Update #1

Cydni Gardner

I am an education student at Brigham Young University-Idaho. I am studying Family and Consumer Science Education. The purpose of this Blog is to help me progress and see my progress in my teaching philosophy.

Learning and Teaching Metaphor

For my metaphor, I have chosen a well. In John Chapter 4 the points that I want to focus on are illustrated. It is my hope and prayer that with the Doctrines of the Gospel I will be able to have a foundation of principles and tools to build my teaching metaphor on. With a solid foundation of doctrines and principles and help from the lord, I hope that I will be able to bless the lives of not only my students but all those that I have the opportunity to teach.

 John 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

 John 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. (Sharing the knowledge with others.)

Well = Doctrine = Solid and unchanging. Vessel for knowledge, forever springing up.

Water = Principles = Encircled by the doctrines and brought to the surface by the tools.

Bucket and rope = Tools = These are what I will use to retrieve the principles that need to be taught. They can be used in various ways. Different people will use them in different ways. By bringing the water to the surface a person can "drink" of the principles and understand the importance of the doctrines (the well)

Retrieval of water = Desired results.

As I "beg, borrow and steal" from others my metaphor on teaching will be constantly evolving.

Doctrine / Principles / Tools

 “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” -Helaman 5:12

“The frame work of doctrines, principles, and applications can assist us in asking, seeking and knocking in such a way that we more effectively gather together all thing in one, in Christ-in the Dispensation of times.” pg.165 (Bednar)

Learning for oneself

-Stewardship

-Choice

-Action

-“The role of the teacher is to invite a learner to act in accordance with the truth by the Savior. A parent or teacher cannot push truth into the heart of children and young people. Our best efforts can only bring the message of truth unto the heart.” pg.70 (Bednar

-Become

-“The solution is not to “integrate” them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become “beings for themselves” pg. 244 (Paulo Freire)

Grit

-Sacrifice

-Hardwork

-“At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck around and walk and look towards the light , he will suffer sharp pains: the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which his former state he had seen the shadows, and then conceive some one saying to him that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision...” pg. 9(Plato)

Deeply Significant/Mastery Learning

-Real life experience

-“When our children’s school experiences are primarily about filling in blanks on worksheets, regurgitating facts from textbooks, writing formulaic five-paragraph essays, taking multiple-choice tests, and making the occasional diorama- that is, when they are devoid of opportunities to create original thought-we should expect the obvious outcome:children-and later adults-who are unable to think for themselves.” pg.649 (Steven Wolk)

-“We are gradually requiring of the educator that he shall free the powers of each man and connect him with the rest of life.” pg.175 (Jane Addams)

Everyone is a Child of God

-Sacrifice

- “Christ gave up everything, more than we could have on this Earth to come and be our teacher and we should “Follow His example”. He sacrificed everything we had to bring us to knowledge, “Sell all that thou hast and come and follow me”.  He did it because He loved to do it, with no thought of reward.” pg.(Catherine Beecher)

Infinite Potential

Learn by Experience
-Failure
“Is there anyone who denies that sowing and reaping need skill and experience? If an unpracticed gardened plants an orchard with young trees, the greater number of them die, and the few that do prosper do so rather through chance than through skill. But the trained gardener goes to work carefully, since he is well instructed, where, when and how to act and what to leave alone, that he may meet with no failure. It is true that even an experienced man meets failure occasionally (indeed it is scarcely possible for a man to take such careful forethought that no error can arise); but we are now discussing, not the abstract question of circumspection and chance, but the art of doing away with chance by means of circumspection.” pg.35 (John Amos Comenius)
The world is a classroom
-“I am convinced that nature brings the children....to a definite consciousness of innumerable objects.” pg. 90 (Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi)

Love

-Build a Relationship 

-“When [a] relationship is not made between teacher and student, it is not an acceptable educational situation...” pg. 306 (Imani Perry

Teach One Another

-Work Together

- “...the master therefore being able to instruct youth...” pg.51 (Massachusetts Bay Colony)

Action

-Agency

-“In the grad division of all God’s creations, there are things to act and things to be acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2: 13-14) . As sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, we have been blessed with the gift of agency, the capacity and power of independent action. Endowed with agency we are agents, and we primarily are to act and not simply be acted upon--especially as we seek to obtain and apply spiritual action” pg.3 (Bednar Ch.1)

Teach by the Spirit

Truth in All Things
Don’t create fear of the unknown
-“As soon as a child begins to take notice, what is shown him must be carefully chosen. The natural man is interested in all new things. He feels so feeble that he fears the unknown: the habit of seeing fresh things without ill effects destroys this fear. Children brought up in clean houses where there are no spiders are afraid of spiders, and this fear often lasts through life. I never saw peasants, man, woman, or child afraid of spiders.” pg. 71 (Jean Jacques Rousseau)

-Truth in secular as well as religious

- “It is necessary for man’s salvation that there should be a doctrine founded on revelations, as well as the philosophical sciences discovered by human reason.” pg.15 (Aquinas)

Essential Questions

Who am I and what motivates me?

