Philosophy of Education :: Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Philosophy of Education I have thought several times over what my philosophy towards teaching is, or quite frankly, will be as I learn more about the teaching profession and eventually begin teaching on my own. While I have already been teaching swim lessons for the past five years and presently hold the position of assistant football coach at Bluefield Middle School, I can say that my hat goes off to anyone possessing the patience and expertise to stand before a classroom or gymnasium of students and have the confidence to pass their knowledge on to that group of students. On the other hand, I have an equal level of disgust for those "oxygen thieves" that merely roll out a basketball and read the paper while the whole time claim to be teaching. These teachers, a term I use loosely, have taught nothing. They have at no point attempted to communicate with their students the importance of taking care of their bodies and learning the essential movements that will provide them the opportunity to be active for a lifetime. With that in mind, it our responsibility as Health and Physical Educators to provide that knowledge, instill that importance and to never allow a child to fall through the cracks, but rather to make a lasting impression on the lives we teach. It is my firm belief that our duties begin in the way we present ourselves. I look back at my experiences growing up and compare them to what I have learned. It amazes me that someone on the opposite end of healthy can try to teach others how to be healthy. The solution lies with credibility. We must evoke fitness and encourage that concept in our own lives before we should ever think to influence the life and well-being of children who see teachers as role models. How can we expect our students to accomplish something that we are not willing to pursue? We must challenge our student’s everyday by setting high, but realistic goals for those under our instruction. Why would you give a student a starting line without defining a place to finish and leave them with a sense of accomplishment?

St. Augustine and the Problem of Evil from a Christian Basis Essay

St. Augustine and the Problem of Evil from a Christian Basis In his Confessions, St. Augustine writes about a large number of topics that continue to have relevance today. The text documents the development of Augustine’s faith and his Christian philosophy, and one thing of particular interest is his argument for the nature of evil. Christianity predicates several important ideas that Augustine builds upon in his philosophy, and within its context, he presents a thorough, compelling argument against the problem of evil that identifies evil as a misperception. Augustine first characterizes God based on how he experiences God’s presence and qualities. Augustine searches for Him unsuccessfully in the physical world, and the physical universe for that matter, and then decides that he must look within himself to find God. His description of God illustrates the ideas in Christianity that God is omnipotent and entirely good, or all-loving. â€Å"I entered and with my soul’s eye, such as it was, saw above that same eye of my soul the immutable light higher than my mind†¦ It transcended my mind†¦ It was superior because it made me, and I was inferior because I was made by it.† (Augustine, 123) Augustine clearly conveys the magnitude of God and his greatness, which exceed the comprehension of man’s mind. This is perhaps the most important quality of God’s being, which properly coincides with His descriptions in Christianity, because it establishes a scale for measuring the qualities of God that He instilled in his creations. Augustine next discusses three aspects that define God for him. Of particular importance is the idea that the Christian God is eternal, so there has never been a time w... ... possible that, as with Augustine, the perception of evil leads people to think about its nature and, ultimately, they begin to learn the truth. From that point, they grow until they are able to feed from God’s goodness, and then they achieve the supreme goodness and become one with God. There is, then, no problem in ‘evil’ because it in fact is good. Ultimately, it is impossible to know exactly the reasons for God’s actions. His qualities are such that He transcends being, and a person’s best effort to understand God can at best give him or her approximate understanding. Only through reason and discovery of the truth can a person grow until, finally, he or she is transformed by God into His Being. At that point, comprehension of it is no longer necessary. Works Cited Augustine. Confessions. Trans. Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.

