Valuable Lesssons Learn

This past semester has been an incredible learning experience for me. Not in the sense of material covered in class, but but in life lessons. I feel like this semester I truly grew as a person based on some of the events that occurred.

The beginning of the semester there was a professor that I did not like, I felt like she was just to full of herself and just going to be the type that would give us all a hard time. As the semester progressed things got better for a while, but then took a turn for the worst. It resulted in some complications and disagreements. After looking back on this semester I realized that professor was one of the best things that could have happened to me. She saw that I was giving up on myself and the reason she was giving me a hard time and pushing me was to let me know she hadn't given up on me and she still cared. So, the lesson I took from this was: even when you give up on yourself the ones who still care will keep pushing you.

I was a little concerned mid-semester when it came time for scheduling and I found out that my adviser in my major department had been changed. I wasn't sure really what to expect. When I went in for my meeting to get my registration form for next semester signed she sat down and went over everything and we discussed exactly what I wanted to do and how I wanted to accomplish it. This was the first time an adviser didn't just sign off on the paper and let me go. She actually took the time and went over everything. after much discussion she told me she would not sign off unless I agreed to cut back on the amount of hours I was working (which at the time was 40 to 60 on top of being a full time student). Initially I thought that to be unfair, but I decided to try it. After cutting back I started to see changes in my grades and my attitude, both for the better. At the end of the day she really made me realize that I need to slow down and focus on what is important and take time for myself.

Thanks to a few people really caring this past semester it kept me from giving up on myself and losing everything I have worked so hard to get. You are never to old to learn a lesson and sometimes they come from places you don't expect them to, but it is important to take them when they are offered, it can only be for the better. I hope as a future educator I can have the impact on my students that these professors have had on me.

Action Speak Louder Than Words

After spending time as a Secondary Education Minor I have come to learn that actions do speak much louder than words. I have observed this both in the classroom as a student and as a teacher figure during junior field. This semester I have come across a professor who tells the students one thing and then her action negate everything that she has said. She has this habit of responding to students questions thoroughly with a rude tone in her voice. She also tends to down grade students when they don't understand something. As an education minor I pick up on these things and it has forced me to see the kind of teacher I do not want to become. Even as an adult in that class I am very uncomfortable going to that class in fear of being embarrassed or down graded because of my opinion. It is really difficult to go to a class and know that if your opinion differs from your teacher you will be told you are wrong. I now know how it feels for students in high school to be picked on or given a hard time in class. After being on the receiving end of this, I could never imagine running my classroom like that. I plan to make my classroom a place where students feel comfortable in showing up as well as expressing their opinions.

Special Education

Yesterday we wrapped up the discussion of special education with Dr. Luongo. From that discussion two things really stick in my mind, the substantial amount of time the process for classifying a student takes and the least restrictive environment, especially in terms of the girl in a coma we spoke of. 

This is an exceptionally long process for someone who is struggling and needs help. It seems like it is unfair to this struggling student to have his/her case bounced back and forth between the teacher, the PAC team and the CST. There should be a better system in order to get the student the help he/she needs in a much more timely manner. Even though it will most likely cost more money, it would probably be more beneficial to the student if the testing for special education was done in the beginning of the process. This would allow the school to properly place that student much faster and hopefully have the student on a track to success, rather than keeping the student stuck on this path to failure for a whole year because the process takes so long and the student is not getting the help he/she needs. I believe that the parents should be contacted right in the beginning of the process, this way they can get involved with what is going on. This also allows them time to research special education in terms of their rights, their child's rights and the school's rights. They also can look into different programs. Having the parents involved from the beginning helps them to better understand what is going on, as well as allows them to help their child at home better. If they don't know there is a problem they cannot help the child. 

Granted it is most beneficial for a special education student to be in an inclusion classroom meaning they will be with their regular education peers, but have some modifications, such as more time on work and tests or an aid in the room. In some cases I'm not sure this is always the best way to go. Sometimes it is much better for a student to be in a resource room for at least part of the day or in a special school if their disability warrants it. In the case with the girl in the coma I have mixed feelings. Meeting the girl in the school I do my junior field really made me think. In some sense I feel like it is great that she can be around her regular education peers but on the other hand is it the best place for her? At this point she is technically considered out of the coma, but she is still in a vegetative state with all kinds of machines hooked up to her, such as a feeding machine, ventilator and other monitors. She can communicate to some degree, but you have to be very patient and listen very carefully. I feel like it might have been more beneficial for her to go to a special school rather than needing to have a nurse and an aid go to class with her everyday because she is in a regular classroom. At this point it seems like her peers are alright with this to the point that a lot of them with go up and talk to her, but there are still others that are a bit stand offish because they are afraid or just are not sure what to think. This is a tough case to decide where she belongs. As far as I know and have seen she is doing just fine being in a regular classroom, but it just seems like it would be easier to have her in a special school.

