Sunday, February 27, 2011
Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Report
On Thursday's class we all recieved our own individual profile report of our intercultural development. This report shows us where we are in our intercultural development. I was glad when we were told in class that we were going to take this test. I feel that in today society diversity is big and becoming a teacher it's huge that we are culturally competent. When I got my report back it said that I was at the minimization stage. I thought that's were I was probably going to end up. I grew up in a small town and graduated with about 50 students. In my school we didn't have much diversity. There are many things I'm going to work so I can move up on the developmental orientation (DO) scale. I would like to learn a foreign language such as Spanish possibly. Also, learning general and specific knowledge and skills of other cultures would help me. Third, just simply be more aware of other cultures. I know that my score isn't up to par and I have a long ways to go, but I'm going to try and achieve these goals.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-02-16-teacher-blog-suspended_N.htm
In this article, an English teacher from Pa. was writting negative things on her blog about her students. She wrote things such as how they are lazy, not motivated and how could parents not raise their own kids to be "good children". I feel that it is probably true that students can be lazy and have bad tempers but this doesn't give that teacher the right to write such negative things. It isn't very professional of her and I feel this was very inappropriate. I feel that if she doesn't like her students and think they are not motivated, then she should find a different profession if she thinks of it so negatively. Also, instead of complaining about her students, I feel that she should try and make things better.
In this article, an English teacher from Pa. was writting negative things on her blog about her students. She wrote things such as how they are lazy, not motivated and how could parents not raise their own kids to be "good children". I feel that it is probably true that students can be lazy and have bad tempers but this doesn't give that teacher the right to write such negative things. It isn't very professional of her and I feel this was very inappropriate. I feel that if she doesn't like her students and think they are not motivated, then she should find a different profession if she thinks of it so negatively. Also, instead of complaining about her students, I feel that she should try and make things better.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Private Effort to Improve India’s Public Education
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/business/global/18teach.html?_r=1&ref=world
The schools in India, we could say they aren't very nice. The students have to sit on the concrete floor and their lunches are cooked outside behind the school on a fire of burning branches. Many students dropout before they even reach the tenth grade. But Azim H. Premji is donating money and trying to improve the school system. They are trying to train teachers and guide teachers that are already working with the students. I think it's great that this man is putting the effort in to help out schools in India. In India, the government wants its students to memorize and have its students take stressful tests at the end of the year, but many of the students end up failing. But with Premji, he is trying to have the students be creative thinkers. This article aslo listed some statistics about how students are doing in their classes and it makes me more aware about where other countries are. I didn't realize they they were so low compared to China. I think what Azim H. Premji is doing!
The schools in India, we could say they aren't very nice. The students have to sit on the concrete floor and their lunches are cooked outside behind the school on a fire of burning branches. Many students dropout before they even reach the tenth grade. But Azim H. Premji is donating money and trying to improve the school system. They are trying to train teachers and guide teachers that are already working with the students. I think it's great that this man is putting the effort in to help out schools in India. In India, the government wants its students to memorize and have its students take stressful tests at the end of the year, but many of the students end up failing. But with Premji, he is trying to have the students be creative thinkers. This article aslo listed some statistics about how students are doing in their classes and it makes me more aware about where other countries are. I didn't realize they they were so low compared to China. I think what Azim H. Premji is doing!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
First Day In My Field Experience
Today from 8:30 to 10:30, I went to a 5th grade classroom. When I first walked to the door all the kids were looking at me with big eyes wondering what was going on. Mrs. Steffes introduced me as Ms. Becker and told them I was going to be helping out. The first half hour I was there, I worked with students in English. They were working on a reveiw assignment because they have a test the next day.
Then, the next hour I worked with students that had any questions regarding to Math. Today, they learned how to find the perimiter of an object. It was very exciting to see how the students were so eger to learn. They were practicing problems on the board and as soon as Mrs. Steffes would ask for the answer, the students hands would fly up into the air. It was all so very exciting to watch them get so excited.
The last half hour was a study hall. The students worked on homework that they didn't get done in their previous class. I worked one-on-one with a little boy named Cory. We worked on finding the common denominator for fractions, which was pretty difficult for him. When we were done, the teacher asked Cory if it helped having someone work with him and he nodded his head up and down. When he left he had a big smile on his face. This felt good that I was able to help him. Overall, I'm very excited to continue going to help out in the 5th grade classroom.
Then, the next hour I worked with students that had any questions regarding to Math. Today, they learned how to find the perimiter of an object. It was very exciting to see how the students were so eger to learn. They were practicing problems on the board and as soon as Mrs. Steffes would ask for the answer, the students hands would fly up into the air. It was all so very exciting to watch them get so excited.
