If I Were a Music Teacher....

Imagine… you’re a new teacher and you walk into your classroom with rambunctious, rude children that are all on their cell phone and you try to keep talking to the class but they are too busy talking with each other to even notice you. Well that is how the new history teacher felt in the mockumeatary “Chalk”. In the end he went with the traditional ways of teaching that Friere talked about with the banking concept. Friere says in his essay, the Banking Concept of Education “On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which mirror oppressive society as a whole: (a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught (b) the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing (c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about (d) the teacher and the students listen- meekly.”  A lot of times in school you find that teachers try to control every piece of what students learn and how they learn by teaching by the book. I find this way of teaching boring and keep the students from being interested in what they are learning. If I were a teacher, I would break tradition and let students have control of what they learn in class by choosing what they learn in my classroom.

          

             If I were a teacher and could choose any subject to teach, I would be a music teacher because I feel music can add fun into anyone day. On the first day of class I would have non- classical music playing in the classroom when they walked in. it would be a song that the kids would know from the past year.  The student would sit down in the rows of chairs and begin to talk. I would stand in front of the class and smile then ask them to stand up against the wall. I would separate the people who were talking and set them back down in the rows. That takes care of the issue of talking right off the bat and lets students know that you are stern before you are fun. To introduce myself I would say my name and my favorite song and why. Then I would have the students do the same. I would write it in my notes.  I would then ask them songs that they want to perform in front of their peers and tell them that I am giving them full control of what we sing as long as it is appropriate. I would tell them that I am not like most music teachers and I want to teach them what they want to learn and mix technique into the song we love and still have little personality into the song. I would tell them “I don’t want the choir to sing stiffly on stage with no personality like you see the most the time. I want you all to have fun in this class and remember it because you had the control of choosing what you learned.”  I would also tell them that these privileges would be taken away if I was disrespected in class or there was too much chatter. Mr. Escalante did this in “Stand and Deliver” when he told the boy to leave the class because he wasn’t taking the subject seriously. Later the boy looked at what he had done wrong and cleaned up his act to be part of the class. Then I would have them write a list if the songs that they want to learn and write the song on the board and have the class vote one their favorite five and tell them I would have sheet music for them in the next week. I would also tell them that the concert is optional and is not part of their grade. I think that all grades should be counted only if they are during school hours and requiring student to do something after school is ridiculous because students may have something going on or do not have the resources to come, like uniforms. Also I would only want them to come if they want to be there because if they don’t want to be there. For the following days of the first week I would continue to connect to my students by listening to music, introducing them to my favorites, them introducing me to their favorite, playing games like musical charades and musical chairs, and trying to get to know them better while trying to break down the teacher student barrier slightly. My students would enjoy my class because for once they would fell in control of their learning in school. Acosta says in Arizona Bans “it was about whom we were, who our students were. Young people being empowered is scary to many people…” what Acosta says is true but I feel that students should have some power over their education so they know how to control their power when they are older and have to control bigger things in their lives like their job. It also gives them some freedom in school that they are not going to get with other subjects.

            To create a fun open environment that welcomes students in and makes they want to listen to what has to be said because students always seem to become interested in class when they are put in a welcoming teaching environment. I would also want a give and take relationship with the students where they feel I learn as much from them as they learn from me. I’ll listen to them and always give helpful feedback. I will always have a smile on my face when students walk in and not ignore them when they walk up to my desk. If I need a minute to finish something I will tell them. I will tell students that they are welcome to come in at any time and that I can always talk if they are having a problem, school related or personal. Students need to feel like their teacher cares about them and what they teach to their students. It is the main reason why students act out in class is because they are bored. My walls will not be white. They will be warm inviting colors that create the feel of an exciting environment. When I teach I will not just stand there I will move about the classroom and bring students up to the front and get them involved in what I’m teaching. If student do a good job of if they get in front of the class they should be rewarded. This can be with candy or stickers or just being told good job in a warm and sincere way. If a student does something wrong, they will not be looked down upon. They will be told what they did wrong and their mistakes will not be announced for the whole class to know.  Jerry large from the Seattle times says in his essay Gift of Grit, Curiosity Helps Kids Succeed that a big part of building character is overcoming failure and that if we don’t have failure then we will not have enough grit. While think that this is partly true I feel that just because we fail doesn’t mean that it has to be announced to our peers. I feel that is a mistake today’s teachers make because it makes students feel worse about them.

