“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.”

As I finish up my observations at Edison, I am noticing that I am really starting to get attached to these students and really want to see them excel. It is different than when I observed at Pal-Mac- and I’m not sure why. I don’t know if it is because I feel like I need to help these kids out the best I can.. But I’m not sure. I am beginning to become familiar with some strategies that we have learned in class because my SBE uses some (such as jigsaw). The designing of our wikis definitely help me broaden my horizons with different ways for my students to communicate via technology. Especially since technology is such a huge part of their every day lives- I think it is important for them to be able to communicate and get assignments off the internet, just like we can as college students.

I also am starting to decide on getting my Masters in Literacy, so if any of you have any suggestions or ideas- please feel free to let me know!

In response to this issue, I’m not sure how I would analyze it. The students are really rambunctious and out of control because it is right after lunch and they feel like the day is over. The teacher has good control over the classroom when this happens though, but sometimes it tends to be repetitive. She has to constantly repeat herself and barely gets through a lesson because she has to continually stop and repeat herself or tell somebody to sit down. A way this could possibly be prevented might be by immediately telling them to get started on something when they walk in the door. This way, class time isn’t being wasted. If they have a sheet to fill out, and get started on it, you can walk around the room and make sure it’s being done and won’t waste any time. This might help because if you were to hand it out after giving the instructions, they might not even pay attention and you’d have to repeat yourself and that is very time consuming.

    I just started my field experience on Friday, so I haven’t really scene too much. The class that I am observing in is an AVID class for freshman. It is a class to help them with organizational and behavioral skills to assist them in college. It also helps them plan their four year plans so they are able to graduate on time and attend college. The teacher, MaryBeth Allyn works with the students each day with problems they may be having in other classes or with their homework, etc. When I was there, she held a young lady after class to talk with her about her problems with Math. The young lady was getting kicked out of her Math class almost every day and she was very upset about it. Mrs. Allyn listened to her and helped her figure out what the problem was and ways she could work with her Math teacher so they can avoid the issue again in the future. The biggest problem I saw in the classroom itself was just that the students tend to be very rambunctious. It is right at the end of the day, right after lunch, so they tend to be really chatty and disrespectful to one another. They have trouble listening to what they should be doing and need to be told many times to do something, which gets quite repetitive. 

After reading Daniels, Zemelman, and Steineke I found a lot of useful information. I personally never liked assessments and grading, it was always a topic I had trouble dealing with because I don’t believe in A-F’s and how teachers arrive at their answers. I like the way this book gives multiple suggestions about assessments. I also agree that the writing process allows students to clearly get their thoughts out- just like I do with blogging. I feel it is easier; however, some students hate writing. They don’t care much for it and would much rather do multiple choice testing or short answer- so then what? I liked the way that the teacher used the graph in a fun way for students to write down their scenario on what is happening. It gives the students a chance to have their fun side come out and possibly enjoy what they write- especially to those students that don’t really like writing. I also like the idea of oral presentations as well. I think this is a great way for students to express their ideas and show and be proud of the work they did. It is also a good idea to have the other students that are listening to take notes and actively be involved in the presentation. I remember when I was in school, if we asked questions and brought up discussion, we would also receive points for that- a double incentive to get us motivated. I also believe that reflecting and responding to students work is important. They look up to you and look to you for responses. I think it is important to be honest, but careful. You don’t want to hurt self-esteem and certainly do not want to push them away from trying hard, especially if they did work hard on the assignment. That is why I like the rubric idea. I think it is important for students to get the rubric ahead of time and see what is expecting. If they go above and beyond, or if something is happening in their lives- it can also be noted in the blank section. I like the idea of students being apart of the rubric discussion also. They should have a say in what they want to learn and what they want to be assessed on. As a teacher, I think it is important to compromise with students during your teaching lessons and assessments. I think standardized tests are a joke, but they are in fact apart of our society and what they have set up for us to do. So we just need to find ways to incorporate fun ways into the classroom so students aren’t completely bored and afraid of standardized tests. They should be confident in their learning abilities and it is up to us as teachers to make sure they feel that way.