Mock Teaching

The other day I taught my last 40 minute lesson with Dr. O'Brien. This was finally the lesson that broke down all of my fears of teaching and gave me a huge boost of confidence. Even though the internet did not work and I was unable to show the video, I feel the lesson went very well. Everyone was active and had fun. I figured doing a creative project to accompany a story would get the students thinking about the story and coming up with their own ideas. This was also a fun way to wrap up a story. It seemed as though everyone had fun doing this including myself. Prior to the lesson I set up little backpacks with all of the supplies the groups would need to complete the project, such as crayons, colored pencils, glue, markers, pencils, scissors, and other things that would be useful. This idea seemed to go over really well since each group got a backpack with that stuff and did not need to borrow from other groups. Overall, this lesson went great and I feel so much more confident about teaching and having fun in the classroom. 

A Bitter, Sweet Goodbye

Many people do not know that I teach a religious education class one night a week. This is something I have been doing now for seven years. This year I had a third grade class, which is unusual for me. Most other years I have had grades sixth or seventh grade classes. Having such a young class was very different for me. It took a lot of getting used in the early part of the year, but as time went on things began to come together. Today was the last day of class with them for the year, and I left with very mixed feelings about this past year. For the most part I am going to miss my class, but on the other hand I am happy it is over because they were a handful and I already know that I have a sixth grade class for next year. Having such young students taught me a great lesson in being very patient. I'm not always the most patient person, but working with them taught me that I had to be patient because they were still very young and trying the best they could. Some of my students were only on a kindergarten or first grade reading level so this made it difficult for them to complete some of the readings for class. Initially this was very frustrating for me. As time went on I made many of my lessons hands on using different activities and projects to teach them the material this really worked out well. So, overall I am sad to see them leave, but I am relieved that there is one less thing to do on top of work and school.

So Much for Saying Goodbye to the Blog

Although this assignment is over and I thought that would be the end of me blogging, I keep finding things to blog about. When we were "forced" to post for class I found it difficult to post sometimes as I knew that it was part of my grade, but now that it is just on my own for fun it seems so much easier. The last few days I have had quite a few things come up that I have either already blogged about or will be blogging about in the near future. Unlike most assignments in school that end when the semester ends or the due date arrives, this has become something that I want to continue doing. The blog has become fun for me to do, and I have found out that it is impacting other people. So I will be continuing my blog as long as I still have things in education to write about. The possibilities are endless meaning this blog will go on for a long time. I definitely plan to use this with my students, and hopefully they will come to enjoy it as much as I am. 

Picking on Students

My personal belief has always been that a teacher should not pick on students directly. Joking around is one thing, but giving students a hard time by picking on or making fun of them is completely wrong. I feel that picking on students can lead to them no longer wanting to be in that class. Students have it tough enough being students and teenagers with the peer pressure and other issues they go through. Why would a teacher want to add more pressure to these students in the classroom by picking on them. This puts the students on the defensive rather than feeling comfortable in the classroom. It frustrates me when I see teachers doing this. Teachers are there to make the classroom and the entire school a positive learning environment where students feel comfortable sharing their opinions  and being who they are. 

I saw this happen in a college classroom today. A teacher spent a good amount of the class giving a student a hard time. I found this to be a waste of valuable class time as well as insulting and demeaning to that student. At any educational level this is inappropriate. Sorry if this seems like a rant, but it is something that made me really angry because it wasted so much time and was so insulting.

Taking Work Home with You

It was brought up in class about taking what happens in class home with you. Bringing what happens in the classroom with you should be something that you expect. In any job I feel like there would be somethings that occur that you will think about long after you leave for the day. During my junior field I have become very involved with the class I am in and as my time there is coming to a close I am realizing how much I am going to miss this group. I have also had the students tell me that they are going to miss me and it makes me feel bad that I have to leave them. I find myself talking to my family about my time in the classroom whether it is a good or bad day I still take some of it home with me. I have also found this in jobs I have had outside of teaching. No matter what you do some part of it will follow you and even sometime influence you as a person and/or a teacher.

