last day of my field experience

   March 30th was my last field experience day. A couple days prior I read about the importance of morning meetings. Morning meetings are a good time to see whats on the students mind for that day. This not only stimulates conversation between the students with similar interests, more importantly, this gives you material you can base your examples off of in your lectures through out the day.

   Morning meetings also give you time to give examples of good or appropriate behavior. When a teacher and students establish together what acceptable behavior is. It has kind of a priming effect on the behavior for the day because the students are thinking about what it takes to behave in such a manner.

   Mrs. Samuelson would introduce each student as they walked through the door in the morning. Once school started the whole class would have morning meeting and go over the days objectives and expectations for the day. Then the students would get into a circle and each one would have their chance to share something with the class if they wanted to.

   So in honor of my last day we had an extravagant party. After math and reading we had snacks and I got to read " If You Throw A Pig A Party" to the class. Once again the students were drawn into the story as it unfolds the consequences of throwing a pig a party. I made sure that the pictures could be seen by everybody. When I was done with the book it was time for recess. As the students left they gave me high five and handshakes as they told me how much they were going to miss me... I never expected it.

Wisconsin teachers are taking a stand.

  Teachers, students, and union officials gathered  around a clock tower in a Wisconsin town one rainy tuesday afternoon. The purpose was to express some views regarding the recently proposed budget. Teachers are in fear of budget cuts stripping the security out of their job. Cuts will be felt through the whole human services field. People have had enough and are taking this matter to the streets and the court houses to get their voice heard.
   As a mentor I have people that I help become independent adults. It isn't always easy and can take quite a bit of time. Funding for events that mean the world to some of these people will be gone because of the budget cuts. Its nice to see that people care so much about this that they go out and make their voice heard come rain or shine. If you have thoughts on this please write your state representative and make your voice heard. 
   
" “Schools are falling apart,"said MoveOn.org representative Deirdre De Jardins."Universities are reducing the number of students at the same time Workers need to go back and retrain and figure how they're gonna fit into the new economy. We can't do this. The recently proposed Republican budget, if enacted, would mean firing 65,000 teachers, killing 700,000 jobs, and sending 10,000 veterans into homelessness.”"


  
   

What would I like to see in a teacher prep program?

   First would be classes for the person to gain background knowledge in the subject(s) they want to teach. This prepares future teachers for tough questions and also explores the subject you're going to teach.
   The second would be courses that open the world of diversity. As a teacher you will interact with many different people who have many different cultures, values, social norms, religion. Knowledge of these diverse topics will only help your interaction with these people who may be different from you.
   I would really like to see classes about communication that are designed for teachers to become comfortable with standing in front of a class. The class could teach people how to become a dynamic speaker and ways to get the class involved with the lesson. By giving people the chance to try standing in front of a class and direct will give them more confidence in themselves and their teaching methods.

3/15/11

   In SPED 200 today we watched a video about two schools in New York. One was an urban public school and the other was private school in a rather nice neighborhood. The urban school was struggling with a lack of funding resulting in a whole slew of problems. Finding qualified teachers that are affordable is not an easy feat so some teachers are forced to teach subjects that they haven't been trained in.
   The private school doesn't face that problem. Their funding is made possible by property taxes from a prestigious neighborhood and a tuition fee. The teachers are trained in the field they teach and are payed well.
   Leaders have debated ways to fund schools for quite some time now because of cases like this (where you have two schools in the same community and one is terribly under equipped). When things move as fast as the technology field does you need a pretty heavy check book to keep schools up-to-date with technology. So how do financially struggling schools get funding for supplies like teachers or computers?

Emersion programs in the US.

   Today in SPED 200 Mrs. Johnson showed the class a video about Spanish and Chinese emersion schools. The schools strictly teach all subjects in Spanish or Chinese. Schooling starts as early as kindergarten for some kids. The idea is that if a person is completely emerged in a language promotes healthier and quicker means of learning and understanding that language. The younger the student starts learning a second language will determine how quickly and efficiently the student retains the language.

