Chapter 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

For this blog I used a wordle to create a word web of things from the classroom

Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong

This chapter talks about the two major ways that things can go wrong in the classroom. The first form of ways things can go wrong is with the students. The second form of way things can go wrong is with the teachers. "When things go seriously wrong for students, many choose to stop going to school, sometimes for good. Teachers, too, make that choice when they feel discouraged - one reason that three out of five leave the profession in their first five years" (162). Staying in touch with the students over almost everything, discussing things with them, and keeping their chins up during hard times is good for them to keep them in school. For a teachers perspective, there are many things to keep in mind to keep your own chin up, to continue to be interested in teaching, and to be resilient in hard times will help us to get past the hard stuff.

Reading this chapter was very comforting to read. Where I grew up, there weren't many drop outs from school, however, there were kids who felt the way that the book talked about, and didn't give school their all. One of my fears about teaching is that it will be hell, and I won't be able to tough it out. Reading those examples of ways to handle the rough times in teaching was very comforting to read. This chapter will probably be one that I refer to on those days that it feels like I'm hitting my head against a wall.

Chapter 8: Teaching Teenagers Who Are Still Learning English

This book was written in the Bay Area of California. In California there are many students who do not have proper English. They are limited in their English. Part of being a teacher is being prepared to encounter students in the classroom who might not be as advanced as others in their English. Students in this book gave advice on how to handle students who aren't strong in English. Finding out what students know and where they come from, along with giving them other ways to learn with their minimum English language. Being sensitive to the students inability is something that teachers need to be aware of, and help them with ways to get by.

Growing up in Maine, I have never really been confronted with many issues of having people in my life who didn't have English as their first language. Especially in the classroom. All of my teachers were English speaking, and all of my classmates were English speaking as well. However, my goal is to move to Boston and teach in the city, so I may be encountered with students who do not have English as their first language. So, this chapter is useful in giving ways to handle how to reach and teach the students who have a foreign language as their first language.

Chapter 7: Teaching Difficult Academic Material

This chapter focuses on teaching tough academic content to your students. When you are able to apply a respectable, safe environment in the classroom and teach tough content then your classroom is like a well oiled machine. Some major things that stood out to me in this chapter on teaching tough content were to find out what students already know, ask questions to make the students really think about what it is that they're learning. To challenge students assumptions, and to not use the textbook all of the time. One thing that stood out to me the most in this chapter was the line "It's always easier to learn complicated concepts by doing things, not just by having someone talk about the ideas" (p. 129). Letting the students do activities in order to learn the tough content is one of the best ways for them to be able to get it.

Teaching the tough content area is one thing that I worry about when it comes to teaching. However, after spending some time in the classroom in the past 3 weeks I have come to realize that the tough content is the least of my worries. There are so many things that happen throughout the day in the classroom that you could never predict. The content is just the stuff that goes along with it. However, I definitely think that this chapter does a good job with talking about how to handle the teaching kids the stuff that's going to be hard to them. It also makes you realize that what might be tough to one student might be very easy to another. Creating groups and learning activities for each of the students is a good way for them each to learn at their own pace.

Chapter 6: Motivation and Boredom

This chapter has to do with the things teachers need to keep in mind to keep their students motivated. The things that are present in schools that make students motivated are: passionate teachers, issues they care about, connections to the real world, and the ability to have choices in things that matter. As educators in order to help the students stay motivated we must do things like: make learning a social thing, make sure we understand, respond with interest when the kids show interest, care about student progress, help students stay on top of their workload, have the students take pride in their work, and provide them with role models from the real world to keep them motivated. Another big thing in this chapter is time. "Timing is everything" (110). Timing applies to everything from during the daily agenda, to homework, projects, and tests. The biggest part of motivation however, is getting students to be interested in reading and writing. When they are interested in these two things, then their grades will improve amongst all of their classes.