Child Development Essay -- Psychology Locke Rousseau Essays Papers

Child Development John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau were the founding fathers of the psychology of children. Locke was an environmentalist, while Rousseau was a naturalist. They had opposing viewpoints. They both believed in different things when it came to developing minds of children.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John Locke was an environmentalist. He believed a child's mind develops largely on the environment accordance with his/her experience of the world, and through learning. He brings forth the concept of tabula rasa, or blank slate; this blank slate is a child's mind that eventually fills up with learning and experience. According to Locke, there are four things of environment that mold a child's mind. The first is associations. This is where one thought is usually associated with another ? for example, when a child is placed in a crib he may start crying, because being in the crib would be mean that he couldn't be with his mother. The second one is repetition. These are habitual practices that we do over and over - to the point where, if we don't do it, things will seem out of place. The third is imitation. Children often like to imitate others, like repeating the same utterance their caregiver may have recently said. Or, for example, if child A starts playing with an aggressive child B, child A might end up becoming more aggressive as well. This is through influence and modeling. The fourth is rewards and punishment. For example, a child may yearn to receive good grades becaus...

Farewell Speech Essay

We have waited for this moment all our lives, the moment when we leave our childhood behind and step into the world to forge our own paths in life. We have counted down the years, the months, the hours, minutes and seconds, and finally, and I’m very near that moment, very close to graduating High School. I find myself not a little sad, for I will be leaving behind people that shaped my life to what I am today. I will miss walking into this class room, every single day, working with my fellow classmates, making last minute speeches, playing fun imprave games with my fellow schoolmates. Most of all, I will miss the very heart of my experience as a student; my friends and my teachers. Even though my teachers aren’t all here I’d still like to thank every single Clements faculty member for all that you have taught us. Not only lessons for schoolwork but beyond the four walls of a classroom. Thank you, all my classmates, for this semester – for all the fun, the laughter and the valuable lessons we learned. Although we may be separated by time and distance, nothing will diminish the important role that each and everyone of you has done for me†¦ From the Taxi taxi dance to the interesting facts about rastafaranism to†¦ I wish you happy adventures, fantastic new friendships, amazing experiences and the journey of a lifetime and for those underclass men who are still going to Clements next year, I want you guys to know that High School only comes once in your lifetime, so why not make the most of it? Especially when we all have such a great opportunity to attend a school like this. No matter how much we may complain about attending Clements High, very few others get this opportunity.

Origins and History of the Passions of War Essay

Ever since from the ancient times, war has been a great part of out history, many tribes and nations have engaged in war to seclude their territories, protect their culture and fellowmen and extend their domain. Many writers have tried to define war from its origin to enlighten the society about it; one of them is the renowned Barbara Ehrenreich, a social critic and a Time Magazine essayist. In her book Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War, Barbara Ehrenreich, focused on war and it close relation to religion. She turned her attention into anthropology and investigating into the causes of man’s ancient interest in war; in this book, she blamed the social scientists in their lack of sufficient knowledge about war. She sought ethnological evidences to support her arguments and the evolution of war from the ancient times to the present. Ehrenreich didn’t look for the exact explanation for war but instead; she looked for the emotional responses that the people have brought to the killings making it sacred. Furthermore, she said that war had been sacralized by the society for them to shift from being the preys into predators. According to her, war and religion are almost the same in terms of ritual sacrifice, although she believed that killing the enemies are less noble than offering one’s life in a community-sanctioned matrix; because of this, war becomes impenetrable to moral reprimand. She said that war deludes people’s minds that make them worship war as a tool for survival, war seems to revivify in every millennia, making it harder to regress. War, even though quite risky is used by men to acquire their collective interests for the improvement of their lives. War has been merely accepted by the modern era and is used by some nations to gain something from the other mostly for the material needs. War is too complex and affects a person so much that it becomes his passion; the passion of war envelopes a person and kindles the fire of violence within an individual. The book was basically about the uncanny human attraction to violence, the story was entitled to show the violence in war that started from the ancient times to the present, Barbara Ehrenreich was able to raise issues about war and its emotional and moral effects on the society. It is a major socio-economic condition that widely affects the modern society. Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War showed the big scale domestic and international violence and civil turbulence, it also informs the readers about the roots of violence to help them understand the existence of war in the modern day. It was a journey from the human sacrifices in the ancient world to the total wars in the twentieth century. Blood Rites is an eye-opener for the readers because it discusses why the shedding of blood seems to attract humans and performs a great significance in the improvement of the society. Although many wars have resulted various improvements in the political, moral and social conditions, war remains unwanted. Today, countries that engage in competitive arms race, is a source of great concern. Ehrenriech also emphasizes that mankind must concentrate all known resources on ensuring the greater welfare and socio-economic progress of all the countries in the world and insist that war must not serve as a means for setting international disputes. Barbara Ehrenriech displayed a good assessment towards war and religion in her book although she sounds quite provocative and persuasive sometimes. Also, she raised arguments about various social issues including her dismay towards the social scientists whom she addressed to lack appropriate knowledge about war. Unfortunately, she missed or either failed in examining other relevant social science literature making the book a little bit one-sided; but paying more attention and examining the pertinent literature could then easily fix this flaw. Works Cited Content Cafe. 2004. Blood Rites: Origin and History of the Passions of War. 01 November 2008. .