         

    I would know I was successful in my teaching if the students enjoyed coming to my class and looked forward to performing in front of their peers and actually go to the concert for their parents, unlike most student who are taught the traditional way and see the concerts as a joke and only come because it affects their grade. I would also know I’m successful if I hear from parents that the students talk about how much they like me or my teaching style and I see them again, whether it a visit or in my class the following year.

Works Cited

Aronson, Deb. "Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies Program." Ed. Natinal Council of Teachers of English. Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies Program (2012): 21-23. Web.

Chalk. Dir. Mike Akel. Perf. Troy Schremmer, Janelle Schremmer, and Sharron Haragan. Mockumentary, 2006. DVD.

Freire, Paolo. ""The Banking Concept of Education"" Pedagogy of the Oppressed. N.p.: n.p., 1970. Chapter 2. Print.

Large, Jerry. "Gift of Grit, Curiosity Helps Kids Succeed." The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times, 23 Sept. 2012. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramon Menendez and Tom Musca. By Ramon             Menendez. Perf. Edward James Olmos,Estelle Harris, and Mark Phelan.             Warner Bros., 1988. DVD.

paper 3 rough draft

Rough draft: how I would run my classroom on the first day…. add class readings and sources later :) 

A lot of times in school you find that teachers try to control every piece of what students learn and how they learn by teaching by the book. I find this way of teaching boring and keeps the students from being interested in what they are learning. if I were a teacher, I would break tradition and let students have control of what they learn in class by choosing what they learn in my classroom.

I would be a music teacher. To create a fun open environment that welcomes students in and makes they want to listen to what has to be said because students always seem to become interested in class when they are put in a welcoming teaching environment. I would also want a give and take relationship with the students where they feel I learn as much from them as they learn from me. I’ll listen to them and always give helpful feedback. I will always have a smile on my face when students walk in and not ignore them when they walk up to my desk. If I need a minute to finish something I will tell them. I will tell students that they are welcome to come in at any time and that I can always talk if they are having a problem, school related or personal. Students need to feel like their teacher cares about them and what they teach to their students. It is the main reason why students act out in class is because they are bored. My walls will not be white. They will be warm inviting colors that create the feel of an exciting environment. When I teach I will not just stand there I will move about the classroom and bring students up to the front and get them involved in what I’m teaching. If student do a good job of if they get in front of the class they should be rewarded. This can be with candy or stickers or just being told good job in a warm and sincere way. If a student does something wrong, they will not be looked down upon. They will be told what they did wrong and their mistakes will not be announced for the whole class to know.

            On the first day of class I would have non- classical music playing in the classroom when they walked in. it would be a song that the kids would know from the past year.  The student would sit down in the rows of chairs and begin to talk. I would stand in front of the class and smile then ask them to stand up against the wall. I would separate the people who were talking and set them back down in the rows. to introduce myself I would say my name and my favorite song and why. Then I would have the students do the same. I would write it in my notes.  I would then ask them songs that they want to perform in front of their peers and tell them that I am giving them full control of what we sing as long as it is appropriate. I would tell them that I am not like most music teachers and I want to teach them what they want to learn and mix technique into the song we love and still have little personality into the song. I would tell them “I don’t want the choir to sing stiffly on stage with no personality like you see the most the time. I want you all to have fun in this class and remember it because you had the control of choosing what you learned.”  I would also tell them that these privileges would be taken away if I was disrespected in class or there was too much chatter. Then I would have them write a list if the songs that they want to learn and write the song on the board and have the class vote one their favorite five and tell them I would have sheet music for them in the next week. I would also tell them that the concert is optional and is not part of their grade. I think that all grades should be counted only if they are during school hours and requiring student to do something after school is ridiculous because students may have something going on or do not have the resources to come, like uniforms. also I would only want them to come if they want to be there because if they don’t want to be there it shows on stage. for the following days of the first week I would continue to connect to my students by listening to music, introducing them to my favorites, them introducing me to their favorite, playing games like musical charades and musical chairs, and trying to get to know them better while trying to break down the teacher student barrier slightly. my students would enjoy my class because for once they would fell in control of their learning in school.