Check it out: mskreis.pbwiki.com

English is the password.

I also enjoyed the book by Charlton. I liked the way in the beginning it describes the struggles a teacher goes through and how to work through them. I’ve read a lot of books and information on successful learning and teaching strategies, but not many on how to adjust to those strategies and re-work your lessons to better fit each class. I really enjoyed discussing ways to approach assessment because assessment is always a big issue in education. There are so many ways of ‘grading’ but so many of them turn out to be negative towards the student’s abilities, nor do they encourage active learning. I liked how lesson and activity were also separated in this book. I never realized how many effective strategies there are out there to help students individually who have different needs. Or even in the classroom to keep them engaged and make sure they are learning something and taking away information from that activity. The whole point in an activity is to make sure your students are taking something out of that lesson. I really enjoyed reading Charlton’s book because there were many ways to assess student learning and many things really stuck out in my eyes, that I will hopefully be able to work into my classroom someday.

After reading the chapters in D&Z for this week, I felt really motivated to motivate my students. There were a lot of great ideas to help students, whether they are struggling with reading or not. I think it is great that Kenya can help her students in and outside of the classroom. Having lunch available for students is something that I also will hope to do, it is a great way to help the student build confidence in their reading and not be intimidated with asking questions in class. I also think it is important not to dismiss a student if they choose to read a challenging read. I liked that Kenya helped the student get through the reading, instead of just assuming he couldn’t do it- that is very important to me. I can relate to having trouble with comprehension and reading, and I feel it is really important to help your students build a trust with you so they can build their confidence in the classroom. I also liked in Chapter 11 the way that many of the books were listed. This helps me look back in the future if I need some help with students that are struggling with reading. I also agree with the different ways that teachers can help mix up the readings- whether they are drawing their ideas, or writing them down- mixing it up is always important to keep the students engaged. I also agree with the idea of choice. I think that choice in the classroom is so important to a child’s learning because it allows them to be apart of their learning. I also believe that projects and fun activities can be incorporated with the learning to help explore the topics in depth….

After reading Chapter 4 in A&B, I realized that picture books really take a different meaning to literacy. I think it is important for students to focus on pictures because they may display meaning better than the text. Even in math, history, and science, pictures are used to draw attention to what is being discussed. Whether it be two apples and a plus sign to indicate addition or a war picture from WWI, or even a measuring cup with so much liquid in it for an experiment. All of these show pictures as a type of interpretation brought upon by the reader. I think it is important for teachers to be aware of this new literacy and see what and how their students react to pictures rather than words. A great activity might be showing them pictures from a novel or chapter that you plan to read or teach, then ask them to write their own story or ideas based on the writings and later have them read the actual text that goes with it and see if they are correct or not. It is a great way to see students becoming engaged with the new literacy of picture books and understanding how to understand them.

Even film is a great way for students to understand a text. I think it is a good idea for students to read To Kill a Mocking Bird and then view the film because they see different ideas and plots. Students need to acquire an understanding for different texts and pictures and feel comfortable using their own ideas to interpret things.

The article I read this week  was  from Fox News about sex-education. The article spoke about how abstinence-only programs were showing no effect to reduce sexual active teenagers and teen pregnancy. The program that is exclusively focused on abstinence and is funded by over tens of millions of dollars is doing adolescents no good, says Fox News. However, there is hope! They say that sex education class that focuses more on educating teens about contraceptives, STD’s, and sexual behavior and how to say ‘no’ to unwanted sex has shown great effects. I think it is more important to educate teens on sex rather than exclusively focusing on abstinence because teenagers are most likely going to do what they want and if they are more informed they may be less likely to do something wrong or become pregnant. An interesting static showed that in 2005 about 40 out of every 1,000 girls from ages 15 to 19 gave birth. That is a shocking static to think about and maybe if teens were education more and more funding went to programs focused on sex-ed, rather than abstinence, then we would hope to reduce that number.

