International Teaching

In class today, we had Skype conversations with Luther grads who are currently teaching abroad.  My group talked with a middle school/high school band teacher in Korea. Today's conversation renewed my interest in teaching abroad for the following reasons:

1 - Most international schools don't have to follow the rules put in place by NCLB.  I understand that having a standardized assessment is one of the only ways to test competency across a large number of students, but I don't agree with how it is affecting our schools in the US.  Not having to deal with NCLB in the international setting creates more freedom and room for creativity from the teachers.  Creativity is important to me and my educational philosophy.  If my students aren't going to be pulled out of music class to take tests, then I'll have the time to be creative.

2 - Music is more important to international schools than to regular US schools.  *I use this as a general statement; there will be acceptions to this.  Music is often viewed as an extra-curricular subject at schools in the US, and music teachers constantly have to defend their program to other teachers, students, administrators and parents.  I already deal with this issue at Luther, as some students don't think that music should be a major (but I won't get into that now).  At international schools, music seems to be one of the core subjects.  I would rather put my energy into teaching my students than defending the music program.

After spending the month of January doing student teaching/observation at the American International School in Vienna, Austria, I decided that I will teach internationally.  It was something that I was interested in doing since I was in high school, and that experience solidified my decision.  I loved the atmosphere of the school, and again, not all international schools will have the same atmosphere, but I feel like I would be crazy not to take the opportunity given to me to teach internationally.  I was lucky enough to choose a career which can be easily transferable to different countries, so I am going to take that perk and run with it as far as my bank account (and parents) will let me.

Middle School: The Academic Wasteland....or The Academic Oasis

Can't you just tell by this picture how awkward middle school was? 

I read "not much, just chillin' - the secret lives of middle schoolers" (yes, all lower case letters) by Linda Perlstein for my group book report.  I found this book to be very interesting.  My first choice is to teach elementary school music, but my second choics is middle school.  This book gave me the perfect insight into the lives of typical middle schoolers.

One thing that I took away from the book is that teachers don't understand middle school students, and that middle school students don't even understand themselves.  The middle school years are the "greatest period of physical and emotional growth, after infancy" (pg. 5).  With this in mind, it makes perfect sense that middle schoolers don't understand themselves; they are changing so quickly that they can't comprehend it all.  As teachers, it is our job to help the students navigate through this very confusing time in their lives.  But we can't do that if we don't understand the students.

The best way to learn about middle school students is to simply take a course about middle school students.  I regret that I do not have room in my schedule to fit in the middle school methods course.  I will be able to learn about middle schoolers in the middle/high school methods course and elementary/middle school methods course, so that will at least give me a basic understanding. 

Perlstein also suggests to make the material/curriculum interesting and connect it to the students lives.  This could easily be done in every classroom.  For example, in a music classroom, if the lesson is about the Greek belief of the ethos of music, I could have the students watch part of a tv show or movie, and record how the music affected the scene.  This way, they could relate the "ancient" information to their current lives and interests.

Zero Tolerance Policy

In class today, we discussed zero tolerance policies.  

We specifically talked about how Prior Lake's zero tolerance policy in the year 2001-2002 wasn't doing what it was supposed to: end school violence.  I am concerned that the presentation influenced the class to have a negative attitude of zero tolerance policies.  We need to keep in mind that we were given information on ONE school's policy and it's implementation during ONE school year.  


I do agree with the opinion that the zero tolerance policy was not being properly applied in the Prior Lake High School during 2001-2002.  For example, I don't think that the 7th grader should have been suspended for carrying scissors into the hallway.  But then again, we might not know the whole truth behind the situation.  The author's description is only one version of the story.


I think that zero tolerance policies are a great asset for schools to have, but they must be properly applied.  The teachers and administrators should know how the policy works and how to implement it in the school.  The rules need to be clear on what applies to the zero tolerance rule - ie a squirt gun.  The students need to know that it is not acceptable, no matter the circumstances, to bring a weapon to school.  A zero tolerance policy is a good way for the students to get the message that weapons are not allowed on school property.

Spring Break!

Well, spring break is finally upon me.  And why am I still at school?  I need to do a blog entry.

During spring break, I will be at home and working during the week.  I work at a child care center in the summer and whenever I can during breaks from school.  I will be teaching a class of preschoolers next week.  I am very excited to get back to working with the kids - which is the real reason that I am going into teaching.  I can't wait to take a break from "talking" about teaching and being able to actually teach.

I will apply some of my new knowledege when I teach next week, and will blog about my experience after spring break.

Ok.  Now it's time to go home and see all my kids!

