Video Bar Link

If you go to my video bar, there is a link to the youtube video we made relating to the book we read. This book was entitled "Letters to a Young Teacher," but Jonathan Kozol. Hope you enjoy.

Career Lecture

A couple weeks ago, I attended a lecture that was designed to help students know where they could go from the major they have chosen. I found this very interesting, because I only assumed I could be a teacher with a teaching major. I was happy to learn that there is a variety of jobs I could do. I could be a school counselor, or a specialized teacher such as a reading teacher. I think this has made me not so scared of being stuck in a classroom the rest of my life.

Joy movie

A couple days ago my mom sent me this movie called "They Joy Movie." I think it ties into our section on Motivation. A lot of the quotes in here can be related to teachers.

http://www.thejoymovie.com/

Group presentation

I would also like to comment that I am very excited for our groups movie. We have been working very hard on it and plan on filming it tomorrow. Hopefully people like our humor. :)
I'm excited to see how everyone else's turns out to!

Lecture-Chalk movie

Tonight in lecture we watched a pretty entertaining movie. It was about teachers in a school and it showed how they acted to their students. Their sarcasm was hilarious. However, I think it's important to remember that sarcasm isn't always appropriate. Teachers need to know when to use it and when not to.
Only thing I didn't like about the movie was the statistic that 50% of teachers quite within the first 3 years. That's not very reassuring...

Motivational Framework

In class on wednesday we talked about motivational framework. I found this to be pretty interesting. What I learned is that there are 4 types, External, Humanisitc, Cognitive, and Socialcultural. The three I found most interesting were the first three. External would be something you do for yourself. Our profesor talked about how one summer he decided it wasn't important to make money, and traveled around the U.S on $100. Humanisitc would be something you do for others, such as habitat for humanity. Cognitive would be something like learning about a subject your interested in and not worrying about the grade you recieve.

I think it is important as future teachers to understand how people are motivated. Each person is different, and I think it's a key part of learning to figure out how your students are motivated best.

Divided Classroom movie link

Earlier I had a blog entry on the movie "The divided classroom." Here is a link to that movie if anyone is curious and wants to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8gCJ4K4tnE

Development of Boys

Today in education for the diverse and exceptional learner, we watch a video on the development of boys. It talked about how boys are raised differently then girls, and how that affects them.

They did a study where a mother played with her baby daughter for several minutes. Then the mother kept a straight face and looked straight ahead. The girl simply just looked around the room, staying calm. When a mother did this to her baby son, the son started whinnying and crying. The study concluded that although boys are viewed as less emotional, in all reality, boys seek just as much attention as girls do.

The video talked about how some schools like to leave out violent stories, but that it may actually be better to let the children work through the violence and talk about how it makes them feel. However, graphic violence may be harmful to children under the age of 7.

I also found it interesting that 70% of D's and F's in the younger years, are from boys. It explained that boys don't like to sit and listen and keep focus for as long as girls do. Boys are 3X more likely to have ADHD, however, it is questionable as to if boys really need drugs, or if this is just the way boys are.

I also found it interesting that recess may be more important then we think. Recess gives children a chance to get out of the classroom and run off some energy. This will help them to focus better when they are in the classroom. I think it would be a bad idea to get rid of recess altogether.

Ch 8-Teaching our classmates

Last week we all came to class ready to teach one another something. I found this activity very interesting. I taught my classmate how to make the purring noise with your tongue rolling, while she taught me how to whistle. What I took from this experience is that sometimes you have to find other ways of teaching when people don't understand your way. At first I couldn't catch on how to whistle, but when she explained it taking me through it step by step, I slowly caught on and was able to make a faint whistle noise.
I think this is important to remember as we become teachers. If a student doesn't get something right away, don't give up! Think of other ways to explain it to them.

Parent Lecture

Monday I attended the parent lecture. I found this to be the most interesting lecture yet. By listening to what the parents had to say, I found out what goes on in the minds of parents and this should help me when I become a teacher.
One thing I learned is that parents don't like just looking at progress charts while their at conferences. They would rather just talk about their child for the whole conference. Their reasoning is that the charts mean nothing to them because they can't do much about it. That's the teacher's job.
One thing I learned about IEP meetings is that sometimes parents feel overwhelmed with how many people attend them. If less people come, the parents may feel more open and able to ask questions without so much imtimidation.
What I was most happy to learn is that although teachers underpaid, the retirement benefits are pretty good. :)

Diversity in the Classroom-movie reflection

One of the many topics my group is writing about for our presentation is diversity in the classroom. I think having a classroom filled with not only diverse students, but a classroom filled with learning about diverse students and their cultures, is very important in this era. With times changing and history in the making with our new president having an African American background, I think that now more then ever it is important that students are well educated in different backgrounds other then their own.



A couple class periods ago my diverse and exceptional learners class watched the movie "A Class divided." This movie is about a teacher in Riceville Iowa, who studied the effects of segregation and racism on her third grade students in 1970. When Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, the third graders came to class upset and confused. How could their "Hero of the Month" have been murdered? Mrs Elliott wanted to teach her class the meaning of discrimination,and what it really feels like to people. The class was divided into blue eyes, and brown eyes. Mrs Elliott proceeded by telling all the blue eyed people they were smarter then the brown eyed, nicer, neater, and just plain better. The brown eyed students had to wear collars around their neck, not drink out of the drinking fountain, and be last in the lunch line. Whatever they did, their performance was constantly criticised by Elliott. The roles were reversed the second day. The results showed that the students who were seen as inferior performed worse in school. The third grade students turned into nasty machines, yelling insults at each other and only focusing on one difference amongst themselves; the color of their eyes.

