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.