The Individual Student

"What is the role of the individual student in your class room?"

When I read this question, the first response that popped into my mind was that the individual student is the most important aspect to the classroom. The individual student is why we are teachers, why we feel passionate to do what we do, and the reason the class exists. It is hard, at the same time, to constantly have that perspective when the classroom is made up of about of 25 or so individuals. The pressure to keep the class running smoothly and to get everything accomplished within the allotted time give a day, is what makes the focus on in the individual student to be blurred at times. Never the less, individual student needs to be where our attention is.

Countdown Paper: TSOTN 1-6

5). After reading in Kozol one thing that stood out to me was how apparent segregation still is within the school system even after bills and laws were passed. I believe his main points are the bring awareness to the poverty level that surround us and the issues that follow. In chapter 3, he addresses how strict the curriculum is and how teachers are bound by the material that they teach because of the low tests scores in the schools. I certainly agree with his mindset to bring awareness to the fact that just because segregation is “against the law” in no way means we have conquered the issue. I believe his goal is to bring universal awareness through his experience and documentation in the New York school dristrict.

4).

“I had visited classes that resembled this in Cuba more than 20 years before; but in Cuban schools the students were allowed to question me, and did so with much charm and curiosity, and teachers broke the pace of lesson plans form time to time to comment on a child’s question or to interject a casual remark… What I saw in Cuban schools was certainly indoctrinational in its intent but could not rival Mr. Endicott’s approach in its totalitarian effectiveness” (Kozal, 68).

“Teachers in a school like this have little chance to draw upon their own inventiveness or normal conversational abilities… any digression from the printed plans could cause them problems if a school official or curriculum director happened to be in the building. … The pressure this imposes upon teachers to stick closely to the script leaves many with uncomfortable feeling of theatricality” (Kozol, 71-72).

“Anxiety, for the children, was intensified, according to a fifth grade teacher, by the ever-present danger of humiliation when their reading levels or their scores on state examinations were announced” (Kozol, 73).

“When I said I still did not quite get the point of what this word itself was supposed to mean, a boy name Timothy explained it in this way: “Mastery means the number of words that you can master in five days.” Which was, I learned, the span of days that was assigned to each sub-unit of the scripted plan” (Kozol, 83).

3).

Emulated: to try to equal or excel; imitate with effort to equal or surpass.

Vigilance: state or quality of being vigilant; watchfulness.

Allegedly: Represented as existing or as being as described but not so proved; supposed.

2).

One of the passages that stood out to me was when Kozol was addressing the way the teachers must follow their agenda strictly. I have noticed this in some degree at the school I currently T.A. at. The reading program that is funded for the school is to be followed with a script and for a certain amount of time a day. I can see the strain it puts on some teachers and the joy it takes out of language arts. The intention of the program is wonderful, but I think over time it has turned into a job or a chore to teach language arts and has taken the passion out of the subject for the teachers.

I also was able to see when Kozol talks about the pressure to do well in school and how I have seen that same anxiety in many public and private school districts. There is so much pressure put on by the state testing and the goal to improve those scores that learning in the higher grades becomes skewed. The scores from testing becomes the focus instead of the learner and what he or she is obtaining on an individual level.

1). What is one way that Kozol would suggest that we as teachers could integrate the material without sticking so strictly to the curriculum, if that was an option.

Education today

The question to answer is "one thing that is working and one thing that isn’t working in education today."

From my short amount of time observing these past couple years, I would say it is very difficult to get everyone involved in the child's life on the same page as far as education goes. I say this because the children I have worked with here have a very inconsistent schedule when it come to home life and where they attend school. I do not want to lump every child into the same category, but for the majority of the students this is how it is. I also am aware this an extremely difficult problem to even begin to address, but a problem at that. While we as educators are to bring consistency to our children, we also expect children to act a certain way when sometimes they are being torn in two completely different directions. This is not an issue that needs an "overnight fix" but it is also not something to be overlooked because it is "too complicated".

On the other hand, I have also observed teachers these past few years and their passion for what they do. I think as a whole teachers have begun to take on the responsibility and the challenge of truly wanting each child to succeed. One thing that has stood out to me in the classroom is how well the teachers I have worked with, manage their classrooms. It truly does make a huge difference when there are expectations for the students each day when they walk into the classroom. Whether it be to put their homework in a specific location or for them to be expected to do their best, I have seen a great deal of pride from each student I have worked with. They are proud of the hard work they do and they receive that praise they need from their teacher.