Use of Certain Language

Today in class it was brought up whether or not it is appropriate to use words that could potentially be considered offensive, such as hell. I didn't even take notice to it until it was brought up by Dr. Luongo. I feel as though we are all desensitized to certain words and actions. It does not even phase most people of the current generation when someone uses what would have been perceived as bad or offensive language several years ago. Although this language may not be noticed by most, it may still be offensive to some. This is where a teacher has to determine what is acceptable and what is not. After having that discussion in class I went to my junior field class. I took notice to some of the potentially offensive language being used in the classroom. It was used in describing a certain situation. It was not meant to be used in an offensive manner. When used in that way, I believe it is acceptable on occasion, but it would be better if other words could be used in place of these words.

Reflection on the Blog Assignment

In the beginning of the assignment I believed that this was just going to be a time consuming project that would never end. When I heard we had to blog a couple times a week, my thought was oh great just more work to do. As I began to blog I realized that it wasn't so bad. The assignment began to grow on me not long after it started. As time went on I gained a large amount of information by reading the blogs of other students in my class as well as my professor. I also learn quite a bit by researching topics to post on my own blog. This assignment turned out to be one of the most effective assignments I have ever done. This was because I got to do my own research on whatever educational topic I wanted and write about it. It became fun to do this assignment. As a teacher I would definitely consider doing a blog with my students. This would allow them the same opportunities I had. Students get to be creative and have fun while still learning. For me the most fulfilling part of the assignment was when I found out what an influence my blog had on a friend of mine and the program that she runs.

Micro-Teaching Reflection

Friday I got to do my micro-teaching lesson on A Tell-Tale Heart by Poe. Going into that micro-teaching I definitely felt more comfortable than any other micro-teaching I ever went into. At the same time I was a little nervous about it because this was the first time I was dealing with the issue of behavioral problems in this situation. In the past I have dealt with behavioral problems in a real classroom situation but that is different because their regular classroom teacher was still in there and helped with the situation. In class I knew I was on my own. After starting my lesson that fear of the problems eased. I was a little taken back by the fact that there were not as many behavioral problems as I thought their were going to be. Overall I was happy about the way the lesson went. I definitely feel more confident getting into a classroom and teaching real students. 

The Last Lecture

I know I'm blogging a lot tonight, but I have a lot on my mind and a lot to catch up on. Anyway I purchased Randy Pausch's book The Last Lecture a few days ago. I finally began reading it last night. It is an excellent book so far and I would recommend picking up a copy and reading it. Thank you Susan for bringing his last lecture up in you blog. Prior to that I had never heard about him. He has many good points for living life in his lecture which also continue into his book. Since I had heard about him and watched his lecture I had passed the information on to others that I thought would be interested. They have all come back to me with the response of "WOW! It is unbelievable how a guy that is dying has such a great outlook on life." After I am done with my copy of the book I have 4 or 5 people borrowing it to read for themselves. I just figured I would pass on the fact that his book is proving to be as good as his lecture.

Just on another thought, although Randy wrote his lecture for just three people he has impacted so many more lives. I am included in those who were impacted by this lecture. I am one to take life very seriously, part of which comes from my job. I have been an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) riding emergency calls at least 3 to 4 days a week for the last 5 years, since I was 16 years old. Sometimes after a tough day at work it hits me hard and and I take things very seriously. After watching Randy's lecture I began to give that very serious aspect of my life some thought. In the end I came to the conclusion that no matter what happens at work leave it at work, and go out and live life to the fullest. Don't over analyze situations, especially the ones you have no control over it is not worth wasting that very valuable time you have in life.

Excellent After School Program

The attached website is for an after school program that has really been effecting the students involved in the middle school I am doing my Junior Field Experience. Every time I turn around I hear students and teachers talking about how great the Goodworx Program is and how it is really helping students. 

So here is the website for the program.

http://www.goodworxfoundation.com/

Check it out and see what you think.

Flocabulary

After viewing the Flocabulary website I had very mixed feelings on it. Some part of me thought that maybe it could be a useful tool for influencing a few students that are really into music, but not really into what they are learning. On the other hand I felt as though it is not a great tool to use in the classroom because to me it is just not something that seems effective. Being that I have mixed feelings on this I would be willing to try it once or twice in the classroom as an introduction or a way to close out a unit. It could never hurt to try something new. What is the worst that can happen? It doesn't work and you try something else for next time.

