Blog 6

Blog 6: Education Philosophy Chart

Philosophy	Approximate Date	Key Figure	Short Description	Application in Today’s Classroom
Essentialism	1930’s	William Bagely	The purpose of education is to learn specific knowledge in core academic subjects such as math, science, literature, and history. Teachers must teach the key parts of these subjects so students have access to this basic or “essential” knowledge.	I think teachers today teach the key parts of each subject in a way so students understand what the key parts are and how to build greater knowledge independently upon what they have learned.
Perennialism	1980’s	Mortimer Adler	All knowledge or wisdom gathered over time is represented in great works of literature and art as well as religious texts.	Teachers discuss great works of literature with their students talking about what they have read and what the reasons they were written may be.
Progressivism	20th century	John Dewey	Stresses active learning through problem solving, projects, and hands-on experiences.	Teachers will use their student’s strengths to guide them into learning more independently to discover new things on their own through their own experiences.
Social reconstructionism/ critical theory	20th century	Paulo Freire	Social and political reform through observing social problems and what needs to change.	This is probably mostly used in high school where teachers challenge students to be critical about social injustice and dispute oppression.
Existentialism	19th to mid-20th centuries	Soren Kierkagaard Jean Paul Sartre	Students seek what their place in the world is by making all the decisions involving their choice of subject matter and activities.	I don’t know of many places where the student makes most of their own decisions about what they want to learn besides college. I do see some of this philosophy in classrooms when teachers guide their students to make their own decisions about what is or is not important to know.

Blog 5

Nicholas Matuszewski

Educ. 361

Blog 5

9/20/11

Blog 5: Rules for Teachers

            It was very interesting to see what the rules were for teachers in 1915 and 1872. The rules that teachers had to follow were almost like prison rules. It’s hard to believe that anyone would even want to become a teacher with these rules in place. The rules in 1915 and 1872 were focused on pretty much just the teacher while the rules today are more student focused. Today the rules are about what is expected of how teachers should teach and how they should treat their students while the old rules had really nothing to do with how to teach, just how a teacher should dress and follow the rules.

            I feel that there are some hidden or unwritten “social rules” for teachers today. Some of these rules that I think exist are that teachers are expected to be professional, help other teachers when possible, and create a positive and successful learning environment. Teachers are expected to be professional at their job yet have fun while doing so. When teachers are too strict in their classrooms the atmosphere in the classroom changes to one where the students don’t really want to be there. If there is a teacher struggling or if another teacher asks for some help then I feel that the other teachers are expected to help others if they can. It may not be written in black and white what teachers are expected to do to create a good learning environment in their classrooms. This is left up to the teachers to do. If a teacher wants to be successful they will try to turn their classroom into a positive and knowledgeable place where students will want to learn and be there when they enter the classroom. To me the teachers that make up schools are part of a team that does what they can to the best of their abilities to educate their students as best as possible.

Why I Want to Become a Teacher

Nicholas Matuszewski

Educational Autobiography

Educ. 361

9/19/2011

Blog 4: Why I Want to Become a Teacher

            My wanting to become a teacher began in high school when I volunteered for an in-school program called Project Charlie. It was a program designed to help elementary kids feel good about themselves and enjoy school more. Helping these young kids and seeing them become better students gave me great joy and a feeling of making a positive difference in their lives. The more time I spent with the kids the more I wanted to become a teacher and role model for young students.

            Seeing all the problems that schools and students are faced with only makes me want to become a teacher even more. I see students that get into trouble a lot being dealt with inefficiently. This makes me want to find the best way to handle these situations. I cannot help much with things that happen outside of the classroom but I do want my students to feel safe, comfortable, and part of my classroom environment. My goal is to create a positive and successful learning environment for all of my students. This is easier said than done but I feel confident that I will be able to achieve this when the time comes.

