their education and worked hard for it. Students now a days are usually forced to attend school and do not care much for it. In Ancient Civilizations only the wealthy and fortunate had a chance for education. Their determination probably gave teachers more of a motivation and love for teaching. These articles make teachers look very important in the lives of their students.

Reflection #8

The three waves of educational reform are very important in Americas education system today. Together these three waves build up a successful school system that ensures results from the teachers and students. The first wave, is based more on economics. It began in 1982. It began after the report “a Nation at risk” which stated that Americas education system was falling behind. There were too many illiterate adults and unsatisfactory test scores from students. They wanted higher expectations from the students in the five basic topics; English, Math, Science, Social science, and Computer science. Many companies complained about uneducated employees and the hassle of having to teach employees basics. This wave was mainly about raising standards. The nation wanted to raise test scores and the effectiveness of teachers and students. They wanted the quality of education to increase. The second wave focused more on the quality of the education. This wave was led by Theodore Sizer, John Goodlad, and Ernest Boyer. They stressed that teachers focused more on the depth of the curriculum rather than trying to cover more topics at once. They wanted to make sure that students had a full understanding of the topics in the curriculum. These educators noticed the lack of interest coming from teachers and the low academic results coming from students. They wanted to make sure that teachers grasped a more professional and higher position in their job. They wanted teachers to feel powerful and enthusiastic about their job. The greater the enthusiasm, the greater the academic results from the students. They focused making sure teachers played a big role in the decisions being made. The third wave, which happens to be my favorite, focused on seeing schools as more than just “educational facilities”. This wave was all about making students and parents feel comfortable around the school system. It created “Full Service Schools” which is basically a program that provides social services, nutrition,transportation, health care and parent education. It makes sure that students and parents are on top of the priority list. It wants schools to be a place where children and parents can visit at other times other than the time classes are being held. It conducts extracurricular activities and clubs in order to keep students busy and out of trouble. It is responsible for the needs of students. It provides health care and counseling. This wave, in my opinion was the one that stood out the most for me. It seems like a very important wave. Growing up I was always at school and so were my parents. They had great communication with all my teachers and my mom attended all of the activities at the school. I participated in clubs and took advantage of all the things my school had to offer. I believe that having all of these great benefits were essential growing up. They helped me stay focused in my education and always kept me out of trouble. For example, in order to participate in clubs, you had to have certain grades. This was definitely a motivation booster to always keep my grades up throughout school. The third wave benefits many students and parents that are struggling and are not financially stable. I think that is very important seeing as many parents get caught up in their financial situations and sometimes loose focus on their child's education. 

Reflection #7

Just how we learn from our parents today, children in Ancient Egypt learned from their elders. Even though today we learn a great deal of our information and knowledge from school systems, we still acquire a great load from our parents. However, children in Ancient Egypt learned pretty much everything by the simple process of imitating what they grew up around. Parents made sure to engrave their thoughts, opinions, and beliefs about what was wrong and right in their children. Books of instruction were create to insure that children understood the moral code of conduct and the norms for an everyday life. The only education girls would mostly receive was what they would pick up at home from their parents. Boys would receive a more formal education and training. On the job training was also very important back then. There were many tasks that did not require any formal education in order to complete. Parents or group members trained others directly face to face how to complete several tasks. On the job training did not require anyone to know how to read or write. Most of these tasks were “hands on” kind of tasks, such as farming or making crafts. The code of Hammurabi covered Apprenticeship which was also a crucial approach to education. It was the learning of something from a skilled employer. In the Hammurabi book, an apprentice was considered an adopted son. The great pyramids and temples created back in the ancient days show signs of successful apprenticeship. Those creations took a lot of training and determination. An apprentice lived at the house of the the one that taught the skill. He received food and clothe but almost never did he receive money. He was educated in the skill he was trying to obtain and at the end of the journey he received a suit of clothe and money. They were also tested in order to make sure they had understood the skill completely. They were now considered “journeymen”. Children also attended Temple schools. In these schools they were taught Cuneiform. Children used a clap tablet as a textbook and followed the instructions their teachers gave them. After mastering cuneiform, children were given a textbook to copy. They also learned arithmetic. Sumerians used the number 10 as a divisible of everything. They also used the division of a circle to master a clock using hours, minutes and seconds. Children also learned about the standard measurements of weight. Cuneiform was the most important skill that had to be acquired by the students. It was used for everything just like we use writing for everything today. Overall, the education system in ancient civilizations of egypt were pretty similar to the one we have today. They learned through the imitation of parental figures, through “on the job” training and apprenticeship, and through temple schools which are very similar to the schools we have today. 