The last half hour was a study hall. The students worked on homework that they didn't get done in their previous class. I worked one-on-one with a little boy named Cory. We worked on finding the common denominator for fractions, which was pretty difficult for him. When we were done, the teacher asked Cory if it helped having someone work with him and he nodded his head up and down. When he left he had a big smile on his face. This felt good that I was able to help him. Overall, I'm very excited to continue going to help out in the 5th grade classroom.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Finding Hope in Anoka-Hennepin
http://www.tolerance.org/blog/finding-hope-anoka-hennepin
Lately in Anoka-Hennepin School District there was an agreement that two LGBT students were allowed to walk up together in their schools Snow Day's events. At this time last year LGBT students couldn't bring their dates to prom. In this article it said that Anoka-Hennepin School District hasn't had very good issues with LGBT students. Atleast four LGBT students have commited suicide from being bullied. Two teachers have also been in trouble for harassing LGBT students. It's hard to believe that teachers would harass their own students because teachers are suppose to help their students. Also, the neutrality policy has been a controversal issue. "It states that staff members shall remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation including but not limited to student led discussions.” I believe that every student has the right to have a safe education.
Lately in Anoka-Hennepin School District there was an agreement that two LGBT students were allowed to walk up together in their schools Snow Day's events. At this time last year LGBT students couldn't bring their dates to prom. In this article it said that Anoka-Hennepin School District hasn't had very good issues with LGBT students. Atleast four LGBT students have commited suicide from being bullied. Two teachers have also been in trouble for harassing LGBT students. It's hard to believe that teachers would harass their own students because teachers are suppose to help their students. Also, the neutrality policy has been a controversal issue. "It states that staff members shall remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation including but not limited to student led discussions.” I believe that every student has the right to have a safe education.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Bullied Movie
Today I watched the movie Bullied, as a future teacher I'm going to do everything, to the best of my abilities, to stop bullying in schools. All teachers need to stop bullying, not just a couple, but all. I also want to be a teacher that students will be able to approach, not one that they feel will do nothing to help them. Bullying is a HUGE issue in schools. As teachers, we are the ones that can make an impact. We are the ones that can stop it. Schools need to inform students about bullying and how it is such a negative thing. I feel that many people think that it isn't such a big issue but it really is. One way we can show students the consequences of bullying is by showing them videos such as the movie Bullied.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Education Nation by Milton Chen -Chapter1
Chapter 1 -The Thinking Edge, Getting Smarter about Learning
I very much enjoyed reading this chapter. The first quote that I came across while reading that I really liked was, "as we know from efforts to change politics, religion, and even our personal relationships, changing our thinking can be the most difficult thing we human being can do, especialy when our opinions are firmly rotted in personal experience." This I believe is so true, it's hard for us humans to change our way of thinking because it's what we have always done. We are ment to love learning, but this isn't the case necessarily today in our education system, which is really upsetting. The author writes about hybrid thinking, this means that we need to think of new and exciting ways to educate our students. For example, when Sesame Street came on tv, it was a new approach to learning.
"Here when we want the elephant to grow, we feed the elephant. We don't weigh the elephant." I love this quote, it means that instead of always testing our students to see how smart they are, we need to teach them. Teach them that learning is more then just memorizing stuff. At the very end of the chapter, Chen used the example of how we don't teach basketball out of a book, then why should we teach math and the other subjects out a book. This I believe is true, we know of many different ways to teach sports then why don't we come up with new ways to teach different subjects. Here is a question that Dewey left us for building an Education Nation, "Could we design a school system in which every child could investigate the facts which they see, feel and touch everyday?" In this chapter there were many different points Chen hit, but overall the biggest point was schools need to be exciting and challenging.
I very much enjoyed reading this chapter. The first quote that I came across while reading that I really liked was, "as we know from efforts to change politics, religion, and even our personal relationships, changing our thinking can be the most difficult thing we human being can do, especialy when our opinions are firmly rotted in personal experience." This I believe is so true, it's hard for us humans to change our way of thinking because it's what we have always done. We are ment to love learning, but this isn't the case necessarily today in our education system, which is really upsetting. The author writes about hybrid thinking, this means that we need to think of new and exciting ways to educate our students. For example, when Sesame Street came on tv, it was a new approach to learning.
"Here when we want the elephant to grow, we feed the elephant. We don't weigh the elephant." I love this quote, it means that instead of always testing our students to see how smart they are, we need to teach them. Teach them that learning is more then just memorizing stuff. At the very end of the chapter, Chen used the example of how we don't teach basketball out of a book, then why should we teach math and the other subjects out a book. This I believe is true, we know of many different ways to teach sports then why don't we come up with new ways to teach different subjects. Here is a question that Dewey left us for building an Education Nation, "Could we design a school system in which every child could investigate the facts which they see, feel and touch everyday?" In this chapter there were many different points Chen hit, but overall the biggest point was schools need to be exciting and challenging.
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