What I already know, will need to learn, and how I believe I will put it all together.

I already know a few things about teaching, most of which has been learned through my classes in the past couple of semesters as well as my own experience as a student and my experience through field work. I know that the career that I have chosen is one that will give me great reward and understanding, but at the same time will challenge me as an individual and as a teacher. The journey that I will embark on as a teacher will be one of the most difficult of my life, but I believe it will have a positive outcome.

However I will need to learn a few things before I go on this journey. I will need to build upon the teaching methods, which I am already familiar with as well as learn new strategies for keeping the interest of my students. I will need to learn how to cope with different problems I will be faced with as a beginning teacher, and also try to understand the demographics of the area I will be teaching in. Further more I will have to learn more about myself, as a teacher. It is a new identity for me and I want to make sure that I understand the role before I try to play the part.

Finally I will learn everything I need to know through out the rest of education here at Montclair State. I do not believe that the classes I will take can prepare me for what will actually happen but in the mean time I will try to take everything away from them that I can. I believe my real learning experience will come when I do my student teaching, and into my first year at a new job. I feel that everyday for me is a new learning experience that will somehow be able to help me when I enter the classroom.

Inquiry Project Details

For my Inquiry Project I am working wit three other classmates who also happen to be Art Education Majors. Our Inquiry Questions is, what is the impact that the Arts have on Academic Achievement?

Through Researching this question we will also discover:
1. How art has impacted students personally and in their educational experience.
2. If students felt that they had enough art classes.
3. If an art class or art teacher has influenced him/her to see their academics in a different light.
4. If art has improved students learning abilities.
5. If art class have helped as students with self-identity or expression.

This research will be conducted through our time at Arts High School as well as through personal experience, and our readings.

NCLB Good and Bad

I think that NCLB does have some good things about it. Although up until the last class I did not believe that there was anything good about it, I am trying to make some sense out of the situation. One of the beneficial things that I found about NCLB is the quality of the teachers. I think that this is something that is very beneficial to students. I think that it is important to have teachers that are highly qualified in their area of content simply so you do not have any person with a degree running a classroom. This part of the act makes it a little more challenging for someone to become a teacher which I believe will impose a more challenging atmosphere in the classroom.

The next part I would have to say that I found interesting is the standardized testing. I can’t say that I complete disagree with testing students to make sure that they are learning what they are being taught. However what I do disagree with is how the tests are created and administered. The tests that are being taken currently by students are way to standardized, the test should be created by the teachers doing the teaching, and what says that they tests have to be given in this completely secure format. If tests were more relaxed and didn’t place so much stress on students maybe test scores would improve. Although it was hard for me to do, I did manage to find some good in NCLB, but overall I think that there are many revisions that need to be made.

Annotated Bibliography

Smithrim, Katharine, Upitis Rena (2005). Learning Through the Arts: Lessons of Engagement. Canadian Journal of Education, 28, 109-127.

This article examines the effects on student achievement with an art education approach. The study samples over 6000 students and also gives us information from parents and faculty. The data was collected over a period of three years through involvement in Learning through the Arts. The study found no immediate differences in achievement however at the end of the study the students who participated scored significantly higher on computation tests then students in the control schools. The conclusion to the article deals with the results that took place and also gives an explanation to why researches believe that this experiment was successful. It then goes on to give suggestions for extending the research that has been presented.

In reading this article I was able to gather significant details that I will be able to apply to my inquiry project. This article puts in perspective not only a well organized research project that was used to gather the data, but also states that there is a positive relationship between the arts and the effect they have on learning. This information will be help with my inquiry project where I will be examining the relationship between arts and academic achievement. As a future art teacher articles that will help to show a positive relationship will be useful.

Public Education and Citizens

The role of public education and creating citizens is something that can be greatly debated. I think that public education has a large part in creating citizens that we see everyday. It is the job of the public schooling system to teach our students how to be good citizens as well as what it actually means to be a citizen. All of this includes but is not limited to the way our government and justice systems works as well as how to act with in a community in order to create and reimburse good citizenship. If children are taught at a young age about democracy and being a part of it, it will help them in the future to act responsibly as a citizen.

They types of citizens that I feel we need in this changing society are citizens that are more understanding of democracy as well as citizens that are well aware of their community and are willing to help. If we can teach our citizens to be more outgoing, within a smaller area such as their town or community then maybe eventually it will help to fix bigger problems.