Chapter four addressed the different relationships within a school. Whether that meant the teaching relationship between a teacher and principle, the relationship between a school and state, or the relationship between the school and government.
Staff and Organization: In my groups "Lyons Grene" build-a-school project, the teachers and parents were very important at influencing what and how things would be taught. Teachers would get special training so that they could know more of what to teach since our school was environment friendly and a pro active environment school. For example, it has archery classes, hunting and tracking classes, camping, recycling, etc. Besides our school being orientated around the earth and environment, the staff and organization in our school would be the same as a "normal" school, like in the text. The text mentioned similar roles that would play a part in our school, jobs/ roles like assistant principals, department chairs, and other organizations that would keep any school flowing well. School district relationship with the state, Our school would have a very good relationship with state since we would be environment orientated. We would take field trips to places like the senate and see what they were doing to promote a green environment; maybe even intervene and help out. We also would camp at a lot of parks. Overall our school would be involved with the state just as much and in the same ways as other schools in our text book. Yet again, because our school would be environment oriented, our school would be even more involved. role of federal government We wanted our student government to have the power to make changes in the school to help the students, but our group never developed these ideas, it was just an interesting thought we had. The federal government would also probably play a much bigger role in our school more than most too, due to the fact of our school promoting a “green environment”. Our school would probably receive more than 7% funding since we would need support with paying the extra teachers and class space, not to mention field trips and experiments like trying to make fuel out of corn and other bio products.Besides the governments help, the school would be paid for by the families and town...like a normal school...but more contribution from families would be expected. For example buying supplies for some of the outing events, or providing a ride for their child to stay after school to do experiments and projects more than a “normal” school. Overall the schools would be paid for the same way.
Overall our school is very similar to the school mentioned in the chapter and it follows similar if not the same ways of carrying out the teaching of the students.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Chapter 14 Succeeding in your Teacher Education Program
Concerns about teaching:
There are five big concerns I have about being a teacher. I worry that I will still have bad spelling. I always have to use spell check before self revision when editing a paper because there are words that I always spell wrong. I am worried that my students will ask me how to spell a word and I won’t be able to tell them the correct spelling. What if I do not know the definition of a word, especially if it is an english term; alliteration for example. I can always tell them to look it up, but that will not make me feel any better about myself for not knowing the words. What if I am grading and do not catch some spelling mistakes? I am also concerned about being unable to answer questions in general. If my students ask me a question related to my subject, english, I should be able to know the answer. Another fault I have is reading out loud. I am not horrible, but I do stumble sometimes and I tend to miss pronounce words.
I also worry that I may not address a standard fully enough. I am responsible at making sure each student is ready for college when they graduate. Will I have given them the proper amount of work in a certain topic? Or are my standards a little lower than the other english teachers?
My last concern is that if I do make these mistakes and struggle my first few years of teaching, will my students talk bad about me and gossip? There was one teacher in my school who needed to fill in a higher teaching position when a science teacher left. The students were always calling him stupid and criticize how he taught. They would say that he only uses the text book, he doesn’t understand what he is teaching. They never said this to his face, but if they thought he was doing a poor job then I bet he felt he was doing a poor job too. I hope that doesn’t happen to me.
There are four areas of concern: Unconcerned, Self, Task, and Impact. I fall under the category of self. Most of my concerns have to do with my ability to be successful in the classroom and having doubt about how well I will be teaching. I think that my concern about students talking bad about me would fall under the unconcerned category. This worry has little concern with my actual teaching, it has more to do with my relationship with the students.
After reading the chart describing the stages of concern, I determined that I fall under the personal stage. All my concerns have to do with my views of myself and how I analyze my role as a teacher. I also may fall under the stage of informational, because I am worried about how well I will cover my subject.
I know that most of these concerns will fade away as I grow out of them or learn how to address and master them. But right now these are the things that worry me about becoming a teacher.
There are five big concerns I have about being a teacher. I worry that I will still have bad spelling. I always have to use spell check before self revision when editing a paper because there are words that I always spell wrong. I am worried that my students will ask me how to spell a word and I won’t be able to tell them the correct spelling. What if I do not know the definition of a word, especially if it is an english term; alliteration for example. I can always tell them to look it up, but that will not make me feel any better about myself for not knowing the words. What if I am grading and do not catch some spelling mistakes? I am also concerned about being unable to answer questions in general. If my students ask me a question related to my subject, english, I should be able to know the answer. Another fault I have is reading out loud. I am not horrible, but I do stumble sometimes and I tend to miss pronounce words.
