Chapter 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

Who wants to sit in desks all the time to learn something? Learning can come in many forms and can take place everywhere. Students want teachers to take advantage of these outside learning places so that they can learn better.

In math, I’m always thinking about ways to connect the in class lectures to things outside of the school. It helps me remember and it’s nice to know I’m not the only one. Even if it is just measuring the perimeter of a building, students like being able to apply their knowledge and I hope that I can do that for my students.

Chapter 9: When Things go Wrong

Students and teachers alike get discouraged when something doesn’t go right. However, this chapter talks about what teachers can do for themselves and their students to get through the difficult time.

It’s nice to see that students want you there teaching them. They want you to make it through the problem and keep teaching them. I know that I tend to get down on myself when something goes wrong. It is awesome to know that my students will have faith in me to get through it and get back to normal so that I can keep teaching them.

Chapter 8: Teaching Teenagers who are still learning English

English language learners struggle in the classroom for a variety of reasons. The students mentioned not being able to understand because they are bored or because they are underestimated.

I cannot believe that teachers just pass English language learners without actually seeing if they learned anything. Anyone can learn and I feel they should have the same opportunity as everyone else. I hope that if I ever had an English language learner in my class that I would do everything in my power to help them learn math and not just blow them off as hopeless.

Chapter 7: Teaching Difficult Academic Material

All subjects have difficult areas that students have a hard time learning. However, in this chapter, students give examples of good and bad ways to gain understanding from students over this difficult material.

I found it interesting that in the math section students see a difference between drills and practice. They want the practice problems to be relevant and not simply repetitive drills. I will have to take this into consideration when I assign homework.

Chapter 6: Motivation and Boredom

Chapter six covers an array of topics that get brought up in a classroom. The co-authors say that teachers should be passionate about their subject, but also remember that students have a lot going on besides that one subject.

I totally agree with the students when they say teachers should communicate with one another when assigning a big assignment or just lots of homework. I remember getting so much homework that I was working on it during break and anytime that I had an extra few minutes. If teachers were to talk then students wouldn’t be so over whelmed.

Chapter 5: Teaching the Individual, Working with the Group

In a classroom, there are individual assignments and then group assignments. This chapter talked about the many different ways that a teacher must include individuals when they work alone and when they work together.

I was not surprised when students said that they wanted to work with their friends more. However, I was in utter shock to why students wanted to work with friends on projects. They said they didn’t mind working on in class projects with randomly assigned groups, but if they have out of class projects they would prefer to work with friends. These students said it is easier to work outside of school with friends since they already know where they live.

Chapter 4: Creating a Culture of Success

A safe and encouraging classroom environment is very important for students to do well. Caring about students and pushing them equally to succeed is the best ways to gain this environment.

I found it unbelievable that some teachers don’t push students equally. I can say as a future teacher, I cannot imagine not pushing my students to succeed. That means all my students. Everyone can do math and I want to instill this confidence in every single student.

Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior

Improper behavior is always a problem area in the classroom. Cushman and the student co-authors discuss in this chapter the different aspects of punishment and behavioral issues that need to be addressed in the classroom.

I was shocked that the students said that they wanted something to do at the beginning of the class. The students said that if a teacher is not prepared that they should have something to give the students to keep them occupied while they wait for the teacher. I am really surprised with this since most students don’t want work.

How to help someone use a computer

"If it's not obvious to them, it's not obvious." I did not relate to this because I've had to deal with someone who didn't get, but I related to it because people do this to me all the time when they are trying to teach some new form of technology. "Don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction." I am guilty of doing this to people because I am really impatient, I guess that's not the best idea.

I think the best advice I can use from this article is the part about letting people try the process on their own. Since our presentation is about interactive whiteboards, I think the best way for my peers to experience the technology is just to play with it.