Comparing two poems Essay

In this essay I will be comparing two poems. These poems are on the topic of war which is very relevant especially as there is a war going on in Iraq as I am writing this. The first poem I am going to write about called: â€Å"Dulce et Decorum est† is written by Wilfred Owen. He had first hand experience of war as he was a soldier; so he will give us a very honest opinion of war and what it was really like to fight in one. Unfortunately for him he was killed in action a week before the war ended. The poem has a very strong anti-war feeling about it; it is his personal view that dying for your country is not a very good thing and in the poem he conveys this to us by giving us very clear mental pictures of the horrible effects of war. Wilfred Owens’s attitude to war is that he is frustrated, angry and resentful of it. The poem type Wilfred uses in this poem is the Sonnet; this is odd because Sonnet poems are usually about love but in this case he is writing about hurt; rhythm of the octaves in this poem is slow and speeds up in the sestet. These ties in with the mood of the poem e.g.: â€Å"Gas! Gas! Gas! † This line has been broken up with exclamation marks to show that there is an emergency. Then it slows down quite considerably again in the final stanza to make us think of the suffering the soldiers go through. It is wonderful the way that he structures this poem from the soldiers’ feelings, to his own and then he asks the reader for their views. There is one very noticeable thing about the structure and that is that there are two lines of the poem on their own; also these line are not in the past tense like the rest of the poem and this is because he is trying to emphasize the mental scars of war which remain with him in the present. He gives us a very detailed mental picture and he gives us this in all three verses. In verse 1 he talks about the physical breakdown of the soldiers. He builds up this mental image of suffering e.g.: â€Å"knocked kneed†, and he continues this mental picture into versus 2 as he talks about his fellow solider suffering and dying in the gas as he can’t get his helmet on. He uses verbs in this verse in a clever way e.g.: Fumbling and floundering. E.g.: â€Å"†¦Fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time.† â€Å"And floundering like a man in fire or lime.† In verse 3 he uses Onomatopoeic e.g.: gargling. He uses this word to explain how his fellow solider died e.g. â€Å"†¦Gargling from the forth-corrupted lungs.† The pain that this soldier suffered is conveyed to us in a very gruesome way e.g.: â€Å"As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.† What he means by that is he has breathed in so much gas its suffocating him so it is ver y like drowning. Another example â€Å"He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.† In the first verse he uses metaphors in a very powerful way e.g. â€Å"Blood shod†, â€Å"drunk with fatigue† to show the exhaustion and suffering of the soldiers. Also the Onomatopoeic words in the first verse â€Å"sludge† and â€Å"trudge†, show us how the soldiers slowly marched ; it tell us also that they had no determination and enthusiasm lift to fight for their country. Wilfred Owen is basically saying in this poem that he’s been there and it’s not that good at all to fight for your country. This is the complete opposite of what Lord Tennyson talks about in â€Å"The Charge of the Light Brigade†. Lord Tennyson’s poem is different from Wilfred Owen in a number of ways. Firstly Lord Tennyson has never fought in a war; Tennyson poem is