How Do You Know?

Making the decision on what you want to do for a career can be one of the biggest challenges that you may face in life and I know that it has been a big one for me as well.  All my life, I've known that I wanted to pursue some sort of profession that involved me working with students, whether they'd be in grade school or undergraduate students.  After being in college for four years and changing my mind several times, I would say that I've finally reached a conclusion on what it is that I want to do, which is becoming a guidance counselor!  Although I am VERY happy to of made a final decision on what I want to do with the rest of my life as a professional, I really think it would of been helpful to have been given questions to ask myself for guiding myself in the right direction.  I strongly believe that many of us have some kind of direction that we know we want to be in for our lives, the part that we are unsure of is where exactly we want it to take us.
After reading the article, "Why Teach", by Herbert Kohl (attached below), I have come to realize that this is a wonderful source of information for anyone who is unsure of what it is that they want to do for a profession, particularly if they are interested with working either with some kind of demographic of students or with children in general.  Kohl provides a lot of questions for one to ask themselves including ones that I never thought to ask myself like, "Why exactly do you want to work with children", which can really lead one to finding what field they want to go into if it's involving recreational activities or becoming an educator for children.  Another one that really stood out to me was "What do you want from children", this is a question that I never really thought to think about myself and asking myself this really made me understand why I know that becoming a guidance counselor is the right career path for me! Among many other questions that Kohl provided for one could ask themselves, one last question that stood out to me was "What do you know that you can teach to or share with your students?".  Although my plans are not to become a teacher I know that I'll still have students as a guidance counselor and honestly asking myself this question helped me a lot as well because it made me realize that what I have to offer for students is good advice giving and the ability to give children the proper push to get themselves in the right direction.
I really truly enjoyed reading this article and I really believe that it can be beneficial for anyone to read, regardless if they're going into the academic field for their career, it has a lot of valuable information and it's extremely valuable for teachers to read as well since it also gives them many different perspectives of teaching and allows them to think about where exactly they may want to work too!
Source: Why Teach - Herbert Kohl.pdf

The Issue on Micro-aggressions

You may be wondering, "what exactly is a microagression, and how the heck do they affect me?".  Well if I do say so myself, I think you'd be surprised to know that they affect pretty much all individuals on a daily basis.  

According to psychologytoday.com, "Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership." (psychologytoday.com).  

The website offers many different examples of microaggressions that aren't just limited to race like many believe they are narrowed down to but they also include ones about religion, women/feminism, those with learning exceptionalities, and members of the LBGT communities.  

Here's one example specifically regarding sexual orientation, "A young person uses the term 'gay' to describe a movie that she didn't like" (psychologytoday.com).  It's quite easy to tell that the hidden message is the young person used the word gay, without the term being used properly.  I felt that this really related to the article from rethinkingschools.org, "One problem is that many people- children as well as adults- do not believe that justice is worth fighting for.  One cannot assume an idea or cause will be embraced merely because it is just, fair, or compassionate." (rethinkingschools.org).  I strongly believe that this brings up a great point about how it's really hard to teach this portion of Social Justice since it's used so frequently even when we don't even realize it.

I can remember when I was in high school and I was in a Social Justice class and we were discussing the use of the "N" word and I can easily recall when some students were saying that it doesn't mean anything when they use that word, it's all about the evolution of it.  Thinking back on it now as I do want to work with high school students, it really breaks my heart to see that this is such a challenge for students to understand that there is an issue at hands and there needs to be something done about it.  I think personally the best way to solve this issue is by working to make our students become activists and little do people know, there are plenty of ways to do so!  

Down below is a diagram on the simplest and easiest ways of becoming an activist and I believe that they really fit into what the Social Justice article was saying about how to teach social justice.  For example, one of the suggestions are to be open to try anything.  So having a day in the curriculum dedicated to teaching about different cultures in the the classroom would be very beneficial since the students would be given the opportunity to learn about different kinds of people in a stimulating and hands-on kind of way!  And this really relates to how the Social Justice Article talked about giving students the chance to participate and experiment with each other in terms of their differences and such.  

Although micro aggressions can be a subject that is hard to teach, I do strongly believe that it can be done if we as educators work hard to make our students become activists so that they'll promote the end of the use of micro aggressions!  I hope that you'll all join me in this task!!

Sources:

http://www.one.org/us/2013/10/17/infographic-29-ways-to-be-a-better-activist/

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.asp?path=archive/15_02/Just152.shtml

social justice pdf read this

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201011/microaggressions-more-just-race

How to use environmental education!

According to http://www2.epa.gov/, "Environmental education is a process that allows individuals to explore environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment.  As a result, individuals develop a deeper understanding of environmental issues and have the skills to make informed and responsible decisions."  With this proper definition of Environmental education and the past research that I've been exploring about the topic, I feel as though I have a nourished understanding of what it is and the importance of it being used.  From thinking about my past experiences of being taught at school and doing research on the amount of Environmental education being used in public schools, I really do notice that it's being lacked in that area and I really feel as though it does not have to be that way!
According to http://www-personal.umich.edu, activities for young students like having a scavenger hunt in the winter where the students have to find things like finding specific birds, paw prints, berries, pine cones, flowers, and pieces of trash.  So it's pretty easy to see that implementing Environmental education into a teacher's curriculum is not as difficult as it may seem!

