Place Based Education/Environmental Education

This week we started talking about environmental education, which is a personal favorite of mine. I love the environment and helping keep it clean and well, and so I really love the idea behind incorporating that into education. I wanted to know just how much was out there that could help kids get involved.

The first thing I did was find a website about environmental education generally. This site is dedicated to this kind of education, and includes a lot of information. There are different programs, and conferences that are all surrounding this type of education. I thought it was a great resource.

I also looked at my own pin, as well as other students, and saw a lot of great ways to use the environment in the classroom. My own pin, which was a list of sites and books about it to help kids get into the idea, really included a lot of great stuff as well. It was This site that I used for my pin. And when you scroll down, the bottom has a variety of sites to use. My personal favorite was www.naturerocks.org, which has a bunch of fun outdoor activities for kids and families. I thought this was the best find about how kids can get involved, because it says that sometimes just simply connecting with nature is something that really gets your kids into knowing how important and wonderful the environment and nature is!

Waldorf Education

For my blog this week, I chose the theorist Rudolf Steiner (from which Waldorf education was based).

Steiner was an Austrian philosopher and teacher.  He was the thinker behind anthroposophy, which goes into the spiritual and intellectual world we live in.

"For the Waldorf student, music, dance, and theater, writing, literature, legends and myths are not simply subjects to be read about, ingested and tested. They are experienced. Through these experiences, Waldorf students cultivate a lifelong love of learning as well as the intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual capacities to be individuals certain of their paths and to be of service to the world."

I really like this perspective because it goes into a whole different "realm" of education. I like that more is put into making sure students find meaning in their lives instead of simply being bored in school. They dance and listen to music and focus on the arts. Education becomes something to be desired.

I do not think that Steiner would agree with the banking concept. The idea of the banking concept is quite simple. The students are the bank, and the teachers just put information (like money) into them. With beliefs such as " the teacher teaches and the students are taught" and "the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing" shows that it is very narrow minded. The Waldorf education system is more spiritual, with more about finding meaning in their lives. This approach is not just putting the students down as simple means to give information instead of a blossoming human being who needs to find their greatest ability in order to succeed. 

Sources: 

http://www.whywaldorfworks.org/02_w_education/

https://elearning.salemstate.edu/courses/935572/files/36551087/download?wrap=1 

Educational Philosophy

Educational philosophies are a major part of education and being able to see where you stand there is an important piece of being a teacher as well. I took this assessment and used this scoring sheet to assess myself in this area. I found, personally, that I scored the highest in Progressivism, reconstructionism and humanism. I think it's important for teachers to see where they stand on these different levels of philosophy and it says a lot about how they teach and what they believe. However, the accuracy of this kind of assessment may not be completely correct, but it's good for a ballpark estimate. I however did think mine fit somewhat.

When it comes to my specific teaching philosophies, I believe I would teach using a variety of different ones, as opposed to one single belief of education. I'd like to incorporate different ways of teaching and my expectations for students would be based on a variety of factors.