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In 2020 in the middle of pandemic and schools being closed, I also learned that as early as 7000 BCE children have been in organized classroom settings, this works and it is giving me hope that come august we will all be back in schools to make sure that we are there to educate the whole child, emotionally, intellectually, and physically.

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I really enjoyed learning about the Foundations of Education people like Jane Addams, and Catherine Beecher were influential women at a time when women were not favored in higher positions. They saw a need and filled it.

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Being a teacher advocate is one of the lessons I thought was the valuable piece of information I am taking away from this course. I look forward to actively pursuing my reform.

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I was really surprised with the overall work load for this course. I thought it was going to be a lot of work crammed into a 5 week session, but overall the work load was fair.

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I think this course it important to take before moving on in the education field because I learned about all the different foundations and it opened my eyes to a lot of new things (stuff I agreed with and disagreed with throughout)

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I think it is also extremely important to make sure you have student engagement and a student-centered learning environment and I saw bits and pieces of that throughout this course I can take with me.

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One thing I learned in this class is how much I hate OSS. That is the topic I wrote my BTA paper on and before I started my research I didn’t really have an opinion. It had always been a punishment for as long as I’d been in school so I didn’t think much of it. Now, I think it is unfair to force children off of school grounds and basically ignore their educational needs. Working in daycare I’ve always heard that children act up the most in spaces where they feel the most safe and comfortable. Many children probably act up in school because they know it is a safe space, so it’s not right to then suspend them from that space.

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I also learned more about compensatory programs. I didn’t know what that was at all before I read about it in our text book. I think programs like Head Start are amazing because they offer quality childcare to parents that may not be able to afford to send their children to an expensive high quality child care center.

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Another thing I learned about is the Leandro v. State case. I do thing this was a step in the right direction but I think more can be done. Compensatory programs do a great job of preparing children for school but I think funding for schools should be spread out more evenly. It’s not fair that some children will receive a lower quality education because of the district they live in. All children have the right to a “sound and basic” education but other children will have a better than basic education for really no reason at all other than they happen to live in a certain school district.

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I learned that becoming a teacher advocate is something that everyone should experience.  I learned so much about increased funding for education and what the possibilities could be for the students and the teachers.  I also learned a lot regarding the philosophies of education that were enlightening to me as a childcare administrator.  This helps to distinguish between quality childcare and "babysitting".

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Having this course during a pandemic made me thankful for the different types of learning environments available to us now that have not always been available to prior generations. Having this option will keep me from having to wait another year to complete my degree that I am going for in order to increase my star ratings at my childcare facilities so I may apply to have a NCPreK program for low income families.

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This class is very informative and I believe it should probably be offered in the beginning of the program. I have had several classes and I am about to complete my degree in Human Development and Family Science, however this course encompasses a lot of informative material on education that could benefit anyone that has children.

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The most important thing to me is this quote that reminds me of this class.
"Our kids need you to advocate for their future"
-George Lucas

This class has taught me to become a better teacher advocate for success in education. After taking this course, I feel like there is a lot to know about teaching, while writing my reform, I hope to better and strengthen the education program. Teaching, I also enjoyed learning about the foundations of education, and the historical background of educational people.

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At the start of class I was worried, I thought it would be an overwhelming amount of work because it is a writing intensive  and durning the summer.  Overall I thought it was a great class with a good workload.

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I also enjoyed learning about the Pioneers of teaching and leaning. I think it is so cool to learn about the past and seeing how things originated.

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Another thing I really enjoyed was learning about the philosophical roots of education. I didn't realize there was that many ideas and concepts. Also, the assignment that told us which one were most like was cool!

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Being in my internship while taking this class has taught me so much about how to better prepare myself for the sake of my students when I go into my full-time internship in December. I came to the realization that I need to create a classroom environment that allows every student to be able to achieve equitable success.

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I really enjoyed learning about the roots of education and how we have grown so much since then but how we also have so much more growth to do for our students across America.

