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Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Reflection July 8, 2010-Professionally Teaching
As educators, we have an obligation to teach the whole child without prejudice. We must be diversified, protect integrity, create equilibrium, and most importantly, teach with professionalism. In this article, Teaching Ethics: The Role of the Classroom Teacher, it simply says it best, " Children's character, or moral development, is an important and contoversial topic for for character development." The article goes on to state that schools face an important challenge in doing their part in preparing children to be responsible, productive adults. In short, Teachers are in a key position to directly influence students.
Friday, June 4, 2010
June 1, 2010 Reflection
Reflection 7 & 8
Trying to shift through this week’s reading for Chapter’s 7 and 8 of the text was like trying to shift concrete into powder. There was no “order” to this chaos. Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science, appears to be referencing practices of Scientology, to bring some type of systematic organization to support the publishing of her book. Her attempt at injecting the belief of Scientology prompted me to delve into Christian author, C. S. Lewis, who was a skillful apologist. He was gifted in confronting and proving wrong philosophies that contradict scripture. Wheatley states in Chapter 7, page 117 of Leadership and the New Science, that “chaos has always partnered with order-a concept that contradicts our common definition of chaos…Chaos is the last state before a system plunges into random behavior where no order exists.” In reading, “The Invasion” in the book Mere Christianity Lewis opposes simple religion and proves that Christianity is the true religion. It is one that brings “order” to an “unorganized” world, such as the one referenced in our class text. I will summarize “The Invasion” and give a response to it.
In the chapter entitled, “The Invasion” Lewis combats the idea that simplicity equals truth and he explains the superiority of Christianity over Dualism. This comparison parallels Wheatly’s position regarding deterministic chaos. She states on page 119 that the chaos theory studies a particular variety of chaos known as deterministic chaos. This concept of science became involved in a debate of Philosophy vs. Spirituality. She adds that in a deterministic world, our lives are predetermined based upon what we understand from a biblical point of view. She questions, “free will.” First, Lewis opposes the idea that simplicity equals truth. Lewis confronts what he calls “Christianity-and-water” philosophy. Lewis states this is the idea that “there is a good God in heaven and everything is alright.” This philosophy is too simple because it leaves out the difficult doctrines of scripture. What about hell, sin, and judgment? These issues are never addressed in the name of simplicity or “science”. Simplicity is not
always good. Thus, creating “chaos;” Lewis argues that real things are not simple just like real religion is not simple. To prove his point, he uses various illustrations. He describes how a table looks simple, but if you examine the atoms and make-up of a table it becomes more complicated or chaotic. Lewis also uses the complicated concept of reality to show how difficult some things are to understand, good example, Wheatly’s concepts published in her book.
Trying to shift through this week’s reading for Chapter’s 7 and 8 of the text was like trying to shift concrete into powder. There was no “order” to this chaos. Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science, appears to be referencing practices of Scientology, to bring some type of systematic organization to support the publishing of her book. Her attempt at injecting the belief of Scientology prompted me to delve into Christian author, C. S. Lewis, who was a skillful apologist. He was gifted in confronting and proving wrong philosophies that contradict scripture. Wheatley states in Chapter 7, page 117 of Leadership and the New Science, that “chaos has always partnered with order-a concept that contradicts our common definition of chaos…Chaos is the last state before a system plunges into random behavior where no order exists.” In reading, “The Invasion” in the book Mere Christianity Lewis opposes simple religion and proves that Christianity is the true religion. It is one that brings “order” to an “unorganized” world, such as the one referenced in our class text. I will summarize “The Invasion” and give a response to it.
In the chapter entitled, “The Invasion” Lewis combats the idea that simplicity equals truth and he explains the superiority of Christianity over Dualism. This comparison parallels Wheatly’s position regarding deterministic chaos. She states on page 119 that the chaos theory studies a particular variety of chaos known as deterministic chaos. This concept of science became involved in a debate of Philosophy vs. Spirituality. She adds that in a deterministic world, our lives are predetermined based upon what we understand from a biblical point of view. She questions, “free will.” First, Lewis opposes the idea that simplicity equals truth. Lewis confronts what he calls “Christianity-and-water” philosophy. Lewis states this is the idea that “there is a good God in heaven and everything is alright.” This philosophy is too simple because it leaves out the difficult doctrines of scripture. What about hell, sin, and judgment? These issues are never addressed in the name of simplicity or “science”. Simplicity is not
always good. Thus, creating “chaos;” Lewis argues that real things are not simple just like real religion is not simple. To prove his point, he uses various illustrations. He describes how a table looks simple, but if you examine the atoms and make-up of a table it becomes more complicated or chaotic. Lewis also uses the complicated concept of reality to show how difficult some things are to understand, good example, Wheatly’s concepts published in her book.
May 25,2010 Reflection
The Value of Change, Stability, Renewal and Creative Energy: How It Looks in the Differentiated Classroom
Keeping in step with the subject matter presented in chapters 5 and 6, as Educators, we know that change is eminent. In today’s classroom structure, we must become multi-sensory leaders, making every child feel as if they are our favorite. In taking a look at traditional literature, and differentiated literature, we can see how renewed change has created a high level of student energy, and organization. Traditional literature is defined as a body of stories and poems that came into being by way of oral telling from authors unknown. Traditional works are appealing and memorable. They were passed down from generation to generation without the aid of being written. Traditional tales and poems make up an important part of children’s literature.