also saying that it is good to die for your country and Tennyson’s poem is about the soldiers being heroes and noble men. The poet’s attitude to war is that it is an honorable and noble thing to die for your country. The tone of this poem is fast and very sharp e.g.: â€Å"Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns! † Another example is â€Å"Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them† stays at this speed for most of the poem. Tennyson structures his poem in to 6 verses of even length. He starts off describing the advance in verse 1 and 2 e.g.: â€Å"Into the valley of death† â€Å"Forward, the Light Brigade!† then into verse 4 he talks about the heat of the battle e.g.: â€Å"Flashed all their sabers bare, Flashed as they turned in air, Sabring the gunners there.† In verses 5 and 6 he talks about the retreat e.g.: â€Å"Back from the mouth of Hell, All that was left of them† and he then goes on to say how courageous, noble and heroic the soldiers were e.g.: â€Å"honour the charge they made! Honour the light brigade, Noble six hundred†. Verse 6 is shorter than the rest as it is a tribute to the soldiers that fought in the war. The rhythm of the poem is regular; it conveys how inevitable the charge was. The rhyme sounds very grand, patriotic and has a musical tone about it. The poem type is a ballad. A ballad is usually a short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain. They contain repetition e.g.: â€Å"Rode the six hundred† (which is on the end of every verse) another example: â€Å"Half league, half league, half league onward†. They are written in straight-forward verse, seldom with detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. Many old-time ballads were written and performed by minstrels attached to noblemen’s courts. Language used in the poem is very powerful to glorify the charge rather than show pity. He uses metaphors in his poem e.g.: â€Å"Into the valley of death†; there is also personification used in his poem e.g.: â€Å"Into the jaws of death† and â€Å"Into the mouth of hell† He uses these metaphors and personification in his poem to emphasize the suicidal march of the Light Brigade. The hell and death in these phrases reinforces the views of this being the end for the soldiers. I really liked the way that Tennyson brings the reader into his poem by asking a rhetorical question: â€Å"Was there a man dismayed?† and â€Å"When can their glory fade?† He does use a quite a lot of onomatopoeia e.g.: â€Å"Volleyed and thundered† and â€Å"†¦Shot and shell†. He has also chosen his verbs in his poem really well. They are Very prominent; convey idea of speed, the light and movement all in the one verb is â€Å"flashed†. The repetition is very powerful and significant in the poem from the very first line: â€Å"Half a league, Half a League, Half a league onward.† My personal view on war is that it is a terrible thing and should only be used for a last resort. I would only agree with a war at present if there was evidence to prove that Iraq have weapons of mass destruction and then I would consider it a just war and that we must get Saddam quickly and carefully to keep down the risk of innocent deaths. I personally prefer â€Å"Dulce et Decorum est.† by Wilfred Owen as it is more detailed and gives you very vivid pictures of the soldiers deaths and as Wilfred Owen was believable actually there it’s more in a sense as he was has seen it up close. This poem taught me that war is a bad thing and it’s not worth it; it helped me to appreciate how much pain some of the soldiers had to suffer in the war.