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One of the biggest takeaways from this class will be my proposed reform. When beginning the class, I though to myself "oh man, just another paper" but after conducting research on a topic that I am very concerned about for the well-being and success of my students, I was to pursue this further. It is not something I will forget after this class has ended, my reform calls for a more equitable education for all students because that is what they deserve and it is what I will try to deliver to them.

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I enjoyed learning about the history of the public schools. In the textbook we learned about the one-room school, just to make a connection to what have today is huge. With all the advances in technology and instruction students today have so many more opportunities to learn.

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Prior to writing about the philosophy of education, I did not know much about progressivism. I love how the philosophy focuses on the child more so than the content. I have learned so much and agree with the philosophy. I plan to incorporate it into my future classroom.

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When completing the assignment on our future concerns as teaches, I felt really touched. My top two concerns were child abuse and homelessness. Chapter 10 brought the seriousness of this to my attention. As a future teacher, it is my ultimate goal to provide my students with a safe environment where they are all treated with respect. I learned of ways to recognize these things and how I will work to improve them if they are presented to me. This is something that I will carry with me throughout my teaching career.

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I never knew much about philosophies of education and that it can vary from person to person. My personal philosophy of education is progressivism, which after reading about, seems fitting. All the traits that go along with progressivism fit my beliefs, but I never knew the specific term for it. Education is about the child; therefore, it makes sense to have everything centered around the children and their needs.

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Typically, I am not a fan of writing essays, especially research papers. I thoroughly enjoyed the Becoming a Teacher Advocate paper, though. I learned a lot about education and myself as a future educator. It was a relief to be able to pick my topic and discuss something that I am passionate about and believe in wholeheartedly. There are many flaws in the education system, but it's refreshing to think that so many of us are passionate about future generations and making everything better.

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Overall, I learned a lot about myself as a person in this class. I discovered that being an educator is more than just teaching. It is all about continuous growth, change, and advocating for something so important. I really enjoyed being in a class that are just as passionate about advocacy for education as I am.

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I learned a lot about the true structure of power and the many levels from the teacher who reports to the principal who then reports to state all the way up to the US Department of Education.

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I learned a lot about classroom management and future planning as a teacher on how to deal with situations that could arise both inside and outside the classroom.

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I learned about the significance and importance to make sure that, as teachers, we are including all kinds of proper language and being socially aware of our coworkers and students.

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At the beginning of this course, I was a little apprehensive. I have never been one for online courses, but I know I needed to complete this course with a good grade at the end in order for me to graduate in December. To my surprise, this class was such a beneficial course for me! The class structure was phenomenal. I never once fell out of the loop or was confused over any assignments. The only time I was ever "confused" was due to my lack of awareness.

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I learned about the extreme significance of being a teacher advocate. Not only advocating for yourself and your profession, but also for your students. We as teachers are some of the only positive encounters some of our students see on a daily basis. We need to really tone into the needs of our diverse students just as much as the others. Even if it will be a little harder and a little more work, going that extra mile can mean wonders to students and their future success.

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I learned at lot about how awful and unfair our sex education programs are in the U.S.
This was the reform I was advocating for. Only 24 states require a sex education but even in these states it is extremely underfunded. Many students are given an abstinence-only education. It was very interesting yet disheartening to read about how unfair and biased our education system can be. As an education system our only concern should be giving students the best education possible and not giving them an education full of unfair biases and removing the truth from our history to make our history seem better.

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This class taught me so much about how to improve my writing skills. I already thought I was pretty good as writing papers and essays but this class really helped me improve my skills. Skills that I learned in this class will help me be successful in the rest of my college years and my future career.

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This class taught me a lot about our nation's history in education. I believe that our history is often "white-washed" and we tend to receive an education that does not include other races, religions and cultures when in reality, we would not be where we are today without the extreme amounts of diverse people who helped us along the way. Many of our ideas, theories and ways of teaching/learning came from other places and it was very interesting to learn and read about our real past.

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Throughout this class, I enjoyed learning about influential women who were pioneers in the education field. It was encouraging to see how there were many pioneers with conflicting ideas, but each had different parts that were positive for students.

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I loved the way this class was interactive, despite being online. I felt like I was learning from Dr. Harris, but my classmates too. I enjoyed each part being able to hear the different philosophies and reasonings from my classmates.

