(photo credit, Thanks! Anonymous Lawson Middle School student, 2008)

The simple act

of checking in with members of this community is very uplifting and makes me feel more connected and aware in class. I had some good talks with fellow students tonight just about the program in general and how we are doing with it. Also, commenting in class is important for our collective sense of belonging and ownership, and not simply being receptors of information. This is a very important lesson for understanding the classroom. We need to create an environment where we are at first inspired to share ideas; past people's, our peers, and also our own. I think I am understanding this as my initial anxiety for returning to the classroom. I had personally never achieved this in a classroom through college and naturally had this view returning. It is for the teacher to create an environment that allows the student to open to it because it makes them feel good and more whole to participate in the sharing of ideas and feelings, thoughts and theories, about all aspects of life and living.

In my professional life(that is my life after college) I have always been one to get caught up in the systems issues of everything I have pursued. This is certainly no exception, and this reflection showcases this point exactly. Tonight I was feeling a strong sense that the most important thing for teaching is to alter the system of teaching teachers. kimo was talking about the funding issue in the public system and touting NU for being private and relatively un-effected by it. I do not believe the private system is the ultimate answer, but it is the answer right now for me. It is a damn shame that the ones getting swifter access to the teaching profession are the privileged few. Isn't this one of the reasons there are so few teachers in a diminished pool? The majority of privileged society does not value low pay, simple, devoted lifestyles. I think most people can agree with this. I'll use the shortage of math and science teachers as a perfect example. The choice between making a lot of money or a little money(plus numerous hardships) while going through basically the same amount of schooling, shows itself in the numbers.

It is almost not viable to become a teacher in the United States of America.

The U.S.A. does not make education a priority other than demanding it or feeling entitled to it. We are much less enthusiastic when it comes to thinking of ways to free up more time for it, or more money, or any other resource. However understandable the situation may be, we are shooting ourselves in the feet. I think teaching should be as easy as declaring your interest and starting to follow/apprentice with a teacher that inspired the revelation. Also, I think that education could benefit from reforming to also incorporate into the penal system, or really stemming off the penal system and taking the at-risk youth under the wing of a willing teacher and force them to teach what they know. In my onion, there is no better way to build respect for teachers and education than for people to stand up and give it a go with something they know.
The training of teaches should remain in the public system and be more integrated. That is education/teaching should revolve around itself, rather than be a product oriented one way system which is now relying more heavily on private institutions to produce teachers.
As you can see my mind was a bit absent from the rest of this class. I tend to plow into my thoughts a lot, which is something I am getting better at since the first class. But this was just too important and too temping for me to pass up. I hope to turn parts of this reflection into my core philosophy, which is

killing two birds with one stone.