Erin Bucheit

Inquiry-to Curriculum Project

EDL 318 Section C

The experiences and background of your own life that make up who you are:

Growing and up and even until now I have always been the nice, quiet, and
shy girl. Ever since I can remember I was shy and nervous around others and it took
me a while to warm up to people I did not know. Even now I think I am shy, but I
think I have changed and have seen growth in myself. A lot of my growth can be
contributed to my growth in my confidence. I would say I started to come out of my
shell a little bit more when I was in my senior year of high school. During my senior
year of high school I took a class called teacher academy, my teacher was Mrs. Merz,
and she has been one of the biggest teacher influences I have ever had. She is what
you would think of when you think of a teacher. She always understood, treated us
as equals, and was there for all of her students. Her enthusiasm for teaching was
great and she showed us a great example of a teacher. When I took teacher academy,
it was two periods long and my classmates and I spent a lot of time together. From
this resulted more than just a group of students in a classroom, but a family-like
environment. All of us were comfortable with each other and could just have fun.
This allowed me to break out of my shell and start to build my confidence. Mrs. Merz
is my favorite teacher that I have had and I aspire to be a teacher like her one-day.
Not only was Mrs. Merz my teacher influence, but also the environment she made
for us each day was my influence. The environment made me feel as if I could
succeed and as if I was capable. Throughout my senior year I could feel my shyness
fading and that only continued when I came to Miami University. Of course I am still
shy and I think I will always be shy because it is a part of me.
From the experiences I have witnessed in these last couple of months I have
realized how fortunate my life is and was as a child. From going on the Middletown
tour and watching the 20/20 video on poverty, I realized how lucky I am and that I
should not take the small things for granted. The life I live now I would say is a fair
one, my parents are not rich, but they are not poor, so my brother and I are very
fortunate to have the things we have and do the things we do. Seeing the life of
poverty from being in Middletown and watching the childrens life in Camden, New
Jersey allowed me to see how bad things can get and it has allowed me to reflect on
my own life and how I cannot imagine living the way those people do. I look up to
my parents for what they have provided for me in life and I one day would like to do
the same for my own children. My parents are great models of what a parent should
be and they help make up who I am. They are nice and thoughtful people and are
always thinking of others and I believe they have shaped me to be the same way. My
mom and dad influence me to be a good person and to try my best in the world and I
appreciate them for it.
Another influence I have had in my life that has led me to want to teach is my
family. Quite a few of my family members were teachers and I hear the impacts they
have made on students lives and I find it inspiring. When I was younger I would go
with my aunt to her classroom and she would give me different teaching materials,
and I would pretend I was a teacher and play school. At home I would get out my
grade book and take attendance of my pretend class. I have always enjoyed the idea
of being a teacher and now it is starting to become a reality. In the near future I am
going to teach my own class of real students and I will have to try and figure out
how to navigate all of the different responsibilities that come with being a teacher. I
started out this paragraph by talking about family and that leads me to the biggest
part of my life. My family is very important to me, we are all pretty close, and I
always enjoy hanging out with them. My family is a big part of who I am and I want
to take that idea and apply it to my future as a teacher. I want my future classroom
to feel like a nice comforting atmosphere, where the students can feel like one big
family.
The issues and challenges of poverty and race that confront educators:
What I have realized from the readings and experiences we have had so far
this semester is students come from all types of backgrounds and are all different,
which means teachers have to learn to accommodate and figure out how to meet the
needs of each student. One of the challenges I see as being most critical is how to
meet each and every students needs no matter the circumstance that they are in.
From watching the 20/20 video it was clear the children were not always having
their basic needs met, in regards to food and shelter, so if a bunch of students are
not even having their needs met then how are they supposed to learn and focus and
how can the teacher get them to do that. Going along with this, another challenge
that is critical is how educators should handle situations where students are not
eating, sleeping, or having their basic needs met. How should a teacher handle this
type of situation?
A big challenge that we as teachers face is actually making a change for our
students. This includes taking action and trying to better the education students are
receiving. This reflects the Sergiovanni article, Building a Community of Hope,
because he says you can have hope, but the only way to actually have it is by putting
a plan into action and actually doing something yourself to see a change. I
interpreted this as if we do not try and do something, then the things we hope for
will never happen. Along with this, I believe it would be a challenge for teachers to
maintain hope when students are in such sad situations. Also, it is a challenge to stay
motivated and hope for a change for the better to come.
One of the most critical challenges I see for teachers is how to find a balance
between all of the students in the classroom. Teachers encounter students from all
walks of life and all different backgrounds. Students may come from different social