Reflection #6

Writing had definitely been the door opener to history and to the establishment of some of the worlds greatest ancient civilizations. Writing first began with the drawing of pictures about 40,000 years ago. It is believed that writing was invented in various places separately from one another, in Sumeria, in ancient Mexico, and possibly in North China. Pictures were soon drawn with the intention of sounding out syllables rather than just meaning. Writing first began to establish civilizations in Southwest Asia because of economic reasons. Humans marked tokens with pictures to label different farm products. The pictures became more complex with the growing of the cities and centers and now they labeled manufactured goods also. The first use of pictures for the use of making sounds was found in about 3100BC. For instance, the picture symbol for arrow was used to symbolize the word “life”. If you read both words, (til,ti) in the Sumerian language they both have similar sounds “t” sounds in the beginning. Pictures soon began to be used as sound symbols. Eventually when the shift of picture symbol to sound symbol was finished and it was possible to symbolize every sound of the Sumerian language, it was said that writing was born. In Egypt, they had pictographs to stand for the first sound of the word they were trying to communicate. This was called acrophony and it made a huge leap to the creation of the alphabet. Thanks to writing the people of the civilizations were able to communicate their needs in other ways other than speech. They were also able to create history and memory. Without writing it was assumed that everyone remembered things, and if they were forgotten there was no way to bring them back. Writing also expanded story telling and myths. Now there were stories written down and available to be passed down throughout generations. Writing helped farmers and hunters to count their livestock and property. It became necessary in the use of economic transfers. Overall writing had created most of the societies we have today. If we think about it, how hard would it be to communicate with one another is writing was never established? How would we read signs while driving or make any type of important contract or business? 

Reflection #5

What do I think of when I hear the words Initiation and rites of passage? I think of the step into belonging somewhere or growing into a bigger and better person, a leap into another stage of life. Initiation rites are common everywhere. Whether is be in cultures, societies, or even in school, they are a part of the human life. Even though in Sambia cultures their initiation rites are quite different to any of those we have in American societies today, they have one thing in common; they are the passage to maturation. In Sambia, boys are forced to go away to a mens house in the village for several years. In that house they learn the process of becoming men through different initiations and activities. They even engage in homosexual activity as a passage to become “men”, pretty ironic huh? The younger boys are forced to conduct Regular fellatio, where they must swallow the semen of an older boy. That house that these men enter is like a school system now a days. We attend it for several years of our lives for the purpose of gaining knowledge towards life and getting a basic understanding of what society accepts and expects of us. We enter school as a five year old with no knowledge of the world around us. About 12 years later we walk out of high school as a new and mature person. We come out with a different personality and mind set of society. We learn from the experiences we face throughout those years. Education is the key to that passage of childhood to adulthood. Our graduation ceremonies would be our initiations as the Matuumo ceremony is to the girls from Gikuyu. These girls have a huge ceremony with dancing and several initiation procedures to introduce them into womanhood. We have huge celebrations and festivities to celebrate our graduation. We are taught through these 12 years of school everything that is going to prepare us for that “real world” we hear so much about. After graduating high school we are portrayed as different people and others have a new expectation of us and what we can and cannot do. We learn what society decides is necessary to be valued. That is why education is so fundamental. To some families, a member not graduating high school is an extreme let down and disappointment. I have met parents that have kicked their children out for dropping out of high school. Some parents take it as offensive as having a gay or lesbian child. It is all based on culture and belief systems. Just like the circumcision is so crucial to the people of Gikuyu, graduation and education is a very important rite of passage to the american society.