I also worry that I may not address a standard fully enough. I am responsible at making sure each student is ready for college when they graduate. Will I have given them the proper amount of work in a certain topic? Or are my standards a little lower than the other english teachers?
My last concern is that if I do make these mistakes and struggle my first few years of teaching, will my students talk bad about me and gossip? There was one teacher in my school who needed to fill in a higher teaching position when a science teacher left. The students were always calling him stupid and criticize how he taught. They would say that he only uses the text book, he doesn’t understand what he is teaching. They never said this to his face, but if they thought he was doing a poor job then I bet he felt he was doing a poor job too. I hope that doesn’t happen to me.
There are four areas of concern: Unconcerned, Self, Task, and Impact. I fall under the category of self. Most of my concerns have to do with my ability to be successful in the classroom and having doubt about how well I will be teaching. I think that my concern about students talking bad about me would fall under the unconcerned category. This worry has little concern with my actual teaching, it has more to do with my relationship with the students.
After reading the chart describing the stages of concern, I determined that I fall under the personal stage. All my concerns have to do with my views of myself and how I analyze my role as a teacher. I also may fall under the stage of informational, because I am worried about how well I will cover my subject.
I know that most of these concerns will fade away as I grow out of them or learn how to address and master them. But right now these are the things that worry me about becoming a teacher.
Chapter 6 - Social Context of schools
I created a brochure that demonstrates what I would do if I encountered someone being bullied and how I would adress this issue to my students to make them really think about this issue.
To help prevent Bullying, my primary focus would be to gather some teachers together and create a “bully awareness program” This program would allow students who are being harassed or verbally abused to go and seek help. This program would also have periodic assemblies that addressed the issue of bulling. It would talk about the morels of bulling others and what to do if you are bullied, for instance use the “teachers presence” strategy when you feel unsafe. Besides these discussions, there would be a certain person who any students should go and talk with if they are being bullied or have been bulling somebody. All the students should know who this person is.
What I would do….
If I walked in to class one day and heard or saw someone being bullied I would immediately step in. First I would tell the student doing the bulling why this was wrong. For example , if a Spanish student was being criticized and verbally being called names I would say something about that students race being no different that the bullies. I would try to go deeper and make sure the bully understood what he had been doing and why it was immoral. I would continue to keep a close eye on the Bully to make sure that student keep harassing the Spanish student. Since I can not do this alone, I would let other teachers know what I saw so we could keep an eye out. If I saw anything happen again, I would bring the bully to the principles office to talk or if there was a bully program in place I would bring that student or group of students to have a talk with that councilor.
How will I help students handle this:
Again if bulling is a big enough issue in a certain school where I will teach, I feel having a special program to deal with these issues would be appropriate. If I happen to have a certain issue in the class, for example the Spanish student incident. I might talk about that issue with the rest of the class if the Spanish student was alright with that. That way we could hear everyone's opinion and perhaps how the Spanish student is and was feeling. I don’t want anyone in my classroom or school to feel unsafe. Therefore it will be my job and the other teachers jobs to catch and deal with issues like these in order to keep the students safe
Here is the content that was presented in the brochure:
To help prevent Bullying, my primary focus would be to gather some teachers together and create a “bully awareness program” This program would allow students who are being harassed or verbally abused to go and seek help. This program would also have periodic assemblies that addressed the issue of bulling. It would talk about the morels of bulling others and what to do if you are bullied, for instance use the “teachers presence” strategy when you feel unsafe. Besides these discussions, there would be a certain person who any students should go and talk with if they are being bullied or have been bulling somebody. All the students should know who this person is.
What I would do….
If I walked in to class one day and heard or saw someone being bullied I would immediately step in. First I would tell the student doing the bulling why this was wrong. For example , if a Spanish student was being criticized and verbally being called names I would say something about that students race being no different that the bullies. I would try to go deeper and make sure the bully understood what he had been doing and why it was immoral. I would continue to keep a close eye on the Bully to make sure that student keep harassing the Spanish student. Since I can not do this alone, I would let other teachers know what I saw so we could keep an eye out. If I saw anything happen again, I would bring the bully to the principles office to talk or if there was a bully program in place I would bring that student or group of students to have a talk with that councilor.
