Envisioning

Question 1 

While there may be varying opinions about how to educate students and what material to actually teach, educators everywhere can agree that teachers workload is increasing at an unmanageable rate. Too many individuals go into the profession only to leave the field several years later. Greene (2011) explains, Paying heed to the repetitive drumbeat of current concerns–for professional development, standard-setting, authentic assessment, an enriched knowledge base, technological expertise, teachers cannot but occasionally ask themselves to what end? (para. 6). Some have argued that teachers need to earn higher salaries (like doctors) if we really want quality teachers in the workforce. Do you really think increasing salaries would increase teacher performance? Some owls suggest that offering higher pay would convince individuals of strong work ethic to pursue the field while others may argue that the familiarity of the field turns many people away. Would the prerequisites in becoming a teacher need to become stricter in order for the field to be competitive and therefore desirable?

References

Greene, M. (2009). Teaching as possibility: A light in dark times. In Critical pedagogy in uncertain times (pp. 137-149). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Question 2 

Greene, M. (2009) states that I is obvious that arguments for the values and possibilities of teaching act withing the presently existing system cannot be expressed through poetry, even as it is clear that the notlon of teaching as a possibility cannot simply be asserted left to do persuasive work (p.342). Education is linked to socialization and culture; it aims to develop individuality that can respond to specific social dynamics or realities. The students have been enclosed in the ideal and social-political agendas reducing their possibilities to a future of hope and believing that the only thing they need is to work hard for a retirement that they will see after over 65 years old. Also, most of the students go to school because it is a requirement, but after they live the school building, they do not interact in the society as individuals that are in the process to be academically professional; that situation happens because the schools are only fulfilling students to be economically stable. Hardly ever are taught how to keep high moral ethics values because they can strive for excellence no matter their low-income families. Every day in the classroom, I hear students using some expressions that are not appropriate for the context, and I say them Hey! I know that in the future you will be a great professional and those expressions will come out othomatically from your mouth and you will regret it Some of them say: Uhhh, you are always taking care of how we talk, the fact is that we come from a ghetto and we are treated a crash even by our families; those words are painful, some students walk-in our classroom with not hopes and just waiting to survive another day. What could we do from our classroom and lessons to show our students a world of possibilities?

References

Greene, M. (2009). Teaching as possibility: A light in dark times. In Critical pedagogy in uncertain times (pp. 137-149). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Question 3   

In chapter seven, Refocusing: Critical Consciousness/Conscientization or Patricia Hinchys Finding Freedom in the Classroom, I read about her life-changing college experience with one of her undergraduate professors. She mentioned how this professor planted the idea and seed to primarily first-generation college students to travel outside the country and explore the world. Hincheys, along with a few of her other classmates, snickered and snuffed at the idea; however, this idea is what began her own critical consciousness. Hinchey (2010) stated, as if we were the kind of people who traveled abroad. As if we were the kind of people who would ever have enough money for such extravagance (p. 113). It was disheartening to read this because I could relate, and Im sure some of my high school juniors and seniors can too! I realize as an educator, I have the power to influence and change lives; however, what more, if any, can educators do to help their students see their own greatness and potential?  

Reference

Hinchey, P. (2010). Finding freedom in the classroom. Peter Lang