             I would know I was successful in my teaching if the students enjoyed coming to my class and looked forward to performing in front of their peers and accually go to the concert for their parents, unlike most student who are taught the traditional way and see the concerts as a joke and only come because it affects their grade. I would also know I’m successful if I hear from parents that the students talk about how much they like me or my teaching style and I see them again, whether it a visit or in my class the following year.

chalk notes

• teachers have non detailed lesson plans
• students get in fights
• PE teachers that are female and have short hair are asumed to be gay
• students skip class
• "i care about you" but teachers dont want to have a friendship
• teahcers bring up stupid phrases that students are not going to listen to because they are talking at the students not to the the students
• teachers work long hrs that effect personal relationships
• teachers being to strict about policy and teahceres that dont follow policy
• students dont take teachers seriously
• teachers walk out on students
• teachers help students gain confidence when they want them to perform better
• teahcers argue and talk about personal lives at school
• teachers dont always understand what teachers say so they make students act dumber so the teacher doesnt look stupid
• students make sexual jokes
• teachers try to make things lively
• teacher become interested in other teachers
• teachers get mad at student accidents
• teachers accuse other teachers of stealing and doing things they are not suppose to do
• teahcers bottle in feeling and talk to other coworkers about them
• tricking students into thinking that they are going to get punish by thier parents
• teachers ask about personal relationships of other teachers
• 6 out of ten kids walk away with a college education
• parents dont believe wwhen their kids do something wrong at school
• teachers dont like it when a student's cell phone goes off in class and sometimes over react
• teahcers lose the inspiration to teach and their job get to become a burden
• teahcers go out for drinks after work
• teachers talk about bad students outside of class
• teahcer of the year: teahcers that dont deserve it feel like they are better than the rest
• parents hit on teachers and try to help their kids by drinking with the teachers
• teachers argue about policy
• teachers have opinions about people in higher power
• teacher use students to get information on other teachers
• teahcers sit at desk doing nothing while students work
• teachers over react to small issues and yell at students for not saying the right thing when the teacher is not happy about something that doesnt even have to do with the student
• teachers do events for student entertainment
• teacher are willing to have a laugh with sudents  the last few minutes of class
• teahcers notice when other teachers are doing a better job

waiting for superman notes

·         teachers put on contracts that make bad teachers not able to be fired and they do the “lemon dance”

·         1 in 2500 teachers have lost their teaching credentials

·         “I get paid no matter if you learn or not”

·         23 public schools closed in New York

·         Students realize how much they are cheated in the school system when they go to college

·         Charter school let in 40 second graders with 729 applicants

·         25^th in math 21 in science (in USA)

·         USA students rank #1 confident

·         Students are put on tracks that determine their teachers based on test scores

·         Student are not allowed to be part of graduation ceremonies if parents cannot pay tuition

·         Students could learn math by memorizing a rap

·         Power switched from central offices to schools

·         You can have a great school until you have great teachers

·         Nothing will change unless you change the teachers

·         We know it’s possible to give every child a great education now we just have to establish that in all schools

·         Random lottery will select students at random…. Students that are not accepted are disappointed and sometimes cannot apply again

·         Put on waiting list so they still have a chance of being accepted but chances are slim

paper 2:The Role of an Educator- Ebert vs Hobaugh

All through our childhood we have teachers that we remember for different purposes. The ones that we have sweet memories of are the teachers who impact us in a way of making us a person who pursues their dreams.  My example for a great teacher is my eighth grade science teacher Mrs. Ebert and my example for my horrible teacher is my tenth grade math teacher Mr. Hobaugh. The role of an educator is to inspire the students that they teach.

            The way a teaches inspires us is by showing us that they love their job and always care for their students. Mrs. Ebert was the teacher that seemed to be everyone’s favorite for this reason. You would walk into her classroom and how much this teacher loved the subject she taught. There were fun colorful posters everywhere, weird items like sheep eyeballs and a coyote skull sitting on her desk, and a cabinet of animal bones and dried sea creatures on the left wall of her room. When she would stand up to teach she would be full of energy no matter how long the day had seemed. She tried to make sure that we all understood what she was teaching and not moving on until she knew we did. She used different and weird projects to have student’s present information to the class. One of the project was about the planets and a group did something that most students were not comfortable with… they did a remix of “You Belong to Me” by Taylor Swift that was all about Neptune. They came up with this idea after Mrs. Ebert had us listen to about the sun. The way that Mrs. Ebert got excited about this song inspired these students to go the musical route and was one of the best projects in the class. Mrs. Ebert was like Audre Lorde’s kindergarten teacher who always praise audre for her good work when she did something right and didn’t look down on her when she was wrong. Mrs. Ebert has the same mind set that students should mot be looked down upon for the mistakes they make but praised when they do some thing right.