Egypt & Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia was a continent in Africa. It’s between the Persian Gulf and the Medertian Sea, surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Egypt is also a continent in Africa it is near the Nile River. Mesopotamia and Egypt were different in terms of geography because Egypt’s geography had Mesoamerica the Tigris, and Euphrates rivers and the Nile River, as well as annual Nile flooding. On the other hand Mesopotamia’s geography had Mesopotamia the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and river valleys. Mesopotamia was a region of the Middle East, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that today are a part of Iraq.The Greek word meso meaning â€Å"between† and potams meaning â€Å"river†, also known as the Fertile Crescent. This area was home to numerous things. Civilizations, plus revolutionized agriculture, city planning, and written alphabet. Egypt was a narrow strip of land along the Nile River. Each year the Nile River would floods leaving behind a fertile fringe of soil. They called it â€Å"the black land† and the deserts all around the Nile were called â€Å"the red land†. Mesopotamia and Egypt were different in terms of cities and states since Egypt had Babylon, Assyrian, and Nubian Kingdom of Ta-sati Persian rue in Egypt pharaoh.And Mesopotamia’s cities and states had Tikal, Sumer, Ur Nubian kingdom of Kush, roman conquest, and Nobel sudden. Mesopotamia was established by the Sumerians by the middle of the 4th millennium B. C. Egypt was founded around 3000 B. C. E when Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt combined into one whole kingdom. Egypt’s history is divided into three parts. Old kingdoms, middle kingdoms, and new kingdoms. During each of these periods’ different dynasties of pharos ruled. Mesopotamia and Egypt were different in terms of interaction and exchange because Egypt had grounds, watermelon, donkeys, and cattle.Mesopotamia had commerce, culture, flower, barley, gourds, watermelo ns, donkeys, and cattle. Mesopotamia is in between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. It is referred to as modern day Iraq and parts of Syrian, Iraq, and turkey. It’s also known as the cradle of civilization. Many things were invited in Mesopotamia like writing, the wheel, the first laws, the first library, the first cities and much more. Also it’s important because they were not divided in politics or religion. They also believed in their own gods and followed directions of their pharaoh.Egypt and Mesopotamia have a few things in common and some things they have nothing in common. A few things they have in common are they both have a large river system, the Nile river runs through Egypt and the Tigris and Euphrates river runs between Mesopotamia. They also have flooding, hot, and sunny climate. They both have their own alphabet, Egyptians use hieroglyphics and Mesopotamians use cuneiform. Some things the two don’t have in common are tools, diff erent languages, and believed in different things. Egypt & Mesopotamia Mesopotamia was a continent in Africa. It’s between the Persian Gulf and the Medertian Sea, surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Egypt is also a continent in Africa it is near the Nile River.Mesopotamia and Egypt were different in terms of geography because Egypt’s geography had Mesoamerica the Tigris, and Euphrates rivers and the Nile River, as well as annual Nile flooding. On the other hand Mesopotamia’s geography had Mesopotamia the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and river valleys.Mesopotamia was a region of the Middle East, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that today are a part of Iraq. The Greek word meso meaning â€Å"between† and potams meaning â€Å"river†, also known as the Fertile Crescent. This area was home to numerous things. Civilizations, plus revolutionized agriculture, city planning, and written alphabet. Egypt was a narrow strip of land along the Nile River.Each year the Nile River would floods leaving behind a fertile fringe of soil. They called it â€Å"the black land† and the deserts all around the Nile were called â€Å"the red land†. Mesopotamia and Egypt were different in terms of cities and states since Egypt had Babylon, Assyrian, and Nubian Kingdom of Ta-sati Persian rue in Egypt pharaoh. And Mesopotamia’s cities and states had Tikal, Sumer, Ur Nubian kingdom of Kush, roman conquest, and Nobel sudden.Mesopotamia was established by the Sumerians by the middle of the 4th millennium B.C. Egypt was founded around 3000 B.C.E when Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt combined into one whole kingdom. Egypt’s history is divided into three parts. Old kingdoms, middle kingdoms, and new kingdoms. During each of these periods’ different dynasties of pharos ruled.Mesopotamia and Egypt were different in terms of interaction and exchange because Egypt had grounds, watermelon, donkeys, and cattle. Mesopotamia had commerce, culture, flower, barley, gourds, watermelons, d onkeys, and cattle.Mesopotamia is in between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East.  It is referred to as modern day Iraq and parts of Syrian, Iraq, and turkey. It’s also known as the cradle of civilization. Many things were invited in Mesopotamia like writing, the wheel, the first laws, the first library, the first cities and much more. Also it’s important because they were not divided in politics or religion. They also believed in their own gods and followed directions of their pharaoh.Egypt and Mesopotamia have a few things in common and some things they have nothing in common. A few things they have in common are they both have a large river system, the Nile river runs through Egypt and the Tigris and Euphrates river runs between Mesopotamia. They also have flooding, hot, and sunny climate. They both have their own alphabet, Egyptians use hieroglyphics and Mesopotamians use cuneiform. Some things the two don’t have in common are tools, differe nt languages, and believed in different things.