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My favorite part of the class was the "gold nuggets" section. I thought it was very important to highlight the positive moments in US Education. It is easy to say the system is broken, but finding the good things happening is encouraging and empowering the future educators.

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I learned some very important things throughout this course more about my own field of study that I am very excited about. The Becoming a Teacher Advocate paper allowed for me to research advocacy programs for Art Education as well as learn about several options for my future classroom that I could possibly implement. I really enjoyed the discussion portion of the course and how we were able to communicate with our fellow peers in the class to read about their experiences and ideas. I really liked hearing about other future educators opinions and thoughts, and especially how they were in a different program than me.

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I was very impressed by how inclusive the information for this course was, while understanding this course is primarily for teaching majors it felt like the information could easily apply to social work.

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Something I learned which I will take with me into my career is how much teachers do for education. We know how involved they are in the classrooms but their job goes beyond that. Teachers are invested into their students so much that they march for modifications to the system to that students needs cannot be ignored or forgotten.

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My favorite part of the course was that we got to pick our own reform topic. I felt that it gave me the ability to make it about something I am interested in and wanted to learn more about.

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This course has helped me understand that inequity in education is easily overlooked and perpetuated when the system is designed to work almost exclusively in the favor of people like myself and that it is so important to use my platform as a future educator and informed citizen to advocate for those that are victims of systemic inequality. Disparities in social status are defined by an individual’s education; this has led to the multi-generational hardship of the impoverished and lower class, minorities, and disabled individuals in schools and society. Every student deserves a fair chance at prosperity and as a teacher I will work diligently to ensure my classroom is all-inclusive of every disadvantaged, the ‘nobodies’ and the high achieving student.  To implement this reform of the American education system, it is vital that every student’s development needs are nurtured and accounted for.

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“As critical stakeholders in the education system you, as a future educator, should reflect on the role that the education system plays in responding to and affecting societal change” (Ornstein, p.378).

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Artist: A. Mansi, digital painting, 2009.

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One of the most important things that I found was the teacher advocate paper. I loved having the chance to research and advocate for something that I already felt so strongly about. Now when the topic comes up in future classes or casual conversations with colleagues I have a solid argument and plenty of research in my pocket to support my opinion.

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Another big take away that I got from this class was learning about the structure of the educational system. Learning the basics from local, state, and federal helps me make sense of the system that I will be going into one day.

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My last big takeaway was my philosophy and the understanding of others philosophies. Now that I know what group of educators that my personal beliefs fit into I know what type of educational journals I should check out and what type of practices I would want in my own classroom.

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I learned about how many things there are to advocate for as a teacher. There are so many things that can be changed to better education for all.

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I learned a lot about out of school suspension and its effects on students. That was what my BTA essay was on.

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I learned how rich history in education really is. It was a real eye opener for me how much I didn't know about educations history.

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I learned there are many purposes of schooling that help children develop. There are different ways a school is funded for education purpose, but I honestly think is not enough; and ways to become a  positive teacher advocate.

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A shock to me from this course was how political educational conversations can be. As a B-K major I usually don't run into politics when having conversations about my major and what I plan to do with it once I graduate.

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This image sums up a big takeaway from the course for me - progress (and progress is made in groups, not alone + it means things are changing for the better).

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Something that made me say "oh wow" was when I was doing research for the BTA paper and I learned how school funding is allotted and was shocked how little goes towards school technology (my chosen topic was lack of access to assistive technology due to funding/budgeting allottments).

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This quote is one of my favorites.  The research compiled for my advocate essay further enforced the importance of developing strong relationships with every student.  This way, I will be able to understand any outside obstacles (like the ones learned in EDUC 3200) and learning styles that contribute to student success.

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This image depicts flexible seating in the classroom which was the reform I advocating for in my essay.  I learned that it goes hand-in-hand with my progressive philosophical approach to teaching.

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The main idea I will take from this course is applying the philosophy of progressivism to my classroom.  I think it's imperative for learning to be student-centered.  For educators, they should serve as facilitators rather than strictly providing direct instruction.