Chapter 4: Schools as the Workplace for Students and Teachers

• Staff and Organization- The way staff is organized in the United States is with a linear system and a chain of command. Students are on the bottom with teachers, then the principal, and finally the superintendent of the school district is at the head. The teacher reports to the principal first before the superintendent, this is how the school district is organized. In the school that I created the organization would be similar, except that there is no superintendent. Each school is its own separate entity that reports to the Province Director of Education.
  
• The school district relationship with the state- The school district is a geographic area and includes all the schools in that area. This is how the state is divided into manageable sections. In my country we do not have school districts, each principal reports to the Province Director of Education in each province. Those directors report to the Adviser of Education to the Chairman.
  
• Role of federal government- In the United States Constitution the role of education is reserved to the states' jurisdiction. The federal government can influence education through legislation, Supreme Court decision, and executive policy. The federal government can not force states to incorporate the federal policy but it can withhold federal funding to that state. In my country all decisions about education originate and are dictated by the federal government and are adopted completely and intact into the curriculum.
  
• How schools are paid for-The United States funds schools through different taxes, including, income, sales, and property. My country funds the schools by property taxes in the community. Each community is responsible to fund its own school.
  

Chapter 6: Social Context of Schools

I devised a lesson to discuss and deal with name calling in schools. The details and an example of a follow up assignment is posted on this wiki page.

Chapter 14: Succeeding in Your Teacher Education Program and Beyond

As a beginning education major I definitely have some concerns. As a teacher I am not extremely confident that I will be able to explain material in multiple ways so different students can understand it. I am not sure I have enough knowledge of the material to know how to instruct students "frontwards, backwards, and sideways" in my teaching. I also want to present material in my lesson to appeal to students of all abilities. As a student I remember being bored in some classes when the teacher went to slow and lost in other classes when the teacher covered the material too quickly. I also am concerned that in a classroom I will not have adequate classroom control. I do not feel confident that high school students will respect me because I am not much older than they are. I am also concerned that if I notice that a particular lesson has fallen "flat" I do not know if I can change lessons half way through teaching. These are the concerns I have as an education major about my future teaching career.

In the Joy of Teaching concerns a beginning teacher usually has been lumped into four major categories: Unconcerned, which is no concern about teaching, Self, which is deals with doubting your skills, knowledge, and control of either the subject or the class, Task, deals with managing time for class, preparations, and other aspects of life, and Impact, concerns generating ideas for improving teaching and student learning. The two categories that I was not concerned with are unconcerned and task worries. My concerns were about Self, such as controlling the class or knowing enough information. My concerns were also about Impact, like having ideas that would increase student learning and my effectiveness as a teacher.

The stage of concern for Self for me is personal. The stage of concern for Impact for me is consequence.