            There are many students who struggle in school. This bothers me a bit making me want to get these students to become successful students. I volunteer at a place that helps students who are struggling in school become leaders. We also help them with their homework and with school subjects they are struggling in. Most of these kids have bad backgrounds which makes helping them very difficult. It has been a great learning experience trying to figure out what the best way to teach these kids is. The most difficult part is getting the kids to show up for all the sessions. We will be making big progress with these kids and will lose basically all that we have accomplished with them if they miss a few sessions. These kids really need help with school and sometimes just someone to talk to. Helping these kids and watching them become better students and a better person has given me the desire to continue with helping kids. By becoming a teacher I will be in a better position to help these types of kids/students.

            Becoming a teacher is not about making the big bucks or having summers off. To me it’s about giving young people the knowledge to create a good future for themselves and possibly for many others as well. I welcome the challenge of making this a reality. Seeing struggling students only makes me want to become a teacher even more.

School Climate/Culture

Nicholas Matuszewski

School Climate/Culture

Educ. 361

9/12/2011

Blog 3: School Climate/Culture

            It’s hard to describe the culture/climate of my elementary, middle, and high school because they were all basically the same due to the fact that they were all in one connected building. Grades K-6 were in the elementary part of the school and grades 7-12 were together in the high school part making middle school virtually non-existent. My school consisted of K-12 starting from my 3^rd grade year because of the high school burning down when I started Kindergarten. I was in a dimly lit basement of a Lutheran church for 1^st and 2^nd grade and only had the luxury of playing on the nice big playground at the elementary school when we went there for lunch.

            Once I was in 3^rd grade the high school was almost finished being built. There were a few months where we had some class time with the 4^th graders. I don’t ever remember there being any students during my elementary days that weren’t Caucasian. There were many Native Americans that lived in the surrounding areas but they attended other nearby schools. Not being exposed much to other cultures but our own really blinded us at a young age on other races. We knew nothing much about other cultures and races making only what we hear from older people what we believe to be true. It’s a good thing that much of this went away as we got to high school but I am sad to say that many negative things were still said and I get angry sometimes just thinking about how growing up like this was.

            The one thing that stands out to me about elementary school was how popular the rat tail was. This was having a long tail in the back of your hair. It’s funny to think back at this knowing how cool it was back then but how goofy it looks now. Elementary was a lot of fun but did get out of hand once in awhile like when the rivalry of Laona’s two little league teams got a bit out of hand during recess at school. Boy did we get in trouble but after it was all said and done we did what any other 5^th and 6^th grader would do………laugh it off.

            Since my school is a bit non-traditional I will call my 7^th and 8^th grade years my middle school years. These years felt like pre-high school years. We were in the same area as the high school students but the one thing that separated us from the high school students was sports. We participated in the homecoming celebrations and other festivities but were still looked down as the wimpy kids who don’t belong.

            The 7-9^th grades hung out together during lunch time in the gym. This was mostly because nobody was old enough to drive to go anywhere and we weren’t allowed on the playground area when the elementary students were there. Since we were in a small town with not many places too even go, we really had no choice but to pass time conversing with others in the gym. The first African-American student I went to school with was when I was in 8^th grade. This was the only time in my entire schooling in Laona that I had anybody that was a different race as a classmate. This didn’t last long though because his family moved after the school year ended.

            Being in the same place as high school it was a bit weird in 7^th and 8^th grade. It kind of felt like we were just stumbling through these years to get to 9^th grade and officially be in high school where your grades, education, and class matter. We tried hard to fit in but realized that if we just did our own thing and stayed out of the high school student’s way it worked out best. It was a relief to finally be done with 7^th and 8^th grade and officially be high school students.

            When we finally reached high school we felt like we were on top of the world. We thought we were awesome and the coolest kids around. What we realized was that high school was hard and required a lot of work. Competition between the grades was always great when they happened. It was amazing how much everyone supported each other for sporting events or any other event that may happen both good and bad. My cousin was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease (a very beatable form of cancer) and after he started losing his hair our whole basketball team shaved our heads to support him. His treatments kept him from participating in the two sports he loved basketball and especially football during his junior year.

