Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Field Blog #2

Orange High School

On Monday after I finished my classes for the day, I traveled to Orange High School to do my first individual field visit. I was placed with a social studies teacher who has all sophomores this year, so they are learning all about American history. Being fresh out of high school myself, I was nervous about going into one and seeing how the students would react to me. But in both of the classes I observed in, they were very open to me and started to try to form a friendly relationship, since I will be in their classroom for the next few weeks.

The first class that I observed was an honors course, so there were the more advanced students in it.The teacher had given me a warning that even though these kids were very well behaved and mature, that they were just coming from their lunch period, so they would be a little rowdy. And sure enough, when the bell rang, the students all came in, talking very loudly and just joking around with their friends. But when Mrs. Price was ready for class to start, she told them that and they respected what she asked and got quiet. From the very first few minutes of class, I could tell that there was a strong relationship between the students and the teacher. She asked them how their weekends were, they asked back about hers; it just seemed like they were comfortable to talk as people. Something I thought was cool about this class was that the room was a little chilly, so the teacher brought in blankets and put them at the front of the room on a table. If a student was cold, they could just go take a blanket to wrap themselves in. She made the classroom seem like a very homey and comfortable place where the kids would want to learn in.

The actual class itself was pretty normal, one like the many honor-level classes I took in high school. At the beginning of class, they started off with a quiz based on the reading that they were assigned the night before. Before the quiz started, Mrs. Price opened the class up for any last minute questions and gave them a few minutes to study over their notes. When the students were finished with their quiz, they would hand that in, along with their homework from the day before. In exchange, the teacher gave them the homework for that day so that they would be productive with the time they had in class. When everyone was finished with the quiz, she told them to put their homework away and told them she was going to show an episode of an older TV show that went along with the new topic they were about to learn about. She said she didn't like to show just cut-and-dry documentaries that just throw out facts at you, so she switched it up a little. She handed out a list of questions that went along with the video, and told me it was a good way to keep them focused and get the information across. During the video, the teacher would pause the video and chime in with facts and information that related to topics they already learned about in previous lessons. And when the video was over and class ended, she asked if anyone had questions about what they just learned and helped the students review the information.

The next class I sat in was the same history class, except it was college prep and not honors. The basis of the class was exactly the same though. They took the same quiz and watched the same video as the last class, so it didn't seem that much difference that day. But Mrs. Price told me that that wasn't typical and that this class moves a little bit slower than the other one. They learn about the same things, just in different ways and at a different pace. The relationship she had with the kids though was the same, everyone seemed comfortable around her and that they could be themselves and really take risks in the classroom. She pushed them hard enough so that they would get their work done, but not enough to make her seem like she was a dictator and that the students mean nothing to her.

Overall, I really enjoyed being the classroom on the other side, not being a student. I feel like the teacher is a good one for me to observe and I am already enjoying my visits. I'm looking forward to my next observation and the things I am going to learn from the visits!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Post #8

Blog Post 8

This post is meant to be an extension on our last blog, which was mainly about building bridges and the kind of qualities and characteristics we want to have as teachers. After the readings we had this week and the discussion we had on them, I realized a lot of other techniques and components I would need to add in to my lesson planning and list of personal qualities. Some of these include forming allies with your students' parents, forming strong relationships with the teachers you work with, and to build a good community in the classroom.

Developing an ally in your student's parent is an important thing that is often forgotten. A lot of people think of teaching as a one-to-one relationship with just the educator and the student, but the parents should be included. If something goes wrong in the classroom or the student is struggling in something and you have to approach the parents, you would feel a lot more comfortable doing so if there was already a relationship formed. Also, if there are things that are going on in the home that are affecting the child's learning, having that relationship would enable you to freely speak about what can be done in the situation.

Having relationships with the teachers who work in the same area as you do is a good thing for many reasons. It is inevitable that you will have bad days and just need someone to talk to, so having someone so close who understands what you are going through is a big plus. Another reason having relationships with fellow teachers is that they can help you if you are struggling in things, such as lesson planning or how to deal with behavioral issues. If the teacher has been educating for a lot longer than you have, it is even better because they have so much more experience under their belt. They have a lot of advice to give and can help make your teaching experience even better, for yourself and your students.

