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.