How will I help students handle this:
Again if bulling is a big enough issue in a certain school where I will teach, I feel having a special program to deal with these issues would be appropriate. If I happen to have a certain issue in the class, for example the Spanish student incident. I might talk about that issue with the rest of the class if the Spanish student was alright with that. That way we could hear everyone's opinion and perhaps how the Spanish student is and was feeling. I don’t want anyone in my classroom or school to feel unsafe. Therefore it will be my job and the other teachers jobs to catch and deal with issues like these in order to keep the students safe
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Chapter 7 Thinking about Teaching and Learning
Chapter 7 was full of insightful philosophies of teacher from the past and present. A few of these points I found really applied to me and the way I hope to teach.
On Page 273 the text discusses Opinions, Values, and Beliefs. The quote “Change is endemic to education…..It is difficult to let go of no longer useful ideas” really made me think about what I will be teaching in the class room. I know that I will need to learn how to change what I teach as times change. Whether that means changing the standard material very quickly for the next class (after noticing something that was not working right); or changing the material over the year as a standard changes. I think it may be difficult learning how to do this after becoming really good a teaching a certain way, but I feel it will be necessary.
I also felt that Confucius’s quote “if you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of 10 years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach people.” will help me as a teacher. I believe it takes all three of these “rules” to truly teach. There will be times where I will be thinking about certain things that I want to teach or accomplish with the students in one year, a certain standard for example. There will be other things that I will be thinking and teaching about for ten years, like figuring out and teaching my students to analyze the text. I would be repeating this concept each year until something would cause me to change the way I think and teach that topic. And of course, as a teacher I should always be think about teaching in terms of 100 years, in order to provide bright minds in the next generations.
A third important thought chapter 7 addresses which I found interesting and beneficial as a teacher, is being able to use all types of learning styles not just the one that you (as a teacher) learn best by. I am a visual learner. I like to see examples of things and not just hear them. I know that I will need to adapt and learn to use all of the learn types. I may have oral presentations I need to listen to. I will need to focus and be able to listen to them and not “fade away” I also get distracted easily by small noises like someone tapping a pencil on a desk. This annoys me but it may help that person learn.
I like how this chapter got me to stop, and think about a few small things that I hope to adjust when I being and continue to teach. These things would do well to go into my philosophy paper.
On Page 273 the text discusses Opinions, Values, and Beliefs. The quote “Change is endemic to education…..It is difficult to let go of no longer useful ideas” really made me think about what I will be teaching in the class room. I know that I will need to learn how to change what I teach as times change. Whether that means changing the standard material very quickly for the next class (after noticing something that was not working right); or changing the material over the year as a standard changes. I think it may be difficult learning how to do this after becoming really good a teaching a certain way, but I feel it will be necessary.
I also felt that Confucius’s quote “if you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of 10 years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach people.” will help me as a teacher. I believe it takes all three of these “rules” to truly teach. There will be times where I will be thinking about certain things that I want to teach or accomplish with the students in one year, a certain standard for example. There will be other things that I will be thinking and teaching about for ten years, like figuring out and teaching my students to analyze the text. I would be repeating this concept each year until something would cause me to change the way I think and teach that topic. And of course, as a teacher I should always be think about teaching in terms of 100 years, in order to provide bright minds in the next generations.
A third important thought chapter 7 addresses which I found interesting and beneficial as a teacher, is being able to use all types of learning styles not just the one that you (as a teacher) learn best by. I am a visual learner. I like to see examples of things and not just hear them. I know that I will need to adapt and learn to use all of the learn types. I may have oral presentations I need to listen to. I will need to focus and be able to listen to them and not “fade away” I also get distracted easily by small noises like someone tapping a pencil on a desk. This annoys me but it may help that person learn.
I like how this chapter got me to stop, and think about a few small things that I hope to adjust when I being and continue to teach. These things would do well to go into my philosophy paper.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Chapter 13 Improving Teachers...