This chapter was really helpful with giving ways to keep the students motivated. Students half of the time hate being in school, and are only there because they were forced to be there. However, if you are able to get them to care and be motivated by what's going on, then you're going to have more successful students in your classroom. I really liked the chart on page 112 which focuses on when students should do what. That is a tool that I am certain I am going to refer to when I am teaching. A lot of the stuff on the chart is obvious as a student, but when you're a teacher, you're just thinking of fullfilling the standard, not what works best for the student.

Chapter 5: Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

In this chapter it focused on teaching the group in the classroom, as well as the individual. It touched upon the different "types" of kids that are in a typical classroom. These consist of: the eye roller, the wallflower, the hand-waver, the dreamer, the con artist, the goof-off, the workhorse. With acknowledging these different types of kids in the classroom, then the teacher is able to understand why certain kids participate, while others don't. In the classroom there are different levels of not only learning, but social skills as well. In the classroom, in order to get all kids to be involved teachers should "ask open-ended questions" (p. 91). Another way to reach the students individually is to have them work in small groups. This not only helps the teacher to reach the students as a small group, but also individually. The book states: "...set up purposeful group activities that depend on every student's doing things that foster learning" (p. 91).

After reading this chapter, I feel like I was provided with the tools to reach students in both the traditional classroom setting, and also in the group work setting. I feel that it is very important to reach every student in every situation that you are put into. I learned that when you are lecturing the classroom, you need to be aware of which students are doing what, and how they are reacting to your teaching. I also learned how to give each student responsibilities when they are working in group activities. They need to be held accountable for the work that they are doing individually and throughout the group.

Chapter 4: Creating a Culture of Success

Some things that stood out to me in this chapter was the idea of teaching kids how to take risks. Then reading things about the stuff that kids are going through, the pressures they feel from peers and parents, and how these things are big contributors to whether or not a student thrives in school. The quote "...teachers will have to believe in what their students can do, even when real-life stresses make their "best efforts" fall short" (p. 62) really stood out to me in this chapter.

As a student, I can relate to this chapter very well. My best success in the classroom have been with teachers, or professors who have pushed me to do my very best, and never accepted anything but my best. When I become a teacher, I want to be able to read a student and know how much I can push them, so that I can have them reach their full ability of a student. I understand the pressures students feel from parents, and peers. My parents always pushed me to do my best, but then I always felt I had to assume the role of slacker with my friends. So I would push myself, but just enough to please my parents, but not to my full ability. As a teacher, the quote above really called out to me. Because I hope that I will always be able to see what my students are able to do, but also be able to take into consideration what it is that they have going on outside of school. Having a teacher who realizes this will be very important to the students, and they will appreciate the understanding. (I know I did when I was a student).

Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior

While reading this chapter about classroom behavior, a lot of things jumped out to me. While I have been in the classroom I have noticed a lot of things about the behavior in the classroom, and a lot of it has related to what is in this chapter. One big thing that I blocked with my pen is "If students are really learning, they will be asking questions all the time." (p. 40). One major part that also stood out to me was to "Treat students consistently, but also as individuals" (p. 48). This chapter also talked about the different ways in which you should deal with misbehavior. If you should resort to calling the parents right away, or talking to the student first. Also, when there are substitutes to know what to expect from the class while you are gone.

This chapter was very interesting to me. Since I have been in the classroom I have seen various types of behavior, ranging from good to bad, respectful to disrespectful. The first quote in the previous paragraph is important to me, because I strongly believe in that. When you are asking questions, it means you are interested in what is being told to you, and you learn by asking questions. So when my students in my classroom are asking questions, I will not get discouraged by this, I will embrace it, and answer any and all questions my students have. The second thing that I quote in the previous chapter really stood out to me because I find that this tip, while I completely agree with it, will be very challenging to do. It's hard to treat a class as a whole consistently, and then to address individual needs. It needs to be done however, and to be an effective teacher I will find ways to do this, and treat my classes and the individuals equally.