            Our enrollment was so small that we had to co-op with another school in some sports to have a football, baseball, softball, and wrestling team. We had great camaraderie when we played with this other school and it also made for a good rivalry in the other sports we weren’t with. We also had a tradition at the end of the school year where we had a softball game that involved selected people from each high school grade and a team of faculty. This was always great fun, very competitive (especially against the teachers), and played on the last day of school.     The teachers in high school were all very nice and more than willing to help you if you needed it. It was a very friendly environment and seemed pretty much like a small community. I have to admit that there were a few not-so-good teachers who were smart but couldn’t teach worth a darn. There were two really good teachers that were great in high school, Mr. Gile who taught Math and Mr. Wolf who taught Science. I was sad when Mr. Wolf left to go teach at East De Pere because the person who filled in for him when he left wasn’t smarter than a 5^th grader, no lie. It was a Physics class and we didn’t even open the Physics book once. The education I got attending Laona High School was for the most part really good but it fails to even come close to the type of education a student can get in a bigger school.

Teaching Metaphor

Nicholas Matuszewski

Teaching Metaphor

Educ. 361

9/12/2011

Blog 2: Teaching Metaphor

Being a teacher is like an NFL quarterback. They lead to keep the students/players on task. They guide the others to learn from example, their own mistakes, and on their own. When the teacher/quarterback are on the same page with their students/teammates then it makes it easier for the teacher/quarterback to lead their students/teammates to an understanding/touchdown.

Educational Autobiography

Nicholas Matuszewski

Educational Autobiography

Educ. 361

9/12/2011

Blog 1: Educational Autobiography

            Whenever I think back to my first day of Kindergarten I always remember how excited yet nervous I was to ride the school bus for the first time. I was attending C.L. Robinson Elementary school in Laona, WI. It’s hard to forget seeing the town’s high school on fire and burning down while I was riding the bus to school on my first day. At first I didn’t know what was going on, but later on in my 1st, 2^nd, and 3^rd grade elementary years I would realize how this would affect some of my learning.

            I remember walking in to class feeling lost and out of place simply because I didn’t know who this foreign woman was. At first she was scary but as soon as she spoke she had this comforting and caring voice that instantly made me feel comfortable. Because of the high school burning down and the new one being built the first and second grade classes were relocated to the basement of the Lutheran church in town. This learning environment was way different than at the elementary school simply because we were in a basement with dull lighting instead of the big windows that let all kinds of natural light in at the elementary school. It was also weird that we had to get bused over to the school for lunch and then bused back after lunch/recess. It was exciting to finally get to go back to the elementary school once the high school was finished but I remember how odd it felt having parts of class with the 4^th graders. It was a good thing this lasted only a few months.

            4^th grade was a grade I can easily forget because the teacher was so strict and had a voice that made you cringe when she talked. However there was this one day in 4^th grade that I laugh about when the unforgettable memory pops into my mind. The greatest day in 4^th grade for me was when we had a substitute teacher one day. It’s not just because we had a day where we didn’t have the grouchy teacher it was mostly unforgettable because this substitute teacher was HOT! All us boys looked at each other, smiled, and we all knew that this was going to be a great day, but we also knew it stunk because we would never see our lovely substitute again after that day. 

            5^th grade for me was where my wanting to teach elementary probably started and I didn’t even know it at the time. I was terrible at doing my math homework and my teacher, Mr. Neilitz, tried everything to get me to do it. He was a super teacher and I regret not doing my work as I look back to that year. He pushed me and stayed positive with me even when I kept slacking off with my schoolwork. Any thought of my school days brings back that awful smell the came from the barf cleanup bags which was used when a student threw up. 5^th grade was when I was introduced to this lovely smelling stuff. To this day the thought of that smell makes my stomach churn a bit.

            Going to school in a small town meant that pretty much everyone in my class was all friends with each other because of the small class sizes. There were only a few years through my K-12 schooling days where there were new students so my friends all stayed the same throughout. I guess a person could say that we were like a small family going through school and hanging out a lot together.

            There was this program in high school called Project CHARLIE where some of us high school students would go to elementary classrooms and teach kids about being good students. This program was basically an anti-bullying and a promoter in positive self-esteem program. This is where my flame for wanting to teach grew and I will never forget how important participating in this program meant to me.

Hello Educ 361'ers

I hope I will figure out this blog thing since it's completely new to me. It should be easier than Educ 280!!!