Week 6- Progress Log Task

Katie Forsyth
301149924

Summary and Response: Teaching from Within

Of all of the problems teachers can have within a classroom, the most influential
source of issues is that we teach who we are (Palmer, 1999, p.2) In his book Teaching
from Within, Parker J Palmer talks about the importance of teachers knowing who they
are first in order to be able to truly know their students. He further explains that when
teachers are having bad days it is important to dive deeper into the issue instead of
avoiding it. However a lot of educators dont reflect internally when situations arise, and
place blame on the subject or the students as the source of the tangle. Throughout our
learning of type theory I am more aware of what is required by a teacher on the path of
self- knowledge, and how important it is to managing and discipline in our classrooms. In
order to become a teacher that brings out the best in each of my students, I know I need to
figure out who I am first. Palmer (1999) expresses that the work required to know
thyself is neither selfish nor narcissistic, and that good teaching requires selfknowledge, therefore teachers need to explore their preference types further and take the
time to reflect on decisions/ influences from their type (p.3). This past year for me has
been a year of challenging and fulfilling self-reflection, I am more aware about the type
of person I am both in my business and personal life, and I am slowly understanding the
effect and influence I have on the people around me. I know that I understand only a
glimpse of who I am but it has been an interesting path to get to where I am now.
Next, Palmer (1999) speaks about how the teachers self-hood should become a
legitimate topic in education and in our public dialogues on educational reform (p.3). He
emphasizes how common it is that we forget to ask who when speaking abut
classrooms, curriculum, and learning. To delve into this area of the teachers self, he goes
on to outline three important aspects; intellectual, emotional, and spiritualstressing that
all three are equally important and depend on one another for wholeness (Palmer, 1999,
p.3). For his argument he defines intellectual as the way we think about teaching and
learningthe form and content of our concepts of how people know and learn, of the
nature of our students and our subjects. He defines emotional as the way we and our
students feel as we teach and learnfeelings that can either enlarge or diminish the
exchange between us. And lastly, spiritual as the diverse ways we answer the hearts
longing to be connected with largeness of lifea longing that animates love and work,
especially the work called teaching (Palmer, 1999, p.3).
The part of the passage that stuck out to me was the spiritual aspect and his definition,
especially when thinking about finding myself before being able to truly know my
students and my profession. The connection he makes between love and work is
something that is forgotten these days especially because of the hardships educators have
been put through. Being able to take the time to reflect on why we are teachers and
understand that it is who we are is so important. He outlines this when he states that the
more familiar we are with our inner terrain, the more surefooted our teachingand living
becomes.

The end of the reading is focused on how teachers should make a switch from
focusing only on the teaching aspect of their classroom to the actual learning that is
taking place. Students are capable of learning without the setting of classrooms, lectures,
etc. however teaching gives the students an opportunity to learn by creating the proper
conditions to do so. Palmer states that good teaching requires that we understand the
inner sources of both the intent and the act of creating said conditions. The passage as a
whole is trying to stress the importance of the who questions to reach educational
reform that is so badly needed, and more specifically, the question of Who is the self
the teaches? which he outlines to be the most fundamental question we can ask about
teaching and those who teachfor the sake of learning and those who learn.
Summary and Response: Motivation: Feeling Capable
In order to motivate students in the classroom, Raymond M, Nakamura outlines in
this article, the importance of consciously structuring the classroom for success rather
than failure. By placing more emphasis on the students self-perception when confronted
with negative, pessimist, or indifferent situations can help to encourage the students to
have greater aspirations in school. He then gives suggestions for ways teachers can
help their students succeed. Some that stood out to me were #4-- give students plenty of
time to practice before they move on to a new skill, I feel like there is so much pressure
to get through an entire curriculum in a school year that its hard to make sure every
student is understanding the material before moving to the next skill or subjecttaking
the time to make sure they understand it will help them be successful. This can be
accomplished by #6 of his suggestions, which is to schedule specific time blocks that
allow the students to take their time or work at their own pace. And the last one that
really stood out to me was to let students know that it is okay to fail and that failure can
be a wonderful opportunity for learning. This was stood out to me especially because it
is something I should remind myself in my everyday life as well, I definitely put to much
pressure on myself to be successful so I get down on myself when I fail, instead of trying
to learn from the experience.
The next part of the reading Nakamura gives teachers four examples of strategies
that can encourage success in classrooms. He gives examples such as; grouping students
based on high, medium, and low abilities of different genders, races, and ethnic groups,
as opposed to separating them just based on high or low ability. The second suggestion is
observing the students while working on tasks and search for strengths in each student,
and then publicly focuses on those abilities to motivate other students to want to
participate. The third strategy teachers could use to motivate success is by using a
variety of assessments to evaluate students achievement, including written, oral, group,
or individual projects, instead of just standardized testing. And the last suggestion
Nakamura makes is to use a variety of proven instructional cooperative learning
strategies, this forces students to not only become responsible for their own learning but
for the success of group members as well.

