Last Class Period!

Today was a great way to end the semester. Everyone got the chance to talk about their cultural events. Sarah's blew me away. The amount of work this girl did on her presentation was tremendous. I really enjoyed everyones stories and everyones experiences. I really liked Betty's experience on her trip to a chinese wedding.I think talking about different cultures and even going to a cultural event is a great way for anyone to learn more and become more open-minded, especially for a teacher. Everyday is a new challenge and new lesson for teachers. Every year we are faced with new students and every student is completely different from one another. Being culturally aware is being open-minded to new possibilities. Whether it be new students, new food, new discussions, or even new places. A teacher needs to be culturally aware and open at all times. Being culturally aware ties in with having empathy towards students and understanding that we all come from different places. Some students may not participate in the classroom because maybe they were raised in a certain way where they were told not to. Teachers need to be aware of this. I have experienced students with hygiene issues due to cultural ways. I loved this assignment because I feel that it really opened all of our eyes. It helps us relate to students in different ways. Seeing the chinese wedding video really opened my eyes to something that I have never even experienced and I'm really thankful that I saw it. This has been a great semeseter with great discussions. I really enjoyed our class!

Week 8 Reflection

In class on Wednesday, we watched a video on YouTube. The video was called RSA animate by Sir Ken Robinson. The main focus was to answer the question: How do we educate our children to take their place in the economics of the 21^st century, and how do we teach them to have cultural identity? I thought it was really interesting how the video talked about how as older generations grew up they were told to go to school, work hard, graduate college, and they were guaranteed a job. Today it is far beyond that way: It’s not like that in a sense that people can work hard and get their degrees but they will not be guaranteed a job. Economy is struggling and it is not guaranteed to get better. No body knows how things will be in the future. We had a discussion in class about ADHD, and how there are many students in today’s society struggle with it. We discussed how some people take advantage and make it an excuse as to why they can’t learn. I have mixed feelings about this topic. I have seen good friends of mine say that they “have ADHD” and say that when they take Adderall they can focus more than they ever have. I do not think that those friends of mine actually have ADHD; I just think that they procrastinate and can be lazy. I personally think that they use “having ADHD” as an excuse for why they do not like school. But at the same time, I have seen many students struggle with ADHD and I feel really bad for them; therefore, I have two opinions about it.  

The topic of gifted students also came up, and if they should be placed in higher-level classrooms. My opinion on this is that it is the teacher’s job to challenge those students. I was surprised that no one in class brought that topic up. There are honors and AP classes for those over achievers and gifted students. That will definitely give them a better sense for education and keep them intrigued. If those classes are not available, teachers can find different ways to challenge those students; whether it is to give them different assignments, or change instruction so that they can be more engaged. After the video discussion, we had a group assignment (pop culture) where we were paired with a partner. I actually had a good time doing this one with Matthew! I thought this assignment was a pretty clever way to include student’s interest into class instruction.

Week 7

Today I presented on technology in the classroom. I can’t lie I was pretty nervous. I’m not sure why I get so nervous in front of 7 of my classmates and my professor, but I am completely fine when I am in front of 28 students. I guess that’s one way to tell that I am going to be a confident teacher. Doing my presentation on technology in the classroom, I ran into some difficulties with the technology. One of the key points that I went over is how important it is for a teacher to be prepared when working with technology in the classroom. For me, I am so used to working with Mac computers, and unfortunately the computer at the school is a Windows, so I ran into some difficulties with that. Some of my titles were not aligned the way there were on my computer, also one of the YouTube clips I posted was the wrong link. But after the presentation was over, I felt great. After the technology in the classroom portion of the class, some of us shared out Fakebook/Facebook pages. I really liked Matthew and Sarah’s pages. Matthews was on evolution and I just thought it was very clever and a great way to keep students entertained because it related to them. I definitely think that working with the Fakebook page was difficult and at times frustrating. I think it would be an excellent idea for someone to create a website template page for educators, such as Fakebook, but a template page that is much easier to navigate and work with. I wish I had the creativity and the time to do it! 