Copyright and Fair Use LR

It is completely ridiculous that the PTA cannot show a movie to a group of little kids. They seem to only be using it for educational purposes. I would also think that since the PTA bought the movie that they could show it to whom ever they want. I mean, I show my friends and family the movies I bought and it is perfectly legal. What makes this any different? It is the PTA’s movie and they should be able to show it to whom ever they want, even if it’s a group of little kids.

Copyright and Fair Use SR

· It is really interesting that a teacher can pull resources off the web and let her students use them, as long as the projects do not go back online. I am slightly confused on why this can happen.

· I would have never guessed that teachers can put student’s work up on a website without the student’s consent. Even in middle school my parents had to sign paperwork saying that the school could do this to my projects.

· I didn’t know that teachers could use materials from online without permission and it is acceptable. As long as the teacher does not post her project with the materials in it on the web then it is perfectly fine.

· Disney movies are not allowed to be used in class without consent, but a frontier movie can be. This is bizarre. I just don’t understand why this is the case.

· Teachers are allowed to digitize movies as long as it’s for educational purposes. Why is this not the same for Disney movies?

· It’s interesting that teachers can buy machines to break through the protection code on movies and DVDs. This does not seem fair to the companies that put the protection on the media in the first place.

· I thought the only way you could use music and songs is if it was the length of the free version on ITunes or something. Why can the teacher provide this whole song for the student?

· It makes sense that people cannot sell something that they made with fair use policies. It’s not fair to make money off something you did not fully make yourself.

Web 2.0 Educator

Cool Cat Teacher Vicki Davis is definitely a different type of teacher. I read many of her unique blogs and realized she is always going. She finds information about all the latest technology and posts it online for people to use. The IPhone applications were very interesting. Not many teachers would ever think to look at cell phone technologies to use in a classroom, but not Davis. She finds anything and everything to use in her classroom that would be beneficial to her students as well as her self. The break for beauty was inventive and makes logical sense. I do not think that I would use as much technology as her but it is nice to see all the different options I have.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

Being fair to all students is important as a teacher and after reading some of the statements of the students I realize what they see. I could never have guessed that students see a teacher pushing some students more to succeed than others. It is awful to think that teachers do that.
I guess I have never seen teachers push the “good” students more because I was one. I can’t believe that teachers would favor one student over another and push them more. I would hope that I am fair to everyone and that I would push students equally and expect the best out of everyone.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

Chapter one of Fires in the Bathroom discusses the fact that teachers should get to know their students and the many ways for teachers to accomplish this. This most interesting fact that I read was that students actually liked receiving questionnaires from their teachers.
As a student myself I did not like the questionnaires that my teachers gave me. The questions were ridiculous and seemed irrelevant to school and myself. I was not thinking about giving a survey or anything like that, but after reading the students’ thoughts I realize that as a teacher a questionnaire will be helpful, as long as the questions are relevant.

Type I and Type II technology

When I read the article by Cleborne D. Maddux and D. LaMont Johnson, I decided that the difference between Type I and Type II technologies is the following: Type I technology is technology that does not involve a computer, but is some form of technology that makes teaching a little bit easier. However, Type II technology is when a computer is used to enhance the learning of an individual with the added bonus of being convenient.

Type I examples
The first example I think of for Type I is calculators. People use them to do simple computations that can be done on paper or in one’s head. They do not further one’s learning, they just make it easier.
The second example is projectors. Teachers use these to convey the same information, but it is simpler to write normal on a screen and have it be big enough for everyone to read.
The last example I can think of is tape recorders. People use these to listen to a lesson once and then if they need to have something repeated they do not need to ask, they simply have to replay that particular section of the tape.