Inspiring Someone When Least Expected

This post is inspired by an email I received from a friend of mine in response to an email I sent her. A while back I was speaking with a friend and we were talking about education and student. This conversation came up because some of the students in my junior field class are involved the mentoring, tutoring and life skills training after school program in which she is director of operations. Any way I wound up sending her an email that included a few links to different websites, one of which was my blog. After reading part of my blog and watching the attached video (the post about creativity) it inspired her to write an email to her boss informing him that she wants to change their program to inspire students to be more creative and become more motivated. She later sent me an email telling what happened after reading my blog and how I inspired her just by giving information and my thoughts. 

What I'm trying to say by telling you the story above is do not ever think that anything you are doing is meaningless because you never know when it could have an impact on someone else's life. This is something I will carry with me into the classroom. I never really thought that anything I wrote in this blog would have a great enough effect to provoke change in a program.

MyAccess

This is kind of a delayed response, but anyway here it goes. MyAccess is a program that was introduced to our class by Dr. Luongo. The best way to describe this program is that it's a program designed to give students instant feedback and a score for their writing. It also has many other features to help improve students' writing. These other features include word banks, a dictionary, and a thesaurus among other things. I really found MyAccess to be an extremely useful tool. I wished that I had this when I was a student. It definitely prepares students to be better writers. This is especially useful in the grades that are preparing for tests such as the HSPA, GEPA, or ESPA. I got into a discussion about this program with the teacher I am working with for my junior field experience. She informed me that the district had a trial version of the program but no one had any kind of training on how to use it. That is terrible, having such a wonderful program available, but not being able to use it. I showed her some of the basics to her questions but there were still things I didn't know. Dr. Luongo gave me information to pass on to my cooperating teacher to get the district trained. This is an excellent program and if given the chance as an educator learn it and use it. This should apply to any useful learning tool, don't let them go to waste.

Standardized Testing

After our discussion on standardized testing on Friday, I did some research and spoke with a teacher that I know did a large study on students and the GEPA. Unfortunately she is in the process of having her study published so I can not post it on here for everyone to read, but I'll sum it up for you. Through reading her study based on 500 eighth graders preparing to take last year's GEPA. The test is generally set up in a matter that makes students focus on the not so important things. This sets students up to fail. The test is also written for higher level students.

The setup of the reading section of the test was put into the study. This teacher had each of the 500 students read the same article, but half of the class was to answer the multiple choice first while the other half the group was to answer the open ended questions first. Then a month or so later she had that same group of students read the same article again. This time she had the groups switch what they did first. This was done multiple time with multiple different reading passages throughout the year. In 77% of the cases the students did better if they read the passage, completed the open ended questions, and answered the multiple choice questions last. It was later determined that this is the best strategy for taking the test because once a student writes the answers to the open ended question, even if they are short on time they could still guess on the multiple choice and possibly get a few right. This definitely beats doing the multiple choice first and running low on time causing the student to either leave and open ended question blank or to get and inadequate answer.

Granted this is just one study on the way students can take this portion of the test and every students is different, but the numbers and logic behind this study seem like they have discovered a good idea.

Keeping Creativity in Schools

I want everyone to watch this video. I was searching for ideas to blog about late last night when I came across this video. Ken Robinson is discussing the topic of whether or not schools kill students creativity. I agree with many of his points. The biggest thing that I take from this video is rather then writing off the student who can't sit still or pay attention as a failure, embrace those qualities and they will be more successful. Those students may only be bored because the what they are learning is just suppressing their creativity. As Mr. Robinson put it creativity is taking a chance at being wrong. Children do this all the time and are very creative, but over time that creativity is lost and the fear of being wrong takes its place. Just take a look at this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

How useful is that textbook?

Last year I had a professor walk in the first day of class and tell us that we would not have a textbook for the course. This seemed very strange to me as every other class I had ever taken we had to have a textbook and we used it all of the time. This professor went on to tell us that she after reading an article in a news paper article stating that textbooks are not completely effective. This professor then went on to tell use that she recommends a book for the class, but it is not required. She said that we could get the book if we wanted extra information, but it was not necessary. She stated that the article that she read stated that it is more beneficial for students to learn from the teacher and other more current material. It was also mentioned that the textbook should only be used for assistance in a course not as the center focus.

I agree with this because most of the time when you go into a school system the textbooks are out dated. This can lead to students gaining older information which may no long be accurate. There is also another problem with textbooks. This problem is many textbooks are written on a level higher then the students are ready to learn. I don't believe getting rid of text books all together is the best idea, but i do believe that they should not be the only resource used in the classroom. Using the textbook only as a resource rather than the main focus allows students to go and look at other resources and gain many different opinions and all types of information.

Stay in the Classroom There is a Lock Down!!!