Another activity that the website suggested was for teachers to have their students create their own gardens at school.  Giving students the chance to make their own garden with one another would help them to understand important concepts like how vegetables are created which can lead them to having a deeper appreciation and propensity to them as well.
So in my opinion, with these activities listed above, it's clear that using Environmental education is extremely beneficial and can have a lot of value to it.  I think that we as educators should try and work hard to implement this aspect of education into our curriculums because I really feel as though by doing it, it'll create a better generation of learners who enjoy trying to make the world a better and healthier place, especially since the world is in a state of danger with global warming and all.

Can We Have Steiner Join Freiro at the Bank

When thinking about the different kinds of education, I'm very sure that a lot of people do not think about the name, Rudolf Steiner.  Little do people know, Rudolf Steiner is actually an education philosopher who created the approach of Waldorf Education!

Until I began doing research on the different kinds of educations there are out there to offer, I had no idea that this even existed and I know that numerous of my peers and colleagues didn't know what it was as well, so I feel that there needs to be more information shared about this theorist and his wonderful approach to teaching!

According to whywaldorfworks.org, Steiner also created a different way of thinking on what it exactly means to be a human being, which was called anthroposophy.  Anthroposophy involved giving people the chance to learn about each endeavor they will end up facing through all fields such as drama, science, education, agriculture, economics, religion, and so much more!  Steiner truly believed that humans needed the opportunity to apply some kind of creative aspect into everything that a student learns from, meaning that sometimes when learning about science, students will be asked to write a song on what they learned.  Something else that really stands out to me about Steiner's theory is that he believes that the core responsibility of the teacher is that they are supposed to be able to guide every student to grow their soul and spirit.  As someone who wants to go into guidance counseling, I would say that is my own ultimate goal as well for the students that I'll be working with, I hope that I can help them to feel as though they are confident and comfortable enough to take on any journey that life has to bring to them.  I also personally think that Steiner's theory is very in touch with what I believe should be incorporated into a child's learning so that their minds can bloom into the most that it could possibly be.  I really enjoy the fact that he believes that education should involve incorporating all aspects of life that there really is out there in the world as mentioned before. 

On the other hand, another theorist named Paulo Freiro came up with another approach to education and teaching in which is known as, "The Banking Concept of Education", AKA, the Banking Concept.  The overall idea of the Banking Concept is that teachers are designed to be the "narrative" or also known as the subject and the students are the "patient listening objects".  The Banking Concept sums up that Education should be a form of just depositing education, it's the job of the teachers to get their students to memorize in a mechanical fashion, the subjects being taught and it's the students job to deposit the information of which the teacher is giving to them. 

I strongly believe that the Banking Concept does not fit whatsoever with Steiner's theory of education.  I believe this particularly because his theory really revolved around making humans to be the best that they could be in all different kinds of aspects and I feel that Freiro's theory focuses more on getting as much information into a student's mind and that it has little regard to wanting to make humans the best that they can be wholly.  The idea behind Steiner's theory really focuses on teachers being there to help guide their students in a very humanistic manner.  Freiro's theory really does not since there was a lot of mention about oppression along with that since it's very mechanical and repetitive. So while the Banking Concept does clearly have a somewhat valuable aspect to it, it really lacks the humanistic approach to it and therefore really just does not fit with Steiner's theory and we cannot have Steiner join Freiro at the bank.

Citation:  freire_the_banking_concept_of_education.pdf
http://www.waldorfanswers.com/RudolfSteiner.htm
http://www.whywaldorfworks.org/02_W_Education/rudolf_steiner.asp

My Educational Philosophy

I personally believe that for a teacher to understand themselves as a teacher and how they will end up succeeding as a teacher best, they must know what their educational philosophy.  Although I'm not completely sure how common it is for teachers to know, but finding out what their own personal philosophy is actually quite simple.
I really enjoyed taking the Educational Philosophies Self-Assestment a lot to do with the fact that because as I was taking it I could see where my personal philosophy was most likely going to align.  According to this assessment, my philosophy is humanism and that is ironically exactly how I describe knowing what one's own philosophy does to them. A humanist is someone that enjoys learning based on the ability get the most from one's personal growth and succeeding to be the best person that they can be.  Some of the beliefs that are included in this is believing that one can create and control their own destiny, at in the end all people are good and can some how make the world a better place, that one's behavior is based on one's choices, and more.  Believing in this philosophy also entails believing that there can be unlimited growth within one's self and that one will continuously and naturally try to learn as much as they possibly can.
Personally, I really think that this belief really not only aligns with me as an educator but also a whole person.  I've always tried doing my best and never giving up because I always have believed that there is so much to learn and that learning is really never ending either.  When comparing this to the chart in the McNergney textbook, I must say that I feel as though it doesn't at all have any discrepancies between what I feel was my original idea and what I got for my self-assessment.  Partly the reason why I think it was really easy for me to understand that this philosophy aligns with what I believe as a teacher is because with every experience I've had in life, I've always tried to make some kind of learning experience from it to better myself as in individual.
I think that what this orientation mainly implies is that if I were to ever be a teacher, I would really be focused on having my students work hard to grow as much as they can as a student and as a person.  I think that I would always be encouraging them that no matter what they go through in life, they

should always do their best in whatever happens to them because in the end they'll make it through.