   These schools would great paths for the way of the alternative teachers licensing. For example, an immigrant from China comes to the US, they could start teaching math or reading and spelling at a comfortable level at one of these schools.

FE days 2 &3

   My second day was a little bit more one-on-one. For math we worked on coin values which turned into a game using dice and the coins.
   My third day was really fun. I had a great start to the day when a student came up to me and wanted to show me his book of Star Wars lego ships. Oh and by the way, there is a lego version of the Millenium Falcon which makes it official that we have "thought of everything"! We started a transition of topics in math today. The students have mastered the coins and are moving right along to measuring using these blocks that stick together (similar to legos but bigger) showing them units of measure. Getting to the ruler is our goal. After math I got to finish my day reading "Stone Soup" to the class. It's great to see the students get pulled into a story so far that they start to get antzy. Be sure to show any and all pictures. The story is centered around cooperation which happens to be a classroom rule. This allowed me to remind the class what the class rules were.

field experience day 1

   Wow was I nervous. I almost forgot how to talk to young kids but it all came back to me when the first kid came through the door. After a 50 cent tour of the class room I was ready to start the day. The student showed me all the books in Mrs. Samuelsons' library and recomended a few to me that I decided to read during "stop, drop, and read". "The Paper Bag Princess" was about a princess who was going to get married to a prince that she didn't like at all. When the princess' castle gets attacked by a dragon all of her possessions including clothes gets burned to the ground and the only thing she has left is a paper bag to wear. When the prince sees her in the paper bag he is disgusted and calls off the wedding which was a blessing in disguise to the princess.
   Once I got some one-on-one teaching time with the students I was really happy to help. I liked the ability to put so much confidence in the students who were struggling. Hopefully it changes the students attitude toward the subjects that they are struggling in.

An Education Nation

   I've started reading "Education Nation" by Milton Chen and so far it has been a manual for understanding the future of teaching and learning. Chen makes note of the six quickly evolving "edges" in education and tells his readers that these edges need to be pushed as far as they will go. The thinking edge is creating new ways to think about learning and how we incorporate subjects in projects with something called "project based learning". Chen uses the example of building a robot. If a science class builds a robot as a project there are multiple platforms of learning, it gives students a chance to teach each other, and also gives students a chance to network and get to know their fellow class mates. I have always learned so much more in project based learning than the boring old lectures because it really catches my attention and gives me a chance to think creatively for a cause.

bullied

    Today I watched the movie "Bullied", and as a future teacher I will make sure that equality plays a big roll in my school. Methods such as team building projects will be applied to learning. I will show the effects that bullying has on people and show how much farther encouragement takes people. Rock climbing is one activity that I really like to do on my free time. One reason I was so drawn to it was all of the encouragement that people give you when you're climbing.
   Once the students see each other for their qualities they can lead the school by example. Leading by example really falls into the hands of the teachers. Most importantly teachers need to practice what they preach. Teachers need to teach their classes what it means to lead by example and then do so themselves.
   Teachers are just as important as a parents are in the development of children. That means that you need to be a rock for your students so they feel like they always have somebody they can turn to. Something like bullying can really hurt a person's confidence. As teachers we want all of our students to be confidant in themselves and their school and if somebody takes that away from them it makes our job a lot harder. So students and teachers if you are a victim of bullying or know somebody who is a victim of bullying do the world a favor and report it. Also spread knowledge of bullying and the appropriate way to deal with a bully.


www.tolerance.org/bullied

African schools

http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol14no2/educat.htm This is a good introduction to the schools in Africa.

alternative teaching licensure

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/01/13/minn-house-takes-up-alternative-teacher-licensure/

   This sounds like a great "quick-fix" program for our lack of teachers in the science math fields. I don't think tenure should be awarded to the teacher until they have completed the requirements seen by most education majors. Kind of like leasing a car, the car isn't technically yours until you're done paying it off.

Firsties!

This is my first blog.