It's the final countdow.....err, reflection!

And so, we've reached, the end... but the fun, will come, again...

For some reason the title got me into a musical mood, though based on the above I should never get into lyric writing.

Alright, so the final reflection. Let's see... Of the points that I would, point out for this course, I would say that collectively this course is one of the most thought provoking and engaging courses that has been offered by the M.Ed program. The topics themselves are interesting, but the allowance of discussion and breakdown of the material is what drives the course, and keeps us all engaged.

By each other putting in input and discussing what we know and comprehend in our own heads, I learned just as much from each other in the class as I have learned from the material presented. The one class that got me fired up, as much as it did last year, was the 2 million minutes. I don't know what it is about that video, but something about it pisses me off in the right direction. But just showing us that there is a system that works and it is located within a system that damn near broken beyond repair. By that latter system I am of course refering to the U.S. education system, if I was not clear on that, I apologize, profusely.

I am glad that I held off on this reflection, because through TFA, I actually went down to BASIS charter in Tuscon, and saw the learning in action. IT WAS RIDICULOUS!! It was college...IN 8TH GRADE! I loved it. In the physics class they were starting to jump into the basics...of QUANTUM PHYSICS. And in biology they were going over material that I got a C in my sophomore year...IN COLLEGE. There was such a strong influence of science there; but it wasn't presented like the TFA model or all hunky dory, hands-on like a middle school classroom is "supposed" to be. It was fairly straight forward lecture but the student were right there with the teacher, who has a Ph. D in their field and has taught at the collegiate level for 2-4 years. It was beautiful.

When we watched he video, I thought to myself, "this makes sense to me." When I went down there for the visit, I thought to myself, "this makes sense to me." But yet we keep dumbing down our instruction and presenting science in a way that is still for elementary students, and they stay at that level; as opposed to the BASIS way that if you raise the bar, students will eventual reach that bar. There were students with IEP's, and after I asked the teacher if he differentiated, he said "no, not really" and that those students did fine. I am starting to rant. Change of topic.

This class reaffirmed to me what I already know about my ties to education. I'm not interested in instruction; I am interested in the system...and fixing it. The article about innovation did stir a new light about how to go about changing the system, which got me thinking even more about changing the system. I didn't entirly agree with what the article had proposed, but it got me more interested then when we had to present "non-linguistic representation." Since it is just another method of instruction within the system.

Regardless, the class allowed for intellectual thought and structured peer to peer sharing, which at this point I have valued more so than most other instances at ASU. The topics were relevant and provoking, and helped me shape my values of an American education more so than creating a bilingual lesson plan, though I am sure that had it's values and merits too.

To that end, I thank you for being a facilitator of a true, high level course that allowed for the discussion that I was seeking within the program. I thank you for unearthing topics to dissection which otherwise would have been left behind (unlike our children). This was a great class to end with as it leaves one of the biggest impressions that I have not just on ASU and on my being an educator, but on the quality of education we have here in this country, as broken as it may be.