classes, might be of varying races, might come from a different culture, might have
some type of disability, and are all different types of learners. This is a lot of juggling
a teacher has to do between students and somehow they are supposed to make it all
work. I think finding the right amount of balance between all students, but still
meeting all the students needs is hard, which is why it is a challenge. As I have seen
through my field placement, it is hard to balance students of varying ability levels
because some students are advanced and some are struggling, so somehow the
teacher has to figure out a way to differentiate activities for the differing ability
levels. Teachers, especially in schools districts with poverty-stricken children, have
to find the balance between teaching content and helping them deal with emotional
issues they may have from being in poverty and dealing with their personal needs.
Another big challenge for teachers is keeping their students motivated to
learn and to want to learn. All students have aspirations and dreams and as we saw
from the 20/20 video on poverty, regardless of living in poverty students want to go
to school and want to do well in school. A lot of the children in Camden had dreams
of what they could be and as a teacher it is a challenge for us to help students
maintain their goals and dreams. Teachers do not want to see students who are in
bad situations loose faith in themselves and in school. The challenge of the teacher is
to provide an environment where students can feel safe and can feel as if their goals
and dreams are attainable. It is important to see students have drive and to want to
go to school and learn.
One last challenge for teachers is to always keep curriculum relevant and
relatable to students lives. When there are students from poverty or from different
races in the classroom, it is important for teachers to make meaning of what they
are teaching so the student can understand. It can be a challenge for teachers to
bring information into the lessons that will be meaningful and purposeful for
students who come from a life of poverty. Teachers need to make the realization
that students might come from different situations and experiences than they do
and they have to figure out what the students go through and experience on a daily
basis.
An over-riding question based on the previous sections:
As a teacher leader, how can I meet the needs of all students when there is
variability between students socioeconomic status and cultures? How can I provide
effective and meaningful instruction when there are students who come from all
types of backgrounds and have varying levels of understanding based on where they
came from?
Method of Investigation:
While I am in field, there are several ways that I can gather information to
support my investigation. One of the best ways to gather information is by talking
with teachers and other staff members who know the school and the student
population the best. My cooperating teacher in field is very knowledgeable about the
school district and the students who go there. She is willing to talk to us about the
students in her class and their backgrounds. I know that she will be a big part of my
investigation while I am in the field. She is the most accessible to me at the school, so
she will be a big source for a lot of my information. In addition to speaking with my
cooperating teacher, I will also seek out information from a school administrator.
While in the field, I have another assignment for another class where we have to talk
to a school administrator. This would be a good opportunity to ask her about the
demographics of the school and the district as a whole. The administrator would
know a lot about what type of socioeconomic status and cultures the student body
come from. She would also know how they address students of different
backgrounds and cultures, like if any services or extra help is provided.
Another way I will gather information is by observations. I think a lot can be
learned just from observing students and how they work and interact with the
teacher and their peers. Also, observations are first hand accounts of what is
happening, there are no filters on the situation. The data is not swayed in any way
by a teachers opinion and I think it can be valuable. I will also note observations
between the teacher and the students, like how the teacher talks to the students and
gives directions. Does the teacher talk to some students differently than others?
Does she treat other students differently than others? Is she explaining tasks
differently between students? These are just some possible things to look for.
Another thing to look for is appropriate differentiations for students of varying
abilities and backgrounds.
A third way that I can collect information and data to support my
investigation is by looking at the work students are doing and seeing if it is all the
same or if it is different. Students success on work and assignments they do can
show a correlation between a students home environment and their success in
school. This is not always necessarily true, but it seems if a student grows up with
no resources and materials to use to help them while at home, then it is more likely
that this will effect the students capabilities and understanding in the classroom.
Another good source of information is to go directly to the children
themselves. Children are willing to open up about their lives and share information.
The approach to this method would be to have casual conversations with the
students and to not ask a lot of questions regarding students background. Usually
children will share information without someone even asking and it is better to have
students share information about their lives in their own way. They will say how
ever much they feel necessary. When students talk about their own lives it is easier
to get a picture of where they might live and what type of circumstances they live
with. A combination of all the methods for gathering information will help me obtain
the information that I need to support my investigation.