Parents Influence

Question: how much influence do parents have with their children?

I am torn between two examples:

1) I have been thinking a lot lately about parents influence on their kids. I saw a post (similar to Facebook, Twitter, etc) done by a teenager and there were more than five errors in the post of fifty words. This teenager makes these mistakes often. At first I thought it was because of the nature of Facebook and Twitter but then emails from this teenager also have errors. I’ve seen this kid’s parental units posts/emails and noticed errors in most of theirs as well.

2) On the other hand, my grandfather only finished 8^th grade, yet he was the smartest man I had ever met. He read a lot and he wrote even more. He talked about writing a book but he passed away from cancer before he had the chance. His son, my father, has earned his Master’s degree.

So which is it? Do parents influence their children or not? How much does outside influence factor in? I think it does but how much and what kind of influences? Does the child in the first example have a chance to pass her parents intellectually? I think I see the constant errors as ignorance and I wonder if she can ever achieve more than them? How as teachers can we help this child? Do we have any or enough sway to help? Did someone encourage my grandfather to pursue his education after he left school?

I think these questions are not easy to answer and I think they are intertwined.

Beliefs...Paper

I spent four days this past week with my sisters, my beautiful younger sister got married in Chicago on Friday. She was so gorgeous and the wedding was flawless. She is a very strong person with an incredible belief system. On my flight back to Albuquerque I was thinking about my personal philosophy of education paper and wondered what teachers influenced my baby sister if any. I remember her being stubborn but flexible in her beliefs through childhood, adolescences, and her adult life. I began thinking about and evaluating my beliefs. I felt that I knew my beliefs, felt strong about them but knowing that I am going to influence students, children, I’m not sure that each of my beliefs is as solid as it should be. I meet with Professor Chenven last week to go over my paper and he drew me a diagram of what I should work on…the why…I have to say I have never gone around so much on one thought as I have with this. I thought it would be an easy thing to figure out “what does this look like in the classroom?” but NO! I’m not disappointed or upset that I have put so much attention to my beliefs…I’ve found it to all be eye opening.

From Frozen Ice to Teacher of the Year

Albuquerque, NM – If you had asked Megan Edwards five years ago if she thought she would win the Teacher of the Year award the answer would be, No.  Growing up as a competitive figure skater, she only had aspirations of being in the skating world the rest of her life.  Thankfully, her fourth grade students at 7 Bar Elementary made her realize that life had a plan of its own.

In 2008, Megan experienced life-threatening blood clots that forced her to reevaluate her life.  She decided that teaching off the ice was a passion for her as well as coaching on the ice.  She received her teachers license from Central New Mexico Community College and began teaching right away.  Fellow teacher, Kelly-Renae Huber, told us that she “always knew Megan would be a fantastic teacher…Megan excels at connecting with children at every age.”  Student Paige Mascarenas agreed, adding, “Ms. Edwards listens to me and teaches in a way that helps me understand the subject”.  Jennifer O’bama, parent at 7 Bar Elementary, finished by saying “my son comes home every night with a new story from Ms. Edwards’ class.  She makes him believe in his abilities and pushes him to be his very best.  We are blessed to have Ms. Edwards in our son’s life.”

What makes Ms. Edwards’ class so unique?  It is her ability to use the community to help make her class out of the ordinary.  She spent her undergraduate education researching grants offered by New Mexico’s non-profit organizations that improve teachers in the classroom.  Her first grant was from the PNM Foundation, where she received $3,000 to teach Growing Plants and Minds; a hands on gardening class.  She also received a touch screen projector from Intel for students to learn math and science in an interactive way.  Principal from 7 Bar Elementary, Darcy Candelaria, says she “has never seen students so excited to learn.  Since Megan Edwards started, her students’ test grades have improved over 40 percent.”