After the experiment, the students talked about what it felt like to be treated that way just because of the color of their eyes. One of her students said years later, "You hear these people talking about different people and how they'd like to have them out of the country. And sometimes I just wish I had that collar in my pocket. I could whip it out and put it on and say 'Wear this, and put yourself in their place.' I wish they would go through what I went through."

This lesson taught students that all are equal. In classrooms today, there are other ways of going about teaching this. Today in my group discussion we talked about how it is important to teach a wide range of culture. We shouldn't only use American books, but Indian and Asian as well. We need to make sure our students are introduced to global cultures to make them more well rounded and culturally educated people.

New teachers

Monday night I attended the lecture given by three new teachers who all graduated from Luther. I found this lecture to be the most interesting because they had recently been through the same things we are going through now and could give us advice. I liked hearing that some days will be a struggle, but there are so many benefits from teaching that none of the speakers regreted going into the profession. I liked knowing that some of our future colleagues will be stuborn in their ways and although we may have new, fresh ideas, we have to make sure we introduce them in a friendly way so we make sure to keep good relations with our colleagues.

Decorah School Board Members

Tonight I attended the lecture by two members of the Decorah school board. We talked a lot about the budget and how it works. I found it interesting how in Iowa, your spending is divided up into different sections. Those sections can't be mixed, even if there is left over money in some.

We also talked about how big, rich schools like West Des Moines, and small schools like Calmar, all get the same funding per student. I think that is a good thing. That way, even if your poor, your child is getting the same education and opportunities that a wealthy family's child is getting. We talked about implementing a foreign language into schools. I think that is a very good idea. Sometimes it's easier for little kids to soak up knowledge, and by starting to teach them a language at an early age could greatly benefit them. I was in Postville for my J-term 115 class, and that was an interesting experience. Everyday multiple lessons were taught in Spanish. I felt that not only was it a good thing because the students were becoming fluent at two languages, but it also helped bond the kids together. The native speakers would help the non-natives, and their roles would switch when the teacher switched back to a lesson in English. Although I understand it's hard to find funding to introduce foreign language programs into school districts, I think it is something all districts should look into.

Guest Administrator Lecture

I enjoyed the lecture by the two professionals from the Decorah school district on October 14th. I found there views of the NCLB act very interesting. I have been so used to hearing all the quirks about NCLB (on the news, from my peers, etc.), that I had become biased about it in a negative way. After listening to them talk, I realized that NCLB actually does some really good things. I think by having it in the schools it challenges teachers to find ways to teach in new and creative ways. I think it will some day keep ME on my toes; adapting and changing my ways of teaching to help make my students better. As I teacher I will like to see the progress my students are making or not making, so I know when my teaching strategies are and are not working.

High Stakes Community School-NCLB

Going into the lecture Monday night, I wasn't sure what to expect. I figured we'd do a lot of listening and then could voice our own opinions. I was surprised that different groups got up and talked as a whole. It turned out to be more formal then I had thought, but this made it very interesting to listen to.

I really enjoyed hearing everyone's opinions of NCLB. I realized how many things are wrong with that plan. It seems almost impossible to get all kids to a certain standard. Some students just arn't gifted in certain subjects and can't push themselves any further. I think something needs to be done to revise that plan. The over all idea of it is great, it just was lots of flaws. Hopefully with the change in presidency, some new ideas will generate and the NCLB act can become a positive thing in students education.

Library Lecture

I thought the lecture about using the library's website was very informative. I had no idea there was so much information on it. I think the new design of the website makes it much easier to find information quickly. What I found the most helpful was the link that sited books for you. That would have came in very handy last year during Paideia.
I feel that lecture was worth while to all Luther students. I would have not understood how to use that website had someone not walked me through it. It was a lot of information very quickly though, so I still have some questions but at least I am on the right track now.

Lecture/Chalk & Wire

I thought the lecture was very informative. There were I lot of things I never knew I needed to know, and without this lecture I would have fallen beyond. Now I feel I somewhat have an idea of what is going on.

I have mixed feelings about the chalk and wire thing. I already feel poor after I just signed up for our PPST test, and now thinking about all the other expenses I'm going to have before I start making the big bucks as a teacher...I'd almost rather make one by hand as a hard copy and have it right in front of me. I like the organization of the online one, but sometimes those can be confusing as well.

Paideia Lecture: Go Green

Just when it was starting to soak in that Paideia was over for me and I'd never have to have anything to do with it again (well until my Junior year), I attended the 'Going Green' lecture. Profesor Claude Mertzenich gave an interesting lecutre about replacing processes that have negative impacts on the envionments with clean and economically competitive chemical reaction and analysis methodoloten. Although I don't understand all those big words and pretty much just copied that sentence from my notes, what I did take from this lecture were ways to conserve the envionment. I think people sometimes dont grasp how important it is for us to keep our earth clean. We only think about the here and now and not what polluting may mean for not only us, but our children as well.
I think it is important for us to teach our future students to help keep our earth 'green.' From the start of their schooling we should enforce not littering, not keeping our water running while were brushing our teeth, and other things like these. As teachers we should model for our students ways to keep the earth healthy.

Lions for Lambs

I really enjoyed watching Lions for Lambs. At first I was confused with all the different plots going on, but then I realized they all tied together. My favorite was the professor who was trying to get his apathetic student to start trying again. I think it's very important to have an open relationship with your students so you feel comfortable talking with them, and they feel comfortable talking to you. If the student would have communicated his feelings earlier to his teacher, he may not have stopped going to classes.
I was really sad that the two military men had to die at the end. I wanted them to somehow pull through so they were able to tell their story to others. I'm confused at what it was trying to teach us. Those two guys were so passionate about what they believed and then joining the army, I wanted them to succeed.

My first blog

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