Having a tight-knit community in the classroom may be the most important thing a teacher can do. Making the students feel comfortable is a necessity in having a successful group. If they're not comfortable being around each other and as a class, it can take away from their desire to answer questions, get involved, and learn. To be a community, the teacher has to know each student as an individual. With knowing that information, you have to decide what is the best way to address the class as a whole big group. Doing things that they can relate to and bringing them all together helps develop relationships among the students and makes them happier to be in that specific class.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Post #7

Blog Post 7

In his book, Bill Ayers has an entire chapter on "building bridges." By this phrase, I think that he means it as a metaphor for moving forward in your teaching (as an educator) or in your learning (as a student). I also believe that his description of building bridges can be seen as moving from one thing to another, never stopping, and just continuing to teach and learn. The bottom of the bridge starts as an idea or a topic and the bridge, the teaching, then leads to the furthering of education and the level of intelligence a student has increasing.

In his writing, Ayers describes a kind of pattern for his bridge-building technique. I believe that his pattern is to start with a problem or a question and to work towards getting an answer or a solution to the issue. One example of this pattern that he writes about is when his kids are talking about the black people at the ice skating rink. He leads that into a discussion about white privilege and really gets his students thinking. Another example that he writes about is with the adult literacy. He starts with them just talking as a group, but leads it into them journaling and thinking about their literacy.

If I had to pick something to plan a lesson on, it would be in a social studies class and on social justice. For the project, I would teach about the different aspects of social justice and problems that surround it. I would make the students pick a specific issue, research about it, and plan a way that they think would help stop it from happening in the world. They would share them out to the class when finished and play the teacher for a day, educating their peers about their specific issue.

One of the things I would consider for myself while planning out a lesson would be to know that there always is light at the end of the tunnel. Even if the planning wasn't working out the way I would want it to and I was just struggling with ways to keep the students engaged in the learning, I would just hold the confidence that everything would be okay and that the kids would get the information that they needed. Another thing I would keep in the back of my mind was to fully know myself. To be a good teacher and to understand your students, you should really know about yourself. I would realize that everything I do may not work for other teachers or be beneficial for every single student, but I could learn about myself enough that I would be able to help them work through their problems.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Field Blog #1

Beachwood Middle School

For our first class field experience, we went out to Beachwood Middle School. I had never been to the district, but I had always heard about it. Right when I stepped foot into the building, I got a feeling that the day was going to be a good one. I don't really know what it was, but the building, the principal, the students, and everything else about the school just seemed very welcoming to us. I was nervous going into the first visit, but it started off on a good note from the beginning.

The first classroom that I got to observe in was a sixth grade social studies class. The teacher described this class as different and not normal for the school, because there were only six or seven boys in it. I did not get around to asking why the class was so small or only one gender, but it was an interesting change. When I walked in, the teacher was standing at the front of the room, going through a review PowerPoint. All of the boys were at their desks and they had a whiteboard and dry erase marker in front of them. The teacher was going through the slides, reviewing the information they had already learned in the past, stopping at certain point, and asking the kids questions. When they think that they had the right answer, they would write it on their board and hold it up for the teacher to check. After the answers were given and checked, he gave them praise if they got it right and helped those who were  incorrect. He did not put the kids down for not knowing, he went into further detail about the information so that they would better understand it. At certain points in the lessons, some of the kids would raise their hands and relate the information they were learning about to their own lives. The teacher got them to think and make connections from these events that happened so long ago, into their reality. The teacher also showed different ways of getting the boys to learn. Instead of just standing at the front of class and lecturing the whole time, he played a clip from a documentary on the History Channel. Whenever something they learned about would be mentioned, he would pause the video and point it out. Something he said to me was, "I'm a visual teacher. They may tell you to not teach like this, but I do." This shows that society tries to form all educators into this perfect cookie-cutter mold, when really, everyone is different. The actual atmosphere of the classroom was nice, it wasn't overwhelming. There were posters and quotes that went along with what they were learning about, American flags, pictures of all the presidents, and so on. All of these decorations are surrounding the room, except for the very front where his desk and the whiteboard is. The area where the children's focus should be at most of the time is a non-distracting one, which helps them keep their mind from wandering. Overall, the teacher was an engaging one and it was clear that he really got his boys to think. He related the information to the present day, had them ask questions and try to answer them themselves, and really just got them thinking.

