Practical Teaching

     I could simply jumble and sort and rearrange words
from articles or texts or statements that others have
written in order to come up with an appealing
statement. But, I believe a better way to express
my philosophy of education is to discuss various
topics in education.

     I have spent a week or so preparing such a
discussion, with no guidance, other than my own ideas.
It is truly MY philosophy of education, then, using,
for illustration only, current newspaper articles that
are a part of my daily life.

     To structure the discussion in a practical way,
from the viewpoint of a teacher, I have organized
the topics into these five categories:

Classrooms
Teachers
Students
Classroom Management
Presentation of Topics

     Recently, I've been chatting about my project with
a colleague who introduced me to the Content Standards
(Note 1) and the Curriculum Frameworks (Note 2) of the
California Department of Education.

     What is most heartening, in my opinion, is the
striking congruence and alignment between my homemade
philosophy of education and the professionally
developed framework, both in structure and philosophy.

     This should not be completely surprising.  This is
where I've lived, studied, and developed my ideas.
But I WAS surprised.  Frankly, I expected just more
shallow, flaky nonsense and eduspeak.

     I am pleased at the congruence for several reasons,
one of which is very practical.  That is that I don't
have to put on a false face for a show of conformity.

     I feel that my approach was clear and practical,
yet there are many concepts and issues that I found
either too difficult to organize simply and easily,
or too delicate to discuss.

     However, I wish to make this website a rich
banquet of ideas.  Thus, having already established
that there is fundamental agreement between
my philosophy and the state's professional framework,
I will more clearly define myself and my philosophy
of education, using the Compare and Contrast method.

     I will taste various morsels of the educational
literature that are out there and critique and comment
upon them and, in so doing, define my educational
philosophy.

     Set a spell, put yer feet up and enjoy my homemade
soup of ideas.  Estas en tu casa.
 
Classrooms
Teachers
Students
Classroom Management
Presentation of Topics

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