Type II examples
I think of a smart board as a Type II technology because, unlike a chalkboard, smart boards can connect to the Internet and be used interactively with the students. This enhances the learning of the students using it because they can touch the board and learn kinesthetically.
A graphing calculator I would also classify as a Type II technology. It instantly puts graphs on a screen as well as the data from the points on a graph. It can also compute an equation quickly.
The last example I think is a Type II technology is a computer that has the Internet. The Internet is always available to answer a question and students can research with the convenience of staying home instead of going to the library.

source:
Type II Applications of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning by Cleborne D. Maddux and D. LaMont Johnson

Learning Style Inventory Results

My learning style results on learning-styles-online.com say that my top three are logical, social, and verbal. I believe that my number one, logical, is accurate because I love numbers and I tend to do calculations in my head. I also work through problems systematically just like the description says. My number two I do not believe should be as high as it is. I do not classify myself a social person at all. I do like to hang out with friends and play sports and games with other people, but I do not care to work in groups for learning. Sometimes I find it helpful to work with people but most of the time I like to think for myself. I think my social learning should be higher than most of the other learning styles just not my number two. My number three is also a lot like me. I love to read and write so the verbal learning style fits me well. I know that I tend to retain more information if I read it and then write it down.

My MEL experiences

• How context is used in real world
During my sophomore year in high school, we had to do a huge project in math. We had to measure the height of something two different ways without physically measuring it. The lesson we had been working on in class dealt with right angles and relating similar triangles so one could accomplish this task with mirrors and/or shadows. During classes students would question Mrs. Clark as to how we would ever use this information about similar triangles in the real world. We then had to finish the project and we realized it is a fairly accurate way to tell the height of a tall structure if there is no other way to measure it.
• Student/Teacher relationship
I have had many teachers that I loved having for classes. My favorite of them all was my French teacher, Miss Broomhall. I had her as a teacher my junior year and loved her then because she was so much fun. My senior year was when I realized what an excellent teacher she was. My basketball team went undefeated for a majority of the season until the last game. In that game we lost and the entire team was devastated. Miss Broomhall went out that night and bought little trinkets and then made up a poem to use the trinkets in a clever way. “You guys are all still stars,” was one of the clever lines and we all got a little glow in the dark star. However, she did not stop there. She wrote all twelve team members a note telling them how important they are and what they attribute to the team. Miss Broomhall did not have all of the team members in class but she did it for everyone because she understood that it was important to us all.
• Helping students succeed
My third grade year was the most difficult in middle school. I had a teacher that graded me so hard that I had to spend extra time on projects and papers to not fail them. Mrs. Thompson was the toughest teacher in the school and she didn’t take that title lightly. Every project had a list of criteria that had to be in it and if not it wasn’t getting a good grade. As a third grader I thought this was ridiculous. I was not ready for all this work. Mrs. Thompson thought differently. I struggled to get the grades I wanted; then I had to do a project on a body system. I had to write a report and draw a picture of the skeletal system. I went to class the day it was due and saw all my friends’ drawings and they were way better than mine, but none of my friends actually drew their systems; their parents had done it for them. I had spent hours drawing mine. When we received our grades, I got an A! All my hard work paid off because Mrs. Thompson knew I could do it and refused to change the grading system for a bunch of third graders.
• Autonomy-choices
I always loved to write so when my high school introduced a creative writing, I jumped at the opportunity to join. However, the teacher of the class was not a good choice. Miss Santoro was pleasant enough she just did not run a creative writing class so that I would enjoy it. When I thought of creative writing I thought I was going to get to choose what to write about and how I wanted to write it. This was not the case. Miss Santoro told us what to write about and what style to use to write it in. I hated that class and whenever someone asked for a recommendation I highly advised them not to take it because it was not a creative class.
• Learning styles-differentiated instruction
I do not think I have ever been a proponent for differentiated instruction. This is a direct result from the experience I had with it in my high school. This type of instruction in my school meant that the entire class was taught at a lower level and that the more “advanced” students were given busy work to pass the time. Differentiated instruction is not meant for that purpose. It is meant to give the students who may be bored with the current level of teaching some deeper work so that they are challenged. Instead I was simply given work that would take longer so that I would finish on time with everyone else. My assignments only varied with the page lengths of papers or the number of problems I had to finish in math. Nothing was more challenging or difficult.