My contributions to the WebQuest wikis

The first contribution that I made to the WebQuest wiki is I found a link that was inactive, and deleted it. This was from the Judgment page, the link to the webquest no longer worked. http://webquestroles.wikispaces.com/Judgment
The second contribution that I made to the webquest wiki is that I found another link that was inactive and deleted it. This was from the retelling page, the link to the Beatles webquest, and it no longer worked. http://webquestroles.wikispaces.com/Retelling
The third contribution that I made to the Webquest wiki is that I found a third link that was inactive. This was from the Consensus Building, the link no longer worked, so I deleted. http://webquestroles.wikispaces.com/Consensus+Building

Maine Memory Network

The Maine Memory Network is a great place for pictures and artifacts from places in Maine to be uploaded. With these you are able to look around the site and find things from your hometown, and surrounding towns that you know of. However, this is dependent on whether or not your town has uploaded anything to this website. In the classroom, since I am going to be a social studies teacher, this website could come in handy big time. One way that I could use it is to compare landmark photos from past and then in the present time, and use them to compare and contrast the difference and similarities between the two. Being able to see the difference between places from then and now is really cool to look, for anyone of any age really. I could have the class find the things that haven't seemed to change in the picture and then the big things that have changed. Things like vegetation, landmarks, oceans or lakes, and roads are things to look for. This would be very interesting and engaging for the kids to do in the classroom.

Copyright and Fair Use

- The first reaction that I have is from quiz item number 19, which addresses using popular songs as background music to a DVD yearbook. While I understand the reasoning of the copyright violation, it makes me realize just how many people violate this. My senior year we made a photo story that had whole songs in it. While these weren't top songs of the year, they were whole songs. From now on I'll have to remember to never play whole songs on photo stories.
- The second reaction that I have is from quiz item number 17, which addresses taking pictures of streets and businesses, and putting them on the web. I have never thought that taking pictures of establishments and streets could be a copyright violation. I guess I'm kind of glad it's not. When I travel, I like to take many pictures, so it's nice to read that I'm not about to get into trouble for sed pictures on my facebook.
- The third reaction that I have is from quiz item number 15, which addresses a teacher making a compilation of movie clips and putting them together for lesson starters. Personally, I don't really see the problem with compiling various clips for a lesson starter. Especially since they are allowing machines that defeat the copy protection on DVD's and CD's. This seems a little hypocritical. However, it is good to see that there is a website out there that does have film clips.
- The fourth reaction that I have is from quiz item number 14, which addresses the usage of Disney films at an open house. I think it's a little funny that video is not covered under fair use for entertainment or reward. Because, if you think about it classrooms across America are violating this on a daily basis. However, I did not know that you could get a one time license from Disney for 25 bucks. That was very cool to read.
- The fifth reaction that I have is from quiz item number seven, which addresses the fact that if you have a protected site you can put copyrighted material on it without permission. I had never thought of this, and I think it's really useful from a teachers point of view to have. Because, if you have to always get permission to put things onto a protected website of your own, that could grow to be a pain.
- The sixth reaction that I have (and also the long reaction) is from quiz item number 16, which addresses the usage of a machine to defeat copy protection. I was really surprised to read that you can A) buy a machine that defeats the copy protection on DVD's, CD's, and just about everything else, and B) let students then take the illegally copied material, and use it in projects. While I suppose people have been doing this for a while, I'm surprised to see it be okay in a classroom. As a future teacher, I can see how this could be very useful in the classroom, to get protected material into the students hands for their further education. However, on the other hand, I can see how people could abuse this power for personal use to make copies of things at home, and then in turn sell it for profit. Which is just what the DVD company does not want happening.

How to help someone use a computer

The one thing that I have to tell myself is: "You've forgotten what it's like to be a beginner." This really called to me, because I am one of those people who can tinker around on computers on my own and usually get things. Since I can do it on my own, I think that everyone else can just figure it out on their own as well. The reason why I can figure things out so well on my own, is because I have been using computers for so long. So, when it comes to computers, I'm not really a beginner anymore. However those that I will be teaching, might not be able to work with computers as easily as me. One important rule that I can relate to is: "Don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction." This is a good rule for me to follow because, I like to just take charge when I do things. I also have very little patience, so I usually grow impatient and take over whatever it is that is going on. So if I keep this rule in mind, hopefully I will be able to control myself, and let the student carry on with what they're trying to show me.

