So I was planning on doing my student teaching this Fall 2009. It was going to be financially tight and stressful, especially with my son due to be born in November, but we'd be through the tunnel and on the other side of this mountain by Spring 2010. However, as the numbers were not matching up to get us through the Fall financially, I asked my academic, financial, and teaching advisers at the University of Phoenix about what I would need to do if i switched my student teaching to the Spring of 2010 instead. In a nutshell, my financial adviser decided that this was the right time to let me know that I was going to have to pay for my student teaching out-of-pocket. Apparently, since the student teaching is not scheduled before hand, it is not covered by the financial aide, even though it falls in the school year.
Once I got over my initial anger, I looked at the pros of doing my student teaching in the spring. I don't want to go into why a teacher, who is not paid much anyway, has to spend about 3 months with no income, or working a two jobs just to be underpaid as a teacher. I don't want to blog about why a Master's in Ed. get's you about the starting pay as any blue-collar job. I'm not going to mention how the teaching profession needs men, but is set up for women whose husbands can fully support them. I won't go into detail that the male teachers I know drive "practical" cars, and the women teachers I know, whose income is extra, drive Jags, Lexus, etc... They wonder why they have trouble getting men to work in the schools, but they tell you to be broke and intern for three months before you can ork somewhere that there will probably be a strike when the school year starts.
Anyways, back to what I was talking about. student teaching in the Spring may work out, but my only issue is filling the working gap between now and March. I have few possibilities, and hopefully one of them works out. It's hard o feel like a man when you can't support your family, but they will be my first priority... whatever happens.
20 August 2009
21 July 2009
Character Education
One of the discussion threads that I have been ignoring this week was one where people were discussing character education in the schools. Where the entire school gets rewards for staff members seeing certain behaviors, etc... I do not have other peoples' permissions to post their responses here, so I won't. However, I found myself drawn to the discussion, and made my response to the idea of character education:
I don't mean to be a downer, but I have never been of the school of thought that thinks that something as intrinsic and God-given and parentally bestowed as character can be taught. Behaviors can be learned, but that is not character. consider any celebritant who is a "role-model in front of the cameras, but when they hit adversity (which does not teach character, but reveals it) they show their true self. Character is simply the responsibility of the parent... Now, I won't have these kids until they are 14 and 15, and they will have their character by then, but many of them don't know their character, and people (namely teachers) misinterpret their behaviors for their character. Character is not built in the schools, and if you are trying, then you are trying to reteach something that they have ingrained in them already. The military claims to build character. However, all they do is shatter all your previously learned behaviors, and indoctrinate you with new ones. My daughter is 2.5 years old, and I am proud of the character i see in her, and her spirit as she continues to try at things that scare her, and make her uncomfortable. To presume something like character can be taught in the school is funny to me, and I have seen many try. But call it what it is... an attempt to create new communally learned behaviors.
I don't mean to be a downer, but I have never been of the school of thought that thinks that something as intrinsic and God-given and parentally bestowed as character can be taught. Behaviors can be learned, but that is not character. consider any celebritant who is a "role-model in front of the cameras, but when they hit adversity (which does not teach character, but reveals it) they show their true self. Character is simply the responsibility of the parent... Now, I won't have these kids until they are 14 and 15, and they will have their character by then, but many of them don't know their character, and people (namely teachers) misinterpret their behaviors for their character. Character is not built in the schools, and if you are trying, then you are trying to reteach something that they have ingrained in them already. The military claims to build character. However, all they do is shatter all your previously learned behaviors, and indoctrinate you with new ones. My daughter is 2.5 years old, and I am proud of the character i see in her, and her spirit as she continues to try at things that scare her, and make her uncomfortable. To presume something like character can be taught in the school is funny to me, and I have seen many try. But call it what it is... an attempt to create new communally learned behaviors.
26 June 2009
Inclusion Discussion
This was a discussion question for my current class I'm taking through the University of Phoenix, and my response:
From what I have seen over only a few years working in Special Education, the pros of inclusion have much do do with the social interactions and growth that are available to out exceptional students, and the cons tend to go along the lines of how our students presence or behaviors can become a distraction to the general populations learning environment. In other words, inclusion helps those we work with, and it hurts those we are trying to include our students with. I know this is a gross generalization, and you guys can argue instance after instance where the general ed. students were positively effected by an exceptional student. However, these moments come at the expense of the gen.ed. teacher being able to direct and drive a class in the way they normally do, and it comes at the expense of a structured teacher being able to exert such structure on classes that include exceptional students. By default, we are asking the general population to make exceptions and concessions for our exceptional students. And I will be the first to say that the positives that inclusion provides our students with is proceless, but how has it hindered the general population? Do we even care about the loss of focus, or the constant distractions, or the missing structure that happens in these classes? Do we even care as Special Educators? Are our students that mush more valuable than the general population? How can we help bring a happy medium into these inclusion instances where the student is a distraction, but they need the social interactions that the class offers? How can this be reconciled?
