Student Categorization

I have come to the conclusion, all throughout school you can categorize students into three categorize. You have the “Jocks”-rambunctious and jokers; “Nerds”-studious and short pants/long socks; “Ordinaries”-average day middle school students. One thing I have noticed for these three categories is that the kids are in these categorize through social life and not intelligence.

Preference of Strategies

I have come to the conclusion, I like the idea of seating charts, dimming lights during calm/quiet moments, background music, allowed gum, worksheets, and group work! The students LOVE doing stuff with technology and writing on the white board. One major thing I have come to realization during this observation is that every classroom is a home away from home. A teacher’s classroom is a box of an area in a building to put their personality into the design and the students! I am not a huge technology person; however, I came to terms of a blog is a BRILLIANT invention! I have decided that throughout all of my interns/observations and teaching years I will keep a blog for the parents to go to. This will help with communication with parents about what the lesson is and homework for the day. I can use this to inform parents along with take home notes and e-mail reminders. But, I can turn the blog into a daily entry of a story—such as the blogs we are doing now! I have also discovered, my biggest talent/skill/hobby will help in my teaching profession—ORGANIZATION! :D

An End to a New Beginning

THANK YOU for allowing me to come in and observe your classroom! This experience has been MEANINGFUL and EDUCATIONAL for me. I have BENEFITED a lot by observing the students in their education atmosphere and the MARVELS of teaching strategies! A few things I have depicted form this observation is being an OPEN-MINDED person. As teachers we must UNDERSTAND what it is like to be in the student’s shoes. I have seen great INTELLEGANTS and CREATIVITY in this classroom more than any classroom I have EVER observed in before. You guys are a GREAT bunch of FABULOUS children with an AMAZING education! I will leave you guys with this statement spoken by Martin Luther King Jr., “FAITH is taking the first STEP even when you don’t see the WHOLE staircase.” KEEP up the GREAT work and FOLLOW your DREAMS!

THANK YOU so much for this OPPORTUNITY!

Cassandra Schroeder

Dakota State University

Fall 2013

Block Five

Teachers Stress

At the beginning of a child’s education, the child is taught to memorize the answers for the test; let’s be honest that is practically what standardized test are like. One struggle that these middle school teachers encounter is the two day memorization strategy the students were taught. Students were taught to memorize the questions and the answers and then the next day take the test. However, the teachers are now trying to implicate how to teach the students to learn how things work instead of just memorizing. Every teacher and every grade level struggles to overcome the struggle of students just memorizing and not actually learning.

Back Flash Realization

If I knew back in the day what I knew today, my knowledge would be a LIFE saver! One struggle for the middle school kids is time management, note taking skills, research, etc. Doing a six grade social studies worksheet back in the day was DREADFUL, whereas if you handed me a six grade social studies worksheet (even when I did not know the topic) I would be able to be efficient and accurate on the worksheet through time management and researching in the textbook for answers. One key word that will be a LIFE SAVER for time management and accuracy for students to know is INDEX! The index is a person’s BEST friend!

Is Co-Ed really Ok?

I use to think that same-sex schools were the dumbest thing ever; now I can see major benefits! Having a same-sex school would enhance the attention in the classroom and probably improve grades within subjects. In a co-ed classroom the boys have girls to show off for and the girls have flirting to encounter with the boys. Girls are all into appearance and boy drama and the boys are into who can get more girls and be the funny one showing off. This then results in distraction, time consuming, less learning, and low self-esteem. There are few negatives with a same-sex school such as low co-ed social skills and such; however, I feel there is way more to benefit in a same-sex school then in a co-ed school for students emotionally and academically. This conversation then can run into having school uniforms or not for educational benefits!

My Opinion: I may be shot for saying this!

I would be all for same-sex schools, school uniforms, year round school, and longer school days. My reasoning would be for more effective learning and having more time to focus on learning. Communities would avoid some teen pregnancies, drinking, drugs, etc.

Block Four

PREP/TEAM

On an average day during prep the teacher will correct papers, make copies, get ready for the next lesson, etc. During team on an average day, teachers come together as a whole to elaborate on what is going on in their classroom—negatives and positives. Today the teachers discussed how their conferences went last night. The teachers discussed the outcome, concerns, benefits, etc. on how the conferences went with the students and the parents. Team is the time period the teachers can confide in others and figure out what is most beneficial strategies for their student’s education and for the teacher’s moral support!

Negativism and Positivism

I have never gone to a school or observed in a school that has had a time period were they can consult in their peer co-workers for advice, to brag, or anything they possible can think off. There are negatives and positives to this teacher peer strategy. Not all the teachers are under the same curriculum; teachers are having to go about their lesson plans through their curriculum. So a Language Arts teacher would not be use every single technique that a Math teacher uses. Along with this negativity the school district is risking the teacher’s possibility of getting off track; not only are the students who get off track, but also the teachers have the possibility. The up side to a teacher peer strategy is the teachers have somebody to confide in. They can use similar techniques, talk about how to understand the students, say what in their teaching the students and teacher is benefiting from, and much more! This time period would be beneficial for a teacher emotionally, physically, and mentally when they have time set aside to confide in a peer about the same work issue. I would LOVE a teacher strategy such as this teacher peer work in my future job!

Block Two

Introverted

This section of the school period is more rambunctious and willing! The kids are jumping out of their seats to volunteer to be interactive when the teacher ask for interaction. It may just be the number of students that gives the impact of the student’s personal activity, it could be the time period of the day, or the layout of the classroom. One of the major outcomes of the unfocused attention could be triggered because the desk are in a new layout in the classroom. Can the layout of the desk make a complete difference in the attitude and attention span in a classroom? The answer to this question is YES! Theorist Piaget investigated on children’s cognitive development. He elaborated on how the setting, color, furniture, etc. can make a huge impact on the classroom atmosphere. The kids are very talkative and zoning what is going on around in the classroom, rather than focusing on the work. However, they still manage to get done with activities faster than the first block. In this class period, I feel as the observation rather than the observer.

