Chapter 2 Reflection

Chapter two discusses that there is a real need for change in not only the interaction between students and teachers, but school itself.  The design of high schools has been the way it is since before any of us have been alive.  There has been so much change in the world, and yet schools are still the same as they are when I was in school and my parents, too.  Heck, even my grandparents.  I am so much different then my grandparents, and my students are so much different than my parents.  Technology has had so many advances, that it is crazy to think that they way my parents were taught Algebra is basically the same way I taught my students last year, aside from calculators. The chapter describes that we are not meeting the needs of our students in the public system.  That is why so many charter and magnet schools have developed. Schools must offer more choice when it comes to what is being taught and how it is being taught.  School design must also change.  There is constant change occurring, and schools are stagnant.  Schools are built to last--which is understandable, but when instruction is ever changing, who knows what shape schools will need to be in the next 10 years.  If classrooms were more malleable then different types of instruction could occur.  I foresee the first transition to this is movable furniture at least.

In my classroom I received a 21st century classroom grant.  The majority of this grant provided technology, but I also got new classroom furniture.  I had tables and chairs with wheels.  That was awesome because when students were grouping or moving, then they were comfortable.  They weren’t dragging self contained desks across the room.  They weren’t awkwardly sitting with uneven surfaces to write on.  That small change made collaboration easier and more comfortable.  That’s what schools need, and students want. This chapter also discusses that change is always met by resistance.  People get comfortable where they are, and they don’t want to do a drastic change because there is so much that is unknown.  A favorite response of mine when I go out to talk to teachers about change is, “I did it this way, and look at me.  I’m successful!”  And I agree to a point.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  But I, and many others will argue that it is broken.  Students aren’t the same as they once were.  I am different that my colleagues, and I do things differently.  It doesn’t make either one of us right, but It shows that there is gap in age as well as how things are done.  I am far from an ideal teacher, but as research, and this chapter, says, I am newer to the profession so I am not as set in my ways.  I believe that students need to speak more and interact more.  I know they can research and come to conclusions with little help from me.  I am also scared about the transition though.  There are so many variables that must be taken into consideration when it comes to this transition, and all the weight feels like it falls on the teachers.  People need to get on board and be on the same page before a huge transition can occur, and that is the current struggle.