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Ed 115

Last year during J term I was got the opportunity to observe a 1st grade classroom here in Decorah at St. Ben's Catholic School. Throughout my visit in the classroom I got to witness first hand many of the teaching strategies of an experienced teacher. She managed the class very well and there were few outbursts from kids, except for one student, Owen. Owen was a kid who had so much energy he did not know what to do with it. He would bounce out of his chair to answer a question and then say something like "fart fart fart" and make the noise with his armpit. Time after time he did this until finally Mrs. Blair decided to do something about it. She had me take over at the front the classroom and talked to Owen outside. His behavior changed the rest of the day and I would find out later why that was so. After the kids left for home I talked to Mrs. Blair about what she had talked to him about and she said it was the same stuff she had told him the rest of the year but what made it different was how she said it and where. Instead of talking to him in front of the class in depth like she had done, she spoke with him in private to avoid the embarrassment. She did this because when most kids get scolded in front of the class they get exactly what they want... attention. I had been worried about what I was going to do with the problem children that seem to never understand their behaviors are not right until Mrs. Blair enlightened me with this technique.

O'Doyle Rules!

In chapter 14, the book dealt with behavoir in the classroom, more specifically aggression. I feel that aggression needs to be looked at in the schools. And not necessarily just the students being aggresive towards each other but also the students being agressive towards the teachers. It is tough for a teacher to manage a regular classroom but when a student acts out constantly and shows agressive behavoirs towards the teacher, a lot of strain can be placed on the classroom and it's inhabitants. Bullying by any student to anyone in the classroom needs to be dealt with early to make sure the rest of the class does not get intimidated and afraid to come to class. A scared class is a class that does not learn nealy as much so we need to cut this problem short early on.

iMovie

Technology is so important in today's education system. The times are changing and the school system needs to keep up with the times. The times where powerpoints are new technology is long gone, and a new technological advance has moved in. This new advance is the iMovie, a new medium to pass information to the students, and for the students to pass information to the teacher. My first hand experience with the iMovie was all positive. It was a new and exciting way to show what we learned about our books. It was different than the normal stand up in front of the class and preach about what we learned. To combat this boring style of presentation, my group made a talk show that featured the author of our book we read. This way we could interview her and show that we understood the concepts and themes of the book in a nonconventional way. I feel that the iMovie will be the new way to pass knowledge from either the students to the teacher or the teacher to the students.

Motivation

I know I need more of it. I sit around all day and try to put off homework and try to put off working but is it all my fault. I'm not trying to make excuses for putting off papers until right before they are due or putting off some of my blogs until the day they are due, but I am suggesting that motviation needs to be an important part of the school day and curriculum. I feel that the lackluster test scores and falling grades in the American school system is because the students are not motivated to do well in school or if they are motivated it is for the wrong reasons. It seems that students don't find school interesting nowadays, more than ever before, but it's not their fault. Few kids are eager to get to school everyday for at least 12 years. It is the teacher's job to get the kids excited for school and the subjects they are studying. Now the reason for this motivation i'm talking about should be clarified. The purpose of this motivation is to get the kids excited to learn and understand the material, not just so they score well on their tests. Knowledge is so much more than an A or getting into a prestigious school, it is being able to connect what you have learned in class to other classes and the big world around us. If teachers got students to realize that is why they would be learning, the students would be more excited to learn. No kids gets motivated to study for the national tests, but they are more likely to get motivated to study to ensure a happier life in the big world.

"21 means 21" or should we say "25 means 25"

We all have seen the commercials or looked at the label on a beer can and see "21 means 21", but after attending Karen Williams' presentation on the effects of alcohol on young brains, it should be "25 means 25" instead. She mentions that there are many negative effects on the brain from alcohol if it is consumed during adolescence or earlier. This has been common knowledge for years but that old information also figured that by 21 your brain can handle drinking, but new research shows that we might not stop developing until upwards of 25 and sometimes even until 30! So for children to start drinking at 13 and even younger is suicide for the brain. The number of brain cells lost during drinking is substantial for adolescents and people under 25. The effects of drinking on adults is vastly different, with much fewer long-term side effects. To prevent our youth from losing too many brain cells and thus too many points on our tests, a closer watch needs to be kept on our nation's youth. We need to do something to stop underage drinking if we want to see progress from our students as well as see them strong and healthy.

Dews and Doughnuts

Most semesters end with the students taking a final to show what they have learned and gotten from the class, but today Dr. Langholz switched it up a bit. Instead, he gave us a presentation that pretty much stated what he thought we should have learned from the semester. It wasn't a long vocabulary list or list of each chapter title, but rather it was a collection of problems with the education system and what we need to do to correct it. Also he talked about our obligations as teachers. One particular quote seemed to strike a chord with me, "Look for the gift in every child instead of looking for only the gifted students". It may be because I am also in Diverse and Exceptional at the moment, but I also had a different attraction to it. I think that in today's society, everyone is obsessed on finding "America's Next Best Dance Crew", the next "American Idol", or the new champion on "Dancing with the Stars", while they should be focused on the talents of ordinary people like people on "Stupid Human Tricks". It is these people that are "ordinary" or have no special gifts like professional level dancing or singing that have found a niche where they can show of there personal gifts that might not normally get them on TV. We need to find the gifts in each child, not just the Einsteins of our classrooms!

Who is more at risk?