Last Thursday there was a Frankenstein conference that I attended. I was excited to see what was going to be discussed because I previously took a course on Frankenstein and Mary Shelley. The School Without Walls students sat on the far side under the windows because they had to excuse themselves in time for the buses. I felt that some of the students were paying attention and participating, but some were also goofing off and not really paying attention. It was hard for me to even pay attention because I felt that what was being discussed wasn’t exactly what I imagined it would have been like. I was expecting more about Frankenstein, rather than the facts about certain “monstrous” characteristics in humans. I thought it was a little boring but kept engaged with the pictures. I feel that if the pictures weren’t there then I don’t know what I would have done to stay engaged and follow along in the presentation.

I’m looking forward to Four Freedoms Week this week and will be attending the events on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon.

In the news this week I found an interesting article about college experience.  A Colorado College that isn’t exactly what we imagine college. This college is all about hands on experience. Instead of taking four, five, or even six classes throughout a semester or trimester, this college has 3 1/2 weeks of hands on experience in just one class. It is a very interesting article because I could never imagine just taking one course for 3 1/2 weeks and solely focusing on one topic. It sounds like a lot of fun; students go on field trips and really become engaged in the topics they are learning. The article states that there is no sign of students going onto graduate school and having a difficult transition, so that is good! Also, there is no real study on whether this method of teaching is better or worse for the students. The students seem to enjoy it and there is a lot of feedback from parents about the course as well. Parents like the fact that their students are getting the hands on experience that they would be lacking in a regular college setting. I think this is very interesting, but at the same time I might be a little challenging to get used to, especially having to juggle many subjects in high school and then going to just one course of hands on. I think it is a great way to learn, but maybe not realistic also.

I took a whole semester here for my 199 course on Frankenstein. It was a very interesting course and I found out a lot about the actual novel and Mary Shelley. I liked the course too because it was right near Halloween so we really got the full effect when reading and interpreting the novel. I think there can be a large discussion on interdisciplinary connections brought about in this novel. I also find that many people have a lot of misconceptions about Frankenstein, just like I did in the beginning. I would definitely recommend people reading it or take a course on it.

An article in Fox News that i read this evening was about the shortage of teachers there are in New Orleans. When thinking about Hurricane Katrina, I never even thought about the schools that were effected and all the teacher shortages that would occur. It really takes a devoted person to stay and want to change the lives of the students whose lives have fallen desperately apart after the hurricane. As I am beginning my observations, it is hard to face the realities and hardships that some of these students have to go through at such a young age. As a teacher, being aware of this and still trying to push that student to success is a difficult task. The article focuses on dedicated teachers whose whole purposes is to change the lives of their students and make them better people. I give so much respect to those teachers that are fighting against all odds. It must be tough to recreate a stable school system.

I just finished my self-assessment and I realized I used some of the strategies that we discuss in class. I took apart each question Dr. Jacobs wanted us to identify in our paper and I wrote that question on a post it note. Then, with a different color pen, I answered the question and filling in examples if needed. I then took each post it note and arranged it the way I wanted to write it in my paper. Without starting with an introduction, I just began to write the paper. I found that it was a lot easier to just add sentences to put my ideas together, rather then just start typing as my ideas came to me. I feel that I expressed all the ideas that I wanted to and I don’t think I left much out. I also looked back on previous blogs, my notes, my free-write we did in class, and articles that I’ve read to get a better idea about what I wanted to write about in certain sections. This was an effective way to write my paper and I feel happy with my overall result.

For this weeks news article, I read about nutrition! In a New York Times article I read about how schools are trying to make a difference in what they serve their students. Since obesity is a major factor in the United States today, school officials are trying to reduce the number of fried foods, junk food, and caffeine in their schools and increase the number of vegetables, fruits, milks, waters, and juices. They want students to make healthier decisions and by doing this- only offering healthy foods. Physical Education is also a big factor in obesity. Phys Ed teachers are now required to have an undergraduate degree and are now focusing on exercising effectively and teaching students how to keep their bodies in shape. They also have come up with ideas to decrease smoking and pregnancy rates. They have prohibited smoking and are incorporating a pregnancy class to hopefully decrease the pregnancy rate. If students are given adequate knowledge and education about these topics, then they are more likely less to do them.