C4T #1 Summary

My assigned teacher's name is "Ira David Socol".

C4T Post #1

The idea that education should be centered on four thought is both positive and negative. The idea that a school should have “one ethos” is extraordinary. As a future teacher, I hope that I can create an environment that my students will embrace. I have found that the majority of students do not come to school to learn new material. Learning falls short to sports, extra-curricular activities, and friends. I hope when I have the opportunity to teach in my own classroom that I can help my students duplicate the qualities that they learn in these “other” activities to the material I must teach in my classroom. However, I believe that the idea that education should have an “open culture” is a little more complex. All the testing that education requires today only hinders the process of education. We are so busy preparing for the test that we forget to teach students things like teamwork, honesty, and integrity. We focus to much time and thought into making sure that we have a “common core”, that we forget to focus on the fact that no student is the same. All students learn in different ways at a different pace. The idea that education should have “many paths” is so relevant right now. Every high school graduate is not going to go to college. In my high school graduating class there where about 20% of us that went to college. Everyone else learned a trade and went to work. If we want our students to succeed we need to accept the fact that they are not all the same, and furthermore will not have the same future plans. Last and maybe most important is the thought that education should have “many tools”. Students today know more about the technology in a classroom than the teachers. If we want our student to succeed in this world we must emerge ourselves in the tools that are available. Overall, the idea that education should have “one ethos, open culture, many paths, and many tools” is something every educator should take to heart.

C4T Post #2

What does your school look like? I have never really thought about that question. In Ira Socols newest blog, she communicates just that. There are two questions we should ask ourselves about our schools. First, what is the point of your school? Of course the right answer to that question sounds very simple. We want to educate our students in such a way that we will give them the most success. However, carrying out the answer is not quite as simple. What do we teach them? How? When? Who? Where is the line drawn? Is there even a line anymore? Mrs. Socols describes how when schools were built, they generally looked like and were run like the world around them. Maybe that is where the problem lies. I know for a fact that the high school I attended looks nothing like the rest of the world. The second question Mrs. Socols asks is what is the user experience of your students? In my short experience with education, I have come to agree with this question. Students respond to everything, both the good and the bad. Maybe if we thought more about our students and less about how traditional it is, then we could compete with education systems around the world.