            Mr. Hobaugh on the other hand is the complete opposite. He is the teacher you look back on and you cringe a little bit and feel bad for any of the students he will have in the future. He is a short hobbit looking man with a permanent frown on his face. He is a teacher who rushes through his work and will not slow down when his student tell him that they don’t understand. He tells them that they were not paying attention and that they should try harder. He follows very closely to the banking concept that Friere talks about in his essay “The Banking Concept of Education”. Friere says, “the solution is not (nor can it be) found in the banking concept. On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which mirror oppressive society as a whole: (a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught (b) the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing (c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about (d) the teacher and the students listen- meekly.” and along with going with the banking concept of teaching sometimes he doesn’t even know what he is teaching. One time he used Wikipedia to teach Pascal’s triangle and still didn’t make sure that we understood after he tried to understand it himself and then gave the class a quiz on it the next day.

            Teachers are also an inspiration when they motivate you. Mr. Hobaugh was a lazy teacher who expected lazy students. His class had no structure and half way into the year some students started having side conversation because they had lost respect for Mr. Hobaugh because of his laziness and the lack of a helping success kind of attitude. He would never motivate us to be better students because he never wanted to motivate himself to be a better teacher.

            Mrs. Ebert’s classroom was fun and chatty but we as the students always knew when it was time to close our mouths and listen because we respected Mrs. Ebert and cared about what she was telling us. The reason for this is because she was motivated to help each student succeed and would go out of her way to help if they were falling behind without losing connection to the rest of the class. She strived to be a better teacher and to help her students do their best in school. Mrs. Ebert shows she is like Mr. Escalante because she is willing to put extra time in her students like Mr. Escalante when he would stay with his students in the evening to help them with their AP calculus test. Mrs. Ebert will do the same after school to help struggling students know that she believes in them and is there to help.

            Another way that teachers inspire us is to tell us to chase our dreams no matter how big. Mrs. Ebert had the mindset that told us that we could do whatever we wanted to do if we put our minds to it no matter what obstacles stood in our way. She told us about what she dream of as a little girl and how she dreamed of being a scientist, when on field studies and worked in a lab before she decided to spread her knowledge with the middle school kids that she teaches today and would tell us that all of our dreams were important, would take the time to learn what our dreams were, and talk to us about how we could reach that dream. Mrs. Ebert is like Mr. Keating when Mr. Keating tells Neil to follow his dreams as an actor because he is great at it and it makes him happy. Mrs. Ebert would always encourage her students to follow their dreams no matter how big.

             Mr. Hobaugh was very much the opposite. Any “inspiration” he tried to give us was a sports analogy that we all couldn’t relate to because we all were not in sports but all his talks seemed to finish with the same basic message that we were all nobodies and could not successful in life unless we got a degree in engineering or sports because everything else was unimportant. He shot down any other views of success and called us all burger flippers even though he never took the time to actually get to know us and learn what our dreams were.  In the movie stand and deliver, the teachers had similar opinions of their students. Mr. Escalante would tease them about the same concept but he would mean it in a joking manner, “you’re good now, but you’re going to end up barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen!” Mr. Hobaugh approach was interpreted very differently because it did not ever seem like he was joking. He would say his beliefs with such conviction that we all knew he meant every word he said and some of us resented him for it.

            Mrs. Ebert is a prime example of an inspiring teacher who loves what she teaches, loves to motivate her students, and tells them to follow their dreams. She is a teacher any student would be lucky to have and is well loved by her past students. She follows the concept of my thesis because she follows the ideal image if an inspiring teacher. As for Mr. Hobaugh… get out of the class while you still can.

Works Cited

Dead Poets Society. Dir. Peter Weir. By Tom Schulman. Perf. Robin Williams, Rober Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, Gale Hansen, Dylan Kussman, Allelon Ruggiero. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, 1989. DVD.

Freire, Paolo. ""The Banking Concept of Education"" Pedagogy of the Oppressed. N.p.: n.p., 1970. Chapter 2. Print.

Lorde, Audre. "A New Spelling of My Name." Zami. N.p.: n.p., 1982. 65-73. Print.

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramon Menendez and Tom Musca. By Ramon Menendez. Perf. Edward James Olmos,Estelle Harris, and Mark Phelan. Warner Bros., 1988. DVD. 

rough draft for compare/contrasting teachers

All through our childhood we have teachers that we remember for different purposes. The ones that we have sweet memories of are the teachers who impact us in a way of making us a person who pursues their dreams. The role of an educator is to inspire the students that they teach. My example for a great teacher is my eighth grade science teacher Mrs. Ebert and my example for my horrible teacher is my tenth grade math teacher Mr. Hobaugh.