In our teams technology presentation we could use the "Beginners face a language problem: they can't ask questions because they don't know what the words mean, they can't know what the words mean until they can successfully use the system, and they can't successfully use the system because they can't ask questions." tip. This is because smartboards are fairly new to us learners.

Agre, P. (1996) How to help someone use a computer. http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/how-to-help.html

Web 2.0 Educator

For the Web 2.0 Educator, I did not use the suggested blogs, I decided to instead find a blog geared more towards my concentration. I stumbled upon this one blog that is written by various high school teachers who teach social studies content. I really liked this blog. It gave many external links to help with just different interactive ways in teaching. There is one link in particular that I really enjoyed looking at, because it gives teachers examples and even templates with "bringing history to life" in the classroom. The main teacher who writes on this blog is Ken Haila. He posts a lot of interesting facts, and it is clear that he is very involved with integrating technology into his students learning. It is clear by what he posts that he feel very passionate about technology in the classroom. One current link that he recently posted on the blog was about making internet flashcards. He posted multiple websites that showed how to create them for the students for studying styles, and it even had the option for the students to be able to print them if they wanted a hard copy. I really like this blog, and I think I may refer to it when I start to go into the classroom, and get some pointers from it.

Type I and Type II Technology

Type I technology is: the application of technology in the classroom, however it is applied through the same way it always was, in traditional means.
3 examples of Type I technology could be: 1. The old school "Type to Learn" program. I used this program when I was in middle school. It was quite possibly one of the worst programs that we were forced to do everyday in computer class. It would let you work on your typing skills, while giving you vocabulary words. 2. A teacher sitting at the front of a classroom telling the kids their vocabulary and having them just type it five times over on a word document. 3. The computer game "Oregon Trail", this was a cool interactive game that kids played to learn about the Oregon Trail, however it was very Type I, by being a very traditional computer game.

Type II technology is: the application of technology in the classroom, but, unlike Type I, it shows new and better ways to integrate technology in the classroom.
3 examples of Type II technology could be: 1. Using an interactive powerpoint in the classroom to show a lesson. 2. Having the students themselves create either a powerpoint, a movie, or song on the computer to present a project. 3. Having the students use the word document application to make a newspaper article about something that concerns them.

My MEL Experiences

• · Student/Teacher Relationship: I have always struggled in math. While in elementary and middle school, I was able to know enough to squeak by with B’s. However, when it came to high school I was faced with Algebra and that was not something I could fake. My teacher my freshman year was Mrs. Lynam, and she could tell after the first couple quizzes and tests that math was not my forte. She (against my will) had me come to her room on her free periods, and during lunchtime to help me with what I just wasn’t grasping. This was the first time that I had ever had someone take the extra time and teach me the material in a way that I got. It was a really great thing, because not only was she helping me with my math, she was also teaching my stubborn self that it’s okay to struggle.
• · Helping Students Succeed: English, writing, and history, have always been my strength in school. I always thought I was such a hotshot in middle school and high school when it came to writing, because I always received A’s on papers, when in reality I put very little effort into them. My junior year of high school I had, quite possibly, the toughest English teacher in the school. She knew from past teachers that I was a good writer, and that I always received perfect scores on writing assignments. However, after I got back my first paper I turned into her, I received a B-. This was something that had never happened to me before in English, and I didn’t know exactly how to take it. For the rest of the school year I worked my butt off to get an A out of that teacher. I talked about it to her recently, and she told me that just because I had been a good writer in the past didn’t mean I didn’t have room to grow to become an even better writer. Not only did she teach me how to craft eloquent sentences, she also forced me to use vocabulary like eloquent in papers.
• · Hands - On: When I was in middle school we had tech Ed. In my family I’m not the one who can take apart an engine and put it back together, or can build a spice rack for my aunt for Christmas. That is something my brother and sister do, I on the other hand, am the bookworm. However, in 8^th grade I really enjoyed going to tech. Ed., and doing the projects. I remember one of the projects’; we had to make a “paper” airplane. (Which was really just lightwood). But throughout the process of making the plane, we learned about aerodynamics and all of those things, that I could have easily read about in a book to learn, but it was way more fun to learn it by making an actual plane.
• · Interest: My interests in school were sports, and history. So essentially the two classes I didn’t dread the most going to every day were, gym and, history. I enjoyed every part of history, and was never bored with the material, unlike many of my friends. When it came project time, I would take my two loves of sports and history and combine the two as much as possible.
• · Connections: My senior year of high school I was in Advanced Math, and Physics. These two class periods were usually back –to- back. For all four years of my high school career I had been asking Mrs. Lynam what was the sense in learning all this algebra when it was never going to be used in real life. Then, came my senior year in physics with Mr. Marshall, I realized that all the algebra and geometry I was doing in advanced math could actually be applied in physics. I thought that it was really cool to finally see it applied to something. However, it didn’t make me want to go out and take a liking to math.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

