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. :)