The next classroom I got to visit was a seventh grade language arts class. From the very beginning, the kids were a little rowdy and distracted. But the teacher took charge of the situation and was firm with them, telling them how they were to behave, and they respected her and followed her instructions. This classroom was very different than the one I was in before. There were three "teachers" in the room; one actual teacher, one who was around to assist in things such as passing out papers, and another who was a sign-language translator for a child in the class. It was different than any of the classes I have ever been in, but it was cool to see how they all worked together. The way in which the teacher taught the kids was the basic way people would think of. Students came up to the front of the room and shared their work to the class, she called on a variety of students for answers to the questions she asked, and so on. One of the things I liked that she did was the way in which she related the information to real life situations or examples. For example, something they were learning that day was a new set of vocab words. The word had to do with elasticity, so she took out a rubber band and stretched it all around so they could really understand. The room was well decorated, everything had a place and a meaning to it that fit along with the curriculum. It wasn't overwhelming, but it gave the students something to look at and made it feel more homey. This teacher was specifically good about helping the children out when they were incorrect. If someone answered a question wrong, she would point that out, but in the nicest way. She would explain to them why they were wrong and then give a further reasoning into why the right answer was right. Overall, the classroom was a welcoming one and I enjoyed being an observer in it.

By the end of the day, all of my nervous feelings were gone and I just wanted to either stay there or go on another visit to a different school. Even though I am unsure if I absolutely want to enter in the field of education, this field experience really helped me see what it's like from the other side, not being a student. It was interesting to really sit back and  observe the instructor and seeing in which ways they choose to teach their students. Overall, I think the visit to Beachwood Middle School went really well and I am looking forward to my next observation period!

Friday, October 10, 2014

Post #6

BlogPostIt PostIt Notes annotation strategy

In reading Paulo Freire's "The Banking Concept of Education," my eyes were really opened to what education has really come to nowadays. Being a student for such a long time, I never really thought about how I was being fed information, but being on the other side, I have noticed how wrong our system really is nowadays. Reflecting back on my own student days, in more cases than not, my teachers have used the banking concept to get the information across to us students. They did not interact with us, pose questions to help us think for ourselves, or anything like that; the information was just forced into us so that we get it right on the test. This process is so wrong because as Freire describes, it turns the students into "containers" and the teachers are only aiming to stuff us with as much information as they can, which makes them look better among their peers. The problem with this is that it gives the students little opportunity to think for themselves and really comprehend what they are taught. Students are taught to just spit out facts and try to get a good grade on a test, not to become a more intelligent and thoughtful person. In the piece, Freire brings up a different method to go about education that seems a lot more valuable to the students. What he describes is called the problem-posing method, and it is just that. A teacher will educate their kids by making them critically think about the material. It causes the students to really use their brains and to take risks they otherwise wouldn't in a different learning environment. A lot of my Post-It notes were about these two different methods and the feelings I explained in my writing about them. It is clear that problem-posing seems like the better option and I hope that when the day comes that I am in front of a classroom, that I am able to teach in that way and make my students the best that they can be.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Post #5

Blog Post 5:

Rofes (2005) makes clear distinctions between liberal and radical conceptualizations of addressing homophobia and heterosexism in k-12 schools. Discuss these distinctions with examples from schools you attended. How does Rofes (2005) discuss childhood? What do the liberal and radical distinctions of addressing homophobia and heterosexism have to do with contemporary understandings of childhood? What do you believe and what is your vision for the school where you hope to be teaching in the next four years? (250 thoughtful words).

In all of the schools I have attended in the past, all of them were open and accepting of students who were LBGTQ. Of course, there were those few people that would make the bad remarks and make the whole group look bad, but as an overall group, my city was very accepting. Though we did not have support groups at the high school, such as a Gay Straight Alliance group, people were comfortable to be who they were. Just looking back at all the increasing number of people who came out from my freshman to senior year, it was clear to see that we grew in acceptance over the years. People were comfortable to be who they really were, walk around with their partner in public, and just openly discuss their sexual orientation.  In his work, Rofes describes childhood as a sort of terror because of how much children are taken advantage of. Kids are very impressionable at a young age, and because of that, rarely are able to make their own decisions. Childhood is also a time for learning though; because of how much they do not know, kids experiment and try all these different things out. Through these trials, they learn about themselves and more about the world they live in. I believe that the liberal and radical distinctions of addressing homophobia and heterosexism help prove the point that not all kids are going to fit into the same cookie-cutter mold. Everyone is different in their own ways, and childhood is when people really start to find out about who they really are. Rofes feels that homophobia is at too high of a level still and even though people try to stop it and because more accepting, children are still harassed and mocked for being who they really are. If and when I begin to teach, I hope to work in a community similar to my own where even if someone does not necessarily agree with your choices, they will support you for the person you are. In the end, I believe that it is all about respect and love. To be a good Christian, one of the mottos we are taught to live by is to treat others in the way we would want to be treated. God created everyone in love, no matter if they are a different sexual orientation than we associate with, and I would hope my school would understand and follow that.