In this chapter regarding respect and trust amongst the students and the teachers, one line that I found to really jump out at me was: “’Because I said so’, or ‘Because I am the teacher’, are also not good explanations for punishments. Teachers must be clear and fair, or students will be hurt or angry” (p. 27). So, in other words, students like to know exactly why they are being punished, or why they are getting the assignment, and it is our responsibility as good teachers to provide them with an intelligent and clear answer.

I think this is really important in being a teacher. I was one of those students who would always ask why we were doing the assignment, or why we were getting split up into groups. In fact, once while in middle school, I received a detention for asking why we had to do the homework. To this day, I still haven’t got an answer. I feel that it is the teacher’s responsibility to be able to have a legitimate answer about why we are doing the homework, no one just wants to be doing busy work. It should be meaningful, and have a purpose. This also comes with punishments, “because I said so” may be the easy answer, but the teacher should take the time to really tell the student why it is that they are giving them the punishment. This is a quality that I will be sure to take with me into the classroom, however, I have already begun to practice this through working with kids at camp. While it is sometimes easier to just say “because I said so”, I always make sure they know why

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

When reading this first chapter about students input on how a teacher should know their student well, one thing that really stood out to me was one a list of things that co-author students wrote about signals to watch for from them. Out of the six items on the list, the last one is the one that stood out to me the most. It was about how the teacher should know the student well enough to be able to read what their faces me.

This part of the book really jumped out at me because I know, personally, that when a teacher knows you well enough to be able to look at you while doing a lesson and can tell how you feel about the subject matter it’s really comforting. Because once the teacher takes note of the look on your face, and the emotions coming with it, it gives them the opportunity to talk to you about it after class, or even, if the teacher knows the student won’t care, use it as a segway into a class discussion. Some of the best teachers I have ever had were the ones who could know how you felt about what was going on in class. Sometimes the teacher could even just tell by your face when you walked into class that day just what kind of day you were having. I think this list of signals is really helpful, and I know that when it comes time for me to go into the classroom, I will be using this list as a reference, and I will most definitely know what my students are feeling based on their facial expressions.

Learning Style Inventory Results

learning-styles-online.com

Your Overall Scores:

Visual Style 6/20

Aural Style 16/20

Verbal Style 16/20

Physical Style 10/20

Logical Style 6/20

Social Style 18/20

Solitary Style 10/20

The results that I received from the learning style survey I thought, were pretty accurate to who I am as a learner. My highest was social style, which is true to who I am. I enjoy being around people, even if I'm not working with people on work, having them around me while I am working on my work makes me feel at ease. The tie for my second highest score is Aural and Visual. Out of the two here I was surprised about the visual part, and the aural as much. When I am working, I do like to have music or just background noise around me. I feel that I work better and more efficiently with the music or background noise. The visual is something new to me to think about with my style of learning, so it will be interesting to think about and see if it matches up in the future of this class!