I hope that before I graduate, I can say I had some great Practicum experiences that have greatly influenced the way I plan to teach. Practicum is definitely something I would add to my resume. I also hope to add any other interesting summer jobs or clubs I have participated in that have influenced and boosted my knowledge of teaching.
I also hope that during my first five years of teaching, I will see a significant change in my confidence in the classroom. I hope that I will be able to successively say that I will have learned how to apply all the tricks and knowledge I am learning now to the classroom. I also hope that my resume will show not only how much I enjoy teaching, but how much the students enjoy my teaching.
Eventually I hope to get a masters is creative writing. I also hope that I can proudly say that I have published my own children’s books, as well as some young adult books. I know that right now this is just a goal I may or may not achieve, but I think that getting my master and getting my own books published will not only benefit me money wise but also help me to teach even better.
I also hope that during my first five years of teaching, I will see a significant change in my confidence in the classroom. I hope that I will be able to successively say that I will have learned how to apply all the tricks and knowledge I am learning now to the classroom. I also hope that my resume will show not only how much I enjoy teaching, but how much the students enjoy my teaching.
Eventually I hope to get a masters is creative writing. I also hope that I can proudly say that I have published my own children’s books, as well as some young adult books. I know that right now this is just a goal I may or may not achieve, but I think that getting my master and getting my own books published will not only benefit me money wise but also help me to teach even better.
Things I need to Know
I read about three important things that UMF Secondary Education majors should know.
- I will be taking PraxisI in November, I know I need to pass this test before I can do anything else next year. I did well on the SAT's so I hope this won't be too hard for me. I was intrested on the Fee waver but I am not sure how much my partents income is and it is on a first come first serve basis so I bet I missed that oppertunity sinceI have waited so long beofer finding out. But I may still try, it would not hurt any!
- The Practicum info was very helpful. The Wiki really seems to emphise talking one or no classes during that time period, which is a good thing. I like how this page lays out the steps I will need to go through when the time comes for getting ready, for example, who to go and talk to ( Kristen Hickey). I am still curious why so many people sayPracticum is so challenging, also do we get to choos what schools we help in or is that choosen for us?
- Even though I hope I never need the information about transfering my major, I am glad I have that information avaliable to me as well as that choice. This page was helpful for thoes who need to know the basic steps on how to transfer in to a Secondary education major, since I am already there and do not plan on switching majors I did not feel this information applied to me, but again it is nice know it is there to read any time I want.
Friday, September 26, 2008
"How do I start thinking like a teacher?"
I think I am moving closer towards think like a teacher. It is mostly when I am not in school though. For example, my work study job is tutoring at Mallet Elementary in a third grade classroom. When there I am focused on the class, I notice if someone is not paying attention or is distracted and I try to “pull” their focus back. The other day they were all reading a skit out loud. I noticed that two students (who happened to be sitting near each other) kept losing their place. I decided that I would be more help in between them then I would be sitting somewhere else and listening. Also when I gave riding lessons, I felt that I was completely thinking like an instructor. I constantly brainstormed new ideas and exercises I could use to entertain the rider while I was teaching them the proper way to sit, turn smoothly, and how to transition form a walk to a trot. The reason I could think like a teacher instead of a student in that case was because I knew so much about how to ride that it was easy for me to teach it.
Now I don’t feel that I think like a teacher when I am in the class room. I wait for instructions and think about what I should be focused on. I also don’t feel I have learned how to analyze a situation like a teacher yet. For example, I was in the lunch line the other day. It was difficult for me to get past the crowd at the snack table to get to the main dinner table. I was just focused on getting through the line and not bumping into anyone instead of asking myself “where might be a better pace to put the snack bar instead of in front of the Dinner line?” I hope that over time I will being to think even more as a teacher. I know my skills as a class room teacher will develop more as I learn more too!
Now I don’t feel that I think like a teacher when I am in the class room. I wait for instructions and think about what I should be focused on. I also don’t feel I have learned how to analyze a situation like a teacher yet. For example, I was in the lunch line the other day. It was difficult for me to get past the crowd at the snack table to get to the main dinner table. I was just focused on getting through the line and not bumping into anyone instead of asking myself “where might be a better pace to put the snack bar instead of in front of the Dinner line?” I hope that over time I will being to think even more as a teacher. I know my skills as a class room teacher will develop more as I learn more too!
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