What is happening in the blogosphere???

• What unique struggles are you seeing in your blogs?

• What are some commonalities among your blog posts?

• How are these stories similar or different to what you are hearing in the media about school/teaching?

• What are people doing to counteract the problems your blogger is talking about?

• What could you do to help meliorate some of these problems?

What is happening in the blogosphere???

• What unique struggles are you seeing in your blogs?o NCLB ways to fix problems by ASKING TEACHERS!!!!!!!o Comparative education between US and Chinao $$$ spent on Wisconsin testing

• What are some commonalities among your blog posts?o Common Core/NCLB/policies, testing, lack of freedom for

teachers,

• What are people doing to counteract the problems your blogger is talking about?o They are taking drastic measures (hunger strikes, suicide, draw

attention, being vocal about the issues, labor strikes), teachers are sharing their stories/frustrations)

Jonathan Kozol

• Author and educator

• U.S. Civil rights & child advocate

• In 1964, Jonathan began teaching fourth grade children in the Boston Public Schools. His students staged a protest on the day in June 1965, when Jonathan was fired for reading his class a poem by Langston Hughes.

Paulo Freire• Brazilian educator and

philosopher

• Founder of critical pedagogy

Freire knew reading and writing were essential to liberation, especially since voting rights in Brazil were only granted to the literate. In 1961 Freire put his philosophy to work and taught 300 sugarcane workers to read and write in only 6 weeks. Drawing from the cultures of the people he taught, he used their current political context and its resulting problems as the curriculum. He blended critical theory with his teaching pedagogy to create a learning movement that was designed to liberate people and impart political change.

• Banking method of education: children know nothing and the teachers know everything – blank slates; the teacher gives information in order to have it given back to her (Dewey’s recitation)

• Education for liberation: “the process of humanization” (p. 109)

• Praxis = reflection + practice

Freire’s Thoughts on Education…

…similar to Dewey?

Standardization in schooling:

• The attempt to make teaching and learning processes, student performance or achievement, and students’ representations of knowledge conform to a narrowly-prescribed standard that reinscribes power to dominant cultural groups.

• Ken Robinson

What are dominant cultural groups?

• Dominant cultural groups are those segments of society that are often possess privilege and power and whose values and ideas are represented in social institutions, media, business, politics, art, law, etc.

• These views and practices create the ‘isms’ in education: o Classism (social class): the belief that one social class is better than others; dominant

cultural group = middle class. While middle class norms are considered dominant, the upper class possesses power in/over many social institutions

o Racism: the belief that one race is superior to another – dominant group in US = White

o Sexism: the belief that one sex is superior to another – dominant group in US = Maleo Heterosexism: the belief that one sexual orientation is superior – dominant group in

US = Heterosexualo Abelism: the belief that able-bodied people are superior to those with disabilitieso Linguicism: the belief that one language is superior – dominant group in US = English

Alfie Kohn

• Independent scholar and critic of the ethics of traditional schooling

• Watch an alternative to traditional assessment and learning: Mission Hill

Learn more about performance assessments:

• http://www.fairtest.org/performance-assessments-succeed-new-york

• http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2014/10/will_new_hampshire_provide_a_t.html

• http://www.edlawcenter.org/assets/files/pdfs/secondary%20reform/Kappan.PDF

• http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/196021/chapters/What_is_Performance-Based_Learning_and_Assessment,_and_Why_is_it_Important%C2%A2.aspx

• http://performanceassessment.org/consequences/collegeperformancestudy.pdf

• http://edaccountability.org/FEA-assessment-webinar926.pdf

How can I critique my partner’s philosophy of education?

• Does the paper state beliefs about the learner, the meanings of teaching and learning, the role as a teacher, the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to teach?

• Which beliefs could they expand upon?

• Do they discuss the reasons for why we should educate?

• Do they clearly articulate their ideas about the purpose, process, nature, and ideals of education?

• Grammar, typos, spelling, and run-on sentences

• Clear thesis statement

• Check metaphor usage

• Organization of thoughts

• Citations for quotes

• Check for contradictions

• In-depth thoughts; no broad statements