The first way the teacher inspires us is them showing us that they love their job and that they care for their students. Mrs. Ebert was the teacher that seemed to be everyone’s favorite for this reason. You would walk into her class room and how much this teacher loved the subject she taught. There were fun colorful posters everywhere, weird items like sheep eyeballs and a coyote skull sitting on her desk, and a cabinet of animal bones and dried sea creatures on the left wall of her room. When she would stand up to teach she would be full of energy no matter how long the day had seemed. She tried to make sure that we all understood what she was teaching and not moving on until she knew we did. She used different and weird projects to have student’s present information to the class. One of the project was about the planets and a group did something that most students were not comfortable with… they did a remix of “You Belong to Me” by Taylor Swift that was all about Neptune. They came up with this idea after Mrs. Ebert had us listen to about the sun. The way that Mrs. Ebert got excited about this song inspired these students to go the musical route and was one of the best projects in the class.

Mr. Hobaugh on the other hand is the complete opposite. He is the teacher you look back on and you cringe a little bit and feel bad for any of the students he will have in the future. He is a short hobbit looking man with a permanent frown on his face. He is a teacher who rushes through his work and will not slow down when his student tell him that they don’t understand. He tells them that they were not paying attention and that they should try harder. Sometimes he doesn’t even know what he is teaching. One time he used Wikipedia to teach Pascal’s triangle and still didn’t make sure that we understood after he tried to understand it himself and then gave the class a quiz on it the next day.

Teachers are also an inspiration when they motivate you. Mr. Hobaugh was a lazy teacher who expected lazy students. His class had no structure and half way into the year some students started having side conversation because they had lost respect for Mr. Hobaugh because of his laziness and the lack of a helping success kind of attitude. He would never motivate us to be better students because he never wanted to motivate himself to be a better teacher. Mrs. Ebert’s classroom was fun and chatty but we as the students always knew when it was time to close our mouths and listen because we respected Mrs. Ebert and cared about what she was telling us. The reason for this is because she was motivated to help each student succeed and would go out of her way to help if they were falling behind without losing connection to the rest of the class. She strived to be a better teacher and to help her students do their best in school.

Another way that teachers inspire us is to tell us to chase our dreams no matter how big. Mrs. Ebert had the mindset that told us that we could do whatever we wanted to do if we put our minds to it no matter what obstacles stood in our way. she told us about what she dream of as a little girl and how she dreamed of being a scientist, when on field studies and worked in a lab before she decided to spread her knowledge with the middle school kids that she teaches today and would tell us that all of our dreams were important, would take the time to learn what our dreams were, and talk to us about how we could reach that dream.

 Mr. Hobaugh was very much the opposite. Any “inspiration” he tried to give us was a sports analogy that we all couldn’t relate to because we all were not in sports but all his talks seemed to finish with the same basic message that we were all nobodies and could not successful in life unless we got a degree in engineering or sports because everything else was unimportant. He shot down any other views of success and called us all burger flippers even though he never took the time to actually get to know us and learn what our dreams were.  In the movie stand and deliver, the teachers had similar opinions of their students. Mr. Escalante would tease them about the same concept but he would mean it in a joking manner, “you’re good now, but you’re going to end up barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen!” Mr. Hobaugh approach was interpreted very differently because it did not ever seem like he was joking. He would say his beliefs with such conviction that we all knew he meant every word he said and some of us resented him for it.

Mrs. Ebert is a prime example of an inspiring teacher who love what she teaches, loves to motivate her students, and tells them to follow their dreams. She is a teacher any student would be lucky to have and is well loved by her past students. She follows the concept of my thesis because she follows the ideal image if an inspiring teacher. As for Mr. Hobaugh… get out of the class while you still can.

Banking Concept and Standarized Testing

Freire’s views on standardized testing is that it is not efficient for students because in today’s society we use a system called banking education which basically means that teachers teach a one way path that follows the standardized test. Students think more than one way which means that a kid that is smart could fail the standardized test because they don’t think in the form that the standardized test is written or may not understand the way that the teacher teaches the subject. Freire says “the solution is not (nor can it be) found in the banking concept. On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which mirror oppressive society as a whole: (a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught (b) the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing (c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about (d) the teacher and the students listen- meekly.” Freire would agree in a system where many methods are used and where students aren’t judged on how much they know through a standardized test. I agree with him because I do not believe that it is fair that special needs kids and students that do not know and understand English well are expected to do the same test even though they think a different way.