"The average child no longer exists" was the phrase that stuck with me from today's class. Today reality of 2015 definitely set in and opened my eyes a lot. To be honest, when I think of diversity I usually just think of race and culture. Today we dug in deep and listed about twenty different things that represented diversity. In today's age there are a lot more factors that you have to think about and that will effect the way a child learns.
After watching the video of a cop taking down a student in high school and hearing stories from Dr. Parker about what he has had to do to restrain his students, made me a little bit nervous. However I am glad I am hearing about this ahead of time before I actually become a teacher. I will not be teaching middle or high school, but with technology, elementary aged kids are starting to grow up and become more mature earlier on so I do need to be prepared for anything.
The discussion we had in class really made me think about what I need to do in my future classes. I am going to make sure I fully understand my students, their learning styles, social status, home life, learning or emotional disabilities and everything else I need to know to make sure they have a positive, uplifting and stable learning environment to work in and do not feel like they are not wanted or that they are not able to learn in my classroom. I understand that I will not be able to treat all my students the same way or give them all the same assignments because of the very reason of diversity.
Although this seems like it will be a lot of work to have to make different lesson plans and teach differently to each student, this is what teaching looks like in todays day and age. I am nervous but definitely excited to become a teacher and have my own classroom!
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
5 weeks left....
Wow, it seems like it was just the first day of class, and now we only have 5 more weeks left in the semester, which is about 10 more classes. That does not seem possible! I actually feel more overwhelmed now than I have ever felt before. With the amount of projects we are working on in this class, on top of all of our other classes work and tests to study for, on top of lacrosse and on top of my job, I am at my max capacity. Like I have said before, I will say it again, this is just preparing us for what teaching is going to be like.
Today in class we worked on how to prepare, and what steps need to be taken in order to effectively plan a lesson. Although it took us about the full two hours to get it down, I think it is important that we did spend that much time on it. If we can understand what it takes to have our students be successful, we will be great teachers. Like Dr. Clark said today, too many teachers today do not take the right, effective steps to plan a lesson and that is why we have such a huge gap with student learning today.
What I learned today is that it is better to take a longer time to go over the information students are not learning, and break into small groups, instead of just moving on with the next part of the lesson if students still do not get the first part. This step happens in the teacher input. The teacher needs to give a formative assessment and evaluate what each students knows then move on from there. One of two directions will take place. Either the teacher can continue with the lesson if each student understands, or the teacher may need to review in a different way than they did before if the students are still not understanding the information. A lot of the times I like to be on a schedule and make sure I get things done in order and on time, so this is something I will need to work on. I need to realize that what I plan is not always going to happen, or happen on time and I have to learn to accept that.
Another thing that shocked me today was when we took a calculator and found out that if you procrastinate or waste even just 5 minutes in the beginning or end of class, if you multiply that by the number of school days there are that means you are loosing 16 days. 16 days is a lot and a whole lot can be taught in that wasted time. In my future class, in order to prevent that wasted time, I think it would be effective if I set the standard of as soon as my students walk into the classroom, they have that 5 minutes of usually wasted time to complete the problems or review that is on the board in their notebooks. This will allow me to diagnose the students knowledge, give them review and to re-jog their memory from the day before, and prevent that wasted time. If I do this I think it will give the students less time to procrastinate and more time to learn!
Today in class we worked on how to prepare, and what steps need to be taken in order to effectively plan a lesson. Although it took us about the full two hours to get it down, I think it is important that we did spend that much time on it. If we can understand what it takes to have our students be successful, we will be great teachers. Like Dr. Clark said today, too many teachers today do not take the right, effective steps to plan a lesson and that is why we have such a huge gap with student learning today.
What I learned today is that it is better to take a longer time to go over the information students are not learning, and break into small groups, instead of just moving on with the next part of the lesson if students still do not get the first part. This step happens in the teacher input. The teacher needs to give a formative assessment and evaluate what each students knows then move on from there. One of two directions will take place. Either the teacher can continue with the lesson if each student understands, or the teacher may need to review in a different way than they did before if the students are still not understanding the information. A lot of the times I like to be on a schedule and make sure I get things done in order and on time, so this is something I will need to work on. I need to realize that what I plan is not always going to happen, or happen on time and I have to learn to accept that.