Week 6

Today two themes were presented. Alternative Assessments and Inclusion. Both were great presentations. The lesson on alternative assessments ended with an assessment on the class. we were divided into two groups and we were given a physics assignment. We were to create a pendulum out of the supplies given to us and were were supposed to create a hypothesis and try to prove it. I thought that this was very well thought out and creative. I actually really enjoyed working on it and I think that if this was practiced in a classroom it would really succeed. Observation in group work is a great way to assess students. As an educator, I believe that observation is the most important form of assessment. In this type of circumstance, it's a great way to see how students interact with one another socially, how they present the material, as well as a great way to see how well the students know the material. She did a great job on her lesson. I love how she involved our class into each part of alternative assessments by asking us questions and incorporating our opinions. The presentation on inclusion was also a great lesson. He was very informative with his information and incorporated our classroom very well. It was nice to hear personal experiences with inclusion and working with students with special needs or gifted students. I cannot imagine teaching a classroom with full inclusion, especially not by myself. The one experience I had in a special education classroom involved 2 other teachers and that was hard for us to handle. I definitely need more experience and practice with inclusion and working with different types of students.

5th Week Reflection

I absolutely love hearing my classmate’s personal stories and experiences teaching in their own classrooms, that’s why I really enjoyed the first day of school presentations. Everyone did a really good job! I got really good ideas from everyone’s first day lesson. I can’t wait until I get the chance to give my first day presentation to my own classroom one day. Hopefully it goes well and all my students enjoy me!                                     

In today’s class Betty did her theme, which was classroom management. She did an astounding job, with such insightful information that I could definitely use in my classroom. I think that the KWL graphic organizer she used went perfectly with the topic at hand. I really liked her articles as well. I am actually going to be using one of them for me thesis paper. I never really thought about all of the detail that goes into classroom management. I mean, there are the obvious stuff you think about such as organization, classroom arrangement, rules and procedures, but I never really though about the outcome. Betty brought up how teachers should deal with the breaking of the rules, late work policies, cheating, poor quality work, etc. These are things that I never really considered when thinking about teaching. I love how she brought up documenting everything when it comes to students misbehaving such as the date, the behavior that was at fault, how you handled it, what things were said. This is so important because it is so easy to forget such critical details, especially for a teacher who has so many other things, such as students, new assignments, grading, lessons to worry about. I also never thought about this, but it is such a good idea. I loved the personality test as well! I always thought that I would be a fair and balanced teacher and according to my results, it was pretty accurate. But at the same time, who knows how I’d really be in a classroom? Maybe I should retake that personality test after my first year of teaching and see how accurate it really is. Great job Betty!                                                                                                                         

We watched a video in class as well. It was called, Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, Happiness, & Spaghetti Sauce. This was a really interesting video. I wish we got the chance to watch the rest of it, but unfortunately it was cut off. Basically what I got from this video is that people have to think of things from a business perspective sometimes. The people from Ragu and Prego created several different options of spaghetti sauces for their consumers. From a business mind, Malcolm speaks about how a company should not create or perfect one item, they should make the best of everything. Consumers do not really know what they want, the companies should figure it out for them and create several options for them. Once the spaghetti companies did that, they succeeded. Ragu now has 36 different options of spaghetti sauces! This topic can relate to teaching in a sense. Teachers need to explore the different ways of teaching. There are so many different ways to present and teach a topic. This is true especially when it comes to teaching mathematics. There are so many ways to solve a problem, to get the right answer. Not one single way is the best way. As an educator, you need to investigate the different ways. One way may be good for one student, when another way may be better for another student. A teacher’s job is so critical and so detailed, that no teacher should take it lightly. Great teachers research and learn new things and new ways of teaching every year. I cannot wait until it’s my turn to teach and have a math class to myself! Just thinking about it makes me so happy. :) 