I am a Child of God. God is my Father. That is what motivates me. I know that I have infinite potential and in order to be all that I can be I need to do all that I can to come unto and to become like my Heavenly Father. He motivates me through His loving guidance and support. I know that He believes in me and supports my righteous decisions. I know that I will have failures but that My Heavenly Father will be there to help catch me when I fall and encourage me to keep going. Knowing that with Him, no failure is ever permanent gives me the faith I need to keep pressing forward in my endeavors. The uncertainty of the future motivates me as well. I know that in order to succeed in this life, it will take hard work. I don’t know what tomorrow, or even the next hour will hold and for that reason I will do all that I can to prepare for the unknown, and with the Lord on my side, I can do all things.

How do I view those I teach?

The same way I view myself. Everyone is a Child of God and, therefore, has infinite potential. At the same time, however, I understand that no one is perfect and they will make mistakes. I understand that I can have an eternal impact on their lives for good or for bad. I understand that I am not the only influence in their lives. I understand that they are individuals and each individual comes with his or her own set of talents and trials.I understand that they are entitled to have a bad day. I understand that they need respect and love. I understand that we have to work together to accomplish our goals. I expect that if I do my job well then they will be motivated to do their best. I expect that they will try their hardest. I am their teacher not to make their lives easy, but to challenge them and help them grow.

What is my work as a learner and teacher?

My job as a learner is to “beg, borrow, and steal” from the master teachers that surround me. To try and do this job on my own would be a disservice to myself and to the students I teach. As a learner I will take the successful methods used by others and adapt them to fit my teaching style, particular class, and individual student.

My job as a teacher is to stretch the students. My job is not to assist them on their way to mediocrity, my job is to help them grow. My job is to push, stretch and compel them to be the best they can be. My job is to motivate them so they learn because they want to learn not because there is a reward at the end. My job is to prepare the students for the real world and give them experience that will assist them throughout their entire lives. My job is to build the foundation upon which the can build.

What is worth teaching?

Honestly, I think the better question is ‘What is not worth teaching?’. Everything, even the subjects we think we don’t like or can’t do, is worth knowing. All areas of learning have application to our lives. All subjects build on one another, without adequate knowledge of one creates the danger that the whole foundation will crumble. You can build on a certain topic/subject that is of particular interest to you but without the complete foundation you are more likely to fail. It is important to educate about good things. It is also important to educate about bad things. It is important to teach about right and wrong. It is important to teach religion. It is important to teach values, moral and standards. All of these things are important to know, but I think the thing that is most important to teach is self-motivation and self-regulation. When a person is self-motivated there is no limit to their knowledge or to thier potential.

How do I learn?

I learn by doing. I am not the ‘read it and know it’ type. I tend to need to be hands on when it comes to my learning. I love to have tangible evidence of my success. I have always had a hard time reading for understanding. I can read, know and remember the information long enough to do well on the test, but after the test I can seldom recall what I read.

I have to see importance and application to what I am learning. Sometimes I will do the work because I want to please the teacher or I don’t want to let someone else down, but, in order for me to really learn, I have to want to learn. I have to be intrinsically motivated to learn in order for me to give everything I have to learning.

I have to be free from distractions. I get distracted easily, so the further away that I can be from those, the better.

Upon what foundation are U.S. schools built?

I believe that the foundations upon which U.S. schools are built are competition, comparative excellence and numbers. At least where I grew up, we were always pitted against the other schools in the district and state. If out test scores were higher, or our sports team had a better record we were an ‘excellent school’. 

Also, if we collectively scored well on a standardized test then we were successful. I felt like all that really mattered was the test score. It felt like the teachers taught us only the material we needed to know for the test. I believe that some teachers did everything they can to provide a deeply significant learning experience but I think that as a whole the schools in America focus more on test scores rather than focusing on if students are really learning.

I believe that schools should be founded on the two tenants: It’s about them. Act, don’t be acted upon.

What is the role of school in society?

I think that the role of school in society today is much different then a few years ago. I think a lot of parents send their kids to school in the hopes that the school will teach their children morality and standards. I think that parents expect teachers to raise their children. Although this is wrong and these things should be taught in the home, society views home and family life as something of the past. Therefore I think that schools play a much bigger role in the lives of children, (who determine much of what happens in society and who are the future of society) then most people realize. I believe that school is where most students learn what is ‘right and wrong’, how to interact with others, what is considered normal, ideal, of unacceptable. School is where students make most of the their judgements about society and humanity as a whole.