Keeping in step with the subject matter presented in chapters 5 and 6, as Educators, we know that change is eminent. In today’s classroom structure, we must become multi-sensory leaders, making every child feel as if they are our favorite. In taking a look at traditional literature, and differentiated literature, we can see how renewed change has created a high level of student energy, and organization. Traditional literature is defined as a body of stories and poems that came into being by way of oral telling from authors unknown. Traditional works are appealing and memorable. They were passed down from generation to generation without the aid of being written. Traditional tales and poems make up an important part of children’s literature.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
May 11, 2010 Reflection
It is no secret that one of the most challenging jobs in the field of Education is Administration, or Instructional Leadership. It takes time, whit, and effort to steer a staff of Teachers in a direction of “oneness.” If a leader lacks these skills, it can become tedious, and futile. It is also no secret that the Leader (Principal) shapes the behavior or climate of the entire building, thus, effecting “change.” He/She sets the tone as to how the school year starts, and ends. Chapter 3 of our text, Space Is Not Empty: Invisible Fields That Shape Behavior, contends that it is difficult to effect change in such a vast, lonely world. It requires generating energy of sufficient strength to propel oneself through space, enduring long enough to reach another object and cause it to respond. Isn’t that ironic, as a Classroom Teacher, we spend the entire year attempting to make changes where needed and necessary. We become soldiers on the front lines, fighting a war with no weapons of defense. We are expected to wave a magic wand to create change in an empty space. Wheatley, the author of Leadership and the New Science, takes care to paraphrase Isaac Newton’s law of gravity. On page 50 of the text, she points out that Newton’s world of cause and effect of force acts upon force, and great personal energy to get someone moving through vast regions of space in order to get something done.
In relating the reading of Chapter 4, The Participative Nature of the Universe, to another text, Good To Great, by Jim Collins, in Chapter 5 of his book titled Level 5 Leadership, he quotes:
You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit
-Harry S. Truman
To reference this paradox with our class text, and I will paraphrase, on page 60, Wheatley says that if a manger, (principal), is told that a new trainee’s, (teacher), is gifted in a certain content area, the manager will see genius emerging from the trainee’s mouth even in obscure statements. But, if the manager (principal) is told that his or her new hire is slow in grasping the job at hand, an interpretation of the employee’s lack of know how comes into question.
In relating the reading of Chapter 4, The Participative Nature of the Universe, to another text, Good To Great, by Jim Collins, in Chapter 5 of his book titled Level 5 Leadership, he quotes:
You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit
-Harry S. Truman
To reference this paradox with our class text, and I will paraphrase, on page 60, Wheatley says that if a manger, (principal), is told that a new trainee’s, (teacher), is gifted in a certain content area, the manager will see genius emerging from the trainee’s mouth even in obscure statements. But, if the manager (principal) is told that his or her new hire is slow in grasping the job at hand, an interpretation of the employee’s lack of know how comes into question.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
May 4, 2010 Reflection
In reading chapters 1 and 2 on last night of our class text, understanding how to create organization or call chaos into order, seems to be the for front of what we as educators tend to battle with on a daily basis. With new laws in place that require us to meet the No Child Left Behind clause, and Special Education laws, there appears to be a struggle in creating differentiated lessons and maintain classroom management, when there are many fuzzy areas, and a lack of clear expectations as to how this "order" can be accomplished.
In giving an example of how order can come from chaos, I shared a story that happened in my class earlier this year. A while back I had four student whom had sever behavior problems. In 10-years of teaching with my current district, I don't remember ever having to deal with this type of issue on a consistant level. These four students' poor behavior almost dictated the way the entire group of 4th graders would behave on any given day. Eventually, after repeated episodes that involved administration, parents, mental health doctors, district child psychologist, and district law enforcement regarding the students lack of control in a normal classroom setting, it became very clear that an open environment in the general population was not a good fit. In tern, the students were removed from the school, and placed in areas that met their needs.
In closing, I certainly can agree with the author's ideology that order can come out of the most chaotic circumstances.
In giving an example of how order can come from chaos, I shared a story that happened in my class earlier this year. A while back I had four student whom had sever behavior problems. In 10-years of teaching with my current district, I don't remember ever having to deal with this type of issue on a consistant level. These four students' poor behavior almost dictated the way the entire group of 4th graders would behave on any given day. Eventually, after repeated episodes that involved administration, parents, mental health doctors, district child psychologist, and district law enforcement regarding the students lack of control in a normal classroom setting, it became very clear that an open environment in the general population was not a good fit. In tern, the students were removed from the school, and placed in areas that met their needs.
In closing, I certainly can agree with the author's ideology that order can come out of the most chaotic circumstances.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The Final Report-Apr. 27, 2010
It is amazing how building a strong phonetic base, coupled with whole language skills can increase a child's vocabulary, and reading ability with consistant effort on part of the teacher. During this case study, students who spelled phonetically, needed dictionary or referencing skill building. Others just simply became better readers, and writers. In closing, there is no doubt in my mind that small grouping, and differentiated instruction helps us understand how lesson's need to be taylored in order to suite student needs.
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