Reflection #4

I would have to say honestly, that before reading any of these articles, evolution seemed like something absurd. The idea that us humans come from monkeys sounded like something out of a comic book or some kind of joke. After reading these articles they somewhat expanded my thoughts and made me a little bit more open minded to new ideas and theories of just how we came upon this planet. Even though the theory of evolution does in some senses go against my religious beliefs, it makes sense. There is a lot of scientific-al data and research to back up the idea that humans evolved from monkeys. Reading these articles such as “Lucy” and “African Eve” and looking through the large database of pictures, I found out many things. Lucy, the Australopithicus afarensis, was found in 1874. Even though Lucy was only about 3 feet and 8 inches tall, and she was classified as an “ape”, Lucy had human characteristics. Lucy walked upright just like us humans. Her bi-pedalism lead to what we would consider human beings and human intelligence. The first humans which were Homo Habillis were small in height and had longer arms than legs, more like an ape. Afterwards, there was the Homo Erectus, which had a much bigger brain than Homo Habillis. This species had long, straight legs and walked. Just by looking at the skull of this species, scientist estimated it had a brain of about 1000 cubic centimeters. Homo Erectus was also much taller than Homo Habillis. It is also known that this species knew how to talk. An example of the Homo Erectus is the “Turkana Boy” which is an almost complete skeleton of a young boy. The boy was only 11 or 12 and he was already 5’2. He also had a large brain like us humans today. Finally, we are introduced into the Homo Sapiens which first existed 600,000 years ago. This species was short, thick and strong. They’re skulls were thick and they actually had brains larger than those of humans today. Studies conducted in 1987, show that mitochondrial DNA from humans in places all over the world indicate that we all originated from a Homo Sapien ancestor in Africa. I find it pretty amazing how over the years the structure and mental capacities of these species have transformed. Evolution transformed this species from short monkeys to the humans we are today. Over the years, the species gained skills such as talking, walking upright, and having larger brains. Even though I still do not fully agree 100% with the idea of evolution, I think it is quite interesting.

Reflection #3

I guess I can say growing up in a mostly populated African American neighborhood made me pretty open minded and comfortable with my surroundings, seeing as I am Hispanic. I never really had a problem getting along with children of other races. Even though I was a minority at my school, my Elementary definitely made the efforts to share a multicultural curriculum with the students. All of the African American, White, and Hispanic children got along, for the most part. I believe that had a lot to do with not only the wonderful, diverse teachers that we had, but also with the great curriculum. I remember Hispanic Heritage week. That week we would all dress up in our native outfits. I remember wearing a long white dress with a red flower in my hair , and my lips painted in red. I looked adorable. The funniest thing was seeing everyone else who wasn’t hispanic dressed up. They looked so proud and excited to experience thas day even though they were from other cultures. We also brought in one of our favorite foods from our countries and had a huge class party where everyone got to try each others food. My Elementary school definitely implemented the Contributions and Additive approach to their curriculum. I recall doing projects during African American month. I did a project on Rosa Parks and one on Harriet Tumbman. I still remember a whole lot of information from those projects actually. In third grade we also had a week where we studied Italy. We read several stories from their culture, some fiction and some non-fiction, and then at the end of the week the teacher brought in one of their typical breads, Panettone, for the class to try. Learning about all of these famous heroes and cultural holidays in Elementary was part of the Contributions Approach. Our African American and Hispanic Heritage months were part of the Additive Approach. Even though my school did a great effort to make their curriculum multicultural, they did not reach the Transformation or Social Action approaches. It would have been nice to go a little bit further into culture throughout my school years. Maybe while learning about Columbus and his discovery of America , we could have learned a little bit more about the indigenous peoples perspective. My elementary and secondary education never really emphasized the students to make decisions to try to change anything either. They never used the social action approach to enforce students to try and make a difference in the understanding of multicultural groups. I would have liked to experience the social action approach throughout my school years. This approach is one that I will definitely implement in my curriculum as a future teacher.