Blog 4

(Timeline Entry)

1845- Large scale testing in Boston changed from being oral to written. This idea would come obviously come to play an enormous role in my education. All my life I, like me peers, have been subjected to testing in this form and it has shaped the way that I study information to this day. Knowing how I am going to be tested on information has taught me the most effective way or studying, where being "effective" means scoring well on a written test. Actually now that I think about it, my experience with testing will more than likely impact the kind of teacher I become, whether I think I can improve a little on the concept or style of written tests or not.

I think it will be important for our writing group to stress what we believe are the best ideas in each other's papers first and foremost so we can know where our strengths are. Then we can get into the weaker areas where more information could be needed, or where a new idea might need to be introduced. The bottom line is i think we should offer suggestions of how to make things better and not only point out what we don't like.

Timeline 2

Ill probably include Aristotle. I looked some information up on him and heres the basic gist:
-Considered habit and reason to be equally important
-Thought Repetition was key
-Balance of theoretical and practical aspects of information taught
-Mentioned importance of play
-Goal was to produce good and virtuous people
Also Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile, Or On Education
-Education based upon helping "natural man" survive "corrupt society"
-"Rousseau acknowledges that every society “must choose between making a man or a citizen”^[9] and that the best “social institutions are those that best know how to denature man, to take his absolute existence from him in order to give him a relative one and transport the I into the common unity."
-While this sounds a bit extreme, it could be said that this concept is very much in line with the Jesuit ideal of solidarity.

Service Reflection #1

At service last week I didnt get a lot of time to spend with the kids but it was cool nonetheless. The teacher was very kind and went to great lengths to explain to me how she ran her classroom. The only one on one interaction was with a Rayanna, a girl of probably 7 or 8. The tacher asked Rayanna to come up to the front of the room where I was and then asked her take me over to the book shelf to get a book or two, suggesting a soccer one since she knew Rayanna liked soccer (which impressed me.) After we grabbed two books we picked out a corner and she started to read. She had trouble with some words but when I covered up the word with my finger and then revealed it bit by bit and had her sound out each section alone before putting them together she was able to read almost every word. Just this little bit was rewarding for me. No word on how it was for Rayanna.

I guess what stuck out the most for me was, again, the fact that the teacher knew Rayanna liked soccer. When I fantasize about teaching, trying to get to know the students is always something I think about. This teacher obviously has succeeded in this. Hopefully I can pick some ideas up from her.