Effective Teaching

I have noticed that incorporating music helps teaching being effective and to keep the students engaged with the activity and not with each other. This may just be a generation kind of technique or an efficient technique throughout and just now being discovered more and incorporated within the curriculum or lesson plan. Also, I have understood how much the classroom environment and layout of the classroom is EXTREMELY important to make an effective classroom. I have come to realization as a professional teaching I appreciate and understand the importance of a seating chart! A seating chart can help eliminate excluding students and keep will also help keep the students connected with the class during the whole 90 minute class period.

Block One

Is technology taking over our world?

As teachers we plan and plan and plan lessons; however, in the 21^st century we rely on technology WAY too much. Technology is starting to define our living ways. Here at Madison, during block one, what happens? The INTERNET is disconnected; guess what days activity is? Writing their stories on word documents while using the internet! Needless to say all teachers in the building had devastation run across their faces, because the majority of them were going to use internet in their lesson plans today. For this classroom today they will just write their stories in a word document and throw out using the internet; live is once again restored for today’s lesson plan! As a teacher, we should take in calculation on the use of technology but also the inadequate reliability on technology.

Beginning

Let’s just say, the morning classes are extremely different from afternoon classes! They tend to be more ambitious. Even though there is a whole attitude change between the morning and afternoon classes, the afternoon classes succeed much more! The morning classes drag out their daily task. Some factors that may come about this would be: talkatively, trying to get into the school mind, etc. Whereas the afternoon classes have had their daily dose of peer communication and decide to just get the work done, so they can leave right away when school is over. About five minutes before the classes start the office plays a song to get the kids pumped up. After the class starts the secretary leads ALL classrooms into the pledge of elegance. Back in the day when I was in school they had us stop saying the pledge of elegance. I really enjoyed the school saying pledge of elegance together as a whole; giving a sense of charisma.

Incorporating

Most parents these days have no idea what their children’s generation is like. The parents try to eavesdrop and understand the next generation’s style and movement. Parents in other words like to try and stay “in” with their children’s generation! As teachers I feel this is one of the biggest things for teachers to focus on. Teachers are with the children all day and have to engage them in the education, so how do we do that as teachers? Get with the “in” crowd of the students. Some great ways for the teacher to get the children engaged is through technology these days. Technology is the main focus and excitement in children’s lives for this new generation. This six grade class uses the projector, laptops, and music to get them interested and engaged with the criteria lesson of the day. One of my favorite ways to get kids involved and this teachers way is by giving the kids little in class homework assignments to do for a couple minutes and playing songs for the kids to enjoy doing the work. Now to accomplish a task like this as a teacher we must know what kind of music the kids find popular and either relate it to the assignment or use it as an interaction.

There is no I in TEAM!

One of the best statements known is “there is no I in team”. This statement does not just work for the teachers, but also the cafeteria, janitors, principles, secretaries, resource teachers, etc. Being a team for the school takes the WHOLE school to accomplish a task that runs the school. In my experience, as a student and teacher view in a classroom, the biggest thing I always see is teamwork! Students seek out the teachers and other student help to accomplish their education, teachers seek out other teacher and students help to accomplish their career and so forth with the rest of the faculty. As a world we rely on each other. Every person can be an individual, but nobody can accomplish life without another person’s help. The world should establish a main concept of teamwork for any education, career, family, etc.

Like this language arts class, life is like a sentence. You have to be patient, depict, determination, a team, and have an end goal to accomplish the task!

Layout Design

I took an extra 15 minutes before class to get a feel of the lay out in the classroom. The posters hanging around, how everything is set up with chairs, cabinets, tables, etc. I saw how the teacher put a little sense of herself into her layout/design of the room. She is punctual and organized. She not only brings the room a warm classroom feel, but also a warm home touch. She keeps the room collective and charming, not to vibrant or crazy. The layout of a classroom and the contents in the classroom have a major stability on how the classroom with flow and work with the students in and out of the classroom all day.

Teaching

There are so many different ways to teach! I is astonishing how many techniques there are to incorporate teaching. Examples would be visual, verbal, informative, hands on, chants, stories, written/books, movies, music, and experience. Teaching has many different ways; however a teacher get to choose their style of teaching and layout. This is where the philosophies and styles of teaching will come into play when learning how you feel best teaching; for instance I discovered in my American Foundations class that I am a progressivism teaching style:

Progressivism views the learner as an experiencing, thinking, exploring individual. Its goal is to expose the learner to the subject matter of social experiences, social studies, projects, problems, and experiments that , when studied by the scientific method, will result in functional knowledge from all subjects. Progressivisms regard books as tools to be used in learning rather than as sources of indisputable knowledge.” FREEDOM and ORGANIZED! “Organized freedom permits each member of the school society to take part in decisions, and all must share their experiences to ensure that the decisions are meaningful” (American Foundation, chapter 5).

My number one advice and reminder to anybody perusing a career in teaching is PATIENCE! Does not matter the grade level, PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE!

HARMONY, PEACE, LOVE, JOY, ACCEPTANCE, LEARN, CREATIVITY, ENERGETIC  RESPECT, CHANT.

Question

I am sure that it is scientific proven that children have different levels and focusing levels on the certain weekdays for school such as Monday and Friday would be the low end days; however, do you think that seasons have a difference on students attitude toward school/comprehensive level? This question then can lead into the discussion nine months of school or year round school, along with five days a week or four days a week.