The Business of Education

In today's lecture, we talked about structure.  Structure is an essential element of business.  This inspired me to think about school as if it were a business and the structure which it is made up of.  The structure is as follows:

Superintendent -- CEO

School Board -- Board of Directors

Principals -- Managers

Department Heads -- Mid-Level Managers

Teachers -- Workers

Students -- The Product

Parents -- Investors

Government -- Auditing Authorities

I believe that it is acceptable to think of a school as business.  The only difference is that the workers (teachers) can't be fired as easily as workers in a typical business.  If this structure is accurate, and parents are the investors, then the schools need to be sure that they always act with the parents' best interests in mind.  In my managerial finance class, we learned that the goal of every corporation should be to maximize shareholder wealth. In the case of education, maximizing the wealth of the investors would mean maximizing the learning of the students.  If every school operated with this mentality, I believe that the business of education would improve.

HGTV and Schools

I enjoy watching the television channel HGTV, although I don't have my own house to decorate, nor am I in the process of buying a house, so most of the information from that channel is generally irrelevant to my life at this point in time.  But, while watching "House Hunters" the other day, the channel became very relevant to my life.

On "House Hunters," a family tours three houses and chooses one to buy.  For this particular episode, the family had a long list of things they were looking for in their new home.  At the top of the list was a good school district for their children.  I had never before thought about the influence a school has on the surrounding community.  It seems like we are often so focused on what goes on inside the school that we forget how our actions affect what goes on outside the school. 

I hope that I will help to make my future school district one that families want to move to.  One way that I could do this is through community outreach programs.  I believe that the school should give back to the community as much as possible (good PR, if you wish).  My music students could give concerts in the community, or lead music workshops for all interested citizens. 

In a time when many schools are focused on the negitive, giving back to the community could be a positive, and encourage a greater connection between the school and community. 

The Politics of Teaching: Discourses

In this class, we are reading selections from Lisa Delpit's book "Other People's Children - Cultural Conflict ini the Classroom."  There was one particular passage from our latest reading which stood out to me.

"The second aspect of Gee's work that I [Delpit] find troubling suggests that an individual who is born into one discourse with one set of values may experience major conflicts when attempting to acquire another discourse with another set of values.  Gee defines this as especially pertinent to women and minorities" (pg. 154).

I agree with Delpit in that Gee's work to be troubling.  What I don't like is that Gee asserts that women have to acquire another discourse.  I know that in the corporate world, women have historically hit a "glass ceiling," and therefore had to possibly adopt a different set of values than their natural values in order to succeed, but this is changing.  I personally do not feel as if I have had to acquire another discourse, and I think that I have been quite successful thus far with my natural discourse.  I am not quite sure why Gee assumes that women have to give up our natural discourses.

Case Studies

In class on Monday, we split into groups to discuss five different case studies. My group was in charge of deciding how to cut our school's budget. It was very hard for all four of us to agree on what to cut, and in the end, I don't think that all of us were in agreement anyway.

While discussing what to cut, it was interesting how much our individual school backgrounds affected our opinions. I, coming from a small school district, did not want to increase class sizes. And I must admit, besides not wanting to sacrifice individual attention with each student, I was thinking selfishly in the fact that I would not be able to teach thirty students in each class period to play the recorder. I don't think that my ears could handle that. Each of us in the group grew up with different "normals" in our schools, which greatly affected how we would handle the budget cut. For example, I paid $30 per extracurricular activity, while another girl paid $250 per activity, and yet another paid nothing at all. As you can imagine, I did not want to help our budget by having the students pay $300 per activity, while the second girl was perfectly fine with that.

I can only imagine what the real process of budget cuts would be like, with more than four differing opinions and versions of "normal" to try to reconcile in a way that will make everyone happy.

First Paideia Lecture

In our first Paideia II Lecture, we brainstormed about the purpose of education and the function that teachers serve in educational settings.

I believe that there are many answers to the question "What is education for?" But my answer is that the purpose of education is to encourage individual and social growth. I think that this is much more important than just learning skills to prepare for a future job. My answer to this question might change as I move into the next stage in my career and actually start teaching.

My answer to the question "What are teachers for?" is that teachers are to get children to like to learn, or to create life-long learners. This involves motivating the students, creating a safe learning environment which will foster inquiry and creativity, and becoming a role model for the students.

The only part of the lecture which bothered me was that Max said that all of our answers were very idealistic and typical of first-year teachers. That comment made me wonder what causes teachers to change their answers to these questions. Also, why should I have to change my answers once I become a teacher? Are these not worthy goals to strive for?