Julie’s Blog

First and for most, what inspires me to be a better teacher is my students.  Only teachers know what it’s like to come to work late and have 17 individuals applause your arrival.  Their trust, love, honesty, reliance and confidence in me not only inspires me, but convicts me to give them what they deserve, [...]

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As I read chapter 12, I have been mentally preparing to administer the CRCT.  This year there has been a significant reduction in stress and anxiety associated with the test for me.  I am sure that this reduction has also transferred to and affected my students.  I was struck by the following quote at the [...]

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Thank goodness we do not live in China during 200 B.C.  The lens for viewing my teacher action research project and paper is a bit rosier after reading chapter 6.  Assessment is another example of the contradictory messages systems convey to teachers.  In one breath we hear, “PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS, PERFORMANCE ASSEMENTS.”    The next breath [...]

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Deficit theory is a means to attribute social and economic inequity by identifying deficiencies in the cultures, behaviors, attitudes and beliefs of disadvantaged groups.  Deficit theorists are guilty of making assumptions and generalizations regarding groups.  Just as educators have to dig deep within themselves to identify and sort out our personal issues with race and [...]

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By definition, transformative multicultural education seems the most simplistic of the six stages of multicultural school transformation.  However, it is the most difficult stage to realize.  I believe that this is true because it entails acknowledgment and sorting through of the most hidden and unconscious prejudices and biases of every individual concerned with the experience [...]

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It is so important to me when thinking about classroom management to remember two key factors.  First, I am managing children therefore my expectations must be appropriate.  Secondly, in regards to these expectations I must remember that motivation, morality and integrity are developmental components.  Just as cognitive ability develops differently in each child, likewise do [...]

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To begin, I found it ironically humorous that after I read the Goodman article in which he speaks so negatively regarding McGraw-Hill publications and those who endorse them, I picked up Teaching To Change the World and noticed that it was actually published by McGraw-Hill.  In the same way, I have found it ironically humorous [...]

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The second letter reveals Freire’s beliefs in constructivist learning theory.  He wrote about how a reader’s response to an author is like an exchange because the reader brings what he/she knows and believes to the text.  He also described the benefits of group readings in which several people discuss their interpretations of a given text [...]

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I drew several parallels between the circumstances mentioned in the article and issues that Georgia teachers contend.  First, the five day trainings in which teachers were to attend leaving their students in the classroom with substitutes reminded me of the initial Georgia Performance Standards training.  Teachers planned to miss up to eight days in a [...]

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What is the source of knowledge?
The source of knowledge for an individual is a combination of the outside world and how that is internalized by the individual.  This internalization is the variable component of the operation because so many factors, both external and internal, affect the way one internalizes anything.
Do you recognize your philosophy of schooling in any of those described? 
I [...]

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