Another thing that shocked me today was when we took a calculator and found out that if you procrastinate or waste even just 5 minutes in the beginning or end of class, if you multiply that by the number of school days there are that means you are loosing 16 days. 16 days is a lot and a whole lot can be taught in that wasted time. In my future class, in order to prevent that wasted time, I think it would be effective if I set the standard of as soon as my students walk into the classroom, they have that 5 minutes of usually wasted time to complete the problems or review that is on the board in their notebooks. This will allow me to diagnose the students knowledge, give them review and to re-jog their memory from the day before, and prevent that wasted time. If I do this I think it will give the students less time to procrastinate and more time to learn!
Monday, October 12, 2015
Reassurance that I do not want to teach high school
Today we went to Crest High School, and lets just say it was interesting. I was in a 9th grade math class and the students definitely still acted like they were in middle school. There was one girl in particular that kept talking back to the teacher and giving attitude, but the teacher was also giving it right back to her. The students in 9th grade are at an awkward stage in their life. They do not need to be babied but they also do not act like adults. There were some students who were completely fine but then some who were acting up.
One thing I noticed that was on the board was for each day of the week the teacher had goals set out for each lesson. It said I CAN.... then whatever they were supposed to learn for that day and if they could do whatever the teacher had on the board, that means they understood the lesson. I thought that was really cool so the students knew what the goal of each lesson was. This is definitely something that I am going to do when I am a teacher because I think it is helpful for both the teacher and the students. The teacher writes out what they want the students to understand and then they will know if each student understands the lesson if they are able to do what is on the board. It also shows the students what they need to get out of each lesson, which is very helpful.
This teacher taught the lesson and they did practice problems as a class in the beginning. She had different students answering each question and telling how they did each problem. Once they spent some time on the lesson, the teacher gave them the last thirty minutes of class to do an in-class assignment that was going to be turned in and graded. I think this is a great way to see if the students understand the lesson because they just had practice then they had about 10 problems to do individually and hand in. I am also going to use this method because I think it is an effective way of both teaching and learning. It gives the students an opportunity to first learn and review the lesson, then to show what they know individually. It is also beneficial for the teacher because they get a chance to evaluate how each student is doing personally.
One thing that I did not like that the teacher did was when she was teaching the lesson she was sitting in the back of the room at her desk writing out the problems that they projected to the front of the classroom. I did not like that the teacher was in the back of the classroom because from personal experience I learn better when the teacher is up front so I can watch exactly what she is doing and it keeps me more focused. Students were dozing off and closing their eyes but the teacher couldn't tell because she was in the back of the classroom. When I am a teacher I will definitely be teaching from the front of the classroom.
I am glad that we got to experience all three levels of education. This last trip has definitely reassured me that I do not want to teach high school. I think K-6 will be the best fit for me because I love working with younger kids!
One thing I noticed that was on the board was for each day of the week the teacher had goals set out for each lesson. It said I CAN.... then whatever they were supposed to learn for that day and if they could do whatever the teacher had on the board, that means they understood the lesson. I thought that was really cool so the students knew what the goal of each lesson was. This is definitely something that I am going to do when I am a teacher because I think it is helpful for both the teacher and the students. The teacher writes out what they want the students to understand and then they will know if each student understands the lesson if they are able to do what is on the board. It also shows the students what they need to get out of each lesson, which is very helpful.
This teacher taught the lesson and they did practice problems as a class in the beginning. She had different students answering each question and telling how they did each problem. Once they spent some time on the lesson, the teacher gave them the last thirty minutes of class to do an in-class assignment that was going to be turned in and graded. I think this is a great way to see if the students understand the lesson because they just had practice then they had about 10 problems to do individually and hand in. I am also going to use this method because I think it is an effective way of both teaching and learning. It gives the students an opportunity to first learn and review the lesson, then to show what they know individually. It is also beneficial for the teacher because they get a chance to evaluate how each student is doing personally.