Initially I did not give this much thought as this is something I have dealt with through my job as an EMT. I have be trained multiple times over on what to do and how to handle situations such as lock downs and threats. We have done training drills for bomb threats, gang violence, and incidence involving a gunman in my local high school. So for me it was just another day and had no effect on me. After we talked about it in class that is when I really gave this topic some thought. An incident like that may have a great effect on some students where others may be completely unaffected by the commotion of a day like that. It is a topic that has to be discussed and students should be given information on what is going on and how it is being handled. The worst thing for students would be to keep the information from them. Just telling them they are in a lock down and thats it can make many people very uneasy because no one really has any idea of what is going on or what they should do.

Another thing I believe is very important is to have the faculity, staff and aministration properly trained in how to manage a situation of this nature. Their are courses in incident command and large scale incident management that are offered by the state online at no charge. They are very informative and would help with an incident such as a lock down.

Overall the way the better the situation is handled, the more at ease the students will be during and after the incident. After a situation like this it is important to give students the option for counseling for the students because it can help students get passed the incident.

Although the other things are very important, the most important thing for any school is to have a well thought out and effective ploan for keeping students safe.

Test Anxiety

Here is a website that describes test anxiety and how it affects students. It also has suggestions for how students can help themselves to overcome the test anxiety. As educators we could help as well by thoroughly preparing students for the tests and making the classroom a relaxing environment especially right before a test.

http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/school_jobs/school/test_anxiety.html

I HATE READING!!!

"I HATE READING!!!" is a statement often heard in a classroom. Students say that almost every time they are asked to read in class or do a reading assignment for homework. Why is that? Is it because they really do not like to read? I think not I believe they are just bored with what they are forced to read. Sometimes I think this is because much of the material that is chosen is difficult for students to see how it relates to them because it was written so long before their time. Although it may relate to them, it is difficult for students to see it. This is where it is the teachers obligation to come in and find a creative way to relate the readings to the students.

I saw on idea used during my Sophomore Field Experience to get students interested in what they were reading. The teacher worked with his supervisor and changed some of the books in the schools curriculum to ones that would be of a greater interest to students because they were written more recently and the topics were more along the lines of what students would relate to. At the same time they chose to keep a few of the classics in there and so far it seems to be working well. The teacher I was with alternated every other book would be something the students would be interested in and they were relatively content with doing the readings and not complaining.

Another idea I am seeing used in my Junior Field Experience is 15 minutes of silent reading at the beginning of every other 80 minute class. The teacher allows the students to choose a book that they want to read and allows them the time to read it in class. At the end of each reading session she just has the students write on a note card a short summary of what they read and put it in an envelope. This allows that students to read something they enjoy, which makes them less likely to complain about having to do some of the other readings required for the class by the curriculum.

These are just a couple of ideas as to how teachers can get students to enjoy what they read.

Try Something New

I found this video which shows what it is like to try something new (sorry about the subtitles). I
bring this up because I have seen people get set in their ways, and not willing to try anything new. For teachers it is important to adapt and try new ideas, even if it is difficult at first it will only benefit your students.

All that Technology Stuff

After watching the Pay Attention video on YouTube it really got me thinking about what are some good ways to bring technology into the classroom without using too much or too little. Right after I left class I went to my first day of observation for my Junior Field Experience. When I got there I noticed a few things about the technology there. Each classroom has only one computer and that if for the teachers' use only. The library has computers that the students can use, but only when supervised by a teacher. Very few of the classrooms had any way of displaying any type of Internet site or videos. So every time a teacher wants to show a movie or project a website or YouTube video for his/her class he/she has to sign an available TV out from the library and use that, but if there are no TVs available that teacher has to wait sometime a few days for one to become available. This made me think that they are really lacking when it comes to the use of technology within their school. Then I saw something that absolutely shocked me. When I went upstairs into their gym I saw students playing games such as baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, and Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) all on Wii. What happened to the days of students picking up a tennis racket and a ball and playing tennis?

I found that the school had its priorities really wrong when it came to how they spent their money on technology. Students are losing out on some valuable learning tools because the school decided it would be a good idea to go out and purchase video came units. Their justification for this was "Many students will not participate in gym class, so they bought the units in hope to have more students participating because it was a video game rather than actually having to play with equipment." Granted these games are great exercise I don't feel that they belong in a gym class especially when the use of technology lacks so much throughout the rest of the school. I could see having the game units and being able to justify it if the rest of the school had more advanced technology. I found this to be a poor use of technology and hope for them in the future that they do things in the best interest of the students in all subject areas not just one.