Answers to questions in Reading 1.5 Teachers, Children, and Science: Theoretical

Perspectives by Wasserman and Ivany
1. I fully believe that every child is different. There are so many factors and degrees
to which children are different, from learning type to ethnic and cultural beliefs all
that increase the difficulty of making sure that they are understanding the given
curriculum. I agree that having a curriculum that treats every child the as one
makes it impossible to learn successfully, the differences in these children should
be used as a way of promoting creativity and imagination, however forcing them
to all learn the same way can be detrimental to their own ways of learning, and
success in the classroom.
2. I believe that each child brings his or her life experience to each learning task, and
I do believe that students whose lives have been rich with experience need a rich
curriculum to challenger their interests, because those types of students would
easily become bored or lack the degree of difficulty to push them to success.
However, I somewhat disagree that children whose life experiences have been
meager and restrictive are even more in need of a rich curriculum. I believe that
the level to which these children need this type of curriculum is relatively the
same as children with rich life experiences, I think this because given these
students havent had the same degree of experiences, they may be more capable
of taking on more simple tasks and really succeeding in them.
3. I believe that there has to be a little bit of both learning styles in order to have
success in classrooms. For children to develop personal skills and meaningful
relationships the socially active environment gives them the best opportunities. It
also allows for extroverted learners to learn through interactions with others and
in-group settings. And on the other hand, there are positives to a curriculum that
insists on silence and isolation because introverted learners thrive in these settings
and it forces other students to have to follow rules and guidelines, which are
important lessons to learn as well.
4. I fully believe that a setting in which a student believes or are convinced that they
are going to fail is detrimental to their learning. Students should feel encouraged
to take risks and try new things while learning, especially since making mistakes
can be the greatest form of learning there is. Because each child has a distinctly
different and unique concept of self as a person and as a learner, curriculums need
to make students feel like they can be successful, or else they will be to afraid of
failure to try to learn, and to afraid to ask for help when they need it.
5. I fully believe that elementary school kids are action-orientated, and that hands-on
learning experiences are positive to students. Being able to see what theyre

learning and watch what theyve heard about in class actually happen will have
much more of an impact on what the child remembers.
6. I believe that sex differences do not influences a students ability to love science,
and that the curriculum should not be developed in a way that favours one sex
more than the other. For example, doing activities that may gross out girls more
than boys such as digging up worms and analyzing how they move, etc, all the
time allows for more hands on learning for the boys and takes away from the girls
learning, so making sure the girls are having the same type of learning such as an
interactive video on worms or a similar activity.
7. I strongly believe that most elementary-age children want and need to function on
their own power. I think it can have a very positive learning outcome for children
to learn through experience, giving students the freedom to learn by trial and error
or through the opportunity to do activities themselves will higher their self-esteem
and give them the confidence to take part in their learning. I agree that a
curriculum should encourage this type of learning, not take away from it.
8. I believe that students tend to interpret new data in terms of what they already
know, especially with hands-on situations, children draw from what they already
know about things and use that towards further learning. I agree that a science
curriculum can defiantly help to give children the opportunity to broaden their
experimental base and contribute to their conceptual frameworks. Science should
not be solely pencil-and-paper tasks, the children need to feel, see, and experience
what theyre learning in order for it to have meaning.
9. Children today are encouraged to learn through the use of computers, handheld
devices, and television shows, I think its important that kids are encouraged to
become active in their learning again. To increase childrens multisensory
experiences educators need to encourage the use of more hands on learning and
only use technological media when absolutely necessary.
10. I strongly agree with this. I think is important to encourage children to focus on
the now and use the science curriculum as a way of showing them that these
things are out there however they can do things such as recycling and saving
energy to ensure they have a future. I somewhat believe this will give children the
confidence that they can make a change and that they are in charge of what
happens in the future.
11. I strongly believe that students need to be respected and intellectually challenged
if they are to grow up developmentally sound. The respect aspect makes children
feel like they are being heard and have a say in their learning, which gives them
the confidence to participate in activities, and want to be involved. And students
need to be challenged in order to develop the tools and strategies to face
challenges later in life. Incorporating a childs idea in a curriculum will give
him/her confidence and allows them to share with the class and learn through
helping others.

12. I strongly believe in this idea that students must be actively engaged in sensing
and thinking activities. I feel like the child would learn best by having guidance
from the teacher while coming to their own conclusions and ideas about the
curriculum, instead of hearing the correct answer that the teacher found out and
told them.

References:
Nakamura, R.M. (2000). Motivation: Feeling capable. In Healthy classroom
management: Motivation, communication, and discipline (pp. 124-125). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.
Palmer, P.J. (1999). Teaching from within. In The courage to teach: Exploring the
inner landscape of a teachers life (pp. 1-7). New York, NY: Jossey-Bass.
Wassermann, S., & Ivany, J.W. (1988). Teachers, children, and science:
Theoretical perspectives. In Teaching elementary science: Whos afraid of spiders? (pp.
14-16). New York, NY: Harper & Row.