Educate. Enrich. Engage.
What is Engaging Educators?This website was created by the students of EPS 199 as an introduction to the volunteering placements that are available to future students of EDUC 201 and beyond! On this website, you can explore the different pages through student testimonies, information about the various placement sites and organizations, news updates in the education world, as well as information about how you can get involved— whether or not you’re on the UIUC campus!
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Student Voices with Janae Capers
On Schooling & Society
I think that the problem I would want to change in the present education system would be the testing aspect. I think that the system is too concerned with trying to get the tests scores up and not actually learning. I think at that point we fall into the banking method of teaching which focuses on basically telling students information and seeing how well they can spit it back out. I think we need to be more focused on making sure the kids are learning and actually understanding the material not just making sure they can pass a test then forgetting because I think that's basically what I did through most of grade school. I was more focused on trying to do good on a test than actually learning. I think that we have made kids think that tests are the only thing that matter and they are a reflection of how smart you are. When in reality, the case might be that you aren't that good at tests or you take the test, fail, and everyone just moves on to the next lesson like nothing ever happened. There's no going back to try and get students to understand if they didn't, but instead everyone just moves to the next lesson or subject matter due to pressure on teachers to teach a certain amount of information and meet deadlines, ultimately skipping over those kids.
At my placement specifically I think the most prevalent problem would be funding issues. They don't have a lot of funds so the books or materials aren't in the best condition. It makes me kind of upset because I think that all kids should have equal learning opportunities and I think it's hard and unfair when some schools have more than enough supplies and other barely have complete books.
When I think about why I want to teach, I think that the kids are who make it worth it. One time one of my teachers told me, "That moment I look at a kid and see his face light up like the light bulb just went off in his head and it clicks. That moment is the moment that reassures me I'm right where I'm supposed to be. "I think that's it, the fact that you are responsible for bringing out the knowledge that each and every kid already has. I don't think I would give that up for anything.
When thinking about education nationally, the most shocking fact to me was that 14% of adults can't read. Although that wasn't the biggest percentage in the video I think that's still a lot. I think in basically every job or field of life you almost have to know how to read so I think that is really shocking that so many adults don't know how to read. I also think what's even worse is that no one is probably doing anything to make that number go down. I think even though it's our responsibility to teach and help kids grow, that it's not just kids we should be helping but also adults.
At my placement specifically I think the most prevalent problem would be funding issues. They don't have a lot of funds so the books or materials aren't in the best condition. It makes me kind of upset because I think that all kids should have equal learning opportunities and I think it's hard and unfair when some schools have more than enough supplies and other barely have complete books.
When I think about why I want to teach, I think that the kids are who make it worth it. One time one of my teachers told me, "That moment I look at a kid and see his face light up like the light bulb just went off in his head and it clicks. That moment is the moment that reassures me I'm right where I'm supposed to be. "I think that's it, the fact that you are responsible for bringing out the knowledge that each and every kid already has. I don't think I would give that up for anything.
When thinking about education nationally, the most shocking fact to me was that 14% of adults can't read. Although that wasn't the biggest percentage in the video I think that's still a lot. I think in basically every job or field of life you almost have to know how to read so I think that is really shocking that so many adults don't know how to read. I also think what's even worse is that no one is probably doing anything to make that number go down. I think even though it's our responsibility to teach and help kids grow, that it's not just kids we should be helping but also adults.
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