After reading the article from Newsweek by Stephanie Lindsley entitled "Autism and Education" I have begun to rethink my idea of students who are at risk and need help more. The article compares the needs of the author's autistic son and her gifted girl. She describes her son by mentioning that he reads well but "he speaks at a 3-year-old level, adores 'Blue's Clues' and is almost potty trained", something that most teachers would see as a child that needs the most attention. The author then talks about her gifted daughter that does not get much attention in school and is often bored in her regular classrooms. She even sneaks books into her desk to read when the teacher is not looking. When I would have looked at this before reading the whole article I would have instantly thought her son needs the help and attention because her daughter was doing well in school. But after thinking about it for a while, I realized that it is her daughter that is in dire straits because she is at risk of losing interest in school, something that she now loves and excels it.

This phenomena is common throughout the United States, and is slowing the progress of or growth. If we focus too much on the not so gifted children and ignore the needs of the gifted students as is the case in this article, our gifted students will not excel like they could. If we want our education system to turn out the most well prepared students as we can, we need to stop ignoring the needs of the gifted students and begin challenging them and pushing them further and further into the world of higher knowledge, a place where they seem more comfortable.

Studying Abroad in Chicago

Two representatives from the Chicago Center For Urban Life and Culture, Scott and Emily, came to our Monday night session to give us some information about the center. They used a phrase "it's basically studying abroad, but only 5 or 6 hours away", and from what they said, I believe them 100%. From what they described about the large diversity in the area and the contrast from where I went to school when I was growing up, it would be like traveling to a foreign country. In diverse and exceptional learners, we are taught to embrace the diversity in the classroom, but from what Scott and Emily told us, in parts of Chicago, it's the schools that are diverse from one another, not necessarily the students in the schools. Many of the schools are located in neighborhoods that are predominately one ethnic group, which results in the school in the area to be predominately made up of one ethnic group. They even told the joke of "Why did the chicken cross the road?... To see a new ethnicity...". This opportunity to "studying abroad" sounds like a very beneficial experience to get to learn about city public schools and the students and ethnicity groups that are in the education system.

Cell from Hell

Technology is great, it helps fight diseases, it allows for businesses to stay connected and make decisions from all over the world, but it also has its downsides. It has caused an epidemic among teenagers, one that has swept the nation and left many young adults regretting there past decisions. This craze is one where teenage boys and girls are engaging in "text sex" in which they send pictures of themselves naked and include text messages filled with explicit words.

Many parents are becoming very concerned with this epidemic, but what the article is trying to draw attention to is how it is form of sex prevention and that the number of teenage pregnancies and teenagers engaging in sex has gone down considerably. Also to finish up the article, the author comes to the conclusion that we, as parents and teachers, will allows be playing catchup to our kids and the ever evolving technology.

Quantity and Quality

A week after three "rookie" teachers came to talk to our class about their experiences thus far in their short careers, but what they did not have in their repertoire to talk about was their experiences after the first stage of their career. Mr. Chambliss had years and years under his belt and with those years came experiences that helped shaped his view of the educational system and how it should be run. He was a teacher, a guidance counselor, and a superintendent throughout his long and accomplished career. It was a pleasure listening to his stories of his career and the advice he had for us from those years in the business. His advice for a possible career path was very helpful, even if not everyone agreed with his exact path. I will definitely take his advice about the profession he knows very well into consideration in the years to come as I will soon face decisions about my career path.

Rookies

Last week, a panel of three "new teachers" came and held a question and answer session to give us an insider look into the profession. Having an experienced teacher that has years and years under their belt can be very beneficial to a new teacher, but what can they do about the fears and nerves that have built up in the students of Luther College that have yet to teach in a classroom for longer than a few months at most. Personally, I am very nervous because I have heard horror stories and also I do not want to negatively affect the lives of the young ones I plan to teach. But hearing what the "new" teachers had to say about the transition from college to the real world was very beneficial. The next week, Mr. Chambliss came to talk to us about his years of service in the education programs in Iowa, but I took more out of what the "new" students had to say because what I was worried about was what they had just gone through, the beginning stages of their careers as educators. Questions like, "How did you decide where you wanted to teach" and "what subjects you wanted to teach?" as well as "What where the biggest differences between student teaching and the real deal?" were all questions better answered by the "new teachers". The one thing I regret not asking was to the teacher who now teaches at St. Ben's in Decorah and her thoughts and experiences on the difference between teaching in a public school and a parochial school.

"Paper Clips"

It's hard to believe one kid who wanted to know exactly how much was 6 million, could start a project that would last years and influence the lives of millions. The children of Whitwell, Tennessee began collecting paper clips to represent the 6 million victims of the Holocaust to try to understand how big six million really was. But what they didn't plan was the impact this project would have on the students, the teachers, and the community.

The project was started as an optional class that was geared towards raising awareness about the Holocaust and diversity, something that was hardly present in the nearly homogeneous town of Whitwell, Tennessee. To develop the student's knowledge base the class watched movies but what were they, just pictures and boring historical facts that caused no emotional connection? To solve this the teachers had Holocaust survivors come in and talk to the class, giving the students a first hand recount of the horrors of this awful atrocity.

The Whitewell community and students had their eyes opened to the pains of the Holocaust all because of the extra efforts and passion that the teachers put into creating a project that really hit home with the students and taught them many life lessons and created a sense of awareness that had been missing in the community up until the creation of the Paper Clip Project. This is a sign of a A+ teacher.