4th Week Reflection

Fourth week of class, and I must say it was pretty interesting. Clifford Stoll! What an interesting man! He made so many good points that really got me thinking, but a the same time he almost had me  wanting to argue with him! He is someone who is just extremely close minded when it comes to technology in the classroom. He is old fashioned and believes that technology should play an extremely small roll, or even no roll at all in education. He feels as though the quality of a good teacher is extremely important, which I cannot argue. Stoll feels as though there is so much time that is wasted on technology and that students should experience real life anecdotes rather than researching something pointless on the web. Although he does make valid points, I think he needs to realize that times have changed and technology is playing a huge role in all of our students' lives. I believe that it does need to be incorporated in everyday lessons; however, only to a certain extent. I don't think that the entire lesson, from beginning to end, needs to be focussed off of technology. I just think it needs to be a part of each lesson, whether it be part of a homework assignment, contacting students through email, having  students research something, using a smart board, having the students communicate with each other through blogs, etc... I believe technology is huge and it is only getting larger! It is the future and it definitely needs to be recognized by all educators!
I think this picture defines Clifford very well.. :)
                                    

3rd Week Reflection

Today's class was really interesting. The lesson started with dr. Perry's lecture about 'Teaching the Taboo.' We got into a great discussion about providing the students with the corresponding standard for each lesson. Kevin talked about how in the Chino school district they are having the students write down their standards on each sheet of paper they use. It just made me think about how strict schools are becoming when it comes to having student’s understand each standard fully. When I went to high school I don't ever recall the word standard being used, not once. Granted I went to a private high school, but it was a very strict high school where a highly valuable education came first. As a student at La Verne, when I observed my first math class I noticed the standard written on the board for every new lesson, and the teacher would start off each lesson with the agenda followed by the standard. I think this is a good idea, only if the students fully understand the purpose of each standard and what it means to their education. Back to Dr. Perry's lecture, another topic that stood out was a question that was asked to the class, "How have you fostered the creation and advancement of an engaging learning community and effective learning environment?" a few different examples were brought up. One student brought up the classroom setting and placement of the desks. Another brought up having a living thing in a science classroom. Both great ideas! We also got into how the look of a classroom can impact learning. I love the idea that Dr. Perry gave. He said he used to change the layout of his classroom about 3 times a year. It makes me think back to when I was in high school and how I had several teachers do this. It really makes a lot of sense as to why they did this. It's a great was to change up instruction for different lessons and activities. As well as being a great way to change the flow of things for students. Having the classroom set up the same way can get boring. Change is good, especially when it's geared to student achievement and satisfaction.                                 

 I really enjoyed the topic of theme 2. It’s definitely something that all teachers can use and relate to. The articles were great sources and the presentation was enjoyable. Matthew was a great speaker! I fell in love with his PowerPoint presentation, very original and creative! I also really enjoyed the activity at the end, I can absolutely see myself using this on my students in the classroom. It's such a great idea. I love hearing and seeing the different teaching strategies other educators use in their classrooms, and the fact that Matthew provided pictures and videos from his own classroom really brought everything to life! During his presentation we discussed time management tips and tricks, something all teachers need to work on. The class gave great tips such as: flip classrooms, having baskets for students to turn in their work, having a set schedule for daily lessons, etc..                                                                                                                       

The subject about teachers using business management skills in the classroom is really important to me. Managers have very similar responsibilities as teachers do. My family had a café that we recently sold and ran it as the owner/manger. As a manger you have to make sure everyone is doing his or her job correctly, just like a teacher. I was constantly making sure everyone knew what they doing and were doing it correctly. A manger must have a lot of patience, just like a teacher! Patience is so important, I can’t stress that enough. I had so many employees that were constantly struggling and wanted to quit sometimes, but you just have to talk to them in the right manner and explain things as many times as you need to without getting angry. Sooner or later they will realize that hard work pays off. They will definitely thank you and appreciate you later. Just like students would. Matthew asked the question about who are teachers’ clients? Not only students, but also parents are definitely clients. I’m glad this topic came up. From looking at the pictures above it looks like teachers and managers have something else in common! :)

 4^th week of school and so far I’m so interested. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the semester is going to be like!