What are the pro's and con's of inclusion?
From what I have seen over only a few years working in Special Education, the pros of inclusion have much do do with the social interactions and growth that are available to out exceptional students, and the cons tend to go along the lines of how our students presence or behaviors can become a distraction to the general populations learning environment. In other words, inclusion helps those we work with, and it hurts those we are trying to include our students with. I know this is a gross generalization, and you guys can argue instance after instance where the general ed. students were positively effected by an exceptional student. However, these moments come at the expense of the gen.ed. teacher being able to direct and drive a class in the way they normally do, and it comes at the expense of a structured teacher being able to exert such structure on classes that include exceptional students. By default, we are asking the general population to make exceptions and concessions for our exceptional students. And I will be the first to say that the positives that inclusion provides our students with is proceless, but how has it hindered the general population? Do we even care about the loss of focus, or the constant distractions, or the missing structure that happens in these classes? Do we even care as Special Educators? Are our students that mush more valuable than the general population? How can we help bring a happy medium into these inclusion instances where the student is a distraction, but they need the social interactions that the class offers? How can this be reconciled?
21 June 2009
Fall 2009 Student Teaching Assignment
I recently was contacted by the Tahoma School District in Maple Valley, Wa (where I am currently working) in regards to my student teaching assignment/placement for the Fall of 2009. I am ambivalent about this placement, but more on the excited side than not. Before this year, i was working for two years in the Lake Washington School District; specifically in Sammamish, Wa at Inglewood Jr. High. There I worked with the same group of kids and coached the the general population for two years. I was starting to feel some stability there, and build some connections with the young staff I worked with.
However, I was on the bottom of the seniority pole when last Summer rolled around, and was told that I did not have a position. I could have done like I did the year befre, and took an IA position in the building untill a para position opened up, but for one reason or another I resubmitted an application to Tahoma that night at about 1am just to see if there were any openings. I was called the next day on the position I have just finished with. I was as an IA for the Alternative Education program in the junior high school. It was the first year the program would be in the school. Even though they wanted someone who would be around for more than one year, they chose me because I have a calm demeanor with kids, and would be able to help them with whatever subject matter they brought to our classroom. I was also a lot like Kenn who was piloting the program. We got along better than a 28 year old Af-Am and a 60(I think) year old Caucasian should.
This was a great year, and I really enjoyed living only 15 minutes away. I did have the chance to be a chaperone for a Relay for Life event in Sammamish for many of the kids I taught and coached up there, and wanted the chance to return there. However, since my wife and I are expecting child number two in november, it makes more parental sense to remain close and take the Tahoma placement. So I am looking forward to this because I will be working with expelled special education kids, and 18-21 year old special education students who are transitioning out of a school environment into an independent setting. So, for me, this Summer could not end fast enough. I just want to start teaching.
Stay tuned for more, and be sure to check back when the school year gets going again.
However, I was on the bottom of the seniority pole when last Summer rolled around, and was told that I did not have a position. I could have done like I did the year befre, and took an IA position in the building untill a para position opened up, but for one reason or another I resubmitted an application to Tahoma that night at about 1am just to see if there were any openings. I was called the next day on the position I have just finished with. I was as an IA for the Alternative Education program in the junior high school. It was the first year the program would be in the school. Even though they wanted someone who would be around for more than one year, they chose me because I have a calm demeanor with kids, and would be able to help them with whatever subject matter they brought to our classroom. I was also a lot like Kenn who was piloting the program. We got along better than a 28 year old Af-Am and a 60(I think) year old Caucasian should.
This was a great year, and I really enjoyed living only 15 minutes away. I did have the chance to be a chaperone for a Relay for Life event in Sammamish for many of the kids I taught and coached up there, and wanted the chance to return there. However, since my wife and I are expecting child number two in november, it makes more parental sense to remain close and take the Tahoma placement. So I am looking forward to this because I will be working with expelled special education kids, and 18-21 year old special education students who are transitioning out of a school environment into an independent setting. So, for me, this Summer could not end fast enough. I just want to start teaching.
Stay tuned for more, and be sure to check back when the school year gets going again.
01 June 2009
Special Thanks to the UoP Learning Team
I want to make sure that the Learning Team who put this together was recognized for their hard work on the information below on Traumatic Brain Injury and Visual Impairment resources. Below are the members of the University of Phoenix Online SPE 566 class, which was taught by Patricia Axtell.
Joe Brazier
LennyDoerfler
Sylvia Durnan
Amanda Laughlin
Nichole Williams
Joe BrazierChristina Swingle
LennyDoerfler
Sylvia DurnanAmanda Laughlin Nichole WilliamsGreat Job everyone. All the valuable information below is now accessible to anyone and everyone thanks to your efforts.
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