One thing that I did not like that the teacher did was when she was teaching the lesson she was sitting in the back of the room at her desk writing out the problems that they projected to the front of the classroom. I did not like that the teacher was in the back of the classroom because from personal experience I learn better when the teacher is up front so I can watch exactly what she is doing and it keeps me more focused. Students were dozing off and closing their eyes but the teacher couldn't tell because she was in the back of the classroom. When I am a teacher I will definitely be teaching from the front of the classroom.
I am glad that we got to experience all three levels of education. This last trip has definitely reassured me that I do not want to teach high school. I think K-6 will be the best fit for me because I love working with younger kids!
Monday, October 5, 2015
Middle School Observation
Today we were able to go to Crest Middle School and observe a sixth grade classroom. I have always had my mind set on teaching grades K-2, but today made me realize maybe 4th or 5th or 6th grade would not be so bad. I would definitely not want to go any older than 6th grade though.
There were a couple things that shocked me while observing. First, in our education class we talk so much about how all these schools are up with their technology and have laptops, smart boards and all the latest technology. However, this was not the case. This classroom did not even have a smart board. They only had an overhead projector. I talked to an assistant that was in the classroom and asked about it and she said that only 2 classrooms in the building have smart boards and that the technology is too expensive and their budget doesn't cover it. I was also surprised that in 6th grade they were not doing the common core math. They were still doing the standard algorithm method. The second grade classroom I observed last week was even doing the new common core ways of adding and subtracting but the 6th graders were not, so I was a little confused by that.
I was happy to see that the teacher really got her students involved. While they were doing their math warm-up she was walking around the classroom observing what the students were doing so she could get a better understanding if they were understanding how to do the problems or not. Then when they were reviewing the problems she called on the students to answer them and explain how they got their answer. There was a certain few students that were always raising their hands, but she did a good job on calling on the students who did not have their hands raised so she could see if they knew how to do it as well. After this the students broke up into partners and did a scavenger hunt around the classroom. I though this was a great idea because the kids had just got back from lunch and it was their last academic block of the day so they did not want to just sit there and do work out of the book. They had to go around the room and solve each problem on the cards around the room. During this time the students were able to ask the teacher questions about the problems or if they did not understand something she was explaining it to them.
I thought it was a great experience to be able to go to a middle school classroom. I am excited to observe the high school classroom next week!
There were a couple things that shocked me while observing. First, in our education class we talk so much about how all these schools are up with their technology and have laptops, smart boards and all the latest technology. However, this was not the case. This classroom did not even have a smart board. They only had an overhead projector. I talked to an assistant that was in the classroom and asked about it and she said that only 2 classrooms in the building have smart boards and that the technology is too expensive and their budget doesn't cover it. I was also surprised that in 6th grade they were not doing the common core math. They were still doing the standard algorithm method. The second grade classroom I observed last week was even doing the new common core ways of adding and subtracting but the 6th graders were not, so I was a little confused by that.
I was happy to see that the teacher really got her students involved. While they were doing their math warm-up she was walking around the classroom observing what the students were doing so she could get a better understanding if they were understanding how to do the problems or not. Then when they were reviewing the problems she called on the students to answer them and explain how they got their answer. There was a certain few students that were always raising their hands, but she did a good job on calling on the students who did not have their hands raised so she could see if they knew how to do it as well. After this the students broke up into partners and did a scavenger hunt around the classroom. I though this was a great idea because the kids had just got back from lunch and it was their last academic block of the day so they did not want to just sit there and do work out of the book. They had to go around the room and solve each problem on the cards around the room. During this time the students were able to ask the teacher questions about the problems or if they did not understand something she was explaining it to them.
I thought it was a great experience to be able to go to a middle school classroom. I am excited to observe the high school classroom next week!
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